Сугэн Ши — Книга 2: Колесо жизни (первый принцип и подразделения зависимости), занятие 39

[Speaker 1]
Okay, Uncle Sugeng, we're ready to start you guys. Uncle Sugeng, let's get some homework. All right, let's do some homework.

Hi Kitty, I miss you. When are you going to come to my house and fix my flowers? Okay, oh yes, can you all see my screen?

Good, you said you can't hear?

[Speaker 2]
We can't hear you.

[Speaker 1]
Can you hear me?

[Speaker 2]
We can see the answers too, Sugeng.

[Speaker 1]
I leave it, I open up some of the answers. Geshe Michael, can you hear me? No, seems like they can't hear me.

Geshe-la, can you hear me? I can't hear you too. Are you muted, Geshe-la?

I was taking a nap, I was going to take a nap doing your homework. Okay, but can you hear me? You can hear me good?

Yes, go ahead. Last session, we spoke a lot about the synonyms for the misunderstanding and I just combined them all into two questions. So, we discussed at least several reasons why Master Vasubandhu gave so many synonyms to misunderstanding.

So, let's see if anybody recalls what they are. So, the first reason is some people would understand one what? Synonym?

[Speaker 2]
And not another.

[Speaker 1]
Yes, yes, some people would understand one and not the other one. Those who were something would probably catch some of them.

[Speaker 2]
Distracted.

[Speaker 1]
Distracted, yeah, totally distracted. People might... I love this homework.

People might something that they didn't know about. Fall asleep? Fall asleep.

Okay, sorry Geshe-la, my voice is a bit hoarse. It's not because I try to be funny, but yeah. I don't mind, I don't mind.

People might want... Learn something? People might go and find out, get curious and check into those that they didn't know about.

And hopefully people get a point and won't forget it. Will. Won't forget the point.

Okay, that's a good attempt. People with dull mind, I should leave the with there. People with dull mind and then they will...

We don't understand that one. When they get into heavy commentaries and scriptures, they will... Take a deep nap.

[Speaker 2]
It will help them understand what they're reading.

[Speaker 1]
Yes, they will help us understand when we are reading. I love this homework. What we are reading when we get into heavy commentaries and scriptures.

Thank you, Geshe-la. Like a Mad Libs. Yeah, to improve our understanding of that word in...

That we might see. Other great books. In other great books.

I think this is correct. In many different presentations that we might see. Thank you, Geshe-la.

And for people to... Among many synonyms of misunderstanding, then they all...

[Speaker 2]
To have the ability to use different meanings in different wordings.

[Speaker 1]
Close, close. To appreciate that there is no difference among the many synonyms of misunderstanding, then they all... Are dumb.

Refer to the same thing. That's what I said. Okay.

All right. Now, what is the opposite of misunderstanding according to Master Vasubandhu after... Resolving the synonyms?

[Speaker 2]
Sherub.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, good attempt. It's related to the two sanggom and two more. So it's related to...

[Speaker 2]
Listening, contemplating, and meditating, the wisdom which comes from those three.

[Speaker 1]
And also...

[Speaker 2]
Realizations.

[Speaker 1]
And... Seeing and realization. Thank you.

Thank you, Venerable. Okay. These three are related to the synonyms of the Arura.

So Gyachimpo. The incense of chakra, of chakra herb. Yeah, what is chakra herb?

How do you write that? Is this correct? Chakra is a god.

I would say the herb named incense of chakra. Yeah. Incense of chakra herb.

Okay, is this the correct spelling? Capital S. It is.

Yeah. I see. All right.

[Speaker 3]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Shat means a hundred. Oh, shatkra? Here means to destroy.

Oh, destroy. Okay. I know he's upset one day, he's destroyed a hundred cities, and he got this nickname shatkra.

Oh, okay. Oh, thank you. How about chulen?

Take the essence? Take the essence. Essence taker, yeah.

Taking the essence. Nandu? Completely cure.

Cures all sickness. Cure of all sickness. Illness destroyer.

Illness destroyer. Nice. Thank you.

All right, that's all I have, Geshe-la, and these are the attempted translations. Okay, good. Let me check it, okay?

Let's take a look at this. The meaning of Shun, understanding of Shun. Oh, this is misspelled.

The word after Shun should be C-E-S, so you can do the necessary. Yeah, okay. What was the sign?

