«Дар освобождения», курс 26 «Реальность кармы», занятие 5

[Speaker 1]
All right, then I did an art book, a Tibetan art book. It took me 15 years. It's that big red Tsongkapa book.

I think some of you know.

[Speaker 2]
It's the great book by Tsongkapa, which some of you know.

[Speaker 1]
Then I told you, there's this place in Indonesia. It's very similar to that mountain. It's about the same size, across the lake, and it's all carved into Buddhist paintings.

And I found the story of the Wheel of Life, how it was painted, in the mountain. So, they need money. They need a lot of money because that volcano covered part of the mountain.

So, I told them, they are interesting. They are all Muslim people. They are government people.

And I said, I'll do an art book, and I'll give it to you, and you can sell it to make money for cleaning your mountain. Then they said, can you do it in three months? That was about six years ago.

Anyway, then I contacted them again recently, and I said, okay, I'm almost ready to start. I would like to make a book about the Wheel of Life. So, we arranged to have two days of teaching at that mountain, and I will explain the Wheel of Life at the mountain, from the mountain.

Then I started to get together all my notes for the Wheel of Life book. Today it reached 1400 pages, the notes. You know Sugeng, right?

He's like, can you finish the book by August? Because I think he sold it already. I don't know.

Then I said, you know, maybe I'll give you part of it. Then I found many, many, many beautiful texts about the Wheel of Life. I'm not finished reading them.

One of them I read in the car and at Susana's house. It's awesome. Then there's one amazing presentation of the Wheel of Life in a tantric text.

Vajrayana text. Then it's very beautiful and it's short enough for one class. So I thought, if the coffee doesn't work, I drink chai on top of the coffee.

I should give some to Nick. Just kidding. Anyway, don't worry.

So I thought you would enjoy, because we are talking about doing Vajrayana here next year. And because I want to say a little bit about Vajrayana, just introduction. It's a perfect text for introduction to Vajrayana.

So I thought I would do it with you guys. And I didn't finish translating it, and I didn't finish figuring it all out.

[Speaker 2]
So this is a work in progress.

[Speaker 1]
I think it's connected to the Guhyasamaja Tantra, which was Tsongkapa's, one of his favorite tantras. And I think it's a commentary to a book by Chandrakirti, a tantric book by Chandrakirti. And I think Chandrakirti's text is a commentary to a tantric text by Nangarjuna.

[Speaker 2]
But I haven't confirmed all that yet.

[Speaker 1]
So let's read some of it together, and it will give me a chance to give a short introduction to Vajrayana. Because you guys have worked so hard on your ACI classes for so many years. So I'm just going to read straight through the text, okay?

[Speaker 2]
So I'm just going to read straight through the text.

[Speaker 1]
DE'ER BCOM LDAN DE GYI RTEN CING BRAL BA'I YAN LA BCU GNYIS PA'I TSE NI SRID PA'I KHOR LO GSUM PA DI LTA STE I was curious to see if the twelve links are called the Wheel of Life in ancient times.

[Speaker 2]
I was curious to know if the twelve links of the Wheel of Life, they were what for instance?

[Speaker 1]
Did they call the twelve links the Wheel of Life in ancient times? Like Buddha taught the painting, but did he call it the Wheel of Life? And I found three new stories about how he painted it, and I told one of them to you last time I think.

One of the stories of the painting of the Wheel of Life is in the middle of a long story about women's rights in Buddhism. So I think it's going to be, that story will be very interesting for modern people because a woman, the Buddha paints the Wheel of Life for a woman, and she becomes an Arya because of the painting.

[Speaker 2]
And I think that story is very interesting for contemporary people because the Buddha made that painting especially for a woman who became an Arya.

[Speaker 1]
And she had been involved in a controversy about women getting equal teaching from Buddha. And the story has a happy ending, okay? The women all get equal teaching and she sees emptiness directly.

So here's the explanation in a tantric text about the Wheel of Life. So can you project it you guys? I like this one.

So I taught the Wheel of Life many years ago in Texas because Texas is so similar to the Wheel of Life. Just kidding! So it was about a hundred people.

And I wanted to give them all a painting, a real painting of the Wheel of Life. But I couldn't afford it. So I found there's a children's Buddhist painting school in Nepal.

And there's like, I don't know, fifty children who are learning to paint thangka. So I hired them to paint one hundred Wheel of Life. And this is one of them.

Not too bad. The pregnant woman looks like a rock and roll star or something, but no.

