Серия «Сутра Алмазного огранщика» — Мастер Камалашила: медитации на «Сутру Алмазного огранщика», часть первая (Аризона, 2016), занятие 10

[Speaker 1]
Okay, gom rim, gom rim. Okay, last part is, what is it? The conditions for Vipasyana.

Okay, ready? Here we go. This is from the second gom rim.

Plak tong gi tsok kang she na. If you ask the question, what is the group of conditions we need for Vipasyana? So, generally, shamatha is a state of concentration, and Vipasyana is an insight into how things work, and ideally, they are married together.

Okay. Plak tong gi tsok kang she na. He gives three conditions that are helpful for Vipasyana, for developing Vipasyana.

Number one. Oh, before you get to hear Kamalashila, this is going to fit 17,500. I already put 2,000 in.

So, I'm going to start it over here, and by the time it reaches Tahiya, it will have 17,500. Maybe. Okay, did you put mine in there?

Yeah, let's do it. I'll give 2,000. Don't be wimpy.

If you have a credit card, talk to Jigme, write a piece of paper that says, I give 16,000, and just put it in there, and then talk to her afterwards. No, that's the difference. Jigme.

Jigme. Write a check. I need that for something else.

That's for something else. Just give her a check. We can cancel it before we get on.

Okay, here we go. The first one, kyewa dampa la ten, find a good teacher. Find a good teacher about Vipasyana.

Number two, mang du dupa yong su tsawa, try to get lots of teachings on emptiness. Try to get lots of teachings on emptiness. In Tibetan, it's called mang du dupa, right?

Many hearings of emptiness, like the pen 3,000 times. I asked my teacher how many times I have to listen to the pen, and he said 3,000. So, you have 2,900 left.

Number three, tsultrim sembo, think about those teachings in the correct way. Think about the teachings in the correct way. So, three things you need to understand emptiness, kongshim, Vipasyana.

Number one, find someone who can teach it. Number two, seek many teachings on it. And then thirdly, contemplate those teachings in a good way.

Okay? Okay, here we go. He's going to explain each one in more detail.

Number one, de la kyewa dampa, ji tabu la ten, tenpa jashina, kam mang du dupa dang, zikselpa dang, nyingche dang, denpa dang, kyewa sepa. So, he basically gives four qualities of a good emptiness teacher. Okay?

Number one, that teacher themselves is mang du dupa. They have learned many presentations on emptiness. So, they can give it to you in many different ways.

The scriptures say that bodhisattvas like to have a lot of detail on emptiness. And then people who are not bodhisattvas, they don't want much detail. Okay?

So, if you want to be a bodhisattva, you have to learn a hundred ways to explain emptiness. Okay? That's what the Kamalashila meditations are.

They're just a hundred ways to understand the same thing. Okay? Number one, mang dupa, zikselpa.

What's that? Clearly explained? Yeah, I mean, sometimes like you want to learn piano, and that person's a really good piano teacher, but they're...

I'm sorry, they're a really good piano player, but they're a lousy teacher. And you find that sometimes, you know, like the person's like a genius. I had that at Princeton.

All the teachers, my teachers in high school were better than at Princeton. The high school teachers were good teachers. At Princeton, they're all geniuses, and they don't like to teach.

You know, and it was unpleasant. So, that person should enjoy teaching, and they should be a good teacher. They can explain it to you easily.

Okay? In a clear way. Number three, nying je dang denpa.

They should do it out of love. They should teach out of love. Not for money, not to get famous, but they should teach because they love people, and they want to help them.

Okay? They want to help people. Okay?

That's the third thing. Fourth thing is gyelwa serpa. Gyelwa means S-K-Y-O.

It means to get fed up with a student. And serpa means you don't. You don't.

Like, you teach, teach, teach, teach. They don't learn anything. You repeat, you repeat, repeat, repeat.

They complain. You're always repeating. Then they say bad things about you for a couple years, and then, you know, then they come back, and they're ready to learn.

And, you know, you have to... Gyelwa serpa means that the teacher should never get discouraged or tired of teaching. They should be, like, infinitely patient.

And teachers can get all kinds of abuse from students. Students can get abused by teachers, but teachers can get abused, too. And you have to be patient, you know.

You just have to put up with it. Okay? If you have enough nyingje la, then you'll put up with it.

Okay? And it makes you a better teacher, you know. You just learn to be patient with people.

People won't... People are like children. Your children never thank you until they're about 40 years old.

Okay? Don't expect... Like, mothers don't take their children and drop them off at a street corner and say, you're so ungrateful, I'm tired of you.

You know? Actually, I heard about one person who did that. The police got them.

Anyway. But mothers generally don't drop their kids off at a street corner and say, I'm so tired of you. Just go away.

You know? And Buddhist teachers are the same. Okay?

They treat their students like their children. And no mother would ever just dump their children somewhere, normally. And even though those kids are not going to be grateful or acknowledge what you've done for maybe 40 years.

Okay? You just have to expect that. And for a mother, it doesn't matter.

Traditionally, there's one more thing, which is that if possible, the teacher has seen emptiness directly. Okay? If possible, the teacher has seen emptiness directly.

No matter how much the person has studied and debated and spent time learning, if they haven't seen it directly, the explanation will always be a little bit wrong. Okay? Always.

And there are very few people who have seen it directly. Okay? So everybody else is explaining what they heard an apple taste like.

And the person who's seen it directly has tasted the apple. So they can give a better explanation. And the other explanations, even if the person is very careful to just repeat what the lineage says, it will never be precise.

It will never be exactly correct. Okay? It cannot be.

And you can smell the real aryas of history—Nagarjuna, Jantam Karpa, Sangha—you can smell from their teachings that they saw something. And they're describing it firsthand, directly. Okay?

So if you can, try to find somebody like that. Okay. Second one, you know, you should seek a lot of teachings on emptiness.

DE LA MANG DU THOB PA YONGS SU TSAL BA GANG ZHIG NA What does it mean to seek a lot of teachings on emptiness? GANG CHENG DU DE'I KHYI GSUNG RIM YIN LAG BCU GNYIS PO NGES PA'I DON DANG DRAG BA'I DON NA'ANG KHOS PAR BYED ZHIG BZHIN DU NYIN PA STE So traditionally, all the teachings of Lord Buddha are divided into 12 groups. That's different from the Tripitaka, the three baskets, or it's different from the division of Kangyur and Tengyur and Sumbho.

And I don't have time today to give you a teaching on the 12. Okay? It's complicated.

It's very complicated. I'll recite them for you. Okay?

DOD DE means the sutras. YANG RGYUN YED PA'I DE means sort of like poetical teachings. LUNG DU BRTEN PA'I DE means prophecies.

ZIGS SU BYED PA'I DE means poetry. Okay? The other one was more like songs, Gitas.

CHEN DU BYED PA'I DE means teachings that were delivered to a specific group of students. And they were, what do you call it? They were twisted that way.

