«Дар освобождения», курс 37 «Лучшее, что ты можешь сделать со своей жизнью», занятие 9

[Говорящий 1]
Hi, good morning and welcome back to the Lam Rim. I don't know, us people at Diamond Mountain are feeling really happy. I don't know why.

I don't know. Just being here. We worked very hard yesterday to talk about how we could get ready for having you guys come here, maybe in October, late October, if the virus goes well.

I think it might be possible. I hope so. Get your vaccinations.

We are in Chandrakirti, Master Chandrakirti. We took a trip to Master Chandrakirti. Does anybody know why we took a trip to Master Chandrakirti?

[Говорящий 2]
Where is the moon spelled?

[Говорящий 1]
Chandrakirti.

[Говорящий 2]
What was the Chinese? I don't know. Versus Diamond Mountain?

[Говорящий 1]
I bow down to the... Which moon? To the crescent moon and not to the full moon.

That's why we got off on Master Chandrakirti. Mr. Famous as the moon in the sky. Well known as the moon in the sky.

There was this comment that Buddhas... What was the example of the station wagon? Come on.

[Говорящий 2]
That listeners in South Asia, they take the train everyday.

[Говорящий 1]
No, but what's the...

[Говорящий 2]
The example is that when you have bodhichitta, the Buddhas will drive your train.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, when you have bodhichitta, the Buddhas will drive your station wagon. You can have fun with your girlfriend in the back. It's not an exaggeration.

That's what the text said. Yay, sounds good. All right.

Where's... Oh, Pal, you got my ear boy up, right? I can't tell.

Okay, good. We were in the subject of what is a listener because Chandrakirti decided that at the very beginning of his book, the first thing he would say, he would talk about this idea. Why are bodhisattvas more important than Buddhas?

He bows down. He says Buddhas are cool because they are like mothers who give birth to two kinds of people. Listeners and medium Buddhas.

But then somebody in the next line, they say, where do Buddhas come from? He says, well, that's easy. They come from bodhichitta.

The conversation continues. Don't forget this book by... Of course, Nagarjuna's wisdom is important, but it's 27 cryptic chapters of poetry.

It's impossible to understand. We're working on it nowadays. We're translating it.

It's impossible. Totally impossible. Chandrakirti's book, which you are studying, you have the honor of studying this week, is the mother book of all emptiness teachings in Tibet, in China, in Korea, in Japan, all of the great Mahana traditions.

This is the book. This is the most important book. You should get used to it and you should dip into it once in a while.

That's what we're doing. We're dipping into the first lines. These are the opening lines.

Here we go. We finished one idea, one idea of what's a listener. He said they listen to the perfect teachings.

They meditate on them. Then they reach the enlightenment of the listeners. Then they help other people to hear them.

The listener is not only the practitioner who hears it first, but then they spread it by getting others to hear it. They are listeners in two sense. They listen themselves, but they also cause other people to listen by teaching it later.

But it's all lower track. What makes it lower? They didn't get interested in the jumping planets.

Jumping planets. Good. Here we go.

We're continuing with that. I don't know. The Tibetan should be THOS PA BYAS PA TSUL.

THOS PA BYAS TSUL. Okay, cool. Thank you, Pao.

Then there's a question. How do those guys teach? How do listeners get other people to listen?

Because that's part of what their name means. They are listenizers. Listenizers?

They get others to listen. Then Tsongkapa, right? He says, well, how do they get other people to listen?

He says, it's very famous. DE LTAR BYA BA BYAS SO Say BYA BA BYAS SO. BYA BA BYAS SO Now let's do the long version.

Okay, you ready? Here we go. DGRA BCOM PA Say, just repeat.

DGRA BCOM PA BSAGS PA BSAD PA NYON MONGS MED PA DBANG DU GYUR PA SEMS BZHIN DU NUM BAR DU BA SEMS BZHIN DU NUM BAR DU BA BYANG SHES PA BLANG PO CHEN PO BYA BA BYAS PA BYAS PA BYAS PA KHUR PHOR BA RANG GI DON RJES SU THO PA SRID PA KUN DU BRJOR BA YONGS SU ZHES PA YANG DAG PA KUN ZHES PA I will stop there. It's too long. This is a very famous sutra that we use to take the one-day Mahayana vows.

So it should have sounded familiar. This is a famous sutra that we always use when we take our one-day vows. In the one-day vows, we traditionally, and don't forget there's two kinds of one-day vows.

One is Mahayana and one is not Mahayana, just normal. In the one-day vow that's focusing on just general Buddhism, they make a big deal about if you practice this one-day vow, you will reach nirvana. There's not so much about enlightenment.

They quote the sutra that says, here's what it sounds like in English. I reached nirvana. I'm an enemy destroyer.