[Speaker 2]
It's okay.

[Speaker 1]
So anyway, we will follow this one. By the way, the author of this commentary is called Bhavya Kirti.

[Speaker 2]
Bhavya Kirti.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, then first he lists the twelve links of the Wheel of Life. I can't quite see everything from here, but number one is misunderstanding. Especially misunderstanding yourself.

And then the second link is a guy making pots. It means if you misunderstand the world, you will make fresh karma. Fresh karma.

Fresh karma. Like when you first plant a seed in the ground.

[Speaker 2]
Fresh bad or fresh good.

[Speaker 1]
Like when you plant a seed in the ground, there's the first hour after you plant the seed. That's this link number two. It's called sanskara.

Then later, after, you know, like I planted watermelons six weeks ago. And I'm expecting them in October.

[Speaker 2]
So, when you plant the seed, it's in April or something, that's link number two. When the seed is ready to open, that's link number ten.

[Speaker 1]
We'll talk about it.

[Speaker 2]
So, link number two is fresh karma.

[Speaker 1]
You know, the same day you yelled at your mother when you were sixteen.

[Speaker 2]
And then ripe karma, number ten, is twenty years later something happens to you.

[Speaker 1]
The third link is called consciousness. It's a monkey. And this represents the mind coming into the mother's womb.

The fourth link is called name and form. And there's two guys in a boat. One of them is name, and one of them is form.

And roughly, these are the mind and body inside the mother's womb. So, form is the fetus's body. Name is the different parts of the mind of the fetus.

[Speaker 2]
And the name represents the different parts of the mind of the fetus.

[Speaker 1]
Then the next one, fifth link, is called SKYE MCHED. SKYE MCHED means the sense organs like the eye and the ear and the nose that you use to contact the outside world.

[Speaker 2]
Then they painted it as a building with windows.

[Speaker 1]
And at this point in the mother's womb, the windows of the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body, they are developing inside the mom. Then step number six, called contact. This is a very popular part of the painting because a man and a woman are having sex.

But it doesn't have anything to do with sex. It just means, in the same way that the man touches the woman, your eye makes contact with the outside world. So the baby came out of the womb, and there's first contact with the eye and the outside world, like a man meeting a woman.

Then the things that the eye and the ear and the nose can contact are three kinds. Pleasant things, unpleasant things, and in between. And because of...

by the way, each link, we say it triggers the next one, like boom, boom, boom, boom, like that.

[Speaker 2]
So you make contact with the outside world. Your eye contacts the outside world.

[Speaker 1]
Then let's say something nice. Your eye contacts a cappuccino. Then the next link triggers the next link.

[Speaker 2]
And the next link triggers immediately. Link number seven. It's a guy with an arrow in his eye.

[Speaker 1]
Link number seven is feeling.

[Speaker 2]
So you have your first feelings.

[Speaker 1]
This feels good, this feels bad, this feels medium. Then when you have feelings, immediately you start to say, I want that, I want that, I want that. And that's the eighth link.

Next one. And it's a guy enjoying a nice dinner on Friday night. And that's called beginning of desire.

Desire begin.

[Speaker 2]
Then the desire gets stronger in the next link.

[Speaker 1]
And there's a monkey reaching for fruit. Then you start to try to get things in your life. You try to get things that make you happy.

[Speaker 2]
That getting, like this, it's based on misunderstanding. Why?

[Speaker 1]
Give me a better answer. Yeah, instead of giving, you are taking. So this is a very basic thing.

[Speaker 2]
That misunderstanding of that monkey that is taking, of wanting to take, to get, it's based on that instead of giving, what you should do is give, but instead of doing that, you take.

[Speaker 1]
You decide to reach out like this monkey and take the things you want. Money, woman, food, job, family, house. You decide, I'm going to get them.

It's okay to have those things.

[Speaker 2]
You should have those things. But turn your hand over.

[Speaker 1]
Give something to somebody.

[Speaker 2]
So this one is link number nine. Hand is down, I will take.

[Speaker 1]
Now you're going to learn the four steps of karma. It's okay to have a house and a family and a wife and kids and money. It's okay.

[Speaker 2]
But turn the hand over. Give something.

[Speaker 1]
It will come. The other things will come. But the wheel of life is a wheel of trouble.

Life in the wheel of life means wheel of suffering life.

[Speaker 2]
Life in the wheel of life is a life of suffering. It's a life of problems. If you're in that, you're in trouble.

