«Дар освобождения», курс 36 «Любовь во времена вируса», занятие 10

[Speaker 2]
Hi, welcome back to the Lam Rim.

[Speaker 1]
I'd like to start right off with this photograph you see here of a lady and she's rushing to work in her car. And she's looking at her watch and that's exactly how I looked, I don't know, half an hour ago. I live about 45 minutes away from the college here.

I rush and get into my car. I'm late. Tim and Seiji, I got to think, they get irritated at me.

And I'm rushing and I jump in the car. I'm like, okay, if I just push it, I can make it. I start the car and I'm racing down the road and I get about halfway here and I realize I forgot my computer.

I can't do the video. I'll have to go back to my house and then it's just, forget it. Tim's going to give me that pleasant smile and says, you're unbelievably late.

That's how you feel stupid when you rush and then you get in your car and you go someplace and then you realize you forgot something important. And then the whole rushing is useless and you got to go back and get what you forgot and then come back again. So the theme today is called rushing to work or doing things twice.

In English, in American English, we call it double work. So having to do double work. What's that mean, double work?

Well, let's read this. We're going to read a little poem. It's by a great master named Arya Shura.

I got to think he lived around the time of his book was translated into Chinese. We know the date. So 434 A.D. It was translated to Chinese. He must be, I guess he's around the time of Nagarjuna, maybe almost 2,000 years ago. And he wrote this poem. This poem is from a short book on the perfection of wisdom.

A short book about the pen. And it says, ,'JIG RTEN DUS GRUB TSUL LA THU MED PAS, ,THEG PA GNYIS PO BSTAN DU SPANG BYAS ZHING, ,THUB RGYAL THEG PA SNYING RJES BSTAN PA LA, ,GZHAN PHAN ROL GCIG RANG BZHIN, ,DE DANG GRUB ,'JIG RTEN DUS GRUB TSUL LA THU MED PAS ,'JIG RTEN DUS GRUB ,'JIG RTEN DUS GRUB is a very beautiful expression. DUS GRUB by itself.

Okay, for $50.

[Speaker 2]
Sanskrit.

[Speaker 1]
DUS GRUB 40 30 20 10 Siddhartha Yeah, Siddhartha. It means to achieve the goal. So,'JIG RTEN DUS GRUB The name of the Buddha when he was a prince is Siddhartha.

And it means to do what you have to do for other people. So,'JIG RTEN means for other people. So,'JIG RTEN DUS GRUB means TSUL means this special system where you have in mind all these beings that you saw one by one.

Countless beings that you saw one by one. You're thinking about them and then you're thinking about how to take care of them. there are some people LA THU MED PAS They get distracted by THEG PA NYID PO The idea that there's two different ways to approach your spiritual life.

It might be the case that if you've been sitting through this Lam Rim for years then you're kind of getting used to the idea that there are two basically two separate tracks. We say three but the lower two are together. You can think I could go for the big one.

I could try to reach bodhichitta. I could try to have this experience that Geshe-la has been talking about. He keeps talking about it.

I don't know why he keeps talking about it but he seems to think that such a thing is possible. So, I could go that high way and I could try to do something that would help every single being in the universe. I'd have to be taking it on faith.

I'd have to be thinking it is possible to meet everybody in the universe and it is possible to promise each of them one by one that I will work for you. I'd have to take it on faith from Geshe-la and these great books. That's one way you could go.

Or you could say, that sounds great. That certainly sounds amazing but let me just start where I am. Let me do my morning meditations and let me try to be patient with my husband in the kitchen.

Let me start where people start. Maybe I'll try to get to that other thing later. I'll try to get to that other thing later where you try to see all the beings in the universe.

It sounds a little bit over the top right now. To choose, even to choose understanding the husband and understanding the pen over trying to have this experience where you see every living being in the universe, it's called wasted effort or double effort in English. It means you're going to have to come back later and do it anyway.

