Стэнли Чен — Книга 2: Красноречивые слова о сути океана высшего знания (Гьялцаб Чже о «Своде высшего знания» — Абхидхарма-самуччае), занятие 17

[Speaker 1]
Okay, we're on the fourth part. We have about one more hour, so slap the face a little bit. I know the people in retreat, we are a little bit tired.

So, you know, fight it. Okay, shipa ye we so so tse nyi ni. The next section is called, the next of the nine, the fourth of the nine, is called tse nyi.

And tse nyi means definitions. And there's some confusion in the ancient book at this point. And this book is so old, it's 2,000 years old.

Of course, we're going to have some problems with the book. That's like a hundred generations passed the book down. Do you guys play this game where you have a big family dinner?

And the first person whispers something to the second person. Then it goes around the table, you know. Like you said, I'm going to give you a hundred dollars.

Then after it goes through 20 people, they say, who's going to eat the fish? So, just imagine 2,000 years. So, in this shen zang towers classes, we're also struggling with the ancient nature of the books.

Because of war, because of epidemics, because of political changes, natural disasters, many books got lost. So, anyways, this fourth one, tse nyi, sometimes you see it called tse ma. Gibson knows what tse ma means.

Accurate perception. So, tse nyi means definition. Tse ma means correct perception.

They sound a little bit similar in West Chinese languages. So, I haven't figured it out yet. Anyway, he repeats tse ma after tse nyi.

And he said it's talking about tse ma. When you say tse nyi, it means tse ma. When you say definition, you are implying a correct perception.

Then he says pung kam kye je, which Stanley will tell you what it means. Pungpo. Pungpo.

And oftentimes the order is different. You would think it would be five, twelve, eighteen. But sometimes it's five, eighteen, twelve.

I don't know. So, tse nyi, shepa la gupa yod te, we should learn exactly what each of those 35 categories involves. Because, now I go to the end of the sentence.

Che means for the purpose of. We must become kepa, master, about the mikpa, the topics, of pang nyen. And that's again, it's a very strange abbreviation.

So, Gibson, you ready? pang nyen is an abbreviation of pang ja and nyenpo. What's that mean?

Nice. The thing that you have to fix, or get rid of. And then the nyenpo, what's the antidote?

So, it's important to learn the definitions of all of those 35 categories. In order to get it clear, what do I have to give up? And what will I use to give it up?

For example, should you give up the five parts of a person? The low, low school of Buddhism says yes. To reach nirvana, you have to give up all five parts of the person.

Then the higher school has a famous joke. And who gives up those things? It means if you give up those five things, there's nobody who gave them up.

To achieve nirvana, the low, low school says you have to stop all the parts of you. Then you become arhat, enemy destroyer. Then the higher school says, if you have to destroy the five parts of you, you become enemy destroyer.

Where's the enemy destroyer? They lost their body, they lost their mind. Okay, that's a famous thing.

Okay, so that's going to be the fourth topic. And it's one of those ideas we have to ... when you translate a major text, you have some questions in your mind that you're going to watch to see if they are resolved during the next 20 years.

Is there some special reason why they are mixing up definition and pramana, correct perception? And these are real mysteries. For example, why in his first word he said, how many?

Why did he say how many? Why didn't he say, here's the divisions? That's a mystery.

But we solved it already like an hour ago. Why the book starts with how many and doesn't start with, here's the divisions? Yeah, how many did Buddha talk about?

Okay, so we have another mystery here. I don't have it solved. But I will keep it in mind for the next 20 years.

Seriously. We'll see if it comes. Okay, ngapa de dak gi tsen shi nam shak ni The important word here is tsen shi.

I don't know if that's in Gibson's pocket or not. Tsen shi goes with tsen yi. Did Nick have it?

Isn't it an example? Yeah, good. We can say that.

So tsen yi means definition, lakshana. And then tsen shi means, what are you defining? In Latin, definendum.

Sorry, what's the word? tsen shi So the fifth of the nine categories, kind of secret categories of this book, it's called presentation. What was the fourth category?

