Бетси Грир — Книга 2: Интерлюдия о пустоте, занятие 60

[Speaker 1]
All right, hi everybody. You guys can hear me okay? All right, welcome to Diamond Cutter Classics Translation Program.

Sometimes they call us the Mixed Nuts. Uh, Schwenzang Tower. We have a lot of names, but we always do the same thing.

We go into the old books and we translate them. And uh, and we actually work on preserving some of those books too. Uh, so anyway, uh, oh Geru, my dog's got something to say.

Great to see you all. Uh, welcome to our program. And we have today two different things going on.

We have a pre-recorded, sorry to make you dizzy, getting away from the Barking Dog. We have a pre-recorded class with, uh, that was done on Saturday. And that is a class on Venerable Utpala's texts.

And uh, and then we're going to have a live class with Geshe Michael, uh, on Tim's book. So whenever we're ready, we can go ahead and do the video. And then after the video, we will have the typical 15 minute discussion with the wonderful Venerable Utpala.

And then we'll have the Peachtree World News broadcast. And after that we'll transition into the live class. So thank you all so much.

Ready Marina, ready. So welcome to Interlude on Emptiness, the quiz on our last class. Um, if you recall, we are still in the land of the Mind Only School.

And, um, we got to some quite juicy bits, but I tried to make the quiz as non-painful as possible. So one, one section, um, K.J.Ripchey was talking about how we have to be careful as, um, as Dharma practitioners who are reading works from different Buddhist philosophical schools' points of view, that when we come across certain phrases, we need to keep in mind what the phrase means to that philosophical school. And, um, Geshe Michael frequently says, you know, what hat are you wearing?

So, and he used, uh, just, he used a couple of examples, but if you could talk about in a general way, how the phrase Rangsen is considered by the Sutras, the second philosophical school and by followers of the Consequence Branch, the, uh, ultimate point of view. So let's start with the Sutras' point of view. What, what, how do they consider the phrase Rangsen?

Something that really exists, like a functioning thing, which is an expression and a, yeah, changing thing, manifesting. Archetype. This is a great question.

Yeah. So it's as opposed to a cheatsyn. They consider Rangsen as opposed to cheatsyn, an archetype.

Now, so what do those who follow the Consequence Branch of the Middle Way school, how do they consider the phrase Rangsen?

[Speaker 2]
It's a description of a type of thing we deny, rangitsenikujupa, a thing that could exist by its own definition.

[Speaker 1]
Excellent. Thank you so much. Which we would think doesn't exist.

So it's the Gakcha. It's the very thing we deny, the thing, the impossible thing that doesn't exist, never existed and never could exist. So two very different ways of taking that phrase.

So now jumping, uh, to, uh, Kejote started talking about the three turnings of the wheel again, the three turnings, and he talked about two wrong ways of thinking about why the Buddhist teachings are divided into three turnings and one correct way of thinking about why they're divided into three turnings. So I'm not sure you're going to get these in the order that I've got them in my quiz, but just in case, let's just start with, um, the division is not related to three baskets, speaking of, uh, not well, yeah, it's not three baskets, but that's not what Kejote brought up. I'm sorry.

What I heard a voice periods of time in his life. Right. But in order to show that one, I have to show the one that we haven't yet mentioned.

So I'm going to wait and show you that one in a second. What's the other thing that was mentioned that is not a correct way of thinking about why the three turnings are divided into three. Three collections of students or different locations where the teaching was.

[Speaker 2]
The stages were the stages were.

[Speaker 1]
Right. How and why students in attendance were collected and periods of the Buddhist life. Yeah.

It's got nothing to do with those things. What does it have to do with? The contents of the teaching.

Right. The subject matter or the lack of a self. On what authority does Kejote make this claim?

I'm guessing the Buddha said it somewhere. Yeah. Where?

Uh, in the Sutra. Which one? There we go.

Very good. Shakyamuni Buddha himself in unraveling the true thought or also known as what I really meant. So it's kind of an easy quiz, right?

That's what I want. Celebratory noises, but also useful. Okay, good.

I suppose there's no word that means in name only. Well, there's more than one. But what's one that we talked about last time?

Not that one. I should have done it the other way around. Sorry.

It's fun to guess. Yeah. Sorry.

What does mean? The double O. That's cool.

[Speaker 3]
Oscar says doubt. Oh, yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Doubt. Good Oscar. Yeah.

That's what it is. Nice. Measure.

Measure. Wrong idea. As opposed to say ma.

Just say is an idea. Say min? Oh, okay.

Thank you. Yay. Translation.

Let me get rid of my quiz on my... Sorry. Can you see?

Yes, thank you. You can zoom in a little probably. Okay.

I mean, for those... Then I have to be across the room. Oh, no.

You gotta get special glasses for that. I'm not sure the glasses would do it. Okay, so remember what we're doing is we're talking about the three turnings of the wheel.

And the fact that the three turnings of the wheel, that the three turnings of the wheel, are based on subject matter, and that subject matter has to do with selflessness, right? Okay, let's look at it. Therefore, just because something is a teaching of Lord Buddha does not necessarily mean it is a sutra of one of the three turnings of the wheel.

Division into three is distinction. Yeah, good. The only suggestion I have here, and by the way, what was the teaching that he gave as an example of, generally we say Lord Buddha's teachings all divide into one of three turnings of the wheel, right?

Well, the discussion here is what defines the three turnings of the wheel. Is it historical periods in Lord Buddha's life? Is it subject matter he was talking about?

And he says here there were certain teachings that... Are not... They don't fit into the three turnings of the wheel.

And the example he gave was? He gave two examples. One was the tiger and his cubs, and then the other was about the monk's robes and how they should be worn.

Yeah, yeah. And he said that doesn't really fit, that they should be circular. That doesn't fit into any of the three turnings of the wheel, okay?

So far what he's done is to say there are certain ideas about the three turnings of the wheel that are wrong, and there are certain teachings that don't fit into the three turnings of the wheel. And the three turnings of the wheel should not be explained as the earlier, medium, and later part of the Buddhist life. Well then, how do you define the three turnings of the wheel?

And this is where we're going. Why is such a big subject at this point in his text? We're about to go to the second turning of the wheel.

