Тим Ловенхопт — Книга 1: Совершенство мудрости, занятие 52

[Speaker 1]
Nick, can you hear me all right? I sure can. Thank you for checking.

Good morning. How's it going? Doing pretty well.

Good, good, good. Oh, it's a very dramatic backdrop you got going on. It's time to start rising earlier.

Yeah, how it goes. Well, thank you for joining us. Tim's going to start a private retreat for like a month in his house.

He's been kind enough there to class with us just before going in. Thank you. I'm super excited.

Well, thank you everybody for joining. Thank you for all of our interpreters and our production team, Worldview Productions, and whenever you're ready, Mr. Tim. All right, cool.

So we'll start with our homework. From last class. Let's see how...

Oh boy, yes. I tried to make it easy, but I said that last time and then, you know, I failed miserably. Anyhow, okay, here we go.

So we're basically in a debate. We haven't even, you know, after four years, we haven't even gotten to the first line of the Abhisamaya Alankara yet. It's a little depressing.

I mean, depressing in the sense of like, there's just a lot of preliminary work to do. I was super stoked. I was like, oh, we must be getting close.

We must be getting close to finishing my first book. We're still about, we're about a quarter of the way into the first book. So there's still a lot to go.

But we're trying to determine, because we're doing analysis of a classical commentary, we're trying to understand what a classical commentary is. And then we're also trying to understand who Maitreya is, you know, as the person who taught us Sangha, all of this, like, is Maitreya a Buddha? Is Maitreya not a Buddha?

And we're getting into all of those discussions, what happened to be part of the foundation, the second foundation course of the 18 foundation courses. So a lot of this is drawn from this text. So it'll be fun when we get there to see it.

So we're in the middle of a discussion about the invention of the mind-only school. So there's a comment about saying that since Maitreya, Lord Maitreya invented the mind-only school, then he himself must belong to the mind-only school as well. That's what the debater comes along and says.

Is that something we agree to? And if not, why? And Nick is shaking his head.

Oh, no, I was giving the regular American negatory head shake. Oh, okay. Did you want to, were you shaking your head because you were just shaking your head?

Or do you have some additional? I would say the answer is no, to your yes or no question. He, just because somebody invented a school doesn't mean they belong to it.

And as for reasons, I mean, I guess one thing we could say is that he also wrote books relating to other schools like the Middle Way, but also- Wait, did Maitreya do that? Oh, I don't think any of his great books are Middle Way, great books relating to the Middle Way. I mean, how about, for example, the Abhisamaya Lankara?

Right, for what? Well, I would say lower Middle Way, yes. Okay, fair enough.

Fair enough. And then we have a counterexample as Master Vasubandhu wrote a book on the Abhidharma school and he didn't, and he's known as the inventor of the Abhidharma school, but he also doesn't subscribe to the beliefs of the Abhidharma school, which is known because he was forced to write the book from losing a debate with his brother. Who was?

Master Asanga. Wouldn't also the consequence branch followers say that if anyone sees emptiness directly, no matter what philosophical school they go into the experience having, they see the same emptiness.

[Speaker 2]
And so he is at least a Bodhisattva of the highest Middle Way.

[Speaker 1]
And so that he wrote anything of any other philosophical school doesn't prove anything about his own beliefs. Exactly. I think all of those things together, right?

And one thing that we did say is, why would he write something that he doesn't believe in completely? Why would he do anything? Anything he does is to serve other people.

[Speaker 2]
He does it to help us along the path by mastering a lower school that is the step to the higher school.

[Speaker 1]
I like that. I mean, I mean, I haven't met Maitreya at least. I don't think I've met him and or maybe I have.

I didn't know that I met him, but I don't know what Maitreya's motivations were. So it seems like maybe his motivation was to help us along the way. Yes.

So cool. Nice. Yes.

Louder. I don't know if you heard, Christina asked, was Maitreya in the flesh when these books were taught to Asanga? There he is.

There he is now. There he is. All right.

Keep it down, Jaru. That was the best answer. Let's scoot on.

Okay. Oops. Okay.

I'm going to talk about a little bit later, actually. So thank you, Subudhi. So I messed up in the beginning of this question here.

So after we start, after we identify in a debate that it's not necessarily the case that because someone invented a school of thought that they belong to that school of thought, another debater shows up and it should, the question should say in the defense of the original point, not our defense. All right. A second debater interjects to say that there's no way that Maitreya could be a Buddha because of something that the Buddha has never said.

What is that thing the Buddha never said according to this debater? Jacqueline has her hand up. Okay.

So Jacqueline said, if you didn't hear that, the Buddha never said the pen is real. Can we extend that even further? What about cats or windows or Emily's?

Emily Chen is here, by the way. Wow. You were up early yesterday, Emily.

No, expand upon the sentence that you said that the pen never existed, wasn't real. That's fair. Well, what I mean is, okay.

Christina said the implication is that there's nothing that is real. Right. In that way.

So basically they're saying, well, and then the second question will explain why. So basically the second debater comes in and he also quotes Chandrakirti and who says that the Buddhas have never, have not taught the idea and any and all that entities could exist. All right.

And how does that point attempt to prove that Maitreya is not a Buddha? And I'll give you a hint that it's that debater's point of view with relationship to the mind only school and Maitreya's invention of the mind only school. Because Maitreya is saying that the pen does exist.

Yeah. Okay. Oscar, I don't think they would say the pen exists.

Well, the pen writes. Yeah. Right.

But what does, what exists in the mind only school? Shenwangs. Shenwangs.

Yeah. So the three parts in the mind only school, kuntak, shenwangs and jungdrups. Shenwangs are dependent things or things that are, that are dominated by other things.

I think that's how it goes. Is that how you say it word? Something like that?

Yes. Things that are dominated, meaning caused, caused things. Caused.

Okay. Caused things. Okay.

So our debater is trying to say that Maitreya is not a Buddha because first the Buddha never said that entities are real. And Maitreya said, because when he invented the mind only school, that there is something that is real. Shenwangs.