Which we had three minutes ago. Definition. And then tsen shi means, what are you defining?

And in the study of perception, it refers to the reality of an object in the world, as opposed to the concept of that object. So, he asks a question here. tsen shi so-sor nam shak mo-pa la gupa yu te Why should we discuss, in addition to definitions, why should we discuss the real things that are being defined?

Why do you think? Like, I can give you the definition of a pizza. Or I can give you a ...

Pizza. Is it important to have both? I say yes.

I think it's important to have both. I think it's important to have both. Then you need the recipe for the pizza, which is tsen yi or lak shi na.

Then you need the real pizza. It means we cannot just study abstracts. We need the actual reference or the things that those ideas refer to.

By the way, I'm his idiom teacher, not idiot teacher. I try to teach him a few idioms every day. Long ago, he promised me $20 per idiom.

But it's a little bit like the American national debt. Anyway. We say let's get down to brass tacks.

Tack means nail. To nail on the wood. And brass is a special metal.

So the meaning of the idiom is what, Ron? Let's get down to brass tacks. It means let's go to specifics.

Okay, okay. Like copper. Similar to copper.

So it means don't give me the definition of all these things. Don't keep telling me the recipe for the pizza. Sometimes give me a pizza.

The closest pizza to here is a two-hour drive. I think that's the ancient definition of a good retreat center. If the pizza is two hours away, it must be a remote place.

So we're just trying to get down to brass tacks. Specifics. Okay, number six.

Stanley asked me if we could finish the ninth day, and I said make a special prayer. But I'll tell you one thing. Grandpa will never rush this job.

Never. If this book takes 50 years, I will take 60. They know it.

Okay, GRUB PA GORIM NI GORIM means what's the specific order of these elements, these 35. Then he says, why do you mention the specific order of the topics? It's so that we can touch it.

Here's touch it again, meaning decide. This touch it means decide definitively. Finally.

TAR means edge. And PHYIR is found in a famous sutra's name. Dorje Chodpa.

Chedeka. Okay, so it means we must make a final decision. Okay, so it means we must make a final decision.

This, of these 35 topics, teach this one first, teach that one second. It will help the student more if you teach them in a certain order. Who decided the order?

Here's another idiom. Mr. Know-it-all. In English we say Mr. Know-it-all. Usually it's a criticism. She thinks she's a Mr. Know-it-all. She thinks she knows everything.

But in the case of Buddha, he is Mr. Know-it-all. And he decides what to teach. What to teach first, what to teach second, what to teach third.

This is called Khorin in this book. In other books it's called Lam Rim. Steps of the path.

Khorin. Okay, good. Number nine.

Seventh of the nine. The original book just says dun. Which means meaning.

And our author expanded it immediately. He didn't say dun, he said ming dun. Ming dun means meaning of the names.

That's Abhidharmakosha. We are studying 35 things. They come in three groups.

5, 12, and 18. If we learn them, we don't have to have our own heart operation. Their name is piles.

Doors. And categories. But the ancient name is regions.

For categories. Hey, let's study piles, doors, and regions. And hey, when I say piles it has a special meaning.

When I say door, I'm not talking about a wooden door. When I talk about region or dhatu, it has a very special meaning. So the seventh of the nine categories is what's the special meaning of the strange words.

So the important word is nge cik here. Say nge cik. nge cik means what's the almost like secret meaning of these words.

His brother said Vasubandhu said bung dang kye go re kyi dung It means many elements is pile. Door means where did it come from. And what was the third one?

Oh, region means what are the different types. They're all secret words. So that's the seventh of the nine categories.

So that's the seventh of the nine subjects of this book. I'm going to use very unusual words. And I do it for a very special reason.

Buddha never uses a strange word without a deep reason. The deeper meaning of the strange words that the Buddha uses is the key to the secrets of his teaching. Why that book called Diamond Cutter?

How many times in ... Okay, thousand dollar question. This is how you wake up the IR people.

Thousand dollar question. IR people only. Don't raise your hand before I ask the question.

All right, you ready? You decide the first person. Seriously, raise your hand.

