Серия «Сутра Алмазного огранщика» — Мастер Камалашила: медитации на «Сутру Алмазного огранщика», часть третья: Слёзы арьи (Аризона, 2016), занятие 2

[Speaker 1]
Alright, good morning. Sleep well? No garbage trucks making noise outside.

Let's start with the meditation okay? Buddha said first stage step of meditation, turn off his cell phone. Jenny owes $50 to Diamond Mountain.

You owe $50 to Diamond Mountain. America, not Singapore. Just kidding, just kidding.

Blow your nose. We're going to go through the preliminaries for meditation. It's the same as the preliminaries in the Three Treasures book, and if you don't have a Three Treasures book ...

can somebody hold up a Three Treasures book? Yeah, if you don't have one, you should get one today, this morning. They're in the bookstore I think okay?

You need one. You can't meditate without one okay? Okay let's go.

So, many people ask me about Vipashyana and Samatha. They want to know the secrets of meditation, and these preliminary practices, the things you do before you start meditating, are a big secret to Samatha, perfect meditation. Because you can't meditate if you have some negative things in your mind from the last few weeks, and you can't meditate without your heart teacher is.

So, this is part of Samatha, big part. So relax your eyelids, pull in your stomach light, slightly, and keep it slightly tensed. Small smile on your face.

Don't get too serious. Relax your fingers, and relax your shoulders, the muscles of your shoulders. Watch your forehead, don't let it get tight.

Watch your eyelids, make sure they're relaxed, and then slowly come to your breath. Today let's just do long exhales. Let's not try to count to ten.

Just see if you can focus on nice long slow exhales. Then please invite your heart teacher to come and sit with you. It could be a historical teacher like Jesus or Buddha, Mohammed.

It could be someone you haven't met yet, some ideal teacher in your future. It could be someone who's alive now, but whoever you feel close to. It could be your parents, just an inspiring friend.

Try to capture the feeling of sitting with someone that you very much admire and love. Try to capture the feeling of affection, rather than a picture. Then we bow down to them in our mind by thinking of some beautiful quality, one of the many beautiful qualities, that someone we have chosen as a teacher must have.

Focus on one. Then make them an offering. It could be beautiful flowers that you imagine, beautiful sunset, beautiful sky.

The best offering is your practice. Even Master Kamalashila talks about how our Buddha offered his practice to his lamas for over 200,000 lifetimes recently. So think of some small success you're having, or attempts you're making, and offer them to your teacher.

Then open your heart. Try to feel like you're opening your chest as in the way that you unbutton your shirt. So you're unbuttoning your chest and burying your heart, showing your heart to your lama, and talking honestly about your bad habits, faults, to help make them clean.

This will really help your shamatha. And then today we'll choose something good we've seen somebody else do. There are lots of good examples at Diamond Mountain.

People working very, very hard to serve us, help us, dedicating their whole year so that we can have good retreats here. And just share with your lama a few examples you've seen of people who have sacrificed their own lives, what they would like to do, and they're working really hard here to keep it ready for us to do retreat. Then ask your lama to teach you all the teachings that come to us during the day, happy ones, Dharma teachings, Dharma books, and difficult teachings like a good friend correcting us, or even someone criticizing us.

They all come from our teacher ultimately. So ask your teacher to keep teaching you, whether they're easy, inspired teachings, or whether they are difficult teachings that improve us. Then ask your lama to stay close, stay near, stay in your life.

We must have done something good in the past to have someone who's interested in us, wants to help us. Ask them to keep trying, even if we're very stubborn sometimes. Then ask your teacher to stay in your heart.

And they slowly start to rise up off the ground, still facing you. And as they rise up to the level of your chest, then the level of your face, they start to get smaller. And when they rise above your head, they turn and face the same way as you.

And then they come down softly on the top of your head, maybe a few inches high, three, four inches high. You can feel the soft pressure of a small teacher pressing on the top of your head. Then invite them into your heart, and they shrink smaller.

Size of your thumb, then the size of a pea, and they melt into the top of your head. And they start to come down in front of your spine, through your central channel. You can feel their progress down the central channel, through your skull, to your neck, to your throat, and into your chest.

And then they keep shrinking. It's much easier to hold your focus in meditation if you shrink the object to something tiny. So shrink it to the size of a grain of sugar.

Put them in the very center of your heart, almost like they're sitting in a globe of crystal. And they're very relaxed and happy. Themselves always happy, but also very happy that you are meditating, you're trying your best.

And they agree to stay there all day, all night, constantly influencing us for better, constant inspiring and good influence on us. Then thank them, and come to your breath again. Three long exhales.

You can think that each exhale is sending your Lama's blessings out to the world, and the good karma of your practice, making a peaceful world, happy world. And you can slowly open your eyes. Take a stretch.

People are always asking me the secret to vipassana and the secret to shamatha. That's a big one, okay? Then they say, well you taught that already, and I say yeah, but you didn't do it.

Every day, okay? First thing in the morning, especially on retreat, okay? That's a big secret.

They say the best way to hide something is put it out on a table where everybody can see it. Okay, so, do we have a printout yet of the ... can we pass them out, or ...

are they secret? Okay, good. All right.

Could I have one? It's okay, that's okay, that's okay, that's okay, I have ... all right.

By the way, meditation number 20 from last time, the guy's, you know, he's plunging ... he's pushing a plunger which is what sends the electricity to blow up the dynamite, you've seen it in all the movies, there really is a thing like that, and you have to imagine ... that meditation's about that gap between the cause and the effect, okay?