I wiped out all my impurities. I don't have any negative emotions. I've got power.

My mind is liberated. I know everything. I'm the great elephant.

I did what I had to do. I do what I have to do. Very famous.

I have thrown off the Geshe Michael backpack of all the problems. I used to have this crap carrying around on my back and now I'm free. When Tsongkapa asked the question, what do the listeners say to other people?

He quotes that line. He quotes that. He says, they go around saying, I did what I had to do.

I'm finished. BYA BA BYAS PA KHOR PO'I BA I dumped off the heavy backpack of my five heaps. Of my five impure heaps.

Very, very famous. If anybody ever asks you, what's a listener? You're going to say, they listen to the teachings but then they also help others to listen.

Well, what do they say to other people? BYA BA BYAS PA KHOR PO'I BA I'm done, man. I'm out of here.

It's like that. That's what they help other people to listen to. Got it?

Let's go back to our detour. There should be a picture here of a guy. He's like saying, look, I'm done.

This is a picture of a guy who's like, look, I'm finished. I did what I had to do. Wouldn't it be nice to say that?

How do you feel this morning? I'm done, man. What do you mean?

I don't know. I'm never going to be jealous again. I'm never going to be angry again.

I'm done. It just happened this morning. I'm so happy.

No more dental problems. I'm done. BRTA SHES DI GZUGS MED KHAMS KYI GNYEN THOS SOGS RGA SHIG LA DMIGS KYANG Then this guy comes up to Tsongkhapa and says, that's not correct.

He says, why not? He says, you don't have arhats in the formless realm? He's like, yeah, you got arhats in the formless realm.

Who's listening, please? To what? There's no sound in the formless realm.

The guy's like, I don't like this idea of listener. What about the formless realm? Are there arhats in the formless realm or not?

Yeah, there are some. Well, what do they do? They can't listen and they can't help other people to listen.

There's no sound in the formless realm. Then Tsongkhapa says, child of the lake, for $100 cat, it's in the Vajrayogini practice.

[Говорящий 2]
Vajrayogini practice.

[Говорящий 1]
But what's it stand for? I mean, don't tell me the second meaning. Tell me the obvious meaning.

[Говорящий 2]
I know the second meaning.

[Говорящий 1]
No, but what's it represent? What's the word mean, child of the lake? Huh?

It's a lotus flower. Yeah, okay. Then that has a deeper meaning that we can't talk about.

Okay, so anyway. Tsongkhapa says, don't forget saroja. Say saroja.

Born of the lake. Saroja. Saroja.

Which means the child of the lake. We translate it as child of the lake. I like it.

And it means the lotus. It means the lotus flower. Then he says, saroja.

Saroja. The guy says, what are you talking about saroja? I didn't ask you about saroja.

I was asking you about the formless realm. Nobody can talk there because there's no sound. Tsongkhapa says, saroja.

That's a thousand dollar question. If word was here, he might get it. But thank goodness he's not here.

My life is much cheaper when he's not here. What it means is, when we apply names, sometimes they are literal and sometimes there are exceptions. When you make a name, when you call somebody a name, sometimes it describes them actually.

Grown from the lake. But there are lotuses that grow on dry land. There are kinds of lotuses that grow in dry soil and not on the lake.

But we still call them born of the lake. We still call them born of the lake. Tsongkhapa says, look, we use words sometimes descriptively and sometimes definitively.

And born of the lake is descriptive. It's not definitive. It's not that every lotus in the universe has to grow from a lake.

But we like the word. It's a cute word. We use it.

Why did he say that? Yeah, look. Some listeners do help other people to listen and some listeners are in a realm where nobody talks.

But that doesn't mean we can't call them listeners. It's like born of the lake. Got it?

It means there are exceptions. Okay, there are exceptions. But that doesn't mean we can't use the word.

It's a cute word. It's a nice descriptive word even though it's not definitive. Cool.

All right. DNGOS MING DU SBYOR PA means definitive. That's a long story.

We're going to show a lotus picture. Pal's going to show a lotus picture. I don't know if that's a Sarajah or not, but it is a Sarajah, right?

We can't see the water. All right. First time I saw a real lotus, we landed in Bangalore in India, which is called the Garden City of India.

All the waste matter from the whole city, like 10 million people, is simply poured out into the ground. It flows in a big river to the west. There's a huge lake to the west of the city of Poo Poo.

You have to go through it to get to Sara monastery. You have to drive through it. It's unbelievable.

But there's beautiful lotuses coming out of there. Anyway. Then I said, stop the car, I want to get a lotus.

He said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Anyway. YANG NA NYAN THOS KYI SKAD DU Then Tsongkapa says, let's look at the Sanskrit word for listener and it will help us appreciate who these guys are.

Which is Shravaka. Say Shravaka. Yeah, listener.

