«Дар освобождения», курс 15 «Найти учителя, которому можно доверять», занятие 6

[Говорящий 1] (0:00 - 11:19)
So we're continuing with Gift of Liberation Thrust into the Palm of Your Hands and written by the teacher of the teacher of the current dhyanama. And we've been discussing, we started off on a discussion of what to look for when you're looking for a teacher, spiritual teacher. And we said that finding a teacher is the most important practice that a Buddhist can do.

So I grew up in the Christian tradition. My church is not far from here. I went last week.

And we had wonderful priests, but it's, what do you call it? The priest is actually not encouraged to be a personal teacher to the congregation. They're supposed to keep a little distance and they can serve, they can help the sick, but they're not meant to do ongoing private spiritual teaching or guidance of a person in a progressive way.

It's not part of what they did in my church. And in Buddhism it's different. We are encouraged to find a mentor or someone who can guide us, hopefully for many years, who has a deep knowledge of the path and can both, what do you call?

Theoretical and in their own life, their own experience. So we've been going through a section of the text in which they speak about what are the qualifications that we should look for. And we just finished a section where he said, when you're considering the qualifications of a person, you might consider your own qualifications also, or how you could develop the same qualifications.

So if I'm looking for a teacher who has a good steady meditation practice, then part of that exercise is to improve my own meditation practice. Because in time I will also be one of those teachers. And I should, whatever qualities I'm looking for, I should develop within myself as well.

And then I encouraged you to finish the ACI courses and the tantric courses. These are 36 courses, 18 foundational courses, which are the major content of the Geshe course in a Tibetan monastery, 25-year course. And then we have 18 courses for advanced Buddhism, advanced practice.

And then we have, I don't know, 10 meditation courses. And then there are these lam rim courses, which I didn't make into very formal courses, but they are video for the whole thing. So I think if you learn all of those, which should take you about 20 years, you would know all the information that a teacher should know and all the practices.

And then as you develop your toolkit of spiritual practices, you also have to develop your own personality to become more of an example for other people and a good person. So to develop one without the other is considered, it'll probably be a problem sooner or later. You have to develop your kindness as fast as you develop your Tibetan grammar.

So we've reached a new section on the qualifications of a teacher. And we're at SRED BUMS. SRED BUMS DANG, CHOG MTHUG GI YOD BYED TZAM BA MTSAMS DANG, MCHOG DGA' LO RTOGS NAS SDONG SHAS PA TZAM GYIS LAM NAS MTSAN NYID TZAM BA MIN, SRED BUMS means, BUMS means, it's not a bomb, okay? BUMS means BUM PA.

What's BUM PA? A vase, a ritual vase. SRED means life.

Okay? I use, in Sanskrit, like Ayurveda. And SRED BUMS means the ritual vase that a lama uses in a tantric ritual of long life.

The Dalai Lama often gives this ritual. I think almost anywhere he goes, he will give this ritual in conjunction with the teachings of Avalokiteshvara. So they will do a, SRED BUMS means a special Tibetan silver vase, right?

With a peacock feather coming out of it. MCHOG RDZUS means a certain kind of ritual to remove, it's a ritualistic removal of negative energy from a place or a person. Like, what do you call it?

Almost like an exorcism, okay? RDZUS means in that ritual they use water. And they might use water for the person that they are purifying.

YOD CHANG is misspelled. Probably a bad carving, but it should be YOD CHE, B-Y-A-D. And YOD CHE means, what do you call it?

The costume that the lama wears, special outfit. And the vase and the bowl and the bell and the Dorje and the little drum and all this, what do you call it? Paraphernalia.

Yeah, YOD CHE means paraphernalia. That you would need to do those rituals. TZANG BAR TZAM, to be complete in your stuff is not to be a complete lama.

Okay, so I've seen these lamas, they have these big drums and they bang on these cymbals and they have special hats. And it really impresses Americans. I don't know why, but they feel very excited when they see somebody like that.

And he's making sort of a joke. He says, what do you call it? Complete in ritual gadgets is not the same as complete in qualifications of a lama.

But we tend to look at the outer appearance of a teacher and feel that if they have this stuff then they might be qualified. TZAM, he says, only that. Which means, the implication there is it's not bad to have all that stuff.

You probably should have all that stuff. But you should also have the inner qualifications. CHOG BAR LO RTOGS LAS STANGS SHES PA means someone who can recite the rituals by heart.

SDUG GIS SNANGS RGAGS LA MA'I BAR LO RTOGS PA YIN LA RTZA RGYUD KYI RNAMS PA YIN NA BYANG CHOG ZANG THAMS CAD GSUM PA'I RTZA RGYUD DGONG NAS SHES PA RGYUR DA DANG SDUG BSNGAL GYI LTA DANG NYON PA'I SEMS CAN THAG CHEN LA'I NI Like that. Then sometimes, we all have to learn them in the monastery. And they impress sponsors and lay people.

And sometimes the monk is repeating the same paragraph over and over. And even if they're not, just simply to have memorized the ritual by heart is not qualified. It doesn't mean the Lama is qualified.

You can memorize a ritual and still not be a good example, right? Of a good person. MTSAN NYID SANGS PA SANGS means just that, meaning that's good, but it doesn't make the Lama complete.

SANGS KYIS LA MA'I MTSAN NYID SANGS PA That doesn't what we mean when we say complete. The teacher is complete. DE YANG LA MA'I MTSAN NYID LA When we talk about the qualifications we should look for in a teacher, spiritual teacher, SDUG BSNGAL NAS SHES PA'I CAN LOBS KYI MTSAN NYID There is a list of qualifications listed in the Vinaya.

Okay, the Vinaya is what? These are the massive Buddhist teachings on vowed morality. If you think the...

What's a Jewish thing called? Talmud? It's complicated.

The Vinaya is similar. Many, many, many small rules and many small rituals and 253 vows for monks, 364 vows for nuns. Each one has many pieces and many exceptions and a history and divisions and very complicated.

So there are lists of what a Lama should... The qualifications for a Lama who teaches you Vinaya. The word for Vinaya in Tibetan is what?

DUL BA Which is a verb that means to tame a wild horse. Rinpoche loved to point that out. So there are a certain set of qualifications for a person who ordains monks and nuns or does the important rituals of Vinaya.

For example, SO SBYONG The bi-monthly... Is that every... Semi-monthly, bi-weekly purification confession of the monks.

And then YANG NAS The required summer retreat. RGA YAS The free period that you have after that. And these are all...

There's 108 monastic rites which you must know them to ordain a person. For example, MTSAN NYID By the way, we are ordaining a new fully ordained nun during the coming out ceremony for the retreatants. Dvora will be taking full ordination.

She took novice ordination during the retreat as did two other nuns. But I'll let them tell you. Then there's a THEG CHEN THU MONG BA'I DGE BA'I GZHAN YIN GYI MTSAN NYID Then there's a general all-purpose list of qualifications for a spiritual teacher who is teaching the Mahayana in general, he says.

Or the shared. Both parts of Mahayana shared. Mahayana are the higher level teachings that started in India two and a half thousand years ago.

And what does he mean when he says shared? The two branches shared? Say again?

[Говорящий 2] (11:20 - 11:24)
The teachings that are shared in South India and West India.

[Говорящий 1] (11:26 - 53:00)
Hinayana or Theravada, lower school is one, right? And then you have Mahayana. You have two branches of the greater way.

What are they? Not in this present day. Yeah, open and secret, okay?

Sutra and tantra, meaning secret teachings and then open teachings. And then these two together are the higher way. And this one is the lower way.

So this one includes, for example, monks, vows, vinaya, training of monks and nuns. And then this one would include higher philosophical training and higher secret practices, of which yoga is a very important one, for example. We're not allowed to do yoga in the monastery until we finish the Geshe course, 20 years.

So real yoga is considered a very high practice. So there's a definition for, there are qualifications of a lama who's allowed to ordain people, for example. But there are also qualifications of a lama who teaches these two subjects.

Okay, got it? That's called general qualifications of a Mahayana person, higher vehicle person. Then there's a separate set of qualifications for sanghaki dorje lopan.