I forgot the percentage. Yeah, and curly braces on faces. Curly braces?

Before, yeah. Okay. By the way, that's the Mixed Nuts standard.

I make probably four or five corrections an hour when I review these materials. My hope is that later graduate students will be assigned to change the database. Somebody has to take this and change the database.

The database should never be changed under any circumstances unless you see it like this. Don't believe anybody else, whatever they say. Do not change the database.

Not one letter, okay? There's lots of Geshes who don't understand. It looks wrong to them, and it's not wrong.

So, do not change... Did I say that? Do not change a single letter in the database unless grandpa has done this mark.

This mark means you can change it. All right. Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
We use serial commas just by the way.

[Speaker 1]
Well, I'll ask you a question, Sugeng. Are they different? Yeah, they look different.

They are different. But somehow we have to indicate that they are not unrelated entities? How's that?

Okay. Not the unrelated entities, okay. Yeah, okay.

I would say something like that. All right. Okay.

Okay. Okay. But this dun refers to what, entity in this case?

Yeah, yeah. It means object here. It doesn't mean meaning, it means object.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

MA YIN NAM PA NI Yeah, when we add the word miss to the understanding, yeah, it has a connotation, I would say. A dun, okay. A connotation of...

a derogatory connotation, yeah. The miss in misunderstanding is... is diss.

Dissing. Dissing. The miss is dissing.

The miss in diss. Diss, D-I-S. Yeah, that's fine.

It has a derogatory connotation. MED PA'I RIG PA'I DI LA YOD PAS MA RIG PA And what it says here is that we call something misunderstanding when it involves a corrupted understanding. Okay.

And that's MED, okay. Okay. Yeah, good.

That's a good translation now. How does this relate to a monastery? Oh, monastery.

How does this sentence relate to a monastery? Monastery. Sera MED.

Yeah, Sera MED. Actually MED means inferior in that case. Superior, sorry.

But yeah, on a mountain, it's on the lower half of the mountain. So in that case, MED, which is this spelling, S-M-A-D, S-M-A-D-D-A-M-E-D, it means on the monastery, the part of the Sera as a whole which was built on the lower part of the mountain. So it came to be called Sera MED.

Okay, cool. All right. So how do you say prostitute in Tibetan?

TSONG means to sell. MED TSONG MA MED TSONG MA The lady who sells to her lower half. Okay.

All right, now you're never going to forget MED. And it's the same spelling. And I'm sorry that it's a bad word, but it'll help you remember MED.

So MED, lower part of the mountain, lower part of the body, or an understanding which is corrupt. Misunderstanding is not simply the lack of understanding, it's corrupted understanding. Not that you don't know things, it's that you misknow things.

Okay, got it? That's a big, big point, right Segen? Yes.

Let's see.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
LOB PUN GYI MCHED PA NI Let's see what I said in my clearer days. The way the masters explain these points is that we treat a fellow to know him. Can you go on?

One of my supporters said this. Okay, all right. LOB PUN GYI MCHED PA NI The way the masters explain these points, LUNG GI LTA means, literally it means the front end.

LUNG GI LTA So if you picture the universe as a line, if you picture the universe as a line, the front end of the line is called LUNG GI LTA. The front end. And it means misunderstanding what came before, in time.

Misunderstanding what came before in time. So when we failure to know what came before, and we can speak about that failure in terms of two logical statements. RIG PA BYAM means you can understand the failure to understand where the world came from.

Where things came from. You can understand it in terms of two different NI. BSTAN ZIG means a logical statement.

All of the words in Tibetan for logical statements are tricky because they can refer to the reason by itself, or they can refer to the entire logical statement. It's a hassle. So BSTAN ZIG here means entire logical statement, but it could mean just the reason.

So BSTAN ZIG NAM PA NYID SU RIG PA BYAM means you guys should understand RIG PA BYAM. And that's a pun. Understand misunderstanding?

Or use logic? RIG PA, you should vidya. A vidya.

You should vidya. A vidya. It's cute.

It's cute. We don't have the Sanskrit, but I'm sure the Sanskrit here was you got a vidya, you a vidya. It'd be fun to rewrite the Sanskrit.

RIG PA BYAM TE BDAG TU RDZIN PA DANG RJES SU THON PA'I DBANG There's one misunderstanding about where the universe came from, which is related to DANG RDZIN. Thinking that the pen comes from its own side, for example. By the way, what I like to say for DANG RDZIN, what I prefer to translate it nowadays is to think that the pen is itself.