Yeah, or the debate between the second and third turning of the wheel. Second turning of the wheel, Heart Sutra, Diamond Cutter Sutra, all the emptiness teachings. Third turning of the wheel, the mind-only school.

We've been in the mind-only school. If it's the last turning of the wheel, shouldn't it be the best? And you know, there's a lot of questions that come up.

So he's throwing in a discussion about the three turnings of the wheel, which I am really happy about, because it means he's getting out of the mind-only school. We'll go to something familiar. All right, next.

Who's going to read the next paragraph? I don't know how to pronounce that. The V is silent.

Okay, good. By the way, in these philosophy books sometimes you get a very nice vacation, and they talk about some sweet metaphor, or they tell you a story, like the magician story or something like that. So this is one of my favorite parts of this book, because it's just kind of a story, and sometimes I miss reading a book and hearing a story.

So these books are so hard, unrelentingly hard, and then suddenly there's a nice story. So here's a story for you, and it's a nice vacation actually. Okay, kājī means somebody's going to make an argument, right?

Someone comes along to protest good, and they're quoting the Exalted Sutra of Questions by the King, the Lord of Dharani. Okay, good. Okay.

Yeah, okay. Yeah. Requested by this king.

Yeah, Shiva. Oh, child of noble family. It is, for example, like this.

A master jeweler. Yeah, okay, or a gemologist actually. Norbu Ken Kepa, a master jewel master, not jewelry necessarily.

Norbu jongway tsultepa shepa den. They know the way to... This jongway is not just...

It's like the jong in lojong. It doesn't mean just to clean the jewels, but it means to... What do you call that?

Like when you have gold pan, and you go like this, and the gold comes out?

[Speaker 3]
Dipping.

[Speaker 1]
Extracting. Extract. It's kind of extract, but we'll see why.

We'll see what it means. They take a jongway lepa shepa nobarungpa che rikne. They take a yong su ma dakpe norbu.

Ma dakpe norbu. Yeah, completely... It's still rough.

The point is it's a rough gem. Okay, it's still not cut, and it's still in its form as ore. Okay, unrefined gem.

Say again? Crude gem. Yeah, crude gemstone.

yin sum pa de mi rungpa che lang te. Yeah, they pick it up. By the way, norbu rungpa che rik means...

This is a very important word, because it is of the class of a precious jewel, but it's not refined yet. And this word class, rik, is very important in Buddhism. Why?

It's a synonym for buddha nature. Okay, when you say type or family, it's a synonym for buddha nature, and that's exactly what they're talking about. Okay, everybody has the unrefined gemstone in their heart, but you're going to have to...

You're going to have to process it to get the real gemstone out. You see, I mean, the whole section is about processing unrefined gemstones, which means teaching people. What's the topic we're in?

What's the general topic we're in? The three turnings of the wheel. Now, you got to start cooking in your mind.

Why is he jumping to this conversation when he's supposed to be defining the three turnings of the wheel? Okay, why is he getting off on to refining jewels? Okay, it's a beautiful segue by Khenrupje.

He and Gyaltsabje and Tsongkhapa especially, they tend to do this kind of thing. Yeah, so lensar is acid. Okay.

Yeah, and lensar does mean salts, but here it means mineral salts, meaning like an acid, a kind of acid. Okay, lensar, lensar, literally it means super salty, super salty bitter liquid. Okay, which is the old word for acid.

Okay, they take some kind of special acids. True. Numba means it has a very sharp, this is the word for sharp blade, sword or knife, but when you talk about acid it means like super powerful acid, like nitric acid or something.

Okay, so numba when you're referring to acid in the ancient books means what do you call it? Very strong acid. Okay, corrosive, strongly corrosive.

Okay. Numba means that. Nen tse chu numba pang te.

This must be jang, okay. And by the way, we have a second read, I gave you guys a second version of this story, so you can check it in the second version. But this must be SBY and not SP.

Okay. Jang means purify, you know, jang chu, okay. Probably, okay.

Jai rewa, here rewa rewa means hope, right? But the same sound, you have to tune into the sound, r-a-s means cloth, mila repa. Mila is a kind of white cotton, cotton, re means cloth.

And mila repa used to wear a loin cloth made of white Indian cotton. So this rewa is a miss, is an ancient spelling for cloth. Tra means horse hair, or it means, tra means hair, or in general, so rough cloth.

What do you call it? Coarse. Yeah, very coarse cloth, like what you use on your dishes, those Yeah, okay.

It means like that. Yeong su jungwa means, there's the jung, okay. Yeah, you have to you have to purify it.

Okay, what? The rough stone, the rough gem, and then you have to take a cloth with, you'd have to take acid, and then you have to take a bristly cloth. And we use pumice in the gemstone industry.

Or we use hard minerals to polish it, okay. So you polishing cloth, all right. Okay, good.

Keep going. Oh, that was all you asked me to do. Oh, okay.

All right. Nice, so far so good. And again, I enjoy having a break from the heavy philosophy.

Of course, they always bring it back to the philosophy. Oh, where are we? I got to go to another place.

Hang on. 386 is what we just did. These are the things I'm working on.

Internet, there we go. Okay, okay. Okay, and we'll put you guys up here.

Nope. Nope. I don't know.

Okay, why is that not working, Ron? Oh. You said you can just grab it.

It's weird. Yeah, how about I go out again and come back? Okay, hang on.

We have time to go to David Gardner's. Let's do this one. Okay, let's see if this works.

That's weird. How is your health, dear Geshe Michael? How's my, don't ask.

Okay. I'm supporting many doctors. Yeah, I'm just gonna work around it.

Oh, okay, why it worked, I don't know. Stanley has magic fingers. Uh, okay.

Okay, okay. Yeah. Uh, he's actually using this text from the database, so I'm going to go to the database text, okay?

And we'll come back to your text. It's the same, it's the same thing, but it's the original, okay? Uh, so, um, can you start, uh, who would you like to read the big letters from here, Venerable Udpala, Dene?

Um, Venerable Chen Zim, are you here? Okay.

