Вордсмит — Книга 2: Трудные места школы «Ум только», занятие 19

[Speaker 2]
Does anybody have any questions?

[Speaker 1]
Okay, Luca posted a question. Would you mind explaining more about the three parts of foundation consciousness and seeds? I wouldn't mind, but I don't know.

We just got to that part and it's the first time I saw it. There's a little bit about it in the golden key, but they presented a little different. I'm willing to look at the golden key with you right now if you want and see what it said because I don't remember exactly what it said.

Would you like me to do that, Luca? It's your question.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, Luca said yes.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, okay, I do recall. I remembered and then forgot and I remember again. Garlic and jasmine are useful, Christina says.

That's about the foundation consciousness being firm, not the seeds part. So actually in the golden key, Fearless Blade talks about this section as being referring to how the lower schools talk about the foundation consciousness. I'm not sure that Jason Coppa is going to agree with him here.

I honestly don't know. I haven't read ahead. Maybe I wouldn't even understand it if I did.

I can't answer your question as far as the seed section goes. Again, to Christina Casica's comment, that has to do with the quality of the foundation consciousness, not the seeds. But Luca, if you come to the next class, we will be going over it, so I will be able to answer your question soon.

Okay, who else?

[Speaker 2]
What else? Nothing?

[Speaker 1]
Some inquisitive Russian-speaking people wrote me questions. Should I do those? There's nothing in the chat.

[Speaker 3]
There's one question from Chinese team. Her name is Xinyi and her question is, in our system, from seeing emptiness directly to nirvana, what is the path and how many stairs or steps? I heard before previously in level seven mentioned that there is seven lifetimes.

Is this correct?

[Speaker 1]
How many steps depends on you. So to nirvana or to Buddhahood, those are two different things. Which one do you want to know about?

[Speaker 3]
You mentioned nirvana here.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so you want to know about nirvana? Okay, so nirvana is reaching the state of an arhat, which is someone that doesn't have mental afflictions anymore, as opposed to Buddhahood, which is someone who doesn't have mental afflictions anymore and got enlightened for the sake of all beings and is in bliss all the time and knows everything. So from becoming an Arya, which is someone who sees emptiness directly, which means that you perceive the actual state of reality.

And because of that, three out of 84,000 of your mental afflictions went away. Okay, and that means you still have 83,997 mental afflictions left. And an arhat has gotten rid of those two.

And the exact process, I guess, depends on person to person, but it entails you seeing emptiness and using that knowledge of emptiness over and over again to get rid of the rest of the mental afflictions until they're all gone. And seven lifetimes or less doesn't refer to you becoming an arhat, it refers to you becoming completely enlightened. And if you're on the Mahayana path, the techchen, the greater vehicle, the ones that wants to get other people enlightened with you, that means that in seven lifetimes or less, you will become completely enlightened.

But before that, when you get to the seventh level of being a bodhisattva of 10, your mental afflictions go away. So you become an arhat with bodhicitta. And they call you a pure one, which is daksapa in Tibetan, taksapa.

And that means from then on, you only have to get rid of increasingly subtler seeds, increasingly subtler mental afflictions around not being able to see everything. And once you get rid of all those, then you become a Buddha, and an arhat, and a bodhisattva, and an Arya, all at once. But it doesn't have to take seven lifetimes, it could take less.

If you study tantra, you can do it in one lifetime. But, you know, you got to get a lama and figure all that out.

[Speaker 2]
Does that answer your question, Xinyi? I hope so.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, three retreatants are asking me questions that they know the answers to. That means they're Buddhas. Wait, hold on.

Someone answered a question before you, Venerable. Someone says, I'm a scientist. I really want to help them.

I think that refers to everybody. How can I make them know everything comes from seeds? And then she or he wrote it in Chinese, which I can kind of read, but I'm not gonna embarrass myself.

Basically, I mean, that's a process. I mean, to get where Geshe Michael is at, for instance, in this life, took about 50 years of really hard work, where he can get to the point where he just talks about seeds to everyone. In my life, in my experience, most people don't want to hear about seeds or anything related to Buddhism, actually, in the form of religion.