When does the circuit close, you know, how many atoms have to touch before the electricity can pass, and what's the edge of the atom look like, how can two things touch, okay? And you have ... just the picture has meaning, okay?

And ... I've told you before, but I'll tell you again, if you can memorize the pictures, you will remember the meditations, okay? And then you don't have to use a paper, okay?

So that's what the photos are for, it takes a long time to find them, and ... the first picture is of you teaching diamond cutter to somebody, okay? Third picture is what?

You can talk in the class, to me. What's the third one? What's the third ...

stream enter, okay? Someone entering the stream. It's called the first of the four fruits.

In Buddhism we talk about the four fruits, or four results of your practice. The first one is called entering the stream, okay? And we didn't quite finish it yesterday, because it got late, okay?

And by the way, I ... you know, me and Mir, I was sitting thinking about whether I can finish Kama Shida 3, so I decided to finish it. So, I'll just keep ...

I split it up and we'll cover a certain amount every day, and it might take more than what the schedule says, okay? But that way we just finish it, okay? Alright?

Okay. So ... alright, here we go.

Master Kama Shida about Meditation 21. Meditation 21 from last time, Kama Shida 2, is about ... how does a person who's seen emptiness, how does an Aya ...

directly, how does an Aya feel about what they did, you see? Because if they thought that their study and practice and meditation caused it, right? In a way that touched it, you see?

Like the dynamite thing, it's connected to the dynamite plunger. Does your effort create spiritual results? There's a really nice bunny running around outside.

And then you have to understand, you know, the nature of efforts that you make, and then spiritual results that you get, okay? And even when you reach a place where you understand that things are coming from the seeds you planted by being nice to other people, right? You have to understand that getting to that place also is a result of being nice to other people, okay?

So, when you get to a place because you've been understanding seeds, don't forget that that place also comes from seeds, or you will be kicked out of that place, okay? Got it? Then Master Kamalashila divides a sentence into three parts, the sentence is, now I have reached the goal of entering the stream, now I have seen emptiness, okay?

He takes that one sentence and he divides it into three parts, okay? And he says, now I ... when you say now I reached stream enter, who's I?

Who's me? Okay? And maybe at that moment you forget, you yourself, your body, your own thoughts are popping out of karma seeds that you planted last week, okay?

So, when you say, I did it, I reached the goal, then you have to remember ... if you don't remember, Michael is coming out of the seeds that he planted last week, or two weeks ago, if you don't remember that you get kicked out of your understanding, okay? The minute you say I ...

I did ... I did ... boop, you kick out.

Is there an I? Yes. Is there Michael?

Yes. Okay? Why did he have a good idea called Arya, you know?

Why? Because he shared Diamond Cutter Sutra with other people which connects to the first picture we had. So, everything connects, okay?

Got it? Thank goodness I was trying to help Rosa last week understand Diamond Cutter, because now I saw emptiness, you know? That's I, okay?

I ... have attained is dangerous, the verb of the sentence, I attained, okay? I did, but there's no did either, okay?

There's just seeds opening, okay? Even in your own mind, you are the listener, you are listening to thoughts that are coming out of seeds that you planted last week. If you were talking mean about somebody else last week, then when those seeds open in your mind, your own mind feels depressed, okay?

People ask me, can you use Buddhism to treat depression? I say no, it's too late. The seeds open ...

my Lama used to say, you can't push a tree back in the ground. There's a really nice ash tree here, how long has it been here? Mountain ash?

I want one, I mean don't get me one, I'm just saying I'm gonna ... it's doing pretty well. Twelve years?

Oh, that's too long, I want to grow a tree fast enough to have a treehouse to meditate in, but we haven't found a tree yet, we're working on it. Anyway, when you hear thoughts in your mind of depression, it's because you made someone else sad a week ago, or a month ago, in a little way, and those seeds grew, they doubled every day, and now you have to listen to them, okay? You can stop next week's seeds by being encouraging to other people this week, but once the seeds are opening and the words are coming out, and you're listening to them in your mind, you can't stop them at that point, that's like trying to stop a tree that you watered, and you put the seed and the fertilizer, and it's too late.

You should stop planting trees if you don't like them, okay? Then you could stop it for next week, okay? So, I reached ...

I reached the direct perception of emptiness, be careful about the reached, the verb, that's another chance for your mind to think, that's coming from its own side, okay? It's another chance to make a mistake, and when you make that mistake the idea in Kamalashila, and the idea in the Diamond Cutter Sutra, is you get kicked out of it, you get pushed out of seeing emptiness, because you said I reached, okay? Is it wrong to say you reached?

No, but just understand that every time you have a spiritual breakthrough, it's because you helped somebody else have a spiritual breakthrough, okay? Okay. Obviously that would reduce your pride, right?

Okay, it's not really you, okay? Okay, and then the last chance in the sentence to make a mistake is with the object of the verb, I reached the goal, the goal, you know? I saw emptiness, you know, the goal, I reached the direct perception of emptiness, okay?

Then that's a third chance to get kicked out of your level of understanding, because you think the goal is coming from its own side, and it's not, okay? That's also created specifically by sharing your understanding of emptiness with other people, and there's this famous famous DCI question, Geshe-la, how can I help other people make money if I want money, if I don't know how to make money, that's why I don't have money. So, why you want me to teach ...

how can I teach emptiness to other people so I can see emptiness? Because that means I don't understand it when I'm teaching it, and Buddha said, ready? As much as you understand, okay?

That's okay. You understand 5%? Teach 5%.