[Speaker 3]
Yep. Okay. Okay, good.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, good. Yeah, uh, the chandrasekha vichuggi wangchuk gi gyelpo, the king of the lords of the dharma of the bodhisattvas, okay? Uh, he, this person who was named that was in that core.

Here, core means the audience surrounding the speaker. Okay, uh, dupa means he was included there. He was sitting there.

Dupa, nowadays in colloquial Tibetan, dupa means is. ko gyelpo du, he's a nice person. But in the ancient, in ancient, ancient language, dupa means to sit.

Okay, so he was sitting there in the, in the audience, and he said the following words to chomden de, to the conqueror, okay? Oh chomden de, who's gonna read Venerable Utpala? I'm going to push it down so we can...

That was very short, Venerable Chen Zim. If you could continue, please. Okay, let's do it this way.

Okay.

[Speaker 3]
Okay. chak ngakpo chak ngakpo la laway laway Good. yidor jaway Good.

yidor je kyang de tsam gyi kyang de tsam gyi sung nju yun mi chu kyi sung nju yun mi chu kyi Nice.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so this is the original source for the conversation that K. Dupe J. is going to have.

for the conversation that K. Dupe J. is going to have.

And if you can read the original source, you can read his version of it. I prefer to read the original source. I prefer to read the original source.

this, I mean, normally it would be Lord Buddha addressing someone and would say rikyupu. What's that mean? Oh child of noble family.

Which often means bodhisattva. Oh rikyupu, oh child of noble family. di ta te means what, Utpala?

It's like this. Yeah, here's how it is. Okay, here's how it is.

It means he's going to start an example, actually. Perna. For example.

Yeah, Norval Ken Kepa. A gemologist. Yeah, okay, good.

Or a master jewel guy. Or a master jewel guy. He shintu shepa sthachoga.

He really understands the word that I always forget.

[Speaker 3]
Ritual.

[Speaker 1]
How you clean. Well, nowadays chogga means ritual. A ritual.

And by the way, when it's in a two-word word, when it's part of a two-word word, they call it chok. So don't get confused. Chogga means ritual.

Chok as the second syllable, like jang chok. What's jang chok? Jang chok is the prayers for the dead.

Jang means to clean their bad karma. Chok means ritual. So when it's a second syllable, it's chok.

When it's by itself, it's chogga. So don't be confused. It also means, confusingly, to allow somebody to do something.

Dro chok gi yin na. May I be excused? May I leave?

Dro chok gi yin na. May I leave? Confusing word.

In this context, is it more like the process than like a ritual? I had to clean my mom's house out. It was 100 boxes of stuff.

I actually got a hernia doing it. So it means another operation I get to go for. But I decided to clean out my house before I reached that point.

So I'm giving away all my stuff. Here's a nice bhaja sattva for Tatyana. Heavy.

Good. All right. I'm just going to do that today for fun.

jongway chokpa shintu shen ne de lobu Yeah, so here, it's interesting, is the source of the word ritual, which means method. Okay? That's like drup tap or sadhana.

When we say the word sadhana, it means a method to reach somebody. So here's the ancient meaning of chogga. Like 2,000 years ago, chogga doesn't mean ritual.

Chogga means the method for refining a gemstone. Okay? So here you see the ancient meaning of chogga.

Okay. Chogga for jongwa anorbu. What's that, Utpala?

For purifying a gem. Yeah, or to refine a gemstone. Chogga.

shepa de. He's the guy who knows how to do that. He takes a piece of norbu rik.

We talked about rik just now. He takes a piece from the collection of gemstones. Yeah, but here it means like that family, meaning unrefined.

Okay? It's that type of stone. It's not refined yet.

Ore. O-R-E? Ore.

He takes unrefined ore. Okay? Rik.

Okay? And it hasn't been jongwa yet. It hasn't been refined yet.

Refined yet. Okay? And he picks up...

By the way, they're already... They're already calling the unrefined stone norbu rinpoche. A gemstone.

A gem. They're already referring to it as a precious gem. Rinpoche means precious.

And nowadays they refer to high teachers as rinpoche, or an abbot of the monastery as rinpoche. By the way, they had prayers at my monastery yesterday for my mom. And when they do that, they often do medicine buddha.

And they hand out these special... This is for Dennis. Okay?

And Marina. Okay? These are special medicine buddha things.

If you're ever feeling down, mentally, or unhealthy, give one to her. Yeah, same thing. Okay?

But they've been energized by all the assembly. 1,500 people did the birth. So if you're ever feeling down, mentally, or you're down physically, take some in hot water.

Okay. Take a little bit, and then stretch it out. Ah, Rinpoche.

Yes. So, yes, buddhok, spelled T-O-G, is the modern spelling, and it means mineral salts. Like, what do you call that when you put it in a bathtub?

Epsom salts. Epsom salts. Yeah, Epsom salts.

So here it means acidic salts. Strong acid salt. Okay?

And you put the rough stone in that. Okay? And then you mix the salts with chew.

Water. Water. And it should be nimble.

Acidic. Strongly acidic. What do you call it?

Corrosive? Like super, you put your finger in it, you're corrosive. Your finger disappears.

Okay. And then, true means to what? Do you guys know?

True. Clean, or wash? Yeah, you wash the stone.

You bathe the stone in this acidic water. And then you use, lawa is the ancient word for ray. Cloth.

Cloth, or rag?

[Speaker 3]
Cloth.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, a rag made of, kya narpo means a very rough black hair, like horse hair or something. Chi dor che. Chi dor che.

Okay. Clean it up? Like sweep it up?

Yeah, chi dor means to refine something, or clean up something. That's still used nowadays. They still use that word, chi dor.

Okay. Choway. Chi dor che kyang.

What's the kyang mean usually? Either also or but, okay? Yeah.

Okay. They work hard to clean the rough stone, but de tsam gyi tsundruk gyun mi chuk. This chuk is the chuk in dorje.

But he doesn't cut off his efforts. Yeah, they don't discontinue the flow of the effort. De tsam.

Just by doing that, they go further. It means they go further. Are you getting a sense of the three turnings of the wheel here?

Starting to. Frozen. Deeply blessed.

Long life. Buddha. Small Buddha.

Inside. Maybe gold. I don't know.