Okay. Why? So we've already discussed it, but so why does this argument fall apart?

What is this debater still assuming?

[Speaker 2]
That because he said it, he believes it.

[Speaker 1]
Correct. Thank you, Upala. Just because he said it, that means he has to be believing in that.

So he's assuming, this debater is assuming that point of view that because Maitreya taught it, therefore that must be his wrong look, his system. And then Maitreya couldn't be a Buddha because a Buddha never said that anything existed from its own side. So what we're going to start seeing and then in what's coming up is we're seeing all the wrong views, why Maitreya is not a Buddha.

And then we'll find out what the right view is later in Sutra, I guess. All right. Vocabulary.

Shenwangs. Dominated things. Entities.

Entity, right? Whatever you want to say. Dependent things.

Geshe-la was saying dependent things, but I think we should use words translation from his book. How about nopadenparye? Because something functions, it's real?

Or just real existing things. Yeah. Entities that exist truly in reality, something like that.

You might want to put a yipa then, right? Nopadenparyepas, if it's a noun. Yes.

Correct. And what's the dena? Five books or something.

Someone. So what could we assume the five books of? I don't know.

The five books. Okay. Cool.

Good job, guys. All right. So I had an idea.

Last night I was planning this class and I didn't have a chance to meet with Geshe-la because he's having a holiday with Veronica. Because usually I meet with them and say, hey, what is this debate about? And then I can figure it out.

But I was having such a difficult time and I was getting frustrated and I was like, I don't know what's going on. And then I had an insight as I was falling asleep and I got up super early. We haven't finished Asanga's biography yet.

We still have a folio and a half left of Asanga's biography. And I was like, that'll be fun. So I think we can go jump back into that.

Oh, nice. Clear that thing up about the dog, about Jaroob. Right.

Clear up that thing about the dog. And I thought it would be kind of auspicious to go into that. Because for those of you who don't know the story, which probably most of you do, is that Asanga went into deep retreat for 12 years to meet Maitreya.

And after 12 years of retreat and having come out several times and getting special messages to go back into retreat, Asanga was like, I'm done with this. I'm done with this crap. And he decided to leave.

And along the way, he ran into a dog who had been injured. And the guts were out and there were little tiny worms already eating away at the dog's flesh. And out of an act of compassion for the dog, and for the living creatures that were eating the dog, he went to remove those worms from the dog first with the softness of his tongue.

And I'm guessing out of the pure compassion of that moment, his karma shifted so much that then the dog became Maitreya. And so he finally was able to meet Maitreya, which might be an interesting thing for us to discuss in our 15 minutes afterwards, like how to apply this in real life. And then he meets Maitreya.

Maitreya takes him off to Tushita Heaven for what seems like a morning to Asanga, teaches him all the cool stuff. Asanga comes back 50 years later, and then writes down the five great books of Maitreya. And so we're in the middle of that biography.

And so where we are in the biography is Asanga has come back. And I still want to figure out how Asanga and Master Vasubandhu interacted with each other. Because there's all these stories about them as brothers.

Did they have him before he met Maitreya? Anyway, we can talk about that later. But he comes back, and then he starts teaching.

And he starts teaching students what he learned. So that's where we are in the text. So let's figure out what happens to Asanga after he's back.

So we're in a discussion of all the cool things he writes down. We should start a business. What are we going to start?

Asanga dog deworming. It's morning over here. We're not that efficient, but the results are amazing.

We only promised total enlightenment. Wow. Who's the first employee?

Results may vary depending on who's looking. Depends on how grossed out you are and how compassionate you are. All right.

Thanks. Thanks, Word. You're welcome.

Here we go. All right. Oscar, can you read the first line here?

Yes. All right. All right.

We're going to work on this together. I thought this would also be a relief for us because I think we all know most of these words. I hope.

All right. Then in that place. The place that he's in, he taught in a forest.

He went out to the forest and taught his students. So that's where he is. He's in a forest right now teaching.

Just to set the scene for everybody. Yeah. So yeah.

In the forest, in that place, he wrote down in letters those five books. He wrote down those five books. Yeah.

So he taught his students some cool things. And then in that forest, he wrote down the five great books of what? Of Maitreya.

Nice. Nice. All right.

And what happened next? The meaning of the mother sutras, probably. Probably.

Yep. And then probably taught. Well, what words?

Yeah. In the Abhisamaya Alankara. I wrote that down.

And what's the English? Oh, ornament. Well, Geshe Michael has a new name for it, but Ornament of Realization used to be.

The Jewel of Realization. Yeah. So when you said, do you think he's teaching the meaning of the, when he says the mother here, what does that mean?

Perfection of Wisdom Sutras. You might even want to put that one. Yeah, yeah.

Prajnaparamita. So is he teaching the meaning of the Perfection of Wisdom in the Abhisamaya Alankara, or is he teaching two different things here? He's teaching the meaning.

I think the meaning in it, but it's, it isn't tongue. So it's a reasonable question. Yeah.

But, but I mean, we've, we seem to know that the Nguyen Thao Khen is a teaching on the meaning of the Prajnaparamita Sutras. So maybe it's both, maybe it's one. I'm not sure.

They seem like they could be one or many, I guess. He composed it so you would understand it. Right.

So I think that supports the idea that that book was composed so that he would understand what he was teaching or something like that. Something like that. Yeah.

So it seems like he's describing the meaning of the Perfection of Wisdom and the Jewel of Realization is the Perfection of Wisdom is a from Maitreya. So probably, you know, we can interpret it both ways, I think. Yeah.

And from those very things, which we are contemplate or arguing which one it is, either the both books or the meaning of the mother. He, yeah, he explained the meaning in depth. So maybe it's he, you know, he explained the meeting and the book itself, like maybe he was giving a commentary on it or something like that.

Do all of the students in the forest. I don't know. All the students in Rimrock, something like that.

All right, cool. Let's see who wants to read next. How about Kading, your next picture?

Next line, next line.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you. Thank you. Nice.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Let's see here. So say, what does that mean?