[Speaker 1]
A person who sees emptiness directly, they damage the first link.

[Speaker 2]
And then the whole machine breaks down. The whole machine stops.

[Speaker 1]
Seiji is going to talk about that.

[Speaker 2]
But here, number nine.

[Speaker 1]
What's number ten?

[Speaker 2]
I told you already.

[Speaker 1]
Ripe karma.

[Speaker 2]
Ripe karma.

[Speaker 1]
You planted the sandhya seed in April.

[Speaker 2]
That's link number two.

[Speaker 1]
Then later, it's ready to open. Like two months later, it's ready to open.

[Speaker 2]
Or how much? One week? Two weeks?

About two weeks I guess.

[Speaker 1]
The water gets on the seed. Then the seed is thinking about it. Then they say, okay, I'll open.

Just before it opens, it's the pregnant woman. It's link number ten.

[Speaker 2]
Next link, Tim.

[Speaker 1]
What?

[Speaker 2]
If you put water on a sandhya seed, or especially biochar, the seed will open. Then the plant will start to come out.

[Speaker 1]
That seed we call ripe seed. Like a woman, nine months, nine days, she's ready.

[Speaker 2]
When I came last year, first day I went to Alejandro's house, I saw Imelda.

[Speaker 1]
At that time, Nicholas was inside.

[Speaker 2]
I hugged Imelda. Then she's like, oh my god, I have to go to hospital. Then she had the baby.

[Speaker 1]
It was very cool. Right?

[Speaker 2]
It was true, yeah, exactly like that.

[Speaker 1]
Anyway, I just did the easy part. This is Imelda on that day. The seed is ready.

What made the seed ready to open? What's the water?

[Speaker 2]
On a bad seed, on a bad seed. This one. This one.

The monkey. Yeah. This is the water for the bad seed when it's just about to open.

[Speaker 1]
I will take the things I want.

[Speaker 2]
Then a Buddhist who got the Lam Rim teaching about karma, if they want money, turn the head over, give somebody, help somebody, give money.

[Speaker 1]
If you grab, you are what's that thing where you turn a switch on a bomb and you make it ready to blow up?

[Speaker 2]
Detonator.

[Speaker 1]
Arming. You are arming. You are arming the bomb.

[Speaker 2]
Then the bomb will go off and that will make the bomb explode. Next link, number 11.

[Speaker 1]
Come on Tim. Yeah. You are reborn.

You go into a new life. The picture is a woman having a baby. That's called rebirth.

[Speaker 2]
Then starting one minute later, starting one minute after you are conceived inside your mother, you start to get old. It's like the moment of conception is like lighting a candle. Then you are on the clock and the candle starts to burn down.

How long you have, we don't know.

[Speaker 1]
Janice and her daughter Katie and Adam left, I think Santiago gave them a ride. At three o'clock they left today. Because the son of her niece went to a birthday party yesterday.

[Speaker 2]
He's six years old. They were playing and he ran out the door and a car crushed him immediately.

[Speaker 1]
They went to help the mother. How big is your candle? We don't know.

Okay, so that's birth and then this is link number twelve.

[Speaker 2]
It's called GASHI. Say GASHI.

[Speaker 1]
GASHI means aging and death. Aging and death. There's a debate in Buddhism why Buddha didn't make thirteen links.

Why did he put aging and death in the same link?

[Speaker 2]
Because aging is optional. Some people die in the womb. Some people don't have time to get old.

[Speaker 1]
So every link happens to everybody. He joined it into link number twelve. Which is death.

Now, we're inside a tantric text. It's different than the normal Wheel of Life presentation.

[Speaker 2]
You tell me just by thinking about it, how many of those twelve links are all about misunderstanding the world?

[Speaker 1]
No, I mean mainly. How's mainly? Okay.

Which ones are misunderstanding? Yeah, Jen Jen's got the first one. She got the easy one.

Number one, blind man is misunderstanding.

[Speaker 2]
Nine. Who said nine? Yeah, God bless you.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, why?

[Speaker 2]
What's happening in number nine?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, you are grabbing.

[Speaker 2]
We call strong desire. The name of number nine, the monkey taking the fruit, the monkey's not giving a fruit, right? He's taking it.

[Speaker 1]
Then there's one more. Okay, I'll give you a clue. Number eight.

Because the desire is beginning.

[Speaker 2]
Number eight.

[Speaker 1]
I want to have a car.

[Speaker 2]
I want to have a house.