But you can live by example, which is really nice. And then for the people who are interested, you can start to teach them through your words, little by little. But mostly just do it yourself.

And once you become a enlightened Buddha, it won't matter because you'll be in bliss and know everything. And you can spontaneously emanate to every single person and teach them about seeds or be their golden retriever and let them pet you and just make them feel a little better. Whatever it takes, you'll be enlightened, it won't matter.

That's my recommendation. I hope that helps. It's a lot of work, I know.

Okay, so Venerable Codding's question next. She says, Dr. Word, I feel like Dr. Phil when you ask me like that. Dr. Phil, without bodhicitta, can anyone become a Buddha?

Short answer, no. Long answer, no. I mean, I'm not a Buddhist, I don't really know.

The teachings say you cannot. And it makes sense to me. I'm not a very good Buddhist, but I'm pretty good at math.

And if I wanted to become infinite anything, I would times it by infinite. If you just want to be an arhat, meaning only you have no problems, you should just times it by one, which is you. I just want to get my rear end out of samsara.

There's one of me, that's the one I care about. And you have no problems really anymore, except you don't know everything. And everybody else around you is flailing, okay?

So that's not that cool. But if you times it by infinite, which is everybody's desire to be happy, which even if they deny that they have, they have. Because they're only denying that they have it.

So you stop bothering them, which means they want to be happy. That means you can times your desire, times everyone's desire, times infinite, and become something infinite, which would be a Buddha or something of the like, whatever you call it. So I think that question was really for me.

I'm trying to get out of this Buddhist thing. It's not working. Okay, next question from Grace.

Grace says, in the logic class just now, we talked about what is a good teacher. We should use logic to prove it, not out of superstition or belief. Can you explain in detail?

Oy, oy vey, that's a big question. Well, there's a lot to that. Um, firstly, it takes about 12 years to figure out if you're with the right person.

I mean, there's love at first sight, true. Maybe it'll work out. Maybe it won't.

I guess only time will tell. What they said, Lord Atisha went all the way to Serlingpa, the island of Sumatra, to learn about Bodhicitta. And before he would even go to a teaching, he just hung out for 12 years, which is incredible if you think about it.

You know, I won't hang out. I won't hang out for like 12 seconds if people are annoying me. Lord Atisha hung out for 12 years after he was already a master, by the way.

If you read his biography in the Lam Rim, he was a master's master. From like birth, he was a master. And then he had teachers and he mastered everything that they taught him.

And then he wanted to learn about Bodhicitta. And he took a like a three-month harrowing boat ride across the Indian Ocean to the island of Sumatra, which is the westernmost island of the islands of Indonesia, what we call Indonesia today. Right.

So it's the closest one to India, actually. And then he, I don't know, I don't know what kind of jungle Sumatra was like a thousand years ago, but I'm sure it was pretty, pretty rough in certain ways. Right.

And tracked down this master, Master Sirlingpa, and then didn't go to his class for 12 years. You know, he didn't know if he was going to die or, you know, or anything and checked him out and then started going to his class and then mastered his teachings. So in the classical teachings, there's 10 qualities of a good Lama.

So if you're going to check your Lama out for 12 years or 12 seconds or whatever you decide, you got to know those 10 qualities. I will review the 10 qualities now. Okay.

First, can I review them in Tibetan? Probably. Uh, are they, do they have good morality?

Okay. If they're male, do they treat the female students different? If they're female, do they treat the male students different?

You know, that's a big one to check for and check for how are they with the money? Okay. And the biggest one, do they do themselves what they tell you to do?

If they don't do that one, you should run away or be really careful. Just listen to their teachings and then just not do what they do, which is hard. Next is, uh, uh, do a Sherwa.

Um, are they, um, do they have good concentration? Okay. And it's hard to check this one unless you have clairvoyance, but just watch what they do.

Are they, do they concentrate well? And do they follow through with what they say? Um, do they stay on task?