Okay. Anyway. All right.

They don't stop there. It means they don't stop there. Okay.

Keep going. Who's going to read Utpala? I would like to...

Claudia, are you available? Okay. I waited three breaths.

How about Anastasia? Either one. Me?

Sure. Nice. Nice reading.

Thank you. What you guys think of ngu chu darabandra? A lot more quicksilver.

Okay. So ngu chu means silver water. Ngu chu means quicksilver.

It means mercury. Okay. Which in the ancient times was considered almost mystical.

Nagarjuna messed it up. He messed around with it a lot. It's supposed to help you with...

What's that called? Alchemy. Okay.

Highly poisonous. Don't try it. It will kill you.

Okay. Don't be stupid. Every time I say that, somebody goes out and buys it and tries to drink it.

It's very poisonous. So they take acidic... Numbo again means here sharp, meaning acidic, quicksilver.

And they true the stone. They wash it. They bathe it in acidic quicksilver.

Okay. Then they take shing. They take a piece of wood.

They rub off the rough edges of the stone with a piece of wood. And with numbu. Numbu is another ancient word for cloth.

Okay. They use rough cloth and rough pieces of wood to... chidor che means scrape off the impurities from the stone.

Okay. Chidor. They do that.

de tsam gyi tsundru mi chod. But they don't stop there. Yeah.

This was from my future funeral. All right. I like to give that away.

You understand me. Okay. I think there's two of them.

Something like that. Yeah. All right.

Chod mi chod te. Who's going to read next, Utpala? Oksana.

Would you like to read? Oh, she's going to do oak. I get it.

Okay. I waited three breaths. Svetlana, would you like to read?

Thank you.

[Speaker 3]
You're welcome. Thank you. De uktu ang men chen poy ku we tru te.

Re tra mu chidur che we chidur che du. Chidur che te norgu ching hui vrik dang drel ne we.

[Speaker 1]
By the way, to be able to say bendurya. Bendurya. They would pronounce it bendurya.

All right. After that, they take the kuwa, which means the juice. It can also mean semen.

Okay. They take the juice of men chenpo, means the great medicine. This is the men in menla.

What's menla? Medicine Buddha. Okay, so they take the great medicine.

Great medicine is a word for aconite, which is a particular nasty plant, okay, and it's very poisonous, highly poisonous. So they take the juice of a great plant, which means the aconite, okay. They wash the stone in that, okay, tru te.

Then they take a tramo re, a very soft cloth, super soft. Tramo means soft or fine, very fine cloth, okay, and they cheat those. They shine it up with this plant acid, plant juice, and then chidor means they polish it up again.

Third time. You getting it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, third time.

Chidor che te. Then they... that takes the norbu chingbu.

Chingbu means... by the way, there are books of gemology in the tengyur, in the miscellaneous section. They're very interesting.

Chingbu means crystal, rock crystal, which in gemology is considered cheap, and, you know, like 40% of the earth's crust is chingbu. Not very valuable, but beautiful, okay. So they take a rock crystal, and that chalwas, the rock crystal, it separates out the rock crystal, and what you end up with is vaidurya.

In Sanskrit it's vaidurya. The Tibetans say bendurya. Lapis lazuli?

Lapis lazuli, yeah. You get lapis lazuli, this beautiful blue stone. Normally only...

you can only get it in certain canyons in Afghanistan, okay. We offered a Medicine Buddha statue to our sponsor, our translator sponsor, made from a boulder of lapis, about this big, extremely rare. And if you turn the statue upside down, I think it's at the college, you can see the boulder.

You can actually see the boulder under the... sticking to the bottom of the metal. They built the metal around the boulder, then they carved the face.

So that's called vaidurya, which is lapis, which in ancient times was extremely valuable, okay. All right, and there's a little definition I can write for you. Who's going to read next, Utpala?

Tracy, would you like to read? Oh, this one for you.

[Speaker 3]
Lovely, thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Nice. That represents turning the wheel of the dharma, by the way. Kamsa.

All right. Which means you should. Thank you, Poole.

Yeah, it's... Rikki Poole means, oh, child of noble family. Oftentimes it's a bodhisattva, okay.

Oh, child of noble family. They should do, in the same way as the cleaning of an unprocessed gemstone, they should shape us, to target us. They take sem chens who are yong su ma dakpa.

They take living beings who are, what did we say? Unrefined. Totally unrefined.

Totally, totally unrefined, okay. Rough stones. Very rough stones, okay.

And they understand their kam. Yeah, and that's the one that means what's your future, or what's your passion, or something like that. They understand, they see the person's kam.

And then they try to yin jung, down at the next last line. Yin jung is the same as ngen jung. Yeah, same as ngen jung.

Renunciation. Yeah, they try to give them renunciation, okay. So this is an ancient form of the word for renunciation.

Why? Why are they giving them renunciation? Because these people, korwa la gawa.

They love samsara. Yeah, yeah, they're having a good time in samsara, okay. They enjoy samsara, okay.

And they teach these people about mita, dung ngel, tongpa, dakme. The four principles, okay. Number one, everything is mitapa.

Everything is changing. This one means impermanent. You can translate this one as impermanent.

All things are impermanent. Your life is impermanent, your job is impermanent, your arm is impermanent. Okay, mitapa.

Everything is dung ngel wa. As an adjective, it's suffering-ish. Okay, all things are dakme pa.

Selfish. Yeah, nothing has any meaning on its own. And everything is dung ngel.

Mitupa. Sorry, mitupa. Mitupa means unbeautiful.

Not beautiful. Ugly. Yeah, ugly.

Gross, okay. So they try to talk to people about why samsara is not so nice. This is the first part of the washing the gems.

Okay, teaching them about the nature of samsara is the first washing of the gemstone. And that sounds like the first turning of the wheel. Yeah, Lord Buddha started out with this kind of stuff.

He didn't mention emptiness really. He's just mentioning how bad the world is, okay. Trying to get...

Say it. Well, yeah. Lightly he mentions the lack of a self, but it doesn't mean emptiness in that context so much.

And it's definitely not... It's only one of the sixteen aspects, for example. Yi jungwar che.