How do you call it? Not twisted. They were geared for a special group.

Okay? So they're a little bit specialized. Then LENG ZHI DE.

LENG ZHI means stories of incidents that happened and triggered teachings. Okay? DOG PA BYOD PA DE means these are life stories of saints who are not Buddhas.

Okay? Avadhanas. Like the teaching of the Wheel of Life comes from the Udayana Avadhana.

Sometimes called the Rudrayana Avadhana. It's the story of King Udayana. So the teaching of the Wheel of Life actually comes through the story of the history of King Udayana.

DE LTA BU CHUNG BA'I DE. The teachings on what happened. I have no idea what that is.

I have to look it up. SKYES PA'I RABGYUD DE means Jataka Tales. Those are stories of the Buddha's past lives.

Okay? That was nine. Ten is the SHIN TU SKYES PA'I DE, the extensive teachings.

Eleven is the MED DU CHUNG BA'I DE, which means the amazing teachings. And twelve means the TEN LA PHA PA'I DE, means the teachings that establish things. What does mean?

This is a long story. Okay? The day I showed up at Serra, the day I became a monk, I had already studied for eight years with Rinpoche.

And when I got there, they said, How many years have you been... When I became a monk, then they said, How many years have you been Serra? I said, Eight years.

They said, Okay, we'll put you in Madhyamaka class. They put me in the eighth year class. And my opponent is current...

My opponent was the... became the abbot of Gyumay Tantra College. So, my opponent was the abbot of Gyumay Tantra College, which means the next person to hold the throne of Tsongkhapa.

And I did my first debate. And he's like, Okay, give me the twelve divisions of the Buddhist teachings. I'm like, Oh?

Then afterwards, I went to the monastery. I said, Could I go back to first grade? Could I just start with the fifteen-year-old kids?

And I started over. I cancelled the eight years. I started over.

I started back at the beginning, debating. And it was a good... It took a lot of courage to do it, but it was the best thing I ever did.

Okay, Ditarpapa. So, learn all the teachings of the Buddha. How he teaches emptiness in twelve different parts of his teachings.

For example, in the Wheel of Life teaching, which is actually part of the Buddhist history books. Ditarpapa gompa ngepa drapa le. There's a famous sutra called, What I Really Meant.

Who wrote it? Yeah, the Buddha. He wrote a book called, What I Really Meant.

That was in the third stage of his teachings. In the first stage of Lord Buddha's teachings, he didn't teach much emptiness. In the second stage, he only taught emptiness.

And then everybody complained. Everybody criticized him. So, in the third stage of his teaching, he taught mind only.

He went backwards. He said, Oh, I didn't mean everything's empty. And he compromised what he was saying.

And then at the end of all three periods of his life, people said, Which one was the truth? And he wrote a book called, Which One Was the Truth? Which one was the truth?

The second. Not the second turning of the wheel. Okay.

DGRA PA'I DAM DUG PA BZHIN DU MA THOB PA NI LHAG STONG GI RGYAS KYI YIN NO That book in which Lord Buddha says what he was really thinking, he says, If you don't want to reach lockdown, don't study. Don't get more teachings on emptiness. If you don't want to reach vipasyana, then don't go to many teachings on emptiness.

Just stay home. Okay. RGYAS means that will block vipasyana.

If you don't get many different teachings on emptiness. DE NYID LAS LHAG STONG NI THOB PA DAG BSAM PA LAS BYUNG BA'I LTA BA RNAM PAR BTAG PA'I RGYUD LAS BYUNG BA YIN NO The same book says, if you want to get vipasyana, you have to go through the traditional three steps of classroom time, contemplating at home, and then meditating on it at Diamond Mountain. Okay.

RGYUD LAS, that's where it comes from. PHAG PA SEMS MED KYI PHUS ZHIG PA LAS KYANG THOB PA DANG BRTAM PA NI SHES RAB BYUNG BA'I RGYUR RO SHES RAB DANG BRTAM PA NI NYON MONGS RAB TU ZHIG PA'I RGYUR RO ZHIG RGYAT TZEL TO So this is a sutra called the Sutra of Narayana, which is a common name in the Hindu tradition, right? But in Tibetan it's SEMS MED KYI PHUS, which means the child who is free of desire is Narayana.

It's the literal meaning of Narayana. Okay. And there's a sutra called the Sutra Requested by Narayana.

Okay. It's actually a jok. What's a jok?

It's a mantra. It's a book about mantras. Okay.

And I think it's missing, Jingmei, in the in the Lhasa Kanye. I think it's in the Dergye Kanye. So we might want to recover it.

Okay. THUB PA DANG BRTAM PA NI SHES RAB BYUNG RGYUR RO Only people who go to lots of teachings will develop wisdom. Only people who go to lots of teachings will develop wisdom.

SHES RAB DANG BRTAM PA NI NYON MONGS RAB TU ZHIG PA'I RGYUR RO Only those who have wisdom will be able to put an end to their negative emotions. Okay. Like the husband thing, right?

We say there are conventional ways to keep your patience. You know, count to ten. You know, look at the ceiling.

You know. But we say ultimately the only way to destroy patience permanently is to understand that the person you're angry at is not there. Because you can only be angry at a person if you think they're not coming from you.

Okay. So in Buddhism that's the only way. Only by understanding the emptiness of your husband can you be patient with him.

It doesn't refer to his stomach which is always empty, I know. All men's stomach are empty. They are born with empty stomach.

They have to eat all day. Okay. And don't forget the word for shamatha incorporates the word for shiwa, to put something to rest.

Okay. So it's a pun. Okay, third one.

What does it mean to think correctly about those teachings? TSUL SHIN TZAM PA GANG ZHES NA What does it mean to think about the teachings correctly? GANG NGES PA'I SDUG BSNGAL GYI RTOG DE DANG BRAL GYI SDUG BSNGAL GYI RTOG DE LA SOGS PA LAS PAR BSTAN LA BAS PAR DE You have to spend a lot of time studying all the schools, the four great schools of Buddhism, and understand why three and a half of them are incorrect.

Okay. There are four ancient schools of Buddhism in India, right? The Abhidharma schools, the logic schools, the mind-only school, and the two parts of the middle way school.

The lower part of the middle way school, the mind-only school, the logic schools, and the Abhidharma schools all have mistakes. They all have mistakes in them. Okay.

Who put the mistakes in them? Yeah, Lord Buddha. Why?

I don't know. He was teaching in Paris and he said, you know, your husband's not really there. And somebody said, I don't understand.

You know, and he said, well, you know, the husband who's not your father is not there. And they said, no, I still don't get it. And then finally they said, okay, look, your husband is there.

And it's his fault, but just be nice to him. Okay. And because he was trying to help the people who couldn't get it.

Okay. Then unfortunately they wrote those teachings down. And those became the lower schools.