Um, stuff like that. Okay. And then near Shiva, which there's two interpretations, either they have a really good intellectual understanding of wisdom, emptiness, or they've seen emptiness directly.

Okay. So, uh, the reason that there's two interpretations is because there's something like that later on in the list. So people are like, uh, it's probably at least a good intellectual understanding.

Okay. Uh, and then Yonten Hlakpa, um, do their qualities exceed your own? This is really, really, really important.

And sometimes it's hard for, to check for it because really good Buddhist masters hide all their good qualities really well. Okay. Geshe Michael is a master at hiding his good qualities.

Uh-oh.

[Speaker 3]
Geshe Michael is a master at hiding all his qualities.

[Speaker 1]
Um, we have the...

[Speaker 3]
Spanish, we suddenly got to the main channel.

[Speaker 1]
...language interpretation.

[Speaker 3]
We have the mixed interpretations.

[Speaker 1]
One second. Uh, I don't know if I can...

[Speaker 3]
Wait a second. Chinese, Chinese, Chinese.

[Speaker 1]
Maybe we all have to switch to the English channel.

[Speaker 2]
I switched to the English channel. Wait, I think the host canceled the interpretation booth.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, I'm the host, but I didn't press it. Okay, let me try to fix it. Okay, so Emily, you're doing Chinese?

[Speaker 2]
Yes, she is.

[Speaker 1]
Hold on, I have the English channel on now.

[Speaker 2]
Emily, you're doing Chinese? Who's doing Chinese?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, Emily, right? Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, I think she's back.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, and then who was doing Spanish? I recognize their voice for a second there. Hold on, I'll go to Spanish.

Who's doing Spanish?

[Speaker 2]
Flavia, Flavia.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, hi, Flavia. Okay, okay. Let me see.

[Speaker 2]
Sorry about technical difficulties. Wait, is it okay now? Does it work fine?

[Speaker 1]
Is it working okay? Okay, so it's working fine. Okay, sorry.

If there's another problem, just tell me. I'm on the English channel. Um, Venerable Betts, can you hear me?

Okay, Venerable can hear me, so I think everyone else that speaks English can hear me.

[Speaker 2]
Yes, everyone can hear you.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, what was I babbling about? Oh, yeah, the qualities of a good teacher. Okay, I'm not one.

That's why I can't remember things. Yeah, you have to find someone who's better at what you're trying to learn, really. All of you are amazing at something.

I have found that everyone in this sangha has some amazing talent. And so, generally, to have such an amazing gift, you had to have a teacher. I mean, there's rare exceptions, like Beethoven and stuff, right?

But, like, I know Juan Hasso is learning classical flamenco guitar right now. Um, and he's got an amazing teacher. But his teacher is, I heard his teacher a few times, his teacher is, like, beyond.

Like, amazing, amazing. And so that, and Hasso's, you know, he's a, he's a student. He's, he's not as good as that guy.

I don't know his name, I forget. But that's the point. He's going to practice with that gentleman until he's as good as him, or better, right?

I mean, maybe they'll play duets after that. But, you know, after you get better than your teacher, generally, you respectfully move on to another teacher, or you go solo. So, Yuntan Hlaqpa, Klai Zag Seed.

Next is the Lungi Chok, Tibetan. It means they know a lot of, they have a lot of knowledge, especially from the classic books. Which just means that they know what all the other masters said, which is really important, especially with a 2,500 year tradition of basically the smartest people ever on the planet.

Because they know a lot, and they will. And if you try to, we say in English, reinvent the wheel. You know, every time, every generation, if every generation of Buddhists tries to reinvent the whole tradition, it doesn't make sense.

We can stand on the shoulders of giants and very quickly achieve our goals, as opposed to having to try to redo the whole thing. Which is impossible for me, anyway, because I'm not omniscient. So, there goes that.

Okay. So, next, the order is, I know seven is the, I'll go to seven, which is Rabdu Tokpa, I believe. It means, has had a direct perception of emptiness.

So, in our lineage, in our Sangha, we are beyond, beyond, beyond, beyond blessed. Because we get to hear the teachings on emptiness from a being who perceives it directly. And it's different.