Trying to get them to get renunciation. And he's trying to get them into dulwa. Yeah, into the glorious dulwa.

He calls it the arya-ish vinaya, which is a nice... That's a sexy way of talking about vinaya, okay. Irish.

Not Irish. Arya-ish. Okay, not Irish.

Probably it's the same thing. Okay. Who's going to read next?

Utpala? Arya! Okay, it's Monday today.

So I want to tell everybody about this great book that we just finished. Rosa got this book bound by hand. This is a book that's for our sponsor, one of our main sponsors.

By the way, there are three sponsors for Seiji's work as a translator. Two of the sponsors are from Austria. And they asked me about eight years ago if I could translate a book about correlations.

And this is one of the... So I finished both of the famous books about correlations. One is All the Kinds of Karma, which is there, which is the classic 2,000-year-old presentation on all the correlations.

Correlation means do this, get this. Okay, so this is the classic source 2,000 years ago. Then a thousand years after that, there's a super...

A thousand years after that, there's a super... We're fixing our screen here. There's a super presentation on correlations from Dharmarakshita given to Atisha before he went to Tibet.

And we finished it recently in 850 pages. Here's the second volume. And this was hand-bound.

Rosa got it done in a rush. And it's a very beautiful hand-binding. And it's going to be shipped today to Asia to one of our main sponsors.

And we'd like to thank him. And then Seiji is... And Seiji is sending copies to his two sponsors in Austria.

And I'd like to thank them. One of them is not feeling well nowadays, and I hope it helps your health. Okay, let's go back to the text.

Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun. Come on, you guys get up. Okay.

Yeah, please read. Oh, who's going to read? Rebecca, are you here?

I have a feeling you are. Uh-oh. She's on retreat in Nepal, I think, or something like that.

I don't know. I occasionally get messages. So, oops.

Let's see. How about Maria? Nestero?

Nestero? Nestero?

[Speaker 3]
Nestero? Nestero? Nestero?

[Speaker 1]
Excellent. Thank you. Nice.

Uh... Dei tsam kyi means they don't stop with just that. Tsam means just.

Like, sem tsam means mine only, for example. So, tsam means just that. They don't stop their tsundru.

Their effortless. Their good effort. the Buddhas don't stop their hard work.

After that, they teach the person... By the way, what did they teach him in the last sentence? They taught them about impermanence...

Basically, the Four Arya Truths, which is the main subject of the First Turning of the Wheel, and the very First Turning of the Wheel. And then they start teaching them about dongpa nyi, and the fact that nothing has any tsenmas, natures or signs, and then the fact that nothing has any mumba, which means prayer, like Mun Lam Chenmo is the great prayer festival. And these are code words for the Three Doors of Freedom.

Yes, okay? These are code words for the Three Doors of Freedom, which are basically emptiness topics, okay? And he says, with this kind of talk, tam, okay, with this kind of teachings, they try to get them to kong du chu, means grasp, the way Buddhas exist, meaning their emptiness, okay?

With the Three Doors to Freedom. Three Doors to Freedom is a very important subject in Buddhism. It's very confusing.

Nobody understands it. We understand it. We have great writers who...

And I took a footnote from the... What we do with these books, when we finish a book, we take all the footnotes and we put it in a database. It's like an AI database.

And then those footnotes become the raw material for footnotes of the next translation. So every time we finish a book, this book has like 500 footnotes. And those footnotes become part of our AI database for the next book.

And then that speeds up the translation. But it depends on people like Utpala making sure that all these footnotes... Now that the book is done, the footnotes and the bibliography go into the AI database, and we don't have to redo it.

So the translation... If you notice, we've been speeding up. Books have been coming out faster, because we can build on the work we did before.

But that means we need clean footnote database and a clean bibliographical database. But it's time for these latest books, footnotes and bibliographies, to go into the database. And it has to keep going, or else I have to do it over again.

Okay, so here's the footnote that's so useful, I think. You want to read it, Utpala? I don't remember whose book it came from.

The Door to Freedom of Emptiness Itself. Traditionally, three doors to freedom are presented. The door to freedom called emptiness itself, the door to freedom where nothing has any quality, and the door to freedom where there are no wishes for the future.

These refer, respectively, to the wisdom which perceives that nothing has any present essence of its own, that nothing has any cause which is real, and that nothing has any result which is real. See the clear presentation of this difficult topic by the great master of the great ceremony, Tibetan monastery, K.J.P. Dargat. Yeah, I don't know why they said great twice.

Probably somebody likes me. Okay, great. Okay, good.

I mean, sometimes I like to be loyal to my roots. Okay, by the way, they wrote a very beautiful letter to us recently. Okay, yesterday.

So the three doors to freedom are emptiness topics, and he's describing the second washing. Was it the... I don't remember which was second.

Was it the... We were using a different kind of acid. Yeah, yeah.

And a finer, a black cloth. It's black, rough. Yeah, a rough...

It's probably a medium cloth and a medium acid in the second turn of the wheel. Okay, or maybe something like that. Okay, now the third one, Venerable Utpal is going to translate herself.

Okay, this paragraph here can you translate by yourself for next time, I think. Okay. We're almost done.

Yeah, oh. Well, you want to finish this third one? They say we started a little bit late, so I'm up for that.

Okay, why don't you read this one, Venerable Utpal, because it's your last paragraph here. Okay. Yeah, okay.

Here's the formula we had twice already. They... Sorry.

Yeah, this is the second time. Yeah, they don't stop there. They don't stop there.

They don't start, stop with the second turning of the wheel. They continue their efforts. Yeah, so by the way, if you were going to philosophize at this point, if the three...

division into the three turnings of the wheel does not relate to historical periods of Lord Buddha's life, and does not relate to the particular students he had at that time, what does it relate to? How things are. Yeah, or refining students, refining the minds of students.

Okay, that's interesting. And that he's asserting that this is the... By the way, the sutra is asserting that this is the basis of the three turnings of the wheel.

Further acidification of the student's mind. Okay. Okay.

Deyogtu means after he finishes the second turning, okay, the second acid, chir min dokpay kor lo tam, they give the student teachings about the wheel which never stops. The wheel which doesn't turn back. And in general there's a principle in Buddhism called chir min dokpa, which means you don't regress after that.