Dorje lopan. What's dorje? Diamond or vajra.

Lopan means master. So vajracharya, which is someone who can grant you secret empowerments or secret initiations and then grant you those, the corresponding teachings, which takes a long time. We have a course in our curriculum, it's seven years long, that you would study those subjects.

Sanghaki dorje lopan gyi tsen gyi so-sor So there are a list of qualifications for a person who's allowed to give empowerments or allowed to impart the secret teachings. Tsen gyi so-sor yukpa le Then there are separate lists for all those kinds of teachers. So what are we going to present here?

We're supposed to be discussing the qualifications of a lama. Which of those three do you think he would present here? Yeah, the second one, like all-purpose Mahayana lama, meaning open or secret.

Open and secret teachings. So he's going to cover all-purpose higher level lama. And that could be a lay person.

To grant monk spouse, etc., you should be a monk or a nun. But to grant the higher two levels of teachings, you can be a lay person. It could be a family person.

Which means you can be a lama. So we're going to go through that list of qualifications. I personally believe that in the next 500 years or so, or maybe more, I think the next era of Buddhism in the world will be taught mostly by lay people.

I just think that's the way it's going to be. The institutions of huge monasteries with 10,000 people and who never relate to the common people, I think it has caused a lot of trouble and it caused the fall of Tibetan, I think. And I don't think that's a viable path for the modern world right now.

I don't think it's ever going to happen that there are large monasteries in the middle of Phoenix of people living strict Vinaya so they can't come out of their room to talk to you, except at four o'clock. You know what I mean? I don't think it's ever going to happen.

And I don't think it's necessary. I think in these times, there were periods, long periods in India, thousands of years when the teachers were lay people and the teachers were family people, business people, kings. The first Tantrikas were all kings.

And I think, I feel that that's how these ideas are going to spread in the modern world. I don't think they're going to spread through even necessarily a religious context. I think they could very well spread through business or relationships or international relationships or health or wellness or mental health or through those kinds of institutions.

I think these ideas are going to spread. And I don't think they have to be Buddhist. I don't think they need the trappings of Buddhism.

I don't think you have to have a certain photograph in your house or wear beads. I don't think you need any of those things to be an important influence on the world nowadays. I think it's going to be you guys.

That's what I'm trying to say. And what we've seen, like, I don't know, in the last three or four years of DCI work, I think last year 10,000 people came to programs in 30 cities of the world, all over the world. So we're going to Buenos Aires.

We were supposed to have an interview today with a Buenos Aires newspaper who delayed it. And then, because they're kind of distracted right now because their currency is collapsing. Yesterday we did with Ukrainians, we did a long interview about the situation in Ukraine and that's showing in the Ukraine today.

And I think all over the world it's going to be working people and normal people who pass these ideas on. And yeah, I don't think they have to be in a religious context. Just a practical, personal context of personal development.

And that's what's happening with DCI. I don't think, maybe 10% of the participants are Buddhist. I don't know, 20% or something.

So, DA LAM DIR THEG CHEN THUB MA BA'I LAM MED ZIN NI So we're going to get the definition or the qualifications of a teacher, general Mahayana all-purpose teacher. RTZOL BAR SMOS NA means mainly we're going to focus on that. When a person in the debate ground or in a teaching says mainly, they are covering themselves.

It means they're going to throw in some other stuff also. It's very important in a debate that you say mainly. Then you can say all kinds of exceptions and you don't get in trouble.

RTZOL BAR SMOS NA If I were to state, okay SMOS NA means if I were to state. DE YANG RDO DE RGYEN LAS So RDO DE RGYEN is called Sutra Alankara. Okay, Sutra Alankara.

Sutra means, here it means the teachings of Lord Buddha. Like Heart Sutra or Diamond Cutter Sutra. Then RGYEN means, Alankara means ornament or jewel and it means the cream.

You could have called it the cream of the sutras or something like that. I like the word Alankara in Sanskrit because it means, alam means ready for a party and kara means it makes you ready for a party. So it's a jewelry.

It means like a necklace or something. So this book is called The Necklace of the Sutras. Who wrote it?

So there's a Buddhist master 17 centuries ago named Arya Sangha who wrote this book down. Meaning, we believe it was dictation taken from Maitreya. Who's Maitreya?

It's the coming Buddha. The next Buddha in this world is supposed to be Maitreya. Very close, very close.

So in that text is the most famous list of what you should look for in a good teacher. And it has 10 parts. So here, I'll read it to you in the poetry.

GZHAN YIN GDUL BA It should be GDUL BA. That's a spelling error, a carving error. That's a carving error.

Another fun thing about learning Tibetan is you have to... The books are not edited like English or, I don't know, Spanish, but in a typical Tibetan scripture there'll be a mistake on every page. And unfortunately, they'll all be words and some of them will make sense.

And so you not only have to... To read Tibetan, you not only have to know Tibetan, you have to be a textual scholar to know what's wrong. And we have one here.

So anyway, GZHAN YIN GDUL BA ZHI BA NYER ZHI BA YON DANG LHAG PA TSUN BYAS LUNG GI CHUG DE NYID RAB TU RTOG PA MA KHAS BSTAN TSE BA'I DAG NYID RGYAL BA SPANG LA BRTAN So it means, here's the qualifications of a teacher according to the next Buddha on this planet. So it's okay, probably. GDUL BA I told you GDUL BA and now we have DUL BA, past tense, dulwa, tamed like a horse, broken by their teacher.

And I was, they just ride you till you behave. It's called dulwa. It means restrained or tamed or, okay.

The next one is shiwa. What's shiwa? Yeah, at peace.

They have peace. They are self-controlled and they are peaceful. They are at peace.

Second quality. Third quality, nirshiwa, they have reached high peace. These are, some of them are code words.

We'll talk about them later. Nirshiwa. Number three is we've reached high peace.

Where did you see this list before? The first of the 20,000 pages of our courses. Because it's important.

Okay, yunden hakmar. More qualified. They have more qualities than the student.

Like you don't go to learn piano from a piano teacher who can't play as well as you. Tsunche means they're willing to work hard, super hard. They have a tremendous capacity for hard work.

lung gi chuk means rich in scriptural knowledge. The books, the holy books. So like, I don't know, again, I grew up a Christian.

I love the New Testament. It's awesome. It is surely one of the greatest pieces of literature in humankind's history.

But it's 30 pages. And the parts spoken by Jesus, if you put them in red print, it's about 10 pages. And the canon, the Buddhist canon from India is 350,000 pages.

Okay? And they're beautiful. They're all precious.

They're all wonderful. And lung gi chuk means you have a good grasp of those 350,000 pages. You have a pretty good grasp of the whole thing.

lung gi chuk. DE NYID RAB TU RTOG PA means they have RTOG PA with an S. Realized.

DE NYID means suchness, tatva in Sanskrit. Okay? They have realized suchness, which means emptiness.

And we'll talk about it. MA KHAN DEN, number eight. MA KHAN DEN We did SKAD PA today.

Venerable Phil told us what it was. SKAD PA. Master.

Yeah. MA means professing. So they are a good, they have teaching skills.

So oftentimes you meet eccentric people who are very good at what they do, but they can't teach other people. They're just kind of loners or weird. Like they're the best piano player in Arizona, but if you ask them to teach you, they would just get angry or something.

They wouldn't be able to do it. In Buddhism, the person has to know their stuff and they have to be good at teaching. Okay?

They have to have the skills of a teacher. Public teaching, private teaching. LUNG GI CHUG DE NYID RAB TU RTOG That's MA KHAN DEN.

TSE BA'I BDAG NI means their motivation must be love for the disciple. Their motivation must be a feeling of wanting to help the student and guide them and help them to have a happy life. That must be their motivation.

They shouldn't have motivations for money or fame. I think, I don't think a lot of Americans have a big desire for money. The teachers I know, they're not like trying to get rich because you can't anyway.

But I think there is an attraction to the attention that you can get as a teacher or the, what do you call? Authority over other people's lives or some kind of be in a position to tell other people what to do or things like that. So this ninth one is very important.