And you can taste the difference. I have a vow, a Bodhisattva vow. I'm not supposed to criticize other Mahayana teachers.

Okay. It's my first Bodhisattva vow. Right now, I'm going to break the vow.

Um, to say that I've been to other teachers. It's different. At least for me, right?

We all have different seeds. It's different to hear someone try to explain emptiness who hasn't seen it or really doesn't get it. And it's, it's like, yeah, it's, it's like, you can't explain ice cream to someone who hasn't tasted it, especially if you haven't tasted it either.

Okay. Um, it's like that. And so, if you can find a teacher like that, which we all have, okay, learn from them.

Learn as much as you can until you start. Well, they say forever, actually, but at least until you have that experience yourself. Okay.

And then you can be like, oh, okay, they're right. And you won't have a doubt about it either. Um, okay.

The order's getting thrown out. Uh, um, I'll just talk about the one I'm really bad at, which is, uh, oh, not giving up on students. I think it's the last one.

And this is a hard one because these things are not easy. You know, they'll come easier to some people. Some people will be like Nick, Lashaw, and just understand Tibetan very quickly.

You know, other people would be like Ben Kramer, understand logic very easily. I mean, these people also work very hard. I'm not saying they don't, but they're very gifted.

Um, and other people would be like me, who has zero understanding, compassion, and refuses to learn. But for some reason, Geshe Michael still takes my calls. I'm not sure why, but that's the kind of teacher you need.

You need the kind of teacher that isn't going to give up because if it was easy to get out of infinite lifetimes of suffering, then you wouldn't need a teacher in the first place. And you would have done it already. Okay.

In infinite lifetimes, the only thing you haven't done is the one thing you're asking your teacher to help you do, which is become enlightened. Uh, yeah. Okay.

Uh, what's the rest of the list? Um, something about patience. Of course, I forget that one.

I'll pull the list up on my gopher just to make sure I don't miss anything. Because I used to have this memorized. It's an ACI, like one, and it's really important.

And that's why I'm babbling on about it. Not because I'm avoiding the very difficult questions that Russian people have for me.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, maybe you guys can tell me what they are. Oh, yeah. Maki Dan, of course.

Wow. My students are helping me. Sorry about giving up on you.

Uh, thank you, Leah. Uh, so Maki Dan, um, means, it literally means that they, uh, are a master of Buddhism or something like that. But here, the biggest thing is they understand the pace, um, that you need to go at.

We had a word in, um, class this, today. It's, uh, chedu, C-H-E-D, uh, space D-U. And it means, like, targeted teachings.

They teach at the level that you need. Right? Um, and for some people, that's going to be slow.

And for some people, it's going to be fast. Um, for me, personally, um, if I don't have a teacher who's a lot smarter than me, like Geshe Michael, I get bored very quickly. Um, because I think I know everything.

And so, unless someone clearly knows more than me, I'm gonna get bored. And I know that about myself as a student. Um, and I think Geshe-la knows that about me as a student as well, um, and always is throwing these difficult things at me.

So, um, that's maki den, someone who, who can teach to you. That's basically what it's saying. Okay, tsewe dakni.

Of course, I forgot this one. It means they're the, the vision of love or compassion. I don't know anything about this one.

Uh, in the books, uh, and from Geshe Michael, they talk about, basically, I mean, this might be the number one quality for, for a teacher is that they care about you clearly, and they'll do what it takes in a loving way to help you. Um, I didn't meet Khenre Peshe while he was, um, in Zambuling with me, but he, once I heard a student try to, to sue him for something or the other, I forget the story, but they were going to take him to court, you know, which is very common in the United States, especially in New Jersey. Okay, uh, that's where they're living.

No, litigation is very, in the East Coast, it's heavy, heavy litigation, right? There's a lot of lawsuits. Um, I'm from that area.

I know people are always suing each other for something. And, uh, and Geshe-la, in his own account, said, you know, Khenre Peshe, we have to do something. They're going to get you for everything, you know, we, we're going to lose everything.