Kading, do you know that? No, I do not. He wholly did.

He wholly did. That's a great translation. Perfect.

Yeah. He wholly did the composition of what things? The higher line.

[Speaker 2]
In this case, I think it's the commentary known as the higher line. Yes.

[Speaker 1]
Or, yeah, commentary. Yeah, that, yeah, not of in this case, right?

[Speaker 2]
Probably not.

[Speaker 1]
I don't think so.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Why are we using the word commentary here? Because we anticipate the debate that's coming in your book. Yes.

And for what does that mean, Nick? Uh, what? Dralpa?

What does it mean? Or why are we using the word? Oh, a classical commentary is something that comments upon the work of the original teacher, Buddha, as opposed to the works that he composed himself or spoke himself.

And what is that? How is that related to Asanga and Maitreya? Just because we're getting into the debate.

They are commentators. They are commentators. Yeah.

Okay. And what is the higher line? Commentary.

Uttara Tantra. Uttara Tantra. One of the five.

And one of the five books, right? That's what I was trying to get at. Yeah.

So it's one of the five books. Yeah. So he wrote one of the five books he wrote.

We have the, right, the one that we're studying, the Nuntukyen. Another one is the Gyulama. What is this, this rimki here?

Successively, probably. One by one. Yeah.

So one by one, he composed. First, he wrote them in this order. Yeah.

Gyulama and then Dodegangdro. Yeah. And I think it implies after Nuntukyen, then he wrote Gyulama.

Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

Then he wrote those two. Yeah. Yeah.

His commentary to the sutra called What I Really Meant. His commentary to the commentary? To the commentary.

Yeah. But that commentary is not a commentary, right? So he wrote a commentary on the, okay.

Wrote a commentary on the sutra called What I Really Meant. Okay. I mean, if we have a standardized title already for Dodegangdro, which we probably do.

All right. So is that one of the five books of Maitreya? No.

No. So it looks like Asanga, we're learning about all the different things that Asanga wrote. So I'm wondering, I mean, as we go along, I wonder, like, did he mean all of the five books?

Are we including all the five books up until this point? Or are we going to learn about more of them later? That's my question.

Because now we're talking about some other commentary that Asanga wrote. All right. Let's see.

Uh, Tina, would you like to read? You're the next picture. She's like, oh, no.

Hello, Tim. I never, I never read, so I could try. Perfect.

Just make, just make some noises. Okay, I'll try. Okay, so Rimwa, it's probably, it's probably Rimwa.

Let's find out. Rimwa ge. Nice.

Well, for your first time, that was pretty impressive. Good job. More than pretty impressive.

All right. So, Jetsungi Menakla. From the Menaks?

What are those? Advices? Of Jetsun.

Who's, who's the, who's probably the Jetsun here?

[Speaker 2]
Jetsun Jampa.

[Speaker 1]
Jetsun Jampa. Maitreya, yes. Yeah, probably, probably Maitreya.

So from, from that time when they were hanging out, having cinnamon rolls in the morning. God, if I ever meet Maitreya, I hope he brings some cinnamon rolls. Maybe he already has.

Um, so from those private advices, Henne. Uh, well, that's the from. Independence.

From relying upon. Yes. Okay.

Yeah. Sorry, I didn't go far enough. Thank you.

Tekpo, Chenpo, Lamgi, Rim. Ah, there's an error. Yes.

Mahayana Marga. So that probably? Yeah.

Yeah. When we do, we're always supposed to put a question mark. Yes.

Like that? At the end of pa. Yeah, typically at the end.

So I would say that functions. Pa? I see.

So, so we think it's this way. Then when Geshe-la looks at it, he knows that we're questioning it.

[Speaker 2]
Is it this way?

[Speaker 1]
It's more like that. All right. So we have the Tekpo, Chenpo, Lamgi, Rimpa.

What is? What is that? Steps of the Mahayana.

Yeah, so, so he taught. He taught. Bigly.

Bigly. All right. So.

How do I ask this question? Why is this writer following, following earlier on? Just right before we started the, the, the biographer was also talking about how he taught the Lamrim to his first students.

Why does there seem like there's an emphasis of the Lamrim in this biography? Oh, this is the, it's the biography of the Lamrim lineage. Correct.

Yes. Yes. So there's the biographer is emphasizing that.

Oh, yeah. Sangha also taught the Lamrim just in case if anyone cared. All right.

So he taught that. I care. I love Lamrim.

Of course we care. Okay. So he taught from, from those private devices.

He taught the, he's taught bigly, extensively, widely, the Mahayana Lamrim. And then what else did he do? It looks like he also.

He taught some Bodhisattva levels. He taught some, et cetera, something in Bodhisattva levels. How about this Sade Na?

He taught that. Oh, the, the five. The five.

I wonder if that, if that's the five books or if this is some, I know he also wrote some books on the, the levels of Bodhisattvas as well. So it might relate to that. I don't know.

And then, and this thing here, which I'm not, wasn't really sure what was going on. So maybe you, maybe you all have some insight. Oh, the, the two domes, huh?

Yeah. Two, two summaries of some kind. I don't know.

Don't know. Could use further research. I don't know.

Yeah, it's a verse summary. Two types. Two types, two, two, some two verses.

Yes. A summary of something. I'm not sure what it is.

He wrote a couple of summaries. Is it? Yeah, it could be.

It's interesting. Is two summaries. Excellent.

Cool. All right. So we've got two summaries.

Do we know what the content of those summaries are? Bets are weird. Is it just what you have from the titles?

I always go to word. Word as in word, the word Smith or word as in Microsoft Word. Okay.

Okay. All right. So he, he, so he composed some more things.

Talked about the bodhisattva levels in this. So they not, I think is there's five books on those levels. And we start the next line talking about them.

So let's see what, see what it says.

[Speaker 2]
In some tech person help unmute words.

[Speaker 1]
Mike. Oh, is it the microphone? Are the microphones?

Yeah. Okay, cool. Now you got it.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you. Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Nice. Word does she go to your classes? Yes.