It's this one. That's not serious. Ready?

How many times in the Diamond Cutter Sutra did they talk about diamond cutting? How many times in the Diamond Cutter Sutra did they talk about diamond cutting? Okay, the lady in the blue shirt.

Zero. She said zero. Zero, correct.

You get the three zeroes. Do we have enough cash? I'm just checking.

I have, I have. We have, we have. I have money because I started IR 50 years ago.

I can bet thousand dollars and pay it within the next few years. So, because I did IR, I have unlimited money. And I'm not bragging, but I'm saying this is the result of IR.

Okay, so the point is the word diamond cutter must have some deep secret meaning or somebody made a mistake and put that name on the book. Okay, and trust me, it's not a mistake. And every word in those 35 things has also a secret meaning.

Okay, yay! Maybe we can finish now. We have 30 minutes left.

I have time to eat the pizza which I don't have. Category number eight is the metaphors for the five parts of the person. What question comes to mind when he says this is the metaphors for the five?

Yeah, what happened to the other guys? There's 35. You're going to give me metaphors for five?

Maybe a sangha was reaching the end of the class and he had to speed up. But he only has metaphors for the five. There's a reason why they want to give metaphors for the five heaps.

If you understand the previous seven dunsen, dunsen means topics. Because we're on the eighth one now. So he says, if you understand the first seven, dunsen means topics.

Then you can understand something about the five parts of you. And you will stop ching gi lok shi. Say, ching gi lok.

I like the word. It sounds like youtiao or something. I don't know.

It sounds like some Mexico City street food or something. Do you have ching gi lok? I got some fresh ching gi lok.

There's a restaurant in Phoenix. They only serve Mexican street food. It's my favorite restaurant in the whole universe.

So, ching gi lok, Geshe-la likes a certain translation, but it's a little bit naughty, just like Geshe-la. Gibson, ching gi lok. Ass backwards.

So, ass is a bad English word for pigu. Now, imagine your mom ate some strange food while she was pregnant. And your ass is not in the back, your ass is in the front.

Like, how difficult to poo-poo. Anyway, in English we call it ass backwards. And it's not just a silly word.

It has a powerful meaning. It means 100% exactly opposite. I'll give you an example.

What's the best way to make money? Keep your money. Put investment Talk to your investment advisor.

Keep it in a safe investment. Keep it strongly in your hand. This is the ass backward way to make money.

Why? The complete opposite is true. You want endless flow of money.

Share what you have always, every day, all the time. In this case, the normal world is ass backwards. If you're learning English, don't use this word.

You'll get in trouble. You go to the airport to go back to China. And the guy in the ticket counter gives you the wrong ticket.

Do not tell him, this is the ass backward ticket. But here, in classical Buddhist teachings, there are four famous ass backwards. So say tsang de dak tsang de dak dak tsang de dak dak These are very famous teachings of Buddha.

They're called the four complete opposites. tsang means tsang ma. Tim, do you know tsang ma?

Pure? Pure in the sense of clean. You can say pure.

What's it refer to? Five heaps. Don't forget.

We're talking about the five heaps. In this number eight. Yeah, people say, oh, you know, she's so beautiful.

She's so, she's supermodel. Movie star. I'll tell you a secret about the movie stars.

They also get diarrhea. Then that beautiful, beautiful lady, she's like, what comes out is her real nature. Seriously.

She looks so beautiful. Somehow she looks like she cannot suffer. But those beautiful people suffer worse than people like me.

When I get old, it's just ugly became a little bit more ugly. When the movie stars get old, it's great suffering. Nobody wants to see me.

There's a famous Barbara Streisand. You okay? Famous actress.

Famous singer. She's the greatest singer of my mother's generation. Then she got old.

Then she forced to play in the comedies. She plays the funny grandmother in the comedy show. Yeah, and she's the most beautiful woman.

Then when she gets old, they say, okay, you can play the stupid grandmother. So, sang, clean or pure. That movie star lady, she's not clean or pure.

Trust me. You check the results of her colonoscopy. There's a special medical test.

