Стэнли Чен — Книга 2: Красноречивые слова о сути океана высшего знания (Гьялцаб Чже о «Своде высшего знания» — Абхидхарма-самуччае), занятие 20

[Speaker 1]
All right. Hi, everybody. Welcome to Xuanzang's Tower.

Good morning. Good evening. Good everything.

Good. Good Anya, for all our Australian friends. We have an exciting class for you today.

We have a class with Mr. Stanley Chen. It's been a little while. Cover some Abhidharma.

And then we've got Dr. Ben Kramer. For some logic. So everybody get your minds ready and excited.

Everybody here. Stanley, are you ready? I'm not.

But I'll be ready after we finish the book. Sounds like just right timing. Nice to see you back in the States.

Hey, Amelie. Where's that little booger? Amelie, come here.

Where's that little booger? Come here, you little booger. She's got a mouthful of strawberries now.

She looks like how I looked that time. They're strawberries. They are.

She looks like how I looked that time with the churros, though. Bye-bye. Okay, Stanley, let's do this thing.

Yeah, okay. So Geshe-la, I have to confess something. I spent a few good hours today.

And I couldn't figure it out. It's a little hard for me, and I have no clue. I don't mind to go straight into the class if you prefer.

I prepared little things. I prepared little things. Okay, let's see.

But mostly I have to depend on you. I thought maybe we can reveal the dōm, the summarized verses, a little bit. That's dōm, dōm.

Dōm, dōm. Dōm means something bad happened to you. Yeah.

Something happened today, in fact. But anyway. That's how I feel now, though.

Okay. So let me share my screen a little bit. Can you guys see?

Yes. Okay. So to be honest, I really spent some good time on it.

And I couldn't figure out what happened. And I tried to translate this paragraph. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Even chatgivity doesn't make sense to me. Chatgivity is not good at translating. We have to learn a few things.

Yeah, so I thought maybe we can spend a few minutes. Since Nick mentioned, it's been like, the last class is exactly a little bit over a month ago. December 9th, actually.

Over a month. So maybe we can go back to some foundation concepts of this Aritama Samutraya by Master Asanga, and commentated by Gelsat J. And then we can go to the class.

So I thought we go to the, not Dung, but Dong first. The beginning summarized verses. And I've been comparing some different versions of it.

So this too is Sanskrit and West Chinese language provided by Geshe-la from the text. And then I've been studying the Chinese of it. I thought today we can look at the Chinese a little bit and see a different angle of it.

Because it's not totally aligned completely. So I want to review in this way. The Chinese says something interesting.

Basically it says, there are totally eight. Si zhong means eight chapters or eight main divisions of this book. And the first four, it's pen shi.

It's like characteristics. And then jie ze means ascertainments. That is aligned.

But this one doesn't show in the, maybe doesn't show in the above. And then it's quite clear that the, let's say pen shi means foundation characteristics, something like that. A characteristic of phenomenons has four.

They are this four. The three dharma, meaning the hips, the doors of senses and the categories. And then there's another one called samgraha, samgrapa.

She means... Put a B, put an H for each of these two Bs here. Put an H for it.

You just, somebody misread the Roman. Samgraha. And treat the heart more.

There you go. Somehow my keyboard hasn't worked. Can't type it.

Hmm. Got your keyboard. It's strange.

Sorry, I'll change it later, Geshe-la. So this should be B, right? Samgraha.

Well, I'll teach you a trick about your keyboard. Okay. Hold down the lower left hand key.

Function. Hold it down for a while, and then different keyboards will come up. My whole keyboard is not working, though.

Hold down that bottom left key, FN. And hold it down for 10 seconds, and then start to scroll through the keyboards. My keyboard doesn't have the FN, Geshe-la.

Sorry. Oh, no, that's a loser. That's not good.

Does it work? Does it work on it? Oh, maybe.

Let me change the language. It doesn't work. It's okay.

Let's not waste time. So the first four, it's called three dharma. This is called collection.

This is like a link or something. And this is some attainment. So that's the first four that we didn't mention previously.

But the last four is mentioned. So the last four is four of attainment. It's the truth, the dharma, attainment.

I didn't remember how we translate this. Is it about commentaries or dialogue? It's probably terms or something.

Yeah, okay. Yeah. So according to the Chinese, the general division of the book, it's four plus four.

There's eight. And then among the first one of eight, which is the three dharma, again, it goes into this one that we study. Like how many, why, and take.

This Sanskrit is not the Sanskrit provided by Geshe-la. It's another version I found. But clearly, I have some mistakes.

But this nine, it's matched to what we have learned so far. Like definition, how we establish the order, the meaning, and metaphor examples. And this one, I don't know how to translate English.

It should be classification you have here. Classification, yeah, yeah. So to make it a little bit more clear, this nine, it belongs to the first one of the eight, which is three dharma.

And somehow, it seems like in the Tibetan, we don't have the two to three. But we do have five to, two to four. We don't have this.

But we do have the five to eight. Yeah, that's, the Chinese is quite clear. In general, there are eight.

First four is the characteristic of phenomenon of things. Then the later four is ascertainment. And then among the first one of the eight, the three dharmas, there are nine, which includes how many and why and all these things.

That's the Chinese version of the Dong, the summarized verses. Yeah. And then we will talk about, so Geshe-la, this I have to ask you.

All right. So in this class, we will talk many times about the five kuntus, the five summaries, the five companions. Yeah.

I have a feeling that, you see, the last four... Are the Vinayachayas, number and nirvana, yeah. The last four match the Chinese version, the truth.

Yeah. The last four are the Vinayachayas. Yeah.

And I have a feeling maybe the first kuntu is the first four. Could be, yeah. We're going to get there.

Okay. That's just my question, I'm guessing. That's okay.

Okay. Okay, I'll stop sharing. That's my opening of the class.

Okay. Do you think there's anybody we didn't confuse yet? I'm always confused, because there are so many numbers that I couldn't...

By the way, it gets easier, okay? Okay. Do you have a homework?

No. No, that's it. That's my homework, basically.

All right. That's a VOC homework. All right.

