Стэнли Чен — Книга 2: Красноречивые слова о сути океана высшего знания (Гьялцаб Чже о «Своде высшего знания» — Абхидхарма-самуччае), занятие 18

[Speaker 1]
Good afternoon, good evening, good morning, good morrow. I hope you've all successfully navigated the time change. I understand it's difficult, but I see a lot of people here and joining quickly.

We have a very special class arranged today. Yes, it is here to do, as you apologize in Arizona. But the rest of the world revolving around the center of the universe in Rimrock is honored to face the challenge.

And I believe Stanley Chen is hovering somewhere nearby ready to give us a very special class. We're going to do in Chinese, I believe, and that means that the interpreters will be offering us a translation, of course, but even we English speakers who are so spoiled and used to having everything in our own language have the opportunity to go into the English interpretation room soon. Again, this is all contingent on Stanley being here, which is there.

Found him. Hi, doctor. Good to see you.

Hi, I was a little upset that I didn't see you in Diamond Mountain. We missed one day or something.

[Speaker 2]
I know.

[Speaker 1]
So my motivation today, my motivation today is mainly to torture you with my Chinese. I'm delighted. It's it's my honor.

I'm sorry. You'll have to find a crueler torture because I'm just going to be tickled. Maybe Chinese.

I leave it to you. Thank you for preparing for us today. I'm excited.

And I and the other English speakers are going to dive into the English interpretation room and I give you the floor. Dr. Stanley Chen, thank you so much. Oh, thank you.

OK. Very good. Thank you.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Welcome. Welcome to this class today. Today is still a team class by a few of us.

[Speaker 2]
And it is my turn today.

[Speaker 1]
Normally, we don't have much chance to allow Chinese speaking audience to listen to the original teaching because we normally teach in English. Actually, an ancient language that we are learning, which is quite difficult. Thank you for your support.

And we will teach in Chinese today. I will do some sharing and welcome every one of you to go into your corresponding room. We are going to mainly speak in Chinese today.

If you don't want to suffer too much and you want to understand more, you are very welcome to go to a different interpretation channel. OK. Is my voice clear for everyone?

The screen is not clear, right? OK, good. OK, good.

As long as my voice is clear, then it's fine. The speed of the Sedona Wi-Fi is sometimes good, sometimes not so good. Now I will start to share my screen.

OK. Today, we will share a very special book, which is on the same topic of our Abhidharma Samuccaya that will be explained by Joshua later. We just arrived in Rimrock from San Diego today.

We just arrived in the capital of Rimrock. So, next class, Joshua will lead us on a very, very important and famous topic in Abhidharma Samuccaya, which is on five heaps. Personally, I love to try my best to explore deeper under Geshe-la's guidance, explore deeper into ancient wisdom.

So, surprisingly, I found this book recently, which is by Master Suryamati. And this book is very important on our topic on Abhidharma. Because at Xuanzang Tower, we have two books on Abhidharma.

One is by the younger brother, Abhidharma Kosha. And another one is by the older brother, Master Asanga. Recently, or I can say in these one or two years, because of the Dunhuang project, we have turned our focus onto this Mahayana Abhidharma, which is by Master Asanga.

Because of the Dunhuang project, we would like to explore more on this Mahayana version. And during the process, we are referring a lot to this text by Master Suryamati in order to understand the Mahayana Abhidharma Samuccaya. And recently, I realized that Master Suryamati specifically wrote a book to explain the basics or the foundations of the Abhidharma Samuccaya.

This topic is what we are going to learn today. The name of this book is Commentary on Mahayana Five Heaps. This is a literal translation.

I believe many of you know the topic of Five Heaps, especially those who have learned the Abhidharma Kosha. This book is very valuable for using as a reference because it is about how Mahayana feels Five Heaps. My own way of learning is to do a compare and contrast, comparing between the Five Heaps of Hinayana and Five Heaps of Mahayana.

So this is one meaningful way to learn, which is to compare the two types of Five Heaps. My goal, one of my goals today is to give you a very boring Five Heaps class today, which means I'm going to follow strictly according to the text to present how Mahayana explains the Five Heaps so you can understand this class as an explanation or presentation that we are going to present these Five Heaps, including what is the hidden meaning or like we are going to deconstruct the card,

[Speaker 2]
looking at all the softwares, etc.

[Speaker 1]
So my only intention is to try to deconstruct all the different categories under Five Heaps with all of you today so we can have more understanding on the Five Heaps. If you have tried to deconstruct a card or something similar, after you have broken it down, then you can really understand all the details. In English, this is called reverse engineering.

After you have broken it down, you have to put it back in order to understand what is Five Heaps. So I can guarantee you, you will feel bored today because we will look into a lot of lists because our next class is by Venerable Upala. Her class will be very sexy, which is on MHS, so we can have a balance.

And I'm responsible for making you feel bored while Venerable Upala will make you excited, or you may not understand her class as well.

[Speaker 2]
So this is our plan for today.