Okay. So, the process of contemplating what you learned about emptiness has to involve learning to separate what the Buddha really meant and what the Buddha didn't really mean. And the line is always drawn by, was he talking about emptiness or not?

Okay. If he wasn't talking about emptiness, he didn't get to say what he wanted to say. There was some problem.

You know, like the auditorium had to close, or the speaker wasn't working. Okay. When he has time and an audience to say what he wants to say, he always adds emptiness.

Okay. All right. So, you have to learn to divide the teachings.

BSGOM PA LA GCIG TU GNYEN PAR BSGYUR RO DE LTAR MA YIN NA DE SONG GI CHANG MO GNYUGS PA'I THAG PA LA SDUG PA NI Otherwise, you will always be in doubt. You will always have doubts. You will always have hesitations.

I don't quite understand what he's talking about. You know, he taught mind-only school, and then he taught middle-weight school, and they don't match each other, and I don't get it. Then you'll always be having doubt.

And it took me a long time to figure out this word. He says, you'll be like those... You know those bamboo pole, and it has two things?

You're carrying two buckets? He says, you'll always be like this person. Was the mind-only school correct, or was the middle-weight school correct?

And you're carrying them both around all the time like this, and you'll never be comfortable. You'll always be wondering which one is correct. LAM KA DRAG GI DOR BYIN You'll be like a person who reached a...

What do they call that? E. E.

Cummings poem? I reached the... There's a poem about reaching the path less taken.

Robert Frost, sorry. Yeah, anyway, he gets to a point where there's two paths, and he doesn't know which one goes home, or which one he should take. And in that poem, it's one of the most famous pieces of American poetry.

American poetry is 1% as long as Chinese poetry. Really. So, we have like this many poems.

But that's one, famous one. I came to the... in the forest, in the snow.

I came to a split in the road. And I'm trying to decide which way to go. And I saw one is less...

less people went that way. So, I decided to go that way. So, it means if you don't learn all the schools clearly, then you'll always be confused.

And you'll be like the guy trying to decide which way to go. KA DRAG GI DOR BYIN PA MI LTAR GANG DE YANG PHYI TU NGES PA MI RGYUR RO You won't be able to decide which school you agree with. Then he...

he's finished with the causes for Vipasyana. He's finished, but he throws in something else, which Andriana is really going to like, okay? He says, by the way, yogis should eat properly, okay?

If you're going to try to develop an understanding of emptiness, you have to be careful what you eat. And that's so strange for a great philosopher, you know, 1,300 years ago, pauses and says, don't eat junk food. And he puts it right there in the middle of emptiness teaching, you know?

He says, don't eat junk food, okay? He says, don't eat Kandaji, don't eat McDonald's. Tell the Americans to bring something useful.

Like... Kung Fu Panda. That's a good one.

NYEL BYOR PA'I NI, DUR THAMS CAD DU A yoga, a yogi should never eat NYA or SHA. Fish meat or any other kind of meat, okay? A meditator who wants to develop Samatha and Vipasyana should not eat meat, okay?

He said it, I didn't say it, okay? NYA DAG SHA LA SOGS PA SPANG Give it up. MI THUN PA MA YIN PA DANG Don't eat things that don't go well, like eat watermelon in the winter with noodles, okay?

It will cause a revolution in your stomach. Okay? And don't eat things that make you sleepy and you can't meditate well, okay?

Then the big thing for us boys, SES TSOS SEMS PAR SAR SES TSOS SES, SES TSOS SEMS SAR SES TSOS SEMS SAR Not bad. Judge the quantity of what you eat with extreme care, you know? Eat bite by bite.

Eat a bite then see how it feels, you know? Do you still feel light? Do you still feel bright?

Then if you do, you can take another bite. And as soon as you start to feel a little heavy, stop. And it doesn't matter that the restaurant gave you a big plate, okay?

Learn to ignore the size of an American plate, okay? You know? When I got out of three-year retreat, somebody took me to like Disneyland.

It was very cruel. And they gave me French fries, this many, this much French fries on a plate. And there was loud music playing and there was a mechanical ball with a person on it.

And I was like this, you know? And I was like, how many people are supposed to eat these French fries? They said, that's for you.

And I'm like, I don't believe it, you know? So, eat bite by bite, you know? Take a bite and then see how's my stomach.

Your stomach should be a little bit empty. Still, they say one quarter empty and then stop. Fill your stomach three quarters and then stop when you still feel a little bit light, okay?

And that can only be judged bite by bite. You cannot put a bunch of food on a plate and say, I'm going to finish all that. You have to see how you feel, okay?

And it took me 50 years. It took me 60 years, you know? I'm trying to save you some time.

You know? And don't eat everything people give you. Your friends give you cookies.

Just say thank you very much. If you're at the airport and people give you a bag of chocolates, then say thank you so much, you know? And go through their customs and throw them out.

Don't even give them to anybody because that'll make somebody else sick. You see what I mean? So, so, you know, don't eat what people give you, okay?

If it's not healthy, don't eat it, okay? I'm really happy about the juices here. I'm really happy.

I think they helped a lot. The classes, people were very bright during the classes and people were sitting there for over three hours. Did you notice?

You didn't even notice because your stomachs were empty and you were having green drinks and stuff. So, it's perfect for meditation. And when you see Michael and Melissa and Tahiya in Cunga and Gyaltsay, these people got up at four o'clock to make you your juices, okay?

Your green juices and your orange juices. And before the retreat, they were working like insane, like two, three months, four months before. They were working all day, very hard, like carrying beds and heavy things.

Not like our work, you know? Here, like somebody says, I want an extra bed in Earl's cabin, you know? Then that's a four-hour thing, you know?

And it's heavy. And just to get there is dangerous on the road. And they do it all day, every day.

Thank you, thank you for that. Yeah, all the bedding she bought, all new blankets, all new sheets, all new mattresses, she bought the whole thing. So, I'd like to thank her.

And the lady who keeps the water going and the solar going, retired, Nicole Davis, the one who built the student center. And she retired after that because her husband lost his jobs. They had to move.

So, Gyaltsay's been running around fixing all the solar and all the water. And I'd like to thank her for that. So...

Yeah. And Joe, Joe's been helping. Joe helps a lot with water.

But it's very difficult. The whole water, it's our own water system. It's very complicated.

It's five miles of parks. There are five miles of parks. And it's very difficult.

The whole thing is crazy. And she takes care of it. Okay, last thing he says.

DE LTAR BYANG CHUB SEMS PA ZHIG NAS DAG LHAG MTHONG GI TSUL THA DAG SRAG PA DE BSGOM PA LA BYOD PA BYO'O First, get those conditions together. Then go into meditation. First, get those conditions together.

And then go into meditation. The conditions for shamatha and the conditions for for vipasyana. Okay.

We're gonna do... Okay, I'm gonna skip the meditation. Let's do it tomorrow.

All right, all right, all right, all right, all right. Let's do it now. Let's do it now.