And that's a very difficult idea. To think that the pen is itself is ultimate ignorance. And that's the meaning of DAG.

That's the meaning of Atman. That's the real meaning of Atman in Buddhism. To think the pen is itself.

It's the pen itself. If you think about the pen which is coming from me, that pen is itself. But the pen you're thinking of when I say pen, it's not the pen.

That's DAG. Got it? So to believe that the pen is itself is a problem.

You can say to believe in a self-nature or something like that, but that's not really how Buddha said it. He said to believe that the pen is itself. He said it in a much deeper way.

Or to believe that anything is itself is misunderstanding. And by the way, I don't like the word ignorance anymore. It means not understanding, not knowing.

And that's not what marikpa means. Marikpa means misunderstanding. It's very famous.

The first link of the Wheel of Life is not a lack of understanding, it's a hundred percent ask-backwards wrong understanding. There's a big difference. If you misunderstand the address where you're going to, that's a big problem.

If you don't know the address, then you know you don't know the address, and you go borrow somebody's phone. But if you think you know the right address, and you go to that address, and the party's not there, you're going to miss all the good stuff. Okay.

There's a big difference, right? So I don't like to use ignorance. I like to use misunderstanding.

It's corrupt knowledge. It's not a lack of knowledge. By the way, where does ignorance come from?

Where does that I come from? The I is from the privative in Sanskrit, the A. Yeah, it's from A, short A in Sanskrit.

It used to be A-Z-N-Y-A-N-A, and it became I-G-N-O-R-A-N-C-E. A-Z-N-Y-A became I-G-N-O-R-A-N-C-E. All right, anyway.

LA SOGS PA ZIN PA NI The first one has to do with BDAG TU RDZIN PA DANG RJES TU THUB PA problems relating to how you hold to a self-nature, or the things are themselves, and the question of what's blocking you from freeing yourself from those problems, or from that habit of holding to a self-nature. So holding that something is itself. RGYEGS CHE RGYEGS means blockers.

My Lama used to say blockers. He used to watch a lot of sports, and he's always like, the blockers hit a home run, and they got to first base, and he's always explaining Dharma with these... His vocabulary was all baseball vocabulary.

We're going to have a doubleheader today in the class, which means two games in the same afternoon. Okay, anyway. Okay, good.

Let's see what you came up with, it's again after all that blah blah by grandpa. The masters explain them as the philosophers came before, and so on, in terms of two logical statements, the habit of holding to anything as itself, and one which acts as the octopus. Yeah, that's good.

I'll challenge you to translate RJES TU THUB PA. RJES TU THUB PA? Yeah, RJES TU THUB PA means it encourages.

RJES TU THUB PA, it's something which encourages you to think of things the wrong way. Oftentimes it's used, like if the weather is humid, it's more likely that you will drop things in your house or something. That's RJES TU THUB PA.

It's a condition which supports something else. So you got to catch that in your translation. It means anusamtading.

It's a Sanskrit word.

[Speaker 3]
Conducive. Condition.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, conducive is good. Yeah, good, nice. Conducive.

Haso says conducive to the habit of holding that things are themselves. Conducive to the habit of holding that things are themselves. Okay, good.

Yeah, and how you cast all this in English is your problem. I don't get paid for that. All right.

Okay, but you did a good job. I like it. This was easy.

I don't think we should even read this one. Okay, okay. If Apo were here, he would skip it.

No, no, I'm just kidding. Okay, you want to read this again and translate for us? Okay.

So holding that things have their own natures becomes conversions. Nice. Holding that things are unchanging.

And then holding that things are things themselves. All right, I'll tell you a sub-problem. When you use the word things, it could mean all things in the universe.

We're talking Lopo, which is only half of the things in the universe. Functioning? Yeah, functioning things.

I prefer some kind of indication that it means functioning. It's true that all functioning things are by necessity changing things, but that's not what it says. It says functioning things, okay?

So holding that things have a self-nature comes in three versions. Holding that things are unchanging. Holding that things are functioning, or something?

[Speaker 2]
Function. Things function.

[Speaker 1]
Things function. That's good. Yeah, my English teacher said exactly that.

If you can make it briefer, God bless you. And holding that there are... I would prefer to say agents and consumers or something.

