Серия «Сутра Алмазного огранщика» — Мастер Камалашила: медитации на «Сутру Алмазного огранщика», часть первая (Аризона, 2016), занятие 7

[Speaker 1]
OK, we'll start again. We left with three questions. Buddha said, you can take all these beings to nirvana, but when they get there, nobody gets there.

And then Master Kamalashila started to look at the person in three different versions. The first is the one that goes to nirvana. So first they're in sansara, like they're yelling back at their husband.

And then it happens again, right? So they are. And then we teach them that what the husband does is coming from how they treated the kids last week.

And then they break out of that cycle. So I don't know. In March, there was a woman who was yelling back at her husband.

And in August, she's free of that. But what connects the woman in March to the woman in August? What is the thing which connects those two people?

Because otherwise, the lady could yell at her husband in March. And then in April, some other lady's husband will yell back at her as a result. You see what I mean?

There'd be no connection between them. Because Buddha said there's no person. There's no Michael.

So if there's no Michael, then what connects the person who's having trouble with the person who gets out of trouble? What connects them? Then the second question was, what was the picture on the second one?

The postman, right? Who brings you back the letters that you wrote to yourself. And then people always shoot the messenger.

They yell at the postman, which is your husband. So what connects the person? What words did Kamalashila use?

[Speaker 2]
The eater and the doer.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. What connects the eater and the doer? What connects the person who makes the karma to the person who eats the karma or experiences the karma?

If there's no Michael, Buddha said there's no Michael, or nobody reached nirvana, then what connects those two? Why can't I do something on Wednesday and Nick experiences it on Friday? What makes it me?

And the third question was?

[Speaker 2]
It was the person. Recognize.

[Speaker 1]
My mom's face. My mom's face, right? There were two questions.

How can I recognize and how can I remember? The person who was taken care of by their mom, and then the person who 20 years later can pick her out of a crowd and say, that's my mom. So who connects the two?

The next photo is a butterfly and a caterpillar. So a butterfly and a caterpillar. So this is Master Kamalashila's answer.

And I think it's the coolest thing in the whole week. I think it's the most interesting thing. And it was hard to translate.

He used a word called gya kik, gya kik. So gya means India, kik means a special bug in India called a lac insect or a lac caterpillar, L-A-C. And lac, like nowadays when they make something out of wood, you will paint it.

And the paint is made with chemicals, right? But 100 years ago, they didn't have those chemicals. And they used to use natural substances.

One of the ones most in use in the whole world was called lac. And it came to be called lacquer or shellac, you know what I mean? And there's an insect called lac bug.

And he lives in India. And he's like a caterpillar. And he makes a little house for himself out of, I don't know, something.

And it looks like a little tube, OK? And then he crawls inside. And then he lives there.

And if you smash that tube and you make powder out of it, then you can use it to paint things. It's a natural varnish. And it used to be one of the main products from India.

So in Tibetan, the word is gya kik. So Master Kamalashila says, somebody's making a cocoon. Somebody's making a tube, OK?

Somebody's making a cocoon. The lady who was responding to her husband's criticism by saying, no, you're stupid, crawled into the cocoon in April. Then she got educated in Buddhism.

And then in August, out came a lady who's no longer in this little samsara. She understands that her husband is yelling at her because she yelled at her kids last week. And because she wants to shut her husband up, she stops yelling at the kids.

And that's so cool. You don't have to negotiate with your husband. You don't have to say anything to your husband.

You can change him without telling him, which is always better, to do things without telling your husband. So you figured out that the reason he calls you stupid every night is because you call your kids stupid. Then you just, to take care of that, you stop yelling at your kids.

And then when the seeds are all used up, he stops yelling. So that woman is enlightened. She's reached marital nirvana.

She doesn't have this little cycle anymore, samsara. That's a real samsara. Forget these big, grand samsaras.

Big, grand samsaras are made of little ones. So she's fixed the problem. And what connects the woman who used to yell at her husband in the jail with the woman who got out of the jail is a cocoon.

There's a cocoon, OK? Then the obvious question is, who made the cocoon? Who connects the her in August to the her in April?

Who made the connection? She did, OK? She did.

The seeds in her mind are making the cocoon. The seeds in her mind are making the connection between the woman who was in jail and the woman who got out of husband jail, OK? That cocoon, that tube, was created by her seeds.

So what are the seeds to have a coherent self? What are the seeds to feel like, oh, I'm doing much better now in August. My husband, he shut up.

When I come home, he gives me a hug that I deserve. And I don't have these problems anymore. Who created the coherent self that says, I used to, in April I was yelling.