You busted me. Let's do something today. I mean, Monday's a really good day to start stuff.

Okay. I tried, James, I tried. I was just seeing if you would notice or not.

Okay, so don't forget for the next two months or so, when you have time, if you get up early enough, then do the whole thing. Do the preparations. Bring your lama there.

Then watch your body. Is it still? Then watch your breath.

And then watch what? Future Buddha. Okay.

And if you have a lot of time, interrupt your future Buddha meditation to see if you are still on the object. And then to see how's the quality of your attention. Okay.

Are you tired or are you distracted? Basically. Okay, here we go.

Blow your nose. Turn off your cell phone. Unfortunately, they work down here.

You can still record if you want. But if it goes off, it's $50. We did that in Mexico.

It's amazing how fast people learn to turn off their phone. I'm going to do Alejandro's system. He gets $49.

And the center gets a dollar also. Okay, you ready? Okay, relax.

Relax your forehead. Relax your hands. Relax your shoulders.

Bring your shoulder blades together. Pull in your lower abdomen just a little bit. And then come to your breath.

Lightly. Then focus on your body. I'm sorry.

Let's do the preliminaries. Bring your Lama. Ask them to come.

Make them an offering. Sorry, let's do something else first. Think of something beautiful about them that you really admire.

Then make them an offering. Something nice you did in the last few days. I think you could offer all the hard work you did in retreat.

Most people here did two retreats. It wasn't easy. Then admit to your teacher something you didn't do so well yesterday.

Maybe a negative thought about somebody. Then again, something nice you did. This week, or you saw somebody do something like the amazing work that people do to keep dharma ongoing.

Then ask your teacher to teach you. Keep teaching. And then ask your teacher to stay in your life.

Now bring your mind to your body. Focus on your body. And we'll sit completely still for five minutes.

We won't move for five minutes. Try not to move your fingers, or your eyes, or your forehead, or your mouth. Five minutes.

The object of meditation is your body. Don't come to your breath. Check your forehead.

And then search for the sweet spot where your focus increases. And start to see the breath coming out of that spot in your forehead. Now see the lower belly pushing in slightly to make the breath come out of the forehead.

Very slightly, but keep up the muscular tension there. And don't let it go, but don't strain. Now bring the inhale in through the top of your shoulders.

It narrows down to the lower back. Focus on long exhales. Let the inhales take care of themselves.

But do feel that motion of prana down your back. Starting wider, like your shoulders, and narrowing at the bottom. Long exhales, naturally inhales.

Now we'll come to the main object of the meditation. You are above the sky. You're on the edge of that black outer space.

You are watching across the top of the sky. And you can see yourself as a Buddha. You will be...

Sorry. The next time the bell rings, see if your focus is still on the Buddha. Gazing down on the world of people there, taking care.

What's your mind on the Buddha, future Buddha? Try one more time. Stay in meditation.

Now we'll check the quality of the meditation. So when the bell rings a second time, am I wandering, or am I sleepy? Or am I enjoying being a Buddha?

And it's so enjoyable. I didn't get sleepy, and I didn't think about lunch or airports. Okay, one more time.

When the bell goes off, is my mind enjoying the object? Or is it thinking about something else? Or is it just totally sleepy?

Okay, come back to your breath. When you exhale, imagine you're giving away all the good karma we did during this meditation. And a hard week of classes, a hard week of meditation.

Retreat. Give it to your country. Give it to your world.

Then you can come out and stretch. Okay, tap gyu. Horse race.

That's what the Lama has to do when there's not much time left. Tap gyu, horse race. We have three more meditations.

In the original text, and if I have time, I don't know, I'll try to tell you where the original text cuts, you know, cuts according to the meditations. But the Buddha starts another part here in the sutra. He says, RAB BBYOR CI NAS TZAM BAR DU SHES PA LA'ANG MI NAS PA DE LTAR BYANG CHUB SEMS PAS BYIN PA BYIN NO When a bodhisattva shares things with other people, they not only don't stay in things, they don't stay in anything at all.

Okay, he says, nothing at all. They don't stay in nothing at all. DE PHYI PHYIR ZHES NA Why?

RAB BBYOR, OSU BUDI BYANG CHUB SEMS PA KANG MI NAS PAR BYIN PA'I BYIN PA DE When the bodhisattva can give, can share things without staying in anything at all, DE GSOS NAMS KYI PHUNG PO NI The good karma that they make is like a mountain. TSE GSUNG BAR LA BA MA YIN PA It's difficult to measure. Okay?

And then Kamala Shilla says, Master Kamala Shilla says, Hi Joe. We were just thanking you for all the water, but anyway, you weren't here so... Then Master Kamala Shilla makes two points here.

First point, that bodhisattva when they share things, they don't even get caught in thinking that emptiness comes from its own side. Okay? So when he says, PHYI NAS KYANG PHYI NAS TSE MAR DU ZHES PA They don't think of anything.

They don't stay anywhere at all. He means, they even understand that emptiness is coming from them. Okay?

Then when we were in Taiwan freezing, now it's cold. There's a funny story. I told them if they were really purifying their karma, it would snow.

And the next morning it snowed. First time in like a hundred years. It was funny.

It wasn't funny. Anyway, this is a difficult point, you know. So now he's come to the emptiness of things that don't change.

He covered the three kinds of things that do change, which is physical things, knowing things, and concepts like jhan, okay? Or our karmic seed, which is a potential. It's not physical, it's not mental.

It stays in the mind, but it's not mental, because it doesn't know anything. Okay? We covered all the unchanging.

Hey, the people who got up at four o'clock to make your juice, everyone. They also lost a lot of other sleep, not just the juice sleep. What they do in Guangzhou is the day after Geshe Michael leaves, they sleep for two weeks.

Okay. So we covered the emptiness of changing things, all three kinds of changing things. People, right?

The people who reach nirvana, for example. We covered the emptiness of physical things like elephants, and we covered the emptiness of mental things like the mind which holds an aspect and the string of thoughts in the mind. We covered emptiness of all those changing things.

Now we're going to one of the only unchanging things, which is emptiness. Okay? And it's a difficult thing.

We talked about it in Taiwan. It's a natural question to ask, Geshe-la, is emptiness also coming, popping out of my karmic seeds? Because if it is, it must be changing because it has a cause.

You know, something produced it which is of varying power. It spurts out the emptiness, emptiness, and then it declines like a sine wave, right? So, if karmic seeds are spitting out all things, then emptiness also must be coming out of karmic seeds.

And when the Buddha in the Diamond Cutter Sutra says that the bodhisattva doesn't even think that emptiness comes from its own side, well, the only other option from coming from your own side is it's coming from my karmic seeds. So, if it's coming from my karmic seeds, how can it be unchanging? Okay?

And here you have to understand that unchanging means never varying in its quality. Never varying in its quality. Okay?