There's a special medical test. When you reach 45, you should do it. Every five years.

So, I waited till I was 70. But for you younger people, when you reach 45, you must go for colonoscopy. And, you know, it takes half hour.

And they put a camera up your butt. And the camera has also scissors. If they see a cancer bump, the camera can cut it.

And 99% you won't get cancer. So, if I say, can I stick this up your butt? You mean the movie star or something?

Yeah. They say, no. Then I say, it will save your life.

Okay, stick it up every day. I agree. So, anyway, when you check the movie star there, you can see TZANG.

The first of the four teachings by Buddha. So, don't think she's pure, clean, or something. Her poopoo is the same as your poopoo.

Okay, TZANG. Now you got the correct feeling. We have 21 minutes.

Okay, say the second one is DE. Fun. Oh, movie star's life is her body is so beautiful and pure.

We already talked about that. And then DE, she's really happy. Man, you should see what those movie stars married couple throw at each other.

Brad Pitt broke, I think, five cell phones on his wife. Okay, their life is not happy or fun. They also have difficult life.

So, TZANG DE Don't think they are having some kind of magic life. They have the same fights that we have, but much worse. They are busy being famous.

They don't have time to come to retreat. So, their fights are worse. Okay, BDAG PA Next one is BDAG PA Permanent She's going to be a famous movie star forever.

She's number one. Or the soccer team is number one. Or this politician is number one.

It's not BDAG PA. It will end. It has to end.

Because it was caused. Everything will end. These classes will end.

IR at Diamond Mountain started this week, and it will end sometime at Diamond Mountain. I hope it will be a thousand years. We'll see.

Understand the real nature. No position lasts forever. No organization lasts forever.

No city, no country, no king. One of the most frustrating jobs of translating ancient texts is to figure out who the hell is this king who used to control all of the one quarter of the world. And we don't know who.

We just have his name. So, that's the third one. Is this going to last?

Will IR last forever? No. Well, I don't want to join some project that's not going to last.

But this project teaches you how to make it last, so it's a good project. Okay, nothing lasts. Okay, fourth one.

Very difficult. DAG MI Sanskrit. Atman.

Atman. It has its own nature. Self nature.

And it's very, very simple. Very, very few people understand it. Is this phone itself?

It's not a microphone. The phone is itself. But does the phone come from itself?

Or from a factory? No. It's coming from my seeds.

How many phones in this room don't come from seeds? That's why we say, excellent, excellent. Yeah, that's all.

No self nature. It doesn't mean Xiaoping is not Xiaoping. Venerable cutting is not venerable cutting.

It doesn't mean that. It just means they don't come from their side. They come from your side.

If you think the pen comes from a factory, you should use toilet paper in the front. Not like this. Understand?

It's an aspect. Completely wrong. 100% wrong.

If you think the pen is coming from the pen, that's one of the four famous mistakes. Cool? Okay, good.

Alright, if we keep going, we can finish this introduction. By the way, every time you finish a book, or you finish a major section, Gibson is finishing his second book. Next class.

I counted, is it five, six years or something? How many? Three or four years.

So, what I'm saying is there's not many times in your life that you will reach the end of an important ancient book. You are about, in the next 20 minutes, you are going to reach the end of one of the most famous pieces of ancient books in the world. Then you should celebrate.

Go to dinner. Ask Xiaoping for extra dessert. Your shirt is already shrinking.

Yeah, but I finished a major section today. Okay, you can have double dessert. Agreed.

I better... We have the autumn festival in China, so we have special dumplings. What's that?

Mooncake. We don't have mooncake. We have dumplings.

You didn't bring mooncake? You come to climb the mountain without mooncake? Oh, what kind of China...

Wait, wait, sorry, secret, secret. Everything is ready. You got to have mooncake.

Let's don't finish this part. Mooncake strike. Okay, we'll finish.

Okay, gupa namme ramye. gupa namme ramye It means the divisions. And the wording in the DONG is yedang, yedang.

nampe ramye mupa na gupa yod te There's a reason why they say divisions. Now they got divisions. chu sum la gyepar yewa If you divide those three things into more detail, how many?