Be honest with other people, you know, don't say I saw emptiness 10 years ago and I'm sharing it with you, you can say I went to many classes on emptiness, I slept through most of them, but I understood like 5% and I'm going to share it with you, and then that's the cause to reach the goal, okay? Got it? So, in this picture ...

what's the picture? Quick. Yeah, it's a lady on the stream, she's already in the stream, right?

She's trying to share what she understands, as much as she ... the 5% that she understands. Come to the river with me, you know, let's try to see emptiness, okay?

Alright ... he goes into some logic about all this, it's kind of difficult ... my ...

it's like taking out the garbage, I took out the garbage this morning, it's kind of difficult, it's stinky and, you know, it's more fun to have coffee than to take out the garbage, and sometimes when you're reading a book like Kamalashila and you get to a hard part, you want to just skip it, like taking out the garbage, you know. Then I try to slow down, you know, or I try to stop and tell myself, you can't have dessert until you finish your vegetables, you know. Okay, so here it is ...

he's talking about the goal, and he's talking about why it's not self-existent, okay? So, I reached the goal. So, goal ...

he says it's either a produced thing or an unproduced thing, okay? Almost everything in our world is produced by causes, okay? Almost everything.

Almost everything we come in contact with all day is produced by causes. There's a few things that are not, like three, okay? Abhidharma says three.

NAM KHAG DANG NI DGOS PA GNYIS. Space is one of them, you guys ... many of you learned the four spaces meditation, and that idea that you are sitting in a place, in a space, even if this planet was blown up into dust and it went away, and you were evaporated by some bomb or something, still the place that you are occupying would be there, it's unchanging, and no one made it, it's always been there, and it will always be there, okay?

So, he says, what do you think, is the goal of seeing emptiness directly, is it a produced thing or unproduced thing? Huh? It's produced, I mean, like by studying Kamalashila, okay?

It's the goal is produced, right? The object of the goal is not produced, right? Emptiness is not produced, it's the absence of the second husband, okay?

The husband who yelled at you who's not your fault, okay? We talked about it in the Lamrim class, okay? All day long there's two husbands in your kitchen, one is coming from what you did last week, one is not ...

that's not my fault, I didn't do anything, okay? You can take a deep breath because it's a one long word, it's not my fault, I didn't do anything, he's yelling at me but I don't know why, I just came home, I just opened the door, you know, and that husband who's not your fault is never there, was never there, will never be there, cannot be there, no, okay? The fact that he's not there is emptiness.

Oh Geshe-la, that's not mystical enough, sorry. The goal of emptiness is to stop your anger for example, and that will stop your anger immediately, if you understand this irritating husband came from you, then the only person you can blame is ZER MWA, it's you, okay? Alright?

And then you can't get angry, I mean maybe you can get upset at yourself, but you can't get angry at ... the other person didn't do anything, it's not that you didn't do anything, they didn't do anything, okay? Alright.

So, if the goal of seeing emptiness directly is a ... now I'm going back to Kamalashila, if it was a produced thing, it has to fit what Buddha said all through the sutra, which is KHYAD MA'I SKYE BA MA'I RGAGS PA MA'I in the words of Nagarjuna, which we're going to do next year, nothing starts and nothing stops, okay? So, if the Buddha was correct, then the goal, entering the stream, seeing emptiness directly, never started.

So, can it be a produced thing? No, it never started. Produced means somebody put the seed and the fertilizer in the water and the tree came out, okay?

The goal, but it's not, Buddha said nothing starts, okay? The seed, the water, the fertilizer of the mountain ash out there, never touched the tree, the tree was ... the seed was gone by the time the tree grew, the seed never touched the tree, okay?

Got it? It's not coming the way you think. Yeah, nothing's produced, therefore the goal cannot be what you thought it was.

Got it? Alright. It goes back to ...

he says, saying the goal came from the seed of your efforts is like a rabbit horn, okay? It means rabbits don't have horns, you can check these bunnies running around outside, and they don't grow horns, so it's an old example for something that can't exist, okay? Reaching the goal cannot exist, that's why you have to try to reach it.

Okay. Is it some kind of hippie thing where you go into the void and you don't try to think about nothing? I've met people who tried to do that for, you know, years, and I told you in DCI, you can tell them ...

you need to turn up the volume of the Chinese, I think, but they ... those people who think that's emptiness, they become forgetful, they can't find their keys, they lose their cell phone, they walk around like this, you ask them to do something for Diamond Mountain and they're like ... you know, you fire them, okay?

They're not functional. If you really understand emptiness, you should be super functional, you see? You should get things done easily, and be happy, and engaged, and intelligent, and inspired, okay?

Not the opposite, okay? Stanley? Yeah, I know.

Even the law of karma. Thank you Geshe-la. Even the law of karma, like if you do good, you get good.

It's empty, they're coming from you, they're not the way you think, so you mean they could be the other way, like you do crazy things and you get good results, and you ask us to think about it. Can I ... What's the karma you did to create that consistency?

Right. Can I say they are the fact that if you do good, you get good. It's like a fact.

It's unproduced. It belongs to the fewer, unchanging things. Facts are unproduced, that's true.

Truths are unproduced. So, that's why they are consistent. Not exactly.

There's changing ... there's changing things which are consistent also. Changing things ...

okay. Long story. Basically, what I wanted you to say was, being consistent in how you behave with other people, you know?

Being consistently kind, or consistently on time, or consistently considerate, creates consistency in your life called karma, the laws of karma. Okay? So, so it's possible that there's a world that don't have this consistency?

Yeah. Really? Kind of, but that inconsistency was created by a consistent result ...

consistent cause. Okay. Alright.