And emptiness is that. Emptiness doesn't get more or less, ever. It's always the same quantity.

It's always the same unvarying. For example, if I ask you, is there a two-headed, 30 meter high elephant in this room, you can say, purple elephant, okay? You can say no, okay?

How much is it not here? 100%, okay? 100%.

Does it ever get 90% not here? Because then there'd be just a foot of the elephant in the door. You see what I mean?

Like, either the elephant's in here, or the elephant's not in here. Now get this, because a purple elephant cannot exist, it especially couldn't be here. Okay?

Because they can't exist anywhere, okay? Is there a purple elephant at the front door? No.

Is there a purple elephant halfway in? No. Is there a purple elephant all the way in?

No. Is there a husband who yells at you because you didn't yell at your kids? No.

Okay? In the end, that's what we're talking about. The purpose of emptiness is to make you happy and successful.

You got to tie it to your husband, and your income, and your state of mind, and your world, right? It has to be relevant to your life, okay? So, we're not just talking about purple elephants.

Can a husband, irritating husband, walk in the door who's not your fault? How much can he not walk in the door? 100%, okay?

100%. Now, his not walking in the door is coming from somewhere, and it's coming from your seeds, okay? So, your seeds produce a thing that isn't there.

Your seeds produce the absence of a husband who could never exist. You got to get used to that, okay? Your seeds are producing the absence of a husband who is not coming from you.

Got it? It's coming out of your seeds, and it's constant. It never changes, but it's coming out of your seeds, okay?

It's not that tomorrow he can be 90% not coming from you, or something like that. He's constant, okay? I gave the example, I like to give the example of a fountain.

So, if you ever... What's that fountain in Rome? Trevi.

Trevi? Yeah, they throw money in there. They encourage the tourists to throw money in there.

I went there late at night, and the city workers were taking all the money out. And the fountain has a shape. If the water pressure is constant, the fountain has a shape.

So, the shape is being supplied by a constant changing flow of water. Seeds are opening, but the shape is constant. The shape is unchanging.

You see? The flow is new water every second, but the general shape of the veni... Veni?

Treveni? Treni, whatever. That's constant.

If the water pipe doesn't change, if the water pressure doesn't change, you know, it's going to always look the same in the outline. But it's new seeds constantly pushing it out, okay? The fact that the husband who's not your fault cannot be in the room, never changes, okay?

But it's still flowing out of your seeds. Two questions, I think. Haso was first.

[Speaker 2]
Q. What if make it constant? Q.

You said it's not... Q. It's changing, but it's constant.

A.

[Speaker 1]
I didn't say it was changing. The seeds are changing, but the shape is not changing. Q.

That's what you said, you know, constant? A. Yeah, constant means if it doesn't vary, it doesn't...

It's not like he's 1% my fault and... Sorry. He's 1% his fault tomorrow, the next day he's 5% his fault.

He's never ever any percent his fault. It's always 100% your fault. He's...

The husband who is not your fault is always 100% not here. And it can't be more or less. And emptiness is like that.

Q. But what if I could make that seed constant? Q.

What I mean is like, Q. once in Taiwan, you talked about Q. when you had Rinpoche, Q.

[Speaker 2]
why there were six kinds of beans, Q. and that's also empty, Q. why there are not like many others.

Q. Like, it looks like at the end, Q. something is, as you say, constant.

Q.

[Speaker 1]
And it has to be constant. Q. But it's dangerous, Q.

the line between constant and self-existent. Yeah, yeah, yeah, very good.

[Speaker 2]
Q.

[Speaker 1]
It's the same word.

[Speaker 2]
Q.

[Speaker 1]
How something that is not self-existent Q.

[Speaker 2]
is coming from mind, Q. always be constant, Q. like, almost like a rule, like...

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, always come out the same way. It's called patterns. It means of all possibilities in the world, of all the ways that things can happen in 1 65th of a second, all the ways they can interact, countless things can interact in 1 65th of a second.

It's only so many possibilities. Q. And only 65?

Yeah, yeah, I don't need no idea. Yeah, that also comes... You can change.

That can change. I mean, that can change. When you're in the dentist chair and time slows down, you know, you ask the dentist, how long were you drilling on my teeth?

He says, 10 minutes. You say, no, no, it must have been an hour. Okay, like that.

You're with your girlfriend, you're kissing her in the movie theater. Three hours goes by in about five minutes. Okay, so anyway.

Someone asked my... I hate to say it was my arch enemy art, but he asked a question to my Lama. He said, are all unchanging things absences?

And my Lama said, yes. And maybe that will help you. Maybe there's some help there.

All unchanging things are something missing. Yeah. Q.

And the absence is something that's produced, or the label is produced? The label's produced, you can say that. Q.

The absence is something. No. Well...

Yeah, I know what you mean. It's a pattern that comes from seeds opening. Yes.

But it's not a result of seeds opening. You can't say it's a result. Yeah, you can't say that.

Otherwise, it would be changing. Because a seed spurts and degrades. It always goes like that.

Maybe it's that the next seed is always there on time to keep it constant, like the flow of water in a fountain.

[Speaker 2]
Q. So this is the thing that doesn't come from the absence?

[Speaker 1]
The absence of the husband who comes... Q.

[Speaker 2]
He said, yes, the absence itself doesn't come from seeds.

[Speaker 1]
Well, the perception of the absence has to come from seeds. Because all things have to come from seeds. All perceptions.

Yeah. Does the absence itself come from seeds? Maybe you can say no.

I think you have to say no. Q. Yes.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, so it's there.

[Speaker 1]
The perception of the absence comes from seeds. Q. But actually, the seed is always there.

Q. Quality and quantity is constant. Q.

Can we say it has self-existence? No, that's what he just asked. That's what he just asked.

Maybe things can come in a pattern, the same pattern all the time, but not from their own side. But maybe there's something constant about you which makes the same pattern all the time. But it doesn't mean it's self-existent.

Q. Can that pattern change? Q.

Can that pattern change? No. But it's not self-existent.

[Speaker 2]
Q. That means some changing seeds make this end-changing seed.

[Speaker 1]
Huh?

[Speaker 2]
Q. Some changing seeds make...

[Speaker 1]
The seeds cause the perception of it. Yeah. Q.

[Speaker 2]
Does that mean...

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Yeah, that's okay.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah. Q. So the...

[Speaker 1]
All things have their own emptiness. Yeah. All things are like your husband.

Q. So the essence of the emptiness is also from our seed? What's that?

Q. Emptiness? Yeah.

We make the things and they have emptiness. So you can say... Q.

[Speaker 2]
So does that mean the seeds come out, come to results?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. There's always four results from a karmic seed. No problem.

Okay, let's get going or we cannot finish. Okay? So, Master Karmashila says, why did the Buddha start talking again about how bodhisattvas don't stay in things when they give?

He repeats himself. First he said, sutrati rorek ja chö. They don't stay in those six objects of your senses.