And, and, uh, apparently Khenre Peshe said, I, I'm not going to do anything. I refuse. And Geshe-la, who was a young student at the time, said, well, why?

He's like, well, they're my students. I cannot, I cannot do anything to hurt them, you know? And like, you know, that's the kind of teacher you want.

Um, that's the kind of, that's the kind of people you want around you, by the way, you know, period. Uh, if the people around you aren't like that, either you, you gotta be like Vimla Kirti or you should move on. You have to be teaching them something.

Um, okay. Was there more? Did I finish the list?

One, two, three. I probably missed one. I'm so sorry.

I'm giving, giving half, half teachings or nine tenths teachings. Okay. I hope that answered your question.

How to find a teacher. Okay. Um, what next?

Am I on to the Russian questions? Sugeng is urging me. Um, is there any other questions from the people present before we move on to the Russian questions?

Okay. Uh, I'll start with them. You can add questions as you go.

We can intersperse them. Uh, okay. Let's see.

Question one, mental karma from your past is the reason for continuation of the mind. When past karma for this life is exhausted, then life itself and feelings and body ends. Quote, true.

Can we create seeds in this particular life to prolong the most efficient and what kinds of seeds are they? I hope so. Otherwise, all my fruits, all my labors are in vain.

Uh, I would say, yes, uh, there are three way, three times in which karma can ripen. Those times are in this life in the next or in any other life after that. Okay.

Um, and one of the teachers, cause Geshe-la had this same question, right? Uh, and he asked his teacher, I believe it was one of the, um, Mongolian, um, Geshe's he, uh, he lived with while he was at the monastery. He asked cause he was at the diamond business and he wanted to make a lot of money for the monastery, right?

Um, to benefit the monks and such. And he said, well, I want, how can I make, you know, millions and millions of dollars? You know, there's the monks need all kinds of help.

They needed the big ground. They need food. They need, um, they need robes, you know, um, which are all things I guess you, Michael helps with to this day, as far as I know.

And, and, uh, his teacher said, uh, you know, next life, next time. And he said, no, no, no, it has to be this life. You know, we're Americans, we're used to McDonald's and, and, um, you know, disposable everything.

And now it's worse, right? Uh, with internet and Instagram and everything we're used to results in literally fractions of a second, right? Google says 0.10 seconds for your answer, right?

That's what we're used to now. And what he told him was Tartuk, you know, was coffee meditation was learning to rejoice after you did a good deed. That is the way, um, our, our seeds are like airplanes in a queue without the proper watering.

They will take off at random, meaning you could die any second, or you could be rich any second. You don't know, but if you want to line up the queue more efficiently and effectively, right? Air traffic control, you need to rejoice.

And unfortunately, and this is probably my worst habit. Actually, I asked one of my teachers, uh, Venable Jigme, what's my worst habit? Okay.

I took a brave, I was brave for one second. I said, Venable Jigme, what's my worst habit? And I thought she was going to say arrogance or anger, or, you know, just a general apathy for life, which are all my habits too.

But instead she said self doubt. Okay. I'm confessing right here and on YouTube or wherever this is going to be aired.

And, uh, and I was blown away, actually. I was like, really? And she said, yep.

And if you don't Venable Jigme, she is very straightforward. She will not bullshit you, which is lovely. She's great to be around for me.

Um, and, uh, and that is something that so many of us suffer from, especially, I feel like especially good people, uh, good people try so hard to be good, but they so often think they're not doing any good. Um, and then bad people think that they're doing great things and they're hurting people all day long. It's really weird.

It's, it's chinchiloc. It's ass backwards. Um, anyway, uh, it's that kind of doubt in your mind stream that stops you from being like, oh my God, I just spent the whole day studying Tibetan, Chinese, Sanskrit philosophy, answering questions, um, yoga meditation.

I mean, that's literally was my day. And that's not an exceptional day. That's all of my days.

Pretty much, you know, um, that's my life, you know, and that's Venable Upala's life. That's Nick Lashaw's life. I mean, plus a whole bunch of other stuff, family and, you know, all kinds of other things.