In August, I'm free. Who creates this sense of unity or coherence or a coherent self over time? Who created that?

I did. What's the karma to create that? He doesn't get into it, but you can guess.

I think it's honoring other people as a person, giving them self-esteem, helping others to have self-esteem, a healthy sense of self, OK? A healthy sense of self. That's the karma that creates a healthy sense of myself, a healthy cocoon.

A healthy cocoon over time, which is Michael. Then I feel good about myself, and I feel connected with myself. What happens if you lose that?

You get like an autistic person, or you get like a person with Alzheimer's, and you cannot, you know, you see your own daughter in the nursing home, and she came yesterday, and she asked you, you know, did you like the movie on Monday? And you're like, you know. You lose your sense of connected to your past self, even yesterday or last week.

You can't remember who you were, and you start to lose your sense of self, OK? So that's an indication that the sense of self over time, the cocoon, is created by yourself. And you can lose it.

You can lose it. Low self-esteem is a mild example. Extreme Alzheimer's is an extreme example.

You can't remember your own daughter or your own son, and you can't remember what happened last week. And it's easy to talk to those people, because they just ask you the same questions every day. So, Vishal, I was thinking about it yesterday, and I came to this point with the autism or someone with Alzheimer's.

My question to myself then was that, does that person with autism or Alzheimer's, how can they plant a seed for them to then, you know, like, for their future life or whatever? Because there's still some coherency, right? Their mind shouldn't just fall off it.

Yeah, I think there's, I was thinking a lot about it. Because he doesn't go into it so deeply, what the cause is. He doesn't go into the karmic causes.

But I was thinking, once you start recognizing other people, you know, even with meanness, then you create a karma to have a sense of self. And I have a theory that you can never lose it completely. I agree.

I don't think you can lose it completely. When did you first have a sense of self? There's no beginning.

Every living being of the six kinds that exist in the universe, insects have some sense of self. People with extreme autism or Alzheimer's, they still have some sense of self. So I think you can't lose it.

You cannot become non-sentient. I don't think so. There's something about being a thinking being that perpetuates being a thinking being.

I think so. When did they start? Who made them?

In Buddhism, it's an illegal question. Scientists feel they have to say there was a first day of the world. But Buddhists say there was no first day, because there had to be a day before to cause it.

So we think it's illogical to say there should have been a Big Bang or something, because nothing could have caused it. So we don't think it's logical. We think it's only logical to say that every living being, thinking being, or what's the third one?

Individual being, who exists right now, has always existed. Yes, please.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you. I'm sorry for all the talks I've given. I missed it.

But why did they say three kinds of beings? Like you said, conscious beings, living beings, and person-individual?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Is it connected to the three meditations which you gave us, in a way that the first one talks about other people?

[Speaker 1]
The first one talks about being in jail and getting out of jail. Yeah. Thinking being.

And then the living being is one who did karma and got it back. And then individual being is one who had an experience and remembered it later. So I think there is a connection.

And I think it's older than Kamalashila. I think he's repeating an older tradition that maybe went back to the Buddha. I think so.

I think so.

[Speaker 2]
So basically, it's the same. They suggest to emphasize because it pretends to emphasize something.

[Speaker 1]
He doesn't clearly draw a connection between those three and the three in the sutra. But I think you can. And I think it was an older tradition.

I think maybe Buddha. Why Buddha has to say three people? I think it's because he wants us to think about samsara and nirvana, karmic cause, karmic result, and experience and memory of that experience.

I think he wants us to be aware of three kinds of cocoons. Three kinds of cocoons. And they cover most of the cocoons there are, I think.

The only other detailed commentary is Choney Lama. And he's not that clear on it. I think there's an older correlation between those three and the three in the sutra.

And for Kamalashila, it was just natural. It was still alive in his time, the tradition. So you make your own cocoons.

And you're the one who gives you a sense of self, or over time, a sense of continuity. And I think the karmic cause is honoring other people as a person. You see what I mean?

Some people, they just treat other people like they're just machines. You see the guy in the grocery store who's working in the grocery store, and he's making all this stuff for you. And you're like, yeah, OK.

You don't say thanks, or how are you, or good morning. But the minute you say good morning to someone, I think you're planting the seeds for a cocoon. You're recognizing their individuality.

And you're recognizing them as a person. And then what's interesting, if that cocoon is coming up from seeds, in Tantra, you can rewrite the story. In Tantra, you can write a different version of your life.

So I had a relationship. The guy got abusive. He ran around with other ladies.

And then finally, I got rid of him. And then I found the Dharma and a new partner. Then maybe he was a Buddha.