Let me see here. Let me share my screen. Oh, look what came up by accident.

Can you guys... This is a new book put out by the Diamond Cutter Press in conjunction with the Diamond Cutter Classics Translation Team. And it is this book by Su Geng Shi.

And it's a very beautiful, detailed book about the Wheel of Life that was written 500 years ago. It's called Stopping the Circle of Sadness. And I don't know, it's like over...

It's almost 400 pages. It's so thick, Stanley. If you get in a fight with your partner, you can...

You can lose the Wheel of Life on them. And it's a great piece of work. And I want to thank Rosa Van Grieken and also Anatole Millian for his homework.

So, you can get the e-book by using this QR code if you live in a country where it's allowed. All right. Stop sharing that one.

Start sharing... I got a lot of stuff up here, Stanley. You can imagine.

I want to see your book here. Hang on, I got to go get your book. All right.

I'll be Sam. Yeah. Wow.

Okay, hang on. I got to redo this. Hang on.

Uh-oh. Are you still there? Yep.

Just wait. Okay, here we go. All right.

I think this is where we stopped. Correct, yeah. On December 9th.

Okay, Stanley, do you want to read this guy? Okay. Okay.

Sorry? Hi, Tom. Yeah, I'm sorry.

This sentence is so long. So, nampar miyepa means finished, which is the reference, could be a reference to anyone of the love. That's four of the five chapters.

Along with that ascertainment of what's correct, we have denyi dupa, including emptiness or including suchness, etc. These three, len chik tu chen ne, if we count them all together, we get four. So, there's a reason why the dong at this part is mentioning four.

Mupay gupa means what's the point of mentioning four. Lar shepay tu son ngapo, the 35 characteristics that we spoke about before, which is, right Stanley, 5 plus 12 plus 18? Right, right, yeah.

5 heaps, 12 doors of sense, 18 categories? Yeah. Okay.

Those 35, which is, by the way, the main subject matter of the first of the five chapters of this book, okay? Which is very abnormal, okay? Denpa la sappe kye che shen gye go ne.

We can present those, the same topics, in a different feature, which is their, how true, their truth, okay? And we're going to get to that. Shepa tsam du.

So, just by, we're going to talk about characteristics of the 35 divisions, okay? And you have to understand that we are not teaching, when we teach the qualities, and you were talking about it, here's the four vinish chayas, the last four of the five chapters, okay? When we talk about the ascertainment of truth, the ascertainment of dharma, the ascertainment of attainment, and the ascertainment of topics, okay?

The last, those last four chapters are really just aspects of the first chapter. Oh, oh, I see, it's like a different angle of the 35. Yeah, and with more detail on the first chapter, and it gets deeper.

So it's, first chapter is just presenting facts, and then as we go through the book, we start talking about the emptiness of those facts and things like that. And he immediately jumps into explaining, for example, the emptiness of each of the five heats, and why it relates to misunderstanding. He jumps into it immediately, which is, you know, finally we're someplace comfortable.

So anyway, the first chapter is connected to the last four chapters, because the last four chapters give the details of the first chapter, okay? And four means the last four chapters of the five, okay? Okay, okay.

And here's the names of those four chapters, okay? And by the way, here's the page difference between these guys, 29 pages for the first chapter. By the way, multiply times eight to get the English.

So 140 pages for the first chapter. Then we're going to get about 100, I don't know, almost 200 pages for the second chapter. And we're going to get, very strange, just 40 pages for the third, which is strange, you know?

And it doesn't seem balanced. And then only 12 folios, or 100 pages, for the fourth chapter. And, you know, three pages for the last chapter, which is 25 pages in English.

So it seems to shrink as we go through. Maybe he got tired, I don't know. I know what that's about.

Okay, Stanley, who's going to read the next part here? I'll read one more, and then we can start. Okay.

Yeah, Shana, okay. Tsen ni kun la du pa is the first chapter, right? And you get the sangraha, the sangraha, or the summary of essential characteristics or something, okay?

And it's of the 35 different categories, right? So, nang gi, inside of there, you get 33 abbreviations. Du pa so sum, okay?

And I don't know what he's talking about there. I checked his whole book, which is quite long. His book will be almost 6,000 pages, Stanley.

And there's no 33 mentioned anywhere else in the whole book. So, I think we'd have to go through it after we're done and see what's in the four chapters that could add up to 33, okay? Then he phrases this first section here as a question.

It's like, why do you divide the first chapter, only the first chapter, into these 33 different details? Why do you do that? Maybe that's why the first chapter is longer, right?

So, here's his own answer. Here's the answer, okay? Who do you want to read, Stanley?

Okay, let me pick on some victims. Don't forget, when they read, you have to correct them, even if they don't make a mistake. Yeah.

That's Marshall. Marshall, what?

[Speaker 2]
Did you search for Dupa, looking for the 33, and just see if you could find, like, 33? I looked up so soon.

[Speaker 1]
But, okay, maybe it's under Dupa. It could be, but there's about 10,000 Dupas. Yeah, probably.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, anyway.

[Speaker 1]
I think it'll become clear. Okay. Maybe sooner than later.

Okay, Maria Myrtle. Hi. She's one of those upper-class people from West Sudan.

Can you read? Oh, you're translating? Something like that?

No? Can you read something? You want to try?

I never did that before. Oh. Well, that's a bad reason to give in this class.

I can try, but definitely it's just a guess. Stanley, you've got to correct her, okay? No problem.

[Speaker 2]
I'll help you.

[Speaker 1]
Let's get it wrong together. Okay. Wait.

Yes. Start with a B. Yeah.

Start with a G. Yes. Yes.

Start with a B. Start with a B. Yes.

Great. Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Nice.

[Speaker 1]
Very brave. Now you're on your way. You will never go back.

So, we're going back to the Dome. The Dome means... This book is so difficult that somebody wrote a summary of it in poetry, a short verse in poetry, maybe 10 lines or something.

So, it's at the front of the book. So, it says, the first nine parts in the Dome are what we should become masters of. Okay, nyepar jawa means we should become masters of those things.