You see what I mean? It's like taking off fast from your house and your car and then you have to turn around and go back to pick up something you forgot because you took off too fast. What he's saying here is THU MED PA'I THEG PA GNYIS PO If you think about it, all the paths, all the approaches you can think of other than trying to see every living being and do things for them are actually THU MED PA'I.

THU MED PA'I means fruitless. They won't get you anywhere. You're going to have to go back and start over again anyway.

It's a very powerful criticism. He's almost criticizing seeing emptiness directly. We're going to get into that kind of a feeling here.

It's dangerous territory. Isn't seeing emptiness directly the greatest thing you can do? Why is he talking about in a way like how could that be pointless?

THU MED PA GNYIS PO BSTAN DU SPANG BYAS SHING He says give up this idea that you have an option to start with lower meditations or lower goals. You have to start from the top. You have to start from trying to trigger this experience of every living being because if you do it that way then you won't have to go back and start over again.

You won't have to go back to your house and get the thing you forgot and come back again. You're wasting time. SPANG BYAS Give up this idea that you have an option.

Of course you have to see emptiness directly. Of course you have to understand the pen. But now that we've reached the higher capacity person section we can say for the first time in ten years that it's a very high priority to have this experience, this direct experience of helping or speaking to every living being.

You can imagine if you've had that experience your whole life has changed. Your whole life changes. Nothing is the same anymore.

All of your priorities, all of your hopes, dreams, all of your activities, everything is completely different from other people. So it's important to try to have this experience. We're going to talk about it a lot for the rest of this retreat.

THEG PA SNYING PO THEG PA SNYING PO BYAS BSTAN PA LA THUB RGYAL THEG PA SNYING BYAS BSTAN PA LA GZHAN PHAN ROL GCIG RANG BZHIN DE DANG BCUG Give up this idea that you should focus on anything else. THUB RGYAL THEG PA SNYING BYAS BSTAN PA LA Concentrate on the one way, THEG PA that the Buddha taught that's based on SNYING BYAS taking care of other people, trying to repeat that experience that we keep talking about that you could meet every living being that there is. That would be a unique experience in your life.

That few minutes, that 15-20 minutes, half hour, that would define your whole life. All of your life would change. All of your priorities would change.

You'd be on the way to true happiness and the purpose of why you were born. GZHAN PHAN ROL GCIG RANG BZHIN DE DANG BCUG Jump into the ocean of the single song and it means GZHAN PHAN. GZHAN PHAN means taking care of other people.

Working for the good of countless living beings that you have met directly, one by one. Wouldn't that be great in our retreat if one or two people or ten people had this experience? Wouldn't that be something if some people actually met all the beings in the universe during a half hour or something?

Wouldn't that be beautiful? All right. BYAS DANG I went and checked the quotation and it's correct.

There's nothing new to say about it. Then he quotes Geshe Potowa who's one of the early Kadampa Geshes from almost exactly a thousand years ago. He says, and these Kadampa guys, they were first generation.

They're kind of like the hippies who first went to India in my generation. They started out pretty strange people, like really weird people in their country. They were kind of the crazy hippies who went to India and brought back these ideas.

I kind of feel drawn to them and I feel proud of them. But they didn't grow up in monasteries. They were people who had courage to work in a different way than their whole culture up to that time.

They were Tibetans who wanted to learn these things. They were the first generation. I think we all kind of count as first generation.

To me, it's very, very exciting. I almost prefer that we didn't grow up in a Buddhist country. We are learning it because we have courage and we want to learn it.

I almost prefer that. He said, Geshe Potowa said, by the way, Geshe in those days was not a monastery degree. Geshe just meant, in those days, it meant a Kadampa teacher, a Kadampa master.

Mostly they were lay people and they were family people. RAB RGYAL GCIG LA MDZAD BYANG NYID MIN DANG PO NYID NAS DE CHEN LAM SBYUG He said, look, in Tibet, there are countless streams. If you go anywhere, you're going to have to cross these streams.