[Speaker 1]
That's not a bad motivation. That's not wrong. But if you think I will compete in the business world, I will win.

I will take the money. I will buy a house. Now, two of the ten links, twelve links, two of the twelve links are also considered negative emotions.

[Speaker 2]
Which ones? That's easy.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, now that's interesting. That's an interesting debate. Eight and nine.

Again, eight and nine. Eight and nine. Why not number one?

Number one is not really a negative emotion. It's just a wrong way of seeing life. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
In number one, you think the way I can get money is to compete with other people.

[Speaker 1]
I will have better marketing, I will have better product, I will have better blah blah blah, and I will beat the other people and I will get the money. It's a wrong way of looking at life.

[Speaker 2]
How do you get money? Well, you can say giving, but I think it's better to say help other people make money.

[Speaker 1]
You see? So he says number one is the root of negative emotions, but it's not a negative emotion itself. Now, different explanation of misunderstanding in this tantric text.

[Speaker 2]
What is the root of all negative emotions? Number one. Yeah, the blind man.

[Speaker 1]
Then he explains it in four traditional steps.

[Speaker 2]
What does ignorance mean? What does misunderstanding mean?

[Speaker 1]
You look at things which are impermanent and you think they are permanent. You know, if I could buy a house then I would have some what do you call substantial lasting thing. But, you know, many people lose their house the week after they buy it.

I'll tell you a nice story about houses, okay? So, we had this project to teach the refugees to save the ancient books. We are doing this for 31 years.

Sometimes we have money, sometimes we don't. But we never stopped. Then, I guess it was around I don't remember exactly, I think it was around 1995.

[Speaker 2]
We didn't have enough money.

[Speaker 1]
Actually, I owed almost a hundred thousand dollars to the refugees. They kept working without any pay for like six months.

[Speaker 2]
Then I did a smart thing. At that moment, when we were in the biggest debt, I gave the project to John Brady.

[Speaker 1]
Then I said, goodbye, you take care. At that time he was a very wealthy businessman in New York. And he had a very beautiful apartment, penthouse, the best one, on Central Park.

[Speaker 2]
Then he sold it and he gave the money to ACIP and he became homeless. Then recently, when he got married, a sponsor said, you guys need a house.

[Speaker 1]
He bought them a nice big house in Sedona. Okay, understand? So, how to get a house?

[Speaker 2]
You know.

[Speaker 1]
Sedona much better than New York, right?

[Speaker 2]
He upgraded.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so, to believe the house will last forever is the first kind of misunderstanding, ignorance. Then the second kind in the tantric text, traditional presentation, to think that mitsangwa is tsangwa, to think that something which is disgusting is wonderful.

[Speaker 2]
The other kind of confusion is to think that something unpleasant is something pleasant.

[Speaker 1]
You know, people meet a man or a woman. Oh, I've been waiting for her my whole life. She's perfect.

[Speaker 2]
Her hair is perfect. Her nose is perfect.

[Speaker 1]
Everything under her nose is perfect. And then they start a relationship. It's only based on sex, okay?

Even though they don't know that.

[Speaker 2]
Then slowly something happens.

[Speaker 1]
The boy discovers what's inside of a woman's body. Poo-poo, pee-pee, menstruation, all kinds of things are coming out. And the woman also like, wow, I didn't know this coming out of a man.

[Speaker 2]
And the thing which looks so beautiful in the movies, it's mortal.

[Speaker 1]
It gets sick. It gets old. If you don't wash it for three days, it's not very nice to be with the thing.

[Speaker 2]
So nice.

[Speaker 1]
That's why you need love in a relationship. You need real love. Real love doesn't care if the other person is beautiful or if the other person is sick or if the other person is young or the other person is old.

[Speaker 2]
Old.

[Speaker 1]
Wrinkle. So anyway, to think that this bag of poo-poo is something very beautiful. Yeah, I mean in the beginning, I was there the day that Alejandro watched Imelda have a baby.

[Speaker 2]
I wasn't there. I just heard about it.

[Speaker 1]
I saw him like one hour later. He's like, Geshe-la, all this Buddhist stuff is true. It's all true.

He saw the inside of a human, right? Anyway, so that's the second kind of ignorance, the second kind of misunderstanding. Things which are not clean, you think they are clean.

That's the second kind of blind man, link number one.

[Speaker 2]
The third one is pleasure. Pleasant.

[Speaker 1]
People think, oh if I had a bigger house, that I would be happy.