You can't regress after that. You keep going forward. And there's another teaching, a related teaching, called kor sum, the three spheres.

Which is giver, gift, and the giving itself, for example. These are all empty, okay. Kor sum nyel su dakpay tam, how the three spheres are pure, which means empty, okay.

This is the fine cloth and the light plant poison compared to acid and quicksilver, okay. SEMS CAN DE DAG GIS DE BZHIN ZHES PA'I YUL LA RDZUS DO He, RDZUS means to shove somebody into a place. DE BZHIN ZHES PA'I YUL Shoves them into Buddha paradise.

Oh, into the land of Buddha. Yeah, with the turning of the wheel, shoves them into paradise, okay. That's kind of cool.

There's a sutra called chir min dokpay kor lo tam. If you're interested, you can read this part here. Okay, and I got some more foot, you know, my own notes to myself here.

Because I was looking for your acid story, and I finally found it. So here's where, I think on your own, Venerable Utpala, here is Khenrubche's version of what we just read. Okay, and he uses some easier words.

Like here's bya'o kyi lawa, which means a woollen cloth. He uses more current words, current in the 15th century. Yeah.

Okay, which is pretty much our modern words, all right. And he goes through the whole description again, all right. This is Khenrubche's rewording of the sutra we just read.

I thought you might prefer the original. But here's the same expression. For example, he doesn't give up his effort.

Okay, he's, the sutra says sundu yong su ma chupa, he doesn't discontinue his effort. Here it says he doesn't give up his effort. Like that, there's small differences in the reading.

If you're interested, Utpala, you can read through the differences. Okay, and I don't know what you want to do. This, to me, it would be something we would add in an appendix.

We would use Khenrubche's version in the book itself, and then in the appendix we would use this. We would say, if you want to read the original of the sutras here, if you want the real names for the acids and all that. Okay, I don't know, do you...

So I should go through at least 394? Well, what I'd like, the thing I would really like you to translate is 394. So go, what I propose is, you go through Khenrubche's reading of the acid process, you tell us what words he changed, or he updated for his audience, but then this 394 is where we connect it to the three turnings of the wheel.

And that's the punchline. So you get to do the punchline. And I think that's going to be really fun to do after struggling through the acid and all that.

Let's hope some of it, you know, deals with refining my mind. Cool. Thank you so much, Marina.

And thank you everybody for tuning in and watching. Whoa, that's kind of crazy. Venerable Kat, I see you in two screens at the same time, as long as one is muted.

That's that. Thank you for listening to class. And now we do luckily have the venerable, the very venerable Upala here too.

Discuss with you the practical applications of this. And I don't think I mean gemological applications, but I suppose that's also quite practical in some circles. Yeah, we can talk about the, where was that?

Sorry, the Pakpe Chö Dulal Chök, to enter the Arya-ish Vinaya. Very sexy way to talk about the vows for individual freedom. Absolutely.

I mean, sometimes it does feel like I am being soaked in acid and brushed with very coarse, gnarly, coarse hairs. Yeah, I can relate to that. But that sort of means that it's working, I guess.

At least it means something's happening. Right, I can feel it. Ha ha.

That's what it takes. Very strong corrosive acid and coarse hairs. Yeah, I mean, I can say, and maybe this will help spark some conversation too, that in my own case, I relate because I feel like one of the things of just kind of putting yourself in the hands of other people, like teachers and other practitioners and stuff, it's going to do its work on you, which can sometimes be really hard.

And that includes just life's difficult situations if you're trying to grow and learn from them. Sometimes you really got to base the acid head on. Right.

So I'm very interested to see how KJJ is going to work this into the three. Oh, Tracy, good. Instead of me jumping ahead with my confusion, let us hear from Tracy McKenzie, please.

[Speaker 3]
Oh, there's so much that I love about this class. Well, I was one of those mixed crystal nerd kids when I was small. I loved crystals.

And I love how kids that come into my practice love crystals. And learning about these ancient teachings with the cleaning and the purification, and as you just described with the pumice and the horse hairs. But I also remember the other piece that I really loved was the heart about refining and going into the heart.

And I remember Geshe-la one time said, we know that emptiness exists because no two people will interpret the lyrics of a Neil Young song the same way. And in a class two weeks ago, I shared Heart of Gold. And there was one person in the class that heard the song for 50 years and never understood that he was actually looking for his own heart.

And there was a person from Iran who had never heard the song before. And she understood it the very first time. So that was just kind of a neat thing for me.

And I also love that I think if we all learn how to really connect and refine our hearts, hopefully we can all find our inner gold, that we don't have to so much do the oring like you do when you're panning for gold. But when we connect with that, I really think that a lot of magic and alchemy, if you will, can come from that. So there's so much that I loved about this class, but I don't want to take too much time so other people can share.

But thank you.

[Speaker 1]
That's lovely. I like your poetic approach to this. That's wonderful.

Thank you. Other ideas? We have poets and philosophers, gemologists.

So I'm looking forward to the next time because I'm not seeing how as someone who attempts to follow the consequence branch of the middle way school, how it could be at all possible that the third turning is the group of teachings that leads to the highest refinement of a student's heart or mind. Although they are pretty cool. They're pretty cool.

They are pretty cool. They're very cool. Did you get indication that it was going there, that that was going to be like the third turning was going to somehow be the final?

Well, oh, yeah. I thought that was pretty ambiguous. Just from what we just covered right here in this, from what I really meant, you know, just as what was it?

Right. Yeah, I know. Now I remember the gist of it, but I don't remember the quote.

Right. Just as well, this is where they after the third turning, which, you know, would be where you shove somebody into a Buddha paradise. Can I say something?

Yes, please. You know, what I loved was the hardcore description of what has to happen to these stubborn minds.

[Speaker 3]
You know, they have to be put in acid and scrubbed. You know, we're just so I don't know what it is. It's like.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, we're just so stubborn or something. I don't know what it is. It's not like I think I'm stubborn intentionally, but it takes a lot of, you know, beating it in for me to finally go, Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. So I love how the Buddha has organized the teachings in such a way that understands, obviously, my mind.

