Серия «Сутра Алмазного огранщика», часть 5 — Честь быть подростком (2018, Даймонд-Маунтин, Аризона), занятие 1

[Speaker 1]
So welcome to Kamalashila number five. About two years ago, two and a half years ago, I offered to teach Master Kamalashila to people who were especially serious about going deeper, especially in emptiness, and who wanted to go a little deeper in their retreat. So in the Lam Rim retreats, which we've had 29 now for nine years, we have a lot of classes, three classes per day.

So there's not a lot of time to meditate in solitude, in retreat. So the way we designed Kamalashila is that we have one big class in the early morning, and then the rest of the day you get to be in solitary retreat. So I guess I kind of thought I could finish Kamalashila in one week, but it's very long, it's the longest Diamond Cutter commentary there is.

There's a very brief commentary by Vasubandhu from 1700—is it too cold I think for you guys? Yeah? Can we turn it off for a while?

Then it gets really hot. We'll turn it on when you get hot. We'll meditate when it's hot.

So Vasubandhu wrote a short commentary called the Seven Big Ideas in the Diamond Cutter Sutra, but it's tiny. Then Choney Lama Drapa Shedrup in the 1700s wrote a beautiful commentary to the Diamond Cutter in Tibet. Then there's a lama from India named Kamalashila who lived around 750, around the time of Xuanzang in China.

He wrote a very very long commentary, and in the end of the commentary he says, I'm writing this according to the Middle Way. But he was very influenced by his teacher Shantarakshita, and so he added a lot of mind-only points. So it's kind of a beautiful commentary.

So it was translated from Sanskrit, and then it was lost in Sanskrit. We don't have the Sanskrit, and it was never—I don't believe it was ever translated into Chinese. So unfortunately we just have the Tibetan translation.

I think the translator was drunk when he did it. Just kidding. Not.

Anyway, the translation's really obscure and difficult to read. So anyway, I started reading it, and I started teaching it, and the more I taught it, the more it opened up to me. Now it feels pretty comfortable to me, but it's quite difficult.

Then I saw it was going to take more than one week. So this is two and a half years now, and we can finish today—this week, okay? And I kind of rearranged the order of the teaching.

There's a famous poem at the end, targa ti miram dipo, you guys know it, where the talks about impermanence and emptiness. Very beautiful nine messages. And so, I got six commentaries on it, and taught it last time, and then that turned out to be a whole week just to teach the four lines.

And I really enjoyed it, and I didn't want to rush it, and we had a good time. I had a good time. Maybe you didn't, I don't know.

But I still had to finish the last part of the Diamond Cutter. So we finished three quarters in three weeks, and now we have to go back and finish the last quarter of the Diamond Cutter. It doesn't take a whole week, because a lot of it is repeated.

As you know, if you can read the Sutra in Chinese for example, which follows the Sanskrit, the Buddha repeats himself towards the end, probably to make sure people understood. So, covering the last quarter doesn't take a whole week. I think it would take about half a week.

So, I decided to do a review of the whole Diamond Cutter Sutra this week. So, we'll do both. We'll do the last quarter of the text, and then we'll do a review of the whole Diamond Cutter Sutra that Kamalashila taught.

Okay? Inside there we'll do a meditation called Lion's Dance Meditation. Most of you know it.

I was in Guadalajara. Where were we? Oh, yeah.

We had some yoga program in a wedding retreat center or something, right? Anyway, they put me in the green room for three hours, so I didn't know what to do. I was translating Vasubandhu's huge commentary on the Wheel of Life, and I found a nice Tibetan book that helped Khedrupje's Dose of Emptiness.

In the green room I discovered this meditation. Khedrupje covers it, because you're supposed to do it before you do dependent origination. It's an emptiness meditation that you're supposed to do before you study the Wheel of Life.

So, I got all excited about it, and so I never finished the book on the Wheel of Life. I got distracted by the Lion's Dance, and then I found it in three sutras by the Buddha, and in a book by Maitreya, the future Buddha. And it's awesome, and Khedrupje gives the best explanation of it.

So, I used the sutras, and Khedrupje, and Maitreya, and Asanga, and I put it back together. The meditation has five parts. So, last week we reached part four.

We were here last week. They reached part four. Part four, if you do the four parts and you do it at one time.

We clocked it, it was an hour and five minutes or something. And I'm flirting with doing the fifth part with you guys, so I'm not sure. I got to see how you are.

Probably I'll do it in Guadalajara. I'll see how good you meditate tomorrow. Some people didn't get there.

Yeah, but I have to have some blackmail to come back next time. So, we'll see. So, those are our three goals this week.

Number one, finish the Diamond Cutter Sutra commentary by Kamalashina. Number two, review the whole Diamond Cutter Sutra. And number three, practice the Lion's Dance.

Okay? And I think you'll find that very powerful to meditate on those three during your retreat time. Okay?

So, sometimes you can do the Lion's Dance, and sometimes you can review the whole Diamond Cutter Sutra, and sometimes you can just do the meditations for the last quarter of the Diamond Cutter Sutra. Okay? So, that's the plan for this week.

It's a lot. It's a lot to cover. And I'm on a schedule.

I know how much I have to do. I don't have time to do another—I don't have time to make it six quarters. So, we're going to finish it.

Okay? So, each day we're going to finish a certain amount. Okay?

Seventeen of the review topics, five of the chapter four topics, and then the whole Lion's Dance. I don't think I'll inflict the Lion's Dance on you tonight, because many of you are tired from jet lag from going to Tucson, and we just had a big dinner, so that's probably the worst time to meditate. I think it's better we start fresh in the morning.

So, I'll just do the scripture tonight. Okay? The review of Kamalashila has 68 parts I think, and that goes along with a plan we have I was in Taiwan a few weeks ago, Scott, Narit and I, and DCI is going crazy.

DCI in Taiwan, in one night we had 3,000 people. It was like a small stadium, and it was kind of scary, and we had 31 teachers teaching, and that was... I don't know, something happened to me when I saw 31 teachers, and a lot of them are graduates of our college, our new teacher college, and I was just so happy because I could see the future, you know, like these teachings could go on for many generations.

If we can make a good teachers college, and if the teachers are really good, and they are really good, then I thought, wow, we can just keep going forever, you know, past this generation, and many generations into the future. So, I really wanted to thank the dean of the college, which is Orit, and her assistant named Scott. Orit says we have, the professors are here also, John, Connie, Nick, and Seiji who's administering the whole program, and I'd like to welcome them too, and thank them for coming.

Nick Lashaw, John and Connie. Most people know I don't compliment people easily. Well, usually I criticize them, but the teachers are awesome.

The teachers coming out of the college are awesome, and I'm very happy about it. It just makes me really happy. So anyway, of course the ACI people came to me and said, when can we have a teacher training?

What's the difference between DCI and ACI? DCI is more, as you know, it's meant to be secular. It means you don't have to be a Buddhist to study DCI, and it's for business people, it's for professional people, it's for family people.

Just before we went to Taiwan, we went to Kazakhstan, and we had a thousand Muslim people there learning from Ukrainian DCI teachers, Russian DCI teachers, Maria did a lot there, thank you and Peter for that, to set it up. So DCI, it's designed that anyone can come, and you can do it in any country, and it's been very popular around the world. ACI is more for people who want to be Buddhist.

So there are 36 courses, 18 foundation courses, 18 advanced courses. Each one has 10 classes with a homework, a quiz, and a final exam. So it's basically 360 classes and 36 final examinations, and two big mama examinations after the 18 and after the second 18.

The way I see it, for example in Singapore, Jenny Wang's used to have all the records for attendance, but other people are really pushing. If you bring a thousand people to a DCI talk, maybe 100 will come to the retreat, and then from that 100, 10 will come to Diamond Mountain, you see? Or 10 will want to study ACI, and maybe one will come to Diamond Mountain, you see?

It's like that. So you guys are one out of a thousand, and we have about twenty, twenty-five thousand students in the world, but who comes here is a hundred or something like that, and you guys are special. You guys are the ones who want to go deeper, you're the ones who want to do deep retreat, you're the ones who really want to see emptiness directly, and so you are special.

Kamalashila, what we decided last week, we had an idea, we'd like to start meditation studios. So, when I wrote the Diamond Cutter business book, first of all I said business people should meditate, and everybody thought I was crazy. It was like the first time someone said that, and then after that, in the book I said they should do yoga, and my editor, he said you should take it out, take the yoga out.

I said why? He said nobody does yoga, because at the time there was one yoga studio in New York, and it was in somebody's store at night. David and Sharon in somebody's store at night, and you know now, I heard there's maybe more yoga studios than McDonald's, and that's wonderful.

I was talking with Jasmine and Jigme, Tim, ACI people, they said well, why can't we have meditation studios? We're like, it's a new idea, but maybe it would spread, maybe people would enjoy to have a nice beautiful meditation studio they can go to. So anyway, we're going to try that, and we have three or four kinds of teachers we would like to train, and the reason I mention it is because the people in this room are very likely to be the kind of people who might want to be an ACI or a meditation studio teacher, instead of putting on a coat and a tie and teaching, you know, business to fat cats.