Um, so we need to rejoice if we want to see the good things we do create the life that we want. If we want to see our life extended because, you know, life extension isn't even on the meter of Buddhist goals, but if your life is longer, you have more time to fulfill what are the Buddhist goals, right? Like becoming an Arya, becoming a Bodhisattva, becoming, um, you know, an Arhat on the Bodhisattva track and becoming a Buddha, um, and everything that's going to get you there, right?

Um, like having internet so you can watch zoom calls and have food so you can sit up for five plus hours a day and et cetera. Uh, okay. That's your answer.

Hope it works. Start to, especially before you go to bed at night. Okay.

Two, um, the mind creates thoughts and actions. How can we influence the mind? If we say that there is little we can do at the present moment, uh, honestly, the best thing is to not bother other people, I think.

Um, and I'm really bad at that. So I just stopped saying anything. Um, I can at least be neutral.

Most of the time I can at least think before I send the bad text and not send it. Um, and if you can not disturb people's minds, then, um, your mind will start to get very calm and very clear. And once you achieve that level of clarity, um, and calmness, you will be able to make incredible decisions.

I mean, if you ever go on retreat or anything of the like, you start thinking ideas that you either never thought before, or they were whispers in the back of your mind, um, for a short, for a short second that you, you felt like you couldn't act on and all this stuff that happens to you in retreat, that, uh, you should write it down immediately and you should do it. Don't start doing all the other stuff you thought you think you should do the stuff you're doing before retreat. I don't mean leave your husband or something right away.

I don't mean that. I mean, do the virtuous things that come to you during retreat. I mean, if you need to leave your husband, that's on you.

I'm not telling you not to. Okay. Um, I would say that treat other people with as much kindness as you can.

And if, if you can't, then just be quiet. Right. Um, that's what I do.

I'm not that good at it, but okay. Three, dear word. Could you please share your personal insights during studying mine only?

Oh my God. Uh, my main insight in studying mine only is I love crossing geek. Um, honestly, uh, this is honesty time.

Mine only school gives me a bit of a headache. Uh, I'm translating it. Cause Geshe Michael asked me to, um, but is it worthwhile?

Yes. Can it help people? Yes.

Should you study it? Maybe. I don't know.

It depends on what kind of student you are. Um, I had an amazing insight studying mine only recently. I don't know if I have time to talk about it, but there's this whole thing about ignorance, being neutral in the wheel of life.

And it's, it's kind of a weird thing. Cause you think the thing that creates all your pain should be negative. Right.

And, um, I guess it says that often. Um, and I tend to agree with him.

[Speaker 2]
Um, but it's not, it's considered neutral, which, you know, um, it's an argument, right. And you should argue, you should think about it.

[Speaker 1]
I actually wrote a whole thing about this because I had an insight one day. You guys want to hear it? I pulled it up.

I don't know how, I don't know. Maybe I'll try to read all of it. I forget what it says.

I wrote it like five months ago. Okay. Here we go.

I'll share this insight because I usually don't share anything. All right. The reason that ignorance has to be neutral and not cause an obstacle is because it is the raw data upon which all experiences in sunflower are formed good, bad, and neutral.

Therefore it cannot be essentially any one of those three. The reason it cannot cause an obstacle is because it must also be the foundation of your realization of emptiness. The Gakja, the object we deny, is the object of all ignorant movements of the mind.

It is the raw data by which all other experiences are imputed upon. Since this raw data cannot, does not, and will never exist, all the links in the real life don't exist at all. There is no aging.

There is no death. There is no birth. There is no ripened karma.

There is no advanced desire. There is no desire. There is no feeling.

There is no contact. There is no sense. There is no name of form.

There is no consciousness, and there is no fresh karma because there is no Gakja which ignorance is perceiving. Clearly linking the teaching on the wheel of life, the Gakja, ignorance, imputation, emptiness, as described in the Heart Sutra, as well as the teachings on the foundations, consciousness is neutrality, and the Prasangika's explanation thereof. Okay, don't ask me to explain it.