Their motivation should be a concern for the welfare and the success of the people they're teaching. I like to think of a piano teacher whose goal is to make you, is to see you play in Carnegie Hall when they never did. Something like that.

Number 10, SKYE BA SPANG I like this. SKYE BA means tired. Fed up with the student.

And SPANG means they don't have that problem. And specifically in scripture it says having to repeat over and over the same stuff to the students and then seeing them make the same mistakes over and over. So the teacher shouldn't get discouraged.

It means they shouldn't get discouraged if the students don't behave or or they have to repeat things over and over. Or the students don't listen to what they say or they don't retain what they say. Or they mix up what they say or they corrupt what they say.

So a really good teacher is infinitely patient with the student and there's no end to their patience. They will stay with you year after year and keep trying. They don't give up.

Okay, those are the 10. He clarifies, I think, one, two, three, four. He clarifies five of them.

Pabongka Rinpoche feels that five of them might need some clarification. There are other books that give long explanations of each of these qualities. But let's go through his clarifications.

Okay, here they are. ZHES GSUNGS PA'I YUN DANG CHOS TZANG BA STE You should look for a teacher who has how many of the 10? All 10, okay?

No, that's important. TZANG BA means three or four of these qualities is not enough. He said that already.

He said they can be very sweet but not very knowledgeable. And there are monks like that in our monastery who appear not to be very knowledgeable but they are very devoted. And then there's people who seem to be very knowledgeable who are mean.

So they have to have both. They should have both, everything. DE'I SNANGS KYIS We had SNANG DU today.

We made a dictionary entry out of it. GSUM GYIS SNANGS NAS That was the... What's SNANGS mean?

Inner. By the way, those of you who care, the word for a Buddhist in Buddhism is not Buddhist. It's SNANGS PA.

Somebody on the inside. And SPYIR ROL PA means somebody on the outside and that means a non-Buddhist. That's the Buddhist word for Buddhist and not Buddhist.

So DE'I SNANGS KYIS means among those 10, from among those 10. We had that today. But that was a couple of hours ago.

DUL BA DUL BA what? Past tense. Not DUL BA which is Vinaya.

This is past tense, DUL BA. THAMS DGOS They have already been broken by their Lama. DUL BA means TSUL KHRIMS GYIS RGYUD DUL BA They have DUL BA.

They have... Their mind stream, their heart has been... What do you call that when you have a wild horse and then you...

They're broken. So I don't mean they hurt you or anything like that. They make you a calm riding horse.

DUL BA DUL BA is the active form of DUL BA which is past tense. And the action is DUL BA which is Vinaya. So they DUL BA your heart with what?

TSUL KHRIMS Yeah, they teach you how to live an ethical life. So the first requirement of a good Lama is that they are behaving themselves. That's...

they follow an ethical lifestyle. They don't kill. They don't steal.

They don't fool around with other people's partners. They don't lie. They don't split people up.

They don't speak harshly. They don't speak idle gossip. They're not happy when people get in trouble.

They're not unhappy when people get things they want. And most importantly, they understand that the world is coming from them. And those are Buddhist ethics.

What makes something a bad karma or a good karma in Buddhist ethics? Yeah, if it hurts you, it's immoral. Okay?

Because... and that subsumes all harm to others because all harm to others hurts you. So in Buddhism, an action is unethical if it hurts you because it hurts someone else.

You see what I mean? And then an action is desirable if it brings you joy and happiness and clearness. Okay?

Clarity. That's the only standard of ethics in Buddhism. How does it affect your happiness?

And by definition, the happiness of others, because that's what determines your happiness. All right, so that Lama, first of all, should be ethical. And in the modern world, it's how do they behave in their sexual behavior?

How do they behave in their finances? How do they treat their students with kindness? Or do they take advantage of their students?

And like that, they should have these beautiful qualities. Second, what was the second one? Not shiwa, shiwa means died.

Shiwa. Okay, say shiwa. Died.

Shiwa. At peace. Okay, they're connected, but...

they are connected, but anyway. Be careful with your high tone and low tone sibilance. So peaceful means they meditate on a regular basis.

In this list, peaceful means nam yang shiwa. Nam yang shiwa means they are not hyper mentally. They have a good, healthy, daily meditation practice and it has made them grounded and clear.

They have clear mind. Usually very intelligent because of the meditation. They have the ability to do many things at once if they have to and not get nervous or overwhelmed.

They have a very clear, strong, healthy mind. Concentration. Number three.

Yeah, nyerwar shiwa. What do we call high peace? High peace refers to their knowledge of where the world comes from.

What we call wisdom. Dr. Zimba nyerwar shiwa. They have put to rest the tendency to think that things are coming from their own side.

Literally, they have put to rest the tendency to think that things are in themselves. That a pen is inside a pen. Or that a laptop is inside a laptop.

Or that being the best rock and roll in the world is inside Neil Young's music. You see? That it's coming out from the inside, like that.

They understand that's not the case. If you like Neil Young, it's because you have really good karma. Not because he's good from his own side.

You see what I mean? Which is why some people don't like him because they don't have good karma. Number four.

I like number four. He says it very beautifully. The Tibetan, I wish you could read it.

It's very, very, very elegant. And very, very, how do I say? It's just masterful, extraordinary.

There's nothing like it in Tibetan out of thousands of books. Anyway, BUD GYI SREB DU ZHING GZHAN GCUGS NA If you have a box of incense, and in Tibet they don't burn a single stick of incense. You saw the Geshe thing?

There'll be 20 guys with a whole, with a whole, what do you call it? Bundle of incense, and they'll walk through the temple like this. You used up like 50 bundles of incense in a small ceremony in Sera.

So they have huge boxes full of incense or incense powder. And if you take, I don't know, a piece of pine or a piece of cedar or something, and you put it in that box for a couple of months, what'll happen? That wood will take on this scent and you can't get it out.

It just stays there. It imbues the wood. ZHING GZHAN GCUGS means stick it in there.

GCUGS is a good word to know. B-C-U-G, stick it in there. DE LA BOS PHYIR DGO BA Then the smell of the incense will DGO BA So DGO BA means to, I don't know how to say it.

Spread or? It means the transmission from the incense to the... It will...

It's kind of like permeate. I think permeate is the best word. So those of you studying Tibetan, now you have a bunch of goals.

Be careful. Say DGO BA Your throat should be buzzing a little. DGO BA DGO BA means to understand or to hear.

In colloquial. DGO BA Say DGO BA DGO BA DGO BA means essential supplies for a trip or for any task. DGO BA Say DGO Not DGO, DGO DGO means door.

Now say NGON NGON Like your French, right? I love it. You have a pretty nasal in French, it's so beautiful.

French is the most beautiful language in the world. I wish I could learn it, but I have to work to do it. NGON means head, your head.

M-G-O, NGON means head. This is an unusual spelling of a pre-nasal DGO, NGON BA and it means to infect something else. You see what I mean?

But in a good way. How would you say that? It spreads or it permeates.

I think permeates the best, yeah. DGO BA Okay? DGON NAS is a catchy disease.

DGON NAS DGON NAS Okay? Something like that. DGO BA LTAR In that same way.

Why is he talking about that here? You decide and I'll drink my hot chocolate. Run.

We're on the quality of the teacher should know more than the student or it's a waste of time. Yeah, it's all about osmosis. This one is about osmosis.

If you hang... I used to play tennis a couple of miles from here for many years. We were brought up on tennis.

And when I got to high school and I made the tennis team, the last one on the tennis team, we had a rule. During the competitive season, we were not allowed to play tennis with anyone who wasn't better than us. Okay?

And then we would improve. You see what I mean? So the idea is, if you hang out with them, then whatever qualities they have will rub off on you.

That's the incense metaphor. Whatever qualities they have will rub off on you. If they have a good backhand and you play against them long enough, you'll get a good backhand.

You see what I mean? And it's a very... What Word said is true.

It's a very famous principle of Buddhist practice that the Lama is like a mold and the student necessarily becomes like the Lama, good or bad. Okay? They will...