Now I'm going to have this debate from Earl and other people. Okay. Okay.

Now, you know, I could stop giving you all these details, but I'm going to do it anyway. Maybe we go until noon, I don't care. Do we have juices today?

Yeah? Yeah, thank you. I didn't remind you, and I was placing bets in my mind if I didn't remind you if I didn't.

Okay, if someone didn't understand all these points, then they would get kicked out of being a stream-enter. If they said, I reached stream-enter and didn't understand what happened, they would be kicked out of stream-enter. We said that several times.

Then Kamalashila says, it's worse than that. If a person who saw emptiness directly said, I saw emptiness directly, and misunderstood the I saw and the emptiness, if they misunderstood those three, that would be the truth of suffering. They would be creating new suffering for themselves.

Forget they get kicked out of arya, okay? Arya is the truth of the path, arya is the truth of the end of suffering. There are four truths in Buddhism right?

But if a bodhisattva misunderstood the level they reached, it's not only not the level anymore, it's new suffering, it's new causes for suffering okay? Anytime you misunderstand anything, you are creating new causes for suffering. They got kicked out of the truth of the path, they got kicked out of the truth of the end of suffering, and they got kicked into new suffering okay?

Every time you misunderstand anything, you create more trouble for yourself okay? So, Kamalashila is like, Buddha's being nice, but all Buddha said was, you get kicked out of your arya, but he says it's worse than that, you're creating new suffering, new link number one in the Wheel of Life, okay? All right, we won't get anywhere, it's up to you, don't complain that I went on too long.

[Speaker 2]
Sorry, do you mean while the stream enterer is seeing emptiness to have this thought, or after they come out of meditation?

[Speaker 1]
It would even if they start thinking about themselves in a correct way, during, they would still get kicked out of the direct perception, because your self is not ultimate reality.

[Speaker 2]
I didn't know it'd be possible for them to have that thought after they saw emptiness, because they've ...

[Speaker 1]
it's not really, Buddha's just being exaggerating. Okay, thank you. Okay, he wants us to understand how tricky things are, okay.

All right, remember that Master Kamalashila tries to connect each part to one of Subuddhi's three questions. Which one do you think he's talking about in this section? Remember, there's three questions, how should we live, how should we practice, how should we think?

Yes, how should we think, because that's all about YANG BA, don't get distracted, don't let your mind get distracted. In meditation practice, getting distracted means thinking about lunch when you're trying to think about your Lama, and I always make a joke you know, sometimes in my meditation, this beautiful Lama's face become a big sandwich, you know, slowly, I mean, I don't notice it until after the sandwich came out, then there's a nice beautiful body and a neck, and there's a sandwich on top, and I'm like, oops, I got distracted ... in meditation.

That's not what we're talking about here. What are we talking about here? You ...

you're really good on understanding your husband's coming from you, you come home, you are tired, when you're tired you make mistakes, okay? You just came home from work, you're tired, when you're tired you make mistakes, you come in, your husband says something unkind to you, and because you're tired you forget your understanding of emptiness, and you say why did ... okay, ready?

One deep breath, I didn't do anything, I didn't do anything, why is he yelling at me? Okay? Then you get angry, okay?

By the way, we're gonna have that flowchart later, Kamalashila gives the whole flowchart, okay? What goes on in those seconds when your husband yells at you, okay? How you get hurt, okay?

So, this section of the sutra relates to the third question, don't get distracted, meaning, don't forget he's coming from you. It doesn't mean thinking about hamburger when you're trying to meditate on your Lama, okay? Then Buddha goes through the other three fruits of Dharma practice, they're called the four fruits of Dharma practice, stream-enterer is the first one, what's the second one?

Yeah, once-returner means, you come back to the desire realm one more time, okay? You saw emptiness, it helped you overcome your bad habits, and you're almost clean, but not quite, so you have to come back to this realm one more time. This is the class for the students who are worse students, this planet called Earth is the place where they put the worst students, okay?

The better students already went to other places, okay? So, it means you flunk, you can't go on to the next class, you have to stay here one more time, okay? Like first grade or second grade, you know, they say okay, everybody else can go to third grade, but you have to stay in second grade, okay?

Then what's the third fruit of virtuous practice? Non-returner, don't have to come back to this realm, okay? You get to go to third grade, but you're still in elementary school which is like a terrible place, okay?

You can go to form realm, formless realm, okay? You don't have to come back to this place. This place is miserable, okay?

Nothing goes right here. What's the fourth result? Arhat, you don't have to come back, you ...

you don't have to ... you are never again ... are you forced to come back to this world, okay?

You can come back if you want to help people, but you don't have to. Your karma and negative emotions aren't forcing you back here. Yes, question?

[Speaker 2]
Do those of the ... who have to return or have become ...

[Speaker 1]
haven't become arhats, do they remember what they ... do they remember the direct perception of emptiness? Yeah, good question.

When you see emptiness directly, on that day you see your future life, and you see this beautiful thing that ... you see your death also, you say, I will die in this world, and I will come back to this world, and you know, a kid who's one year old came out of mom, they don't remember, okay? But they have a bakchak, they have a seed, karmic seed, okay?

And then they always get bakchak sepa. Bakchak sepa means, I don't know, when they're like 16 or something, they have another experience from their past experiences, and then part of the powerful karma of seeing emptiness directly is that, in future lives you will always be born into an environment of aryas. There will be people around you who are always talking about emptiness, they're only interested in emptiness, you'll be born into that place, in the desire realm of people who understand emptiness, they're always talking about emptiness, so you'll be brought up by people who ...

who do it all the time, and then they will ... then at some point your seeds ... it's called reassert themselves, bakchak sepa.