It's a big thing in Tibet. It's like brushing your teeth in America or something. You're going to be doing it many times every day.

You're going to be riding a horse through the shallow part of a stream because Tibet, the Himalayan mountains, are where all the great rivers of Asia start. The Yangtze, the Mekong, the Ganges, all the great rivers of Asia start in Tibet. You're always crossing little streams that become great rivers.

He says, don't be a dumb and cross the stream at the wrong place. You're going to have to cross it again in ten minutes because there's a circle, there's a curve or something. Look, be smart.

Watch your map. Don't have to cross the same stream twice. What that means is go straight for that experience of meeting every living being and then that's it, you're done.

You don't have to go back to it. It's not like you forgot something at home and you have to turn around and drive back. You can be more efficient.

DANG PO NYID NAS THEG CHEN RNAMS SBYUG From the very beginning you should get into this mahyana. Mahyana means exactly that. You have this experience of meeting every living being.

Mahyana is not a system. Mahyana is not a group of books. Mahyana is meeting every living being directly and making a commitment to them.

By the way, if you're interested, his poetry is very unusual. It's an even number of syllables. It's eight syllables.

Usually it's ... Here it's It feels strange in Tibetan. It feels unique.

You don't want to have to cross the same river twice and pull up your clothes twice. That's what it says. People in Tibet wore mostly robes.

Even lay people wore big heavy coats. It'd be silly to have to pull up your pants twice to cross the same river. Okay.

BYUNG BA LTAR GYUR LA DER MA ZAD DGRA BCOM PA DE DAG ZHI DE YIN NA NYON PA ZHUGS PA NA DE BA'I NYAMS SANGS RGYIS MI KHYAB PA YOD PAS Then he jumps topic. By the way, if you ever learned Tibetan, this book is unbelievable. This book is extraordinary.

This book is surely the greatest Tibetan book ever written in Tibetan. That was all by Chijang Rinpoche, my teacher's teacher, who wrote the book, who wrote the teaching down. Then you have to think that he spent years of his life making it perfect.

The spelling is perfect. The sentences are perfect. The meaning is perfect.

I have never found a mistake in the content of this book. DER MA ZAD DGRA BCOM PA DE DAG ZHI DE So he jumps. Suddenly he jumps.

Why? He says arhats, let's talk about arhats. Let's talk about people who reach nirvana.

ZHI DE YIN LA NYON PA ZHUGS They are, and by the way, he's talking about lower lower arhats, people who've reached a lower nirvana. If you've reached a higher nirvana, that's already Buddhahood, so there's not much reason to talk about it. Here he says arhats who managed to reach nirvana, so lower nirvana, they just cut all their negative emotions.

They are capable of sitting here on this couch for a million years in some kind of pure, clean happiness. Without any kind of trouble or doubts or problems. DE DAG ZHI DE YIN ZHI DE YIN means the realm of peace and happiness.

They can sit there for a million years. DE BA'I NYAMS SANGS RGYUD MI KHYAB PA SANGS RGYUD MI KHYAB PA means unbelievable. It's hard for us to imagine the pleasure of being a lower arhat.

It's not like some kind of drugged out dumb meditation or something. It's bright. It's aware.

It's perfect. It's with a total understanding of emptiness. They lived there for millions of years in that state.

Let's go to the next paragraph. DE LA'I LAM YIN DANG NYAMS NAS DE LA'I KHYAB PA MANG PO'I BAR NYAMS PAR BZHAG Then of course they think to themselves, well, I think I'll just hang out here. No reason to get up now.

LA'I LAM YIN DANG NAS They don't want to get back up. They just sit there. DE DANG NAS KHYAB PA MANG PO'I For many millions of years.

NYAMS PAR BZHAG in meditation. DE YON RING THUNG NYAL BA NA GNAS PA RGA ZHIG Now very interesting comparison. You got to keep in mind their comparison.