[Speaker 1]
One thing I'd like to do is, while we are looking at the Five Heaps, I will do a mind map. I will do it so that you can think with me together. Because in the Five Heaps, there's not only one list.

There are many lists, and each of the lists can be broken down. So this mind map is to help us understand the deconstruction of this class. We will look into the first paragraph.

I will read it. For the English translation, you can just summarize it. Buddha talked about the Five Heaps, which is Form, Healing, Discrimination, Formation, Consciousness.

Okay, this is the first list. What are the Five Heaps? Form, Healing, Discrimination, Formation, and Consciousness.

We are starting with the Five Heaps. It has five parts, which are Form, Healing, Discrimination, Formation, Action, and Consciousness. I will also write down the English.

You start to feel bored, right? This fourth one in English is very interesting. We can take a look.

It's Other Factors. So there are five of them. What is the Heap of Forms?

Now it gets interesting. I don't know whether this part can be translated into English, because it's quite complicated. What is the Heap of Forms?

Look at this word. Look at this word in Chinese. It doesn't mean color.

It means physical matter. How do we understand it? Which is the next sentence.

So now we are going to break it down again. There are four elements. It is physical matter made up by four elements.

So now we focus on the Heap of Forms. And you can see we are breaking it down into another list. You have a question, then the next sentence is about it.

The next sentence is, what are the four elements? Okay. I can see everyone's expressions.

Let's see how boring it is. I cannot see your face. I would like to know how many words you find.

Here it is talking about the four elements. Earth, water, fire, and wind. Some other lists also put space into this list.

[Speaker 2]
Say there are five.

[Speaker 1]
If you are a student of IR, you just believe that this kind of boring topic can help your innovation. It can balance our thinking process in our brain.

[Speaker 2]
So there are earth, water, fire, and wind.

[Speaker 1]
This word jie, which means realm in Chinese, often appears in Abhidharma. Like we have 12 stores of sense and 18 categories. Now we see the same word jie.

You can understand it as physical energy.

[Speaker 2]
So there are earth, water, fire, and wind.

[Speaker 1]
And here you may think, what is earth? So does soil mean earth?

[Speaker 2]
Water means the liquid in our body.

[Speaker 1]
Do I also have fire or wind in my body? If you think about it, it's not like that. Because form doesn't only mean the body.

The heap of form includes all the physical matters in the universe. So these four are more basic. They are composition energy or composition elements.

So if we continue to read it, we may get the answer. So this sentence means, what do these four really mean? Here, Master Siddharamati gave a very precise and short explanation, which includes the explanation of earth, the explanation of the word realm, jie.

And we can now look at it. Very cool and very clear. One of the reasons I love this book, it's sort of like an encyclopedia.

It's very precise and with a very clear logic. I cannot translate it directly into English. So I will give this opportunity for all the other students to struggle to try to understand it.

[Speaker 2]
What is earth?

[Speaker 1]
Earth means solidity. So this earth doesn't mean soil. It means the solidity, the nature of this matter.

[Speaker 2]
What is water?

[Speaker 1]
Water is wet, the wetness. So it is very clear. It is wet.

If earth is solidity and these four elements, all the physical matters in the universe are composed of these four elements, from this perspective, we can ask ourselves, is the softest thing in the world, does it have the elements of earth? Like, for example, a very soft screen, does it have earthiness? Yes, it also has some solidity or else everything in the world cannot be joined together.

Here at Sedona, we have a lot of rocks. And like in China Mountain, we have a lot of different kinds of rocks. This kind of very dry matter, do they have wetness?

Yes. Right. Meaning, the most boring Abhidharma also have some wetness, also have some interesting stuff in it.

And fire is warm. There is absolute zero degree, there are things of absolute zero degree. Even such things have some warmness.

Or else, it is like the heat death in the universe. Meaning, if there is no temperature difference, it will reach the point of heat death. So according to Abhidharma, everything has some warmness in it.

No matter how cold it is, it also has some warmness. And wind is lightness. It is very light.

There is another kind of explanation. I'm not sure whether it is just a different translation, but I know that some other Abhidharma texts say that wind is movement or mobility. So I think this wind element is about mobility.

And every matter in the universe is composed of these four elements. Just a different proportion, giving a different kind of matter. And how about this word jie, realm?

Why do we call these four elements jie or the realm? Because these four elements can maintain their own nature. They have their own function.

Like what we learn in the periodic table at our chemistry classes. Why are these elements their element itself? Because they have their own nature.

In Abhidharma, it emphasizes that these elements can maintain their own nature. Meaning these things can maintain their independent nature. No matter if it is a form or a trauma of the mind, it is the same.

So here in this Abhidharma, we are changing our heads. Like what Geshe-la mentioned, that we have to know when to change our heads. Because we are now in Abhidharma, this self-nature is a very important term.

But if we put this term of self-nature into Madhyamaka, it is a thing that we are heavily denying. It is a very big enemy for Madhyamaka. But in Abhidharma, especially when we are talking about this category of things, this word self-nature is very important.