And you see it. And it's the same with parents. You can tell the kids anything you want, but they won't listen.

They will do exactly what you do. I went to hear the Dalai Lama in Tucson in, I don't know, 1992 or something. Something like that.

93, I don't remember. With my mom. I had my mom.

I had special friends with me. And my brother came and he said, I'll take questions. This is 5,000 people.

And my friend that I was with raised her hand and she said, how do you teach small children this stuff? And he goes, you know how he always goes like he doesn't know the answer, you know? And then he said, they won't listen.

They won't listen to what you say. They will copy whatever you do. So the best way to teach them is be a good example.

And that's true in Buddhism also. It doesn't matter what, I'm telling you from 40 years of experience, okay? It doesn't matter what.

You can sit in for 12 years and teach them Lam Rim. They won't do it. They'll do exactly what you do.

Because people learn by example. That's the way it goes. So if you're, whatever your teacher is, you become.

Good example or bad example. People pick up the bad habits of the teacher instantaneously. Then, you know, if they hang around for a long time, they pick up some of the good habits.

So, DGOR GYUR means, then at least the teacher should have more good qualities than the student because whatever they are will rub off on the student. RANG LA DGOR GYUR BA YIN PAS YIN RTEN DANG RGYON RNAMS means the Lama's good qualities and the Lama's problems, their faults, their deficiencies will also rub off on the student. RANG LA DGOR, RANG MED means you.

With DE BA DGO BA DE BA, what do you call it? Infect or permeate. It more means the transmission.

I don't know how to say it. It can mean to infect, like a disease, infectious disease. It will spread to the student or something like that.

Be transmitted. Like the scent of incense. DGOR GYUR BA YIN PAS RANG LAS YON DANG LHAG PA ZHIG You should look for a teacher who has qualities that you don't have.

Which kind of got into Bonny's question the other day, which I've been thinking about. In my case, my personal case, God or whatever sent me a teacher who was strong in the qualities that I'm not strong in. Like, I don't know, personal attention to people in need or something like that.

Like I'm very good at the theory, but to actually go and spend time with a sick person and spend the day with a sick person or something like that, it's not my strength. But my Lama is very strong at that. So I think, try to pick a Lama whose strengths are your weaknesses.

You see what I mean? RANG LAS YON DANG LHAG PA ZHIG DANG Then he clarifies number seven, which was, I'll take some more hot chocolate while you decide. Yeah, DE NYID RTOG PA They have realized suchness.

DE NYID RTOG Now he gets into an interesting thing here, which has always come up with me whenever I've studied this list. There seems to be a duplication of something. What is it?

Yeah, number three, which is wisdom, right? At high peace, seems to be a duplication of number seven, which is they have realized suchness. So Lamas for the last 17 centuries have tried to distinguish between the two.

And I've seen two good explanations in my lifetime. One you will find here, one I have found elsewhere, and I'll teach you both of them. And you choose.

Okay, here we go. DE NYID RTOG PA NI When we say, realize suchness, THUGS BYUNG GI SHES RAB GYIS LTA BA NYES PA STE It refers to wisdom which is accumulated through the process of learning. It's almost an artificial process where they have gone to classes, they heard about the pen countless times, and then they understood it.

THUGS BYUNG GI SHES RAB There are three kinds of wisdom recognized in the Tibetan tradition, Buddhist tradition. THUGS BYUNG GI SHES RAB SAM BYUNG GI SHES RAB SGOM BYUNG GI SHES RAB Say THUGS BYUNG GI SHES RAB SAM BYUNG GI SHES RAB SGOM BYUNG GI SHES RAB THUGS BYUNG GI SHES RAB means the level of understanding you get from sitting in the class. SAM BYUNG GI SHES RAB means the level of understanding you get by thinking about it as you drive home and as you walk around the next day, thinking about it, considering what the teacher said in class the night before.

SGOM BYUNG GI SHES RAB means the level of understanding you get from deep meditation on that same subject. So these are, in Buddhism, there are three levels of education. There are three levels of, what's the fancy word for education?

Christine, pedagogical levels. And two are deeply experiential. So you go to class, you get what we call listening wisdom or studying wisdom.

And then you think about it in your quiet moments constantly. And that's called contemplative wisdom. And then you learn how to do deep meditation.

And then the breakthroughs you make in deep meditation, which Buddhism believes that there are levels of understanding of subjects that you cannot learn unless you are in deep meditation. So Buddhism believes that there are levels of knowledge that cannot be gained by a person who doesn't meditate for half an hour to an hour a day. They will never learn certain things.

Cannot. So those three levels. So he says number seven, quality number seven, here he says, is the level of understanding, say of emptiness that you get by sitting in class, going to class.

,DE'I MTHANG RGYUR BA'I LTA BA DANG, But number seven refers to of the four great schools of India, ancient India, the highest. And inside, what's the highest? Middle way, Majjhima, Majjhimika.

And inside the middle way there are two famous divisions, higher middle way and lower middle way. Lower middle way is called independent school, Sautrantika, nothing to do with Tantrica, it's a different word. And then Prasangika, which are called consequence school.

By the way, if you care, the reason they're called consequence is because they're good at sarcasm. Like somebody says, I saw emptiness yesterday. And they say, well, what did it look like?

And they say, it had sort of a green light. And you say, well, and I guess you see emptiness every time you drive around the streets. You say something, it's a, a Prasangika or a Tengur is a logical, it's one of the forms of logic.

It's one of the standard phrases of formal logic in Tibet, Aristotelian logic. It's called a impossible retort or something like that. Oh, all fruits are red.

Well, so bananas are red, right? So saying bananas are red, right, is a Prasangika. And they use those very effectively.

So they're called that. They also have a different viewpoint of where the logic in logic comes from. And that's, if you want to get fancy, it's the lower Middle Way school believes that logic has logic in it.

And so they're called independent school. They believe there's independent sense to logic. And the higher school says, no, even the logic in logic is coming from you.

And that's a deep thing. That's another subject. Anyway, he says here, quality number seven refers to a lama who has a learned understanding of emptiness.

Of the highest school, of the highest half of the highest school, of the Prasangika. What does that school say about a pen? Because all you ever got fed by me was this one, the highest one.

What do they say about a pen? Is the pen coming from the pen? No.

Why not? Because a dog looks at the same object and salivates, they want to chew on it. That proves that the pen is not coming from the pen.

So it has to be coming from you. Can you take a handkerchief and close your eyes and turn it into a pen? No.

So that proves that there must be some thing in your mind that's forcing you to see it as a pen, whether you want to or not. And that's called mental seeds, karmic seeds. Who planted them there?

You did. How did you plant them there? You facilitated communication between two people last month.

And it didn't have to do with pens. It's just that you, there were two people trying to talk to each other and they were confused and you, what do you call it? Intervened and you helped them work it out.

And therefore you have that right to see a pen today. Got it? That's the highest Buddhist viewpoint there is of emptiness, period.

And there are five lower viewpoints. Okay, you ready? There are five lower viewpoints.

We call them all together the six flavors of emptiness. Five of which are not emptiness. Alright?

So now, what do you guess number three is? Well, he has a different explanation. So that's why I said there are two explanations.

He says, GONG GI SHES RAB means the last one, meaning number three. RANG RGYUD PA MAN CHAD KYI LTA BA The independent group and lower. The lower three schools, the lower three and a half schools.

Their viewpoint of emptiness is what number three refers to. So if a person has a good intellectual understanding of the first five of the six flavors of emptiness that we traditionally teach, then they are qualified as a Lama in the sense of the third qualification. If in addition to that, they know the sixth worldview well, then they qualify as a Lama in the seventh definition also.

Got it? But, if you read other commentaries, which I favor, the third one refers to an intellectual understanding and the seventh one refers to the direct experience. Which is very rare in the world.

LTA BA NYID PA'I SHES RAB LA YANG BYAS PA'I Since it applies that way, MI DOS SO ZLOS Say DOS. The pronunciation isn't DOS. ZLOS is pronounced DOS.