Listen to the recording. Basically, in the mind-only school, they say that the kunshi has to be neutral because if it's not, it will taint. If it's good, then there can't be any bad deeds, which there are.

And if it was bad, there couldn't be any good deeds, which there are. And so, therefore, the kunshi must be neutral. And so, for me, that led me to an understanding about Prasangika Madhyamika, which is the middle way school, which teaches the pen, that my understanding is that it has to be neutral for everything else to happen at all because that ignorance is the foundation of our whole lives until we are Buddhas.

Okay, question four, how can mind-only help to grasp Prasangika? Reference my last answer. All right, good.

[Speaker 2]
There's all these new messages. Is there any more questions in these messages? I don't see any.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, from Roxanna, how do bodhisattvas know they are changing bhumis? Is there a realization at the end of every level? I would have no idea how the bodhisattva knows anything about bhumis.

I'm on bhumi negative 20. But from what I've heard, each bodhisattva level is accompanied by a series of realizations. And so, there's 10 bodhisattva levels, and the first six are defined by the six perfections.

So, first is the perfection of giving, then it's the perfection of morality, next is the perfection of patience, next is the perfection of joyful effort, next is the perfection of concentration, and last is the perfection of wisdom. Okay, and then last four are subtle something or the other, I don't know. Okay, so apparently you need to see emptiness directly or to move through the whole path, the whole fourth path, which is gomlam, right?

Which is what happens after emptiness directly, in between arya and buddha, is you thinking about the pen over and over and contemplating it, remembering it, contemplating it, and then meditating on it so well that you have a breakthrough, and you start to perfect all the things necessary to become a buddha. So, and apparently I've heard you get a bunch of powers each time, because basically, as you become closer and closer to becoming omniscient, your ability to help people increases, so apparently you get a bunch of emanation bodies and a whole bunch of followers and other cool stuff like that, and that's in the texts, and I have no personal experience of that, although sometimes it seems like my lama has a bunch of powers and a bunch of followers, so I'm a little suspicious about what bodhisattva level he is on. Okay, I hope that answers your question. Question from Lee Wong.

There are so many schools, each school with a different point. How should I choose which school to study? Does it depend on our own preference?

Um, this is a great question. Basically, basically, you're being forced into one school or the other, regardless of what school you think you're studying, okay? So, I like to think I'm some Prasangika, Madhyamika guy thinking of pens all day and toys and helping people and stuff.

Really, if I'm annoyed all day, which I am about 95% of the day, that means that I am not recalling the pen at all, which means I'm not even, at best, at best, I would say I'm like the lowest Buddhist school for part of the day. Maybe once or twice during the day, I think of the pen and it's kind of cute, and then that's it. It's like a pebble in an avalanche or something like that.

So, honestly, I recommend studying all the schools because not only for yourself, but also because everyone is at one of those levels, right? And honestly, the best way I've found just to know where people are at is when they're really upset, okay? Now, check this out.

I'll show you a little trick. This is Tapke. It's a little skill for me because I'm a counselor, too.

Ostensibly, I help people when they have problems, okay? So, someone comes up with a problem. Word, word, my boyfriend broke up with me.

Okay, so immediately, you know what school someone's at based upon what they're doing. That's what you can tell them in that moment, okay? For most people, the worst thing you could say to them, no matter how much Buddhist training they have, is seeds, okay?

Do not say that if people are upset. It's generally the worst you can say. Is it the thing that will free them from all pain?

Yes. But remember, ma ke den. You have to treat people on the level that they are at in the moment that you are speaking to them because people's levels change.

So, generally, you cannot say, hey, it's all coming from you. Your boyfriend being a blankety blank is because you were a blankety blank. Problem solved.

Go home. No, don't do that. What you generally, first of all, just give them a hug or something or say, oh, I'm so sorry about that.

Then when they're ready to hear your two cents, which may be never, right? And you're not supposed to proselytize if you're a Buddhist. Don't.

People are supposed to beg you for these teachings. You're not supposed to just go around forcing them on people, right? These are very difficult teachings.