THOD DRO In Tibetan, it's two parts, right? Shru and Aka. Shru Aka.

Shru means to listen or to hear. Then Aka means hearer or doer. The Tibetans translate it as hearing and proclaiming.

Hearing and proclaiming. Shravaka. Shrav Aka.

Shru Aka. He says, let's look at the Sanskrit. LA YANG SBYUG PA LTAR NA Let's understand listeners more by looking at the Sanskrit word for listener.

Which literally means to proclaim what you heard. Shravaka. Shrav Aka.

Shru Aka. YANG SBYUG PA LTAR NA BDE BA'I CHOG SKAMS SANGS RGYAS SU SGRUB PA'I LAMS SANGS RGYAS RNAMS NAS MTHOS NAS They hear from the Buddhas the path to get to enlightenment. They study.

They hear. They listen to the whole teaching of the whole Buddhist path on how to get to highest enlightenment. They hear it.

They listen to it. THEG PA'I CHEN PO'I RIGS CAN LAMS DON DU NYON NAMS LA RDOG PA BYAS Don't forget there were two parts, right? Proclaim and listen.

Listen and proclaim. It's Shravaka. Listen and proclaim.

So, Tsongkapa says, look, we can understand more about these guys if we look at the Sanskrit, which is Shrav Aka. Listen and proclaim. Then he says, listen to what?

They listen to the whole path from the enlightened ones. Then the Aka, they proclaim it. To whom?

To people who are interested in the Mahayana. To people who are interested in Bodhisattva. Bodhichitta.

There's guys called listeners. In Sanskrit their name is listeners and proclaimers. Shravaka.

What do they do? They listen to the highest teachings. Then they can repeat them to people who are interested in the highest teachings.

What's the implication? Yeah, they don't practice it themselves. So far we had guys who heard some stuff from the Buddha enough to get to Nirvana and then Khor Porwa.

They dumped their load. Literally. Meaning they only reached Nirvana.

That was the first explanation of listener. Now Tsongkapa says, hey, if you want to look at the Sanskrit, it's deeper meaning. They can listen to all the Buddhist teachings including Bodhichitta teachings.

They can even teach them to other people but they're not interested to practice it themselves. So listener becomes kind of a put down. Derogatory in a way.

All right. Now we're going to cover a whole subject called Tattva Buddha. Say Tattva Buddha.

Tattva Buddha. Tattva Buddha. Then Tsongkapa says, if you guys understood the idea called Tattva Buddha, this whole thing, we could clear up this whole question about who's getting born from who and who's a listener and what does it mean to be a medium Buddha and is that a real Buddha or is it not a real Buddha because it's not a full Buddha.

It's only a half Buddha. You can call them half Buddhas. This whole question about listeners, half Buddhas and full Buddhas and full Buddhas who want to drive the station wagon for the bodhisattva who wants to have fun.

You can understand everything if you just understand Tattva Buddha. Say Tattva Buddha. Okay, good.

Tatt means that. And TVA makes it into an abstract noun. So Tattva means suchness, thatness.

Tattva means suchness. Tatt means that or such. And then TVA means ness.

TVA is found in English as T-I-O-N. Locomotion, election, all those shun verbs. Nouns.

So Tattva means suchness which means what? Emptiness. Then what's Buddha?

It means to understand, to grasp something. The literal meaning of Buddha. Buddha is to grasp.

And it came into English for $20? Vid. Vid, video.

To see. Buddha came into English as vid. To see.

Vision. Wisdom. Wiz.

Wiz comes from, biz comes from Buddha. They all mean the same thing. Then he says, let's go that way.

Let's try to, listen. The idea of Tattva Buddha, which means what now? To understand suchness.

Applies to this discussion. Listeners, let's call them half Buddhas. It's kind of cool.

Medium Buddhas. Listeners, what's their other name? Self-made Buddhas.

Total Buddhas. What do you call them? Fully enlightened Buddhas.

These three guys. Tattva Buddha applies to all of them. If you understand how they all understand suchness, then we can clear this whole thing up about what?

Parentage. What do you call that? What's the other fancy word for parentage?

It comes up with DNA tests for kids. Paternity suits. We can understand this whole maternity, paternity thing if we understand Tattva Buddha.

That's Tsongkhapa. Here we go. Then he turns to the Lotus Sutra.

It's such a famous sutra. It's so beautiful. I was, not to digress, which I never do, but the first job I ever had for my teacher was to be his driver and cook for him to go to Washington DC for three months and learn English.

I had to drive him there and I had to be his attendant at a Sinhalese monastery. They call Vihara. We got there and they said, who's this American guy?

He said, this is my driver. This is my cook. They said, he can't stay here.

He's not a monk. At the time I wasn't a monk. They said, he can't stay here.