She is star student. Okay. Good job word.

And actually good job. That Lana. So that line, I got your message.

I'm going to respond to you today before going into retreat. All right. So in these, in these five things about the bodhisattva levels, it looks like there are two.

This looks like I could be, I'm just going through references here. It's it's the Yogacharya booming. Yeah.

It's the Yogacharya booming. The it's the listener booming. I think isn't Yogacharya.

Is that the overarching work? And then listener is among those. I don't really know the names or the individual works within those.

I have them all right here. Yeah. The first one is the, that's the Yogacharya booming.

And then the levels to that. And then there's derivative works from that as well. And then there's the bodhisattva boomies, but it's a collection of different books on levels, depending on the level of practitioner.

Yeah. So I was trying to listen to what you were saying and looking at the titles here. Are those, do those seem like they're related?

Because it looks like there's five, two, three, four. It looks like there's five listed here. Namdrang is a collection of synonyms, which is a famous book by Master Sangha, translated by Master Xuanzang.

Um, these are basically all in the mind only section, except for maybe one or two. They're all mind only books. Yeah.

And there are two doms as well. That actually comes in the next line. Yeah, exactly.

Okay. So we have a book of synonyms. Or maybe the collection of synonyms.

Okay. We have a Shidua, like the summary of the foundation. Yeah.

Shidua. Here. I have more here.

Hold on. Here's Shidua. When I was reviewing this, I was like, all the good scholars are going to answer all these questions for me because I don't know how to do it.

Yeah, Shidua, Yogacharya, Bhuma, Vastu, Sangraha. It's a text. That's the full title?

Yeah, put it in the chat. All right, cool. This looks like it's going to be an extensive footnote section.

All right. What about this one? The Sai No Shi.

Is that one of them? There's many levels books. I don't know what Nu here means, like the actual book on the levels.

Maybe that's the foundational work. Duality of the stages? I don't know.

It's a book. Yeah. Oh, yeah, sure.

He's listing here. Yeah, he's listing all the book titles. On the levels, maybe?

These are all of the books on the levels. Yeah, here's the main book on the levels is this, 4035 in the chat. Here's the five books on the levels.

One, two, three, four, five. Yeah. I don't know what the Nu means.

Oh, nice. Okay. All right, so we got one, two, three.

Now, what about the fourth one here? We have Namphar Shepa that I'm not sure about that one either. Short door of explanation.

It's the hobbit door of explanation. All right, exactly. It could be this one, 4063.

That's the only one that's go in the title. It's a compendium. What do you call it?

Could be. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, yeah.

Is that the one that Dodo posted? Yeah, compendium of explanation. But I'm going to delete your comment, Dodo, because we only use Roman characters in this course.

If you could rewrite it as Roman characters, that'd be really lovely. And I have the last one here, too. Okay, cool.

4038. Yeah, it's a huge book on the presentation, a summary of the presentation of the levels. Oh, cool.

All right, save chat. Okay, cool. Yeah, I can send you this document.

I have two on the Mindonly books. Oh, that'd be great. Thank you.

That'd be a great thank you, because this looks like this is going to be extensively footnoted. Okay, footnote directly towards text. All right, now we're getting a little bit more here.

We have the Domini. How about Uta, would you like to read this short line here? Can all of you guys, tech people, can you allow people to turn on their microphones, please?

[Speaker 2]
Okay, yes, thank you very much. Domini, tech pa, chen poi, dom tech du dang, tech pa, teng mong, gi dom yong, pad kun te nyi so.

[Speaker 1]
All right, thank you, Uta, nice. So the two domes here.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
The first one here is tech poi, chen poi, dom tech du. Mahayana sangraha. Mahayana sangraha, okay.

And then we have the tech pa, teng mong, gi, I guess. That's probably Abhidharma Samuccaya. Yeah.

Yeah, nunpo kun tu. Okay. Yeah, which we probably said was the answer.

All right, great. All right, thank you. Thanks for the teamwork on this.

I need to figure out how to do some of this research on my own. So maybe someday I will figure it out. Let's see here.

How about Anastasia? Would you like to read, please?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, now. Oh, which one? Sorry.

[Speaker 1]
The person who just started. Yes.

[Speaker 2]
Yes. I don't know this.

[Speaker 1]
I'm sorry.

[Speaker 2]
I'm sorry. Gi, chen, ting, ting, gi, I said that also, sorry. D-H.

[Speaker 1]
It's hard. I am looking through this and I feel like this all should be together and not separated.

[Speaker 2]
Should I continue to read, or what?

[Speaker 1]
Let's just pause there and see what we pull together. Okay. Drupakav.

These are, I don't know. These seem like secret texts. Yeah.

So Sherab Ki, Parvati, this, everyone be able to, based on what we're studying. Perfection of wisdom. Right.

And it's like something that possesses the golden something.

[Speaker 2]
Color.

[Speaker 1]
Golden color. All right. So, right.

This is like a, is this like a personified perfection of wisdom? Um, like a practice text for reaching the basically like, uh, the divine being who is the perfection of wisdom in her golden form, perhaps. That's what I was going to guess as well.

Yeah. That sounds lovely. It does sound pleasant.

I just found it in Tohoku. Yeah. It's a book.

Yep. All right. So that's the first one of the practice to reach the.

To reach the golden formed lady of the perfection of wisdom. That's not quite right. Something like that.

Then the second one is, I'm assuming it's something similar, but it's, it's the. It's just the lady of the perfection of wisdom. And shut up.

The ritual reaching the lady of the perfection of wisdom. That sounds wonderful. Um, we have, we have another one of seems similar to the first one.

I don't know. Maybe it's just. Yeah.

Maybe like a secondary text on the same. Practice. Maybe there's another side, not the same practice.

It's yeah. I found it. It's a different book.

Okay. It's fine for in the Tohoku catalog. Nice.

All right. Then we have another. What's young, young share.

I think the young is probably. And also, also. Oh yeah.

Sorry. My brain set differently. And the ritual section of wisdom.