Maybe he was pushing me to get so miserable that I would seek spiritual guidance. You know what I mean? It gets very suspicious.

If you don't study Tantra, then he's just a bad guy. But the more you study Tantra, then the cocoon changes. You rewrite the cocoon.

It's very interesting. That's what Tantra's all about. And it's not that you're pretending he was an angel.

Logically, you decide he must have been. It's so cool where I got to because of him, that he must have been somebody special. I hate him more than anybody, but he was special.

You know? He did something great for me. He got me to where I am now.

He got me into the Dharma. He got me to a better relationship, more experienced relationship. Then the point is, if the cocoon is coming from your karmic seeds, you can adjust the cocoon.

You can rewrite the cocoon. So your history, over time, you can start to, let's call it revisionism. Maybe your whole life has been magical.

Maybe every boyfriend who ever split up with you was pushing you to Diamond Mountain or something. You don't know. In Tantra, you explore that.

And you have to have morality as a basis of Tantra because that creates enough good seeds to want to rewrite your history or to think the history might have been different. The reason Tantricists start to believe their ex-boyfriend might have been a Buddha is that they've been following their morality very strictly. And that's the basic Tantric vows, the five Buddha vows.

It's called the shared vows of the five Buddhas. What's the unique vow of the five Buddhas? Check your behavior six times a day.

Keep a book. That's the five Buddha families' unique vow. The shared vows are the 10 good deeds.

Because if you keep doing the 10 good deeds, you have enough good karma to start thinking your ex-boyfriend might have been a Buddha. And then you slide into Tantra. People always ask me, can I have initiation?

There's two ways to get into Tantra. One is an initiation. And one is you just slide in there naturally because you're keeping your book.

You're following your vows, keeping your vows. And then you can have the idea that maybe my boyfriend was a Buddha, the guy who hurt me. Maybe he was a Buddha.

He got me some place, OK? So you change your gyak gyak, you change your cocoon, your lack insect cocoon. OK?

Question, Roniti.

[Speaker 2]
I have a question.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, OK.

[Speaker 2]
For all your amazing teachings.

[Speaker 1]
OK.

[Speaker 2]
I want to send the three ones if I continue all these questions.

[Speaker 1]
The third one or all three?

[Speaker 2]
Third cocoon.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, third cocoon is I hurt my knee when I was a kid. My mom came and cleaned the cut, and she put a band-aid on the cut. And that was a younger version of my mom.

Then I went to college, I moved to America, and I met my mom after 20 years. And she said, here's the address, I'm staying with my friends. Then you go to that address, you open the door, there's three women there, and you're like, mom.

You recognize your mom. So there must be some connection between the person who was a kid who cut their knee and the mom who's in the house with the other three moms, because you can remember her. You can recognize her.

OK, that's all.

[Speaker 2]
The first one you called samsara and nirvana, the second, karma and results?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, doer and eater. That goes doer and eater. The one who makes the karma and the one who gets it back.

You can call boomerang thrower and boomerang smasher. We're like, all day long, we're like, huh. Yeah.

And then the third one is original experience and rememberer, or there's two parts, or recognizer, who recognizes their mother, or who remembers what happened, what their mom did. My question is that, because everyone made their own cocoon, why, when the one becomes a Buddha, he becomes everyone? I didn't catch the last part.

Why a Buddha becomes everyone? They don't. Every Buddha is individual.

So when you reach Buddhahood, you don't melt into the other Buddhas. They're all individual, OK? They reach the same state of mind.

They can all see the future, the past, and the present, but they don't become one person. That's not true. They are individual Buddhas.

[Speaker 2]
Why is it that, for example, when we image Je Tsongkapa, it says that Je Tsongkapa is all the Buddhas?

[Speaker 1]
Has the essence of all the Buddhas, like same state of mind, but not that he's not the one who was Manjushri during Gautama's time? He doesn't exist as Manjushri. There's different mind streams.

And you stay separate. Your mind is, how do you talk to somebody who knows everything? My Lama said one day, he was teaching in New York, he said, what do Buddhists do after they get enlightened?

You know? Am I going to tell you the news? And he said, oh, they just enjoy, they just hang out.

Yeah, but separate mind streams. Question? Basically, the question is about, now you're saying that we can transform our past.

You can rewrite your past. Now, so can we go back to our past and change the past so that our future, which is related to the past, can also be transformed? Yeah.

Because I think that the past, present, and future exist at the same time. So, at this moment, if I can transform at this moment, then at the same time, because what Gautama is saying is that I can transform at this moment, and then I can transform the future. So, at this moment, if I can transform at this moment, I can also go back to the past, because they exist at the same time.

