Ник Лашо — Книга 2: Ратнамала, занятие 2

[Speaker 1]
Hi, Uncle Nick. Hello. How was yoga?

Suffering. Suffering of suffering. Sounds perfect.

You started me with an easier teacher like Peter or somebody. Right. For me, it's always better to get out of the way on the first day.

Crush you into crazy poses and then later everything else seems easy. His mother made him of rubber. You ready, Nicholas?

Yeah, I'm ready. You want to talk about your book a little bit? Yeah, I'll try.

This book, if I made a mind map, it would be blank because we started it last term and all we did was the title. This book is called Ratna Mala or Ratnavali, String of Precious Jewels, and it's by Arya Nagarjuna. And the last text I worked on was also a commentary on a text by Arya Nagarjuna.

This one is a commentary by Gyaltsabje, the same commentarial author as the previous text I worked on. And it was really tough. And then I got the idea in my head that he's a really tough author, although I have hope that this time it's not going to be as brutal.

This text is very famous. It's a letter to a king, if I understand correctly, from Arya Nagarjuna. And it's explaining how to practice the spiritual path in the form, more or less, of a lamrim.

Lamrim being kind of a genre of texts in our lineage that describe the entire path from beginning to end, from being a suffering guy like me all the way to total enlightenment. So, yeah, that's the text we're about to embark upon. All right.

Yeah. Thanks, Nicholas. Okay, here we go.

Do we want to just call it String of Jewels for short, Keshala? I'm going to answer that question for you. Hang on.

Okay, here's a little review of where we are. I made a major mistake in predicting when you're going to finish, Nick. So, sorry about that.

All right. I don't know, somehow I said the number of pages we can finish per class is actually the number of pages we can finish per term. Oh.

That makes a big difference, yeah. Yeah, so you're going to finish in 2029 now. Okay.

So that's maybe a six-year project. Okay. I think we could split it into two books, probably, because it'll be a thousand pages.

Yeah, it'll be more than a thousand pages. I think it's good if our books run around 500 pages, and that way people don't get too scared. So unless I messed it up again, I think we're finishing around six years.

So we could finish the classes for the first book in three years. So that's probably more possible. I agree that the title in your book here is not too exciting.

Oh, wait, it is exciting. Yeah, I went and found you the title in the... This is the full title from the colophon.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Yeah, so it's called... The title is Ningbo Dun Sawa Chepo. Okay.

I would encourage you, since it's your book and you're going to spend so many years on it, why don't you find a very user-friendly title based on Ningbo Dun Sawa Chepo, okay? What's that mean, by the way? The explanation, well, the nam she kind of need, right?

The explanation that clarifies the meaning of the essence. Yeah, the clarification of the essential meaning, okay? That's not sexy enough for a book title.

You want something like... I want you to figure it out, but I want something that people are attracted to. Emptiness Meditations was a great title, and The Golden Key was a nice title for the two books we put out already.

By the way, nam she is part of the descriptive title, so you wouldn't include that. I see, I see, I see. Gunpo Lodu Kyi Tsepe Gyelpo La Tam Cha What's that mean?

Just explain it. Gunpo Lodu Kyi Tse Composed by our protector, Nagarjuna. Yeah, Gyelpo La Tam Cha Words to the King Good.

Rinpoche Chanway Nam She Explanation of a String of Precious Jewels Yeah, good. And then the ornamental title is Ningbo Dun Sawa Chepo. Got it, yeah, clarification of the essential meaning.

Yeah, and then you want something more sexy.

[Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
And by the way, in the Tenggyur, I'll show you something. Here's the Tenggyur version, okay? And it gives the Sanskrit name as Ratnamali, which is okay, it's legal.

It would make it like a feminine string of precious jewels, okay? But the Sanskrit versions we have, let me see if I can get them up. They say Ratnamali, okay?

This is the Sanskrit version. I got this from Aisha today. This is the one we're going to use.

And so I didn't have time to insert the Sanskrit. But the Sanskrit manuscripts they found say Ratnamali, and it's the same thing. So some people call it Ratnamala.

The Tibetans call it Sanskrit Ratnamala. In the Sanskrit itself, it says Ratnamali. Same thing, okay?

So you'll hear people, sorry, that's the wrong text. You'll hear people refer to it as both. Okay.