[Speaker 2]
If you get a chance to get a bigger house, don't do it. More cleaning. More things break every day.

You become servant of the house.

[Speaker 1]
You are not using the house, the house is using you. And things like that. when someone has a birthday, we bake them a big cake with lots of sugar, and milk, and fat.

We give them, for their birthday, the thing which will kill them the fastest. Cholesterol. It's funny.

[Speaker 2]
So anyway, to think that these things are pleasure, they are suffering.

[Speaker 1]
A birthday cake is suffering.

[Speaker 2]
Many things are like that. I want a lot of money.

[Speaker 1]
It's a lot of trouble. I don't mean you don't need money, you need money.

[Speaker 2]
But I advise you, don't get too much.

[Speaker 1]
Get enough to use, and if you get more, then help poor people. So that's the third kind of blind man. It thinks that things which are suffering are nice.

Fourth kind of misunderstanding. The pen is coming from the pen.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, that's the main one, right? It causes the other three.

[Speaker 1]
We call it DAG. It means the pen is itself. Aldo is Aldo.

Pao is Pao.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, this idea coming this way is the fourth kind of misunderstanding, and the deepest one.

[Speaker 1]
So this is like a mantra in early Buddhism.

[Speaker 2]
Say DAG DE TZANG DAG DAG DE TZANG DAG Things last. Things are pleasant. Things are clean.

Things are themselves.

[Speaker 1]
Very famous, like a mantra. This is the function of ignorance. This is Marigbha.

DI MUG CHEN PO'I MUNG PA'I TZIN GNYIS YIN PAS PHYIR To have these four thoughts is to live your whole life in darkness. DE DANG LHAN PHYIR BCOS PA NI SRID PA DANG DGA' BA DANG CHAGS PA PHYIR PA GANG GIS SRID PA'I RLONGS SPYOD NAM LA dukpa kyewa-o.

[Speaker 2]
And if you have these four, you will want things, which is okay, but because you misunderstand them, your hand will go like this, instead of like this, okay?

[Speaker 1]
DE DAG SRID PA SNGA MA MA RIG PA DANG SRID PA BDAG GIS MTHO BA RIG TU GYI SRID PA'I KHO LO MA LUS PA'I RTZA BA YIN NO This is the root of all the wheel of life. Then he quotes a famous sutra.

[Speaker 2]
BDAG GYUR PA NI GZHAN GYI DUS SHES TE If you think you are yourself, means if you think that things in your life come from taking, if you think a pen is a pen, then the thought starts to come, me and others. The idea of me and you comes from misunderstanding. And if I had a good churro, I could show you.

Me and Stanley could show you.

[Speaker 1]
So maybe the second wheel of life class, you have to get me a little bit long churro.

[Speaker 2]
But here's the Buddha talking. Because you don't understand the pen, you start to divide me and you. And then you get...

Then that triggers CHAGS DANG. Say CHAGS DANG. You like some people and you dislike other people.

[Speaker 1]
Then that connection, oh I don't like this one, I like this one. KHYOD NAM THAMS CAD RAB TU SKYE BAR GYUR Then all the problems in your life come from that.

[Speaker 2]
You don't understand the pen, that causes you to divide the world into me and you.

[Speaker 1]
Then automatically you start to work harder for me than you work hard for you.

[Speaker 2]
And that kind of prejudice, I'm more important than you, causes all the suffering in your life.

[Speaker 1]
LEN PA YANG DE DAG BSGYAS PA'I RTZER NI PHUNG PO SO SOR LEN PA'O And then you get up to what he calls the eighth link, which was what? Do you remember the picture? Yeah, the guy having the party.

That's the beginning of the desire to have a body like this.

[Speaker 2]
So this body is a time bomb.

[Speaker 1]
It will break. Actually, this body is a mistake.

[Speaker 2]
We weren't supposed to have a body like this. If your channels are open, you will have an angel's body. It cannot be destroyed.

[Speaker 1]
Always happy.

[Speaker 2]
Always beautiful. Never changes.

[Speaker 1]
Can visit a million planets at the same time to help a million people at the same time. Then he says, let's talk more about ... By the way, you're waiting for it to get tantric.

Don't worry, it's coming.

[Speaker 2]
Geshe-la, so far it just sounds like all the other times you explain the Wheel of Life. I know, it's true.

[Speaker 1]
But the sexy part is coming, okay? DE LA GDU BYED NI GNYIS TE I don't know, do you want to go deeper or do you want to just stay?