So that's why after Gautama gave the first spirit of teaching, he started to talk about emptiness. When he was teaching Heart Sutra, Diamond Cutter Sutra, he started to talk about emptiness. Because he realized that the students start to get anxious because what he was explaining was totally different from his first spirit of teaching.

So here we are talking about that these four elements can mean its own self-nature. And back to the heap of form, we said there were two types.

[Speaker 2]
The first type was four elements.

[Speaker 1]
If you like Japanese manga, here you can have a lot of creativity because a lot of Japanese manga are from these four elements. And the second category of the heap of form is the form made the physical matter formed by the four elements. So you can break it down into four elements and the form formed by the four elements.

Between these two, there are karmic relationships. The four elements are the cause and the form is the result. One example I'd like to raise is the first generation iPhone.

There are touchscreen, there are big screen, all these are existing. But when we put them together, then we had the first generation of iPhone. And what is the form made by the four elements?

Let's go back to the paragraph. I may not have much time to pop in details in this paragraph, but we can discuss in the future. What is the form made by the four elements?

If we put together, if we categorize all the physical matters made by the four elements, if I don't remember wrong, there should be 11 types. There are the power of the eye, the power of the ear, the power of the nose, the power of the tongue, the power of the body, and then form, sound, smell, taste, and touch. The last one is not obvious form.

[Speaker 2]
So there are 11 types.

[Speaker 1]
And what is the power of the eye? For this word, in English, it is power. This word, power, what does it mean?

It's like the same question we had when we saw the word 借, or form. And in Abhidharma, when you see such words, they may have a deeper meaning behind. The 12 books chosen by Geshe-la in Tsentang Tower each represent a different topic.

Or each represent a different language. And in all of these languages, each word may have a very different meaning. So in Abhidharma, what does this word power mean?

We will discuss later. But you can understand this logic as five pairs plus one. The five perception and the object of the five perceptions.

The power of eye is to perceive form. And this form doesn't mean physical matter. Just now we also talked about form.

It was a physical matter. But this form here, does it also mean some physical matter? Does it mean that what is perceived by the eyes are all physical form?

[Speaker 2]
The eyes cannot perceive sound.

[Speaker 1]
So later you will find that shape and color or like later we will understand this. So now we look at the second pair. The power of the ears are to perceive sound.

And the power of the nose is to perceive smell. The power of the tongue is to perceive smell, a taste. And the power of the body is to perceive touch.

Like if you hug your significant other, then you will feel some kind of touch. And the last one is very special. Let me see if any one of you can guess.

Like the 10 just now, they can put into five groups.

[Speaker 2]
But how about this last one?

[Speaker 1]
Why is it so strange that there is an extra one? Don't forget this category. Someone guessed consciousness, but don't forget.

This is under form made by the four elements, which is under physical matter. Why something we cannot see, we also put it into physical matter. This is very interesting.

The eyes can see the breath, the air can be seen by the eyes to a certain extent, and the ears can hear it. So this five-symbol color is the non-communicating color that a friend just said in English. Someone translated it as non-communicating form.

Someone said it's dark matter, very interesting, but no. I would like to ask you, for dark matter, where will you put it? Let me talk about this non-communicating form.

It is part of a physical matter existence, but it cannot be perceived by all the powers. One famous example under Abhidharma is if you have taken the five vows, the one-day vow, then you will have an aura or a halo around your body, which cannot be seen by normal people and cannot be touched or smelled or listened. But for some very high-level bodhisattvas, they can see this halo.

They know that you have taken your vows. But back to the very interesting question, if we talk about dark matter, where do we put it? It's a new thing discovered by science.

Yes, seeing that now there are tons and tons of dark matter going through our body. You can guess. For me, I would now put it under the power of the eye.

Or I would put it under the form perceived by the power of the eye. It is some form perceived by the eye. Meaning if you develop your power of the eye and you have a better power that you can perceive different spectrums, that you may be able to see it.

It's just my guess. Next, I would like to talk about a few words. Why do we name it form caused by the four elements?

Why caused by? This caused by means the four elements are the cause. So the four elements, the form caused by it has a karmic relationship.

And about this word power, why do we call it power? There are a few meanings here. If you know Chinese, you can try to guess it.

For example, what is the main meaning here? For example, the root of the eye and the eye stone are the main cause of eye stone. So the root here is the main cause.

For example, the root of the eye is not the main cause of eye stone. The word power is mainly, like it mentions about mainly. Like the power of the eye cannot cause the eye stone.

I know a person who is a very good yoga teacher. One day, I feel very frustrated and he came to my back and touched my back. After a few seconds, she said, Stanley, are you feeling frustrated?

So I'm not sure maybe he can perceive something other people cannot perceive through the power of the body. But here, it mentions about mainly. It is the consciousness that the power mainly corresponds to.

For example, for a plant, what kind of roots it has can tell us what kind of fruits it will give. Chinese word power also means roots in Chinese. And here, in the later part, Master's Dharamati also had more explanation.

What is the power of eye?

[Speaker 2]
What is the power of the ear? What is the power of the tongue?