Then my teacher's like, I can't get to the school to learn English if I don't have a driver. They said, tell him to go ask the guys across the street. Across the street there was, next to Catherine Graham's house, who owns the Washington Post, whose family owned the Washington Post, there's a huge mansion.

It was the Embassy of Nigeria or something. Some wealthy Japanese businessman bought it and he made a monastery. There was one monk in the monastery.

They said, he has a 20 room house. Go ask him if you can stay there and then you can come across the street when you need to cook. I'm like, okay.

I went over there and he didn't speak much English. We found a translator. He's this old Japanese monk.

We figured out he probably fought against my father in the Pacific. We're talking to each other. He said, okay, I understand.

You want to stay here? I said, yeah. He says, okay.

Three o'clock, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Three o'clock, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. I'm like, what's Nam-myoho-renge-kyo?

This is the Lotus Sutra. These are the first lines of the Lotus Sutra. If you recite with me three hours of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo every morning at three, you can stay here.

You have to beat the drum. I'm like, oh my god. I said, I'm sorry, I have to ask my teacher.

He said, ask your teacher. No Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, no sleep here. I went to Rinpoche.

He says I can stay there. He says, good, good. But he says I have to get up at three o'clock and recite Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Lotus Sutra for three hours and bang on the drum. Rinpoche says, do it. I said, well, what am I supposed to think about while I'm doing that?

He said, review the Lam Rim in your head. Just forget what you're saying and just go through the Lam Rim in your head and bang the drum. Every time you bang the drum, think of the next part of the Lam Rim.

I'm like, okay, that's cool. I did it. Everything went very, what do you call it?

We didn't fit. But we worked together. One day I was way up in a tree and he was holding the ladder and the branch came down.

I was supposed to cut the tree and then he ran away with the ladder. I was like, dude. Then after that we became really close friends.

Then one day he said, okay, you keep the monastery. I'm leaving. I'm like, what?

He says, you keep this mansion. You can have it. I'm leaving.

I'm like, where are you going? He said, I decided America needs Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and I'm going to walk to Los Angeles with my drum. He did.

He walked to Los Angeles and back with his drum. He did Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. I had a choice of being with my teacher or having this mansion.

I decided to stay with my teacher, luckily for you guys. Geshe-la, can you get back to the subject? Lotus Sutra.

Tsongkapa says we can use the Lotus Sutra here. By the way, there's two Lotus Sutras and that's a long story. He says, in the Lotus Sutra, which is called the White Lotus Sutra, it says, BSGOM PO THE RING BDAG CHAGS NYAN THOS RGYUR BYANG CHUB DAM PA YANG DAG DRAG PA RGYI BYANG CHUB PA'I DA'ANG RAB TU SPYOD DE BA'I BDAG CHAGS NYAN THOS MI SEMS DAG Hey, protector, this is the Buddha's disciples talking to the Buddha.

BSGOM PO, oh protector, THE RING BDAG CHAGS NYAN THOS RGYUR Today we became your listeners. This is where the whole listener thing comes from, is the Lotus Sutra. In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha's students say to the Buddha, Oh Buddha, we're so happy today we became your listeners.

Then they say, what's a listener? BYANG CHUB DAM PA YANG DAG DRAG PA RGYI We will proclaim this highest enlightenment in the world. Probably we'll go out with our drum and nam-myoho-renge-gyo to San Francisco or LA.

By the way, it's a beautiful practice and I think it did help the United States. So anyway, we promise to spread the teachings of highest enlightenment. Then they say, we will tell everybody about this enlightenment.

Did you hear a change in the sentence? In the second line, we will spread this highest enlightenment. In the third line, we will tell everybody about enlightenment.

They don't mention highest. In the second line they say, we have learned from you about highest enlightenment. Now we will tell everybody about this enlightenment.

It's important. Last line, DE BA'I BDAG CAG NGAN TU MI ZIN DRA Therefore, from now on, you can call us your listeners. Therefore, from now on, Buddha, you can call your students your listeners.

Why? Two reasons. We listen to your teachings and we help others to hear them.

We proclaim them. Got it? This is where the whole word ZHRA BA'I DBAG CAG came from.

From the Lotus Sutra. Cool? Now you are listener experts.

Those who are listening. If it ever comes up now, you know where it came from. Now there's a problem with the verse.

There's a famous problem with the verse. Someday maybe Tim can translate the Lotus Sutra. I don't know.

It's pretty common. You are going to do something else. You are going to do Choney Lama's channels I think.

Anyway, there's a famous problem about this highest part. Do they listen to the highest enlightenment and do they spread the highest enlightenment? That's a question.

Here we go. I have a picture, Pau, of somebody proclaiming something. I don't know.

I always think of this picture. This guy is going, Hey, everybody. There's a long rim going on at Diamond Mountain.