Those are the things we have to master. dupa sok sum ni, but then when he talks about the abbreviation and so on, de nyi nampar nyepar jawa'i nampa'i kye che shen dunpa yinpe, they are showing other details that are going to help us to ascertain emptiness, suchness. Okay, de nyi, tatwa.

And therefore, denpa nampay sok, this is the second of those five extra ones. denpa nampay sok, these categories at the end of the Dome are also meant for the same purpose. So, I wouldn't worry much about it.

He's just saying, first we present... By the way, later he's going to divide it, Stanley. The whole Dome, he's going to divide it into ji nyepay che and ji taway che.

What's that? The way things are, and the way all the things there are. All the things there are, and the way all the things there are are.

So, you could say it's dunpam denpa and kunzok denpa. This is ultimate reality and deceptive reality. All the things in the universe are called deceptive reality.

The way they exist is called their ultimate reality, or something like that. So, that's the structure, ultimately, of the Yabhi Dharma Summer Chant. We start out with the counting things, which is all the things there are, ji nyepay, kunzok denpa, deceptive reality.

And then, in time, we get into how they exist. Through the vinishchayas. Probably four vinishchayas means we start looking into their emptiness, you see.

It's called the four combinations, right? So, which of the chapters is Yabhi Dharma? The first one, basically.

Yeah, really, the first one. And this book is a wolf in sheep's clothing, we call it. Yeah.

It's like a nice, friendly Yabhi Dharma book. And they give you a bunch of facts. And then, when we hit the second chapter, they start talking about the emptiness of those facts.

And then, the whole rest of the book. Which is what makes the two half-brothers different from each other, in this context. Who's going to read next, Stanley?

Who can you torture? Maria, is your partner with you? No, he's not here right now.

Okay, we'll save one for him later. Wait, wait, wait, but Hector is here. Oh!

If you suggest, I wouldn't say no. Hector, come, come, come. Stanley, I think Peter is having Mexican food, because the wind is really strong here right now.

Hi, Hector. You guys are having some party, I can tell. It's been going on a couple of days, I think.

Thank you so much, Stanley, and thanks, Maria. I, like Maria, have never done this. Geshe-la, I've skirted this since 1996.

You're very brave. You know, I say just F it and do it, you know. Here we go.

Stanley, teach me. It's meant to get it. On?

Hector, when you see the percentage sign, it means I've corrected the partner. Oh, so it's na or na?

[Speaker 2]
Ona.

[Speaker 1]
Dupa. Ona, dupa. Yeah.

Sumpo. Yeah. Yeah.

Nanpa. Great. Gepa.

Gepa. Gepa. Gepa kunla.

Le tupa. Oh, le tupa. Cool.

And then, nangdu. Mupa. Mupa.

Mupa rikso. Yeah. Shana.

Nice, nice, good. Thank you for being brave. At our age, if you can do this, be brave, you can really break through.

OM NA GYUR PA ZHIG PO means the three ways of grouping things. Okay, Stanley? Yeah.

OM NA GYUR PA ZHIG PO means the three ways of grouping things into the five parts of the person, or the 12 doors of sense, or the 18 categories. NAM PAR NGES PA KUN LAS BSTOD PA'I The last four chapters are called the summaries, which relate to discernment, meaning seeing the emptiness of things. The first chapter is raw material to look into to check its emptiness.

The last four chapters are how to check its emptiness. And he says these three ways of dupa, which means these three ways of combining stuff in the universe to make sense of the universe, right? The five heaps, 12 doors of sense, 18 categories, which is the subject of the first chapter of the kosha.

He says, I don't see why you didn't put that division into three in the last four chapters instead of just the first chapter. He wants a justification. Why did you put the categories, the three different ways of grouping things?

Why didn't you mention it in the last four chapters, which is where you talk about seeing the emptiness of things? Oh, I see. It's a glass of jade.

The question is weird because it does make sense. First you divide up everything there is in the first chapter, and then you go to deng dang deng po, ultimate reality. What's the truth of those things in the last four chapters?

Again, those are called bini sharan, which means you're going to figure out their emptiness. Is that a question Gyaltsachay asked or he's just complaining? It's a rhetorical question.

Somebody's coming and saying, what's the point of covering those three divisions in the first chapter and then you don't talk about them in the last four chapters? Here's Gyaltsachay's answer to his own question. Hector, the last one is really too short, to be fair to Maria.

Stanley, he's never going to come back to the translator class. Now that I'm an expert, I'll be joining the translator team. That's what we all do.

Where are we? Stanley. Jimmy, in just colloquial West Chinese language, what's it mean when you say kyen min du?

Oh, kyen min du. Mei wan di, no problem. Mei wan di, yeah, no problem.

Kyen mei de in scripture. Oh, kyen mei de, okay. When we talk about these 35 aspects, okay, meaning, when we talk about those 35, and there's a chapter devoted to describing those 35, I think it's natural if we put them in the first chapter, which is where we kind of had a samuchaya.

This is the samuchaya. We had a summary of what those different divisions are made of, okay? We did a summary.

This is not a discussion of their true nature. This is a discussion of how we divide them up. So we put that in the first chapter.

It makes more sense. Then the last four chapters are where you tear them apart and try to see their emptiness, okay? Cool.

So to me it makes sense. It says gyel sub je, okay? First chapter is devoted to data, and the last four chapters are devoted to the analysis of that data, okay?

Geshe-la, does it really say the last four? It's also analyzing the first one? Does it really say that?

The last four are very famous because they're called vinishchaya. Their name is the analysis of the first chapter. But it's legally safe, right?

Yeah, he gives the data and its divisions in the first chapter, which an Abhidharma kosha person would take as wisdom. And then Abhidharma samuchaya person says, hey, that's not wisdom. That's just categories of stuff.

It doesn't discuss their true nature. So it's very beautiful. The first chapter is Abhidharma kosha.

The last four are kind of Nagarjuna, but more Vasubandhu. Okay. Okay.

Who's going to read next, Indy? By the way, to me the book is getting exciting. I was afraid it was just going to be a rehash of the kosha.

Right, right, right, yeah. He's advertising it differently. He says the first chapter, you guys get through this first chapter.