Just general. Yeah. All right.

Cool. I wonder if one of those are the ones that Asanga was using. Um, in his 12 year retreat.

All right. Next book, the commentary, which is this. The I don't know.

Don't. Oh, let's read it first. How about the other Anastasia?

Thank you. Nice. So the first one looks like a commentary on the sutra, which.

Remembers the Buddhas brings to mind. Something like that. Yeah.

Recalling the Buddhas or something. Recalling the Buddhas. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Is that the one that might have like the.

The whole list of the names of the Buddhas. I don't know. We'd have to dig, dig.

All right. Then he wrote a commentary on the sutra, which. Remember, which recollects the Dharma.

Something anticipatory translation. The commentary in the sutra, which recollects the. What's that?

Honest. The group. Practitioners.

Maybe the Sangha. Yeah, the practitioners. Yeah.

All right. So then we have the something. Lamp of concentration.

Yeah. Okay. Jeremiah's lamp and something is concentration.

What kind of concentration work? We had to describe it more. Single pointed.

It could mean a few different things. It could mean the Dhyana, like absorptions. It could just mean deep meditation.

It could mean the direct perception. Yeah. It's typically the word that's used in the context of the perfections.

Yeah, it could be the fifth perfection. But it can be more general. Although that's very general.

Well, if we're talking about the perfections, perfection of wisdom, it could likely be that, but not necessarily. Could be a lamp that explains them all. Maybe that's why we needed to read the book.

It could just be a lamp. Perfect lamp. I mean, a focused lamp.

It could be a very focused lamp. We could just call it spotlight. I think that is also a book, right?

The total concentration. Yeah, I think that might be a different one. Was that Gibson?

I searched through the database. This is a book. Yes.

Yeah, definitely a book. We're just going through the library right now. Super.

All right. This is what Asanga may have been writing, practicing. What does that mean?

Pakpa Jampa. What does that mean, Tim? Pakpa means possibly realized being.

Jampa means Maitreya. Drupta is the practice to reach. Or maybe he wrote it based on his own experience from having reached Maitreya.

And that's what. You're going to want to find a dog. Step one, find a dog.

It's actually why I have cats here in my retreat, right? They're similar. This one's similar to a dog.

Cool. It'd be cool to read and see what's in it. All right.

The next line. This is one's. Oh, wait.

I don't think we read the Chikoyintan, did we? No, not yet. I was checking to see what was going on below it.

Oh, yeah. Who would like to read? Who hasn't read yet?

Pictures. Pictures. Sandra.

Oh, look at that. Surprise.

[Speaker 2]
Okay. Hello. We're here in Cho.

Yeah. To.

[Speaker 1]
So all of this kind of, all of these last three sections actually should be together because the verb is down here, right? Yeah. So we compose all of that above, right?

Let's see. What else? So here's the last thing he composed.

Praises of the extraordinary qualities of the Dharmakaya, of the truth body. Nice. The praise is Thupa.

What's another way to translate Thungmama Yen? Special. Special.

Unique. Unique. Uncommon.

Something like that.

[Speaker 2]
Exceptional.

[Speaker 1]
Exceptional qualities. The yuntens of the Chukwu. Dharmakaya.

Dharmakaya. That would be a cool. In English would be.

Stuffed body. I am just suggesting that Sanskrit is not a translation. Super body.

Body, I think. Reality body. It is a translation.

It is a translation, but it's not the one we're learning here. Truth body. Can we say the Dharma body?

That's still a problem, isn't it? Dharma body is. Half of that is in Sanskrit.

The thing body. It's not super attractive.

[Speaker 2]
Truth body, maybe.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, truth body. Something. Yeah, because thing body doesn't really capture that at all.

It's like the opposite. Stuffed body, no. Yeah, cool.

All right. Thank you. We went through that whole list.

And let's see what's going on more. What's going on here? Let's see.

How about Cornelia? Would you like to read? Connie.

Yep, that's you. Yep. Thank you, team.

[Speaker 2]
I'll try it.

[Speaker 1]
Just make noises.

[Speaker 2]
Yes, I make noises. Slop, don, pakpa.

[Speaker 1]
Forget the S. Just the.

[Speaker 2]
Slop, don. Can you spell it, please, that I can learn?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, so I highlighted the letters to pronounce. So without no S, just say lob. Lob.

[Speaker 2]
I'm sorry. I have the German translator. So a little time.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, OK.

[Speaker 2]
OK. Lob, don, pakpa. Tokmet.

[Speaker 1]
Nice. All right. Who is the lob, don, pakpa, tokme?

Master the realized asanga. Asanga. The master, comma, the realized, comma.

Sounds like you're setting forth some great Marvel movie. All right. What did he do?

What's this D mean? I like to always highlight these small words because they indicate a lot. And it's not always obvious what it means.

The guy we've been talking about. And we were just talking about this cool guy in the forest who wrote all these books. Master asanga.

Sasvampadneipadrak. He is known to have achieved the third bodhisattva level. And what's the third bodhisattva?

So could you explain that a little bit more for all of us, Word? Sure. There are 10 bodhisattva levels.

You achieve each one by seeing emptiness directly. And the third one is said to be associated with the third perfection, which is the perfection of patience. Right.

So what's the implication of this line here? Based on what you just said. He perfected patience.

He was a realized being. He wasn't a Buddha. I mean, if it's true what you said, then he saw emptiness three times in his lifetime, maybe?

At least. Or ever. Yeah, that's true.

Because he may have seen it in a previous life. Who knows? Well, he may have seen it a lot more times after the first one.

Right. Cool. So he's known for achieving the third bodhisattva level.

I didn't know that. That's cool. And we're done.

We're over time. Nice job, Tim. Nice.

Thank you. That was fun. That's a nice, auspicious place to end.

It's all been pretty auspicious. Thanks. I think that was a really nice idea to go through this stuff that we can read together.

And for me, my practical application is hurry up and get writing. Cool. All right.

So we have about 15 minutes for discussion before the Peachtree World News. And we have a new correspondent joining us today, the Peachtree World News. But before we go there, what are some practical applications of what we discussed today?