[Speaker 1]
I will not go through it one by one. You can read it later. But when you see this word, the power of eye, you may understand it as the eyeball, but not really.

You can see someone who has an eyeball, but he doesn't have the perception. Power of eye meaning the power to see. If you are a blind person, you have an eyeball, but you cannot see.

Having an eyeball doesn't mean you have the power of the eye. More specifically, you can read the details here, which is very interesting. And we also talked about this in the Abhidharmakosha classes before, including the shape of this power of the eye, power of the ear.

In the ancient times, there was no microscope. We also discussed what is the shape of this power of the eye, the power of the ear.

[Speaker 2]
How do we see it?

[Speaker 1]
And the scientists in those times didn't need to rely on the devices, outer devices. They have their way to find out the details. And after we talked about the five powers, we are talking about the corresponding objects.

What is form? Abhidharmakosha, basically we only talk about three types. One is the obvious form.

Formal form. I will just only briefly go through this part. After form, we will see sound and then smell.

By the way, those who come to Xuanzang Tower classes, I think most of you are concerned about the topic of language. You can see that language is put under sound. Why is it not under form, but it is under sound?

Because language is a tool to pass on wisdom.

[Speaker 2]
If we do not have language, we cannot hold this wisdom.

[Speaker 1]
And to learn this wisdom, we need our ears. I find it very interesting to put language under sound.

[Speaker 2]
Next, we see smell.

[Speaker 1]
It doesn't only mean good smell. You can see there is a bad smell here. Stinky smell is also a kind of smell.

Oh, you have a strong smell today. After you learn Abhidharmakosha, you can say to someone, you have a very strong smell today. And next we have taste.

Also broken down into sweetness, sourness, saltiness. Spiciness, bitterness. And what is touch?

[Speaker 2]
It can also be broken down into a lot of kinds.

[Speaker 1]
There is smoothness, wetness, heavy touch, light touch, cold touch, hunger or thirst. This touch itself is very interesting. We find that a lot of our behavior in our life is affected by this touch.

You may not even realize that you are being controlled by it. How does it define smoothness, wetness, etc.

[Speaker 2]
is very clear.

[Speaker 1]
This is one of the reasons I love Abhidharmakosha so much.

[Speaker 2]
Because you can find all the definitions in the book.

[Speaker 1]
What is thirst?

[Speaker 2]
What is hunger?

[Speaker 1]
Hunger is one of the important words that Geshe-la likes to use. Here I'd like to briefly talk about non-communicating form. In Abhidharmakosha, we talk about the metaphor of the foul.

But in this Abhidharmakosha, we talk about cause by samadhi, which we didn't mention in the Abhidharmakosha. Here it says the form that is caused by samadhi is the form caused by the four meditative states. The four meditative states cause this kind of form, meaning if you have a good and deep meditation, you have this form caused.

And now we are talking about the relationship between matter and mind. One reason I love Abhidharmakosha is because it's talking about a lot of the scientific topics in the ancient times. And here it says non-communicating form is cause.

It's called good. If you don't understand this, in Mahayana Abhidharma, there's a different meaning for it is caused by following the fouls well or not well. So if you can learn different languages, I see that Ben Kramer has a very special facial expression.

These have a meaning of non-communicating form, so meaning is karma also non-communicating? If you have time, if we continue to talk about this, then I cannot, I cannot. Let's move on.

We still have 15 minutes. Let's finish this. What is the heap of feeling?

I forget if we talked about this heap. Heap means a group of things put together, a pile of things. So if you see this word yin or heap, don't think of it as one item.

For us Chinese students, I remember when we were at school, there's always a day of cleaning in every week, and everyone has to take a broom and sweep the floor.

[Speaker 2]
In our childhood, we always had those times.

[Speaker 1]
And in those days, our teacher would ask us to sweep all the leaves into a pile. And then some garbage truck would take it away. So for this word heap, yin, you can think of it as the pile of leaves.

So when we are talking about these five heaps, we should think of them as five piles of things. Our body is made up of piles of things, not just individual things. And about this heap of the feeling, it is something non-physical.

So now I'd like to ask you, because we have finished talking about physical, does it mean the rest is mental? If we guess it this way, are we right? After physical, is everything else mental?

All of you are right, because there is still the third type. They are neither physical nor mental. They are all in the fourth heap, the other factors.

Here we are talking about three types under the heap of feeling.

[Speaker 2]
There are three types.

[Speaker 1]
So in your life today, if you have any feeling, happy feeling, unhappy feeling, or whatever kind of feeling, you can put it under these three. In English, it is called feel-good economy. You can understand it as some good-feeling economy, meaning now you pay for what makes you feel good.

For example, in the past, our thinking of consumer behavior is that we only buy things that are useful and have good functions. But now we look into whether it gives us a good feeling. Because now, like when all the phones look the same, if the product can let the consumer feel good, then you will have more chance.

[Speaker 2]
I love this concept.