Yeah, how much liberty should I take on coming up with a... Go, have Nur read you a little bit of Rumi, and then compare it to the best-selling poetry book. And see how much they are similar.

Right, right, right, right. That book changed Western society. And the guy doesn't speak Arabic or Persian.

It's like the Chinese translations of Shakespeare were done by somebody who doesn't know English. But they were poetic. So, okay?

Okay. What I'm saying is, in my opinion, on the title, you can take great liberties. I keep pulling up the wrong text for you.

Hang on. Okay, here we go. All right, that's all I have to say about your text, I guess.

Yeah, just that I found some serious typing errors. I would like to compare them to the new text you sent me.

[Speaker 3]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
See if yours is any better on those particular words. And then I'll be able to decide which text do we use going on, okay? Okay.

It'll save us a lot of time and trouble if we have a clean text. Yeah. And there are more scans on TBRC.

It was just I was having trouble. Something was going on with their website that day, and I couldn't download them. Yeah, their website's a mess.

Yeah, this isn't the first time that happened to me. I'm just getting the spinning wheels every time I try to download a text. Okay, we're ready to read.

And I think Dr. Kramer traditionally criticizes you in the beginning. And in the middle and the end, but that's offline. By the way, I would like Nick to be the Nagarjuna expert on our group.

And it's worth it to have just one person who just does Nagarjuna. And it'd be nice to do his six, Rig Tsog Drup, right? The six books on logic.

But recently we found the real name of those, which is, do you remember, Nick? Rig Tsog Drup?

[Speaker 3]
It was in my text.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, but it's Tung Nyi Drup, Rig Tsog Drup. Okay, cool, cool, cool. Yeah, the six books proving a lot of logic that prove emptiness.

Yeah, it's not the six books of reasoning, which we always thought it was. Now it says six books for proving emptiness. So I would love it if you could do all six.

That's my dream. Is this book one of the six, or is this a seventh? God, you got me there.

I think this is a seventh, actually. I was hoping you wouldn't ask that. Okay.

Well, now that we know that this one's going to take six years, I just... Yeah, for the first volume. Something will happen, like we'll enter a different time zone or something.

Okay, let's read. Dr. Kramer's checking. Okay.

Good. I'm sorry. I tend to read around the parentheses.

I got to get... Yeah, okay, good. Okay, here we go.

Nyingje Tsawa. Yeah, the root of compassion. He's describing a tree.

And if you don't know Abhidharma well, you don't know that. Okay, so this is a famous tree that's in the third chapter of the Abhidharma. It's on top of Mount Meru.

It's in the middle of a city on top of Mount Meru. Yeah, the one we were just talking about. Yeah, and that's your book.

So, Rabten means that tree's name, which is super firm. And by the way, the word tree comes from der. And firm also comes from der.

Truth also comes from der. They're all related. Der.

Hi, Eva, I'm working right now. She's sleeping. Sorry again.

A tree was a famous example for truth. And oftentimes you would take a vow on a tree because trees were solid. Trees didn't fall down, you know, and stuff.

But all of those words are related. Firm, truth, dharma, der. They're all related.

Firm. They all come from the same root, okay? So, this tree, his name is literally firm.

Firm tree. Both der, der. Both from der, okay?

And then he says, the roots of the tree are what? Compassion. Yeah.

And I guess the tree itself represents loder. Intelligence. Yeah, and by the way, I went to the first great lama's description of this tree for you, and I put it in here.

This is the translation I did 42 years ago, so it's a little rough, okay? But this is Abhidharma, third chapter. There's the description of this.

And then here's a description of the... There's a... yeah.

Here's the description of the tree here. It's called the King of Solid Trees, okay? And it's known as rupten, which means firmest, okay?

Its roots penetrate the earth to a distance of... 40 cubits is about 60 feet or something like that, okay? And there's a row...

So there's a description of that tree if you're interested for your footnote, okay? But it's very important in this first verse. So, its roots are compassion.

It's the firm tree of wisdom. And it gives a jip sil, okay? Jip sil means cool, and jip means a shadow, okay?

So jip sil means a cool shadow. There's a very naughty expression based on this, which I don't think I can tell you in public.

[Speaker 3]
Come on.

[Speaker 1]
Don't even tempt me. I mean, you know I don't have any self-control.