I promise you some emptiness stuff. By the way, he doesn't wait for the second chapter. He can't hold himself.

So he's going to start right away. Okay, cool. Let's see who else.

Oh, Dodo, come on. But that's how you pronounce Dodo's name. nyi pa la sum chang gyi ye wa dang, selway ye wa dang, tun duwa duwa Oh, good, nice.

By the way, basically, the West Chinese language doesn't have diphthongs. It doesn't have two vowel sounds in a row, except with this ending particle and things like that. I like the picture of your coyotes, Stanley.

They're in VLC, right? Yeah, they're huge. Yeah, he must be eating a lot of dogs or old ladies walking through VLC.

Yeah, in VLC. Okay, nyi pa la sum. Here's nyi pa.

nampa shen gyi gong ne chi dak du ngepa jangwa So I gave you the reference. You know, these texts only say number two. We reached discussion number two.

So you have to go back in the book and you find he's going to talk about splitting into different aspects so that we can ascertain more information in detail. Which means he's going to try to stuff some emptiness stuff into this simple classification chapter. To do that, we're going to do chang gi ye wa.

We're going to discuss the numbers. Why is he hung up on numbers? By the way, what's the famous yoga word here, Chang?

Sankhya? Yeah, Sankhya, Changchenpa, the number guys. Here it says, you know, you've got the numbers.

You've got those five, you've got those twelve, you've got those eighteen, okay? That's your first step. Then you're going to explain the selvas.

And I'll give a hundred dollars for three completely different meanings of this word. Something that fits into a category. Wait, wait, you've got to raise your hand.

I can't see your word. Go ahead, Nick. Go ahead.

It's okay. You've already got more of that than I did.

[Speaker 2]
Selva means something that's a member of a category.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, great. That's a great one. That's a very difficult one.

Yeah, thank you. Okay. A member of a category.

[Speaker 2]
It means to clarify.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, that's the super easy one. And then there's the tough one, thirty-three dollars. Well, just tell Sushant you couldn't get the last thirty-three.

[Speaker 2]
Get it, Kramer. Wait, oh no, it's a, it's a, it's a, a.

[Speaker 1]
No, it's not the reason. It's the other.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, it's the assertion.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The characteristic to be cleared away. Good.

In a prasangika. In a logical statement. And it was the topic of Ben Kramer's book a long time ago.

Like last week or something. No, just kidding. Okay.

Anyway, you got a hundred bucks. Thanks, Kramer. And then, that's the summary.

Okay. All right, Stanley, who's going to suffer next? Continue, Dodo, please.

Yes, sir.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, good. Dangpo means, here he says, the divisions. Just counting the thirty-five, okay?

Just counting. Just numbering, making a list, okay? The list here includes the pung kam kye che.

Yes, doors of senses and categories, yes. Why does he put them in that order? Pung kam kye che.

They're always taught pung kye che kam. Oh, yeah. Five, twelve, and eighteen.

Oh, wait. Five, eighteen, and twelve. Yeah.

When you... In West Chinese language, it flows better if you put it into two pieces of two each. Oh.

So that's all.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, I see. Okay. Pung kam kye che.

Anyway, pung kam kye che nam kye che shen gyi go ne. We're going to use other characteristics, kye che means characteristics, to ascertain them, ngey pa che pa. Okay?

And that's going to happen in four different sections, which are called denpa nang ne, the ascertainment of reality, etc. Which means che nangpa ngey pa, topa nangpa ngey pa, and jelway tam, which means the ascertainment of things, the ascertainment of attainment. And jelway tam means discussion, basically.

Siyabay che. Okay? So we...

All he's saying here is, in the first chapter, we just count them. And then in the other chapters, we analyze them. He's repeating that.

Right, right. That was his first part, which was just giving you the count of the 35. Now we reach the second part, which is supposed to, according to Word, be the members that are in those groups.

Okay? Continue? Yeah.

We need to find a victim. Yeah, okay. Tin from Vietnam, please.

Thank you. Nice! Awesome!

Yeah. So ngey pa was supposed to be the members of the categories, right? Like the 35 members or something.

Drupa ngey, I take it here to be the two big divisions that he's going to talk about shortly, which is the two divisions of reality, okay? Distinctive reality and ultimate reality. nabar drapa dupa nam kyi lam kyi mikpa she jawa tawa ni What...

For those of us who want to reach some kind of pure understanding, the things that our path of... the path that we're going to follow needs to focus on is presented in the summary, the dom, with the words den dum, den dum, which means... I'm going to...

First, when I present to you the two categories of reality, I'm going to start with den, which means the... The four truths. Yeah, the four truths.

The four Arya truths, okay? Now, would you think the four Arya truths should more relate to just making a list of all the stuff there is, or do you think they should more relate to the true nature of all the stuff that is? I think it's more the second one, the true nature.

Let's see. Let's see. I think he's tending towards the first one.

Okay. It's another number again. Say again?

I think because it's another number, he's saying this is the four... Maybe, maybe, because it's a division. Yeah, maybe.

Well, actually, here's the answer word. Who's going to read it? Ping, can you do another one?

It's so good. Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah. Wow. Awesome.

You just read the whole book and we don't have to do it. Yay. Sounds good.

Chih Song Nga means 35, okay? Song Nga means 35. In West Chinese language, it's D5, D5.

Instead of saying D5, you just say T5, okay? Oh, I see. So the 35 things that we're going to discuss, they represent the half of reality, which is called jin ye pa, jin ye pay che.

That means all the stuff there is. Okay? All the stuff there is, jin ye pay che.

The 35 represents all the different categories of stuff. And then the denpa shi, the four Arya truths, represents ji tawa. Which means the way things really are.

So the Abhidharma division into 35 categories is kind of like a scientific list of all the stuff that exists. And then the four truths get into the true nature of those 35 things. Okay?

Okay. Cool. shi ja de nyi topa che pay tap What's the way to understand, I would say, this division of reality into two halves?

How do you get to there? And then he says, that's chod nam nge. That's the chapter called the ascertainment of dharmas.

Okay? Where we're going to really get into it. Okay.