[Speaker 1]
Now back to Abhidharma, we have joyful feeling, unjoyful feeling, and feeling that is neither joyful or unjoyful. So this third type of feeling has a bigger proportion in our life. But it's always in the background.

It is always happening in the background. And your feeling has never stopped.

[Speaker 2]
It's always happening.

[Speaker 1]
No matter if it's a happy feeling or unhappy feeling or neutral feeling. May I ask you, after you become Buddha, do you still have feeling? Because there's a point that there's some saying that you just feel very calm, no ups and downs, no joyful feeling or unjoyful feeling after you reach that state.

But actually, if we just stay in this neutral state, then we don't need to practice because we always have it. So it is a very important question to ask ourselves. Meaning if you learn wisdom and become enlightened, how will you be?

Will you be further away from suffering and have more happiness? You should have a better and better life. Someone talked about bliss in the chat room.

And the Buddha has another name, the being of bliss. So one important point is to stay near to those people who are always happy, like Deshla. And we recently accompanied Deshla to a hospital and had a surgery.

And we found that he is the happiest person in the whole hospital. And one day, the doctor didn't know Deshla. And he came to ask Deshla, I'm just wondering, do you do meditation regularly?

Because you are so different from all the rest. All the other people are having a bad day and you are still laughing happily. And the next is the heap of discrimination.

For this heap, there is a lot to say. We will first look at it briefly. How do we understand this heap of discrimination?

To put it briefly, you have an ability in your mind to grasp or discriminate or identify the identity of the objects before you. So there is this keyword, grasp or engage. And you have to understand that all the things we are discussing in Abhidharma have a nature.

And this function of the discrimination is when you engage in something, you can identify this object. So I would like to ask you, for this discriminating mind, after you become enlightened, after you reach a blissful state, after you don't have any more problems, do you still have this heap of discrimination? Can you still identify or discriminate things?

If yes, what is the problem of our discrimination in the very beginning? Because we should understand that these five heaps should be problematic. When you are trying to practice, you should understand it as trying to convert these five heaps into a higher state.

Not to stop all of them, but to convert them. In Abhidharma, there is a very important concept to transform the five heaps into very high wisdom. And since now we already have this discrimination, and if those enlightened beings also have discrimination, what is the difference?

We have to ask ourselves this question. And in Abhidharma, there are 51 mental functions. And we have put thinking and discrimination into two individual categories, into two piles of leaves.

Like when you are in your campus trying to sweep the leaves, you put this type of leaves into a pile. This type, you can just burn it away. Like here, we put feeling and discrimination into two individual piles.

[Speaker 2]
Why?

[Speaker 1]
Because it is affecting our life every day. And later, you will learn a lot about the mental functions. You can see there are many of these mental functions here.

These are different stages of anger and shame, soundness, agitation. These are two enemies for meditation. Sleep is very important.

Wisdom, faith, these are very important. And control your mind, putting your mind into software and thinking. From all of these mental functions, these 51 types, why do we put thinking and discrimination into two individual piles?

Because theoretically, you can have 51 heaps. So meaning apart from these two, you can put in 49 more heaps. Plus the other three, you can have 54 heaps.

So why do we categorize the thinking and discrimination into two heaps? And don't forget, these five heaps are the first teaching and one of the most important teachings by Gautama. And many people saw emptiness directly after listening to this teaching.

When Geshe-la first mentioned about this, I was very excited. But after now more than 10 years, still nothing happened. But I still believe it is very important.

And why do we put these two into a separate category? I have three more minutes. I will just conclude this part.

And you can see. You can see that here in this Mahayana version, when we look at the heap of consciousness, we are talking about the alaya consciousness. To prove that this book is under mind only.

And here you can understand that all the eight consciousnesses are put under this last heap. The eight consciousnesses of mind only are put here. And the heap of other factors, normally when you go to different classes, you will see this heap put in the very end.

You will first talk about the other four heaps. Then you will see all the rest are under this heap of other factors. Including the very important me is under this heap.

Me is under this heap. If I am under this one, if me is under this heap of other factors, then what relationship do me have with my body? If me is under the other factors, what is the relationship between me and my body?

Between me and my feeling? Between me and my touch?

[Speaker 2]
Etc.

[Speaker 1]
They should not be one. Why? Because the five heaps are separate.

They are one thing. Then we don't need to discuss about the five heaps. Like when we were sweeping the leaves in our school, we are trying to put them into different piles.

If we put them into the same pile, it's meaningless. If I am angry, but me is under other factors, the anger that I have or the objects that I'm angry with are in this other factor. But in my heap of consciousness, I have a consciousness of anger.

My consciousness is tainted by this anger. So it has changed. But that thing is in another heap.

And when I'm angry, my feeling is very strong. My thinking or my discrimination is also very strong. Someone also said because there is discrimination which causes the anger.

So these are in another heap. So what is the relationship? If you think about it and if you look at yourself in this way, then how will you live your life?

Because most of the time we see ourselves as one thing, one individual thing. But actually we are a system. One part is affecting the other part.