Don't ask me why, just look at the YouTube videos. We have a grant to make 200 YouTube videos. I think we're going to shoot some more this week.

I think there's about 15 up online total. DOS is the pronunciation of Z-L-O-S. The root is DA, like as in Dawa, the moon.

The Chinese character for the moon is, it's two triangles basically, or quadrangles. It's two characters on top of each other. Am I right?

Moon? Moon? No?

[Говорящий 2] (53:03 - 53:05)
I can't see it from here.

[Говорящий 1] (53:12 - 1:27:18)
Oh, okay, cancel that. Anyway, must be some other character. We'll talk later.

So anyway, the word in Tibetan for moon is duplikat, meaning duplicate light, meaning the second light in the sky. So the verb DGOS PA means to duplicate unnecessarily. It's considered RTZOM PA'I GYUN.

RTZOM PA'I GYUN means one of the classical faults in composition of books. You're not allowed to repeat something unnecessarily. Even in a lecture, you're not allowed to repeat information which the students should know already.

It's considered bad teaching. It's considered wasting their time. So in composition, Buddhism is very strict that you shouldn't repeat an element unnecessarily.

And then there's a huge debate about one part of the Heart Sutra. LEGS SO, LEGS SO, SIDDHA, SIDDHA, LEGS SO, LEGS SO. The Buddha in the Heart Sutra doesn't say anything.

It's a conversation between two of his students, although a sutra is defined as a speech of the Buddha. That's another debate. But at the end of the conversation, the Buddha says LEGS SO, LEGS SO, means right, right.

He gives his seal of approval, but he repeats himself. Then there's this huge debate in Buddhist exegesis. Like, why did he repeat himself?

Because that's a classical fault of composition. And of course he had a reason to. Then it's not a fault anymore.

So he says here, don't think Maitreya was committing the compositional fault of unnecessary redundancy because when he says understand emptiness, he means it in two different ways. So it's two different qualities. I would say we should look for a teacher who understands the theory of emptiness and can explain it clearly.

Which is almost non-existent in the world. And then secondly, beyond that, they should have a personal experience of it in deep meditation, which is infinitely more rare. And frankly, very honestly, and I'm not just criticizing, I don't think I've ever heard a really correct explanation of emptiness in a lecture given in the West.

It's just, they haven't had training or they haven't had, I don't know what it is, but a very simple and crucial concept gets very confusing. And I think that's one reason why Diamond Cutter Institute is so popular in Asia, because they're so frustrated by hearing dumb explanations of gong shing, right? And then we come and give a clear one and everyone's like, ah, you know, I understand and that makes sense and I can use it in my life.

So anyway. GZHAN LA means, the rest of them are easy. It means I'm not going to explain them for you.

I mean, should know more than, or what was something that he didn't explain? They should love you. They shouldn't get fed up when you, when they have to teach it again and again, et cetera.

Okay, those are clear. GZHAN LA, okay? We'll stop in a few minutes and take a break.

DE'I THAMS CAD MA TZANGS NA'ANG Now he gets into a very delicate subject, okay? What do you do if you can't find anybody who has all ten? I mean, that comes popped into your head probably already.

You know, what do you do if you can't find a person who has all ten? DE'I THAMS CAD MA TZANGS NA'ANG If you find a person that you think is pretty cool, but they don't have all ten, all right? BSLAB GSUM GYUR LDUL BA DANG At least make sure they have a, soften their heart, tenderize their heart through the practice of the three trainings, which again are morality, meditation, and an understanding of emptiness, okay?

At least they should have softened their hearts through those three trainings. And, there's an and here, okay? SNYING RTZE BA They should have love for people.

This one is more general love for people, SNYING RTZE BA. And, DE NYID RTOG PA They should have had some kind of personal experience of emptiness. So he's short in the list of ten to five, five.

Three trainings, love, and an understanding of emptiness, okay? So that's famous. That's very famous in Buddhism.

If you can't find a tenner, look for a fiver, okay? That's like an expression, okay? If you can't find all ten, at least look for somebody who has the five, okay?

DE NYID RTOG PA SNGAGS BSNGAL PAR BDEN DGOS So SNGAGS BSNGAL PAR BDEN DGOS means don't settle for less. They should have at least those five. They must have at least those five.

SNGAGS BSNGAL PAR means must, okay? Then I'll tell you a little story and then I'll let you have refreshments because anyone can listen to a story even if they're tired, right? PHO RTOG BA So there was a early Lama Geshe called PHO RTOG BA.

He lived a thousand years ago. He was born in 1027, passed away in 1105. His monk's name was Rinchen Tso.

And he used to say something about his teacher, okay? NGES KYI LOB PA'I My teacher, YER PA'I ZHANG TSUN YER PA'I ZHANG TSUN means the Holy One from Yerpa, which is a state in Tibet or an area in Tibet. I worked really hard.

I worked for hours to find his name and I couldn't find anyone. I think they just call him Holy One from Yerpa, okay? He probably has a name.

I haven't found it and I don't know anyone else who's found it. KUN LA MANG DU THOS PA YANG MED He was not well educated in all the classical spiritual scriptures, okay? He was not, okay?

In all of them. MANG DU THOS PA YANG YANG means he's going to make a list of things he didn't have. In Tibet you say, he also wasn't this, he also wasn't that, he wasn't that, okay?

YANG MED KHYO BA TSOS PA YANG MED He also couldn't put up with the students. This TSOS PA means patient, right? With having to repeat things and same old, same old, what do you call it?

Tensions between the students for 15, 20 years. KHYO BA TSOS PA YANG MED PAS LA BO RDON DU BCUG PA RE BYAS PA This is a very, very, very unusual expression and he's going to, it's so rare in Tibetan that he's going to explain it in about two sentences. But I'll just give you the meaning.

It means to express his gratitude for something. Okay? The quality of expressing his gratitude for something.

MED He was not, okay? He didn't have the grace of expressing his gratitude. YANG MED PA MED PAS SNGA MA SNGA YOD PA'I But he did have the five.

The five we just talked about. Okay? He did have those five.

And therefore, MTHUNG NA GZU YOD PA Anyone who came into his presence, PEN Yeah, it helped them. Okay? It helped them a lot.

So was he patient with his students? No. Did he have massive knowledge?

No, of the scriptures. Did he show common etiquette, like gratitude? No.

Did he have those five, you know, the three trainings, love for his students, and understanding of emptiness? Yes. So anyone who came into his presence was helped.

NYIN RTEN LA MA SKAD PA YAS MED YUN ZHES RE BYAS PA YANG Then they talk about an early Kadapa Lama whose name is also, I can't find it anywhere. I don't think anyone's ever found it. His name was Nyen Ten.

Nyen Ten means the teacher from Nyen. It's like saying a Phoenix teacher. And we don't know his name.

But in Tibet, it was much more common to call someone Phoenix teacher their whole life than it is in America. NYIN RTEN LA MA SKAD PA YAS MED If you talk about the quality of being able to teach what you understand, YAS MED means nothing. He's like a genius who can't teach a single other person.

YAS, nothing. YAS means like YES BZHES means entirely nothing. YAS MED YAS BZHES means entire wisdom.

YAS MED PA YUN ZHES RE BYAS PA YANG Even when he was teaching people how to do their water bowls, KUN GYIS DA RES MI KHO YIN YANG PA everyone would think to themselves in their own mind, I don't get what he's... I don't get it yet. He's teaching you how to put water in your water bowls often.

And nobody would say anything, but all the students would be thinking, I hope I get it next time he teaches it. DGONG YANG PA LAS MI SHES TE So they didn't understand what he's talking about. MI SHES here means they couldn't get what he's trying to say.

But SNGAGS PO YOD He had all... Oh, SNGAGS PA, SNGAGS, SNGAGS KHA, SNGAGS PO He had all five. He had the five.

He had these five. YOD PAS Therefore, GSOS NYE BA LA BSTAN means he helped. GSOS means...

What's GSOS mean in Tibetan? Do you know? Who?

It's a question. It's an interrogative pronoun. Who?