I don't know. Chepa Po is pretty clear. The doer.

Agents and... You want to say eaters? It says eaters.

It's not brief, though. Eaters, agents, and... Consumers?

[Speaker 2]
Those who eat and those who do?

[Speaker 1]
I mostly eat and don't do, but...

[Speaker 2]
No, that's not true.

[Speaker 1]
We had a nice sentence, by the way. Agents and consumers, okay? Let's put this first provisionally, and then I'll think of better words.

Yeah, and by the way, 50% of your text is provisional already. All right, I like your approach, and I like how you translated it. At least we came up with it.

So Gang, I have a proposal. Since your Tibetan pronunciation is so good, and it's such a waste of time to try to correct you, I propose that you choose somebody from the audience who could read this next section, and you correct them, okay? Okay.

Great. What Nick taught me is you hit participants, you click on participants, it'll give you a name of 81 names. You don't have to know the person.

You can just select a name and embarrass the person. It's great. I have a lot of fun with that.

Okay, I saw the first name here, Marina. I hope she won't hate me. Oh, she's already embarrassed.

We can see. Okay. I think, Marina, you want to come up here?

Are you embarrassed? Are you shy? You want to try to pronounce?

You want to do it there? Okay, she's invisible, Gang. Okay, she's going to try to read.

Marina, you read loudly. Can she do that? Will he hear her?

[Speaker 3]
Just turn off my mic.

[Speaker 1]
Marina, just come here. You don't have to be on camera. You don't have to be on camera.

You can sit out of the camera. Okay. Then I'll sneak the camera over to you.

Okay. Okay. So you're going to read here, and Sugeng is going to pick on you.

Okay, here we go, Sugeng. Go slow. DE LAS.

I'll give you the first two for free. Talk loud. DE LAS.

[Speaker 3]
DRO.

[Speaker 1]
DRO. Nice.

[Speaker 2]
LAS.

[Speaker 1]
Don't be shy. LAS. Good.

Go for the inside letters. DRO. Yeah, DRO.

Yeah, DRO. DRO. DRO.

DRO. DRO. DRO.

DRO. Wait, I'm not correcting you. Sugeng is correcting you.

I was supposed to get a break. I'm over here. I'll see you guys later.

YAN NAM PA, YAN NAM PA, DE. CI TE. CI TE.

CI TE. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

[Speaker 2]
Yes.

[Speaker 1]
Yes. Yes.

[Speaker 2]
Yes.

[Speaker 1]
Yes. Nice. Yes.

So, Mishepa Mishepadan Yonpola Yonpola Yonpola Yonpen Yonpe Yonpenka Nga Kyao Kyao Nepanishepa Mishepa Mishepa Yeah, nice. Thank you.

[Speaker 3]
Great job.

[Speaker 1]
Amazing. She ran away again. All right, here we go.

All right. De le Let me see. And there are four things, different things that block us from the bridge.

De le du e kye de le du e kye chepa yang nam ma shi te I would like you to add something for de le at the very beginning. De le De le Getting free from whatever problem was mentioned in the last paragraph. Yeah, getting free from those three kinds of self of holding.

See what I mean? Yeah. Getting free from that.

You could say there are four different things that block us from getting free from that. From liberation, right? I would say there are three, four different things that block us from getting free from that.

Getting free from holding... You could say that. Or that holding, you could say.

From that holding. Yeah, okay. Because it's supposed to refer back to the previous sentence.

Okay, good. That holding. Number one.

Not knowing... Yeah, how to... You got to have a verb here for dro.

Not knowing how to go for protection. Seek protection. Good.

Not knowing how to seek protection. Nice. That next one is perfect.

Not knowing what it is we need to see. Perfect. That one's a great one.

Not knowing the ant... Not knowing... Now, here he's distributing the two verbs to the two objects of the two verbs.

Now you explain it to me. There's two verbs here and there's two objects mentioned and they distribute... How do you say that?

One goes to A and two goes to B, respectively. Yeah, they distribute respectively. What you want to kyepa is the nyenpo.

What you want to pangpa is the mitun chok. Kyepa is nyenpo. Oh, pangpa is mitun chok.

We want to pang the mitun chok and we want to ke the nyenpo. So now we have to state two verbs and distribute the two objects. So pangpa, the mitun chok means let go of the...