[Speaker 3]
He obviously understood my mind and said, you know, we're going to have to get out the stiff bristles first, you know, and heavy acid first. And then after a while, we can, you know, get the finer cloth. And then maybe later, the finer cloth.

So I appreciate that about Buddha's organization of his teachings to help me. Right.

[Speaker 1]
Right. And I don't know, speaking about it in terms of cleaning, I don't have any experience with gemology, but just with just with cleaning, that, yes, I have to get rid of the like the most gross, not necessarily gross as in, but, you know, large pieces have to be cleaned first, you know, before I can get to removing the more subtle dirty bits. And and it's like that, when, when we purify our minds.

I think what, like what the, the, the negative things that I encounter now are like far less gross. They seem gross to me. But they're far less gross than like, I don't know, killing beings, you know, jumping around and killing spiders, like I used to do when I was a kid.

Like, like, that's not going on anymore. It just becomes more and more subtle. But it feels gross.

Anyway, I don't know where I'm going with that. Something I've never been a gemologist either, but I, I do a lot of woodworking. And I have to, you have to start by sanding with a really rough grit.

And then you work your way to finer and finer and finer. So I was really relating with the ideas in the book, thinking about, you know, all the woodworking that I do and the sandpaper getting finer. And then I know this isn't anything super profound, but one of the first books I ever read about this kind of practice that we're talking about was really directed at people who are living in the world and trying to practice, you know, as opposed to, you know, renunciate cave yogis.

And it just said to like, make every action you do something that is, you know, you're somehow the path to enlightenment. And I just, it was kind of like further reminder to do that. Like this guy's, this llama's, this person's suggestions was like, every time you're getting in a car, you're like, I am driving to enlightenment.

And like, every time you're sweeping, every time you're doing anything ever, right. And I'm just like, yeah, yeah, that's great. It was a nice reminder.

So thinking about the refinement when I'm getting, when I get to do my sanding, which is one of my favorite parts of working with wood. So it just does kind of practice as a really nice chance to put your mind in a good place, no matter what you're doing. Right.

And they're like gross too, right? They're like, we have to tell ourselves, this is what we're doing. We're not just walking out the door.

We're not just driving down the road. We're doing this. And we have to like, talk ourselves into pretending first, and then before we actually do it.

I think it takes a lot of practice of doing that kind of pretending to even make it a habit. And then I think it probably makes some pretty good seeds once you start doing it. Well, yeah, if we have the three spheres in mind, right?

And that is what we just learned. Yeah. Makes them very powerful.

Well, anybody else want to share your experience with this? We have only a couple minutes left. 120 very long seconds.

Is Juan Hasso standing by for the Peachtree broadcast? I'll double check with him. What's going on?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, I'm here.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, cool. All right.

[Speaker 2]
Well, I mean, we can start now.

[Speaker 1]
For sure. I mean, does that sound good, Paul? Sure.

Thank you very much.

[Speaker 2]
Our last few comments.

[Speaker 1]
Quiz is going to be really fun. Your last quiz was amazing. That was one of the best I've seen yet in Swensong Tower.

Well, my opinion. All right, Juan, take it away.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, let's share a little bit of what is going on. Welcome, everyone. Thank you for attending to these wonderful, wonderful classes.

I think we're really, really lucky to be getting together on a weekly basis. I think it's really, really great, wonderful, fun. It provides to me a sense of community and union, which I really, really enjoy.

So thank you to everyone who make this possible. Just a reminder, after the next class with Tim Lowenhaupt, we're going to have the last session of the Sedona College. They have been going through May the 6th to tomorrow, the 21st.

They've been studying The Impossible Anger. And just today, after the translation class with Geshe-la and Tim, we're going to have this interactive Q&A fun session with Geshe-la. Um, if you want to link and watch this, you're going to have to go to the Facebook page of the Sedona College International Management.

This link actually only is going to take you to the website. But remind, remember, and at the end, we're going to show another QR code. You have to watch through Facebook.

And it's going to be happening at 7pm Arizona time. So 30 minutes after we finish with Tim Lowenhaupt and Geshe-la's class. Okay, in another news, we want to let you know a little bit of how this learning lab is going to be working.

As you may hear, on May the 15th, there was the first pre-recording class, Geshe Michael pre-recording class on this topic, this wonderful text, An Angel Debets a Devil. Next session is going to be on June 11th. And then another one, July the 6th.

If for any reason you miss them, and you want to re-watch them, the way to do it is like you register for the online retreat, which is the next picture, please. Yes, if you register, if you follow this QR code, you register for the online event, then you will gain access to the to these three pre-recorded classes. I mean, whenever they are released, then you gain access to them.

So the way to access them, just follow this QR code. You'll be setting up for them actual retreat and the pre-recording classes. And then of course, if you can make it in live to Mexico, wonderful.

Okay, next. Just to let you know that starting next week, the DSEU is going to start having for the first time sessions in Sedona. It's a historical moment.

I want to congratulate you. It's wonderful. You are having classes in both hemispheres of this planet.

So congratulations very much. And next month, next picture, please. They're going to have sessions in Mainland China, but with the CSP.

CSP group is, we'll say number four. You can follow these QR codes if you are interested to attend to those events, mainly for the Asian audience. But why not?

Maybe you can get there no matter where you live. Just to let you know, this is going to be happening in, what's that, in June? Yes, in June.

And also, sorry, today I wake up with a little sore throat. So maybe it's good for the translators. Yes, the innovation retreat happening on July, then August and then September.

We're going to hopefully soon have more information and a talk with Stanley Chen, which is the main organizer of these events. But there is a WeChat QR code you can follow if you want more information. And we'll be reporting more soon.

Okay, next one, please. He is also working on a very, very cool project named the Dunhuang Desert Caves. And then, as far as I understand, what they want to do is to start connecting these two wonderful spots, I'll say, wisdom holding spots in this planet.

One is in the Gobi Desert, in the Dunhuang Caves, and the other one in the Arizona Desert Diamond Mountain Retreat Center. They're going to have very, very cool projects coming up soon. Just to warm you up and let you know it's happening.