Because this is for the purpose of sung rab gyi chu, understanding the dharma of the teachings. And also we're going to try to produce khyab po, the shirab, the wisdom. tsultsam gom, what are those three, Stanley?

Listening, contemplation, and meditation. Yeah, and listening always means classroom hours. Okay?

Hours on Zoom. Okay? And by the way, I got to say, as an old man, the more hours, raw hours, you spend in these classes, the more successful your life will be.

Like almost every day... I don't know, today I got an email, Stanley, I think it's $400,000 or something. Just stuff like that.

The more you study, the more you think about it, the more time you give to studying these things, just cool stuff happens. Okay? Really.

So, nobody believes me, that's the frustrating thing. Geshe-la, I just realized, is Gyatso Je explaining the five chapters one by one right now? Yeah, kind of does.

This one is about the ascertainment of the Dharma, and the last one is ascertainment of the truth, right? Yeah, the bold is from the Dharma, I think. Ah, okay, that's clear now.

Okay, I see. Who's going to read this one? Let me travel to VOC again, because Peter, out of a good heart, just showed up for reading these lines.

Yeah, the wind got more. Hey, Peter. Hi.

It's your turn, Maria. You guys, they do look like aristocrats from Sedona. I didn't know that I was up, that's nice.

We're the real people. Okay. Thank you.

Say again? Banja, I think, Banja. Banja.

[Speaker 2]
Ki, ne.

[Speaker 1]
Ki, ne. Shapton, Pahye, Pachino. Chi.

Chepa. Chepa Hindu. Yeah.

All right. So, the next chapter has to do with thopa, which, what's that mean, Stanley? Attainment.

Yeah, it's the number four chapter. Yeah, four out of the five chapters. So, what does the chapter called attainment have to...

what are we going to do there? We take those two kinds of knowable things, shes jan yipo, which means, ji ne and ji tawa. Ah, ji ne pa and ji tawa, okay.

All the stuff there is, and... And the way they are. The way that all the stuff there is, is.

Okay, good. We just did two rounds, okay? shes jan yipo.

By the way, when they say two truths, it's a very dangerous word, because truth in English means a statement. You see? Oh, I see.

He's telling the truth, or something like that. And in the ancient languages, that word, which I prefer, reality. Reality, right.

Reality. It means the actual thing itself. It doesn't refer to a statement about whether it's true or not.

So, the word two truths is a dangerous translation. If you can avoid it, it's good. Okay.

So, these two... truths, I understand. These two, reality.

Okay. If you use this top, top K, upaya. Ah, supra means.

Yeah, if you use this particular method, you can become a person who understands them. Dopa vida. S.

S, good. Who really understands it. And then, in your gyu, which means tantra.

In your mind, mental stream. Buddhist psychology means your mind stream, yeah. Yeah.

In your gyu, you will get peldrip, peldrip. Okay. Peldrip.

This is that kind of noun in West Japanese language that's created by two opposites. Like, I'm going to show you here, chi yang. Chi yang.

What's that mean, you guys? Weight? Yeah.

Light-heavy. Yeah, the word for the weight of something in Tibetan is heavy light. The word for the length of something is long short.

Okay. You're going to get in your brain, peldrip. Glory obstacles?

Increase in good stuff and lots of bad stuff. Yeah, Ben Kramer's got it. You're going to get an expansion of the good part of your brain, and you're going to get a reduction of the stupid part of your brain.

Oh, I see. Okay. Now we go backwards, okay?

Now we go backwards. The pang jas in your mental continuum are going to jepa. The pang jas.

The things you're going to get rid of are going to diminish. Like anger, stupidity, you know, like that laziness. They are going to be diminished, and then your nguntuk abhisamaya.

Realization. Realization, understanding. Your understanding is going to explode, okay?

And so you'll have a very good shrinking and expanding going on. And that's why we teach the fourth chapter. Okay.

We got room for the third. We got room for the last one here. Let's finish.

By the way. Yes? Is he saying temporarily?

What's the nekap? States of your mind. Stages.

Stages.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, like situations.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Okay, good. What was I going to say?

I forget. Anyway, okay. Oh, don't forget, everybody, that in three minutes Stanley's going to lead a discussion which is going to be very challenging.

How can you use this stuff in your real life? I have no idea. You could be a starving translator.

That's very practical, yes. Stanley, why don't you read the last one for good luck? Okay.

I forgot. Good. Yeah, nice, good.

He's talking about the last part of the... This is the tenth thing mentioned in the Dhamm and it's the last of the five chapters. RANG GI YIN DANG GYI CHOS NAM The good qualities within you.

How to get them. And how to use your realizations of emptiness especially. Now here's the important part, Stanley.

GZHAN DU BYED PA GZHAN DU BYED PA For the sake of others? For the sake of others. For the goal of serving others.

This is so beautiful if you think about it. I'll give you one dull Abhidharma chapter and we'll make a list of all the stuff in the universe. Then I'll give you three chapters about how to see the emptiness of those things.

And then the last chapter is going to be how do you use this to help people? Which is exactly what you're going into right now in your class. Okay, so then he says how to decide how to use this information for helping real people.

That's the last chapter. That's the last ascertainment. That's the last vinishchaya.

And it's called discourse. Cool. And the implication of the word beltam is discussion with those people back and forth.

It means back and forth discussion. So tam means discussion, but beltam means, and jaltam sometimes, it means how do you talk to people back and forth? How do you give and take with other people?

And it's a very beautiful, it's a fantastic structure to a book. Okay, the last chapter is how to go out and have conversations with real people about this emptiness stuff. Okay, very cool.

Okay, I'm going to stop sharing. Grandpa's going to go get the cat in out of the wind because this is my job. Okay, thank you, Grandpa.

Thank you, Geshe-la. Ah, cool. Okay, 15 minutes discussion time.

We talked about basically the five kunduk, the five chapters of this book, which is very different from the eight chapters of Avidyama Kosha. Let's review it quickly, and then we can go into discussion. Basically, the first one is the 35 dharmas, like the combination of five heaps, 12 doors of senses, and 18 categories.