And then mi she distributes to both. We don't know how to pangpa the mitun chok and we don't know how to kyepa the nyenpo. So not knowing the...

How to get rid of... How to get rid of the... reverse.

Mitun chok means the things that work against your practice. Yeah, what goes against the practice.

[Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
And... And... And then you have to kyepa the nyenpo.

How to grow the antidote. How to... Yeah, how to develop the antidote.

Develop the antidote. Now, I make a stylistic suggestion to you, which is a whole different layer of training. And I have not taught, I have not spent any time on that.

And it will take equal time to the six years we just spent. Okay? Stylistic considerations are crucial.

And I haven't talked about them at all. It would take about five, six years to teach them. Okay?

But stylistically, what topic are we on? On the misunderstanding? On the reverse?

Yeah. So, you got to hit really hard on this Mishepa. Because he repeats it twice.

He's sensitive to this stylistic consideration. That he's giving you a definition of what? The...

What's he describing in this program? Oh, there are four different things blocking us from the holding? What section are we in?

Misunderstanding. Yeah, misunderstanding. So, if it's me, for stylistic purposes, since he took the trouble to repeat the same verb twice, Mishepa, Mishepa, I think he's trying to echo.

It's called echo in writing style. He's creating an echo for Marikpa. Aha.

See what I mean? Yes. Stylistically, it's probably the same word in Sanskrit.

Avidya, avidya, avidya. So, you have to... You have to use a verb with a negative, which subconsciously calls to the reader's understanding of misunderstanding.

So, yeah. I would say not knowing and not knowing is okay. Or failing to...

If it were me, I would probably say failing to understand how to seek protection, and failing to understand how we get rid of what goes against the practice. See what I mean? And then I'm using echo.

I'm calling back to the name of this link in the twelve links, because we're in the middle of that link. I think he's playing. I think he's playing.

And I think that's why he repeated Mishyappa twice. He didn't have to. So, you've got to be...

That's a whole other layer of translation skill. And we haven't talked about it. Here we go.

All right, good. The last one I don't really understand. Yeah.

Yeah, this is great. Read it backwards slowly and you'll get it. Failing to understand that the lack of...

the lack of pride about being able to use the antidote. So, he's talking about how do you feel about your successful practice? Do you get proud about your successful practice?

Ah, I see. He's talking about a new kind of obstacle. Wow!

I did a great confession yesterday. I personally did a great confession yesterday. And I get pride about my confession.

You see what I mean? Okay. Got it?

By the way, who can tell me how many kinds of pride? Seven. Seven kinds.

Nine or seven? We did nine, but there's different lists, Dan. Yeah, there's different lists.

Now, if someone... If I was named... If I lived in Singapore and I had a human computer at my disposal, I would ask them to go check that division into nine.

Because NGON PA'I NGA RGYAL is not normal NGA RGYAL. It's called By the way, did ABI come into English? Epitome.

Epitome. The highest. There's another one.

What's the... What's the highest place in an orbit of a satellite? Oh, yeah.

Apogee. Apogee. Anyway.

Okay. ABI did come into English a little bit. All right, good.

If I were you, if you're going to be a responsible mixed nut... And by the way, this is a time thing. Are you going to do everything possible at your disposal to get the meaning correct, or are you too busy?

Are you willing to spend an hour for one word? To make it precise. Are you willing to spend an hour to get this one tiny word correct?

And if you're not, you shouldn't be a mixed nut. Okay? You've got to spend the time.

And it's hard. It's really hard. Your wife's like, why don't you talk to me?

Why are you staring at the computer for the last hour? And, okay? You've got to make choices.

These books will last for hundreds of years. Okay? Whatever else you were planning this afternoon will last not longer than this evening.

So, okay. I say... In fact, Thang Thang said that seven and nine divisions of Agyal pride is in all kinds of comma appendix B.

So, that's the place I would go and search. Now, I want to give you a disclaimer. All right.

It may have nothing to do here. Oh, okay. It may not be relevant here at all.

I just warn you. He might have just chosen to say super pride, and it did not refer to the Lumbang Agyal in the presentation of nine or seven. Oh, okay.

I just warn you. Go check. If it doesn't seem relevant, forget it, and say strong pride.

Awesome. Oh, okay. All right.

Okay, I'll find out.

[Speaker 2]
It doesn't look like it's in those lists.

[Speaker 1]
No? Okay. Oh, it's there.