Okay, no questions, questions later, we won't finish, you know, you guys will be mad at me later. Okay, Kamalashila goes into the meaning of the word arhat, I taught you it already, arh, Sanskrit root arh, means to be worthy, to deserve something, okay, ant is present participle, deserving, you are worthy, okay, he explains it that way. Ari in Sanskrit also means enemy, ari, and han means to kill, or to hit somebody, and in some words it changes to him, like hin, like ahinsa, no killing, the English word gun comes from hin, okay, the root han, okay, so ...

so the Tibetans translated arhat as enemy destroyer, ari han, and sometimes in a scripture like this one, you'll see the teacher explain arhat as someone who is worthy, so you can do it either way, where you split the word you can explain it either way, okay. Worthy of what, the whole world make offerings to them, okay, and try to remember that whatever word you choose, enemy destroyer or worthy one, deserving, either one is just a name and a conception placed on parts, by you, okay, which brings up an interesting point, he goes deeper, okay, and I'm gonna go with him okay, I don't care how long it takes, we'll take two juice breaks, I don't care, the second one you can drink water, okay, he goes to a very interesting question you see, some people become an arhat worthy of offerings and respect, and the whole world respects them, okay, you know, they become arhat, deserving of respect, and the whole world respects them, and sees them as an arhat, okay, wow, he's an arhat, I love you, you are so special, please teach me, okay.

Then some arhats are born into a place where people hate them, okay, I don't know, like Jesus, or ... several people tried to kill Buddha during his life, we talked about it in Thailand, I told you some of the stories, I didn't tell you all the stories because they are very depressing, but some people, they reach a high spiritual place and then people just criticize them, or they even try to kill them okay, then Kamalashila says, whose fault is that? Okay, so he divides arhats into two kinds, one of them, people recognize them, they say, oh arhat, you are so cool, you know, and the other kind, people hate them, and crucify them, or you know, criticize them, okay, it's the emptiness of an arhat, right?

Some people will see them as holy, and some people will see them as threatening, okay, but whose fault is it? It's the arhat's fault, okay, so Buddha's like, don't forget even that, even arhat, if the arhat is criticized, crucified, etc. in our belief, it's because they were hurting people in the past, and I believe the main karma, which is a very common karma for people who reach that stage, is that they were judging other people, maybe not verbally, but mentally, they were going around the world and stop at Circle K on the way from Tucson, and everybody in the Circle K they're like, this person's stupid, this person's just a lazy person, this person looks kind of fat, you know, they are judging judging judging, and then when they reach arhat, people judge them, so he says, let's try to be the second kind of arhat, when we get to arhat, let's try to be the kind that's admired by everybody, and you can start working on that now, when you go home to China and you go to Tucson Airport and you have to stop to go pee pee halfway, which is where I did my three-year retreat, don't judge the people in the store, okay, and try to be open-minded.

It's a good exercise to say there's one person in this store, not me, who's a Buddha, which one is it? The fat one, or the lazy one, or the old one, you know, and then you create this karma that when you become an arhat people will ... people will respect you and honor you, instead of criticizing you, okay, alright.

And by the way, the next part in the sutra, Sabuddhi says, by the ... you know, I'm not like bragging, but I am an arhat, Sabuddhi says, yeah, yeah Buddha that's all true, you know, how do you know? I'm an arhat, okay.

Then Master Kamalashila is like, why would Sabuddhi admit he's an arhat? Usually when you reach Arya for example, we don't talk about it, we don't tell people we're Arya, why? They won't believe you, when they don't believe you they make super bad karma, it's one of the worst karmas a person can make, okay, so you're actually hurting people, I'm an Arya, I don't believe you, boom, they just got really bad karma, okay, so Aryas don't talk about it, it's very rare for an Arya to say I'm an Arya, so why do you think Sabuddhi here ...

he doesn't just say I'm an Arya, right? He says, I'm bigger than an Arya, I'm an arhat. In the middle of the Diamond Cutter Sutra, he's not even supposed to be talking, he's the student, the old Buddhist system of teaching, students never talk, I like it.

Then Sabuddhi says, oh Buddha by the way, I'm an arhat, why do you say that? Think about what's the last thing we talked ... I mean what's this section?

Yeah good, he's saying it's okay to say you saw emptiness, if you understand where it's coming from, then you ... if you don't understand and you say you saw emptiness, you get kicked out of Arya. If you do understand what happened, you can say I'm an arhat, okay, got it?

Nick's correct, okay? It's okay to say I'm an arhat, you don't get kicked out of arhat by saying I'm an arhat, you get kicked out of arhat by saying I'm an arhat and not understand where it comes from, got it? So, Sabuddhi's trying to give an example that it's okay to say you reached a certain stage, if you understand what you're saying, okay?

It's not wrong to talk about it, it's wrong to talk about it and think it came from someplace other than your seeds, okay? That's all. Okay, and then Sabuddhi says by the way, if I said I was an arhat and I didn't understand what it is, I couldn't even be in Arya, okay?

He says it that way, he says I would get kicked out of ... forget getting kicked out of arhat, I would get kicked out of Arya, got it? Okay, and those of you who are learning other Buddhist schools like Wern and ...

in the translator course, in his commentary here Master Kamalashila is making a distinction that arhats, some of the arhats in this sutra even, like Sabuddhi, may not have seen the emptiness of things, they only saw the emptiness of themself, they saw the emptiness of person, which is the first one you always see. Vivian's first direct experience of emptiness will be the emptiness of Vivian, and then Kamalashila is saying they can see the emptiness of themselves, but not of things, which refers oftentimes to their parents okay? Even for arhat, but that puts Master Kamalashila in the lower middle way school okay?