This is Tim trying to find people to come to Long Rim. Hey. Okay, good.

All right. RGYUD ZIN GYI GNYIS BYANG CHUB SEMS PA LA NI NYEN THOS DANG BRAL BA'I RGYUD TZAM YIN LA Really, this quotation is the ultimate source of the idea of a listener and his two jobs or her two jobs. One, listen to the teachings.

Two, help other people to hear them. Proclaim them. Spread them.

SHRUG AKHA All right. MTHOD DRO This is where it all comes from. KHA CIG What's that mean?

Tim. KHA CIG Yeah, the other guy. Now somebody, whenever you see the word KHA CIG, someone's going to cause a problem.

It's like at Diamond Mountain and somebody says, about my room. They're like, Oh no, what's wrong with your room? I don't know.

I got a cavalina who lives in the bathroom. Wild pig. Okay.

KHA CIG KHA MA GSUM PA LA DANG PAS DANG MED PAS Now a KHA CIG comes and tries to cause some trouble. He says, did you notice that in the third line it's missing the word highest? Therefore, when these guys listen, they listen to the highest teachings.

But when they proclaim them, they only proclaim the lower teachings. He says, that's not my position. That's your Lotus Sutra Tsongkapa.

He says, you chose the wrong sutra. It's obvious these guys don't proclaim the highest teachings. PHYI MA NI NYAN THOS KYI BYANG CHUB MED KYANG MED KYANG means, yeah, yeah, you can say that, but it's wrong.

Tsongkapa says, you're wrong. Why? DANG PO NI THEG CHEN GYI BYANG CHUB Yeah, the first enlightenment, the highest enlightenment, does refer to bodhichitta enlightenment, the one you're given.

But the second one, they just left out the word highest because they wanted to emphasize that it was the vehicle. It was the way to get to the teachings. So they didn't repeat highest.

Tsongkapa's like, don't give me, don't hassle me. They did listen to the highest teachings, including bodhichitta, and they do pass them on, even though they may not practice them. Okay, good.

BYANG SEMS RNAMS KYANG SANGS RGYAS KYI LAM SANGS RGYAS LA THOS NAS DU BYED LA SROG PA'I NYAN THOS SU RGYUR RO NYAMS NA Then Tsongkapa says, a question may come up in your minds. Are bodhisattvas listeners or not? In this sense.

Is a bodhisattva a listener? Don't forget we have three levels of practitioners. What?

Listeners, medium buddhists, half buddhists, and full buddhists. Then these are the bodhisattva guys up here. Tsongkapa says, how about we collapse it to two kinds?

Why? Because aren't the bodhisattvas listeners? In this idea, in the Lotus Sutra way?

Don't they learn the highest teachings? Don't they pass them on to other people? Don't they fit the Lotus Sutra?

Let's collapse it to two paths. Tsongkapa is proposing. NYAN THOS SU RGYUR RO NYAMS NA NYES PA MED TE Yeah, you're right, but no problem.

Yeah, you're right. What are they right? Bodhisattvas do listen to the highest teachings and they do proclaim them to other people, but that don't make them listeners.

That don't make them lowest track. Because lowest track means they hear it, they teach it, but they don't practice it. That doesn't apply to bodhisattvas.

Got it? You're never going to forget now about listeners. Good.

SGROG PA BYAS PA YIN GYIS BYAS SU THUB PA MTSAMS YANG RANG GYIS MI SGRUB PAR BSAM PA YIN PA'I SO Yeah, they don't practice it. RANG GYIS MI SGRUB PAR means they don't practice it themselves. The other listeners.

So it doesn't apply to bodhisattvas. All right. The picture is a lady.

Why did I choose this picture? She's covering her ears. Yeah, she's not a...

Yeah, good. She's a bodhisattva. Because she's not listening to the lower path.

Okay, got it? She's not listening to the lower presentation. No, no.

Hey, just take care of yourself. Reaching nirvana. BYA BA BYAS PA KHUR POR BA SRID PA KUN TU SBYOR BA BSAD PA Just dump your load.

And she's like, what? Who's she? She's a bodhisattva.

Don't tell me about this personal nirvana thing. I'm not interested. I want to help everybody.

Don't tell me about making myself happy. That's not happiness. Happiness is making everybody happy.

Including me. All right. Now Tsongkapa has covered...

Listener, guess where he's going next. Yeah, what's a half Buddha? What the heck?

What the heck is a half? They have the Buddhist mind. Yeah, what does it mean to be a half Buddha?

That's a weird word. Hey, what are you? I'm a half Buddha.

Oh, is it the upper half or the lower half? I don't know. If you're going to ride this thing in our room, in the next room over here, you better have the lower half.

That's an insight. If you want to know that joke, you have to come to Dhamma. Now Tsongkapa is going to cover half Buddhas.