I know it's there.

[Speaker 2]
Oh. I remember. They're usually in comparison to others, not about taking personal pride in one's own activities, regardless of others.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, you mean how it's explained in the nine?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, and the seven.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, okay, good. See if it feels like it's relevant. If it's not, just call it strong pride.

Okay. All right. Good job, Sugeng.

I'm really enjoying it when you guys are translating, and I'm really happy to see the progress you guys are making. I have hope that I did not have three months ago that you're going to actually translate stuff. I'm really happy.

Grandpa's really happy. I don't know, something about the five-year mark. By the way, I knew it would take five or ten years, and I was ready to wait, but the chicken eggs are hatching faster than I expected.

All right. Here we go. I'm in the wrong book.

Let me get the right book up. Can you repeat again what you were saying just now? I didn't really get you.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, I'm writing it for you.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, okay. Thank you. Well, thank you, team.

[Speaker 3]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Where are you going? No. Is this where we stop, Sugeng?

Oh, and I have to share now, right? Yes. Oh, I'm not seeing it.

Let me try again. We are in the mind-only position on the different types of misunderstanding. Oh, yeah.

Okay. Section 13. Section 13, yes.

Five sections, I'm not done yet.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, no. If you search on...

[Speaker 1]
You go down somewhere, you will find it. Are we at SORWA DANG RIGPA? Yeah, we did that just now.

[Speaker 2]
We're beyond that. You see what I just added to the chat? Search on that, and you'll go right to it.

[Speaker 1]
What is it? Just tell me what it is.

[Speaker 2]
Section, square bracket, 13, and square bracket.

[Speaker 1]
It doesn't have section numbers yet, I don't think.

[Speaker 2]
No, it's a note you added.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, okay, okay, good. All right. All right, here we go.

Like that?

[Speaker 2]
Yes, that's it.

[Speaker 1]
All right, let's read this. And... I got a great Buddhist scholar here today.

Sometimes I call on somebody in the audience to come and sit next to me and correct the person's reading. Are you interested, Venerable Phuong?

[Speaker 2]
Me?

[Speaker 1]
To correct the reading, if you want to. You don't have to.

[Speaker 2]
Do I have to read anything?

[Speaker 1]
No, you have to just critique his pronunciation. Every third word you say, no, no, no, no, no. Can you watch this?

Make sure he clears that.

[Speaker 3]
Don't step on that cord.

[Speaker 1]
Don't step on that cord. Don't step on that cord, my friend. Ah, Venerable Phil, how are you?

I got the big guns.

[Speaker 2]
Good, guys.

[Speaker 1]
He's in from Germany where he gave some great teachings.

[Speaker 2]
Wow.

[Speaker 1]
And... Okay, so he's going to start just this one line. Can you see it okay?

No, we're getting close, yeah. Can I blow it up? That's as big as it'll go?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, I'll keep it this big. Okay, go ahead, Senor Sugeng. DEL GYOR CHOS PA'I SA LAS BSTAN PA Okay, what's that mean?

The teaching of the level of the... the Yogacara Buddhi, the level of the DEL GYOR CHOS. We can say the levels of accurate practice, for example.

DEL GYOR The level of accurate practice. The levels of accurate practice. It doesn't just mean physical yoga, it means yoga in its real sense, which is accurate practice, okay?

Now, this sentence is earth-shaking, and I'm sure Sugeng is going to tell us why. Earth-shaking. The existence of this sentence in this book is a major, major thing.

Oh, yes. So, well, I think this refers to the shift of this... On one hand, Master Vasubandhu started as an Abhidharma person, and then on the other hand, he was talking about the Will of Life, which is lower middle class...

Which is a classic Abhidharma subject. Which is what, sorry? The Will of Life is a classic Abhidharma subject.

And now he brings it into another level, which is the mind only. Yeah. So, listen, you've got the world's expert of the Hinayana.

You've got the world's expert in history of the Abhidharma. And here he says, hey, let's look at this Will of Life from the mind-only point of view. And that's why I like this commentary.

That's partly why I chose this commentary. He came out of the closet. His hand was on the doorknob.

His hand was on the doorknob at now. And the door opened at then. And Vasubandhu came out of the closet.

Why? Wasn't he always an Abhidharma scholar? Because of his...

