Занятие 5, часть 2

[Говорящий 1] (0:00 - 0:08)
Okay, we have a little bit of time. Okay, any questions? Anybody have a question?

[Говорящий 2] (0:09 - 0:13)
How many people do you think can tell us are living now who have seen emptiness directly?

[Говорящий 1] (0:14 - 0:39)
Oh boy. She said how many people are living now who have seen emptiness directly. I think in a monastery, when you ask a question like that in a debate, the person would ask for a clarification.

The person answering would ask for a clarification. They would say tantric system or not. They would say, are you talking tantra or not?

[Говорящий 2] (0:40 - 0:40)
Not.

[Говорящий 1] (0:41 - 0:52)
Okay, not talking the secret teachings. Right. It seems like you get one about every six or seven hundred years.

[Говорящий 2] (0:53 - 0:54)
Okay.

[Говорящий 1] (0:58 - 0:59)
In the world.

[Говорящий 2] (0:59 - 0:59)
Okay.

[Говорящий 1] (1:01 - 2:03)
So, one person was saying that it takes, if you become an Arhat and you don't have Doricitta power, if you're not on the Bodhisattva track, then you'd have to go all the way back to the beginning. Is that a literal? Yeah.

But haven't you kind of escaped having to be reborn once you become an Arhat? That's a good question. Okay.

So, there are three tracks. And each, they all start, they all follow the same pattern. The tracks are useful because these are the steps of spiritual evolution for all people, of all religions.

Okay. The steps of spiritual evolution are the same for everybody. It doesn't matter what religion you're in.

You will go through five great thresholds in the course of your spiritual evolution. And all beings will become enlightened.

[Говорящий 2] (2:04 - 2:04)
Okay.

[Говорящий 1] (2:04 - 5:13)
We believe that. So, and they always start the same and they always go through the same steps. It's useful to know the five steps because then you can sort of tell where you are.

It's helpful, right? So, the first step is called Sant Lan, which means you become dismayed with the state of this world. Usually, it comes from some personal trauma.

Okay. So, the best Dharma students are those who have had some very serious personal trauma. And we gave examples the other day.

Maybe their mother was murdered or somebody's mother committed suicide or my brother committed suicide. Something has to wake you up to say, I need to do something. And usually, it's a personal tragedy.

So, you have to wake up. You have to see how serious things are. So, in our system, if you have a personal tragedy, people are like, hey, you know, who was Milarepa's disciple, you know, main disciple?

Gampopa. Gampopa started out as a layperson and he was married. And his wife died unexpectedly.

And then he went to her uncle and he said, I have the most wonderful news. And he's like, what? He said, my wife died.

I can become a monk. And then the uncle picked up dirt and threw it in his face. And he said, you're so cold-hearted.

How could you say that? But it was, something pushes you. Some disaster pushes you to get serious about your spiritual life.

You encounter death firsthand or someone dear to you dies. Like that. And then you wake up.

Second path is when you start to understand where things are coming from. And you can say, Buddhist emptiness, blah, blah, blah. But I mean, Jesus thought the same thing, right?

Jesus was saying, what's the golden rule? You read, but it's not. Sorry.

Do you want to tell this as you would have been doing things, okay? If you begin to have insights into that fact, you have reached step number two. If you perceive that fact directly in a deep state of spiritual transformation, you have reached step number three.

If you use that brief experience to overcome all your negativities, you have reached, that process is stage four. When you succeed, that's stage five, okay? You can go through all five stages on a lower track, which means without any particular concern for other people's welfare, you take care of yourself, okay?

You can do that, it's possible. And I used to ask my teacher, Khenpo Rinpoche, I used to say, well, when you go through the whole thing and then you have to start over, why do you have to start over?

[Говорящий 2] (5:14 - 5:15)
You know?

[Говорящий 1] (5:15 - 7:23)
Why do you have to start over? I mean, you already saw emptiness. So can't you just kind of go from stage five, level two, to stage five, level three, and just finish it off?

Why did they say you have to start over again serving the tea, and then work your way up the avenue again, you see? And he said, because love, compassion occurs at the first stage. You see?

On level three, when you go from the first two levels to level three, you must go through the first stage. You must start from the first stage. Then I said, we normally describe the first stage as renunciation.

You realize there's a problem with this life, okay? And then I said, but on the third level, the first step is what? Universal love, right?