Like, we all have different personalities, we all have different things that we love to do. So, we made a plan. One is a Lamrim meditation guide, so you would help people study Lamrim, and we have a teacher training for that.

Secondly, you might want to be an ACI course teacher. It's probably more difficult, there's more detail. It's a baby Geshe course, it's basically the Geshe course.

So that takes a lot of training. And then we were thinking meditation studio masters who want to teach people, professional people maybe, like, who come to a meditation studio during the day to take a break. The way that people go to yoga studios now?

And then we had the idea in the back room, in a small back secret room, there'll be ACI courses for the people who are super serious, you know. I think that's the only way we can spread ACI courses. So, ask people to come in and enjoy meditation first.

Get calm. And then, while they're dying. And then, we had an idea of another kind of teacher which would be a retreat teacher, someone to teach professional people.

Like, I could see, you know, my old diamond company, I could see we could bring 20 people here, and we could do a retreat together, and it would be good for the business. Because when you're in retreat, you never think about retreat, you just think about your business. A lot of my good ideas, I did like 30 of those one-month retreats, and I got all my good ideas.

ACIP came from one retreat, and a lot of the diamond business came from retreats. So, I think it would be nice. So anyway, four kinds of teachers, and a fifth one, guess?

Huh? Huh? Kamala Sheila.

Yeah, of course there'll be people who do it all. But I thought maybe we could have, we could train Kamala Sheila teachers, okay? And the way we want to teach Lamrim teachers is through pictures.

So, for the last, I don't know, six or seven years, I've been using pictures to help people remember ideas. So, I call them, I started to call them idea pictures, and then I called them idea images, and now we're calling them idims. So, it's a new word, okay?

Like, idim guru ratna, mandala kam nuyat, okay? Idim? In Sanskrit, idim means just this.

Slightly different spelling, but that's okay. So, idim. So, I thought, you know, we tried it last week, and I did a review of the first two retreats that I taught nine years ago with pictures, with ideas and pictures, and they're easier to remember.

And then we would like to have an examination process for teachers where we just show them the picture and we say, talk about it. And then the picture is supposed to trigger the ideas in your mind, okay? So, we're going to do an idim review of Kamala Sheila.

Then everybody will get to hear all the main ideas of Kamala Sheila. It's not all the ideas, it's too many pictures, you know. It would be about 20 times, I would be like, I don't know, a couple hundred, it's too much.

So, I made it, I made it the most important ideas from Kamala Sheila in pictures, okay? So, I'm going to teach you by pictures, Kamala Sheila, alright? So, you'll get a whole review of all of Kamala Sheila this week, and you'll get more pictures for part four, okay?

Not all of the pictures from part four made it into the final review, you see? So, you'll get more detail on part four, and then you'll get all the pictures for the whole Kamala Sheila. If you find that you enjoy it, then you can talk to Jasmine, or talk to Jigme or Tim, and say, I would like to learn how to become a Kamala Sheila teacher, you know, what do I have to do?

Okay? Basically, we call it the four legs of the table, right? Number one, not you two guys, because you teach it all the day.

Content, okay? The pictures, the ideas, okay? First part, four parts to being a teacher.

Number one is the pictures, number one. Number two? How to teach, yeah, how to present, okay?

Like, you need to practice how to speak in front of people, not get nervous. And the college has been extremely successful in teaching people to speak in front of people, and they use a lot of videos. People video each other every day, and then the videos get—they choose the videos by random, and they get suggestions from the other students.

And I can say the teachers I've met, the teachers who came on tour are great. Their presentations is great. Like, a lot of them, I remember, they were shy at the beginning, or they were like, blah, blah, blah, blah at the beginning, and now they're quite good.

And so, you know, Orit, if you know, she studied education in college. That was her major, one of her majors. So, it's really, really good, and she's been able to make people really good public speakers, okay?

So, that's important, you know, you can't just study the meaning, you have to—you have to be able to speak in front of people. What's the third one? Yeah, like how to produce an event, okay?

Some people are very good teachers, but nobody—they don't know how to invite people on Facebook. They say, Geshe Michael, did you advertise on Facebook? He said, what's Facebook?

Like, I never used it until about, I don't know, a year ago or something, okay? So, you know, you have to know how to—how to—how do you—market, market your classes. You can be a great teacher and nobody comes.

You can be a lousy teacher and a lot of people come. We want to make great teachers and then they know how to organize, and that includes finances, how to pay for everything, which is always exciting, and things like that. How to keep your accounts honestly, how to pay taxes legally, okay?

Things like that. What's the fourth leg of the table? We call it professional behavior.

So, we want people to be—we want people to be good examples as teachers, and mainly it means don't chase boys and girls in the class, and don't cheat on your finances, okay? Pay your taxes, and treat your staff well, treat your volunteers well, okay? Treat everybody very kindly and ethically, okay?

So, those are the four legs of the table. This week, what I'm doing is covering content, okay? I can get you through the content, okay?

Then the rest of the stuff, you come to the Sedona College, okay? And we'll figure out how we do it, okay? We'll make an extra month every year, 13 months.

We'll figure out how to do it. But it's working, and my dream is then to build one in Asia, and then to build one in Europe, you know? I want to build a college in Asia and one in Europe.

Probably a separate one in Hawaii. Just kidding. Not.

Okay. Alright, so, that's the goal. So, pay attention to the pictures, okay?

And when you do your retreat starting tomorrow, you can just look at the pictures and then meditate on them, okay? And you'll have—by the end of the week, you'll have 87 pictures, and you should be able to say, blah blah blah, and buh-duh-blah-blah, and oh-deh-blah-blah-blah. And then, I showed Jasmine, she can say, how does picture 17 relate to 27?

And then, how do they relate to picture 83? You see what I mean? And that gets really cool, alright?

So, I want you to know the ideas perfectly, alright? So, let's start. We'll do—what time do I have to stop, Mr. Tim?

You should—I have an idea, let's put a little paper here that says what time I have to stop. 9.15, okay. They should be unconscious by 8.30. We'll take a break, so don't worry, okay? Three rules of a good teacher? Know your stuff, know your students, and stop early, okay? Popular teacher.

Alright, so Katie, we're going to be doing the meditations—the honor of being a teenager, okay? And it was a stroke of genius why to call it this. It was going to be like part five or something like that, and you won't find out why until about Thursday or something, okay?

So, I'm not telling you tonight. You just have to wonder, okay? That means you have to stay.

Okay, the first part of your reading just explains why I did the last part before the fourth part, okay? And it makes sense, and I'm not going to go over that. Okay, so here's the first picture, and what I'm going to do is go to the Sutra.

Thank you, good idea. Okay, this picture relates to a verse where the Buddha says to Subuddhi— who's Subuddhi? If you don't give me an answer I'll go home.

Huh? Who's Subuddhi? Student of the Buddha.

Who is he really? A Buddha. Who?

Manjushri, okay? According to tradition he's actually another Buddha, but he's pretending to be a dumb normal guy and ask questions, okay? So, we're on verse 112 of the Sutra, which you don't have right there, but I'll read it to you.

Suppose, oh Subuddhi, that some bodhisattva were to say, I am working to bring about my paradise. That would not be spoken rightly. Why is it so?

Because, oh Subuddhi, the paradise that you are working to bring about when you say, I am working to bring about my paradise, is something that the Buddha said you couldn't do, and that's why you can. Okay? You cannot reach a paradise, you cannot build your paradise, and that's why you can.

Okay? Alright? Is it okay?

It's okay if your husband says I'll take you out to dinner on Thursday and I also won't take you out? No. Okay, so what's it mean?

Can you build a paradise? By the way, that's the picture, okay? You're supposed to be thinking about building your own paradise.

Let me ask you something else. Have we had this part before? Did he talk about building paradise before?

He did, okay? So, what's he talking about this time, and why does he repeat himself? A lot of the last part of this sutra is now for people who have had some experience in meditating about emptiness.

The first part of this sutra, when they'd said the same thing, was meant for people who just heard about the pen. So, Kamala Shila divides people into people who heard about the pen, they heard about emptiness with an example, but they didn't meditate on it, and they didn't have a clear idea about it. Now, this last part of the sutra is for people who do have a clear idea, they're getting a good idea about emptiness, okay?

So, the Buddha has to repeat himself. So, the question here is, can you build a paradise? What's the Buddhist word for the paradise?

Huh? In a debate they go, huh? Huh?

It means, what the ... huh? Mandala, okay?

You're offering paradise every time you do this, okay? It's the price for the class, right? Traditionally, we don't teach, we don't charge money for Dharma class.

Why? Whatever you charge is too cheap, okay? There's no price.

You want to pay me something for the Kamala Shila class? Yeah, Geshe-la, we want to pay you something. Okay, give me this.

Why? Because that's the most valuable thing. What is it?

It's a perfect world. It's a world where nobody dies, nobody gets old, nobody gets sick, and I'm going to make it happen. Okay, Geshe-la?

And I'm offering that to you. Okay, that's pretty good payment for class, okay? I mean, class you ever went to here, you offered your Buddha paradise, your paradise, for the class, right?