At the same time, my present is also being transformed. My future is also being transformed. Basically, Geshe-la, what you are teaching us is to do something right now, at present, to change whether our past or future.

So, if that's the case, can we go back to our past? Because I think past, present, and future, they all exist at the same time. So, can we go back to the past and do something there and change our present now and the future?

Yeah, in the sense that not by wanting, not by willpower, but by changing your seeds. It's like the pen is coming from me, but I cannot change it into a diamond by wanting. But if I change my seeds, then the pen becomes a tool for changing the world.

I see the pen differently. So, if I change my seeds, then the way I see my ex-boyfriend changes. He becomes an angel who is trying to help me.

That changes me. That different vision of my boyfriend changes me. The Buddha thought I was important enough to come and break up with me.

I'm special. Okay? Like that.

Alright? So, when your seeds change your past, of course it changes who you are now and who you're going to be in the future. Alright, question.

[Speaker 2]
I want to ask a question about children. We know that the personality and behavior of children are always similar to their parents. So, how to explain the relationship between the children and the parents?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, good. It's interesting, okay? In the Mind-Only School, there's a very important idea, which is when you meet somebody, like you meet somebody on a train.

They sit down next to you on a train and you start to talk to them, okay? Then, in the Mind-Only School, you and that person have come out of one seed. One seed opened and split into two branches of a tree, but they both came from...

Here's the trunk, tree trunk. Here's the two branches of the tree. And there's a karmic seed here.

So, this seed is planted by being nice to your friends. Then, one year later, you're on a train. It grows, it grows, it grows.

You're on a train and you sit down and a cute boy sits down next to you, okay? And, actually, you created him and you created you to be in the same place at the same time, okay? So, the reason that so many children are like their parents or why...

I don't know, if the parent's an alcoholic, oftentimes the child is an alcoholic. The child created the parent. You created the parents that you were born to, okay?

That you created... The reason you are similar to your parents is that you created them, okay? You both came from the same seed, okay?

Very interesting. So, it's difficult to break out of that cycle. If the parents are abusive, oftentimes the child becomes abusive also.

Because, actually, they created an abusive parent. They were abusive two lifetimes ago or something. And that's why they were born in an abusive family, okay?

It's very... Then you get into the blind turtle. It's so hard to break that cycle, you know?

To get out of a cycle of abuse. Because it came from you, okay? One more question, then we got to go back to Kamashila.

Because I got pancakes waiting for me, I know. Thank you for teaching us in such a unique way, in a unique place. Which brings us unique experience.

You should write our advertising. This question is from that lady. It's about meditation number 9 and 10.

Nirvana, I think, everybody. So, in China, we have a strong idea in Buddhism that we should practice to be treating people without discrimination in the sense of equanimity. If we encounter some dangerous situation, should we be like a Buddha, like feeding our meat to the tiger?

Or should we protect ourselves first? How should we balance? Because our life is so rare.

So, this question is about equanimity. In China, it's a big concept. Okay, we're going to talk about it today.

It's on the subject, it's on the list today. But in general, in the practice of giving, you should never make a gift which is so large that you will regret it later. Because the regretting is a very bad karma.

So, I was with my lama one day. He was a refugee. He came to America with a cardboard suitcase with like two sets of robes in it.

He didn't have any money, nothing. Completely broke. He didn't see a dentist for 50 years.

That was an experience. And then, I was with him. We went down to Washington D.C. And this lady, he gave a great teaching, and the lady took us in the kitchen afterwards, and she said, this house is yours. Here's the title, here's the deeds, I sign it over to you. You take it. He said, no, you keep it.

I'm like freaking out, you know. We're totally broke, we're totally broke. The Volkswagen with 200,000 miles on it just blew up on the highway.

Blew up in flames, you know. I'm like, just take part of the house, you know. And he's like, no, I don't want it.

And later, I said, why did you do that? And he said, she will change her mind later. She will regret it later.

And that's a very bad karma. That becomes a much, it's a much worse karma than the good karma of giving the house. Because she will say, oh, maybe I shouldn't have given it to him.

I was, you know, what do you call it? A moment of, yeah, happiness about the teaching, and then, I'm sorry I gave him the house, okay. So, in Buddhism, when you're deciding whether to give your flesh to a hungry dog or something, you have, if you have that, if you're at that level, you can do it.

That's okay to do. But if you're not at that level, it's a very wrong thing to do. You shouldn't go over your capacity.

Because later, you'll regret it. And then, it's a very bad karma, okay. So, just give what you can give comfortably and happily.