[Speaker 2]
Don't do it. You'll break him.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, fine.

[Speaker 2]
You know you could win.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, just from a linguistic point of view.

[Speaker 2]
Too late. I should have said you know you can't stop him.

[Speaker 1]
No, I really can't do it, Nick.

[Speaker 2]
I'll come to you after class. It's fine. It's good.

Good for you both.

[Speaker 1]
I do have some self-control. Tell Veronica I controlled myself, okay?

[Speaker 2]
We'll remember this day always.

[Speaker 1]
Jip sil, hlak sam means... Personal responsibility. Yeah, so the shadow of...

The tree represents wisdom. Its roots are compassion. And the cool shadow it gives is...

It's like responsibility that covers everybody. It's very beautiful. You've got to translate this beautifully.

Rawa here is Kunga Rawa. Anybody know? Rawa?

Kunga Rawa. I thought Rawa was born or something, wasn't it? I thought Rawa was like fenced.

But Kunga is bliss. It's the pleasure garden of a king. Yeah, yeah.

For example, the Jetavan, where people plot Diamond Cutter, is a Kunga Rawa. It was built for kings and beautiful trees. Seiji's text has a Kunga Rawa.

And the peacocks are wandering around eating the poison plants. Something is staying in this pleasure garden of excellent personal responsibility shadow from the tree of wisdom with roots of compassion. Its fame is Tai Ye.

It has no bounds. Yeah, fame spreads everywhere. Sing den means Seiji Denpa.

Seiji. Seiji Denpa. Brilliant?

Yeah, Seiji means... That's the word that I always say that my teacher taught me. I was having trouble with it.

And his English was terrible. And one day we saw on TV Queen Elizabeth standing with four other ladies. And he said, she's got Seiji.

And they don't. So it's like eminence. What do you call that?

Got a look of a special person. It means dignity, glory... Gravitas.

Gravitas, yeah. So that's Seiji. What is that?

The holy Dharma. Dhamchen. The holy Dharma whose eminence spreads endlessly.

Yenlak gyepay. Those are the branches of the tree. The widespread branches of the tree.

Yenlak gyepa. And on those widespread branches are metho pel yon chen. Shining flowers of good quality.

Yeah, flowers of extraordinary quality. So that probably represents... The branches probably represent the spreading of the Dharma.

And then the flowers on the branches represent the Dharma itself. Right? Cool.

And then there's jebus. That come from the flowers, right? And those are the chenle.

The good deeds of the teacher. Highest, chok de. And now, you know, he's got the whole root, the tree, the shade, the branches, the flowers, the fruit, and then the fruit soaks the rewa of duljas.

It completes, it fulfills the hopes of students, of disciples. The fruit of the tree fulfills the hopes of all the disciples. dulje rewa tadak dzok sepa.

Therefore, my Belden Lama is a paksam gyi shing. Paksam gyi shing. Paksam gyi shing.

Deep-rooted tree? Wish-fulfilling tree? Yeah, wish-fulfilling tree.

So, now he's like, oh, he's describing his own teacher as the tree. Got it? It's very beautiful.

Then he pops the answer at the end. This is my Lama. This is my glorious Lama.

And tsung means... We had chu tsung this morning. Same.

Equivalent. Yeah, equivalent. My Lama is similar to this tree, which is the wish-fulfilling tree.

He is the KP Kepa. He's the wise sage. He is the sage of all sages.

And I forever talk to du. Always respect him. I bow down.

I bow down to him. Who is he talking about? Is this...

I guess I'm wondering if this is Arya Nagarjuna, or is this Gyaltsabje? If it's Gyaltsabje, he's talking about Je Tsongkapa. Right.

I would take it that way, personally. If I were Tsongkapa's direct student, I think I would put that first. Here's the definition of that tree, by the way, if you're interested.

But it's just a paraphrase of the Abhidhamma. And Sala, we were struggling with it this morning. It's a special tree.

I forget the English name. Peepal or something like that. You can look it up.

The one that grows on Mount Meru. Yeah, but it's a species of tree that's found in India. Sala.

I don't... It's Shyla or something like that. You can look it up.

You can look it up in Sarachandadas. The Great Dictionary probably has it. Yeah, but it won't have the English name.