Everything from retreat advices to going through a library of books. I just had this thought early on, Tim. I don't know.

I was just when we were talking about why someone would in your homework, why someone would teach it at one level or another level. And I was just thinking about the ways that I saw it. And I had this brave thought of high school chemistry.

And when we were taught the structure of the atom, I don't know, maybe I'm just old and they don't do this anymore. But they teach you there's a little bubble in the middle and there's these orbits, sort of like planets around the sun. And then later, the teacher teaches you that it's definitely not like that.

But you go through this intermittent phase before you hear about electron clouds. I still don't know what an electron cloud is. But I'm pretty sure that we don't accept that solar system looking model of the universe.

And we're supposed to accept the super mysterious electron cloud model. But in order for me to even think about what the heck an atom is supposed to be, I have to think about the solar system looking daily. And that was kind of my chemistry teachers to do that for me, because I don't understand what, you know, somehow the electrons are at all the places at the same time in the electron cloud.

But I don't understand that. So it just popped in my mind as a cute example of the ways that we use this sort of progressive, provisional, incorrect thinking to help us get a grasp on ideas. The thing that you said, actually, I started thinking about, have you seen that video of the solar system moving through the galaxy?

It's not 2D, but 3D and everything's spiraling.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, no.

[Speaker 1]
Like the sun's moving and the planets are spiraling around. So it kind of has this 3D helix. So it gives this interesting feeling of the movement through the galaxy.

And then the sun's probably moving in some format. And then there's all this movement that's happening that we're not even perceiving at all. You know, and maybe that's kind of what you're saying is that, and this brings me into, you know, Adam's book about Chitra Drak.

And I've been thinking a lot about it, like, we start with certain ideas, and then we have different mental images of those things. And then those mental images become clearer and clearer. And we cancel the old ones to understand deeper ones.

Right, right. And then, you know, we need these different frames of reference. Also, when we talk about the planets moving around the sun, we have to temporarily not think about that other model that you just described.

It hurt my brain for a second to think at the same time, I'm supposed to understand the sun tumbling through the galaxy, not to mention the galaxy tumbling through a cluster of galaxies, or I don't know what a galaxy cluster is doing through the greater structure of the observable set of stars in the universe. But you sort of freeze one for a moment, because what is movement? We're saying movement in relation to what?

There's nothing that we can point to in the sky that's standing still, but that's too much just for now. Let's call what you're doing still. And then we can talk about that before we get all worked up about that.

I'm staying still right now. That's not true. That's not even remotely true.

The earth is moving, the sun is moving, the galaxy, solar, right, all of these things are moving. But for now, let's call me still. And don't analyze further, don't ask more questions, and then we can talk about what's going on in the room right now before we go deeper.

That just asked a weird question. I'm like, what's the goal of meditation, right, is to be single pointed, right? Well, one of the goals, you know, is that even like with what you just said, isn't that kind of it's already paradoxical to think of it that way.

Right. Yeah. Each moment of a thing that you're thinking about, I mean, what are you going to watch the breath?

It's we are the Buddhists tradition is famous for being called Jhana Vada, the school that says that things don't last for more than an instant. So your meditation object doesn't last for more than an instant. So how can you be single pointed for a whole 65th of a 65th of a 65th of a finger snap?

But the objects are similar. I guess they say some places that the objects are similar enough that you have a seed that forces you to see them as a stream. So if that's not proof that you have to serve people to achieve single pointed meditation, since there's no such thing as a single object you could meditate on that would truly last, you better collect seeds that be forced to see a ton of disparate, different objects over time as if they were a single thing for you.

That's both inspiring and terrifying. Take heart, take heart. It'd be too hard any other way.

All we have to do is love each other. It's so much easier than mastering all the mechanical BS of meditation. Right.

Like, imagine 20 minutes of one object. Like the seed is, you know, if they're 65 per second, like in the same seed is ripening for 20 minutes. Well, not the same seed, but the collection of seeds that are ripening in that same order for 20 minutes.

That's a, I don't know. That's a, could you never not be single pointed? I guess what you're asking is like, could you never not be single pointed?

Because you're only ever seeing a particular moment anyway. Yeah, you're not, you're not really one or the other. You're not really single pointed.

You're not really, uh, I mean, uh, what, what did we just, we're trying to translate the, the, right. The Chukku, right. I was thinking like the body of all things or something, because Dharma can mean all things rather than just thing.

But then if all things is also a thing, then you've never not been single pointed. Well, isn't, isn't the, isn't the, isn't the body of all things that the absence of all things and the potential for it to be, be all things. Part of it.

Yeah. And it's, so all things and each thing is the same thing. All things in anything is the same thing.

Yeah. In what way are they the same? In what way are they the same?

No, if you, um, no, I'm just asking questions related to the single pointedness issue. If you're going to say that everything, because there's an everything that there's, when have you ever not been single pointed, um, asking if everything is the same as anything is the same as each thing. Yeah.

There's this, uh, Mahamudra meditation, right. That, that some of us were taught where you just like, you're watching the flow of the thoughts. And I, it was really hard for me.

I kind of can't do it because I just never know whether or not I I'm meditating. Like, I think I'm watching the flow of thoughts. I don't know what I'm doing.

Am I not watching the flow of thoughts? Even when, yeah, even when I'm mind wandering. And if you've done right, a few people in here, I know have done long retreat.

And it's, it's hard when it gets really hard and you look to a lot of techniques and I can't tell you how many times or Kendra and I, you know, we would have little notes and little signs to each other about our, our meditation. Cause we did long recruit together and we'd have all these cool ideas. I'm like, Oh, I think this really worked today.

How did these pictures here? The technique, it really worked and it doesn't work the next day because it's not, I'm so sure I figured it out. I think, I think you're supposed to eat pancakes.

I think that was it. We remember we had pancakes three days ago. I think that's what it was.

And then it doesn't work again. It's gotta be, it's gotta be these seeds. It wouldn't make sense any other way.