Bodhicitta. Love for all beings, and the wish to help them, okay? Then I said, you know, why is it so different?

And he said, oh, that's a famous question. And then he said, in this path system, 15 paths, right? Five, five, five.

Renunciation on the third level is simply expanded to all other people. You use logic. My mother died.

My brother died. I'm having a hard time. Gee, I wonder if anyone else is, okay?

You know what I mean? So he said, level three, first step, is the same as level one and two, a personal disaster. But at the moment that you have it, you think to yourself, I wonder if other people are having the same thing happen to them.

So you do have to start over. You do have to enter from the first path. Okay?

You don't have a choice. You do have to sign up for a new monastery and start serving tea. It's a waste of time.

Might as well just start up here, okay? Whoa, that's a question.

[Говорящий 2] (7:28 - 7:32)
Well, I'll say thanks, Joshua, for teaching, and don't get up on me yet.

[Говорящий 1] (7:33 - 7:34)
Thank you for my cover.

[Говорящий 2] (7:41 - 8:12)
Yesterday there was a phrase in there teaching about irreparable infinitude of reasons for emptiness. One of you could remind me of scriptural authorities from when Bhagavata told us about if you want to own a ride, give a ride. You know, good things in our life are a consequence of providing them for others.

Okay. I'd like to just remember and be able to use the scriptural part of that.

[Говорящий 1] (8:12 - 13:31)
Okay. Let's try, Dan, let's try ACIP again, okay? Okay, so I happen to know there's a very famous quotation that will satisfy him.

Thank you. I remember a piece of the verse, so I ask the computer, you know, I remember a piece, can you tell me the rest? Okay, you ready?

A million pages, ready? Go. Impressed him.

But he didn't find it. Oh, I misspelled it. It's not his fault.

Okay, let's try again. Here we go, go. All right.

Like, how many seconds? Yeah, so it went to a million pages. He found the quotation I wrote.

This is from Arya Nagarjuna, okay? This is the most famous verse of scripture in support for the idea that Brian gave the example that if you want to have a ride, if you want to have a good car, you have to get a lot of rides. People wonder why they pay a lot of money for a car and it turns out to be limited.

Right? Money doesn't get you a good car. You may be experiencing that.

Say it, it's very good luck. It's one of the most famous verses in all of Buddhism. You ready?

We're going to recite. This will be a kirtan, okay? Say, jimbe longchu, jim kyi de, sebe dangden, sebe ji, sam den kyi shi, lo yin chok.

So this is Arya Nagarjuna. And in a single verse, he puts forth the correlations of karma. In a brief verse, he puts forth the most important correlations, meaning, do this, get that.

He does so by following the six perfections. He gives the results. He outlines in a single verse the karmic results of following the six perfections.

And they're very, very, very famous. So jimbe longchu means, if you give money, you will be wealthy. jimbe longchu.

If you give material wealth, you will receive material wealth. jimbe longchu. jim kyi de.

If you strive never to hurt other people, you will be a happy person. That's the second karmic correlation. jim kyi de.

sebe dangden. If you wish to be beautiful, physically beautiful, then be a patient person. Don't get angry.

It will change your, the karma will change your appearance. sebe dangden. jimbe ji.

Take delight in doing virtuous activities because then you will achieve authority over people. Personally, I like to be the boss of everything. I don't like to be in any situation where someone's telling me what to do.

I just really don't like it. If you're similar, then you would want to not just do good things, but enjoy. Take joy in opportunities to serve other people.

That's different from deserving. Got it? It's how you feel about deserving.

Got it? It's to enjoy it. To get high on serving other people is the karmic cause of getting to be the boss in every situation in your life.

I like that. jimbe ji. sam tin kyi shi.

The karma of learning to meditate well is that you feel at peace with yourself all the time. sam tin kyi. lo yin chok.

The karma of attempting to understand where the things in your world are coming from is that you will achieve spiritual liberation. Those are six actions, and six karmic results of those actions. Any time someone says, his challenge was, could you back up your statement that your car would look better if you get rides, they always quote that verse.

They always pull out that verse. It's a nice verse to learn. People are always coming up to me and saying, I want to learn Tibetan.

You should learn that verse. It's a beautiful verse. It's a really crucial verse in Buddhism.

And Nyingbo can help you find it. Sorry? I think it's Shiqing.

