Базовый курс ACI 2: Буддийское Прибежище — собрание великих идей из Совершенства мудрости (2019, Мексика), занятие 4

[Speaker 1]
So, we talked about the first ten ACI courses, and some of your teacher training homework is to describe the eighteen courses, foundation courses, and how do they flow into each other. So, we reached ... we talked about courses one through ten on the first day, and I was supposed to do eleven, I didn't do eleven yet, and twelve also.

Okay? So, that's easy. Courses ten ...

and this is on your teacher training homework, okay? Courses ten, eleven, and twelve, they are all Bodhisattva's Way of Life, written by Master Shantideva, 750 AD, okay? And it's such an important book that we do three courses about this book.

How to be a Bodhisattva, okay? And the main structure of his book is the six perfections. So, it's pretty easy to guess how he split it up.

In course ten, we do the first two perfections, which is giving, and yeah, ethical life. And before he covers them, he talks about a group of practices that prepare you for meditation. And they're called ...

together they're called sak jang, say sak jang. And we talked about it at the first teacher training. Sak means just before you do your meditation, you try to put a lot of good seeds in your mind.

And jang means just before you meditate, you try to clean out a lot of bad seeds, okay? Then you meditate fast before you have time to make new bad seeds. And your meditation will be better, okay?

So, that's a tradition. Let's do it tomorrow morning, okay? Then, almost all of those practices in the sak jang, he covers it before he starts the six perfections, okay?

So, that's the ACI Foundation Course 10. Bodhisattva's Way of Life. Basically, how to get ready for your meditation.

How to warm up, like before you run a race, or before you play soccer. You have to warm up your legs, and before you meditate, you have to warm up your brain, okay? So, he covers that, then he covers the first two perfections.

Then ACI Course 11, we continue his book, The Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, and we cover ... it's called ... we cover the middle ...

we call it ... we cover perfection number three, perfection number four, and perfection number five. What's three?

Not getting angry, okay? In the kitchen, okay? And, you can say patience, but it's called the perfection of patience.

For a hundred dollars, because you're all sleepy, and I want to wake you up. For a hundred dollars, everyone's like ... you ready Tim?

Pachi's not ... he's not here, okay. What's the difference between patience, and the perfection of patience?

In the kitchen. You choose Tim. He always gets it, right?

No, I'm just saying he's not going to mess it up. Perfection ...

[Speaker 2]
the difference between ... in the kitchen, please. Oh, with the ...

simple of kitchen. You understand the pen. With the wisdom, at the moment you understand that your husband is coming from you, and you take the decision not to get angry, that's the perfection of patience.

What's normal patience? Just like, okay, I don't have to get angry, and that's it.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, good. Okay, I just want you to put Ayrton into the description.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, when you say ... Ayrton, where are you? I don't know.

I didn't do anything!

[Speaker 1]
He's having a fight with him. He's having a fight with Inez. He's running.

Just kidding!

[Speaker 2]
When you're fighting with that husband.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, he gets $25, you get $25. Yeah. Okay?

[Speaker 2]
All right?

[Speaker 1]
Xiaoping? He gets $75. Ayrton gets ...

Ayrton got $25. Okay, good job, good job. Yeah, normal patience, you know, your mom tells you don't fight with your husband.

He had a hard day, you know, he's got a lot of pressure at his job. Okay, then you say okay mom, I'll be patient. Then perfection of patience uses emptiness, and what you described is you were using cause and effect.

Okay, which is pretty good. That's $75 answer. He comes from me, so it's really my fault, but more powerful.

Yeah, I didn't do anything. It doesn't exist. I don't know.

The coffee which is made of, I don't know, bug spray, and sold by Sophie. That's not bad enough. You got one for me?

Something impossible. The hair on Geshe Michael's head. Okay, understand?

And if you say Geshe-la, I don't like the color of the hair on the top of your ... the very top here. And then you start to fight with me, you know.

I really don't like the color of the hair here. And I'm like, but I don't have any hair here. Okay, understand?

That's the same as getting angry at your husband, and that's the perfection of wisdom. When you realize you're upset about something which is not there. Understand?

For a really good ACI student, patience is like super easy. You know, if two people start fighting about the color of Geshe-la's hair, you say, what are you guys talking about? You know?

He doesn't have any hair there. Okay, it's exactly the same when you get angry at your husband. It's exactly the same.

And until you understand that, you will fight with your husband. The guy you're upset at, Buddha said it more radically. The guy you're upset at, and he can be talking about my hair.

Number one, he don't exist now. Number two, he couldn't exist before. Number three, he will never exist.