Eight plus twelve plus... Sorry, five plus twelve plus eighteen. Thirty-five.

He says there's a more detailed division. You mean compared to this thirty-five? Yeah.

There's a division into druk chu tsa chik, sixty-one. And there's a division into thirteen. And if you understand those kinds of divisions, you can tokpa, with an S, Gibson, you can realize dakme.

Yeah, things don't have self-nature. For the rest of your life, when grandpa says no self-nature, in Sanskrit, anatman, you must think about the pen. The pen don't come from itself.

The pen comes from me. For two thousand years people misunderstand this word. No self-nature.

You stare at the wall. You sit like a stone. Think about pen, pen, pen.

Okay? That's a terrible, terrible mistake. Deadly mistake.

It's like you kill yourself in a car. It's worse than killing yourself in a car. That's not no self.

No self just means there's no pen don't come from you. Unfortunately, the person who got this teaching in this room, today, or my friends online, 250 beautiful amazing people. I can see you.

Don't pick your nose. Those people, you heard this amazing thing. For the rest of your life, if you understand what we said today, for the rest of your life you can never hate another person.

If you really understand about the pen, it's impossible for you to hate another person. If there's something you don't like about another person, fix yourself. Fix your seeds.

Who made that person so irritating? You did! Ah, stupid!

We had a famous guest here one day. Not a famous person. Just a lady.

She's always complaining. By the way, she doesn't come here for 20 years. I can talk about her.

There's an English idiom. She stood up one day in the class. I hate this place.

Why? I'm surrounded by idiots. This American idiom.

I'm surrounded by idiots. Usually the supervisor at work will say this. I'm surrounded by idiots.

But at Diamond Mountain everybody Why? Why? She made those idiots.

Of course she's surrounded by idiots. Why? She's an idiot.

In this system, if you want to prove you're an idiot, then say, I'm surrounded by idiots. Okay, got it? Now, unfortunately, you can't complain ever again in your whole life.

But we will. Maybe even tonight. Because we can't remember.

And retreat helps you to remember. The silence helps you to remember. And you don't make mistakes.

What's a mistake? For example, you don't say I'm surrounded by idiots. That one sentence creates a hundred more idiots.

Then that's the most idiot. We got a few minutes, I think. By the way, I checked the whole database.

Three million pages searchable in one second. I can't find the sixty-one. Cannot.

And I also cannot find the thirteen. So, I'm still looking. And we input new data every day.

We just finished the NAR BKANG thing here. It's in Chinese. Thirteen years.

Three thousand seven hundred classics from ancient India. I received the data last week. It took thirteen years to input it.

We finished. And I checked there also. It's not in there either.

So, we keep working. We're about ten percent finished. So, let's see, by the time Stanley finishes this book, probably we'll find it.

By the way, you could logically try to figure it out. And I tried. Is there some combination of five, twelve, and eighteen that makes sixty-one?

I'll give you double the twelve. I was working on it. I couldn't find a solution.

Maybe you guys can. Yeah, if you double twelve and eighteen, it's Wait, no, no, it's not. Sorry, it's not.

Yeah, sixty-five. Anyway, don't do it today. How much time we got?

Four minutes. Grandpa says when you have one minute, use it. That's my philosophy.

Okay, so here we go. Stanley, do you want to read? Okay.

NI PA LA NI Yeah, NI PA LA NI means now we've reached the second section of this book. And he says, guess what? That opening summary has a mirror summary.

The second one. So now we're going to start the mirror... I call it the mirror summary.

And here's what it looks like in the West Chinese language. We finished the nine. And then some people say there's eleven more.

And by the way, you're starting to get a feeling for Abhidharma. The thirteen connects to the eight, but they also got the fourteen, and that connects to the seven, but the twenty-three is different. This is Abhidharma.

That's why in DCI we call them accountants. You start to see why I chose this name. So here's another account eleven.

And we're going to talk about that second summary. You want to read this one just for good luck? Yeah, yeah.