Okay? Don't forget. Then at the end there's a Tangrak Mandala.

Tangrak. Thanksgiving Mandala, okay? At the end you have to offer another Mandala, and that's just like, what do you call?

The teacher gets a tip? You know, oh here's another enlightened world Geshe-la. Thanks for the class.

Okay? So, that traditionally there should be two Mandalas, alright? Mandala means perfect world, nobody fighting, nobody arguing, nobody dying, okay?

I like to think, I feel that DCI is helping to create a Mandala. You know, we're not religious organization, but I think people all over the world are learning why not to yell at their husband when he calls them phantom, okay? We are learning these things, alright?

So, I think it's, I think it's happening. I think we are creating Mandala, okay? How are you gonna create this Mandala?

How are you gonna get other people to follow what you say? Yeah, you have to do it yourself, okay? So, I used to go to church, you know, in Phoenix, and I still go sometimes, and my mom, we four brothers, right?

My mom took us to church almost every week, and I remember very distinctly, and I still pray in the same pew, you know, 60 years later or something. And my mom would say, okay, now you have to kneel, you know, we have to kneel, and then she said, go like this, you know, and we go like this, and then she said, pray, and we're like, what's that mom? How do you pray?

And she'd say, oh, well, you close your eyes and you think about everybody. And we're like, wow, that's too big mom. And then she'd say, pray for everybody, you know, and we close our eyes, and you know, when you're like six years old, everything your mom says is possible.

So, you're like, okay, here it goes, you know, and you try to pray for everybody. And then, you know, sometimes kids can do it, you know, when you get older you can't do it anymore, and I remember I would get older and I'd say, I don't know when I'm doing it anymore, I can't pray for everybody, I can't take care of everybody, this is not possible, you know. So, kids are right, you can take care of everybody, right?

You just learn, for example, the four steps, and then you do it, okay? And then what happens? If suddenly you have the most beautiful partner in the universe that you always wanted to be with, and your income is like, you have too much income to count, and you spend half the day with your personal assistant trying to figure out where, what all this money is, how many accounts are there, and what's in them, you know?

And then you're weird, your mind, your Tibetan memorizing is freaking out, you can do the whole retreat closing with your eyes closed, you're like, what's going on? You know, it's weird, okay? So, if things are happening to you, beautiful things, then of course your friends are going to say, what, you know, Bimla, how'd you do that?

You know, how'd you do that? And you say, well, I just helped an old lady. Then everybody will be out helping old ladies, right?

Okay, then what happens? Everybody gets a beautiful partner. What's that called?

Mandala, okay? Alright? So, there is a way to pray for all beings, there is a way to help all beings.

And don't go to the temple and close your eyes and go blah blah blah blah blah. You know, practice, use it, become happy, successful. People will ask you, Ginny, what are you doing?

You look younger every year. And she'll say, well, I'm doing this four step thing, you know? And then the whole world will start doing it.

I like the idea that at the end everybody will forget who started it, you know? Oh, it started at Diamond Mountain Retreat Center in 2000, what is it? 18, at this Kamalashila 5 class.

But everybody forgot who started it, because the whole world is doing it now. You see what I mean? It's normal to do the four steps.

It's normal to meditate every day, okay? It's normal to see emptiness every morning, okay? Like somebody come to Ginny's hotel refurbishing business and say, I'm an hour late for work, why?

Well, I was looking at emptiness directly, and you know, I just got busy, I was doing the lion's dance after that. Then Ginny will say, oh, you get a bonus, you know? No, the world, that's it, that's the kind of world we want, you see what I mean?

Think about it, okay? You can help all people. Don't go to, don't go to, I help all beings.

You didn't, okay? Practice, become super happy, super successful, super spiritually happy person, and then people will come to you. They'll say, how do you do that?

3,000 people will show up to listen to Diamond Cutter Sutra in a normal city? What's going on, okay? You can make a mandala, you can make a mandala, why not, okay?

Do it. But first, you have to be happy. I always tell people, I went to a meditation class taught by one of my students, and she was, I sat in the back with two other people.

I mean, I was in the way back and there were two ladies in front of me, and she, the teacher was teaching meditation, and she had a glass of water or something, and she goes like this, you know, and she was very nervous and she was teaching like, she's all like, sometimes angry. Then I heard the two ladies talking, one of them said, are we coming back next week? No.

Are you kidding? Why? I don't know what kind of meditation she's teaching, but I don't want to learn it.

So, we want to be the opposite, okay? Human advertisement for dharma, okay? To do that you have to be happy, and your practice has to be good, okay?

Sometimes good people can't do it for themselves, they have to do it for other people, okay? Be a good person for other people, okay? Be successful for other people.

Especially Chinese people, if I threaten them like that, you're, all the people in the world, depending on you, yi yi, if you don't become extremely happy, you hurt many people. Then they're like, oh yes Geshe-la, I will do. Okay, alright.

Where will your paradise be? You know, when my mom used to talk about heaven, then we'd say, mom where's heaven? She'd say, up in the sky, way beyond, the God has a big beard, you know, and he's waiting for you up there.

Then when I was like 16, the first guy landed on the moon, and I remember asking my dad, you know, is this going to mess up heaven, you know? Is this going to cause any problems with rockets, you know, shooting to heaven? And he's like, I don't know, where is heaven?

Anybody got a pen? Where is heaven? Yeah, it's, okay, it's just a better chew toy.

Right now it's a chew toy, called Diamond Mountain Temple with water spots in certain places, which are going to get fixed. But anyway, but you know, if you change your seeds, then you don't have to go anywhere, okay? You will see all these Buddhists around you, okay?

So that's the, so why did Buddha say you can't make your heaven? Yeah, you can't make an outside heaven, you can make a heaven come from you, but there's no outside heaven. And we're going to talk about the emptiness of cause and effect during this week, okay?

If you get a pen and you put it on a paper and you move the pen and something comes out, is that coming from the pen? Yeah, we have to say no. If you are, you can make a paradise, okay?

But there's no paradise that you can make otherwise, okay? That's all. You guys know all this.

Alright, that's the first one from number five. What's the picture? You guys are, you're worse than the people who came from Asia last week.

What's the picture? Yeah, the guy's building his paradise, okay? How?

Well, he's probably planting the seeds, okay? How? I don't know, seeds for a beautiful partner, seeds for good health, seeds for a good mind, you know, okay?

He's planting seeds. That's how he's building the paradise, alright? Alright, second one.

Okay, here's the sutra, alright? Let me see where it is. This is a long part of the sutra towards the end, okay?

And the Buddha says to Subuddhi...okay, ready? It's verse 114 if you have the sutra. The Buddha says, does a Buddha have the five different kinds of eyes, okay?

So, in Buddhism we talk about five different kinds of eyes. And so, the Buddha asked Subuddhi one by one. Number one, what do you think Subuddhi, does the Buddha have the eyes made of skin, you know, flesh?

And Subuddhi says, well of course, yeah, the Buddha has eyes made of flesh. Then the Buddha says, well Subuddhi, what do you think, does the Buddha have eyes of a god, eyes of a god, divine eyes? And Subuddhi says, well of course, the Buddha has the eyes of a god.

Okay, that's the second kind of eyes, okay? What's the first one? Flesh, skin, bone, blood, okay?

Second one? We call it the eyes of a god, okay? Third question, Subuddhi, what do you think, does the Buddha have the eyes of wisdom?

Oh yeah, why not? Okay, I didn't say why not, Why not? Okay, why not?

Okay, eyes of wisdom. Third one, what do you think Subuddhi, does the Buddha have the eyes of all things, all things? Yes or no?

Yes, okay. Last question, does the Buddha have the eyes of an enlightened being? Yes, okay?

Subuddhi says yes, okay? Then, this is a very deep subject, we study it in the monastery when we study Maitreya's ornament of, Jewel of Realizations, okay? We study the five eyes.

So, I thought I would go on a detour and teach you the five eyes, okay? Because they're not what they sound like, they're a very specific thing, okay? So, I'm going to teach you, I'm going to give you a whole teaching about the five eyes, which is why the class is going to go late as we go through the week.

Okay, first one, the eye of flesh is not exactly what it sounds like. It's the ability to see physical things up to a hundred miles away, okay? Without a telescope, okay?

It's not a normal eye, it's an eye of flesh which you can see small things and big things a hundred miles away. Okay, all right, the eyes of a god, okay? It's a specific kind of eyes that you can see the birth and death of other beings, okay?

You can see, you can tell them where they're going to die, you can tell them where they're going to be reborn, okay? You can see this, it's called the eye of a god, okay? And Kamalashila, he's kind of insistent that the first one is a result of karma.

You're born with it, you know, either you have the hundred mile eye or you don't. You're born with it, okay? The ability to see other people's death date and where they're going to be born comes from practice, he says.

So, I think you have to say karma from your past life allows you to be born with eyes that can see a hundred miles, and then karma from this life, if you practice, you can see ahead to the birth and death of other people. You can tell them you're going to die on this day, or you're going to be born as a frog in the Diamond Mountain laundry machine, zuh, zuh. How do we do, by the way?