Oh, yeah, right. Of course. It should also have the English name.

Okay. By the way, as you mentioned, as somebody was mentioning, most lamas in the monastery will skip these verses. They'll just skip them and go straight to the content.

But I think they're important, and I think they're beautiful. And it's a challenge as a translator to translate them beautifully because they are certainly exquisite in Tibetan. All right, here we go.

And by the way, they are in perfect meter. How many beats?

[Speaker 3]
Let's see.

[Speaker 1]
You can count on your fingers, okay? Nying... Oh, sorry.

... 17, 17, 17, 17. It's difficult to do that.

He's showing off. I don't know why I've seen that. Okay.

All right, let's go, Nicholas. Sugeng is dying to check in. He just told me that.

He just got back from a surf trip. I hope you guys compare notes. That's where I was just before I got here.

All right. He's back to 19. Okay.

Difficult. Okay. All right.

... So, all... Oh, things.

All stuff. It doesn't come. It doesn't go.

And it didn't come. Yeah, and he saw that. And he saw that, yeah.

Arya Nagarjuna. Yeah, now this verse is to Arya Nagarjuna. So, the last verse must have been...

Okay. Yeah, so the first verse must have been Sankapa, because it certainly wasn't Nagarjuna. Right.

And... Gopang Chokdr. Gopang Chokdr.

The supreme... Gopang means spiritual love. Okay.

Right, right, right, right. Attainment. So, he lives in the highest...

He resides in the highest attain... This verse is supposed to be a presentation of contradictions. He lives in the highest level, but he sees there's no coming...

He has reached the highest level, but he knows nobody goes, nobody comes. How did he get there? It's all riddles.

This verse is supposed to be riddles, okay? He lives in the highest level, but he sees that nobody goes anywhere and nobody comes anywhere. And he also...

Salar means clearly, very clearly. So, you know the rest here. duje lam salar kim.

He kims. He knows the path of study, the path of the disciple. Yeah, good.

He knows the way, even though he never came or went. Something like that. druk gung shiway.

All elaborations have been put to rest. Yeah, what's an elaboration in the kitchen? Your idea of a husband who's yelling at you for no reason at all.

Yeah, that second husband, the one who doesn't exist... What was it, the first one? He's called chokpa.

It's kind of a figment of your imagination. You can think of it like that. So you can think of chokpa as a figment of your...

just a production of your imagination. It doesn't exist. He put all those to rest.

When he walks in the kitchen, he only sees one wife or something like that. druk gung shiway. And he nang du shuk.

He shuks in that nang. He stays in that... In that state.

[Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
So he stays in a state where nothing moves. But he stays in a state where there are no projections. He stays in a state where there's no projections.

But he does do a projection out of tuk je. Out of his great compassion. Out of compassion, he does do some projections.

He lives in a state free of projections, but sometimes he likes to do projections. It's supposed to... If you translate this right, it's supposed to sound like a riddle.

He sits in a state with no projections, but sometimes he wants to go send a projection. And who does he send it to? The duljak.

Yeah, to the disciples to dispel the darkness. Good. How much stuff does he understand?

Sung rab gyat so. A whole ocean of stuff. Sung rab.

Of teachings. Yeah, he understands the 300,000 Tibetan scriptures, for example. He understands them.

The essence of them. There are 300,000 important scriptures. It's the largest body of spiritual literature in the world.

By far. And nobody knows anything about it. Sung rab gyat so nyingpo ta dak.

Seek. Yeah, he sees them directly. Yeah, but he knows how to boil it down to nyingpo dun chikpo.

One essential meaning. Yeah, okay. So there's another contradiction.

He sees the whole ocean, and he distills it to a single drop. So you got to try to catch that poetry. Who is this guy?

It's Lu Drew. Lu. Okay.

Sao Thang Dina. Sao Thang Dina stays on that level? In this world.

It means on this earth. This earth, he's known to be one of the only people who is dukme. Free of any obstacle.

Yeah, who has no obstacles. In fact, he's the Sagan Buddha. Sagan Buddha.

Sagan Buddha in this world. That's Nagarjuna's nickname. De la duk.

To him I bow. Yeah, I bow down to him. Yay!

What's the notes there, Geshe-la? Oh, I just sum the sale. Oh, yeah, yeah, okay.