And we'll study it some other day, that puts him in the lower middle way school, and his teacher was Shantarakshita, which is lower middle way school okay? What's that mean? Why should I care he's lower middle way school?

What's the main idea of the lower middle way school from the six kinds of emptiness? Yeah okay, my mind puts the parts of the car together, my mind puts the parts of the pen together. If I shared pens in the past with other people, I have a seed in my mind, when that seed opens, pens come out, pictures of pens come out, and when I look at these parts okay, two parts, because I shared my things with other people in the past, I see pen okay?

And a dog? Didn't share, they shared chew toys in the past okay? Their mind, their seed opens in their mind, pen doesn't come out, picture of chew toy comes out okay?

Got it? Because they shared chew toys in the past. Now, lower middle way school, lower middle way school, but where did the two parts come from?

Okay, I understand my mind puts them together, I understand, but the two parts were there before okay? That's lower middle way school, the two parts were already there, then my mind put them together into pen under the influence of a seed that I planted last week by sharing my stuff with other people, got it? Lower middle way, but the parts are there, and then my mind puts a picture on them okay, got it?

What would a higher middle way say? Parts also come from you the moment before, and there's nothing out there okay? Everything comes from you okay?

They go higher okay? But so, he's kind of in the lower middle way, why would he be in the lower middle way? Why are we studying lower middle way?

Oh, we think that way and also, yeah we created the book, but in his time, which is also the time of Xuanzang, lower middle way was very popular, and his students were probably lower middle way, so he had to teach that way okay? Alright, you want to go deeper? I don't care, let's do it.

We're just planning a nice dinner right? We have time, I promised her a nice dinner. Last thing about that, in the database okay, so when I prepare for these classes I can check a million pages, I can check most of the best books written in the last 2,000 years okay?

Because of the kindness of John Brady, thank you. So, just for your interest, there's a debate, somebody said well didn't Kamalashila know about Nagarjuna? And they say yeah, he knew about Nagarjuna.

So, didn't he study the sutra called Sandi Nirmocana, means ... written by who? The Buddha okay, what what's the name of the book?

It's called What I Really Meant, okay? And one of the most famous commentaries to that was written by Yuan Tzu, Yuan Tzu, student of Master Xuanzang, so we're going to translate that, beautiful commentary. So, somebody said, is it like he didn't understand that sutra?

Okay, and somebody said no no, he understood, it's Nagarjuna's idea about the sutra is correct okay, Nagarjuna was correct. Master Kamalashila said we should understand the three turnings of the wheel according to Nagarjuna, and Nagarjuna said the two parts are out there before you have the picture, and he ... got it?

Ready? I'll say it again, Kamalashila said, people said you don't follow Nagarjuna? He says of course I follow Nagarjuna, then they said well what did Nagarjuna teach?

He said the two pieces are out there before, by themselves, and then the picture come out of his mind. Did he use Nagarjuna to understand the Buddha's teaching? Yes, but he used it the wrong way okay, got it?

He misunderstood Nagarjuna also, he says I support Nagarjuna, Nagarjuna said the pieces are out there, already, okay, got it? Did he follow Nagarjuna? Maybe he followed the words but not the meaning okay, got it?

Okay, alright we finished one meditation, I'm gonna go ... by the way I canceled a lot of the meditations from class two, I had 45 or 47, I made them into like 20 something, if you want the new class two manual you can talk to Nick or something okay. It was too many okay, I'm gonna do one more then we'll take a break okay?

Juice break. What's the next photo? Yeah, somebody writing ...

notice the page is ... empty okay, and the meditation is called, how did our Buddha receive his teachings okay? So, our Buddha taught Dhyamakara Sutra, our Buddha taught Heart Sutra, our Buddha taught all these sutras right?

After he became Buddha, but what did he study okay? And how did he get Dharma teachings like million years ago okay? And what's the answer?

A proof of gratitude, what's that mean? Anyone want to guess? Yeah, nice okay, he got Dharma teachings to become Buddha in his time only because he paid respect to other Buddhas and he thanked them, he says thank you okay, the cause to get Dharma teachings is just say thank you okay, to the teacher okay, that's all.

Gratitude, thanks for teaching the Dhyamakara Sutra okay, so our Buddha is a Buddha, that's proof he got Dharma teachings, he's Buddha, it's proof he got Dharma teachings. If he got Dharma teachings, that's proof he thanked his teachers a lot. How many times?

Ready? Classically, we say there are three thank-you periods in an enlightened being's life okay, there are three thank-you periods in an enlightened being's life okay, before they became Buddha there were three periods of thank you, thank you, thank you to their teachers, to their Dharmas, to their Buddha okay, in their world okay, three periods. During the first period they thank and serve 75,000 Buddhas okay, that's called beginner okay, the second period they serve and thank 76,000 Buddhas, so we already got 151,000, so far total 151,000 Buddhas.

Third period, they thank 77,000 more okay, so it's 75, 76, 77 okay, how many is that total? Is it? Two to eight?

Somebody add it up, you okay? Two to eight? The human computer says two to eight.

So, to get a sutra like the Diamond Cutter Sutra in your world okay, you have to ... you must have thanked and served 228,000 Buddhas in 228,000 past lives. To be here today, cool?