As I say, hopefully soon we will have a talk with Stanley Chen to talk more about these two projects. Next one, please. Oh, yeah, now.

Okay, next one. Next one is a very cool video. Something very exciting is happening on the 31st of May.

Let's go to the video. So, as you can see, on May 31st, we're going to have a replay of this wonderful concert that happened in Taiwan. It was in celebration of an ALL project, which was both like a celebration of the successes that have been happening in the last few years, and also a fundraising to keep going in the future.

Here is the QR code. It's going to have at 6 a.m. in Arizona time. You can register, follow us on Twitter.

The QR code. And there, they're also going to be talking about the history of Asian Legacy Library and about the future of it, all together combined in this beautiful performance with classical music. It happened in Taiwan.

Thank you very much, John Brady, for all the work you are doing. It's wonderful. And we're going to keep showing this advertisement so people can register for it.

Now, speaking of John Brady, we have today a very special guest with us, which is going to talk about a very, very cool project. Just before this picture, we have another video. It's the Patreon video we just want to show.

And after the video, go to our friend, Arina. She has been running this project as a general manager of the marketing of this project. She's going to tell us a little more about how it's going, what are the next goals to accomplish.

But first, we want to show you this video of the Patreon. Yes.

[Speaker 1]
So, join me on Patreon and we'll have fun. I'm not going to guarantee anything for you because I can give you locations and directions, but I can't enact the activities. But we're there to help you.

We're there with monthly Q&As. We're constantly there to serve the purpose of seeing if there are obstacles in your financial freedom plan, and if so, how to get them out of the equation and have smooth sailing to a financial future that's healthy.

[Speaker 2]
Beautiful. And I like the music very much. So, if the production team could help me spot Arina and then we can have some talk with her.

[Speaker 1]
Hello.

[Speaker 2]
Hello, Arina. How are you?

[Speaker 1]
Good. How are you, Juan?

[Speaker 2]
Doing well. I wake up with a sore throat, but maybe it's a good chance to start practicing speaking slower.

[Speaker 3]
Nice. I'm sorry.

[Speaker 2]
Turning problems into opportunities, I guess.

[Speaker 3]
That's right.

[Speaker 2]
Okay. So, how are you? Tell us a little bit about this project.

What has been happening and where is it going?

[Speaker 1]
Oh, that's a good question. Where is it going? I'll tell you what's happening right now.

The Patreon keeps going and we have new content. We record it every few months and we put it out every week. So, every week you have a new content from John Brady on different topics like self-compassion, which has been very popular.

We have a whole meditation course, which takes you from the beginning levels or if, for example, like somebody like me, you stop meditating for some time and you want to continue and you want to get back on track. That's an awesome course. Yeah, here it is.

And we're almost, we're kind of halfway through it. So, you have videos every week and also supporting videos for the course.

[Speaker 3]
At the end of the course, we're planning to have a Q&A with JB and Connie together. So, any questions on meditation?

[Speaker 1]
To me, it's a huge opportunity to ask questions. These people did a three-year retreat and did tons of meditation in their life. So, oh, also we have live streams, which is a very cool thing.

Every two months or so, we have a live stream and you can hop on it and ask any question. Last time we had Hector and Marcel on it and it was amazing. It was just beautiful to have them both talk, JB and Hector.

But anyway, just a lot of supporting materials and also a lot of kind of something that will support your practice if you're lacking that tiny bit of help, or if you want to be close to your teachers.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, by the way, I had the chance to attend to this talk with JB and Hector. Wonderful. I really, really liked it.

They open up in a very personal, friendly, and wise way, telling some of their personal history on their own personal path and how it relates also to the questions that the student had. I really, really enjoyed it. I think it's a great platform to gain, how to say, many of our own questions solved or ideas on how to adjust certain parts of the practice.

So, what's the deal? If people want to be part of it, what should they do?

[Speaker 1]
They should scan the QR code. Also, by the way, there is a very cool opportunity that I want to just talk about for a few seconds. It can actually have a one-on-one with John Brady.

This is something that, you know, it's kind of hard to do if you don't live around him or if you don't travel by his side. If you have personal questions that you don't feel like sharing with everybody on the live stream, there's a special tier that gives you access to his 30 minutes of his time, and you can ask him anything you want.

[Speaker 3]
And we also made it available for Russian speakers.

[Speaker 1]
So, there is translation. Oh, and I'll proceed to support ALL.

[Speaker 2]
Wonderful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also, this is a good time also to invite everyone to watch the concert that is going to be happening on the 31st of May.

It's wonderful what ALL and John Brady are doing in great part. They are responsible even for us having these classes. So, also, of course, any support that we give to Patreon is going to end up somehow helping this project.

Like, you know, at the end, we are an interconnected worldview organization. So, by supporting Patreon, you're going to get access to great content. And also, you will be helping the spread and the preservation of this wonderful, wonderful ancient wisdom.

[Speaker 3]
That's true. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Please come join us.

It's really fun. It's also very affordable if you don't want to spend much. So, we would love to have you there.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, so we will be showing one more time the QR code. And thank you very much, Arina. Best wishes with this and many other projects.

We will talk to you again soon. Yes, this is the Patreon QR code. And then this is also a good chance to remind you that John Brady is going to be teaching in Japan.

He's going to be teaching the Heart Sutra during three days in Kyoto, June 8 to June 10. And now, if you follow this QR code, there is a new website with English translation. So, you could dig for more information.

First, it was, I think, mostly in Japanese. But now, the English translation is available. Dig for more information following this QR code.

And I think this is it for today. Just to remind you one more time about the Q&A that is going to happen after Geshe-la's team class. And yeah, if you want to watch it, go to the Facebook page.

And I think, actually, this QR code, Gina helped us so much. She figured out a QR code to go to the Facebook page. Happening after the next class.

So, go back with the Mixed Nuts team for Timothy Lowenhaupt and Geshe-la's class. Thank you, everyone.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you, Juan. Excellent. So nice to see you.

And nice to see the Peach Tree World News, as always.

[Speaker 2]
Thanks. Hopefully, we see you soon.

[Speaker 1]
I'll see you in person very soon as I'll be visiting.

[Speaker 2]
It'll be wonderful.