The things, how do you call it, jineva, all the things there are in the world, like numbers, all kinds of numbers, who they are, facts. That's the first samutraya, the first companion. And then the later four, according to Geshe-la, is how we understand jitawa, the things, all the things, the way of all the things, the way of all the things, how they work, the emptiness of them.

In a way, from the last class, we kind of see them as the first chapter is the object of the meditation. Your vipasyana, the object of your vipasyana. And the second, the fourth chapter, the later four chapters, is how you analyze them, how you understand them.

And then today we learned something new. We learned that the middle three, meaning the two to four, which are the ascertainment of truth, the ascertainment of dharma, and the ascertainment of attainment, it's more for our own benefit, for our own understanding, and for our own goal of diminishing all these obstructions in our mind, to make us smarter, basically, and more pure, more loving. And then the last one, which is number five, is discussions, the ascertainment of discussions.

Emphasize on how to use what you learned from the first four chapters to help other people. As Geshe-la just suggested, that's what we are trying to do right now, like how can we bring, like to help other people, we have to bring these high, high ideas with complicated names into practical application, into real lives of ours. So let's try that now.

We have about 12 minutes, the golden 12 minutes, the golden window of discussion. Anyone of you have any ideas how we can leverage this, how can we use it? You can say how can we can use, you can start by how can you say on your own problems or goals, then we know how to help other people.

Anyone or any ideas you have, any realization, any questions, you're all very welcome to open your mouth after turn on your microphone. Anything? I'll share, since I'm not doing these things often.

I came into the call a little later. What I loved about just the description of the five chapters is that, let's start at five, in talking to other human beings who are looking to overcome their problems and get their happiness, we start at chapter five, there is a dialogue that can be had, so I got really excited that, oh, if we could just use the knowledge that we have to share it so other people can overcome their suffering and reach their happiness, what if there was a way to do that?

What I loved about it was chapter one through to four said, listen, you can talk about all and anything, there is a way you can talk about all existing things, but then the nuances, people are talking about stuff all the time, the nuances, can you get to the real wisdom behind the stuff? So in discussing with friends, family, colleagues, students, it's not just about the stuff, but can we get to that wisdom that understands how the stuff works, why the stuff is? And then the last thing that takes away is this hope that we can diminish the garbage in our mind and amplify the realisations.

That little line there, that really gave me hope that I can get rid of my problems and if I can get rid of my problems, I can help other people do that just by discussion, investigating reality. I don't know if it's a summary or it just motivated me, just knowing the five chapters. Wonderful, wonderful.

Reminds me, thank you Hector, it reminds me of a small line from this class where it says the four truth that we learn, or four arya truth, the four realities we learn, is actually a way to see the 35 dharmas. I never really connect these two in this way because the 35 dharmas is, in the Abhidharmakosha, it's the chapter number one and then the four truth comes later and I never really connect these two in this way. It's really cool.

They are the same object in a way. When we talk about 35 dharmas, we're counting the numbers of all the existence in the world but when we talk about the four truth, we are kind of going deeper into the realities of them, how they work and how they create problems for us and how we can clean all those problems. It's really cool that this Samutraya connects these two parts this way.

It is exciting to learn that. All right, anyone else? Hector had a great beginning.

Thank you. I need to learn how to make people open their mouth. It's easy with me.

Okay. Please. It's interesting.

When I listen to Hector now, I remember when I started to study many years ago and I heard Keshe Michael talk about all existing things, I didn't... What is Hector doing? I didn't understand the concept of all existing things.

Which is really funny now because everyone talks about that. Recently, I had something with Chachipiti and I talked about the cause of the universe and then there was a stupid answer and then I said, well, what if when I talk about the universe, I mean all existing things? And then Chachipiti said, oh, that's a different kind of story.

Then it doesn't have a beginning, etc. So I think sometimes with new people, we have to try to explain even that first step that we approach the idea, which I have heard nowhere else in the world at any time, that you could approach looking at what is as all existing things. And I think sometimes when we're teaching, we're a little bit too fast on that step and we lose people there.

Do you know what I mean? Because I think if people understand quickly in the beginning that that's what we're talking about, that alone blows your mind. If you don't look at it, I'm frustrated.

No, I'm just still confused by the whole Abhidharma book. So it's not your fault. I'm just thinking.

That's what I thought. How could when we talk about that topic, how could we formulate it so that people understand even what we mean when we talk about all existing things? Because it's just one word and then we move on and people sometimes...

I see. It's interesting. Another point of view of saying this is, it's from the previous classes, the reason these masters even group all existing things into different categories, like the five, 12, and 18.

Another purpose to do that is so that we can meditate on them. Because you can't meditate on all of the things in the world. It's too many.

You need a single object or something. So by saying five heaps or 12 drawers of senses, 18 categories, you get to meditate and then you get to increase your wisdom. Maria, I'm trying to think.

Dr. Kramers wants to say something. I'm trying to think of why these divisions lead to wisdom. And it seems like these five, sorry, these three groups, right?

Five or 12 or 18. Maybe we could have a fourth group, which is Peter's group, which is one, all existing things. They are redundant or something.

They are complete divisions. Any one of these four now systems cover everything in the universe. And we divide things all sorts of different ways.

We're in a mood in the country right now thinking about people as liberal or conservative or country folk or city folk. And you can divide the whole world that way. And I think it makes things be, right?

Those things exist because of our divisions. We draw lines around things. We can turn the whole world into just five things.

We can turn the whole world into 12 things, two things, two truths, if you like. Or one thing. Yeah.

And then it is so, in a sense, independent on us. I'm thinking, I'm hoping, I'm excited to see, right? If this tool is leveraged in a way to show us our creation of the world by drawing lines, drawing lines around this, drawing lines around that.

And now it is so. You're not me because I drew a line there or you are me. You are, we are, we are we.

We could be you and me. Two things. We could be we.

One thing, work totally together. If we just acted in accord as all existing beings, think how much that one being could get done, perhaps. I love that.

Ben, you answered the question that Maria said, which really is adding to that, is when we start talking about dividing things, all existing objects in different categories, I think one of the things I feel why we lose people in the beginning is why are we asking that question at all? No one is ever, at least I have never heard that someone attempts to do that. Yeah, maybe it's a story about the creation of the universe.