What the heck is a half Buddha? Why are we covering half Buddha? Because Chandrakirti mentioned it.

Why did Chandrakirti mention it? He was talking about two kinds of practitioners who are born from the womb of full Buddhas. Why did he talk about that?

Because he wanted you to get in the mood of asking what womb do people come from? Because he's going to get to how full Buddhas come from the womb of bodhisattvas, crescent moons, and not full moons. So we better respect that.

We better drive their station wagon. Got it? Yay.

All right. SANGS RGYAS BDING ZHES PA'I SANGS RGYAS NI Then Tsongkapa says, what the heck is this self-made Buddha? What's a half Buddha?

RGYAL PAR SANGS RGYAS KYI DE NYID GANG ZAG GSUM CHA LA SBYUG STE In the commentary, which means Chandrakirti's commentary to his own book, there's a famous long auto-commentary to Entering the Middle Way. So the most famous book, the book which triggered the emptiness teachings of all of Asia, all of North Asia, the Mahayana countries. The book which triggered that has its own explanation.

It's big and it's difficult. Nobody works with it because it's too difficult. That's why you need Tsongkapa.

In the commentary he says, SANGS RGYAS KYI DE NYID GANG ZAG GSUM CHA LA SBYUG STE Buddhahood, enlightenment, can apply to all three. The idea of enlightenment can apply to all three. Listeners have an enlightenment.

Half Buddhas have an enlightenment. Self-made Buddhas? And full Buddhas have an enlightenment.

There's three enlightenments going on here. There's three enlightenments going on here. So in that sense, they are all Buddha.

That's why a half Buddha can be a Buddha. Because they do have some kind of enlightenment. They do understand, they are enlightened about something.

There's three enlightenments going on here. Three, what's the Sanskrit? Tattva Buddhas.

There's three Buddhas going on here. What? Tattva Buddhas.

They're all enlightened about tattva. What's tattva? If you are enlightened about suchness, are you necessarily fully enlightened?

[Говорящий 2]
No.

[Говорящий 1]
Good, we're on the right track. All right, here we go. ,RGYAL PO SANGS RGYUD KHYAD NYID DANG, ,ZHES GSUNGS PA'I DUS NI, ,GA'I PHYIR TATTVA BUDDHA, Now Tsongkhapa gets us to where we were trying to get today.

We're doing good, Tim. I think we're going to make it. Tattva Buddha.

Now he says, this is where Tattva Buddha comes up. This is where enlightened about suchness comes up. Three kinds of enlightenment about suchness.

Why can we call a half Buddha a Buddha? It's not because they're a Buddha. It's because they Buddha.

They get it. They budd. They're Buddhas, but they're not real Buddhas.

Got it? They budd, but they're not buddha. What's budd mean?

They get it. What? Tattva.

Suchness. If you see emptiness directly, do you have to be a Buddha? No, but are you a Tattva Buddha?

Yeah, because that Buddha means you understand it. You get it. You saw it.

So here's Tsongkhapa. ,GA'I PHYIR TATTVA BUDDHA ZHES PA'I DGRA, ,GANG ZAG GSUM DGOS LA SBYAS PA BYAS PA DE, He says, ,BYAS PA LTAR LEGS, LEGS means LEGS SO. LEGS SO.

What's that? Yeah, I like it. Tsongkhapa says, I like it.

Some people go to Tattva Buddha here to explain this problem about three levels. He says, LEGS SO. I like it.

When Tsongkhapa says I like it, it's damn good. It means I think it's damn good. I love this Tattva Buddha thing.

Then he goes to explain the word Tattva Buddha. He says, what's Tattva? ,DE KHO NA NYID, ,DE KHO NA NYID, Suchness.

Suchness. ,DE KHO NA, ,DE KHO NA means just that. ,NYID means ness.

Just that-ness is the Tibetan translation of Tattva. Just that-ness. It means emptiness.

It means emptiness. Tattva. He says Tattva means just that-ness.

Buddha means kong du chupa. Kong du chupa means fully grasp. Fully, to really get it.

To really get it. ,GZHAN PA CHUNG DO NAS, ,DE NYID RTOGS PA'I BUDA'I DRAG, ,DON DU BYAS PA DE, DON DE, what's the point? The point is that all three levels have Tattva Buddha.

Why? They all saw emptiness directly. Which proves you don't have to be a what to do what.

[Говорящий 2]
You don't have to be a bodhisattva.

[Говорящий 1]
Yay! You should have waited till I offered some money. Anyway, she just gives it away in ten minutes later.

Yeah, okay. ,DE NYID RTOGS PA'I DRAG, ,RANG BZANGS RGYAS LAS, Everybody, even half Buddhas are Tattva Buddha. Are they Buddhas?