By the way, it also has implications of the sheen of gold. Just so you know. Sale.

So, you can say, you've got to find a word. The adverb here is, he knows the path that students need sale. And it means clearly.

But if you're going to be super poetic, you have to try to catch the implication of the sheen of gold. His knowledge shines like the sheen on pure gold. That's sale.

And sale drum is an ancient word for gold. Okay. And it also is defined as jenewa, which means exposed to its naked truth.

Jen means the naked truth. Jenpa. Good luck.

Okay. You've got to get all those meanings in that single adverb. To translate it as clearly would be a disservice.

It's something deeper. Okay? Sheenly.

Just kidding. All right, here we go. And who is that?

Gibson, are you there? Are you asleep?

[Speaker 2]
I'm here.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Now that I know you know all the words in Tibetan language. So you've just been letting word win all the money, right?

Okay. That's Bodhisattva. Okay.

You're going to check Nick. Go ahead, Nick. Good.

Nice. Shepa means what? Do you guys remember?

Opening of a flower? Not a bad guess. Oh, wait, no.

This is accept. Yeah. His position, his philosophical positions.

Okay? Okay. So the books that express his philosophical positions are Rabgar and Timmy.

They're stainless white? Yeah, pure white and stainless. Okay?

Perfect books. His books are perfect. And even when he talks, when he talks.

That's also kundi chok. All completely supreme. Yeah.

Now the next line was confusing to me because I took that as the speech of the Buddha. And finally I realized he was talking about cool, is what Peter Myrtle is. But here it means, here it means exhorted.

And that's, now it means, ring name means for a long time, people were begging me to write this commentary.

[Speaker 3]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Ring name means for a long time. So now the dampe ka means, by the holy words of my friends, okay, the holy words of my students and friends, they were constantly, they were constantly asking me to write this commentary. So it's a very beautiful, respectful term.

He's calling the words of his students and his friends, ka, which is normally the word of the Buddha. So holy beings have begged me to write this book. Okay?

He's being polite, which is unusual for... Gyatsabje. Gyatsabje.

Okay? Okay. And so, I'm going to, chung say je, I'm going to open up the meaning of this book by Nagarjuna, just a touch, just a bit.

Okay? Chung say je. And I do it with jo.

Joy. Joy. So, I'm very happy.

I'm overjoyed to do it. Jo on me. Overjoyed.

It's sometimes the word for coffee meditation. Okay? Okay.

Okay. So, so he says, I'm, you know, people bugged me for a long time to write this commentary, and I'm super happy to do it. But, you know, I'll just do it a little bit so that Nick can have something to do for nine years.

Okay? All right? Amalie's going to be reading it by the time you're done.

Maybe that's the whole point. It's true. Okay.

So kye means I give birth to great joy. I'm happy to do it. What is that?

We had it in Gibson's text this morning. Jun Ki for $100. Implied.

Implied. Damn, who is that?

[Speaker 2]
What do you think?

[Speaker 1]
Gibson. Gibson?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Word? This guy has some money. Okay, a hundred bucks.

I mean, word. Ask, okay, a hundred bucks.

[Speaker 3]
No, I refuse.

[Speaker 1]
Ali says she refused. She wants to give it to Gibson. All right, so it doesn't say here, he doesn't say here what directly?

That he's pledging to compose the work? He doesn't hear promise to die or finish this commentary. Right.

It's Jun Ki. It's implied. When he says I'm happy to do it, it means I will die or I will finish.

It's a promise. It's a promise. That last line is a promise.

SOM BAR DAM BYA BA SOM BAR DAM BYA BA Cool. All right. Keep going.

Gibson, because he didn't get the money, he wants to check you on the next paragraph.

[Speaker 3]
All right.

[Speaker 1]
Taeyang, Ducky, Giewicz. Listen, I think it's the time it takes the internet to go up to the satellite and get to the United States, so we should give you a half a minute head start.

[Speaker 2]
Think about, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's more fair for me.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Go ahead, Nick. Okay.

Taeyang, Ducky, Giewicz. All right. Yeah.

I'm sorry I couldn't split the sentence because he's describing Tsongkhapa and he's gushing. You know gushing? It's an English word, it means he's such a guy, he's so wonderful.