GSOS YOD PA means GSOS NYE BA What's NYE BA? NYE BA means close. NYE BA means close.

So BSTAN Anyone who got close to him as a disciple, they learned a lot. But not from what he taught. If you stuck around him, probably the osmosis factor was strong.

But if you depended on what he said, you were out of luck. LA BO RDZIN DU CHAGS PA ZHES GSUNGS PA NI The unusual Tibetan expression above, which is LA BO RDZIN DU CHAGS PA means, DI RIGS DU BSKAM MNYAM Either to say, this is fine. That's all right.

Or to say, DU BYED CHE To express your thanks to somebody. CHE SKAD CHAGS LAG SOGS BSTER BA To express one's gratitude. It's a very rare expression to express one's gratitude.

Why did he use that expression? Why did Pabongka Rinpoche use an expression that no one in the audience understood? He was quoting a Kadampa book.

He was quoting a book from 940 years before. Okay, so. Okay.

I'm going to do one more paragraph just because I'm on a roll. Probably it's the chocolate, I guess. DU LTAR DE LTOS PA YANG KUN DU LTAR My Lama's name was, my Tibetan Lama's name was Geshe Losang Tharchin.

What's Tharchin mean? Gone to the final end. So LTAR means end.

DU like DUNG KHOR, KALA CHAG RA What's the DU mean? Time. So the days of, what do you call it?

These days of degeneration in Buddhism are called DU LTAR. Modern times, 2014, qualifies in Buddhist timekeeping as an age of degeneration. We are at the end of Buddhism in this world.

Buddhism will die out in this world, if it dies out on schedule, within the next five centuries. Meaning nobody will know anything about Buddhism. So Lord Buddha predicted that and told us to expect it.

So Buddhism is much weaker now than it ever was in the world. It was, you know, there was a time when it was the, it was the code of, it was the knowledge followed by half the civilized world. China, India, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, which stretched to Austria and down to Iran and Iraq.

And Afghanistan used to be a Buddhist kingdom. And Indonesia was a Buddhist kingdom. So it has shrunk and it's like nothing.

It's like 1% of what it used to be. So we believe these are the days of, we are nearing the end of Buddhism in the world. Maybe.

DE LTAR BU YANG GONG NA Here in the days of dark, to find someone with the five, even that is KON PO. You know the word KON from Koinshok? Rare, very rare to find a person even with the five.

So what are we doing then? What are we supposed to do then? KON Then he gives three THANs, T-H-A-N, okay?

Comparative. He gives three THANs. What are his three THANs?

Number one, SKYEN YON NYID LA YON DANG SOGS CHE BA ZHIG DANG He or she should have more good qualities than bad qualities, okay? At least, you know, 51% nice person. They should at least have more kindness than meanness.

That's not saying much, but these are hard times. In DUT THA means these are hard times. These are bad times.

You can't find qualified lamas in the world right now. So at least they should have more good qualities than bad. That's the first THAN.

Here comes two more. TSE SDI LAS CI MA TSOGS CHE BA Their vision should extend beyond the current day. Their vision should extend beyond the current day.

Even beyond death. Their vision should not be limited to the 21st century or a single lifetime. They should see things in a bigger, what do you call it, frame of reference.

Their frame of reference should be five centuries, ten centuries, okay? Fifty lifetimes, hundred lifetimes. They shouldn't be so hung up on the next year or the next hundred years.

Their vision should be much larger than people's lifetimes, okay? And third one, BDAG GZHAN NYID LAS GZHAN TSOGS CHE BA If they have a choice between taking care of their own needs or taking care of other needs, they take care of other people's needs. So at the expense of their own health or what do you call it?

Finances and stuff like that. They take care of others first, okay? GZHAN TSOGS CHE BA ZHIG BSTAN DGOS PA You should at least in these times find someone who fulfills the Three Vows, okay?

Got it? The Three Vows. GNAS YIN Now someone can tell you what GNAS is and if they tell me, you can have some refreshments.

GNAS MARMA HATTA in Sanskrit. MARMA, yeah, MARMA. Crucial point, okay?

Where did we learn MARMA HATTA? Yeah, in the study of the inner body. There are special points like chakras where you can make a lot of progress if you learn them.

And they're called, in Sanskrit they're called MARMA HATTA, which literally means to strike the point of mortality. MARMA means mortal. And it's a military term.

Like, where do you stab your opponent to get the biggest bang for your buck? And in the inner body, in yoga, in high yogic practices, it means where do you send your prana in your body to see emptiness? Like, what square inch of your body do you send your prana to in order to have higher spiritual experiences, okay?

It means crucial point. Why did he put it here? That's a crucial point.

These are not the glory days of Buddhism. These are the days of, Buddhism is almost dead. And at least go for somebody like that.

Like, put all your hopes there and nothing less, okay? At least they should have those three attitudes. One word of, more good qualities than bad, okay?

A bigger vision. A vision of bigger than, a vision bigger than a single life or a single era of time. And a vision that extends beyond their personal needs to embrace the needs of everyone else, okay?

All right then. Then you get to embrace some refreshments. Okay, thank you.

We'll start again in 15 minutes. We'll do one more piece, small piece. We have about 20 minutes and then I'll answer some questions if you like.

If you don't have any, we'll keep going. Yeah, DE LTAR MIN PAR means, if you don't do that, meaning if you don't examine the Lama's qualifications, MI DGE BA'I ZHES GNYEN What? No, DGE BA'I ZHES GNYEN is the short, DGE BA'I ZHES GNYEN is the long version of?

DGE ZHES And it means spiritual teacher, spiritual friend. And then he made a joke here. He said, MI DGE ZHES Yeah, a non-spiritual friend, okay?

Like an anti-spiritual friend, okay? MI DGE BA'I ZHES DANG PHRAD NA means if you bump into one, you could end up like SOM MOR PHRAD NA BA'ANG GULI MA LA Who's Angulimala? Well, I'll tell you who's Angulimala.

Yeah, yeah. LOG PA'I ZHES GNYEN GYIS He met a bad spiritual teacher and LAM LOG PAR BSTAN NAS He taught him a wrong path and GDIGS TSABS PO CHE ZAG DGOS BYUNG BA He was forced by that teacher to collect extraordinarily terrible deeds and terrible bad karma. DGOS BYUNG BA LTAR RGYUR BA'I Therefore, and he summarizes, this is a very important sentence, okay?

DANG PO NAS DANG PO NAS is from the beginning. LAS PAR BTAG You must investigate this person carefully. LAS PAR is the same LAS SO, LAS SO, right?

Very well. You should investigate the person's life, what they teach, what their relationships are, how their students behave, who was their teachers, what are they teaching? I got this teaching in India in 1973, 74.

And then I went back to finish, I met His Highness and I said, I want to stay with you. And he said, no, you go back and finish. Did you finish your degree?

And I said, I got six months to go. He says, go home and finish it. Then you can do what you want.

So I'm like, okay. And I went back to Princeton and I had to take one last semester. So I went to the register.

I said, I want to sign up for these courses, but I want to see the biographies of the teachers. And they're like, what? And I said, you know, I want to know about the teachers who are teaching.

Because I got, I was influenced by this argument. I should check them out before I took the course. Are they nice people?

Are there any scandals about them? Are they honest? Do they smile when they...

I said, I want to know everything about these teachers. They said, we don't tell that to the students. I'm like, okay.

So I took the courses anyway. Sorry. So, LHAG PA RTAG means you must check them out.

DGOS PAR MTHONG BA Say DGOS PAR. DGOS PAR DGOS PAR means worthy, deserving. MTHONG NA MTHONG YID NO MTHONG RNAMS SRI NA If you see that they are worthy.

If you see that they are worthy to be your teacher, then LHAG MAR BSTAN Then you can take them as a teacher. But that sentence is crucial to all Buddhist practice. DANG PO NAS From the beginning.

LHAG PA RTAG Investigate their life. Investigate them thoroughly. And then, BSTAN means and then.

DGOS PAR MTHONG NA If you see that they are qualified or worthy, then LHAG MAR BSTAN Then take them as a teacher. But not before. If you make the commitment too early, you might end up like Angulimala.