And think about it carefully. To give money is a difficult thing. To give away money is a difficult thing.

It takes a lot of maturity. It takes a lot of common sense. It takes a lot of practice.

Giving away stuff is not easy, okay. Okay, let's go back to the text. He says next, next step, he wants to talk about, this whole subject is, who goes to nirvana?

Why doesn't anybody go to nirvana? He's discussing, the reason he did the person first, the reason he said nobody reaches nirvana, is that, that's the first one you always see directly. Joe's, the first emptiness that Joe sees directly, will be the emptiness of Joe.

It's always that. I'm not who I thought I was, okay. So, he starts with the person.

He has one more thing to say about, the emptiness of people, then he's going to go to the emptiness of other stuff. So here's, the picture here, is the happy lady, okay. What number, I don't know.

[Speaker 2]
Seventeen.

[Speaker 1]
Seventeen. Yeah, it's this happy lady, okay. Happy lady.

She's the person you took to nirvana. She's like, thank you so much. So happy, okay.

I'm so happy, okay. Then the question comes, did you make her happy?

[Speaker 2]
Yes. No.

[Speaker 1]
You see, did you make her happy? You taught her, you know, probably you taught her. You took her up in a dome, and you taught her shamatha, and then you taught her vipashyana, and then she got to nirvana, and she's so happy.

Then the question comes, did you make her happy? You taught her, and then she became, happy. Okay.

You taught her, and then she became, happy. I usually do this with a microphone at DCI Talk. I bang on the microphone.

You taught, I did it, first time I did it was in Russia. That wasn't the best place to do it the first time. I'm like, you taught her, and then she became happy, right?

You made her happy. My husband makes me miserable. You know, okay.

Then finally this Russian guy got upset. Why are you doing this? Why are you banging on the microphone while you're giving a talk?

Just stop it. I said, I'm sorry, I have to bang on the microphone. He said, well, why are you doing that?

I said, I do this every day. He says, well, I don't care. Why are you doing it today?

I said, every time I do this, the next morning, the sun comes up. Think what's going to happen if the sun doesn't come up. No crops.

Nobody goes to work. You know, I got it. I got to do this every day.

Why? Every time I do it, the sun comes up the next day. He says, but it's not connected.

I said, what do you mean? He says, that's not why the sun comes up. It's just a coincidence.

You do that, and the sun comes up, but it's not connected. Did you make her happy by teaching her Vipasyana and Samatha? You see what I mean?

Did you make her happy? Now, cause and effect, right? I give a class.

You reach nirvana. I give a class. You reach nirvana.

I see a person who's kind of happy, and then I see a person who's totally happy. OK? There's a person.

I don't know. Kunga. OK?

Her name means happy, but that's different. So she's like kind of normal person, sometimes happy, sometimes sad. And then I teach her all this stuff.

Then the next time I see her, she's got nirvana. She's Kunga with nirvana. Kunga con nirvana.

And the day before, she was just Kunga. So the question is, did I make her happy? Did I make her happy?

Then we have to say no. But what happened? What happened between today and yesterday?

Now understand. Yesterday, I had bad seeds in my mind. Yesterday, I had lower seeds in my mind.

And they made a normal Kunga. Those seeds made a normal Kunga. Just a normal, sometimes happy, sometimes sad Kunga.

OK? Then suddenly, whose seeds improved? My seeds.

My seeds suddenly got better. Next day, they're making a Kunga who has happiness. But did teaching her make her happy?

No. My seeds made a normal Kunga. Then the next moment, the next day, with an unreasonable transition period, boom!

She's got nirvana. She's totally happy. OK?

It's unreasonable. She doesn't go slowly. You can't even point to the place, and that's a sign that it's not coming from her side.

I cannot point to a moment when she flipped over. There's no such moment. Was it 12.05, 12.06, 12.05 in one second? Or was it 12.05 in one second and a half? When did she flip over? There's no gradual becoming Buddha.

There's one picture from my mind, and then there's another picture from my mind. It's just two pictures from my mind. OK?

In 1.65 of a second. OK? My mind is making 65 pictures a second.

Then at 64, she's still kind of unhappy. Then at 65, she's totally happy. But I didn't make her happy.

OK? No one can make you happy. OK?

He makes me so unhappy. You make yourself unhappy. OK?

You can't make somebody happy. Then, hang on. Then Kabbalah Sheila puts it three ways.

OK? He says, if you think about it, human language is broken. Human language is broken.

How do we talk about happiness? Number one, I am happy. Come on, you are happy?

Yeah, my name's Happy. Happy. You know, in English we say, I am happy.