It doesn't make sense any other way. You could never, you could never piece it together. You could never technique it together.

And then the few breakthroughs that I, you know, that you feel like you have, then there's some technique that was there. And like, yeah, I remember I did a technique around the same time that I suddenly had this breakthrough in meditation, but what about all the times I did techniques and it didn't work? It tends to be that, that when the seed ripens, uh, there's, there turns out to have been a technique there.

There seems to be some correlation, but I'm super suspicious about the causation. Seems more like a seed went off. Like the causation for the seed to go off for the technique to do the thing, the technique is designed to do.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Why do they happen near each other? Or does my mind just say, oh, well, since it worked, that must've been a technique. Like I call it a technique because I was able to meditate in the next moment.

Right. Like you can call everything in the universe a thing. And so I've not been in single pointed meditation.

There we go. Like you called yourself out in a moment. You're like a technique.

I got the technique. Yeah. It just doesn't make sense.

It just, none of that makes sense. We better, we better, we better plant seeds. The boss has been trying to tell us.

Just serve, just serve. Right. And take care of others, you know, and I think what you said in the beginning, that is really the, like, I think it's the key to it.

We can analyze all of these things, but if you haven't, if we haven't taken care of others and planted those seeds in it, maybe we wouldn't be able to have this analysis and actually be enjoying it and finding it interesting. If we hadn't taken care of others, at least I'm finding it interesting. I don't know if anyone else is bored, but I'm engaged.

Well, and why do you want to meditate anyway? You know, you want to be of use to the people you love. So just in case it doesn't work to love people, uh, in order to achieve meditation, it's the only good use for meditation anyway, is to be better at loving people.

So you take out the middleman, you jump straight to loving people, and you may accidentally find yourself to be a great meditator one day. That's, that's beautiful, Ben. I think that's, that's beautiful.

So it looks like we're ready for Peachtree World News. We have a new correspondent showing up in the room.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, wow. Exciting.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, there's one too. One, two correspondents. Hey guys.

Juan just getting up from his meditation. Yeah, I was lucky enough. I got a million dollars, got a house in the mountains, retired.

No, I'm just kidding. But no, today we actually do have a surprise host with us. Very exciting for me to have these people there.

I'm actually in Phoenix and soon I want to be going to Mexico. But thank God we have friends around who are there to support and inform the worldview audience. So today, Siobhan, Chloe, take it away.

Thank you very much. I'll be listening. Thank you so much, Juan.

Thank you so much, Diamond Cutter Classics. That was an extraordinary class. I'm just putting myself back together after the defrag of that conversation.

What a strong thing. Thank you, everybody. Speaking of strong things, Chloe's here with me and we're going to share with you some wonderful experiences the Worldview Network has just been gifted with.

As you probably know, Geshe Michael just taught and Earl Bernie and Michael Johnson just taught us the first installment of the Bhagavad Gita. And if you were there, you know how strong and how beautiful, how powerful it was. And we want to share with you a little bit of what we got.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, sorry, Gina. Can you go back to the first page? Yeah, so, sorry.

Hi, Siobhan. Hi, everybody. Welcome to P3 World News.

So we are at February 15th. Today is the second day after Valentine's Day. So happy Valentine's Day.

And I hope you had a wonderful time. And Siobhan will be sharing with us some beautiful takeaways. So before that, let's look into what happened in the Bhagavad Gita.

So now, Gina, please go to the next slide, please. So this is our new venue that YSI crew found this beautiful community room in Element Hotel. And then it's very, very elegant.

And it was a very beautiful space. And now you can see Geshe Michael was teaching one of the stories in Bhagavad Gita. So if some of you online have joined this class, feel free to type what was your most beautiful takeaway from this class.

And then we'll go to the next slide, please. So this is the whole YSI crew. Let's give them a round of applause.

Yay. Thank you so much. It was such a wonderful event.

And you can see everybody there, including the third generation. Yes. So Siobhan, why don't you share with us what is your takeaway?

And in the meanwhile, please join us in the chat. Share with us your highlight of the event.

[Speaker 1]
Thanks so much, Chloe. So I was scanning the chats and having conversations with people and looking at what the collective was saying about what was very important to them as the takeaways. One of them is a teaching that we've been receiving for a long time.

We heard it in DCI as the diamond deal. But here in the Bhagavad Gita, in the context of this incredible story, we heard about what Geshe Michael called impossible situations. And it took this idea of the diamond deal, where you're presented with two bad objects, two bad options.

And in the context of the Gita, it wasn't just, I don't want to choose this and I don't want to choose that. It was like, if I choose this, everything's going down. Or if I choose that, everything's going down.

I cannot choose either of them. And that puts our back up against the wall in a way that we have to look at where these options are coming from. If we have the back history of the teachings that we do have, I can't go into this situation and make either of these choices.

So we were given this incredible gift of, okay, so what's happening here? And we have to look at, this is the cause of my previous action. These are my seeds ripening to put me in this situation.

I can't go in either of these directions. And then Geshe Michael, in his great glory, gave us the cause for even being in that situation. And the way out.

And the way out is simply to recognize, this is my creation. I created this option, and I created this option, and I created the situation where I'm stuck. And somehow that awareness is the seed for the third option to come up.

So I don't know, Chloe, maybe you have something to share about that, or did you see something in the chat about that?

[Speaker 2]
No, that was beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing. I loved that Geshe-la makes the story from fighting to beautiful takeaways of wisdom to use in our lives.

So Gina, would you please share the next slide? We will go to see more of what happened in Westside, and hopefully we see more of this in the future. Now, I took this photo before they know I was gonna share this.

So this is the behind-the-scenes heroes. Gina, Francisco, and Mike. Without the tech table, nobody would see it, except a few people in the room.

So thank you so much, the tech table. Yay, Gina is playing this slide. So, and then please go to the next slide.

And then you can see during the program, there are some extra curriculum. People are being more creative, utilize the entire Sedona. They did yoga and picnic on the lawn near the golf course.