40,011 or something? We got to hit up those Kamalashila students. Okay, the eye of wisdom can see the emptiness of people and things, okay?

The eye of wisdom can see the emptiness of people and things, okay? What's an example of the emptiness of things? Pan.

What's the example of emptiness of people? Anybody, okay? What's the idim in the Lam Rim for the emptiness of people and things?

Oh, you're so smart. Yeah, a little boy driving a toy car. Do you guys remember?

Okay, it's supposed to immediately come in your mind, but it happened with one person. Okay, yeah, Buddha taught the emptiness of people and the emptiness of things. If you understand them, you have the eyes of wisdom, okay?

By the way, in this school, Kamalashila's favorite school, Lower Middle Way, what's a person? Do you know? It's interesting, it's the person listening to your thoughts is the real gyel se, okay?

The person who listens to gyel se's thoughts is the real gyel se, okay? And then, what's the emptiness of that person? Oh, what's the idim for that?

The emptiness of thoughts. Come on, was that the end of the idims? Huh?

The lady what? Maybe you guys cheat and go look. Jenny knows.

I got to go do it now, I'm sorry.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, it's at the end, I know that.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, you're right. It's the lady like this, okay? She's in a field.

Idim 58 from Lam Rim, but I don't want to mess you up, Katie. Maybe it's too much to go there. Oh, yeah, okay.

She's listening to her thoughts. She just realized her thoughts are coming out of seeds. That's why there's plants around her.

I guess I didn't cover it very well. Representing the seeds in her mind. She's watching the seeds come out of her mind.

In the Lower Middle Way school, that's the emptiness of the mind and the emptiness of you, okay? Because you are coming out of seeds in your mind. You are listening to thoughts coming out of seeds, okay?

The listener is the real Michael Dunn, okay? The witness in the mind is the real Michael Dunn, okay? Alright, so that's the...

cool. Alright, that's the eyes of wisdom. Emptiness of people and things, okay?

Eyes of the Dharma is especially an Arya's understanding of where teachers and teachers come, teachings and teachers come from, okay? Who wrote the Dhammakara Sutra? You did.

Congratulations. Okay, it's coming out of... coming from you, okay?

If you made it to Kamalashila 5 and you get to review the whole Dhammakara Sutra, you created Geshe Michael. Geshe Michael is coming out of your seeds, okay? That's why some people fall asleep in class and some people see emptiness in class, okay?

Because I'm coming out of your mind. If you like... if you don't like the teaching...

what is the DCI thing? If you don't like the teaching, it's coming from you. If you do like it, that's Michael.

Okay. Okay, last one, I am a Buddha, right? So, wisdom which can see both realities at the same time, okay?

They can see normal things and they can see emptiness at the same time. Nobody else can do both, okay? Either you see emptiness or you see normal things, but you can't see both, okay?

At the same time. Only Buddha can do. So, that's called the eyes of a Buddha, okay?

So, we finished the second idea in the fourth part of the Dhammakara Sutra. Does the Buddha have these five eyes? Yeah, okay.

He probably said something like, why doesn't he have them? Let me see. No, they just...

you know, it's one of the only places in the Dhammakara Sutra where the discussion is normal, okay? He doesn't say anything strange after that. He just says, does Buddha have the five eyes?

And Sabuddhi says, yes. And that's the end of the story, okay? I think.

By the way, if you want to know where I got the five eyes from, it was from Kherupten Bhedargye, who's the textbook writer from Seramay. Born 1493, died 1568. So, he lived about 80 years after Tsongkhapa.

He wrote the books for our monastery, and he has a nice explanation of the five eyes. Sugeng is translating one of his books. Okay, next one.

I'll give you a break in 15 minutes, okay? I think you ate too much of those sweets. You got sleepy.

Why is John Brady and Rob Resinger sitting next to the tape? You want to turn on the air now? Yeah, see?

I told you I drove the Dalai Lama's teacher one day, for two hours. He kept turning off the air-conditioning and turning it back on, turning it off, turning it on. He was very, very, very old, you know.

Then he said, you think I'm crazy? I said, no. He said, well, human beings, they get hot, then they get cold, then they get hot, then they get cold.

This is samsara. I said, okay, alright. Okay, meditation number three.

What's a picture? What's happening here? Took me a long, you don't know how long it takes me, you don't know how many stupid pictures I have to look at to find a good one.

He's trying to figure out what she's thinking, and she's trying to figure out what he's thinking, and that's more difficult than emptiness. Right, Nick? Right, Aaron?

Why? Because the Buddha here says, by the way, I can see the mind of every living person all the time. I can see what they're thinking now, I can see everything they thought before, and I can see everything they're going to think at the same time.

And not one person, but countless people, because there's no end to how many people there are. And all the bugs, and all the birds, and all the fish, I can read everything they're thinking all the time. Okay?

Past, present, and future. I had a funny discussion last week. Somebody's explaining to me why we have to add more stuff to Buddhist meditation teachings, because they're incomplete, or they don't have enough stuff, and I'm just looking at them like, okay, you know, so a guy who can see what you're thinking a hundred years from now, and a million years ago, didn't think of what a certain kind of meditation ...

you know, it's like, I don't know, frustrating. Buddha knew we were going to have this teaching tonight, when he taught the ... when he was in the garden teaching the Diamond Cutter Sutra, he knew we would be teaching it tonight.

Okay? Duh! Alright?

He's watching your mind right now, so stop thinking about the extra donuts over there, Geshe Michael. Okay? I used to go in the toilet at work when I was having a bad day.

I'd go to the toilet at work, and I'd sit ... you know, you can close the door, all people can see is your shoes, and I would just sit on top of the toilet and talk to Buddha. I'd say, you're there, right?

You can hear me right now. I would ... sometimes I would talk to future Michael Buddha.

I'd say, you know, I'm having a hard day today, you know, when are you going to happen? So I don't have hard days anymore, you know. I just talk to Geshe Michael, future Buddha, because he's listening, right?

He must be listening right now, right? So, that's kind of fun sometimes. If you're really frustrated, you can talk to ...

Yi Yi can talk to Yi Yi Buddha. Luka can talk to Luka Buddha. Go in the bathroom and talk to Luka Buddha.

Make sure nobody knows you're in there talking to Buddha, okay? They might put you somewhere else. Okay.

Anyway, also Bodhi, I know perfectly the separate mind streams, each of the thoughts that each of the total number of living beings on each of the planets possesses, okay? That's a Buddha. Now, is it possible to see the ...

is it possible to see the ... everyone's mind? Is it ...

first of all, is it possible to see everybody who exists? Is it possible? Yeah, specifically when?

And what's the idam? Yeah, but what's the idam? Come on.

There's an idam already. Yeah. Isn't there?

Huh? What was it? Faces.

Give me a break. What's it? Give me a number.

Sixty? Sixty ... yeah, but which number is it?

Come on. Oh, number one? That's Pabongka.

It's on the facing page. You guys are giving me a headache. That's Nagarjuna.

Yeah, forget it. Oh well, let me know when you find it. Okay, you guys flunked your test already.

Alright, anyway, the question here is, how could I plant the seeds to make the ... what's the number? I'm sorry, it is faces.

What number is it? What number is it, Katie? Huh?

Oh, oh, oh, I see, it's in the ... okay, it didn't make it into the ... okay, I got it.

Alright, you're right. So, that's a good example. What happened at that moment?

Give me that example that Geshe Michael always gives for the emptiness of time, because you can embarrass somebody in this room. Huh? Not the dentist chair.

The drive-in movie, when you're making out with ... how old were we? 17?

Now she's getting embarrassed. Don't talk about that stuff. We were ...

it was 46 years ago, okay? We were 18 or something. Anyway, when you're in the drive-in movie and you're kissing, just kissing, okay, time goes very fast, and then you get in trouble when you go home late, right?

Okay, and then when you're in the dentist chair, Scott, yeah, you come out, you tell your partner, you know, it's been three hours, and they say, no, it's been 15 minutes, okay? Got it? Time is empty.

Time is a perception. It's not impossible to see all living beings, okay? Just plant the seeds, okay?

Just plant the seeds, alright? Now, if you want to know why he's going from the eyes to time and space, okay, why does he go from ... why does Buddha go ...

what does Kamalashila say? Why did Buddha talk about his eyes first, and then he talks about knowing people's minds, okay? The main thing of the eyes is that they can see both kinds of reality at the same time.

They can see ultimate reality, and they can see normal things at the same time, okay? When Buddha talks about the eyes, that's the main thing he's talking about, okay? But when he talks about people's minds, that's a separate thing, okay?

Kamalashila calls one of them a vision, and one of them seeing, okay? Perception. Vision means a special capacity to see two different modes of reality at the same time, okay?

And then perception means ability to see people's normal minds all the time, future, past, and present, okay? Got it? Okay.

If you could change your seeds, you could read your partner's mind, and know what the heck they're thinking. It's the ultimate goal, right? Or maybe not, okay?