So conventional wisdom says Angulimala was a young person in the time of Lord Buddha. So two and a half thousand years ago. Then he met a spiritual teacher who was a fake or who didn't know anything.

And that teacher said, if you want to reach nirvana, you must kill a thousand people, cut their fingers off and string them on a garland around your neck. And when you get the thousandth pair of fingers, you will become enlightened. You will reach nirvana.

So he taught him that. And he believed it. He did not...

LHAG PA RTAG Didn't investigate their life. Yeah, yeah. He didn't investigate the Lama's teaching or their life.

And then he got up to 999. Unfortunately, the last one he chose was Lord Buddha to murder. And then that's a long story.

You're supposed to say, tell us a story. Okay. I happen to have looked it up in a sutra.

Okay. Which is called the Angulimaliyam Nama Mahayana Sutra. It's a sutra about Angulimala.

Anguli means finger. Mala means rose. What do you call it?

Garland. His name was Finger Garland. Okay.

I'll just read you the sutra. It's fun, okay? I'm sorry.

This is the way I am. This is why this class is taking so long. YANG SLOB PUN GYIS MED PA His master said to him, the false master said to him, BYIS NAG NYID NGAN PO GYUR MTHO RIGS SURGRO BA'AM THAMS CAD GYUR BA MIN DU DANG Don't you want to go to the higher realms?

Don't you want to be a Brahmin in your next life? YANG SLOB MED PA LEGS SO, LEGS SO Yes, I want to. KHYEN PO DE LTAR RGYI'O ZHIG MED TE Then his Lama said, okay, here's what you have to do.

MI STONG ZAD PAS Kill a thousand people. And then RANG GI SLOB PA'I LENG GOS PA MA BAR BYAS PA DANG And that will show your respect for me. SLOB PA'I GYIS DE STONG NAS LTUNG PA DI DAG RANG RUNG MA ZHIG PA ZHIG NGO TSAR DU GYUR TE ON NO BDAG ZHIG BAR BYA'O NYAMS NAS Then the student said, that's kind of strange to me.

I'd rather die than do that. And then DE SKYES MA SEMS BAR SRED PAR RE RE SO MO Don't say that. Give it a try.

Cut, just cut off, you don't have to bring the whole bodies. Just cut off their fingers, and LONG ZHIG, and bring them here. MI STONG GSOS LA SO MO RNAMS PHRAD BAR BYAS DE'ONG Then come back to me when you have a thousand, I guess it's first finger left or something.

When you have a thousand fingers strung on a garland, then come back to me. DE PHRAM ZE RGYUR RO ZHIG SEMS NAS DE PHYIR SO MO PHRAD BAR ZHIG BYA'O And that's how he got the name Angulimala. YANG SO MO PHRAD BAR DE LEGS SO ZHIG MED NAS So he said, okay, the student, MI NGIS STONG DU GCIG GIS MA TZAM BAR ZAS TOG This is not in the Tibetan versions.

This is from the original Indian version. Much older, a thousand years older. And it says he went out and killed one person short of 2,000 people.

DE PHRAD SO MO PHRAD BAR MA ZAD KYI CHOG DANG SNGA NA ZHIG MTHONG NAS BDAG GIS BUR DI DAG RGYUR PAR DAG ZHIG NA SNYOM MONGS LUS STONG YAMS TE DBANG PA DANG SO MO PHRAD BAR RANG GI MA DBANG PA MTHONG NAS So then he was one short and he saw his mother walking down the street. MA DBANG PA MTHONG NAS DAG GIS MA MTHO RIGS SU BRAL BAR BYA'O NYAMS TE If I kill her, my teacher also said that the people I kill will go to heaven. NYAMS TE REL TIS MTHONG NAS DBANG SO So he got his knife ready.

DE NAS DE'I TSE CHUNG NAS You don't hear this in the Tibetan versions. This is pretty weird, terrible. Don't cut out that part and quote me.

DE NAS DE'I TSE CHUNG NAS DE'I KHYAD YOD DANG DU BSKYEN PA'I The Buddha, of course, knows all time and all places. Therefore, NYEN DU YOD PA NYEN DU YOD PA means NYEN YOD means Shravasti, which is a city in northern India where he taught the Diamond Cutter Sutra. And I went there on the Millennium.

I was teaching in Bodhgaya and I was going to His Holiness's teaching. The clock was going to hit 2000. Everybody thought the world might end.

So I said, if the world's going to end, that night I want to be sitting in Shravasti. So I went there and I stayed in a monastery. On midnight I was sitting where the Buddha taught that Diamond Cutter Sutra.

And I thought, well, if the world ends, I'll be in the right place. So anyway, it's a beautiful place. Anyway, long story.

YOD PA NAS SNGAGS PA'I BSGOM GZUGS SDOM GZHIBS CHUB MA TZANG BA'I PAR DU ZHING AA ZHOGS KYI DRUNG NA THAMS CAD KHYEN PA'I YOD ZHIG THAMS CAD DANG BRTAN PA STE So the Lord Buddha went and sat in the forest where he knew he would find him. RGYAL PO BZHIN DU SDU NA ZHUGS PAR GYUR RO DE NAS SANGS PA'I PHYIR BA NA CHOMS CAD DE STONG NAS Then Angulimala caught sight of Lord Buddha. RGYAL PO BZHIN DU SDU NA ZHUGS PAR GYUR RO Oh, I'll kill this monk called Gautama.

NYAMS TE REL THI THOGS NAS RGYAL PO RGYAL PO'ANG SO So he ran to catch up with... The Buddha was walking and he ran to get up close to him and stab him in the back. DE NAS BYAMS NAS DU YOD ZHIG THAMS CAD DANG BRTAN PA'I RTAG NYID ZHIG PA LTAR PAR BRTAN PA DANG Then the Buddha was just ambling along and the other guy was racing at full speed and he couldn't get close to him.

This happens a lot in scripture. SEMS PA'I PHYIR MA'I MA LA BDUN GYI STAS TE NYID KYIS PAR DU GCIGS SU BYAS TE DAG MAR SO Then he's also looking at his mother but he's thinking about the Buddha. ZHUGS GZHIGS DGE SBYONG GYUR ZHUGS GZHIGS He's calling to Lord Buddha, take a break, take a break.

ZAS SANGS RGYAS PO ZHUGS SU GSOL It's a long poetry. ZHUGS GZHIGS DGE SBYONG GYUR ZHUGS GZHIGS It's poetry. Rest though, monk, please take a rest.

ZAS SANGS RGYAS PO ZHUGS GSOL Oh son of ZAS SANGS, which is Buddha's father's name, take a break, just relax. BDAG NI SONG MA BYUNG BA NAS My name is Angulimala. SONG MA ZHOGS GANG BDAG TSUL GCIGS Could I just have one of your fingers?

ZHUGS GZHIGS He goes like that and that goes on for a terribly long time. In the end he couldn't catch up with Lord Buddha. He was running at full speed and Lord Buddha is just kind of shuffling along.

And then finally he got tired and he asked Lord Buddha, who are you? What are you teaching people? And then he taught him and he became an arhat in this life.

He reached nirvana in that life. So it's a very famous example of two things. What's the first thing?

The dangers of listening to a teacher, of doing anything a teacher asks you to do without thinking about it. Any teacher, me too, any teacher, Dalai Lama, any teacher. Don't do anything they say without thinking about it.

If it doesn't make sense, don't do it. And that's just a basic Buddhist principle. In the end, you decide what's moral and you decide if something doesn't sound right.

And that's a requirement in Buddhism. The disciple has to use their wisdom, viveka, right? This is right, this is wrong.

And if a teacher asks you to do something you consider wrong, in Buddhism you are required to respectfully decline. And that's fine. That's the right thing to do.

Oftentimes they will test you to see if you're smart enough to say no. So knowing that we could be tested at any time, any of us, me too, by my teacher, we have to decline if we think something's improper. That's a Buddhist principle.