And I'd like to also ask a question that we can discuss later. In this Mahayana Abhidharma, we talk about five wrong views. These five wrong views are all in these five heaps.

All of us have these because we have a very abundant source of wrong views. So don't worry, we all have it. If you don't have enough, I can share some of mine with you.

One of the wrong views is the view of destruction, which is the first link in the twelve links, the misunderstanding. Here it says if you have the following views on your five heaps, then you already have a misunderstanding. What are those views?

You see oneness. You see one person of myself coming to class. You see yourself as one person.

You see it as not changing. Or you see it beyond five heaps. Or you see your own feeling as my feeling.

If you have all these misunderstandings of the five heaps, then you have the view of destruction, which is the first link in the Wheel of Life. And you are already stuck in this never-ending hovering. Just because of this, Dalai Lama taught the five heaps in the very beginning, which is to stop this cycle.

For this paragraph, this view of destruction means bad selection. So what is this? We are going to list this list today.

Let's go back here. Look at this five heaps. We just listed a little bit today.

So you can see for this five heaps, we have just listed out a little part. But you can see from this set, we are trying to understand this and ultimately to stop this very first view of destruction, which causes all our problems and troubles. So that's why five heaps is very worthwhile to learn.

And that is why this book is one of the 12 books that we learned at Shenzhen Tower. As my teaching today, next we can express some of our viewpoints. What do you think about what we have learned today?

What does it do?

[Speaker 2]
How can it help your life?

[Speaker 1]
Now you have to activate your wisdom in the other factors and put away the dullness and agitation and activate your knowledge and wisdom in the other factors. And especially activate your power of the mouth in order to give birth to language and so that our peers, our friends can receive it by their power of the ear and to help our peers to remove the seventh consciousness. Is there anyone of you want to share?

We have eight minutes for sharing. English is also very welcome or Russian or Spanish or anything. Ben, I think Geshe Michael is correct.

When you want to ask people to meditate, it's all noise. When you want people to talk, they go into Samadhi. Hello, teacher.

Thank you for your teaching. It's very cool. I have a feeling today that in the very beginning, you mentioned about five elements.

Earth, water, fire, wind. And I had a question. There is an element dissolution meditation which was taught by Geshe-la and translated by you.

I remember in DCI, you also taught us that the reason to do a meditation is to become our meditation object. So I'm thinking when I do this dissolution meditation, in the first few stages, the dissolution of the elements, if we do this dissolution meditation, will it allow us to plant seeds to see the dissolution of the four elements in our world, which means death? Then I'm thinking, of course, uncertainty in life is true.

But I'm thinking about this point. If we are trying to become the meditation object ourselves, is this meditation trying to let us see this dissolution of the elements? Because we don't have much time, I cannot talk in too much detail.

But the essence of your question is whether we should do death meditation. Meaning if we do a lot of death meditation, do we die sooner? Or we will see more death around us?

It's not like this. It depends on how you do it. Like when we are talking about the keep of discrimination, if you are scared of death, if you take death meditation as your object, if you are scared of death, of course, this is not good.

But you can also understand death in a wise way. Like death is certain, and the time of your death is uncertain. And when you die, only good seeds can help you.

If you understand these three important points, then you have planted very good seeds. So this element dissolution, meditation is the same. If you focus on the emptiness, you are planting the more deeper understanding on emptiness.

Like when we learn death meditation, it's the same. It's not to let you feel more frightened about death. It's to let you get real freedom from death.

For the same object, how do you face it with different wisdom? In Abhidharma, there are two wisdoms.

[Speaker 2]
Wisdom is divided into two types of wisdom.

[Speaker 1]
For the same object, you can have a wrong understanding. For example, if you are scared of talking about death, then it's some wrong wisdom. If you do this meditation with the wrong wisdom, then it's, of course, I'm sorry, not two wisdoms.

It's bad wisdom or wrong wisdom. But if you do the meditation with the correct wisdom, which is to consent, which is to understand death with love, then the seeds that you have planted are not bad seeds. And instead, you can plant seeds of more happiness and long life for the people around you.

So the key is, how do you face this object with your heap of discrimination? Different discrimination can create different feelings. So facing this object of death, how do you use your heap of discrimination?

If you use the wrong or evil wisdom of fear to face this death, the seeds you plant will be fear and misunderstanding. And this misunderstanding will cause more death around you. So death is not frightening.

The key is how to face it, because it is already around us. And the four elements are already dissolving, whether you see it or not. The key, the crucial point is how do we understand it.

Like now, when we are discussing this, our earth element is dissolving, and our body is becoming less and less solid. You see a lot of old people, they have less solidity. Or you can say that they also have less wetness, or they have less warmness.

Their body becomes colder and colder, and ultimately they pass away. So everything is always dissolving. The crucial point is how to understand this.

And it is one important point in Abhidharma, which is to understand this world with the Abhidharma perspective. Because Abhidharma itself means higher knowledge. It is a pure knowledge if translated to Chinese.