No. Are they Tattva Buddha? Yeah, good.

RANG BZANGS RGYAS LAS By the way, but they will become Buddhas because they Tattva Buddha. If you Tattva Buddha, you're halfway there. If you see emptiness directly, you're halfway to becoming a real Buddha.

Okay? All right. ,SPYIR BUDDHA DRAG, And then it's a beautiful sentence.

It's this book. Tsongkapa's ultimate work on emptiness. ,RGOMS PA RAB ZAL, Illumination of, what is it?

Of the true thought. You got to let me finish it. You guys got to let me finish it.

Please let me finish it. Don't put all these... Okay.

If you just... Anyway, I'm not going to complain. All right.

He says, generally, the word Buddha means enlightened being. But what's he going to say? SKABS SKABS DIR MI TZAM MO But it don't fit the context here.

MI TZAM MO TZAM means retreat border, right? But if you spell it a little differently, it means to fit the occasion. So he says, enlightened being doesn't quite fit here because you should understand that the word Buddha has two other meanings.

The word Buddha has two other important, beautiful meanings. And it's very beautiful. It's so beautiful to know what the word Buddha means.

Which if you send me emails about how irritated you are at your closest friends, I won't have time to translate it. Do you understand what I'm saying, you guys? All right.

Any personal problem you're having, my advice is wait six months. They'll die. You'll die.

Things will change. It's easy. This is from an old man.

Just wait six months. Wait six years, you can't remember their names. Just chill out.

Go back to your meditation. Don't worry about irritating people. Okay, anyway.

That's my universal email response. BUD DRA NI BSTAN He says, here's the two meanings of Buddha. The word Buddha.

Special meaning. Special meaning. Number one, BAS MA BDAG BSGYAS PA What's a BAS MA?

Saroja. A lotus. The opening of the petals is called BUD DHA.

The opening of a lotus petal is called BUD DHA. That's the other meaning of the root BUD. It means BUD DHA.

Cool. Or GNYIS BSAD PA GNYIS BSAD PA means to wake up from a deep sleep. GNYIS BSAD PA BUD DHA means the lotus opens.

BUD DHA means the snorer wakes up. Wakes himself up probably. That's a self-made BUD DHA.

We got it. The secret transmission. GNYIS BSAD PA LA YANG RGYUD PAR BSHAD PAS He says, don't think that the word BUD DHA has to apply to a fully enlightened being.

It doesn't. It can mean the opening of a lotus. It can mean someone waking up.

It can mean someone suddenly understanding something. By the way, at that point he quotes a very difficult book of Sanskrit that was translated into Tibetan. We spent quite a while getting that.

We have some other picture here. Some lady waking up. Yeah, I like this lady.

She is BUD DHA. This lady is BUD DHA. She just got up.

She just woke up. Now Tsongkapa says, what do you think he's... We have a principle in the Mixed Nuts translation team which is very important for translators.

You close your eyes and you ask yourself, what's next? If I'm Tsongkapa, I covered listener. I covered half of half BUD DHA.

What's next? I'll say it again. It's a pun.

I covered half of half BUD DHA. I covered the BUD DHA part. Yeah, what's the other half which is?

Half. No, it's half. Got it?

The other half he didn't talk about yet is half. Half BUD DHA. She said, I covered the BUD DHA.

You got it you guys? Wake up, flower opening. Doesn't have to mean enlightened being.

Can mean understand emptiness directly. These guys do understand emptiness directly. That's how they get to throwing off their load.

But what the heck is half? Why did he say half BUD DHA? Naturally, he's going to talk about that.

That's called DING. Say DING. There's another famous DING in the Lam Rim for $50.

Yeah, good. Medium length Lam Rim. But there's also, by the way, you got $25.

There's also KHYAD PAR DING. DING people. DING people.

What's that mean? In the Lam Rim, what is it? Medium person.

Yeah, medium capacity. You got the $25 and you got the $25. But this is the word that Tsongkapa uses for half BUD DHA.

DING. The middle one. Here's the listeners.

Here's the full BUD DHAs. And here's the self-made BUD DHAs. This is half way to full BUD DHA.

Half way BUD DHA. RANG RGYAS RNAMS KYI SKAL PA RGYAL BAR ZIN NAMS DANG YOD ZHIG What separates... Now here's the big question.

What separates these guys from these guys? Here's Geshe-la's fingers. What separates...

Here's listeners and proclaimers. And here's half BUD DHAs. And here's full BUD DHAs.

What's the difference between these two guys? It is, but the classic answer. These guys have a hundred KAL PAS of practice on these guys.

These guys have a hundred KAL PAS of practice on these guys. These guys have been at Diamond Mountain for a hundred KAL PAS. These guys just got there.