[Speaker 2]
It takes longer, it's okay.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so we might not get to the sexy part until the next class, is that okay?

[Speaker 2]
It's okay.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, you get to have some dry Abhidharma from Stanley's text. Because it's inside this text, okay? I'm not adding it.

DE LA GDU BYED NI So he's going to discuss the second link.

[Speaker 2]
What's the second link? Fresh Karma.

[Speaker 1]
I will kiss you but your girlfriend is there and you have a beard.

[Speaker 2]
Fresh Karma, he says two kinds.

[Speaker 1]
What's the Sanskrit for fresh karma?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, sanskara. Sanskara.

[Speaker 1]
It means like a trigger.

[Speaker 2]
Sanskara means like a trigger. Triggers come in two kinds. Some are mental and some are not mental.

[Speaker 1]
First one, mental triggers.

[Speaker 2]
Three kinds. First one, good karma, good seeds.

[Speaker 1]
Kind state of mind, a state of mind which is kind towards other people. Second one is also mental.

[Speaker 2]
The state of mind which is unkind towards other people.

[Speaker 1]
And then the third one is, we call neutral karma. Okay, so when you talk about good karma, bad karma, it must be with regard to one person, and I'll explain. So this is a real Indian tea.

We were in India. My assistant is Allison.

[Speaker 2]
In China.

[Speaker 1]
Then she said, Gisela, I'm going to stay in India an extra day. I said, why? She said, I want to go study how to make Indian tea.

She spent an extra day with the hotel staff to learn how to make a real Indian tea. I tried for 40 years to make an Indian tea.

[Speaker 2]
I can't do it. Okay, so I enjoy Indian tea. So for me, it's a result of good karma.

If I enjoy it, it's a result of good karma.

[Speaker 1]
Now, I know many people here are vegan. They don't want to drink milk. If they drink this, their nose will run for three days.

Or they get nervous if they drink this.

[Speaker 2]
So for them, the same glass of liquid is a result of what kind of karma? Bad karma.

[Speaker 1]
So one thing, same thing, it can be a result of good karma and a result of bad karma. It depends on the person.

[Speaker 2]
The definition of right and wrong in Buddhism is different. What's a right thing to do to other people? What's a wrong thing to do to other people?

Wrong thing means if I do it to this other person, and something I don't like comes back to me, that's the definition of bad karma.

[Speaker 1]
It's very interesting. Right and wrong in Buddhism is different. They are not decided by the church.

They are not decided by the government.

[Speaker 2]
They are not decided by Buddha. If you do it to somebody, and something bad happens to you, that's called wrong. That's wrong.

What's right?

[Speaker 1]
What's right?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, if you do it to somebody, and something you enjoy comes back, this is right. And by the way, every time you treat someone else the way you want to be treated, something nice happens to you.

[Speaker 1]
And every time you treat someone else not the way you want to be treated, something bad happens to you.

[Speaker 2]
So if somebody came to this world and defined right and wrong as treat others as you would have them treat you, that guy would be a really good Buddhist. Okay, got it? Who is that guy?

[Speaker 1]
Never mind. Okay, now that's the kind of, what do we call, sanskara, which is part of your mind. I'm going to hurt somebody.

I'm going to help somebody. Like that. Then the neutral, neutral karma.

How do you feel about this second line here? How do you guys feel about it? I mean, up until now, before I said anything.

I'm not talking about the whole painting. I'm talking about the second line here. How many people fell in love with this line so far?

How many people got pissed off when they look at this line?

[Speaker 2]
Then that's what we call neutral karma.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, you didn't hurt somebody.

[Speaker 2]
You didn't help somebody. You were just sitting here waiting for class to start. That's called neutral karma.

Most karma is neutral. It creates all the neutral things in your life.

[Speaker 1]
How do you feel about this pattern on the mat? For every good karma or bad karma, you have many, many neutral karmas.

[Speaker 2]
For every good karma or bad karma, there are many more neutral karmas. Now there's a discussion. You want to go deeper?

You sure? You look pretty bored. Neutral karma has two types.

[Speaker 1]
And this gets into the question that we had from Ronit yesterday. I'm going to check the translators. We have, how many translators here?

Adam had to go today. Just two, right? Oh, and Stanley and Allison, we got four.

We have two backup translators, six. We discussed this question in the translation class. I know it was a long time ago, two weeks ago.

I checked, usually the translators remember something for about 10 minutes. Sometimes I try to motivate them with cash.