Over here there's a person who reached nirvana. Over here's a person who reached nirvana and they're hanging out in this beautiful personal space. And over here is a person who went to the hell.

They went to the hell realms and they spent a long, long time there. They burned off that negative karma. In the hell realms they burnt off that negative karma.

And then they rose back up to the human realm. So they dropped to the hell realms. They spent tens of thousands of years there.

Then DANG SBYOR THOB They got back a human life of leisure and fortune. They came back to a human life of leisure and fortune. All the necessities of a human life.

THOB CING THEG CHEN GYI LAM LA ZHUGS And they found a Mahayana teacher and that teacher taught them how to have that experience of countless living beings. And they got SANG RGYAL THUB PA They got enlightened. They actually worked hard and got enlightened.

TZAM DU SDOD So on the one hand here's this guy who reached a personal nirvana and he's hanging out there. And on the other hand here's this guy who was bad in this life. And he dropped to the hell realms.

And he spent hundreds of thousands of years there. And he fought his way back up to human life. And in that human life he entered the Mahayana and he became a bodhisattva.

Which is better? And which is faster?

[Speaker 2]
Which takes less time? Which is more efficient? No, going to hell.

[Speaker 1]
It's more efficient. It's really weird. It's a very weird, extremely weird statement.

I'll say it again. Here's a guy. Let's say he did the lion's dance correctly and he got to a place of personal nirvana.

He's hanging out there for millions of years but he cannot become a Buddha. He's just an arhat. It's just personal happy space.

Here's this other guy. He hurt people. He killed people.

He shot people. He went to the hell realms. He worked it off.

He fought his way back up to human life. He studied, studied, studied and he became a Buddha. Which would you rather be?

And Pabongka says, the second one. It's very cool. It's a very strange thing.

Go to hell. I guess he means it literally. All right.

SANGS RGYAS KYI DGOS PA THOB PA LA KYANG SHIN TU CHE BA'I NA THEG CHEN RING CHEN THEG MED GYI NAM DU ZHUGS TE DRA BCOM THOB PA LAS So people in the know, people who really understand the way things are, they do their best to stay out of a personal nirvana. They don't try to go there because it's so delicious. You're going to spend millions of years there.

And then you're still going to have to cross the river again. You're still going to have to go back and pick up bodhichitta and come back again. THEG MED GYI NAM DU ZHUGS TE DRA BCOM THOB PA LAS THEG CHEN GYI CHOS THOS NAS BAG CHAGS BZHAG Better than that, we should go to a teaching.

We should hear about this experience of promising to help every living being. We should plant that seed in our mind. Then we should get a very serious wrong view, destroy all the good karma we have, get born in the hells, fight our way back to human life.

And then in that life that seed opens from lifetimes ago where I heard a Mahayana teaching. I heard somebody say you could meet every living being. And then that old seed ripens after thousands of years in the hell.

SANG RGYAL BA MYUR That would be faster. SANG RGYAL BA MYUR MYUR BA That would be faster. DE'I SANG BA And so that would be better.

That would be a better route to take to the hell realms than to sit in a personal nirvana and waste more time. And that's kind of an extraordinary statement. Okay.

I got a picture here. I enjoy looking up these pictures. I got my credit card bill the other day.

Apparently I'm enjoying it too much. I'm not complaining. I'm just saying.

I was like, what the heck? Why is it so high? And then I realized it was all these lamrim pictures.

So anyway. You got this picture of a man showing that this guy... Okay, now listen.

What's going on here? You think it's just a plain old picture but it's not. This is a very deep Buddhist picture.

It took me many... I had to go to ACIP, dig around in the ancient books and I found this picture. Just kidding.

This lady asked the guy, how do I get to Rimrock, Arizona? The guy said to her, well, I can tell you it's highway 17 but it's blocked up. They had an accident.

It's going to take you a long time to get there. You should take the long way around because you'll get there faster. There's a traffic accident and I'm telling you the road you want is faster, usually.