Okay, that's called gushing. It also refers to water which is pouring out. Okay, anyway.

Dayang, let me tell you about my gewa shen yin. My spiritual friend, my geshe. Let me tell you about my spiritual friend.

GZHIG TU DE BAR ZHES PAS BSTAN PA LA BYAS TE BYAS TE is similar to the word chen dzin in Seiji's text. Okay, cherishing. Yeah, so BYAS TE is a little different feeling and it means he's just in love with scriptures.

BYAS TE, okay? BYAS TE means he's just like, that's the thing he values above all else. What?

The DE BAR ZHES PAS BSTAN PA The teachings of the ones gone to bliss. How does my teacher feel about the teachings of those gone to bliss? GZHIG TU BYAS TE He's completely absorbed or completely overcome by a love for those teachings.

ZHES PA, there's the clue that it's talking about his future. Because ZHES PA is the high honorific, high polite word. He's in...

GZHIG TU means totally consumed by the teachings of the Buddha. And he loves to ZHES PA. Explain them.

And he loves to DROD PA them. Put them into practice. Yeah, and accomplish them.

YOD TSOS PA Completely. In fact, he's a YIN TEN GYI TSOGS He's a big old pot of goodness. Yeah, good qualities.

And in fact, his qualities, GONG NAS GONG They're above and beyond? They just keep getting better and better. As far as I've known him, his qualities just going higher and higher.

GONG NAS GONG means higher and higher. What's the Chinese emperor called in Tibetan? GONG MA Higher one.

GONG NAS GONG TU GYUR PA And moreover, he has a lot of THUB BYED. Great compassion. For DROD PA GONG MED PA People who have no protection.

Yeah, good. People who have no protectors. He takes them as the object of his compassion.

And it is from him that I THOS I listen. I learn at his feet. Yeah, this book.

That's the implication. I heard this book from him. And it's reminiscent of...

what's that note by Geshe-la? DGE BDAG GIS Once I heard this teaching. DGE BDAG GIS DUG CIG RNAM It's a reflection.

Gyatsobje is showing off because it's very, very close feeling, if you read it correctly, to once I heard these words from the Buddha. If you're familiar with Buddhist literature, classics, you're supposed to feel a shadow of Shariputra sitting and saying, here's what I heard. And then you hear the Heart Sutra.

You're supposed to get that emotion when he says, GESO THOD DE Here's what I heard about the Ratnamala, the String of Precious Jewels. Yay! Peter is right here.

You want to check him? Come, you want to sit here? You want to bug him for a while?

It's fun. Nick is very patient with me. I don't know about you.

I'm going to get my Austrian advisor here. Very good. And he's going to check here.

He's here visiting Sodoma.

[Speaker 3]
I know.

[Speaker 1]
With his wife. And here we go. Okay.

Try to make some mistakes, Nick. Okay. Oh, Skol!

Skol is some kind of Scandinavian thing.

[Speaker 3]
It's Swedish.

[Speaker 1]
Cheers, yeah. Okay. Okay.

OKUL DELWE TEN SANG PO THOB PAS DAS NDIR GCIG RTEN PAS DINDIR Okay, good. DINDIR GCIG RTEN PAS RGYEN PO RNAMS KYI LUG LAS CHE KHYAD ZHUGS PAS GCIG RTEN PHYI MA PHAN CHE KYI DON KHYAD PAR CHEN MA GRUB NA Good. Okay.

OKUL is a very ancient word for all of us guys. It's a very ancient word for all of us guys. A word I expect you to win $100 on next time, okay?

OKUL. Otherwise, what's DELWE TEN? DEL NJUR.

Aha, leisure. Yeah, now we have a body and mind, TEN, that we have time to study these things. We have time.

DELWE TEN SANG PO THOB We got the chance to study and practice. DINDIR Right now, here in this time. Yeah.

GCIG RTEN Yeah, GCIG RTEN RGYEN PO Respected elders of this world. I'll take it that way. There's a teaching that's even greater than the teachings of the greatest wise men of this world.

Oh, cool. RNAM KYI THUG PAS CHE KHYAD means is much, much greater. CHE KHYAD means much, much greater.

ZHUGS PAS And that's any teaching... Okay, you can take all the wonderful subjects taught at Harvard University. Okay, really.