Abhidharma means pure knowledge, or sorry, unstained wisdom. Or higher dharma, some wisdom that can bring you to a higher state. And this is our goal to learn Abhidharma.

Our Chinese language class, the special class of Senzang Tower, ends here. The news guy. I'm sure that Juan Haso is standing by.

Thank you for a beautiful class, Stanley. Katie, I am just blown away at your skill in translation. It's so rare that I get the opportunity to watch up close and personal.

The incredible speed and skill. Beautiful work. We are so blessed to have such intelligent, clear communicators on our broader team.

Helping us to deliver into many languages at the same time. It's a miracle. It's so cool.

Beautiful class, Stanley. I'm sorry it wasn't as boring as you were hoping. I think we all got a lot out of it.

Dr. Juan Haso, are you ready? Yeah, I am ready. Thank you so much, Stanley.

It's very cool to see that the audience is responding very well. To these Chinese language classes. Wonderful.

Congratulations. So today, I'm going to be sharing some of what's happening right now. All over the world.

And here we go. So last Saturday, we talked with our friends that are visiting Colombia, Santa Marta. That was Aldo Arzapalon, Paulina Garcia.

They succeeded with a two-day in-depth philosophy retreat over there in Colombia. Today they finished. Soon they are going to be sharing how did it go.

But for now, we just want to congratulate you and wish you the best for next visits there. Also to remind you that some other friends are having a retreat in Spain these days. It's happening from the 31st of October, just a few days ago during Halloween.

They were celebrating over there. And they're going to keep going until November the 10th. It's happening right now.

And if anybody who may be there want to send pictures, they're going to be greatly appreciated. A quick reminder that all the preparations are in motion to get to Japan, Kyoto. This event is going to be the last.

The grand finale of the Steps on the Path series that Geshe Michael has been teaching all over 14 years. And the last chapter, let's say that way, is going to be happening this December in Kyoto. December the 1st to December the 7th.

So if you are excited and you want to go, you can talk with Tim Lowenhaupt or Alejandra Hasso. They are going to help you with details on how to get there and how to sign up for this wonderful event. And then after December in Japan, Diamond Mountain is organizing a very beautiful event for New Year's.

People who want to spend some retreat and quiet time there at Diamond Mountain. Our friend Gils is going to be running this event from December the 29th to January the 3rd. You can follow the QR for information at Diamond Mountain.

And then very interestingly, on January Utpala is going to be leading a retreat also based on her translation book, Emptiness Meditations. That also may be very, very interesting. You can also contact Diamond Mountain for this information.

And in that regards, we want to announce that Diamond Cutter Press is already launching the Emptiness Meditation Sponsor Edition. It's just the last release they have with this Sponsors Edition. Looks amazing.

You can start. You could start getting yours if you follow the QR code and then have it and be ready for when Utpala runs her retreat. You can be like a very good student and show up there with your book in hand, printed, golden pages.

Amazing. Okay. For today, we have a very cool talk with our friend Lidia.

Since she's one of the organizers and producers of the upcoming event on the Hatha Yoga Pradipika Chapter 4, coming up in November 14th to the 25th. Very, very soon. Just a few weeks from now.

And today she's going to be sharing with us a little bit of what's going to be like being there and some of the things we may hear over there. So I would like to welcome her and also ask, take table, if you could help me to spotlight Lidia if she is around. And if Lidia, if you are there, if you could raise your hand, they can find you.

Hello. What's your username?

[Speaker 2]
Wordsmith.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, wonderful. Almost as handsome. Nice to see you guys.

How are you doing? Good. You look like you went to a wedding or something.

[Speaker 2]
Don't give her any ideas.

[Speaker 1]
No comments. Just laughing. That's okay.

It's good to see you. It's good to see you. So welcome and tell us a little bit of what you've been cooking.

What are you planning for this upcoming Hatha Yoga Pradipika 4? Are you going to be there at work as well?

[Speaker 2]
We'll see. It depends how good my seeds are.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good.

[Speaker 2]
Well, I think everybody knows that we're having the event in Sedona. It's in November. So those kind of details you already know, we're going to have classes with Geshe Michael.

[Speaker 1]
We're going to have in-depth classes with Earl. We also have onsite asana and meditation classes as well as Sanskrit classes. So we have enough participants right now that we actually had to get a bigger venue.

So there's a lot of hype. There's a lot of excitement going into the course. Cool.

So you're thinking to find a different venue. So that means it may not be at the college. Is that correct?

[Speaker 2]
Yes.

[Speaker 1]
And already confirmed. Whoa, where is it going to be? In Poco Diablo.

Oh, wow. That's amazing. What's going to be the dress code?

[Speaker 2]
Like this hustle.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. That's going to be interesting. Probably the first yoga retreat hosted in suits.

Okay. And what else? Do you want to talk a little bit about the topics and why it could be very cool or very convenient for people to come?

What kind of things they're going to learn if they come?

[Speaker 2]
Well, Geshe's doing the end of the third and the rest of the fourth chapter of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Because he's been doing the four chapters throughout. He's been sprinkling it throughout each course.