But tonight there was an accident. I suggest you take the detour and she says, no, I don't want to. I don't trust you.

Just tell me where's highway 17. I don't believe you that it's slower. I'm not going to take this detour that you're talking about.

[Speaker 2]
Then, if he's a Buddha, he says, oh, okay, okay.

[Speaker 1]
I suggested highway 17 was blocked up tonight and I suggested you take the long way around because it would be faster tonight but you don't trust me. You want to take highway 17. Go take this exit and you'll be on highway 17.

Everything will be good. Okay?

[Speaker 2]
But he's lying. He lies to her. Got it?

[Speaker 1]
Very funny. This is what we're going to be talking about. I'll say it again.

Highway 17 is the best way to get to Rimrock from Phoenix. This lady is asking this man, how do I get to highway 17? This man knows that highway 17 is slower tonight.

He tells her, don't take highway 17. I'll show you a slower route. No, I don't want a slower route.

He says, listen, it is a slower route but you're going to get there faster because tonight highway 17 is blocked. She says, I don't trust you. Just tell me where's highway 17.

He says, take this exit. But he's telling her to take the exit for the long way because he loves her. He wants to help her.

Got it? It's kind of funny. It's a funny example but it's perfect.

Trust me. Here we go. Here's the text.

SPRAS NA, NGON YAN DU'I GSUNGS KYIS THEG MED GYI PHYIR BSTAN PA BSTAN NA, SGRONG BYUNG PA THOB GYI DGE SLONG DU SPRUL LA BYAMS PA'I YANG GI NGON DU PHEBS TE THEG CHEN GYI PHYIR BSTAN PAS In days gone by, there was a I don't know, a lower arhat named Kashapa. There's many Kashapas. THEG MED GYI PHYIR BSTAN NA He was teaching lower way, Hinayana.

BSTAN PA THOB GYI DGE SLONG DU SPRUL There were 60 guys who were about to attain nirvana on a lower track. 60 people were about to attain nirvana on a lower track because this great Hinayana teacher was teaching them how to do it. They were just about to hit it.

Then, because they were just about to hit lower nirvana, Manjushri emanated there. The Buddha of Wisdom emanated there. He purposely taught them this idea of meeting all living beings directly and having a conversation with them and telling them I'll take care of you.

PHYIR BSTAN PAS LOR MA SPYOD It didn't fit them. Now, get this. Here's a Buddha.

Here's an enlightened being who can read a person's mind and he gives them the wrong teaching, purposely. He teaches them Mahayana. These guys are about to reach Hinayana nirvana.

Manjushri breaks in and teaches them higher way. What happens? LOR MA SPYOD PAR LOG LTA BYAS What's LOG LTA?

For $50? Yeah, $50 for him. Remind me.

These guys said to Manjushri, you're an asshole. We're about to achieve nirvana. He's talking crazy.

We got to meet every living being. Go to hell. LOG LTA BYAS Now, it's kind of weird because Manjushri knew they're going to say that and he still said what he said.

[Speaker 2]
Why? It's the guy showing the lady where to go.

[Speaker 1]
He wants them to go to hell because it'll be faster. It's amazing. It's incredible.

He says something that he knows doesn't fit them because he wants them to disrespect the Buddha and instead of going to a lower nirvana, they will go to hell but with a seed in their mind for having heard about the Mahayana. Cool. It's really weird.

This is really weird. Following this kind of behavior could be dangerous. If we don't see the future, I think we should be careful with this kind of approach.

Okay. THEG CHEN GYI CHOS BSTAN PA'I LOR MA CHOD PAS LOG LTA BYAS TE NYAL BAR BSKYED They went to hell. SEMS KYI STON PA LA ZHUGS PA NA Then that Hinayana teacher Kasyapa got upset and went to the Buddha to issue a complaint about Manjushri.

He said, I was kidding. 60 people were ready to reach nirvana. This guy comes up, pisses them off.