No, he says Rinchen Talmud. The computer says. The String of Precious Jewels.

Ratnamala. Yeah. Okay, any other questions?

[Говорящий 2] (13:36 - 13:54)
I get that last night's teaching has a projection coming from mind, but my mind, this mind, didn't create that teaching. Many people in the room struggle with that teaching. So, how does mind project a teaching like that teaching?

[Говорящий 1] (13:55 - 19:39)
Okay, good. I'll answer it in two different, I'll do a pincher movement. Someone in one of the DCI retreats, I don't remember, I think it was China, but the Chinese asked really good questions.

I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is about China, but they asked incredibly good questions. And one of the questions was, how can I project something which I can't understand?

You see? If it's coming from my mind, how can it be more difficult than my mind can understand? You see what I mean?

It's a good question. And then I had another Chinese friend, Huang Jin from Shanghai, and he said, what's the karma to become more intelligent? Just worldly intelligence.

How can I increase my intelligence? And I said, the karma of increasing your intelligence is to teach others. You see?

What you learn, however much you understand, pass it on to others. It doesn't mean you have to print posters and struggle like we do to think of a new name for a lecture that will bring people, or a more interesting poster than the other people's posters. It's not like that.

It just means, watch for opportunities to pass, to share what you've learned in a non-invasive way. We're not allowed to prophetize. So you just watch, and if someone's having trouble, somebody asked me during the break a question about addiction.

And if you know someone who has an addiction and who's honestly trying to overcome that addiction, then you might explain to them that you heard a talk, the guy said, the way to overcome an addiction would be to help someone else with their addiction. See what I mean? That might be the only way, actually.

And that's why AA works so well. Out of all the systems. So the willingness to share with people who might be sincerely interested in what you have to share results in increased intelligence.

So my friend Huang Jin from Shanghai, he tried it. He's a businessman. He makes all the staples for staples.

I'm not kidding. In a place called Mingbo, near Shanghai. And so he tried it.

And he started teaching. Then he said he was at home with an ancient Chinese manuscript that he couldn't read. The characters were too old.

And he opened it up, and suddenly he understood all of it. And then he started to go like this. He would read, and then he would, like a newspaper.

And then he didn't catch what he was doing. And then his wife said, what are you doing? And he said, I'm reading a book.

And she said, this book is like 2,000 years old. How can you read it? He said, I don't know.

And he was turning it like this. Then he was like, oh, it worked. My level of intelligence has changed.

Noticeably. So it's cool. It is possible to project a teaching which you can't figure out yet.

And it is possible to figure it out if you help others to try to figure it out. That's all. The karma of trying to help others to figure it out allows you to crack it.

And if you don't, you never will. It's very interesting. My lama asked me, so I have this other guy.

His name is Arden Roe. He translated the book. He said, you help Arden Roe print his book.

This is the other main student of my lama. So naturally I am insanely jealous of this guy. For 20 years.

I think I'd still be jealous, but I moved away. So anyway, he's like, you help Art print his book. I paid for the first volume of Liberation in New York.

I went and worked. I made $25,000 on paper. Then I edited it.

And I typed it three times for him. The person I dislike most in the world had to type. And then suddenly I could read it.

You see what I mean? So it's like that. You serve someone who serves someone to help them understand it.

And then it will come to you. You will understand it. Like that.

Right? It is possible for you to project from your mind something that your mind can't understand. That's not a problem.

Okay? Yes. Other...

I think we have some time. You're persistent. I want to give somebody a chance that doesn't have much chance.

[Говорящий 2] (19:40 - 20:08)
Yesterday, or the day before, or some time, you were talking about the walls here being held up by our consciousness, the karmic seeds of our kindness. You referenced the wall of water in Japan at some point as collective consciousness, the karma, the collective karma having no name. I wonder if you could explain that a little bit.

Yeah.

[Говорящий 1] (20:08 - 26:22)
Okay, good. A couple questions come up very commonly about karma. One question is, can I give my karma to another person?

Can I collect the karmic seed from another person and share it? So if my friend needs money and they're not capable of being generous to make the karma to have money, can I somehow make extra karmic seeds and somehow share them with them? And the answer is no.

It's not possible to share a karmic seed with another person. Karmic seed can only be planted in your mind by yourself. No one else can plant a karmic seed in your mind.

You can explain to someone else how to plant a karmic seed, but even then they still have to plant it themselves. You can't... It's impossible to plant a karmic seed in another person's mind.