And then also, you can compress time. So really, it's a very very similar idea to Einstein, and when Einstein explained that very very heavy masses are like dropping something into a towel, and then, see, normal space and time is like that, okay? Here's yesterday, and here's tomorrow, okay?

Or here's China, and here's America, right? But if something heavy goes in the middle, it gets closer, time gets faster, time ... yesterday is closer to tomorrow than it used to be, okay?

It's all relative. So, people had a big problem to understand that space is relative, but that the idea that time can go faster or slower, that the Buddha is explaining here, it's only recently that people accept the idea, Einstein. Who discovered it?

Who confirmed it? Before, I mean after Buddha, recently. Mercury, when it goes around the Sun, there's a problem with the light from Mercury when it's on the other side of the Sun, it takes ...

it gets here too fast. The Sun speeds it up, the gravity of the Sun speeds it up. Space is bent, it takes less time than it should.

The observable rotation of Mercury is messed up, it's like a millisecond off every year or something, something's going on. Anyway, who cares. If you do the lion's dance well, you can make time change, and you can make space change, and there will come a day when you can help every living being on every planet at the same time.

One yi yi can go to countless planets at the same time, okay? That's the principle. Mercury, same principle, okay?

You can do it. It's not like some hippie thing. It is, but it's a good hippie thing, okay?

Understand? It's possible to serve all beings. It's possible to know their minds at the same time, okay?

Alright, by the way, we're in the 18th section. Kamala Sila divides the diamond cutter into 18 parts. We're in the last part, aren't you excited?

The 18th part is ... what is that? SANGS RGYAS KYI SA YONGS SU BRTZAL BA'I, Looking for your Buddha Paradise.

It's called Looking for your Buddha Paradise, okay? Part 18. We've finished 17 parts already.

We're on the last part. The last part is long, it's the last quarter of the sutra, because it has many other parts, okay? It starts with seven parts, okay?

You ready? There are seven parts to the last part of the Diamond Cutter Sutra according to Kamala Sila. He says, first, Buddha's going to talk about paradises, that's number one.

Second, then he's going to talk about seeing, okay? Vision. Then he's going to talk about knowledge, knowing people's minds, okay?

That's number three. Then he's going to talk about big, big, big bunches of good karmic seeds, okay? Huge masses of good karmic seeds.

Then he's going to talk about perfect body, perfect words, and perfect mind, and that makes seven, okay? If you want to know, you know, where's Kamala Sila right now? Okay, we have three minutes before I promised you a break, but sometimes you don't get the break when I said, right?

Probably time is longer. Alright, what's the picture after the couple? Katie.

Yeah, so there's an English idiom, it's called digging deeper, digging deeper. It means go deeper into the meaning of something, okay? You ask your husband, why are you late?

He says, I asked, something came up. Then you dig deeper. What came up?

When came up? Where were you? What time were you?

Okay, detail. So, the sutra here, you ready? Here's the sutra, section one, two, three.

Subhūti, anyone who says that the Buddha teaches the Dharma, okay, is completely mistaken, and doesn't know who the Buddha is, and is talking about something that never existed anyway, okay? If somebody tells you the Buddha taught the Diamond Cutter Sutra, they don't know what they're talking about. They're completely mistaken, okay?

And in fact, they're calling me not a Buddha. If someone tells you the Buddha taught the Diamond Cutter Sutra, they don't know what they're talking about, what they're talking about doesn't exist, and in fact, what they're saying is that I don't exist. Comfortable?

It shouldn't be. Why? You know, Subhūti says, why?

Buddha says, when you, when you think Buddha's teaching the Dharma, you're thinking about a Dharma that doesn't exist, okay? Why? Yeah, you think Buddha's teaching it, okay?

Who's teaching it? You are, okay? Got it?

This is boring teaching you the last part of the Diamond Cutter Sutra, because you know all the answers, okay? Now you can explain them to your friends, okay? Did the Buddha teach the Diamond Cutter Sutra?

No, you did. That's, no, I don't believe you. Check the sutra.

Buddha said, okay, he said, anyone says I taught the Diamond Cutter Sutra, they're crazy. I didn't teach the Diamond Cutter Sutra, you did. Congratulations.

Okay, then what's the, oh yeah, so listen, this is the question. Kamalashila asks a question, okay? Should you keep telling people every DCI talk you ever give?

Should you keep telling them over and over and over? I'm not teaching, you are. I didn't make this teaching, you did.

Should you tell them over and over and over, or should you sometimes just let it go, don't dig deeper? What's the right thing to do? Dig deeper, okay?

If you're a Kamalashila follower, if you're a Tsongkhapa follower, okay? If you're a real Buddhist, you always dig deeper, okay? You always say something crazy by the end of the class, right Peter?

He's good at it, okay? You know? Do you like this teaching?

Yes. Isn't Buddha wonderful? Yes.

It's not a teaching and Buddha didn't teach it, how do you feel about that? Okay? Like, because in your personal life you have to be in the habit of remembering that stuff is coming from you, okay?

Never forget, never just sit and enjoy, okay? Oh Geshe-la had a nice, I hope there's some more left there. What do they call those donuts?

Glazed donuts, you know? I had a nice glazed donut. I hope I can get another glazed donut.

But Geshe-la, you remember it comes from you, right? Yeah, okay, it's okay, I remember. Now give me a glazed donut.

So, when you're teaching DCI, when you're teaching Kamalashila, don't let it go, you know? Keep telling people. They have to hear it a thousand times, okay?

Why? Because they're going to go home and they're going to have a fight with their husband. Fifty percent of them.

That night, okay? Why? Because they studied Diamond Cutter Sutra.

Watch the picture. It's a lady with beads on her hand and she's going like this. Why?

She got a headache, but she's not sure if she likes it or not. You know how long it took me to find that one? A lady with a headache who's smiling?

I had to look at a thousand pictures to find this one. Why is she smiling? Oh, I got rid of a bad seed, I'm so lucky.

I only got a headache, I didn't get cancer, okay? So, she's happy. Okay, got it?

Keep going deeper, okay? Never stop, you know? Never let it go.

Be like Ben Kramer. You can't have a conversation with Ben Kramer. He'll say, yeah, but it's coming from you.

I said, I just said good morning. Okay? It's okay.

Keep going, keep saying it. Why? Because people forget it when they need it.

When the husband starts yelling, immediately all the Buddhism goes out the window, right? It's amazing. Or someone cuts you off in traffic.

Veronica's like, can you be a Buddhist when you drive? I'm like, no. You know where it's coming from.

Don't tell me where it's coming from. Bad drivers, okay? They're all in Rimrock.

They sent, they shipped them from China, I think, to my town. They're all there, okay? They're not coming from me.

Okay? So yeah, never quit digging, okay? And when you teach or you read a book, understand that the book is coming from you, okay?

When you learn the Dharma, understand it's coming from you, okay? And that's what the Buddha wants us to learn in this part. Keep digging deeper, okay?

Buddha does that. Tsongkapa's favorite thing is to dig deeper, right? Now, we're going to take a break, but Katie's going to put up the next picture just to frustrate you.

Where did this one come from? Yeah, DCI level 7, Chi Che Dang. Man, you guys are so smart.

DCI level 7. I stole this from DCI. I asked the dean, she said I could use it, okay?

This is called Chi Che Dang. It's an idea about things that if you understand it, you can see emptiness directly, okay? But it's impossible to talk about Chi Che Dang if you have to pee-pee.

I mean, to listen. Talk is okay. So, take a break, 10 minute break.

8.15 okay? Come back at 8.15. And we'll do, we'll do ... this is the first time Chi Che Dang came in the Diamond Cutter Sutra, okay?

Specifically, okay? Pretty cool. Katie, we're going to switch.

Chi Che Dang is not something to teach after the kids ate a lot of sugar. So, we're going to do it in the morning, when you're fresh, okay? I've never seen you this sleepy.

I think it was too much. So, I'd like to go to the review of the whole Kamalashila. I think we have about 45 minutes or something.

Yeah, good. So, now we're going to go through all of Kamalashila, okay? You are the first people to do it in a thousand years.

Not bad, okay? So, he has an extraordinary explanation of why it's called the Diamond Cutter Sutra in the very opening pages, and you won't see it anywhere else. So, diamond shape is like a baseball diamond or a diamond on a playing card.

This is a diamond shape of a natural diamond crystal. Sometimes when two crystals are growing, they grow together at the same time, and this is called a twin diamond crystal. And later, people called it a Vajra, and then they made these instruments, okay, which we use every day in our retreats, okay?

So, that instrument is called a Vajra. Those of you who are vegetarian, Vajra means power, gives power, and the word vegetable comes from Vaj, because vegetables give you more power than meat, okay? So anyway, he says the reason, one of the reasons why it's called the Diamond Cutter Sutra is that the diamond shape is a representation of the five great paths of every person's spiritual progress, okay?

So, according to Buddhism, every person in the world will go through five great stages in their spiritual evolution, okay? Everybody, okay? First stage, yeah, accumulation, but what happens?

Yeah, personal tragedy, okay? In my case, my my dad died, my brother died, my mother died, all in the same—about the same time, okay? So, if something wakes you up, you know, that life is pain, tragedy, okay?