Exactly. It could be a free step zero where we give a reason why we're talking about that. Thank you.

Yeah. That's another thing for you guys to think about and for me too, for sure. In a part of the book, it mentioned one of the main reasons to divide things into these three categories is to attack three major misunderstandings about me.

There's a way to connect it to that direction and that might have some hints to answer Ben's question, why these 35 or three groups of things will lead to, why understanding them will lead to wisdom. Yeah. It comes later.

I cheat a little bit. I look ahead. Cool.

Anyone else have some exciting or smart words to share? Not both, please. Abhidhamma tend to make people quiet.

I learned this pattern. Okay, I'll say something in the last one minute. Because we learned what we have spent like seven years learning the first Abhidhamma book, Kosha.

It seems like, as I remember, it's really the first time the book itself says, in order to help other people, we're going to do chapter number five. That's what it says today, right? It's very refreshing to me because in the first seven years, we seldom hear that.

We were just so deep into, you know, dividing realities. It's a little bit like what ChetGBT is doing nowadays. But with that tool, with the knowledge of reality or all the things in the world, if we can turn that energy into helping other people, it's just like how we use ChetGBT.

It could be very productive and healthy, and that's what I take today. Like anything we learned, not just classics, any knowledge in the world, if we can hold this motivation that maybe somehow I can use this knowledge to help other people in the future, that would be a great thing to do. And it's so beautiful that the last chapter of this book is dedicated to that, and I really salute to that.

That gave me a lot of hope and extra motivation to finish this long journey. Thank you, Geshe-la, again for choosing this higher Abhidhamma, in a way. It's really cool, yeah.

Okay, I think it's time. Thank you for your excited participation, and we'll probably see you again in one month in the next class. Now let's turn to Juan Hasso.

Where's Juan? Oh, he's here. Okay.

Hi, Stanley. How are you?

[Speaker 2]
Hi.

[Speaker 1]
Good, good, good. Good to have you back in Greenbrook. Oh, now you're doing Sedona, no?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wonderful. Pretty, pretty view you have there.

And, yeah, let me know. I've been trying to contact you guys. Let me know for the party we have to organize.

All right. If you have suggestions, really greatly appreciate it. Okay, thank you.

So, yeah, as you know, like, things are, like, pumping here in Arizona. We have very wonderful friends visiting that. It was wonderful to see them today in the class, Hector, Peter, Maria.

So I'm so glad that you came, and I just hope you keep coming to these classes. Honestly, I think you are really great, great teachers. And if you are, like, around this kind of content and here with us to give us your, how to say, inputs like you just did now, I think we're all going to benefit.

So I will say keep coming. I'm so glad that you are here. So welcome to Arizona.

All right. So what has been happening? Remember last Monday we had a very cool interview with Joel about the new ALL library, digital library?

Actually, you know, I went and did my homework. Finally, at least I tried to, okay, I'm going to use it and see how much I can figure it out. Suspiciously enough, I had some trouble because, you know, my Tibetan is super, super limited.

So then I find things, but they are in, like, Western Chinese language, and I don't know what to do with them. I know a little bit, but very little. So then I go to ChatGPT.

Can you translate into English? It's so interesting to me, suspicious, actually, that at the beginning of the class, Geshe-la and Stanley were talking about ChatGPT not being yet a good tool for these things. And that's exactly what had happened.

Next picture, please. This is a translation it gave me, right? And if you can, I don't know.

I don't know if we can do that. Okay. I'm just going to try.

For $20, check this thing out. Just for $20. Can you show the other picture, please?

The preview? No, the, yeah. So just check the very first line.

If anybody, except MixNuts translators, but if anybody else tells me what's the very first problem you will notice here, you get $20. Just in the first line, right? Check it out.

No, let's say that. All right. Just that.

Next picture. Okay. If anybody can tell me why I already felt someone was.

Okay. Okay. Someone in the chat is close.

It's close. True isn't a word. That's not exactly, but it's close.

Yeah. Yeah. If anybody knows why I already was like, something's weird here.

Anyone?

[Speaker 2]
The first line is like talking about Satchupala is the, the 10, the 10th level of Bodhisattva. And it's the Telsin Sattva is the one gone dust. But the first line in English doesn't talk about that.

[Speaker 1]
Perfect. Excellent. Excellent.

$20. 14. Thank you so much.

So that's the thing. I already was like, wait, something's weird here. So next picture, please.

And then it's like, okay. The translation. Why?

And then break down. It says Satchupa, the 20 or the number 20. And I was like, what?

And then next picture, please. Then I like, how do you say number 10 in Tibet? And I asked the chat GPT and the chat GPT says, true.

So then I ask again, next picture, please. Translate the very first line. And now it's, it's, it's very funny.

Now the chat GPT got it correctly. So it almost seems to me that the chat GPT cool or any, I don't know, AI cool kind of learn after, you know, you're like, oh, so what about you again? So now they got it.

But anyways, next picture. I think that's all that I could do. I'm not yet finding exactly how to answer my questions, but it's a progress.

And I recommend that everyone, if you want to use this tool, well, keep coming to these classes because knowing Tibetan is extremely helpful. And it will help us to find out so many answers that we or others could have. Okay.

So today we have Mr. Sugeng here with us too. We want to congratulate him real quickly. And we will hear from him a little bit of what he has to say about this wonderful book that now it's available for all of us.

Welcome Sugeng.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Juan.

[Speaker 1]
So congratulations. Congratulations on this first book. Now you are Iberia on in your second book, but what is this one about and why you will say people should read it?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah. First of all, the owner should all go to Geshe Michael. Who is the real translator.

So I'm very honored to be involved in the process of compiling all the translations. And I think this book is special in the sense that first it was a textbook on the monastic university of the past. And because it is a textbook, it is not too difficult compared to the current one that is being translated.

But it is not easy to because it is going very, very deep into this topic. So that is one. Secondly, I believe all of you must have realized after we are going for seven, eight years now on the mixed nuts that we have a culture that we will not leave any stones unturned.