But what's that mean? You know, you just suddenly change into happy? You know, I am happy.

But then, or, so in that case, you are 100% happy. I am happy. This part's happy.

This part's happy. Every part's happy. I am.

Michael, happy. Equal. You see what it means?

I am happy. Then the other choice is, I feel happy. Here's happy.

Here's me. I feel happy. OK?

Got it? It doesn't make sense. Then happy's out there.

I'm over here. I make contact with happy. Oh, look, feels good.

OK? No, it doesn't make sense. The language is broken.

I am happy. I feel happy. I got happy.

I didn't have happy. Then I got happy. You see what I mean?

Or I became happy. You know, I was no happy. Then I became happy.

Every part became happy. All the words are broken. You can't be happy.

You can't feel happy. And you can't become happy. OK?

It's just a new picture. Coming where? From where?

Out of your mind. You can't make anybody anything. Didn't you notice that yet?

Geshe-la, I'll make you waffles. It'll make you happy. I'm like, OK, let's do it.

Then they make a lot of waffles. I eat them. Then I'm like, oh, man.

You know? The intention was to make Geshe-la happy. But you can't.

You can't. It depends on his seeds. If he has good waffle seeds, he'll stop after the one and a half and he'll say, oh, I feel happy.

But you cannot make him happy because it doesn't work. Every person you try to make happy, three things happen. They got happy, nothing happened, and they got angry.

But you can't control it. It depends on their seeds. You cannot make a person happy.

You cannot make them be happy. You cannot make them feel happy. You cannot make them become happy.

You don't have the power because they're not coming from you. Sorry, they are coming from you. OK?

What they feel is coming from their seeds. That's why you shouldn't get discouraged when you try to help people and they get mad at you. You take your daughter to a lamrim retreat and you say, isn't that wonderful?

And she says, mom, this is all weird.

[Speaker 2]
You know?

[Speaker 1]
Then you can't guess what they're going to do. You can't guess. You try.

To try to make another person happy is a good karma. But whether you succeed or not is not up to you. It's up to them.

Do they have seeds to be happy? You see? All you can do is make the waffle.

Then whether or not they're happy after the waffle, it's not your problem. OK? And you shouldn't stop making waffles if somebody gets angry after this third waffle.

You know what I mean? You shouldn't say, OK, I give up helping people. I tried to help five people.

They all turned on me. They all got nasty. They all wrote things about me on the internet.

I'm going to give up helping people. You know? That's a non-Buddhist thinking.

OK? They have their own seeds. You do your best to help them.

Maybe they get happy. Maybe they don't. That's up to their seeds.

Oh, so should I give up trying to make people happy? No. Because it makes you happy.

And then it helps other people because they see that you're happy in there. OK? So you got it.

The purpose of that next meditation, which is more difficult, is can you be happy? Can you feel happy? And can you become happy?

OK? And you have Kamalashila. This is where it gets really nasty.

The commentary gets really hard. I put a question mark on every line that's hard. Around here, all of them.

I have a question mark. OK, last one for today. Now, Buddha, if you check your diamond cutter, OK, later, something radical happens.

He says, By the way, oh, by the way, if you thought you were going to take on some nirvana, you're no Bodhisattva. I won't call you a Bodhisattva. Then he gets more radical.

He says, when Bodhisattvas help people, they don't stay in anything. And he gives five examples. They don't stay in what they see.

They don't stay in what they hear. Six examples. They don't stay in what they smell.

They don't stay in what they taste. They don't stay in what they touch. And they don't stay in what they think.

The six senses. OK? They don't stay there.

So what's that mean? OK? When they do their giving, they don't stay in anything.

OK? When they, Bodhisattvas, practice which perfection? The first one.

They don't stay in the things they see, in the things they hear, or even in the things they think. And he's only giving the first six of the dhatus. There's 18 total.

We'll talk about it. OK? He already talked about the emptiness of people.

He's going on to the emptiness of things. OK? He's moving on to the emptiness of things.

And he says, when I give something to Kunga, like a... I'm not going to give you my handkerchief. Yeah, that's good.

When I give her a... OK? If I'm a Bodhisattva, and I want to help her, you know, I want to become a Buddha, I have to practice the six perfections.

He only mentions giving because he didn't want the sutra to go on too long. It means all six perfections, but we're just using giving as an example. So when I give to her something, as a Bodhisattva, I'm not staying in the gift, and I'm not staying in her, and I'm not staying in me.

And what does that mean? And then Kamalashila goes off. He goes, whoa.