Which is here called respected teachings of this world. And there's another teaching which is infinitely higher. And that's GCIG RTEN PHYI MA PHAN BYAS BSTAN GCIG RTEN PHYI MA Take care of GCIG RTEN PHYI MA Beyond the world or the...

[Speaker 3]
Next life.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, next life. Right, right, right. And beyond.

And beyond nirvana, enlightenment. Even the greatest universities of this world tell you nothing about this greater purpose of what's going to happen to you after you die and what can you do to make your life meaningful. They don't even talk about it.

KHYAD PAR CHEN And if you don't Drupad those teachings... If you don't learn, if you don't practice those teachings... Okay, please read slowly and my Viennese friend is going to...

Hi Peter, good to see you. Good to see you. All right.

LO DUN DRO LE CHER MA PAK PA YIN PE SHIN TU NYE PAR DKA WEY DEL GYUR GYI TEN LA NYING PO LEK PAR LAM PA GOS LA I said DKA, you're supposed to correct me, but that's okay. DKA Thanks. I don't know this PAK PA and I didn't look it up.

Let me look it up. Okay, PAK PA. Yeah, I don't know this word.

[Speaker 2]
It looks like it's like a version of...

[Speaker 1]
I'm not even sure it's spelled correctly. All right. It usually means polluted.

Here we go. It says here stained, yeah, polluted. I think it must be misspelled.

Geshe-la, it's a tense. Yeah, past tense. Meaning polluted.

I'll read it to you, okay? If you don't use these teachings, which are much higher than all of Harvard University's teachings, to do something about your next life and beyond, then your mind is more MAG PAG PA than an animal's mind. It should say your mind is even worse than an animal's mind.

But it says it's not worse than an animal's mind. So there's some problem here, Nick. Okay, we need to check it, all right?

If it had said CHER BAG PA, that would make sense. But it says CHER MAG PAG PA, okay? Which means it's not polluted like an animal's mind, but it is polluted.

In fact, it's worse than an animal's mind. That's the point, okay? And normally I can guess what it's supposed to be, but...

I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. We'll just have to check the carving, okay?

Anyway, it means you're more stupid than an animal, okay? Therefore, you really should LEC PAR LUNG means get the real ningbo from the stem you have.

[Speaker 2]
Get the essence of the teaching.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, get the stem. RTEN means body and mind that you are blessed with, that you were born with. I was saying that, but I was muted.

Sorry, my mistake, yeah. Okay, so whenever you see RTEN, I want you to think body and mind that you have been blessed with. A good body and a good mind.

That's a TEN. It means a home base for spiritual activity. TEN means a home base for spiritual activity.

Okay, body and mind. And you have DAL BA, and you have GYOR BA. Leisure and fortune, body and mind.

Yeah, you have spiritual leisure and fortunes. And those are NYES PAR GARG. Super hard to find.

Yeah, good, good. That's irritating me, but okay, you got to figure it out. I can check now to at least see what the other carving that I sent you says.

The other input, right? The other input, yeah. Here we go.

Oops, here it is. How do you spell it? S-B-A?

Sorry. I want you to look up R-O space L-A-S. Okay.

Here it says DENG ZHUO LE CHER MA S-P-A G-S-P-A. SPAGS PA. Yeah, let's go see what that means.

That's not what this says. Yeah. Let's see.

I could be equally wrong, of course.

[Speaker 3]
Mixed up? No.

[Speaker 1]
I'm going to try to open a scan here too, which is neither of these, I believe. Oh, really? Yeah, because there was quite a few scans of it available, and the only one I got didn't happen to be either of those.

Again, it also means mixed. Yeah, but that doesn't make much sense. Anyway, let's skip it for now, and I'll come back to it, okay?

Okay. Rice cooked together. All right, this scan is too hard to read on the fly.

I'd rather cover more with you and look later. Okay, keep going, and Peter's going to check you on the next verse, the next line. All right.

All right. Yeah, you see these problems with the text in this paragraph? Two serious problems, and that's why I thought we might look at another version.

We're pretty early into it. We already have a lot of mistakes. Dayoung, gyalwa se dang chepa means what?

Gyalwa se dang chepa. Well, gyal se would be a bodhisattva. So those who have gyalwa se dang chepa, I don't know, those with bodhicitta?