Something happened, your mom died in your arms, your family lose all their house, money, everything, like that, okay? Something happened to you, to wake you up. Now, does that take a long time usually, or a short time?

I know, the tragedy itself. It could be five minutes, you see, for someone to die, okay? Or for you to have your first bad car accident, or for you to lose your husband, or something, okay?

It doesn't take very long. It's usually only a few minutes, and your whole life changes, okay? Then you start to ask why.

So, Karma Lashila says, the left-hand tip of the diamond represents the first of the five paths, because it's so short, the tragedy comes quickly, okay? And ends quickly, normally, relatively quickly, okay? So, it doesn't take a long time.

Then he says, getting through the second path takes a very long time, and that's why the second part of the diamond—oh, now I get to use this thing. I've been sitting on it for like months. I hope I can figure it out.

I hope it has a battery. Yeah, eh, this part, okay? This wide part represents the second path, okay?

And it's long, it takes a long time. What happens at the second path? Someone explains the panty, okay?

Like 5,000 times, it takes a long time. Just kidding. It takes millions of lives to get to the room where somebody explains emptiness to you clearly and simply, okay?

It takes millions of lives to get here. So, don't complain when I teach the parent, okay? This is millions of lifetimes, to get to the room where someone teaches you emptiness correctly, clearly, simply, okay?

That's a big thing, alright? Now, the third part here is skinny, pretty skinny. What's that?

Path of seeing. 20 minutes. 20 minutes.

After a billion lifetimes. 20 minutes, okay? In the meditation, because you've been doing the lion's dance at Diamond Mountain, you have the direct perception of emptiness, okay?

I'm waiting for somebody to do it here, okay? Then we're going to have more birthday cakes. We're going to have big celebrations, okay?

In your cottage, I want someone to do this one, okay? You have to do some pretty serious lion's dance, okay? We'll do lion's dance tomorrow morning, okay?

When you're fresh. So, there it is. Third path, right?

How about the fourth path? This wide part. Yeah, path of habituation.

You get used to what you saw. This is oftentimes the two husbands in the kitchen, okay? You saw emptiness, then your husband gets angry at you, and you use your emptiness to stop your own anger, okay?

Then that's the fourth path, it's called getting used to what you saw, okay? Then the fifth path, Buddhahood, okay? You sit down one day and boom, you become a Buddha.

It takes like, I don't know, 10 seconds or something, when the seeds are ready, okay? So, the first idim out of 68, if you want to become a Kamalashila teacher, the first picture you can't forget. You're going to have so many pictures in your life, you're going to get really confused, you know?

You're going to look at your driver's license and say, I forget what that one is. Okay, this first, this is the first one, and maybe one of the most important ones, because only Kamalashila gives this explanation, okay? Why we call Diamond Cutter Sutra, okay?

Got it? Cool? You know, those of you who didn't come to all the Kamalashilas, you're getting the whole thing very cheap this week.

You're getting all of the Kamalashila at once, okay? You're lucky. Okay, next picture, Katie, thank you.

You're doing a really good job, thank you for preparing them so nicely. Lord Buddha in the garden, am I balancing personal quiet and serving the world? Kamalashila explains where the Buddha taught the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

I've been there, I went there. It's a very beautiful place, it's an ancient city called Shravasti, and it was actually buried under three meters of earth, and they found it by... they followed Xuanzang's travel notes, how many steps to Shravasti from Delhi or something, and they dug there and they found it.

And you can sit in the park where he... I sat there where he taught the Diamond Cutter. Now, Kamalashila says, why do you think the Buddha chose a garden in which to give this teaching in the city?

And he says, it's a... well, it means it's there you should have a balance in your life, okay? Sometime at Diamond Mountain, that's the garden.

And then sometimes in Berlin, or Moscow, or Vancouver, or Kiev? No, Moscow, Moscow, you know, so there's a time in your life to be in the city and to help people, and there's a time in your life to go away and be quiet, and spend some time in the garden, and nature, okay? So it's a very beautiful...

this is Kamalashila, you know, you have to balance retreat time and your city life, or your busy life, your business life, okay? What's the garden called? Jetavana.

Jetavana. Named after Prince Jeta. Prince Jeta, okay?

Alright, third innam. We have to do 17 tonight. I'm determined to get you through the whole thing, alright?

Buddha gone begging, am I living a simple and healthy lifestyle? Kamalashila makes a big deal that the sutra begins with Lord Buddha going to people's houses and begging for his food, okay? And he never eats more than he could fit in the bowl, and he never eats afternoon.

And I did it for 17 years or something, it's very very healthy, and you feel very good, you know? You don't need to eat three times a day, okay? You will get too fat, okay?

Have some juice, you know, have different kinds of juice. We have juice tomorrow during class, right Tim? Thank you, oh Melissa, thank you.

But, you know, have juice until noon or something, okay? Have different kinds of juice, and I have cappuccino, green juice, and orange juice, and a watermelon juice, okay. That's okay, if you can get Andriana to make it.

Then have a meal, okay? But you don't need to eat three times a day. Buddha didn't.

Buddhist monks in ancient times were supposed to finish their eating by 12 o'clock, okay? And then no eating after that. And I did it for many many years, and when I was in diamond business, I did it the whole time, and it's nice, okay?

You feel really good, okay? So, Kamalashila says it's, you know, Buddha doesn't have to eat at all. Buddha doesn't need food.

Buddha's living off of karmic seeds, right? Buddha doesn't have to breathe at all, but he wants to show us that it's a good example to have one big meal a day, and then half the day don't eat. Just have juices and let your body take a break, okay?

Live simple. So, the whole first part of the sutra is Buddha didn't say anything yet, he's just being simple liver, okay? Alright, next picture.

Why did I, why did I pick a lady on a skyscraper? She's obviously a business person, right? But she's doing her meditation every day, okay?

Who else did their meditation every day? Buddha, in the Diamond Cutter Sutra, okay? Before he teaches, he finishes his meditations, okay?

Before he goes to work teaching the Diamond Cutter Sutra, he finishes his meditation, okay? If Buddha can do it, you can do it. He's a busy guy, he's teaching thousands of people, okay?

He's starting a religion that's going to last for two and a half thousand. He's busy, but he meditates, he does his practice, okay? If Buddha has time to do his practice, you have time, okay?

That's the, Kamalashila says, that's why they don't start the sutra when the Buddha starts talking. First the Buddha goes, gets his food, then the Buddha brushes his teeth, okay? I didn't put it in the picture, it's alright, but he brushes his teeth in the sutra, and then he meditates, okay?

So, a good way to start the day. Alright, just a little, okay? Just sit down, get on your mat, get on your cushion, it'll, you'll get better, you'll do more, but just get on the cushion, okay?

Get on the cushion and read your emails, but get on the cushion, okay? Something good will happen if you keep getting on the cushion, okay? Alright, picture number five.

When the sutra starts, Subuddhi, the disciple of the Buddha, he's so respectful, okay? He drops his robe from his left shoulder, this custom, and he gets on his knee, and he asks for teaching. This is a tantric custom, this ancient tantra custom.

He's showing that he knows how to ask for teaching. So, he's grateful to his teacher, he's respectful to his teacher, okay? By the way, the garden is Jetavana, purchased by Anathapindada, from Anathapindada.

Who's Anathapindada? He's a businessman, okay? So, who was in the audience?

Who was, who arranged the teaching? A businessman and a politician. That's also a message.

Kamala Srila says that's also a message, okay? Buddhism is not just for monks and nuns, okay? Buddhism is for everybody.

Buddha's teaching is for everybody. The people who organized the most important teaching ever given by the Buddha is a businessman and a politician, okay? Alright, then a very very famous thing happens.

Katie. Sabuddhi asked a question, okay? Most sutras were question-and-answer period, okay?

They weren't the main teaching, they were after the teaching. Someone asked a question, a good question, like maybe you will do tonight, okay? But most sutras started from a question.

Jigme, what's the Sanskrit? Asked a question. We did it 10,000 times together, huh?

Paripracha, okay? In Sanskrit, Paripracha. Someone asked a question, very very famous.

The word is famous, okay? Someone asked a question. Who asked a question?

Sabuddhi, a disciple of Buddha named Sabuddhi, okay? In Xiaoping's birthday message, they mentioned the essence of eloquence, right? Which is Tsongkapa's explanation of the mind-only school especially, but also the subject of interpretation, right?

And it comes from a sutra. It's a commentary on a sutra. What's the sutra called?

Yeah, What I Really Meant, okay? And in the sutra, I think 10 bodhisattvas, including Maitreya, Avalokiteshvara, Shariputra, they ask Buddha questions about his teaching. What did you really mean?

Because it seems like you contradict yourself a lot, you know? It seems like when you get in different audiences you contradict yourself a lot. And Buddha said, well, duh.

And then one of the bodhisattvas, the Buddha asked him a question. So there's nine questions and one ... nine questions from the bodhisattvas and one question from the Buddha to the bodhisattva, and it's Sabuddhi, which is suspicious is what I'm saying.