But then he repeats himself. He repeats and he says, they don't stay in anything. And by that he means, they don't even stay in the emptiness that they understand when they're giving.

Now, sexy, sexy, sexy. We have a strange idea of sexy, right? Then he says, well, why don't they stay in anything?

Well, their generosity has massive results. What? This is the conversation.

Do they stay in emptiness? No. Why?

Their generosity has massive results. Which is to say, if you share things with an understanding that I put the person here who's getting the thing, I created the gift that I'm giving them and I created me to give the gift, because it's only with that awareness that you will want to keep giving because you understand that's what gave you the stuff to give in the first place. The minute you get some money, the best thing you can do is recycle it.

Okay? So, that's an understanding of the emptiness of money. Okay?

If you understand the emptiness of money, you can't hold it for too long. Okay? Then, then he says, and that bodhisattva's generosity has massive results.

And then Kamalashila says, he's answering the aspirin question. Buddha is addressing the aspirin question. If an aspirin is empty, does it still work?

Normally. No, it's more complicated. Okay, here, yeah.

It has to be loaded, like a stapler. Okay? Does a stapler work?

If it has staples, it works. If it's out of staples, it doesn't work. Okay?

Aspirin is the same. You take something for a headache, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work. That's because it's either loaded or it's not loaded.

How do you load medicine? You... help other people with headaches.

Okay? And then that loads the medicine. Then when you take the medicine, a week after helping somebody at work with a headache, it will work for you.

And if you don't, it won't. The same medicine. And that's why every year they come out with a new medicine and say, this one really works, really works.

This one really works. Okay? There will never be a medicine that really works except helping other people with headaches.

But then the question comes. Okay? But then the question comes, do you still have to take an aspirin?

Okay? Like, if the aspirin is empty, can it do anything? And then, I taught you that in DCI.

Give me the wimpy answer and then give me the strong answer. Okay, if the aspirin is empty, does it work? It works even though it's empty.

Okay? That's the wimpy answer. That's the, that's the stupid, that's like low, low intelligent answer.

Does the aspirin work? Even though it's empty. And then, and then, yeah.

And then a lower understanding will say, even though it's empty, it works. And then a higher understanding says, look, if it wasn't empty, there'd be no place for my seats to operate. And it couldn't work.

It's only because it's empty that it works. All right? If the, if the aspirin wasn't empty, it couldn't work.

Okay? And that's really hard. That's really hard.

I had a guy, I'll never forget. He was a very famous journalist in Ireland. And he came to a tiny little class in Galway.

Maybe Michael was there, I don't know. We were in Galway. It was a tiny little class.

And he got angry when I got to this point. He got very angry. He had just skipped out to interview...

Bono. Bono. And he was, you know, he said, I have to leave the class.

I said, come on, why? He says, there's a bar across the street, I'm interviewing Bono from YouTube. I said, all right.

And then he came back in and he said, I gave the aspirin talk. And then he said, listen, are you suggesting that an automobile could get from Galway to, what's the other city in Ireland? Dublin?

The whole population of Ireland is one tenth of Guangzhou. Anyway, he said, are you suggesting that I could get to Dublin in a car with no gas if I've been giving a lot of people rides? And I said, yes.

And he said, that's bullshit. And then he... Like two weeks later, he died.

He walked through a glass door and he died. It was really bizarre. It was really strange, you know.

Anyway, yeah, it's possible. Like, somebody will invent a solar car. That's okay.

That's where solar cars come from. Okay? Like, you have to understand that.

Okay? So, the Buddha says, sorry, Karmashila says, the reason why the Buddha mentioned that the giving, the sharing has a big result was that he wanted to say that even though the sharing is empty, it still does something. Or on a deeper level, that's why it can't do anything.

Okay? Got it? And to measure the results of that kind of generosity is Sumlawa Mayim.

It's not easy to measure. Okay? Got it?

Doesn't Aspen work or not? Yes, sometimes. Then we say, things that work sometimes don't work.

You don't get on an airplane if the stewardess says, sometimes they fall down, sometimes they work. If you ask the stewardess, you know, do these planes always reach the other city? And she says, sometimes.

Then you go to another airline. You see? You won't get on an airplane if she says, sometimes they fall down, sometimes they fly.

You see? Something works if it works all the time, right? Will you buy a car if it only works three days a week?

You know? You won't buy it. You say, give me a car that works seven days a week, right?

So, Aspen only works sometimes because sometimes you have karma in your mind from taking care of other people with a headache. If you have that karma in your mind, the Aspen will work for you. If you didn't take care of other people, the Aspen won't work for you.

The same Aspen. So, the power in the Aspen is not in the chemicals. It's in the karma, okay?

Of the person who eats it. If they have good karma, the Aspen will work. If they don't, it won't work.

That's the emptiness of Aspen. That's the emptiness of Aspen.

[Speaker 2]
But in order to make sure that it will work, that we have to always do the cooking meditation, right?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, sure. You have to share... Yeah, I think from my experience in Aspen...

Can we use the microphone? It'd be helpful. Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, so, it's from my experience. I think I helped people a lot, but somehow I couldn't get their good karma back. So, I think my seed couldn't open.

It's like stuck, right?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. It's because, yeah, you didn't enjoy it enough. You didn't have enough fun later.

You didn't say, oh, that was really cool that I gave so many people Aspens at work.

[Speaker 2]
But somehow, you know, I feel happy whenever I do the things that some people, they say, we just keep thinking about it, like we selfless work. We don't give all the generosity to others. So, how, like, the coffee meditation has to combine with their planting seeds.

[Speaker 1]
It puts water on the seed. It puts water on the seed. By the way, the best question I ever had about this conversation came in, I think it was Guang Zhong.

Do you remember the question? Do you guys remember? Some young man asked a very good question about this.

He said, wait, just stop. You know, stop this whole conversation. I said, why?

He said, it doesn't make sense. And I said, why? And he says, so, if I want my Aspen to work for me the next time I get a headache, then I have to give Aspen to everybody at work who gets a headache.

I cannot ignore another person that I hear has a headache. I said, that's right. He says, but, come on, the Aspen you're giving to them doesn't work.

It was such a good question, you know. He says, come on, you're going to give them Aspen, but maybe it won't work. So, what kind of karma are you going to get?

You know, how can your Aspen work if you're handing out Aspens that don't work? You know, what's the answer? Yeah.

It's intention. How much love do you have? How much love do you have when you hand out Aspen that might not work?

Okay. Whose fault is it that the Aspen doesn't work? Yeah, it's their fault.

Okay. But you have to keep giving. You have to try.

You have to try. Oh boy, too many questions. Okay, we're going to go over a little bit.

That's okay. All right. But my breakfast still...

Okay.

[Speaker 2]
So, the only way to get rid of your headache is to teach someone else about emptiness?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, ultimately. You might get a body that's made of line or something that never gets headaches. Okay.