Buddha didn't say, look the hair is not there. He didn't say it like that. He said it's not there today, it's not there yesterday, it's not going to be there tomorrow.

Okay, got it? That's the perfection of patience. Okay?

And that's what we start to learn in ACI course number eleven. Then after that is finished, we go on to perfection number four. Joyful effort.

I like to call it, have fun. Okay? If you're not having fun, you don't understand Buddhism.

Okay? Really. Okay?

If you're all serious, you know, then there's something wrong with your meditation.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
It should be fun, because it is fun. It's fun to be successful, you know. It's fun to have beautiful family.

Sophie asked me, Sophie and Diego asked me, and Paolo also asked me, they asked me today, oh Geshe-la, what can we ... how can we serve you, you know? In my heart I want to say, make me Tara coffee every morning.

But, you know, I'm supposed to be a teacher. I said, the best way you can serve me is to have a beautiful family, for the rest of your life. Then I can use you as my advertisement, you know?

People say, people come to me and say, what can you do for me? I can make you like Diego and Sophie and Paolo, you know? Understand?

Okay? So, that's ... have fun.

I asked Diego, how's your work going? I mean his work is IBM, that's not fun. He looks at me with his big brown eyes, you know?

I'm having fun! I'm like, are we talking about the same company? So, that's a sign that you're ...

you understand emptiness, okay? You're having fun. Alright, life is not always fun, okay?

Bad things happen. I was in the hospital, they were taking out things. They took out the gallbladder for fun.

But, I was having fun, you know? So, what are you going to do? Smell a fart twice.

Complain about your gallbladder, you know? Or have fun with the doctors. We had a lot of fun when I woke up.

Like, it was about eight hours later, I woke up. And in the hospital, and this is the last Lam Rim course, and the doctor standing in front of me, you know? And she says, I'm the doctor on your floor, you know?

And I said, nice to meet you, you know? It's the first thing I said. Nice to meet you.

And she's like, my name is Tsering, which is Tibetan name for long life. Then I'm like, yeah of course your name is Tsering. And she says, I'm from Tibet.

And I'm like, what? How many Tibetans are in Tucson? She said, I think there's two.

Understand? And then we had such a lot of fun, okay? So, you can always have fun.

Canto y llores. No, canto y llores.

[Speaker 2]
Eh?

[Speaker 1]
Cry and sing. Good? Yeah.

Cry and sing. No canto no llores. No canto no llores.

How do you say and? Y? Canto?

I said that. Yeah. Canto y llores.

Canto y llores. Okay? When they're cutting, just, oh llores y canto.

Okay? Anyway, you got it. Have fun.

What are you going to do? You're in the hospital, you can't get out. Have fun with Tsering.

Okay, got it? Okay, what's perfection number five? We covered in the course number eleven.

Yeah, meditation. How to meditate. Okay.

Basically, you study meditation as a tool to see the emptiness of, in the kitchen, Ayrton. Emptiness of Ayrton. Okay?

Okay, now, for zero dollars, if I just say dollars to half the people, for dollars, what's ACI 12 about? Yeah, perfection number six. Wisdom.

Which just means understand the pen. How to see the emptiness. And there's a small part at the end of ACI 12.

By the way, the ninth chapter of the Bodhi, Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, which is the chapter on emptiness, it's the most famous presentation of Gaccha ever. It's the most famous presentation of Gaccha of all time. Okay, so don't think Shantideva is some sweet honey, you know, oh Bodhisattva.

No, he kick ass on emptiness. Okay? I'm going to teach him to use bad words.

Nobody taught him to use bad word yet. I'm going to teach him. Okay?

Yeah, so, he's amazing. When he taught that chapter in the monastery, he started to go up into the sky, and only a few people could follow. Okay?

So, it's a sweetie book, it's a sweet cookie book, sweet churro, cinnamon churro book, but there's a rock, right Barbara? There's a stone in the heart of the churro, the ninth chapter. It's hard to chew, very deep.

Okay, then he added one more chapter for fun, which is the last part of the sak jang, which he put at the beginning of the book. So, what's the final meditation preliminary, which is not preliminary? Yeah, you give away the good karma to other people.

We use three breaths at the end of the lion's dance today. And Shantideva put it at the end of his book. So, we also study that in course number twelve.

And it kind of means the whole book is a meditation. So, course ten, eleven, and twelve is kind of like a meditation on its own. Okay, I think I covered the homework.

Oh, I'm supposed to cover ... oh, I'm supposed to do that tonight. Okay.

Remind me to do course 13 tonight. Now,