All you can do is teach them how to do it themselves. So then the question arises of, how can you have a common experience? How can X number of people perceive the same building at the same time?

And that's an idea called collective karma. So as a group, together, all of us knew each other in the past, and as a group, we sheltered somebody. And then we have the karma to perceive this room together.

When you do the pen thing, when you teach somebody about emptiness using the pen, and you say, what is this thing? And they say, B. And then you say, well, how does a dog see it?

And then they see it as a chew toy. But then a really intelligent person in the audience will say, but they both see a black tube. They both see a black cylinder.

And that's true. They both have a shared karma to see a black cylinder. And that's collecting by doing something together.

Now I'll tell you a cool thing. National borders are created by those collective actions. I once went to Nogales.

Sorry, Agua Prieta. And I said, gee, that would be fun to stand with one foot in Mexico and one foot in the United States. And I went and did it.

It was kind of fun. It feels sort of vulnerable in between. So I stood with my feet in both countries.

And then I looked down at the line, and there is no line. It's just artificial, right? There's no difference in the rock or the sand.

It's all artificial. And then I was like, wow. So why are conditions so different on one side of this artificial line and so different on the other side?

What creates that? And that's the collective karma of the people who live in that country. That creates the border, and it creates the reality of very disparate economic conditions on two sides of an imaginary line.

Communal actions. For example, someone asked me in Singapore, and I think I might have gotten in trouble. They said, if my country goes to war and if a soldier in our army kills someone, do I get any karma?

And I said, that very question comes up in the Abhidharmakosha. And then the answer in the Abhidharmakosha is that all the people who live in a country who support the effort of an armed conflict, when a soldier on the front lines shoots a gun and kills someone, everyone who supported the war effort gets the same karma of killing a person equally. Everyone who supported the effort gets the karma equally.

Those who supported it financially with their taxes get double. Why? They're inducing the soldier to kill.

You see? They are, with the salary paid to the soldier, they are inducing the soldier to kill. They get the karma of killing themselves and of causing someone else to kill.

The taxpayer gets double, the soldier only gets one. Then the guy, this is in Singapore, which I was kind of spacing out and not remembering I was in a dictatorship. And they said, well, what can we do about that?

And then I said, well, if you object to the war effort formally, you don't get the karma. You see? If you write a letter to your congressman and you say, my taxes are being used for weapons that are being used to kill people.

I don't support it. I hereby disassociate myself. You don't have to go to jail.

I did go to jail once over that kind of thing. But you can say, it's considered sufficient through proper channels, according to your governmental system, to inform your representative that you disassociate yourself from that. And then you don't collect that karma.

If you don't do that, you do get the karma. And then all the people who got that karma together, something bad will happen to them altogether, like the tsunami. Okay.

One more question. Then I get to go to bed.

[Говорящий 2] (26:24 - 26:28)
What's your illegal? Sorry? What's your illegal?

[Говорящий 1] (26:29 - 26:56)
You can write an anonymous letter. Then I was careful in Singapore. I came to my senses.

I'm like, you know, of course, in accordance with the government regulations, you should, you know, express how you feel. Peacefully. One more?

Who? You, Susie? Or somebody else?

[Говорящий 2] (26:56 - 28:01)
Okay. I've been having this debate the last couple of days at the Paradise Cafe, where we're diligently trying to get through our homework. And I believe it was something you said in yesterday's meditation, the talk before the meditation.

Myself and the other person heard you say, towards the end, that both good karma and bad karma really, you couldn't remember exactly what you said, but it implied that they're not really going to get you anywhere. They're not helpful. So, if that's true, then how can you, what is the explanation for the whole seed theory?

Because we're implying that good karma is bad karma, it's implied by planting the seeds, ripening, etc. So, I wish I could remember your exact statement, but it had that, you know, implication. Okay.

[Говорящий 1] (28:03 - 35:15)
A good deed done without understanding will create a positive result, which is temporary. And when it wears out, you will suffer. Okay?

A good deed done without understanding will create a good result that's temporary. A bad deed, which is always done without understanding, creates suffering. Okay?

So, the problem with good deeds done without proper technique, which is how I like to say it nowadays, good deeds done without proper technique, the problem with them is that they wear out. The results wear out. The wearing out of those results causes suffering.