This is Kat, Kadding. These are those babies who are showing up nowadays. Great babies.

We got great babies coming to Diamond Mountain. We got beautiful young people volunteering here. So anyway, next generation.

How long is a KAL PA? I once worked on it for like a week. And no answer.

Sorry. And you won't find one in the scriptures. They will say, call it 500 billion years or something.

I don't know. 500 million years. These guys have a hundred KAL PAS on these guys.

So don't complain if you have to practice another month. How do you graduate from being a listener to being a half BUD DHA? It's simple.

Tsongkhapa says, look, it's simple. You just have to practice a couple billion more years. And then you get here.

By the way, that's what makes tantra so attractive. You don't have to do these billions of years stuff. In one lifetime, with a practice like Medicine Buddha Tara, Bajaj Yogini especially, you can reach full enlightenment.

You could save all that time. Why is it important to save time? People are hurting.

People are hurting. Every moment you delay, someone's getting hurt. Someone's brother's dying.

Somebody's got cancer. Every day you waste, someone's getting hurt. Who didn't have to get hurt.

Don't feel guilty. But you should. All right.

GONG DU PHAL BA'I SKAD PA KYI That's the main difference. Now, thousand dollars. Oh my god, we got four minutes left.

Thousand dollars. Some people try to say the difference is different. It's not how much time in.

The difference between a listener and a self-made BUD DHA. Some people say that's not the difference. Some people say differently.

Tim might know. Some people want to say there's a different difference between these first two guys. Nope.

Yay, nobody got it. Some people say they see a different emptiness. Some people say they see a different degree of emptiness.

Then the lower middle way school, the main reason it exists is to describe the degrees of emptiness. Like level one emptiness, and level two emptiness, and level three emptiness. They want to have different kinds of emptiness.

They want to have different degrees of difficulty emptiness. That's where you start getting into the mind-only school emptiness. All kinds of things like that.

Every Buddhist school has a different idea about degrees of emptiness. Deeper emptinesses than other emptinesses. Just because we're going to end the class pretty soon, what's the highest school say about that?

No difference. If you see it once, if you're on a listener track and you couldn't care less about jumping planets, and you just want to save yourself, and you don't care about other people, but you see emptiness, you have seen the exact same emptiness that the Buddha is looking at now. There's no difference between how a fully enlightened Buddha sees emptiness and how a selfish person, a physicist who has an insight into emptiness, sees it.

There's no difference. What they see is the same thing. That's amazing.

The mind seeing it is different. Full of compassion or full of wanting to publish a good paper. But what they understand has no difference at all.

If a physicist understands emptiness, which many are close to, I think, or a Buddha understands emptiness, or you see emptiness today, that's exactly the same emptiness that the Buddhists are seeing and you see it as much as they do. They don't see it any more than you do. You see it 100% and they see it 100% because there's no degrees of emptiness.

Does your kitchen have mice? Sometimes. If your kitchen has a mouse, then what do you want to do?

You want to get him out of the kitchen. This is important. I'm not kidding.

Either there's mice in your kitchen or there's no mice in your kitchen. It's very simple. Now, some kids in the monastery, the irritating seven-year-olds who sneak into the debate ground, and there are such things, they sneak into the debate ground.

[Говорящий 2]
They say, ,GYI GYI GYI GYI GYI, ,RAR BAR, RAR BAR, Right. I wanted the mouse. He's got his nose in the kitchen, but his butt is outside of the kitchen.

[Говорящий 1]
Like you can imagine, the mouse is halfway into the kitchen.

[Говорящий 2]
Then it's not the mouse that's in the kitchen. It's not the mouse that's not in the kitchen. The mouse is kind of in the kitchen and the mouse is kind of not in the kitchen.

[Говорящий 1]
Then we say, no, we reject this. Either the kitchen is mouseless or it's not. It cannot be semi-mouseless.

The whole idea of the mouse's nose being in the kitchen and the butt's outside the door is false. In that case, you have a mouse in your kitchen. If his butt's in the kitchen, he'll poop in the kitchen and you'll know.

Either the mouse is in the kitchen or the mouse is outside the kitchen. There's only two states. It's like a binary on computer code.

Either zero or one. There's no 0.5 in computer code. Computers don't work on 0.5. Either zero or one. Switched on, switched off. Why are we talking about that? Either you see pure emptiness or you didn't see emptiness and there's nothing in between.

Got it? Either the mouse is not in the kitchen or the mouse is in the kitchen and there's no degrees of mouse in the kitchen. There's no degrees.

The emptiness that you see on the first day you see emptiness and the depth to which you see it, Buddha, Tattva Buddha, is no different from how the Buddha is seeing it right now. They're completely the same. In that sense, you are a complete Buddha at that moment that you see emptiness directly.

You are Tattva Buddha. Got it? Yay!