[Speaker 2]
Sometimes I try to motivate them with cash. I say, I have $100.

[Speaker 1]
I have a $100 bill.

[Speaker 2]
This is serious, okay?

[Speaker 1]
If it's in there, I don't know. Okay. Alright, I got a $100 bill.

[Speaker 2]
$100 bill says that nobody in this room from the translator class By the way, when they fail, I never get $100.

[Speaker 1]
I just don't lose $100. When I was teaching you the two kinds of neutral karma, I did a lot of hard work and I found you a good example of the two kinds of neutral karma. And $100 says you can't tell me in two minutes what that was.

[Speaker 2]
Two weeks ago, two weeks ago. I think I'm safe, man.

[Speaker 1]
Seiji, is it in there somewhere? He didn't come to all the classes.

[Speaker 2]
He helps to run the college. Stanley, you're young, you can remember this. Looks like it's safe.

Looks like it's safe.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, put it back. I'll give you a clue, okay? Just to stir your old age mind.

[Speaker 2]
It has to do with Ronit's question yesterday.

[Speaker 1]
No, you can't guess. Forget it. You got it?

Did it fall out of that ancient head? No. Go back to your box.

Come on! What was your question about? Yeah, dullness.

Come on!

[Speaker 2]
No, no, you'll never guess.

[Speaker 1]
The guy was discussing two kinds of dullness in the mind.

[Speaker 2]
Remember? Whose text was that?

[Speaker 1]
Whose text was that? You don't even remember who he was texting with. Anyway, there's two mental functions.

[Speaker 2]
There's 51 Buddhist mental functions.

[Speaker 1]
Two are relevant to getting sleepy in meditation.

[Speaker 2]
Two are relevant to explain why you feel lethargic during meditation.

[Speaker 1]
One of them blocks you. It's neutral, but it blocks you. And one of them is neutral, but it doesn't block you.

Does it help? No. It's okay.

Anyway, it's a very subtle thing.

[Speaker 2]
When you feel sleepy in meditation, there's two kinds, right? One is called darkness, and one is called sleepiness.

[Speaker 1]
Guess which one is neutral karma, but it blocks you, and one of them is neutral karma, but it doesn't block you. Can you guess? Yeah, I believe darkness blocks you, and dullness or sleepiness, it's neutral, but it doesn't block you.

[Speaker 2]
Why?

[Speaker 1]
Sorry. Yeah, okay, it's very subtle. Two kinds of...

Yeah, darkness means the quality of your attention gets degraded.

[Speaker 2]
That's karmically neutral.

[Speaker 1]
That's karmically neutral, and I believe it's the one that blocks you.

[Speaker 2]
And then getting sleepy, it's possible during a sleepy state of mind to have some nice thoughts also.

[Speaker 1]
Like if you ever went out with your girlfriend, and you're still making out around two o'clock in the morning, you're sleepy, but you're still having fun.

[Speaker 2]
So during meditation, which is not super sharp, you can have some progress.

[Speaker 1]
During meditation where you're just totally blocked out, the mind is like... the attention is very, very poor. You can't make any progress.

They are both neutral. But as a result of your past karma, they are neutral. Results of karma are neutral.

So it's not going to... It doesn't have any ethical... What do you call it?

It's not charged ethically. That's a difficult translation. It's not evil or good.

Anyway, I'm going to stop all that, because you're getting more and more confused. But I'm happy because I saved a hundred dollars.

[Speaker 2]
Now, second link name, sanskara.

[Speaker 1]
There's another famous sanskara in the Buddhist teachings. Can... I'll give...

No, I'm not going to give anything. You should know. Yeah, close.

There are five parts to a person.

[Speaker 2]
Your body, your feelings, your ability to discriminate, your awareness.

[Speaker 1]
Here it's called all the other stuff.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, so in Buddhism, we don't say body and mind. We say body, and the four parts of the mind.

[Speaker 1]
Anybody tell me why they got separated? You better stop going deeper. Yeah, two of them cause all the trouble in the world.

[Speaker 2]
I feel good.

[Speaker 1]
I feel good. I want that. Okay, so Buddha divided...

He didn't say body and mind.

[Speaker 2]
He said body and the parts of mind. So there's main mind. There's body.

Feeling. Discrimination.

[Speaker 1]
This one is also called sanskara.

[Speaker 2]
Number four is also called sanskara. Okay, all the other stuff. The other 49 parts of Nick's mind are also, in Buddhism, they're also called sanskara.