And that means that I always like to tell people when you read books by Geshe Michael, pay attention to all the details, especially the footnotes and appendices. Those are very, very valuable. In fact, I learned a lot just from the footnotes and the appendices.

So those are very, very. And of course, the interest. Yeah.

Thank you. The interest is also very, very important. And this book itself, it doesn't only include the content of the will of life, but also Geshe Michael added the story of how the will came about.

There are three versions at least that we discuss in there. And then we went into a deep Geshe Michael went to find out the more history biography of the Kendra Tempah Dargah, who is the great master who wrote this commentary. And then and then and he is also the famous guy who is who whose commentary is being discussed and translated by Tim Lowenhaupt on the jewel of realization.

So we know he's he's somebody who is very, very special and the content will be very, very amazing. And finally, as a as a dessert, I think Geshe Michael added the poems by Arya Nagarjuna on the will of life. Seven verses, but they are very concise and very, I would say, eye opening.

And yeah, I can say that. Oh, yeah. Thank you.

The headings, too. Those are very, very good summaries of the flow of thoughts in the book. So, yeah, Geshe Michael added put a lot of effort to arrange all the headings.

If you have difficulty reading the content, reading first read the table of content is already very mind boggling. If you can follow the table of content based on all the headings that Geshe Michael added in, you will have you will increase your understanding of this will of life much, much deeper. So that is what I can say.

So don't wait. Start reading all those amazing things that Geshe Michael added in there and you will become more knowledgeable on this will of life. Thank you for the time.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you so much again. So there you go. If you want to learn and understand better about the twelve links on the book, you can read the book.

Now I'm going to turn it over to our very great host today here with us. It's Benji, who is going to be talking about this very fascinating relationship between the Bhagavad Gita and the Related Nighima Practice because they are having an event soon and also he wants you, He wants you to come to the Bhagavad Gita to meet him in person. Hey, Benji, where are you?

Are you in the cave? I'm not in a cave. It just gets really dark over here.

But where is it? North Carolina. All right.

Wonderful. You look great, man. I always say you are the best, the best well-dressed yogi.

Giving me a bad reputation, Juan. No, no, it's good. It's good.

And my professional ethics don't let me say much about it. But lately, lately, I hear very high people speaking very good about you. They're like, wow, this guy must be special.

Thank you for being here. And I would like to hear from you. What are you planning with Teresa?

How this course came to be? And maybe if you could give us a little taste of what are you going to be doing this Wednesday? Yeah.

Cool. Well, since 2020, YSI has taught two of the three texts that Eshlet taught when he started to teach about the worldview of yoga. So for 100 bonus points, which two texts did we already teach?

It's Yoga Sutra and Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Wow. Are you still handing out those pens?

Yeah, man, I have them. Do you have yours still? Yeah, I do.

Wonderful. I'm going to start giving those away as bonus points. OK, we can talk about that.

But now we're starting to touch on the third text, the Bhagavad Gita. So we've already covered Raja Yoga, Hatha Yoga. And now with Bhagavad Gita, we start to get into Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, Sankhya, the numbers guys.

If all that sounds boring, then the Gita is probably for you. It was written as an epic poem and meant to be sung. So it's kind of like a good night story.

It's not like a verse by verse kind of pithy thing. It's the great grandfather of all good movies. So this Wednesday, I'll hang out with Teresa.

We're going to talk about Lady Naguma. All of Lady Naguma's inner and outer methods. And what would Lady Naguma and Lord Krishna talk about if they were in a coffee shop?

Should be fun. Yeah, and what are your insights? I mean, I know very little about Bhagavad Gita, just the very basics.

And I mean, Lady Naguma, I guess I'm somehow familiar over the years. But what would you say is the connection there? What would you say?

If I just ask you, like, let's say we're just walking in Japan, like last time in the philosopher's path. And I get, hey, Benji, you know, I've been wondering, what do you think is the relationship between the Bhagavad Gita and Lady Naguma? What would you say?

Imagine, you know, we are there next to the creek and just walking. And then? And then I think I would probably say inner and outer methods.

All right. Both are very practical teachers. I mean, Lady Naguma gives you an entire framework.

The biggest issue that Arjuna has is that he gets the worst diamond deal of all time. And he just kind of freaks out. And then Lord Krishna's there to pat him on the head, give him some methods and say, let's work it out.

That's wonderful. Okay. And what about Lady Naguma?

Her too. I mean, she'd probably say, you know, give me some sun salutations. Let's do a dissolution meditation on the elements and kind of work out our diamond deal together.

Inner and outer methods. I really like that. So you guys are going to be having like an in-depth conversation about this, this upcoming Wednesday.

Thank you so much, Benji, because, you know, I was wondering why these guys, YSI people keep insisting on sending me posters in New York time. But you, man, you are different. You finally send me one that sits in Arizona time.

So thank you so much. Now that we are, you know, used to the central world time, it's difficult for us. What's New York time?

We're talking about Arizona time. I know. It's almost as if there was anyone who wanted to go.

Now that they see that it's at five in the morning, they're definitely not going to want to go. This is great. OK, but we hope we hope because they know how valuable these teachings are.

Maybe they do small effort or they watch the recording. Be available on YouTube next day. OK, OK.

And one more thing is this event. But also we want to use the time real quick to invite people to the other event, which is going to be on February here. We are really excited to welcome you all.

We have everything ready, pretty much the venues there. I've been being asked to check on a few other things, like some surprises with you and the nursing home and other things that I won't say here. But thank you so much for everything you're doing.

The last words to invite people to Bagavad Gita and we move on to next class. I hope to see you guys there. It's a party in a way.

The only YSI I could party. Please tell me. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Benji. Thank you, Benji. And we'll see you soon coming up here in Arizona, Bagavad Gita.

By the way, just to say, Errol was complaining that I called you the well-dressed jockey. He wants to compete for the title. So I think fair competition.

It's okay, Errol. You can prove yourself. Try and see what happens.

So we'll see what happens here in Arizona for the 2025 title award of the most well-dressed jockey. See you in February. Thank you, Benji.