And that's the basis of all chung gye. What's chung gye? Chung gye means how do you know when your teacher is testing you and how do you know when they're not testing you?

And Je Tsongkapa made that distinction a whole science. He wrote a major textbook about it when he was, I think, 50. He wrote a major textbook about how do you know when to listen and how do you know when to decline.

And it's often considered his most important work. And I'm teaching it in China. It's very interesting.

Anyway, we're filming, I think. We have to get permission, right, Jingmei? To use the film?

So we did five days' worth and I'll share the film with you. I'll share the video with you, okay? If they say okay.

We should ask God, okay? With the other questions we have, Jingmei? Let's do one more and forget the questions and do the questions tomorrow, okay?

Is that all right? Because we're at a very nice place. Oh yeah, you tell me.

It's an example of, it's an example of, what? Yeah, any mistake you make can be purified. Anything, okay?

Buddhism has a mechanism by which any previous mistake you ever made in your life can be purified. And there's a system for that. And you can do it.

Anything, any terrible thing. You killed somebody. You stole money from your mother.

You did anything. You can clean anything. So if you don't know it and you still have stuff on your conscience, before that karma ripens, you should talk to one of the people here who's been around for a while and ask them to go through it with you and clean out their karma, okay?

[Говорящий 2] (1:27:19 - 1:27:39)
Yes. I don't know. You start off by saying that this is a negative state for a teacher in his life and you look at it in a way that because he didn't have his teacher and he didn't call the student to talk to him, he didn't need to do it.

He was able to do it.

[Говорящий 1] (1:27:40 - 1:38:07)
Yeah, I don't know what we call that. What's the word in English? Wrong idea.

What do you call that? Fallacy. It's a fallacy.

I'll tell you why. In the highest school of Buddhism, the whole idea that you have to experience something bad that turns around and you learn something out of it and then you get enlightened or something like that is considered unnecessary because of the diamond deal thing. You could just as well collected the karma to meet the Buddha on the first day and become an arhat next week.

You see what I mean? The idea, is it true that in Buddhism we are encouraged to turn mistakes into advantage, to our advantage? Yes.

Are we encouraged to turn bad situations into... Are we encouraged to look at the good side of things and say, if I hadn't met my ex-wife, I wouldn't know yoga now or something like that. You know what I mean?

But wouldn't it have been better to meet a nice person that you're still with and you're doing yoga together? You see what I mean? It's an important practice to know how to get the best out of a bad situation.

But the goal of Buddhism is that there is no such bad situation to be transformed in the first place. Okay, last thing. LO MA YANG You tell me.

Yeah, and now the student. I like it. What's he going to say?

Yeah, here's a list for the student, okay? I like it. I gave you the ten qualities of a teacher and the five and the three if you're desperate.

But let's give you five qualities of a good student. And I'll start them tonight. Let's talk about them tomorrow.

Number one. RANG CHOG LA CHAGS PA DANG GZHAN CHOG LA DANG BAS CHOG GZHAN MED CING GZUR MED PA They should have an open mind and they should not be mired in their prejudices or their preconceptions. They should have an open mind.

They should be open to what the teacher is saying even if it's new for them. Even if it's totally different from what they learned before. To tell you the truth, if you are not completely happy and successful now, you should be open to something radically different.

That's why I like going to Ukraine or Spain. I just signed a contract for the Greek Diamond Cutter about five minutes, ten minutes ago. I like going to those desperate countries.

Why? They're open for something new. They got a problem.

The people on the Ukrainian newspaper sounded very frightened. It was very sad. These are normal friends of ours that we used to hang out with.

They are very frightened. They don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Who could get killed tomorrow?

They're very frightened. You just keep... What do you say?

They're open to new ideas. The worse things get, the more open you are. They have the first quality of a good disciple.

They're willing to take a shot at a totally new system. That's number one. Number two, LAS SNYADS BYAS PA'I SHES RAB They are not the kind of person who will just agree to whatever the teacher says.

In Buddhism, we seek disciples who are stubborn, bullheaded, question all the time, challenge you. I remember... What's her name in Toronto?

Shadi? Shade? Yeah, yeah.

I taught in Toronto. There's this black lady in Toronto and she attacked me bitterly during the class. I was like, whoa.

But they were good questions. They were really good questions. She became one of the closest students of Lama Maru.

She moved to serve him. She's a great teacher now in Vancouver and we like that kind of student. Questioning, challenging, not satisfied.

They have... Here it says they have the wisdom to discerning wisdom. They can say, that doesn't make sense.

Or, you taught this yesterday but now you're teaching this. I don't understand. They are...

They don't take things on faith. They question you. But when you give a logical answer, they follow it.

I should add that. They have the capacity to judge that an answer is logical. Number three.

DON GNYEN CHEN PO CHEN They have great hopes in their life. Great hopes. Oftentimes the students I like the best have a vision.

Almost all of them have some kind of vision where they think they will serve the whole world. They think that at some point they will serve the whole world. And that they could somehow be involved in a belief system that would help the whole world.

Most of my students are like that. And I like that. It's very satisfying for me to be around people like that.

They have a big, what do you call it? Vision of how they would like to help people. Number, what?

Four. They have the capacity to show great respect and affection for a Lama once they commit and choose one. Once they decide that this person is qualified, and once they commit to a Lama, they have a tremendous capacity for devotion.

I've seen that also. The ones who are... There's two kinds of devotion.

One is, I don't know, anyway, let's not get into it. Sincere devotion to a teacher. That's a great quality.

That's a beautiful quality. I have it and I love it. It's one of my favorite things in my life, is to be devoted to my teacher.

Okay. Last one. YID LAS PAR TE DE NYAN PA They listen well.

They pay attention. YID LAS PAR means they pay attention. And NYAN PA, they listen well.

Sometimes you explain something in class and then, I don't know, an hour later you want to talk about it and they're like, I don't remember. Or they were texting when you were teaching them. They have a capacity to absorb stuff.

The Chinese gentleman who's coming to teach in April, I was teaching them Tsongkapa. He's like a sponge. It's like so cool.

He remembers everything. Everything I say, he can say back to me the next day. And it's just like, I'm so like, it's so cool to teach somebody like that.

He's just super attentive and absorbs everything right away. And listens well. Good listener.

And it's hard because it's a lot of new ideas. It's in a foreign language. And you got to get into this meditative state where you're just like, I don't know, channeling or something?

You're just like, okay, feed me. Like those baby birds. First of all, they have to flap.

And then they go, wah, wah. And you got to be like that. Like you're totally open and your mouth's open and the llama's jamming stuff in there.

And you got to be like them. They're insatiable. Again, I go, then they act like they didn't get anything.

All of our llamas used to say, be satisfied with every part of your life. Like never want more things than come to you naturally. Except in dharma.

And with dharma you should be greedy, son of a bitch. I want more. I want more.

We only got four hours today, Geshe-la. We want more. You should be unfillable?

Something like that. Insatiable. Never be satisfied with the dharma.

Keep complaining that there's not enough classes. Okay. That's the traditional list for students.

And I think you could build up a whole educational system based on those five. I think you could really train. We're thinking to start a training school for DCI teachers and I think that's not a bad place to start, of being the five things that people should learn or five attitudes about learning that people should have.

And then look over those frequently. It's one thing to... You often hear people say, the teacher let me down or I thought they were better than that.

I had big hopes for them. But you also have to watch your own qualifications. Did I listen?

Was I open-minded? Did I show affection and respect? Like that.

So check those things too. Check the teacher out and check yourself out. Okay.

Todd, you ready?

[Говорящий 2] (1:38:31 - 1:39:18)
GAU KUN NAM THA SHING LA CHE PA SHOK YIDAM GURU RADHAMADANAYATAYAMI DE YIN GYEN PO KUN SANG NAM YOD SHES SOGS SOGS SHING SANG NAM YOD SHES LAS CHUNG BA'I DANG PA KUN NYID DOR PA'I SHOG Okay, cool. Thank you. Thank you for working hard.

I know you're tired. It's cool.

[Говорящий 1] (1:39:19 - 1:39:19)
It's really cool.