[Speaker 1]
Why are we talking about that? Yeah, we said the name of the second link, sanskara, pot maker, fresh karma.

[Speaker 2]
There's the mental one. That's the one that makes karma. That's the pot maker.

I want to help you.

[Speaker 1]
I want to hurt you. This is fresh karma.

[Speaker 2]
But there's a body and a mind. There's a bunch of other parts of the mind. They're also called sanskara, but they're not fresh karma.

[Speaker 1]
You want to go deeper?

[Speaker 2]
We have five minutes.

[Speaker 1]
You sure? I'll give you some of the other sanskaras.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, ready?

[Speaker 1]
You don't have to write it down. I mean, just listen, okay?

[Speaker 2]
Thinking.

[Speaker 1]
Aspiration.

[Speaker 2]
Intelligence. Memory. Attention.

Concentration. Faith.

[Speaker 1]
Conscience. Like, I shouldn't do this, or I should do this. You don't have a conscience.

Cheap mind? You don't want to share.

[Speaker 2]
Anger. Effort. Neutral states of mind.

[Speaker 1]
Non-violence, ahimsa.

[Speaker 2]
Like those, there are 51. These are sanskara, but they are not karma.

[Speaker 1]
They are causes that live within a human mind, but they are not karma. And then there's a list from Stanley's text of more sanskaras, which is more confusing, so let's skip that one. Let's just skip that one, okay?

We got to get to the tantric part. Let's see here. He goes through some mind only stuff in the middle of a tantric text.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Then he starts a discussion. When you teach the Wheel of Life, you always teach it in two ways. You got the whole wheel, Tim?

Yeah, how does the wheel start from 1 and up to 12? It goes like this, right? Chain reaction.

It can take, by the way, it can stop in 12 seconds. There's a way to explain that this whole wheel, it's supposed to take three lifetimes. One time around takes three lifetimes.

[Speaker 2]
But there's a way to explain it in 12 seconds.

[Speaker 1]
So when you teach the wheel, traditionally you say one causes two, two causes three, three causes four.

[Speaker 2]
But when you teach how to shut it down, stop 1, number 2 will stop.

[Speaker 1]
Stop 2, number 3 will stop. Stop 3, number 4 will stop. Stop 4, number 5 will stop.

[Speaker 2]
Stop misunderstanding the pen. Understand the pen is coming from you. Then you will stop making karma.

[Speaker 1]
Then if you want money, you will give money. Now, time for the sexy part. We have one minute left.

[Speaker 2]
So maybe we have to do most of it next class.

[Speaker 1]
But I'll give you the preview that makes you come back to the movie theater.

[Speaker 2]
In the open teachings, the not secret teachings, misunderstanding means you think the pen is coming this way.

[Speaker 1]
And you don't understand the pen is coming this way.

[Speaker 2]
The essence of Vajrayana, I know there was naked people in the dream, but it has nothing to do with that, okay? I'm sorry.

[Speaker 1]
It's not part of the higher teaching, okay?

[Speaker 2]
The whole higher teaching, all of Vajrayana, and it will take you seven years to learn it. It just takes seven years to learn it. It just has two parts.

Part number one, try to make contact with angels.

[Speaker 1]
And there are methods in Vajrayana, how to make contact with them. You can't do it with Google. It's a spiritual practice.

But the first 50% of Tantra is how do I make contact with angels? Real contact with real angels. I'm not talking about real angels.

I'm talking like some metaphor. I'm not talking about that.

[Speaker 2]
Second part of Tantra, after you make contact with them, they teach you how to become an angel yourself. Okay, that's all.

[Speaker 1]
Everything else you heard, the word Tantra has many, many bad meanings in the world. This is just some bad karma, okay? You don't have to kill chickens and drink chicken blood.

We're not going to have sex in this room with everybody. It's just plain old Buddhism. More projects to help your community is the path to Tantra.

And if you don't learn Tantra, it's not possible to become a Buddha in one lifetime.

[Speaker 2]
It's not possible. Okay, now, last, Mr. Last Thing, link number one, in Tantra, in this text, what he's going to explain next, misunderstanding, ignorance that causes all human suffering, is not to believe in angels.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, and we'll talk about it. That's the higher meaning of link number one.

[Speaker 2]
Cool.

[Speaker 1]
Sexy? Sexy?

[Speaker 2]
Super sexy.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, we'll stop there. You have to come back if you want the rest.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, all right, here we go.