The Buddha asked him a question instead of the other way. So we're studying this text in Shenzhen, and that the tradition says that Sabuddhi was Manjushri, and it's all a big setup, like the Heart Sutra, okay? Who's teaching the Heart Sutra?

The Buddha, all the Buddha says in the whole Heart Sutra is, yes, yes. Who teaches the Heart Sutra? Huh?

Shariputra, Shalidze, Shalidze, Chenrezig, right? Avalokiteshvara. But they are puppets, they are puppets.

Buddhas, they are just saying what Buddha tell them to say in their mind. Okay, ask a question to Avalokiteshvara. Oh, sab buyikong, kong buyikong, sojujikong, kong juk sok.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good idea. Okay? Definition of sutra is a teaching by the Buddha, you see?

It has to be the word of a Buddha, but the Buddha doesn't say anything. I'm just trying to say the Buddha is suspicious, okay? Maybe it's true, he's Manjushri.

Okay, he asks a question and he asks it in three parts and it starts the whole most famous sutra in Buddhism. What is it? How do you want us to live?

How do you want us to practice? And how do you want us to think? Okay?

Buddha, you have taught a lot, it was cool. He goes off on, you know, you taught a lot, what you taught was so cool. But what are we supposed to do now?

Okay? What do you, how do you want us to live? How do you want us to practice?

How do you want us to think? Okay? Then that triggered the whole sutra, okay?

That triggered the whole, the sutra is a conversation where the Buddha is answering Subuddhi's question, okay? And the idim here is not who asked the question, and the idim is not what were the three parts of the question. Idim is what?

Are you asking yourself, you know? Are you asking, is Aaron asking Aaron, is Nick asking Nick, you know? What am I supposed to be doing with my life?

What do you, if the Buddha was here right now and you ask the Buddha, what do you want me to do? You know? How am I supposed to think?

How am I supposed to act? What would the Buddha say? Okay?

That's the idim, that's the picture. The guy looks like he's not sure, right? Okay, next picture.

Someone explain to me the next picture. Why, what's happening in the sutra? It was two years ago.

Huh? No, no, no, no, I don't want to ask, and you're correct, that's correct. But why does it come here?

Huh? Yeah, good, say it again. The Buddha says to, Subuddhi says, Buddha, what do you want me to do?

And Buddha says, are you ready to listen? Are you gonna listen to me? Yeah, if you say yes, I'll teach you.

If you're gonna be sleepy because you ate too much of the offerings, then I'm not. Okay, got it? The Buddha says, are you gonna listen?

Okay, and then Kamalashila says, what does it mean, are you gonna listen? Are you gonna be like the three cups or not? Three cups is good or the three cups is bad?

Good, the three cups is bad. Okay, if you listen like the three cups, I'm not gonna teach you. Buddha's like threatening him before the teachings start.

He says, are you gonna listen? Yeah. Are you gonna be like the three cups?

What's the three cups? What's the first one? Upside down, okay?

They come to the class but they're not gonna listen to whatever you say. They already have their ideas, okay? They don't listen.

They just sit there, probably they just want to meet a girl. Rob Haggerty, how did he come to his first class? He followed a girl into our Dharma Center.

Actually, later he became a pretty good Buddhist, but he was a cup upside down the first night. He's just trying to sit next to this girl. What's the second one?

Yeah, you can say hole in the cup, cup is crack, cup has a crack. You teach the student the Diamond Cutter Sutra for two years, they forget everything. You have to review everything, okay?

You ask them a question, they're like, I don't know. They are the three cups, when you ask them about the three cups? Okay, they forget everything.

In Buddhism, traditionally, you're supposed to review everything three times, okay? You're supposed to review three times. One, you should do tonight.

Good luck. Just look at the pictures, okay? Just look at the pictures.

Tonight, immediately after the class. It's hard because you're exhausted, okay? But it'll stick with you.

Then tomorrow morning, do it again. The next day, do it again, okay? Three times.

Alright. Buddha makes a deal. He says, if you listen, I'll teach you.

What does Subuddhi say? I'll listen, I'll listen, okay. What's the third cup?

You're having coffee and the cup has tea in it already, okay? I tried it on some people. I just wanted to see what would happen.

I made half tea and half coffee. Half Indian tea and half coffee. And they look at me like I poisoned them.

They said, what? I said, what's this? I said, it's tea and coffee mixed together.

How do you like it? It sucks. It's terrible.

That's the third cup, okay? Meaning you have preconceptions, okay? You read a book about meditation.

You already have ideas about meditation that you got from some, you know, stupid wrong book. And then you come to meditation class and you're like, that's not what I read before, okay? You mix it up.

You mix up traditions, you mix up teachings. A drug may be an excellent headache medicine, and another drug may be an excellent headache medicine, but if you mix them together you can hurt yourself, even with medicine, right? So, find a tradition that fits you.

Try different things, find what's good for you, but don't mix them up, okay? Something bad will happen, alright? This tradition worked for two and a half thousand years, okay?

I like it. Or try some other tradition, okay? If you want Tsongkhapa, if you want Nagarjuna, if you want Buddha, come here.

We sell it here, okay? And we don't mix it up, okay? Does that mean other things are bad?

No, we just don't do that here, okay? We have a system, we have a medicine, it works. Try it, you know, but we're not going to mix it up with other stuff, okay?

Is the other stuff wrong? I don't know, I didn't have time to do it. Is it bad?

I don't know. Well, why didn't you try it? Why should I?

I just got the most beautiful perfect thing, you know, I don't need it. I don't need it, okay? If you want Tsongkhapa, if you want Buddha, Nagarjuna, if you want emptiness and karma, come to Diamond Mountain.

We hold it here, we keep it here, and it's pure. We don't mix it with, what do you call? Chai.

It's pure Sumatra beans, okay? And we're not saying other people are bad or wrong, it's just that we, that's what we sell here, okay? You sell Rolls Royce, you don't sell Toyota, okay?

It's weird to mix Toyota and Rolls Royce. Okay. Alright, item number eight.

What's a Buddha's answer to Subuddhi? But Subuddhi says, what do you want me to do basically? What's a Buddha say?

Nirvanicize everybody. Buddha made a new verb, okay? Even in Sanskrit, even in Tibetan, nyang ngen lay dak, you know?

I want you to go out and nirvanicize everybody. Subuddhi's like, well, who do you want me to nirvanicize, you know? Just give me a list.

Okay, Buddha says, okay listen, anyone who was born from their mother's womb, anyone born from an egg, anyone born from warmth and moisture, or anyone born miraculously like Jesus, okay? Anybody in those four categories, I want you to nirvanicize them. Because that's all there is, okay?

Got it? It's a joke. Okay, well, how many countries people?

Well, do some Russians, do some Americans, do some Canadians, do some, you know, and then he names every country in the world. Got it? It's a joke.

Why did Buddha bother to name all these different kinds of people? It's his first emptiness teaching in this sutra. It's the first emptiness teaching in this sutra.

Who made Chinese and Americans and Mexicans and Russians? You did, okay? No, I don't like Russians, I don't like Germans, I don't like Mexicans, I don't like Chinese.

Well, who made them? I did. Okay, don't complain about how many different kinds of people there are.

You made them, okay? Got it? Don't say you like some and you don't like others.

It's like, I like my thumb but I don't like my little finger. You know, duh, it's on your arm. Okay, got it?

It's a joke at the beginning, alright? How many people you want me to nirvanicize? Look, not a lot.

If they were born from an egg, if they are born from a mom, if they were born from warmth and mercy, or if they were born miraculously, just take care of those. Those are the only ones you're responsible for. The rest you can ...

got it? Yeah, okay, I'm not letting you eat anything tomorrow. Tim said, Geshe-la, we got to give him breakfast.

I said, no we don't. We'll give him lion's dance for breakfast. Okay, in number nine, we're gonna actually be on time.

I might let you out two minutes early. You have time to go eat some more. Now there's a birthday cake.

It's a bad night to have a birthday cake. I didn't think about it. We should have had it in the morning.

Then basically, number nine, she's ... will you take care of people? Do you take responsibility?

Okay, LHAG BSAM RNAMS BDAG in Buddhism. Will you take responsibility? Okay, the Buddha asked subhuti right at the beginning, you know, are you ready for that?

How many people I have to nirvana size? Not too many, just everybody in the universe. Will you take responsibility?

Okay, then I'll teach you. If not, I won't teach you. Okay, it's bodhisattva, right?

Bodhisattva responsibility. Do you take it? Yes or no?

Well, three people said yes, so we'll continue. Will you take responsibility? Yeah, it's a big thing, okay?

Alright. Some people can't even brush their teeth every day. You're gonna take care of everybody?

Okay, you said so. Okay, will you take responsibility? Buddha asked subhuti.

That's the first question. Okay, will you take responsibility? Then Buddha says, by the way, only one thing works.

If you're gonna try to help everybody in the universe, there's only one thing that's gonna work. IDIM number ten. That's supposed to be, and I couldn't, you know, that's the picture coming out of the sea, alright, on the left side, and the red arrow is coming out of your forehead.