Okay, and he's talking about our Buddha, must have done it to other Buddhas okay, then in the Diamond Cutter Sutra they start talking about that, and I'll give you the quotation from the Diamond Cutter okay, ready? Buddha said to ... sorry, Sabuddhi, Sabuddhi what do you think?

Did I receive any teachings from a Buddha? You know, did I receive teachings for example from a Buddha called Dipankara, Dipankara means who makes light, the Buddha who makes light okay, did I receive teachings? And Sabuddhi says no, because there was no teaching that you received when you received your teaching.

Got it? That's why the picture has a blank page. Who made the Diamond Cutter Sutra?

You did, you wrote it okay, next time you have to give a resume to get a job, you can say by the way, I wrote the Diamond Cutter Sutra. What was the karma that allowed you to write the Diamond Cutter Sutra? I was thanking my teachers, my parents, my school teachers, my friends okay, people who hurt me, I thank everybody okay, and that's how I wrote the Diamond Cutter Sutra okay, that's why it appeared in my world okay, it came out of the seeds of being thankful, even to people who hurt you, because they probably do more to develop you than the people who are nice to you right?

In my case I know that's true okay, got it? Alright, that one was pretty painless, let's see if I can make it more complicated. Kamalashila says, one of the main causes of understanding emptiness is to thank other people, be grateful to other people okay, and the last thing he says okay, this is an easy one, just by the way, if you get inspired by this section and you say I want to thank more people in my life, be careful that you don't think those people are not coming from you okay, so you should probably thank yourself at home, and then go thank them okay, don't forget that the people who are nice to you and help you ...

this retreat center, you created Michael Dunn okay, and you created this guy who wants to stay out here and take care of the retreat center okay, you created that, so thank him but be careful at the same time to thank yourself okay, don't forget where he's coming from okay, otherwise the thanking gets messed up okay, it's infected by self-existence okay, got it? Alright, how long we been going? Two hours, oh my god, an hour and a half, maybe it's pee pee time okay, how long should we take, what kind of break?

He said ten minutes? They need 15, it's America, let's take a 15 minute ... first LUS SA SOGS RE, LUS SA SOGS RE, first LUS SA SOGS RE, Nick, no, prepare an empty space for the juice okay, alright, let's do a mandala, Harold, you're gonna do one?

You got this mandala up here? Okay, let's start, when you interrupt a long teaching, you can just ... when you come back you can just do a mandala, just LUS SA SOGS RE BUG GI, okay?

You ready? Alright, next section of Master Kamalashila's commentary of the 18 points, I think it's number seven, and it's called ... the dream to create your own Buddha Paradise okay, the dream to create your own Buddha Paradise okay, your own ...

and he says it's to overcome an obstacle, and the obstacle is not having a big enough vision, the obstacle is not having a big enough vision you know, so I don't know, David Stumpf and I, we've been trying to ... I don't know if you remember, it's been about seven years, we are trying to remove one big rock from the road, we drilled a hole in it, we put special stuff in it, it's still there, it's still you know, breaking oil pans and stuff, and so him and me, we were focusing on this one big rock on the road, couldn't dig it out, and Dr. Wu came, he said, well let's just pave all the roads you know, and we're like, that's an idea, and he says, then people can get to the hotel we're gonna build here, and we're like ...

he said, you should have rooms right here, people shouldn't go have an orange juice and a green drink, they should go back to their room, relax on their bed you know, have it delivered, a green drink, and then come back to class you know, this is not a good arrangement, you can't get back to your room right, you need a car, he said you should put some ... not a hotel, but some ... we call guest suites you know, so I don't know, I like to hang out with him because his vision is so big you know, we built a little college in Sedona, he says, yeah that's just the beginning of the university right, there's gonna be a thousand students there, I said, well okay, and that'll be one of the ones that we build in Germany and Mexico and China right?

I'm like, yeah! So, this section is supposed to be about, don't make your vision too small, in Tibetan it's called MIG PA CHUNG BA'I YID LA BYAS PA BSGOM PA, in your meditation, don't make your vision too small. And the Buddha says okay, the Karkara spoke once more, suppose Osobuddhi that a bodhisattva were to say, I am working to bring about my paradise okay, I am working to bring about my paradise, then Buddha says, that bodhisattva is a liar.

Okay, he says a very hard thing, he says, you know, suppose some bodhisattva has a big vision, and they're gonna build their own Buddha paradise, we call build your paradise right? In Buddhism you have to build it, you can't just go there okay, you have to build it, like Diamond Mountain. If you can't build guest suites at Diamond Mountain and put in a road, how are you going to build a Buddha paradise?

This is just a little one okay, then he says, and any bodhisattva who says he's going to build a paradise, that bodhisattva is a liar. Okay, alright, and that's because that ... be careful about looking ahead into the future, at the Diamond Mountain you want to be here in five years right?

Or the the university you want to build in Berlin or wherever, you know, and when you're looking ahead to that dream you have, don't think of it as something that happens, it's something that grows okay, things don't happen, they grow out of seeds that you plant okay, and in the beginning at Diamond Mountain we had a nice policy which I think Susan, Saragni instituted as a board member, every month we gave away some of our income to a competing retreat center, it was very hard, you know, we were talking about fundraising, we were ... I had like 20 ideas, then she's like, can I say something?

And I'm like, alright, and she's like, maybe we could just give some of our income to a retreat center that competes with us, and everybody's like ... you know, duh ... maybe that's a good idea.