Because he realized that he wanted to go into this... He was an Abhidharma kosha as a confession. And his brother advised him to record the teachings of a school that neither one of them accepted.

But he foresaw that their work would destroy that school in the world. And it did. It only exists now in Sri Lanka or border places, we call them.

And he said, since our work is going to destroy the lower schools, you better record the beliefs of the lower schools before we finish our work. And that's the Abhidharma kosha, which ironically is Vasubandhu's masterwork, opus magnum. It's what he is remembered for.

And I'm sure he'd be irritated. We had that. Yeah, somebody put the dog fat on the wound.

[Speaker 3]
Master Dharmakirti did.

[Speaker 1]
What's it mean, Mr. Kramer?

[Speaker 3]
It meant that he learned the shared sciences, the teachings of the non-Buddhists to protect his own teachings, to protect his own system, our own system.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, and to destroy their system. He learned them to destroy their system. And that's kind of what Vasubandhu did.

Although I have to say, there are many elements of the Abhidharma which are important and are accepted by all schools. Most of it. It's a useful background for everybody.

But this is earth-shaking, because you get a real mind-only master. The brother, the half-brother of the founder of the mind-only school is going to explain the Wheel of Life from the mind-only school's position, which no one else ever did. This is the only record.

This is sexy. Okay, got it? What is Neljuchipisa?

Who wrote it? Who wrote the Yogacara Bhumi? My son.

His half-brother. His half-brother. He's like, let me tell you what my brother would say about this Wheel of Life thing.

Okay? All right? Very sexy.

Very, very cool. This is the... I said he's definitely not wearing that Abhidharma hat anymore.

Out of the closet. I think I went and got you... Yeah, I got you the commentary, the relevant parts of Asanga's work right here.

Okay? I went and got you this section. But here's his comments.

Just two minutes left, Geshe-la. Okay, I'm going to blow this up for venerable Phil.

[Speaker 3]
Somebody make a mistake.

[Speaker 1]
Make a mistake, so gang, out of compassion. Take a lower school's position. Okay.

NGON GYIS THA MI SHES PA GANG ZHES PA SHES PA, SHES PA Phil. SHES PA Yeah, SHES PA. Okay.

Now, we have had mention already of two problems, of two kinds of misunderstanding. And we had mention of this kind of lack of knowledge, MI SHES PA. Which was what?

About what? Failure to understand. About the misunderstanding.

About NGON GYIS THA. What's NGON GYIS THA? The start of the...

The start of the... The things that came before. Yeah, by the way, you can picture the universe as a spaghetti noodle.

Time as a spaghetti noodle. The front end of the noodle is called NGON GYIS THA. Okay?

The beginnings of time. And then CI THA is the endings of time. And there's a famous...

It's one of the eight unanswered questions to the Buddha. Somebody asked him, does samsara have a beginning? And does samsara have an end?

And he said, I refuse to answer. Okay. So, that's what NGON GYIS THA means.

Okay? Was there a front end? Okay.

Does the spaghetti noodle have a front end? Okay. Do we have time, Nick?

No, sir. Yay! What?

Isn't the front end the lack of a front end? Well, we're going to find out next time.

[Speaker 3]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
All right. Cool. By the way, we're just talking in the car, me and Ellie, which is what we do in the car when she drives me.

We so enjoyed watching you with your daughter. It's just one of the most beautiful things I ever saw. All right.

Stop here. What's today? 10 fires?

[Speaker 2]
Yes.

[Speaker 1]
All right. How much time we got, Uncle Nick? 10 minutes.

Wow. You're so generous. I am.

All right. See you guys in 10 minutes. See you guys.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Geshe-la.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you very much, Geshe-la.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Sugam. Great.

[Speaker 1]
Good stuff. Thank you, everybody. Good job, Uncle Phil.

I'm turning off my camera. Hey, Geshe-la. Did you see the email?

No, but I'll check it right now. Yeah. Text came from Aisha.

Oh, no. I didn't have time to look at it, but I'll look at it tomorrow. Oh, my class is next.

Today? Yeah. Oh, that's unfortunate.

Okay. I can switch with someone if you prefer. That's a good question.

Let me see. If Nick is here, you can ask him. Let's just start on it.

Okay? Let's start on the root text. Okay?

Okay. We'll do it. Okay.

Give me 10 minutes to get the root text. It's in your email. Thank you, Aisha.

Okay. All right. See you guys soon.