They get mad at him. They break their meditation. They go to the hell realms.

Is this guy your student? Shakyamuni says, yeah, that's my student. BYAMS PA'I YANG GIS THABS KAS What's THABS KAS for $50?

THABS KAS Manjushri is just doing THABS KAS. Yeah. So now I owe him $100.

Shakyamuni says to Kasyapa, which is not the Buddha Kasyapa, that's another Kasyapa. He says, listen, Manjushri is trying to get him to go to hell. Then the guy says, what?

He says, yeah, it's called, what do we call that? There's a new word for it. Unexpected strategy.

What did you call it, Seiji, in your business talk?

[Speaker 2]
Disruptive strategy.

[Speaker 1]
Disruptive strategy. Disruptive... Disruptive innovation, perfect.

Disruptive innovation. Oh, Manjushri is just doing disruptive innovation. What do you mean disruptive innovation?

He wants them to go to hell because it would be faster than crossing the stream twice. Very interesting. Very interesting.

By the way, lam rim, lam rim. We're about to reach a section where Pabongka Rinpoche says, look, people say lam rim is for kids, but lam rim is straight tantra for sure. All right.

RNAM ZHIG THAR RNAM ZHAG SKABS SANGS RGYAS GYI GUS TE THEG CHEN LA BRTZON NANG SNGAR ZHIG DE ROL NA NYAM PAR BSHAGS PA LA GOMS CHE BA'I So, NYAN RANG BDAG CHEN PO RNAMS There are lower arhats in nirvana. RNAM ZHAG SKABS Okay. They go into these deep states of personal nirvana and there's a famous thing I taught you in the ACI courses.

What happens at that point? Yeah, you've been there for like a million years and you get a tap on the shoulder. So Buddha arranges a tap.

Buddha says, Hey, you're not done yet, get up. You still got to go. Okay, go back across the stream again.

Turn around, go back home, get the thing you forgot. He wakes them up. Somebody should write a play about it or something.

There should be some guy meditating and some guy comes up and puts french fries in front of his nose and he says, get up! Okay. KHUL TE DE CHEN LA BRTZON NA Then Buddha got them to enter the Mahayana but SNGAR ZHI DE ROLA NYON PAR BSHAGS PA LA GOMS CHE BA'I They will still have propensities, karmic propensities in their mind for this kind of spaced out nirvana and those are dangerous.

So Buddha didn't choose, Manjushri didn't choose to let them reach nirvana and then go wake them up halfway through because then they would still have bad seeds in their mind and they would still be attracted to that lower nirvana. So he sent them to hell. It's very interesting.

KHUL TE CHEN LA BRTZON NA SNGAR ZHI DE ROLA NYON PAR BSHAGS PA LA GOMS CHE BA'I SEMS BSKYED SO RGYUD LA BSKYED PAR MI BRTZON And then they wouldn't be attracted to having this meeting with all living beings. Or BRTZON KYANG RANG SDUG BSNGAL LAS GRU BA'I SNYING RJE SOGS BSKYED DKA' These guys who are sitting in a personal nirvana it's hard for them to get SNYING RJE, karuna. It's compassion.

DKA' BSKYED DKA' It's hard for them. They can't empathize with normal people. You can't think of how hard their lives are.

Their life is too pleasant. The best bodhisattva is one who has a lot of personal problems. And then they can be a really good bodhisattva.

If you're taking this retreat and you have a lot of personal problems and you think, oh, I'm not a very good Buddhist or I couldn't help other people very much. Right here, the Buddha says, you're perfect for a bodhisattva. People who've had a lot of trouble in their life.

People who have failed over and over. You are the best people to teach the bodhisattva teachings because you've been there. And the job of a bodhisattva is to love other people who are in trouble.

You can't really love them if you don't know that trouble. All of you who are taking this retreat and you've been not such a perfect person in your life, you are perfect candidates for a bodhisattva.

[Speaker 2]
We'll talk more about it in the next episode. Thank you.