This whole paragraph. NAM PHAR, NAM BARE, NAM PHAR BZHEN GYIS GOS NAS PHYE BRAG TU NUS PAR BYA BA'O What's this book called in Sanskrit? abhidharma, samuchaya, so samuchaya means collection, there are two famous abhidharma books, of course the IR persons know the name of the abhidharma, you've been studying how many layers, five layers, good, never give the answer immediately, wait till Geshe-la offers money, word knows about this, that's how he became rich, then he had like three babies, anyway, samuchaya consists of four great vinishchayas, and vinishchaya means, here it's called, what's it called, vinishchaya means like a detailed presentation.

So this book is called the samuchaya. and it has a collection of Vindhishchaya and we're going to start talking about those. So I'm going to ask Stanley.

He's going to take the next three sections, and he's going to translate those. Yeah, kyepar jawa, dangpo la nyi, and then this whole, this last one is pretty long. Okay.

Got it. Okay. Stanley, what is it?

It's the second part. That's the second great summary of at the beginning of this book. Oh, okay, I see.

You mean compared to the first dong we just did? Yeah, we finished the nine part. Oh, okay, I see, I see.

Now comes a second dong of 11 parts. Okay, and that's the nature of this book. By the way, this was a Buddhist movement that started in 500 BC, and it continued for 500 years.

And Buddhism was taken over by a group of people, for actually 600 years. And the Buddha didn't write anything. He just gave teaching in the forest, in the gardens.

Then later people wrote it down. Those people who wrote it down were very nerdy people. Why did you hear Buddha say?

Well, Buddha gave five categories, 10, 12, 18 categories, 13. Then everything became very dull. And these guys took over for 700 years.

And that's the Abhidharma movement. Then came Asanga. My only.

Are you Nagarjuna? Nagarjuna. Okay, around 650 years after Buddha passed.

Unbelievable hippie. His mind is psychedelic. Probably he plays Jimi Hendrix music.

His mind explodes in beauty. His mind looks like fireworks. And then he said, man, you guys are killing Buddhism with boredom.

Come on, let's make it cool. Then he wrote his famous Wisdom. And that became the standard book for emptiness for 2000 years.

And we've been teaching it here at Diamond Mountain for four years. And we will finish in October. So, what's the appropriate idiom?

Be there or be square. It means either come or be stupid. But we will finish Nagarjuna.

And it's very beautiful and very deep. Okay? Alright, have a nice dinner.

Thank you for coming. And you are the pioneers of IR. And it's a heavy responsibility.

You thought you're just coming to a program and go home. Later they're going to make statues of you guys. Here, there will be a statue of each person.

You are the first ones of IR. And it's a heavy responsibility. Each person here has to help the foundation of IR.

Fifty years from now, when your hair turns white, and you have air conditioning also, you have to say, I was born, when Ye Ye Agong taught the first IR. And you have to take care of the system. I have to go.

We don't know. Someone has to take care of the system. Once you sit in the class, it's a special curse.

You have to babysit the system now. It's like I gave you two small children and said, I'm going on a trip. Take good care.

You won't let them starve, right? You won't let them wander on the street and get hit by a car. This system, you have to babysit it.

You can't let it starve or wander on the street and get hit by a car. You are the babysitter for the rest of your life. And I will have vacations.

And you have to take care of the little kids. What's the little kid's name? I and R.

Two kids, I and R. Okay? Agree?

All right, wait. Some people say okay. I didn't hear.

Okay? One more time. Sorry, you go.

Three, two, one. Okay. Now you can eat.

Thank you. Thank you, Geshe Michael. And those of you online who want to come, there will be an alphabet class starting now.

So stick around.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you for Geshe-la's teaching. That's the end of today's teaching. Now the live footage can be cut off.

We can start now. Okay, so now we're going back. So now the online students are going back to the IRZOO meeting.

And we'll stop the live stream from here, from the Xuanzang Tower. And the online host can start the explanation.

[Speaker 1]
Now we arranged tomorrow afternoon's schedule for...

[Speaker 2]
Oscar.

[Speaker 1]
Hi.