Holy Lama, I wonder if you might comment also on the deeper aspect of the teaching. In this Dhammakara Sutra, there is a clear contrast between people that are covering planets with jewels, people that are giving, and then giving without staying. The giving without staying by staying in emptiness.

That is immeasurable. These other things are appearances. So, I wonder if you can comment on that.

He's going to... He's going to... That's the punchline.

There comes next. That's the next meditation. It's coming.

We're going to... We have to get to that. Another question?

Yeah, it's...

[Speaker 2]
When you describe that if you have the seed by taking the aspirin, the aspirin will work, that implies that taking the aspirin will make that seed ripen. That does not sound precise. If the karmic seed ripens, that aspirin will work.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. If the seed is planted with all four steps, so if it's a karma marga and not just a karma, then it will ripen on time, yeah.

[Speaker 2]
So, when you take the aspirin, you think of your karma marga. Is that loading it to get it to work?

[Speaker 1]
No. Like for a few nights after you help people at work, you have to enjoy and think about how smart you are because you're loading your aspirins. Yeah, and then take the aspirin and it will work, yeah.

Because the being happy about offering other people aspirin waters the seed. And technically, prana is being carried to the seed because lung sem jukpa jikpa, because prana and thought always follow each other. When you focus on a good seed you planted mentally, prana always, lung sem jukpa jikpa, carries to the same area and heats the seed pranically and it has to open.

[Speaker 2]
Well, then why take the aspirin at all?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, that's a good... I knew you were going to ask me that. If the seed is strong enough, you don't have to take an aspirin.

It's true.

[Speaker 2]
Potato chips sometimes works.

[Speaker 1]
Yes. I found chocolate chip cookies. And I asked the doctor, I said, how come when I eat like six chocolate chip cookies my hunger goes away?

And he's like, it expands the blood vessels or something? I don't know. But yeah, it's true that if your karma was intense enough you wouldn't have to take an aspirin.

You could take a glass of water or something like that. And then you get into what we call miracles. Like, the seeds are so powerful that stones can sing or you can walk on water and things like that.

Yeah. You pass from normal possibilities into miracles. Let's do...

It's up to you. Yeah, let's take one more and two more.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Hina. Thank you, Hina. I guess I'm still a little confused about what it means to not be staying in emptiness because if you're staying in emptiness then you're understanding the emptiness of everything.

Therefore, the Bodhisattva...

[Speaker 1]
Wait, we have to say something else.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
The instructions from Buddha here was don't stay.

[Speaker 2]
Right.

[Speaker 1]
Don't stay in things. It means don't keep thinking it's your husband's fault.

[Speaker 2]
I thought I had heard possibly I heard it but you didn't say it. They're also not staying in emptiness. So, that's where my confusion is.

[Speaker 1]
Not staying in an emptiness which is not coming from you. In an emptiness. Which is not coming from you.

Because that emptiness doesn't exist. It's just like the husband who doesn't come from you. So, does the Bodhisattva stay in emptiness?

Yes. Does he stay in an emptiness which is not coming from him? No.

No. Okay, got it? There's two husbands in the room and there's two emptinesses in the room.

And one of them doesn't exist. Because that's the emptiness of... that is not coming from the Bodhisattva.

Okay. And that's the last misunderstanding you'll ever have. It's about emptiness itself.

You know, you will think somehow emptiness comes from its own side. Roniti.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Lama. So, if giving money, the result of that is having money, I can quit my job tomorrow?

[Speaker 1]
Well, that's the thing. That's Susan's question. It's the same question.

If the karma is powerful enough, you can quit your job and checks will be sent to you. And I always give the example of someone handed me a $100,000 check in the Dharma mentor class. After I quit my job, I didn't have a job.

And someone handed... That's how we built the five miles of water system. It came from that $100,000.

Someone handed me a check. I never met them before. Yeah, if the karma is extremely powerful, it doesn't need a postman.

But that's pretty far. Okay, yeah. Other question?

Yes, please. I heard a teacher's answer is that if the karma is powerful enough, you can get rid of your headache by drinking a cup of chocolate. Then, I heard another teacher said that you can have a try.

And then, he said if you have seed, you don't even have a headache. Could you please explain this? Once I heard from you, Geshe-la, saying that if you have really good seeds when you are having headache, you can just drink a glass of chocolate and it will help.

Then later you said, then you should try, you said. Then later you said, if you have really good seeds, you won't even have headaches. So, can you explain more?

Yeah, what you said is really nice. If you help people at work who have headaches with a lot of skill, and with a lot of compassion, and with a lot of understanding emptiness, that headache that you were supposed to have becomes a ma-om-pa-ma-kye-way-cho-chen, a future event that doesn't happen, a future event that never happens. It's a special word in Buddhism.

So, you were supposed to have a headache next week, but you did so much coffee meditation on giving other people medicine at work, headache medicine at work, that it just doesn't happen. It just never happens, okay? Yeah, that's true.

So, the 24th meditation here, if helping the sick makes medicine work for me, do I still have to take the medicine? What's the answer? Normally you do.

You know, at our level you do. You still have to take an aspirin, but at a higher level you won't have to take an aspirin, okay? And then at a higher level, as Jasmine said, you'll just never get headaches anymore anyway, okay?

The karma will stop them before they come. Yes, ma'am. Ay-yah!

Jen-jen. Stanley. Go ahead, Stanley.

He's got the microphone. Go ahead. Geshe-la, I just want to confirm with you about the emptiness coming from seeds thing.

So, one time Earl asked you a question, and you said you can plant things out of the ground, but the ground is not the cause of the plant, but the seed is. So, compared to this metaphor, you say the emptiness is coming from seeds as a pattern, not as a result, because result always changes. Yes, you can't call it a result of a cause.

Like when my seed for a pan ripens, another picture of mine might come out. At the same time, as you said before, the emptiness will show, come into existence as the object exists. That's okay.

At that moment, what happened between the ripening of the seed and the emptiness of the pan? Yeah, you have to think like this, okay? And this is something you have to meditate on, okay?

There's two kinds of impermanence. There's two kinds of changing. One is called sudden.

One is called gross. And it's a big subject of meditation. We talked about it in level seven this year.

And you just have to think about it. I'll tell you, but you have to think about it. Does this glass have emptiness?

Yeah, all glasses have emptiness. What's the emptiness of this glass is the fact that it's not not coming from me. Two nots, okay?

Is it coming from you? Yes. Is it not coming from you?

No. Is it not? Not coming from you.

Yes. Okay? The fact that it's not coming from you, sorry, the fact that it's not not coming from you is its emptiness, okay?

Now, the glass is impermanent, meaning changing. It was produced in a factory. It started out as, you know, liquid glass, and then they shaped it, and then it became a glass.

And then it will break. Someday it will break. But, if a changing thing has emptiness and it breaks, does the changing thing change?