And so this is the final one, right? Yep. So it's the grand finale.

If that's not reason enough to come, he'll be explaining some deeper teachings on samadhi, which is like the deepest kind of meditation, as well as the mudras, which are unique to yogic practice. It's like the different ways of putting your body to force the winds, the prana, the energy to go to the good places you want it to go.

[Speaker 1]
That's very interesting. And I was looking at the video Geshe Michael recorded for YSI. And he was saying that, I don't know if he personally is going to talk about it, or the chapter talks about it, but he did mention some content about the Tummo practice.

And then what is this deal? Like a lot of people are talking about, or even the advertisement on the event seems to be around partner practice. Is this something that we're going to be hearing about?

Yes, the title of the chapter is Profound Partnership. So it's definitely going to be something that is going to be talked about. It's something that I brought word here to tell you all how great partner practice is.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, wonderful.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, we hear you words. What is it about?

[Speaker 2]
It's an advanced practice, okay?

[Speaker 1]
Dishes in the morning, toilets in the afternoon. Doing the dishes in the morning, doing the toilets in the afternoon. Or what is it?

[Speaker 2]
This is all day, Hasso. This is all day.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, probably.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, but yeah, there'll be discussion on partner practice, which in other ways, in other traditions, they're considered secret practice. But there's little bits that the yogis talk about that are open. And so it will be good seats for people who want to go deeper in their practices.

Okay, I also hear, and I don't know if that's what you mentioned, Lidia.

[Speaker 1]
Geshe Michael has been promoting or sharing that he's going to be using some new translations of some, I don't understand, some parts of the text. Could you tell us a little bit about what is this about?

[Speaker 2]
When he originally taught the Hatha Yoga Pratipika, there were some verses that didn't get translated at that time. He's been recently working on the translations. So they're verses from the book that have just been translated.

So this is a really good reason not to miss out.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, okay, all right. So if people want to go, can they still come live? Yes, yes, they can come live to Sedona or they can participate online.

Okay, what do you recommend them better? Live.

[Speaker 2]
Live for sure.

[Speaker 1]
Life is better. Are there going to be more activities other than Geshe Michael's classes? What else is planned for those who attend live?

For those that attend live and for those that are attending online, we have the Geshe-la classes. We have asana classes and meditation classes that are going to integrate the knowledge from the philosophy classes that Geshe-la gives. We're also going to have in-depth classes with Earl Bernie, who's going to help some of us out that maybe the first time around we don't get all the concepts.

He's going to go deeper and kind of explain a little bit more where we are in the text. And we will also have Michael Johnson, who's going to be teaching some Sanskrit. So we can really dive deep into what the words of the text mean so that we can have that accurate understanding.

That's awesome. And Michael Johnson is going to be teaching the guitar lessons also, no?

[Speaker 2]
No.

[Speaker 1]
We'll see if he brings his guitar. He definitely will probably sing during his Sanskrit class. He's getting to be famous for that.

I know. But now you mentioned something that made me think, is Michael Johnson going to be there live this time or he's going to be teaching online?

[Speaker 2]
He is the only person that's going to be teaching online. Everybody else is live. Meditation teachers are live.

[Speaker 1]
Asana teachers are live. Geshe-la is live. And Earl Bernie will be on site.

Okay, thank you so much. Yeah, I think a lot of people are very excited today. Some friends from Mexico were texting me and saying that they are going.

A lot of people are flying there. If you need, how to say, information about how to get there, you can contact me or you can contact YSI. Because I move around Arizona a lot and I'm becoming almost an expert.

I'm starting to open my shuttle company. Who knows, but we'll see. But yeah, I would like to share just one last time the poster with the QR code.

If you haven't signed up yet, that's the way to go. And thank you so much for sharing and encouraging us to go. I'm planning to be there soon and hope to see you both there.

But if we can show the poster one more time, I will request tech table if you can help me, please. Well, I can do it. All right, so there you go.

Check it out. You can still make it. We'll be reporting about what else happens.

Thank you very much. And finally, I was also wanting to share that Petrie World News is planning the New Year's Eve traditional event. We're still cooking the details.

But if you have something you want to share, you can start contacting us to info at Petrie World News. And very soon we will be sharing the details. I'm still waiting for Rob Haggerty to help me with the schedule.

Now he's the schedule master and we are checking on it. That's all from my side today. Thank you very much and see you next time.

We go now with Venerable Utpala's class. Do you want to add anything, Lydia or Ward? You're good.

If you're good, just thumbs up.

[Speaker 2]
One last thing. I think this chapter of the Hatha Yoga Pratipaka, as well as the book in general, is an amazing book to augment people who are interested in this deeper wisdom. It's another Sanskrit that's great to go deep into.

And the knowledge of it goes right in hand with the things that the mixed nuts delve into. And it's a little extra. So if you're interested in the mixed nuts, you will love Hatha Yoga Pratipaka.

All right. We'll see. I'm just kidding.

Thanks, Hatha. Ben knows about it. Thank you as well.

Bye.