He goes, you know, he says, first of all, there's three kinds of giving. Sang Sing, Min Jik, Cho Dong Jin. We have four in five Buddha families.

They're supposed to do three times a day, and three times a night, I think. Okay? Sang Sing, Min Jik, Cho Dong Jin.

Okay? Sang Sing, Min Jik, Cho Dong Jin. That's the verse.

Sang Sing means stuff. Candy bars. Okay?

Laptops. Money. That's called, the first kind of giving is called Sang Sing.

Okay? Sang Sing. The second one, do you remember?

Anybody? From the Tantric class at Diamond Mountain? I looked it up.

[Speaker 2]
Huh?

[Speaker 1]
That's the last one. Yeah, protection. Who said?

Yeah, Min Jik, Min Jik literally means freedom from fear. Give people freedom from fear. Okay?

But, there's a special interpretation in the five Buddha families teaching. Anybody remember? It means what Stanley was just talking about.

Okay? That's why I said it was coming. It means to do, equal towards everybody.

Equal towards everybody. A tiger is hungry, feed them. Your child is hungry, feed them.

Equally, with equal concern. Okay? So, when you say to give freedom from fear, in the teaching of the five Buddha families, what you mean is, to treat everyone equally.

It's a special thing, because that's kind of protection, or freedom from fear. Okay? Min Jik.

Then Chö means, giving the Dharma. Give the teachings, teach the Dharma. These are, these are the three that Master Kamalashila mentions.

He doesn't mention the last one, which is, love. Okay? These are the four kinds of giving that you're supposed to practice three times a day, and three times in the evening, in the dark, and three times in the light, which is a tantric vow.

Of which Buddha? Ratnakara. Good.

I looked it up. Ratnakara, the southern Buddha, yellow Buddha. Okay?

This is the vow of the yellow Buddha, which probably is why the mental affliction that's related to him is... Stinginess. Stinginess.

Yeah. So, okay, you give it up. Okay?

So, so, at, at this place, Master Kamalashila says three kinds of giving. He says Buddha's talking about three kinds of giving. The love is assumed.

We're talking Bodhisattvas, we're talking people trying to save the world. The love is assumed. We don't have to mention it.

Okay? Then he says you can split the six perfections up between the three types of giving, and that's why Buddha doesn't have to mention the other five perfections in the Diamond Cutter Sutra. Okay?

So giving stuff is giving. Treating people equally is a kind of morality and a kind of patience. Okay?

Treating people equally is a kind of morality. Morality should be equal. Treat everybody the same.

Don't hurt anybody. And it's a kind of patience. I don't care how angry you get, I'm going to treat you nice.

Okay? Okay? So the second one, the gift of freedom from fear or the gift of equanimity is the second and third the second and third perfections.

Okay? Giving the Dharma is the last three perfections. Okay?

Which is effort, meditation, and wisdom. Then he gives a definition of effort which I was struggling with. The fourth perfection.

And I finally, it hit me in the head. If Kamalashila spoke English and if you asked him what's the fourth perfection he would say, have fun. Have fun.

Okay? And it applies to all the other perfections. You know?

When you're giving somebody a candy bar. Ha ha! Ha ha!

You know, like, have fun. Don't be like... Okay, like, have fun.

So, in Buddhism, if you're religious you're having more fun. And you're supposed to be having more fun. And everything's supposed to be more fun.

Okay? It's really fun. You can call it joyful effort but it's too long.

Ha ha ha! Ha ha! Ha ha!

Ha ha! Ha ha! Okay?

Just have fun doing it. Then he says, you can't teach the Dharma unless you think it's fun. Cause it's gonna take a lot of effort.

Okay? It's gonna take a long time to learn it. I want all of you to teach Kamalashila.

Okay? We could have a... You know, we could have Kamalashila retreats here every three months or something.

You know, every four months. We could have a... One of you, or three of you, could teach Kamalashila Part 1 here, in this room, with a new batch of people.

And we could keep that going forever. You know, it's the pictures, it's the photographs. You just tie the meaning to the photograph.

So you look at the photograph and you talk. And we could keep having, it could be a big deal at Diamond Mountain is the unique Kamalashila retreats. And you have to teach them, OK?

And that would be fun. What was the intention with which Lord Buddha went into meditation at the beginning of the sutra? Dungyam Mijepa.

Mijepa. This lineage should not break. Yeah, that's why he talked.

You know, Kamalashila says the reason Sabuddhi stood up. Why didn't the Buddha just teach the sutra himself? Why did Sabuddhi have to stand up?

Dungyam Mijepa. Because the next link in the lineage is starting now. That's why Sabuddhi stands up, OK?