Sorry, does the emptiness change? We say it goes out of existence, but we don't say it changes. It's not like when the glass starts to break, I drop the glass.

It touches the floor. The first crack starts. Does the emptiness get 90% empty?

You see what I mean? It cannot. Either it's not not coming from me, or it is.

There's no choice. There's no choice. It's only one or the other.

So, did the glass break? Yes. Was the glass destroyed?

Yes. Was the emptiness destroyed? We say no.

Did it go out of existence? We say yes. It doesn't go like this.

It's more and more and more and more emptiness. And then it gets old, and it's less and less and less emptiness. It's not like the glass.

The glass looks like this. People look like this. Countries look like this.

Right? But emptiness is just... Bop!

And it's gone. Okay? Because it depends on the glass.

Okay? It's very difficult. But if you understand that, you will answer your question.

Your question will be answered. Okay? Emptiness comes into existence when the glass is produced.

At the last minute that the glass is formed in the factory, its emptiness comes into existence, but it doesn't stop. And the day you break the glass, its emptiness goes out of existence, but it doesn't end. Okay?

It doesn't go like this. Because if it ended, it would peter out. It would get less, less, less, less, less.

And then there'd be more and more purple elephant in the room. Get it? Okay?

It's a difficult idea. That's subtle impermanence. And it's misexplained in many books, in many scriptures.

Okay? All right. Zhenzhen and her friend had a question.

Geshe-la, so you were teaching about three spheres, right? Like the object, me, and the thing that I'm giving, they're both empty. So if I'm using it in my real life, because, for example, if I offer something to you and you are empty, so I can say that you are a Buddha.

And if I am empty, then I can say that I am a Buddha. And then the thing that I'm offering you, because it's empty, that I can say that this is a cease for me to get enlightened. How should I think it in a correct way?

Should I think that you are a Buddha or you can be a Buddha, which means that potentially that you can be a Buddha? Or should I say that I can be a Buddha or I am a Buddha? What is the correct way of thinking when you're doing offerings with the understanding of three spheres?

In the open teachings, you think... Okay. In tantra, you believe all three spheres are already divine, already enlightened.

I'm already Buddha. I'm giving this flower to a Buddha. And the flower itself came from a Buddha paradise.

Okay. In tantra, it's called result vehicle. You pretend that you're already at the goal, because it helps you get there faster.

Okay. So, that's a short answer, but it's a beautiful answer. Okay.

It never hurts... We don't know that the person we're giving the flower to is a Buddha or not. So, you might as well pretend they're a Buddha.

Then the flower becomes very powerful. Xiaoping?

[Speaker 2]
Just now, about the Meditation 24, you mentioned that if we reach some level, then we don't need the aspirants, for example. But my question is about which level. Can you tell us which level?

For example, like first bodhisattva, second bodhisattva, or one who has reached... Who has the emptiness directly, or he need to be a Buddha? Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
I would say there's two levels. There's a big thing happening at the seventh bodhisattva level. Generally, the seventh bodhisattva level is very important.

It's called ringda soma, going far. And it was the subject of my Geshe debate, so I remember it. And generally, at the seventh bodhisattva level, some amazing things are happening, between seventh and eighth.

Okay. So, offhand, I'd say that. Okay.

Generally, I'd say that. Okay. Let's leave it, so I have to see you again in Guadalajara.

Okay, last meditation. Okay. Here's the text.

RAB CHOG DI RGYUD NYAMS DE SEMS What do you think, Sabuddhi? ZHAR CHOG KYI RNAMS KYI TSAD GSUNG BAR LA BA'AM Can you measure the edge of the sky by walking to the east? Can you walk to the east for three miles and then look up and say, that's where the sky ends?

It's like trying to find the pot of gold at the bottom of the rainbow. You keep walking towards the rainbow and it keeps moving. TSUL BAR LA'AM RAB SBYOR GYI TSUL BA Sabuddhi respectfully replied, Buddha, it's not.

Then the Buddha said, is it true also of the south and the west and the north? And up and down, and the eight ordinal directions. Is it easy to measure?

And he uses the word for sky, but it also means outer space. I mean, space in the sense of place. Can you reach the end of the universe?

Right? By walking east. And then the Buddha says, sorry, Sabuddhi says, yeah, it's not.

Can't. You can't measure it. You can't measure how far the space goes, how far the universe goes.

Then the Buddha says, that's how much good karma the Bodhisattva makes by thinking about emptiness when they share things with other people. That's how much good karma they make when they share things with other people and think about emptiness. Then Kamalashila, he says, there's three kinds of big going on here.

Okay? Number one, Buddha's comparing that good karma to the sky, because the sky touches all things. Okay?

The sky touches the trees. The sky touches the mountains. The sky touches the lakes.

The sky touches all the people. The good karma that that Bodhisattva is doing affects all people in the universe. Okay?

It ripples out to all people in the universe. Number two, it extends infinitely. Okay?

It affects people even on other planets. Okay? And then thirdly, it's inexhaustible.

It never ends. Okay? It won't end.

Why? If I give some money, understanding the emptiness of that money, which is that it wasn't printed by the U.S. government. It was created by my past generosity.

Okay? The money wasn't printed by the U.S. government. It was created because because I was generous in the past.

Then the minute that money touches my hands, if I have that understanding, I'll just immediately try to give it away. Okay? I'll just immediately try to hand it to somebody and give it away.

Why? Because I like it. Okay?

In Buddhism, the more you like something, the more you give it away. Okay? Because more will come.

Okay? That's all. Then that's inexhaustible.

That's a positive samsara. That's a cycle and it never ends. And then it's just unending.

Okay? Okay? All right then.

We have finished the first quarter of the Diamond Cutter Sutra. Congratulations. So, we have a plan for next time.

It was just invented this morning. Well, last night I'd said to you. But, we're thinking maybe more people want to come.

Maybe in October we'll do the second quarter of the Diamond Cutter Sutra. Right? Okay.

Then I'm thinking some people might want to come who didn't come to the first part. So, my idea... The dates are roughly correct.

I'm not sure yet. Right Michael? We're not sure completely.

But... Sorry. We'll...

For people who want to come to Master Kamalashila 2, they have to come to Master Kamalashila Part 1. You guys don't have to come to that first part. You already came.

But, tell other people if they want to come to Part 2, they have to come to Part 1. Part 1 will be taught by Michael, Melissa, John and Connie, I think, before the Lam Rim retreat. Okay?

In October at Diamond Mountain. Okay? So, tell people if they want to come to Kamalashila Part 2, they have to come to Part 1.

Okay? Understand? It's blackmail.

Okay? Okay? No, I mean, imagine people coming to Part 2 without Part 1.

It's very frustrating for me. Then I have to go back to Part 1. You guys never progress.

It's very frustrating. Okay? That's a tough question.

I'd say it's probably okay. Okay? If you teach it well.

I'll just listen to it three times and then teach it. Okay? On different days.

All right.