We're gonna do it tomorrow. And then it turns into a pen, okay? So, Buddha insists at the very beginning, after subhuti says yes, I'll take responsibility, Buddha says, then you have to learn one thing.

You have to learn emptiness, okay? That's the only way. You can't nirvanicize people without emptiness.

It's not gonna work, okay? One thing covers everything, alright? Fixes death, fixes pain, fixes the world, fixes bodies, fixes war, okay?

Buddha says one thing, you got to know emptiness, okay? You got to understand that the pen is coming from you. Point to how many things in this room are not coming from you.

Yeah, and then you're supposed to go, okay? That's kongshin, that's emptiness, got it? Even when you're tired, just go like this.

It's something you learn in the monastery. Number one, how to sit through four hours, five hours of class without pee-pee break, you can fall asleep with your eyes open. Then if you're an advanced student, teacher says, do you understand?

You go, my teacher wants to see you writing. So some of the students in the back, they just write anything, they're just like this. Alright, hey, kamalasiddha, 8th and 11th, when you get those people to nirvana, who gets to nirvana?

And subuddhi says, nobody, okay? Then the trouble starts, then the trouble starts. The trouble lasted for 25 centuries, 2,500 years.

Oh, Buddha said nobody exists. Oh, Buddha say nothing exists. Oh, Buddha say doesn't matter I'm a good person or a bad person, I can do anything, I'm tantrica, I can do anything, okay?

Like that, okay? Trouble started in this sentence. Who reached nirvana?

Nobody. When you get them to nirvana, who did you take to nirvana? Nobody, okay?

You, then, it's essential that you understand the two husbands in the kitchen, and you got to be what kind of animal to tell the difference. What kind of animal you have to be to tell the difference between the two husbands in the kitchen? Who said goose?

Ah, very good young man. Why? Because in the Lam Rim it says only a goose can, you can mix a glass of, half a glass of water with half a glass of milk, and a goose can take the milk out without taking out the water.

And then it's just water, okay? Got it? Why?

Because it's very difficult to distinguish the difference between the two husbands in the kitchen, okay? Why? One exists, one doesn't exist, okay?

What do you mean husband in the kitchen? Husband who yell at you when you come home, okay? Why do you say two husbands Geshe-la?

Why? One doesn't come from you, and one does come from you. One exists and one doesn't exist.

Which one doesn't exist? The one that doesn't come from you, okay? Which one does exist?

The one that does come from you. Which one are you always upset at? The one that doesn't come from you.

The one that doesn't exist, okay? Every fight in the world is between a person and a nothing. Every war, world war, hundred million people die because half the people in the world don't exist, okay?

Understand? You can't get angry at your husband if you realize he came because you...you yelled at your kids last week. Then, who can you yell at?

You want to yell, yell at yourself. Go in the toilet, close the door, yell at the mirror, okay? Stop yelling at your husband.

Right, Michael Duhn? The husbands are faultless, it's always the wife's fault. We all knew that.

Alright, that's what it means. Now, there are three awesome examples for the emptiness of people, and there are three awesome questions that the other person asks in the Diamond Cutter Sutra, and it all starts when the other guy says, oh, if nobody gets enlightened, okay? If nobody goes in nirvana, alright?

Got it? If nobody...this is the people who don't understand what the Buddha said, and their answer immediately, if there's nobody, if there's nobody that goes to nirvana, then how can you make...how can you be in samsara on Tuesday and get out of samsara on Wednesday? Okay?

That...the Tuesday person is gone. Who gets out of samsara? Who goes across Tuesday and Wednesday?

Got it? Okay, Tuesday you're in the jail, that's the picture. Wednesday you're in nirvana, okay?

Who goes across the two? Nobody, no, there's no person. You just said no one reached nirvana.

Buddha said no one reached nirvana. Who covers from Tuesday to Wednesday, okay? Who gets out of samsara?

Are you the person that got out, or are you the person that was in? Which one? When did you change?

Did it go boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop? You take three seconds here, three seconds on the right, what...how long did it take? What were you in the middle?

50-50? Okay? No, it's a...Buddha said nobody reached nirvana. Then the guy said, well who...who was in the jail and who got out of the jail, Buddha? Got it? And who was between?

Okay, got it? It's a tough question. Second one, three beautiful examples, three beautiful examples, and then a super beautiful answer.

Next one. This is the big one. If there's no Michael, if there's no Michael, then who makes karma and who gets it back later?

If there's no Michael, if...if after you make everybody go to nirvana, nobody gets to nirvana, right? Who said that? Buddha said that, okay?

If there's no Michael, well, who does bad stuff when they're a kid and who gets a bad result later on? Who...who's...who stretches from 1960 to 1918? Where's Michael?

Got it? Okay? If there's nobody left in nirvana, who's Michael?

Who...how can you collect karma on a Tuesday and get a result on Wednesday? You're a different person on Wednesday. The person who made the karma is not there on Wednesday.

Got it? Should be karma happen to the person on Tuesday, because on Wednesday you're a different person. How can you make a bad karma on Tuesday and then it come back to you on Wednesday?

You're not the person who committed the bad karma on Wednesday. It's not fair, okay? No, really.

When did you flip at 12 o'clock? You became Wednesday? You know, okay?

Now, you...you go to college or you go off to Shenzhen to make your company and you say goodbye to your mom in Chengdu, okay? Many Chinese do this, west to east, right? You say goodbye to your parents, you go to the city, East Coast, you make a lot of money, it takes 20 years, you go home to your parents house, there are three old ladies there.

You immediately hug the one in the middle and kiss her and say, I'm loved, I'm so happy to see you again mom. How do you know which one is your mom? How do you recognize her?

The person who met her before is not the person who came home, or is it? The person who left home is not the person who came back home. What connects them?

What connects them? What's the glue between 1960 and 2000? You know, what's the glue?

Okay? Who...yeah, who put the person together? Who glue the person together?

Next idim. Cocoon, yeah, who said that? Jet?

No, both. You said ka, she said coon. Cocoon, this is Kamalashila's cocoon, okay?

When things change, okay? What what are the three kinds of changes he mentioned? What was the first picture?

The guy in the jail, the guy in the jail. What connects the guy in the jail and the guy who got free? What connects them?

Why are they one person? What was the second example? Postman.

Why was it a postman? Yeah, but what kind of karma? What kind of letter?

Who wrote the letter? Who was it addressed to? Me, okay, got it?

You write a letter to Michael Dunn, you give it to the post office, it goes to Bowie, two weeks, comes back, two weeks, and you open it, okay? So, is it fair that Michael Dunn, two weeks later, has to read the stupid thing that Michael Dunn, two weeks earlier wrote? It's not the same Michael Dunn, it's a different person.

It's not fair. Why should I have to put up with the bad karma of my...why did he make me involved, that last life guy? It's not fair.

I don't even remember him. Okay, what connects us? You see what I mean?

What's the third example? Mom. How can you recognize your mom after 20 years?

How come you don't hug the other lady? Why you hug the right lady? Okay, got it?

Then Kamalashila's answer, someone glued them together like a cocoon, like a worm become a butterfly. There's a cocoon, it lives in a cocoon, a little house that goes from the past to the future. Who made the little house?

You did. How? With your seeds, okay?

Your karma makes karma work. Your karma makes nirvana possible, and your karma is why you recognize your mom. You're the same person, got it?

Who blew you together? You did, your karma. Okay, got it?

What happens if you lose that karma? It's Alzheimer's, okay? You don't remember.

Your own child, your own son, your own daughter come into the hospital. Mom! You say, who are you?

You lost the glue between the past you and the present you. You see what I mean? It's temporary, it's impermanent.

It's coming from seeds, you can lose it anytime, okay? Then you can't recognize your children. Cool?

We did a really good job. We finished 15, so we're on schedule pretty much, alright? And tomorrow we'll add the lion's dance, and you'll be really busy, okay?

During your retreat meditate on the pictures, okay? If you want to be a good Kamalashila teacher, okay? You should be able to say the 68 pictures with your eyes closed, okay?

And you can, okay? You can. I have done it for some of the Kamalashila teachings, like in New York.

I don't look at the paper, I just call up the next picture, okay? So, you can do it, okay? Then you're a really good teacher, because if you're looking at the paper all the time, you're not looking at the people, okay?

Got it? And try, it doesn't take very long. Meditate on it for two, three days.

You know, test yourself, what's the next one? If you do BEL DGOM, then what will you do? Picture one, picture three, picture five, picture four, picture two.

How strong is your mind, okay? It's a meditation exercise, right? You know, okay?

Alright? When you debate, Geshe debate, you do it every day, every day. You meditate for like an hour about the debate, and then you can do the whole thing in your mind.

Because you're not allowed to take a paper in the debate. You're not allowed ever to have a book. It has to be here, okay?

And you can meditate, okay? Why? Because then those ideas, they sink into your mind.

They make you use them, when your husband yells at you. Okay? Got it?

Then you're a happy person. The result is called happy person. Doesn't get upset when the husband yells, okay?

Right? That's why we're here, so we can be happy with our wife or our husband, things like that. Cool?