It's cool. You know, Lord Buddha is starting the lineage now, right now. And you guys should pass it on, in China or wherever you are.

Teach Kamalashila, teach this two, three day thing. You can make it a weekend thing. And you can use the photographs.

And teach it. Just teach it, OK? You can be Sabuddhi.

There's a later theory that Sabuddhi was Manjushri in disguise. And he wanted to bring up the questions, OK? There's a later tradition that he was a Buddha.

A Buddha was talking to a Buddha. You want to pretend to be a student? This is all going on in their mind, you know?

Hey, Nick, you pretend to be a student. Oh, come on. I was a student last time.

OK, just, let me, come on, you know, Veronica's here. I want to look like the teacher, you know? OK, Geshe-la.

[Speaker 2]
OK?

[Speaker 1]
So anyway, so he mentions three kinds of giving, right? And then he says, when bodhisattvas do that kind of giving, they don't stay in it. They don't stay in it.

It means, is that the lunch bill? OK, three spheres. We had it in Jetson Kappa, three spheres, OK?

OK, sukta-ti-ro-rek-ja, who made the smell, the taste, the yellow color, the blue color, who made the touch of it, you know, my seeds. The reason I have something to give to Kumbha is I gave something before. And that's why I have something to give to Kumbha, OK?

So a bodhisattva doesn't just throw in a candy bar. He's like, oh, mm, mm, yeah. I made each of those qualities.

I made how it feels. I made how it smells. I made how it tastes.

I made how it looks, OK? I made everything, OK? And because of that knowledge, they want to give it, because they want more, OK?

And then, oh, I made Kumbha, the one that I'm giving it to. You know, I made this nice, smiling face and a beautiful nun. And I made her.

So while I'm giving it, I can say, nice job, Geshe Marko. You know, you made a nice nun, you know? Now, this is how a bodhisattva thinks.

And then, who put us here together, OK? It's just two branches of the same tree. I created her.

I created me to give her the thing. I came here from a seed that I planted. She came here from a seed that I planted.

And I planted this to here, how many? And then, no, and that's the perfection of giving. That's the perfection of giving.

What's the results from that kind of giving, he's going to talk about later, OK? We'll get to that tomorrow or Sunday. We are going to finish the whole thing, which I couldn't do in Taiwan.

I couldn't do in Shanghai. I couldn't do in Taichung or New York. You know, we are going to finish the whole thing, which makes me so happy.

This is the first time I'll finish the whole thing, OK? So those are all the meditations today. How many are there?

New ones. Just three, OK? Just three.

First one? Cocoon, yeah, the first one is cocoon. Second one?

I'm happy. Who made her happy? Third one?

Yeah, giving. But when you give, you're not staying in the thing. You're not staying in the thing, OK?

Which means Buddha is moving on to the emptiness of things and not so much people. How many things are there in the world? They will stop, OK?

CHEN NAM SA CHE'I SA PHA MED LAM RTOG PA'I DU BYIN NAM SA CHE'I GANG PHYIR DE DAG LA SA RNAM KUN DU RGYAS PA'I RGYUR SA MED LAM GYI LDEM PA LA LDEM PA'I PHYIR NAM SU YANG TE NAM KA BDAG NI DGOL PA GNYIS, opening lines of Abhidharmakosha. It's all the lines I remember.

[Speaker 2]
As fast as the sky.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, all the stuff in the world, we did it in level seven in Taiwan. There's two kinds. They are changing and unchanging things, changing things and unchanging things.

Go to the changing things. There are three kinds, physical things, mental things, and yeah, like concepts, like John. John isn't something you can touch.

John is, except for cutting, but John isn't something that is a mind. John is a person. So a person is an idea.

So changing things, there are three kinds. One, easy, physical stuff. And then minds, knowing things.

It's good to think of it as knowing things. And then in between there, there's ideas, like freedom, or John, or concepts. So so far we have like four things.

We got unchanging things. We got three changing things, mind, physical stuff, and stuff in the middle. By the way, people are there.

Persons are there. So if Lord Buddha is going to cover all the things in the world, if Lord Buddha is going to teach all the kinds of emptiness in the world, he should cover roughly four things. He already covered this one, which was people and events.

What was the event? The giving, the act of giving. That's over here.

It's a changing thing. It involves physical and mental things, but it's just like a synthesis. So he's covered this one.

People and events. But he's still got to cover what is the emptiness of the mind, what is the emptiness of physical things, and what is the emptiness of unchanging things. And he's going to.

He's going to cover all of them. And that's the rest of this part of the sutra. Nick.