A good example is relationships with somebody. You meet a man or a woman and you start a relationship. There are certain seeds which cause you to meet that person.

There are karmic seeds which cause you to meet that person. The meeting that person destroys those seeds. Meeting them begins the process of the wearing out of those seeds.

Okay? The longer you know each other, the more seeds are destroyed. Which means you start fighting.

Okay? Or you start disliking each other. It's natural.

I was so relieved when I found out. I thought I was a bad person. The natural progression of all interpersonal relationships with a person, a partner, if those seeds have been collected without knowledge, then the relationship must get old.

It must get more boring. You should start quibbling, fighting. You lose interest in the other person.

Something will happen. So that's a real example that everybody can relate to. Because you've been through X number of relationships since you were 12 or whatever.

Okay? Left untended and planted without knowledge, all seeds of those relationships will wear out. And you will lose interest or you will split up.

And it will be painful. Those seeds were collected by a good karma. Okay?

But without technique, without knowledge. If a good seed is planted with technique, with knowledge, we don't call it karma. Okay?

That's not called karma. You can call it a seed. You can't call it a karmic seed.

The word karma, or me, in Tibetan, always refers to seeds which are planted without knowledge. Okay, so what's the seed for finding a partner? A very typical seed for finding a partner would be to help a lonely person.

And I like to say the elderly because those are some of the loneliest types of people, are the elderly. So people will come to me and say, Alan, I want to find a partner. How do I plant the seed to find a partner?

Then I tell them, find an elderly person to help. Adopt unofficially an elderly person and help them. And that will create seeds that you will find a partner.

So then I always give the example, I won't give it here because you all know her. Many of you know her. One lady came to me and said, I want to know, what's a karmic seed to find a partner?

I told her, go help a lonely person, especially elderly. And then I like to say, as a joke when we travel, I say, so out of all my students, she actually listened to me. And she did it.

And she adopted an elderly person unofficially and she cared for them. And then there was this beautiful incident in a yoga class in LA and she met Mr. Perfect. Then she came to me and she said, oh Geshe-la, it's so wonderful I met Mr. Perfect. And we're going to get married. Then I said, what happened to the old lady? What happened to the elderly person?

And she's like, well, I got the guy. I said, no, no, no, no, you don't understand. You have to keep replanting seeds.

You see what I mean? You have to replenish the seeds. Every minute you spend with your new friend is going to wear out seeds of taking care of the old woman.

So you can't stop. In fact, you and your new partner should adopt her. You see?

You should make it part of your marriage or your relationship that she's part of your life and keep taking care of her. And see, that's a seed which is planted with technique. They are conscious of the fact that having their relationship, every hour that passes in their relationship is destroying the seeds that brought them together.

So they should understand. It's like a debit card. And then you have to replenish it.

So a person who understands technique, they would get the girl or get the boy, and then them and the boy or them and the girl would adopt this lady. And they would make it a regular practice throughout the length of their relationship to continue taking care of this person. And I do it.

She's coming on Thursday. You can see her. I'm quite consciously doing that.

Okay? So now I have a question for you, Susie. Then you guys can go home.

Is that karma? If I continue to take care of her, to create new seeds to make my relationship not only diminish, but to get better every year, is it karma? The new seeds that I'm making by taking care of her together, is it karma?

Is it a good karma? That's a trick question. Is it a good karma?

Is it a good karma to take care of the old woman? Me and my... No, it's not, okay?

We don't give it the word karma. We don't use the word karma. Karma can only be collected ignorantly.

If you're planting seeds with knowledge, the word karma cannot be used for that.

[Говорящий 2] (35:18 - 35:19)
No.

[Говорящий 1] (35:22 - 36:03)
You could say pure seeds or impure seeds. Impure seeds are called karma. Pure seeds are called sok sok.

Say sok sok. Sok sok means assembling my Buddha paradigm. Which we will now recite the very verse.

So listen to the verse. That was a slick segue, right? Gets me out.

You will hear the words in this prayer, sok sok shin, which means may all people learn to accumulate pure seeds which don't wear out. Here we go.

[Говорящий 2] (36:03 - 37:03)
SOK SOK SHIN SOK SOK SHIN Okay, thank you.

[Говорящий 1] (37:04 - 37:17)
Thank you for coming and allowing me to teach this because it's very dear to my heart. This book is very dear to my heart. Thank you.

Good night. Have a nice day off.