When it says dang chepa, it means A plus B, but the formula is AB dang chepa. Oh, that along with bodhisattvas? Yeah, the buddhas and the bodhisattvas, okay?

Good? Gyalwa se dang chepa means the buddhas and their daughters and sons. Ah, the victors and their daughters and sons, yes.

Very standard. Dangpa, these holy beings, they have sungpa many great shungs. Uh-huh, they have spoken many great texts.

And here's a $50 for Amalie, just a special offer to Nick. Dangak, personal advice? Shar, shar.

Shar, offered? I mean, shawa, shar. An idiom.

Oh, dangak tu shar means idiom? No, it is an idiom. Advised?

Cancel this bet.

[Speaker 2]
Or as opposed to new?

[Speaker 1]
When you're sitting in an audience of 5,000 people and there's a high lama up on the stage. Oh, take as personal advice? Yeah, yeah, okay?

So it strikes you. Shar means it strikes you. And you say, oh my God, he knows what I did yesterday.

Some people, they just lie and cheat to their own mother, you know? And then you're like, oh my God, there's 5,000 people here and he's talking to me directly. It's an idiom.

It's a beautiful word. Dangak tu shar. So all of the scriptures, if you're in the right space, all of the scriptures strike you as personal criticism from the Buddha.

Or anytime you talk to your teachers, oh God, how does he know what I did yesterday? I thought nobody saw me. So the shung chewa, the classics, strike you as personal advice.

[Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Strike you as personal advice for your own life. That's what he's saying here. Those incredibly difficult mind-only stuff strikes you as, oh God, they're talking about me.

Of course. You've got to be in a good space for that to happen.

[Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Then say cheat to Duke. Then you've got to go out and say cheat to Duke. Uh-huh.

Practice it. I'm trying to understand the say. Practice single-pointedly on this.

Then you've got the piece of scripture that it sounds like the Buddha is criticizing you directly. Take that, grab it, and go practice it for the next few days. Focus on that for the next few days.

Say cheat to Duke. Nyam salemba. Put it into your life.

That's the chewa which gave us the gyawas choktu. That's the offering which satisfies the victors completely or supremely. They'll sit back three days later and say, God, I was criticizing him among 5,000 people, and he got it.

Then he went and improved himself. That's so cool. That's the best chewa you can make to the Buddhists.

That's the best offering you can make to the Buddhists. Take it as a personal criticism, and then do something about it. Then they're like, God, that's so much better than Twinkies on the altar.

I'm so much happier to get that than, I don't know, whatever people offer at Dime Mountain these days on their 30-day retreat. What did you offer?

[Speaker 3]
Heart rocks.

[Speaker 1]
Huh?

[Speaker 3]
Rocks that are shaped like hearts.

[Speaker 1]
Heart?

[Speaker 3]
Rocks that are shaped like hearts.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, God, don't say that. My lama said no more hearts shaped like rocks. Anyway, yeah, there's shen me.

None other. There's nothing higher. Nothing.

Nothing higher. No better offering. Sungpa, the Buddha himself said that.

Do we have time? Oh, no, we're at time. Time's up.

That's a good place to stop, I think. Let's all make this offering tomorrow or today. I'll try to figure out if I have any big boo-boos.

Stop here. The date's the 16th, right? Yep.

All right, Nicholas, thanks for running all this show. I know you and Ben Kramer and Tim are struggling to get everybody paid, and we really appreciate it. Thank you for all your hard work.

Thank you. Thank you, Geshe Michael. Thanks for class.

Thanks for making this happen. This is amazing. Could you and Ben Kramer, in maybe Ben's next class, give us a summary of what you're doing on the cataloging?

Yeah, sure, we can talk about that. Just show some examples of what you're doing. Yeah, and Adam.

Yeah, your book that Adam picked out. Yeah, okay. We'll get into it.

Yeah, we can talk a little bit about it in Ben's next class. All right, take a break. Let me see how much time we have according to the schedule.

Ay-yah, your schedule, ay-yah. Okay, we start again in three minutes. Seiji's showing me 10.

I'll take Seiji. We'll do five. All right, six or seven.

I got it. Thanks, Geshe. 6.32, so you can leave that right there. Thank you very much. Okay, see you soon, you guys. All right, bye.

All right, bye.