Not everyone's ready. Don't force them on people unless it's extremely clear that they're ready or they ask you and bring you flowers and grapes and incense and stuff, right? Meaning that they're serious about learning.

So that person is upset. Generally, you might be able to say something like this. Oh, well, you know, it will change one day.

And they'll be like, yeah, that's true. It will change. Okay.

That is ground level Buddhism. That is level one. Okay.

That is what we call Chajagmawa, detailist. Things change. Okay.

If they are very enlightened or something, you can maybe say something like, you know, we're not in control of our lives. You know, we don't have control of other people. Okay.

If you can get that far, which is great, that's level two Buddhism. That is logic school. That's Sautrantika.

Okay. But usually that's a stretch. Okay.

So be careful with that one. And it just goes up the ladder from there. And this is called Maha Mudra, right?

Or the steps of worldview that lead you to seeds. Lead you to, there's nothing out there. Okay.

And once in a while, there is an extraordinary person that you can say something like that to. Just be very mindful and very careful. Because when my friends try to do that to me, I don't get angry.

I get this other feeling, which I call choky, which I want to choke somebody, which is horrible. But I'm just being honest. I love you all.

Okay. Next question.

[Speaker 2]
Is there more questions? No. Everyone knows everything.

Li Wang. Oh.

[Speaker 1]
Vero Jigme. Wordsmith is not my given name. My given name is Edward Walter John Campbell.

Okay. I come from a long line of Scottish Jamaicans, and I got a long Scottish Jamaican name. Okay.

Yes. And Edward, get it? Word.

It's a joke. The whole thing's a big joke. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
I thought it was brilliant, too. All right. Four minutes left.

Any other questions? I guess you might like to say about anything.

[Speaker 2]
I'm scared, but I'll say it.

[Speaker 1]
Now Venable Gelsay is lying in the chat. You don't have to lie. Not for my benefit.

No, I'm joking. Thank you, Venable Gelsay. I'm trying here.

Some lovely person whose name I will say wrong if I try to pronounce it. Lying from my perspective, Venable Gelsay. Not yours.

Everything you say is true. You're Tamekabu. I think VRL says, how does Zarma explain why we exist?

Wow. Well, there's this thing called the 14 unanswered questions. Lord Buddha wouldn't answer certain questions because, I mean, the reason I'm not going to answer is because I don't know.

The reason he didn't answer was because he didn't want to hurt his students in some way. I don't know why we exist exactly. I like to say that our existence is based on us.

So you can determine why you exist. There's no, it doesn't have to be some, I mean, if things aren't self-existent, then you can determine why you exist. I mean, you tell me.

I think that's better. OK, we're almost done. Luka says, how do we exist?

How do we go through the bardo? How do we exist? We exist because seeds.

Haha. How do we go through the bardo? Well, basically, we lose the karma to have this kind of body or another body in the six realms.

And for a time, intermittently, we, mainly to travel to the physical location of our next rebirth, supposedly, we take on a intermediate body. I have a better question, I think, Luka. Which one's the real body?

And which is the real intermediate period?

[Speaker 2]
I get, you know, I don't know. I think about that sometimes. OK.

How to prove the kunshi doesn't exist truly?

[Speaker 1]
One second. There's only one minute left anyway. I don't know.

My whole book's about that. We have to get to the end. The only way you can find out is to come to All The Mixed Nuts Terms and stay tuned.

Yay! Yay! And with that, it's eight o'clock.

All your really hard, unanswered questions, you should ask Nick and Ben and Venerable Utpala, whoever else who hasn't had a Q&A yet. I don't know who they are. But I love you all.

I hope I helped you a little today. And I hope my candor and humor was appropriate for everybody. I'm kind of weird.

All right.

[Speaker 2]
Thanks, everybody. Love you. You don't have to leave, but I'm going to go.

[Speaker 1]
I think when I leave, the recording ends. I don't know.

[Speaker 2]
OK. Bye. Take care.

Thank you, Lord.

[Speaker 1]
You're welcome, Haso. De nada. Buen nada.

Well, I got paid a little.

[Speaker 2]
Bye.