Next, that's our beautiful Morgan, Megan and Sarah. So next slide, please. So this is the spirit of Westside, right?

There's friends, yoga, and healthy food. So we have juice, and then we have friends, and there are no beautiful things happening. So I really would like to welcome people to join Westside for the next round.

So then you can see the poster. Next one, please, is the Bhagavad Gita. So here, if you are from the North America, you can still get the recording.

And you'll also way to just keep one of Geshe-la's beautiful teachings alive. And then we would like to show a video. Westside not only went to get the whole program for Geshe-la to teach, and also there is a visit to a special place.

So let's see the video.

[Speaker 1]
We do have a request for Tony Braxton.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Gina. Let's show the next slide. So Westside, on the last day of the program, was organized to visit the senior home, Sedona Wynn, behind our venue.

And you can see some snapshot of our Westside staff. This makes me cry. It's just so beautiful to be a real Yogi, go to the community.

And this was a beautiful song about holding hands with hands, and there's Sarah Blackburn singing, and Elisa, longtime Diamond Mountaineer. And then we have people from Three Jewels, so yeah, so this is what I want to share. So now let's get to the next segment, where we have a secret guest.

All right.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you, Chloe. Just a second before we move on. The Bhagavad Gita recordings are still available.

The Bhagavad Gita one are still available for purchase. If somebody could put the link in the chat on the YSI homepage, landing page for Bhagavad Gita, you can buy it in a couple of different languages. I highly recommend catching up to speed and catching it if you missed it.

For China and for Russia, go to your local distributors, and then plan on joining Bhagavad Gita too. It's too good to miss. It's such a special way to receive amazing, amazing teachings, and you should be there.

So without further ado, I'd like to invite our secret special guest to share with us some insights and some ideas in a very special moment in their life. Tim, would you please join us? Yes, well, you're a star.

Super secret, hi. Hi. Big secrets.

No, but Tim, there was this idea that you're in a very potent moment and that you might have some insights, some ideas to share with people about retreat, about what retreat is. Well, it's really an honor this morning that everyone came over. So we meditated this morning together in this beautiful house.

And honestly, I walked into this house and was like, this is the house. This is it, right? And it's become more and more magical with each day and having each of you here.

And so I'm doing something that's a little bit off the script. Like normally we're supposed to do retreats in another location, so you're not used to your space and not distracted by things. But I'm gonna attempt to do it here to keep that energy flowing.

So for me, I think, what we were talking about a little bit earlier, it's really all about, it's about the seeds, right? It's not like talking about what are the preparations? What should you do?

What shouldn't you do? All these things like the seeds carry it, right? And I think like even just this morning, like the idea of inviting people over and having a meditation, even when the boss is off, right?

Like just practicing together, and practicing together with the same motivation, I think is a powerful seed for us to be able to go away for a month and do the deeper work. It's a beautiful idea. What can someone who wants to get into retreat and hasn't found themselves with the seeds to do it, what are some ideas that you have of things that they can do to get themselves into retreat?

That is a good question. I never, I didn't realize the power of like having the kewa, to get into retreat until I couldn't. You know, last year I had planned a retreat and I just couldn't do it.

Like the world just didn't let me. I think it just was, like my mind wouldn't let me, my body wouldn't let me. It was just not the right, it didn't work.

And I realized that it's only through serving other people that it could potentially work at all. And I'm in awe and inspired by all of you who have done a three-year retreat. Like we have Ben here and Kading and Gelsay has, and I don't know who else is here who's done a three-year retreat.

But it's like, just to be able to have the karma to like go in for three years, Ben, I have no idea, Kading, I have no idea how he's like collected that. Like to be able to do that deep work. But I think- He goes up to retreat center.

Well, there you go. Right, there you go. But it's the, I think it's the motivation too.

It's like, why are you doing what you're doing? Like, are you doing it because you heard, oh, if I plant this seed, I'll get money. Right, that's great, right?

But like, why would you want the money in the first place? Like, what are you going to do with it? Are you going to, are you going to just keep it for yourself?

Are you going to use it for, do you have motivation to give it to other people? And I think that that motivation grows deeper and deeper over time. It's okay to start with things that we want.

And I think we should always focus. And I think in some ways, we should enjoy getting things that we want. It makes it a lot easier.

But I also think, you know, like this house, for example, like when I walked in, I was like, I don't like people in my house. I hate it. I mean, not anymore, but I don't want people to, like, I never wanted people over.

I was like, get out of my house. Like, this is my space. Don't come here.

Like, go elsewhere, you know? But something happened and shifted. I was like, no, I want people here.

I want to share this. And Geshe-la came over one night with Veronica, and he was like, we need to have teachings here. Right, and I was like, you know, I still had that moment of, oh God, people are going to come over every week.

I'm going to have to, like, clean. Like, now you're going to see how I live, you know? But the way I live has changed.

Like, I don't have to clean my house because I clean it every day. Like the meditation, like the meditation preliminary. You know, if you clean up everything every day, you don't have to clean it.

You don't have to spend five hours getting your house ready, right? You know, so I just always felt like something changed. And I think it's because, like, the house isn't for me.

It's for maybe something bigger. Yeah, and I think if you have that motivation, then what you're doing is always for something bigger. Then you can do cool things, like taking a month off to go into retreat, to do meditation, and do something bigger for the world.

Something like that. Turn the me into we. Wow.

Something like that. Thank you, Tim. Thank you.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Thanks for asking. Yeah, sure. Thank you for sharing your insights.

And we wish you a very strong retreat where all of your wishes come true. Thank you. And now you all have to leave so I can do it.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you for sharing. May you achieve your highest goal for all of us.

[Speaker 1]
May all you achieve your highest goals. That's how I'm thinking about it.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you. That is very inspiring. So with that, we can all think about how to start our own retreat with the example of our teachers.

And we will be wrapping up. And thank you, Sylvain, for being the interviewer, the wisdom sharer. So we are done with this Peachtree World News today.

Hope everyone have a wonderful weekend. Bye-bye. Bye.