Then I remembered at that time we had a debt for this property, we had a big debt, and we went to the bank on Tsongkapa Day I think, and we paid it, we paid the debt for this whole land, there's no mortgage on this land, and the bank people are like, wow, you're 30 years early, and we're like, yeah yeah, they said, how much you charge your programs? Nothing. How do you make money?

Duh, you know, and we give away our money to competing Dharma centers, okay. Alright, I don't think we follow that policy that strongly right now, so maybe ... oh we do, okay, alright.

So, you have to understand that a Buddha paradise, which Dime Mountain is halfway there, it's coming from seeds in your mind, okay, helping others to get to their Buddha paradise, okay. Then Kamalashila refers to ZAD LAS CHUNG BA'I SOS RNAMS DON, say ZAD LAS CHUNG BA'I SOS RNAMS DON. DON means seven, seven?

And there are seven ... how do you say ... seven kinds of karma that are called ...

what do you call it? Compounding interest karma. Compound means, you get interest, then you get interest on the interest, then you get interest on the interest on the interest, then ...

okay, it keeps growing like that, and there are seven kinds that are special karmas for ... special karmas for making your Buddha paradise, seven, okay. First one, it's called KUNG RGYUD RA BA, which means build retreat cottages and gardens for other people to use, okay.

Some people do these things by instinct, okay, that's the first one, KUNG RGYUD RA BA. Second one, TSUL KHLA GANG, anybody know what TSUL KHLA GANG is? TSUL KHLA GANG is the ancient word for temple, so build temples for people to have classes in.

So far, Mr. Dunn and David Stumpf and Sarakni and all these other people have two of them. The idea is, 20 years later, if someone's using that temple, you get more karma on top of your old karma, okay, every time someone uses that retreat cottage, you get more karma, even if you're ... even if you move to Australia, okay, it doesn't matter, the karma follows you.

Every time someone stays in your retreat cottage, you get more karma for your practice, okay, got it? Number three, MEL BSTAN, MEL BSTAN means furnishing the retreat cottage, especially with mattresses and bedding, okay Tahiya, understand? So, some people have instincts, she bought all your bedding by the way, and got that already, okay?

Number four, TSOR BA GNAR MA, TSOR BA GNAR MA means cook continuously for retreatants, and people you know, attending these programs, okay? So, GNAR MA means ... okay, excuse me, but it's the shape of when your nose is running and you get this long ...

it means you keep feeding people, feeding people, okay? GNAR MA, it's also a stage in the womb, but anyway, TSOR BA GNAR MA. LO BUR DU YONG BA, serving guests who show up at your retreat center, especially those who don't give you enough warning ahead of time, it's called LO BUR, LO BUR.

Guests who show up especially without ... they're not prepared, and they didn't let you know they're coming. We have like five of those in ACI, they're permanent, it's a permanent ACI position.

Every year they come late, I mean they don't register, they show up. If you're worried and you're interested in these things, LO BUR is the name of the advantageous Dharma body which you create, see? It happens suddenly, as opposed to the kind that's always been there.

Created rather than pre-existing. Okay, anyway, number ... what?

Six. Serving people on retreat who are not well, who have lung problem, they have medical problem ... we had someone in Thailand fell off the trolley, right?

Jasmine forced everybody to get insurance and then we were so happy, someone cut their head, they stepped off the bus and they fell down and ... okay, so she got that kind of good karma okay. We're also very lucky at this program, there's a doctor here, he was trained as a surgeon, he used to cut people's hearts open and then after that he trained as an anesthesiologist, put you to sleep before operation, which is a very dangerous position, you can kill people, and then he got interested in ACI courses many years ago in New York, studied with my Lama and then he sent out a correspondence course, before internet, we used to send papers, hundred thousands of papers out to people who took ACI courses, so he and his wife did all of those, and especially to prisons all over the world, so you have to have special papers to send to prisons, because they don't want anything they can use to make a knife or something like that, so he took care of many many hundreds of prisoners, give them free ACI courses, and then for many years, I think 30 years, every time Dharma person gets sick, they just call him, he checks them, and he gives them medicine without payment, okay?

Understand? Pretty cool karma, and he's here today, and it's Michael Moore. Thank you for coming, I heard it's the first week ...

he gives anesthesiology to prisoners who can't, they don't have money, so he does it for free in prison, and this is the first week he had off in seven years, okay? So, thank you for coming. Alright, we are lucky.

Number seven, helping people who are particularly poor, particularly having emergency, like our New York Center, Three Jewels, now works with the City of New York to teach meditation and yoga to homeless people, and that's the seventh kind. People who really don't have any money at all, or no support, okay? Alright, those are seven specific karmas to get your Buddha Paradise, okay?

If you understand where it's coming from, you know you cannot go there in a long-marched Chinese rocket, it's not somewhere past the moon, okay? Tushita Paradise is here, right? You make enough good karma, it will be here, okay?

You don't get there by getting on an airplane, a special rocket, okay? You make it, with those seven kinds of karma, for example. Then Buddha's ...

then Kamalashila says, why did Buddha say GZHAD DRA RGYUD GANG, say GZHAD DRA ... RGYUD GANG. GZHAD DRA means field, but it means Buddha Paradise, okay?

Pure field. RGYUD GANG is like Gandhi's RGYUD GANG Sutra, means to put it together, to put together your Buddha Paradise, okay? It's like putting together a vacation to Hawaii, right?

Anton Kratasyuk, yeah, you have to get the money ready, you have to go online, find a nice hotel, make sure there's a good surf there, and arrange to rent a surfboard, and you know, have someone take care of your cat, and ... that's called VYUHA. So, here GZHAD DRA VYUHA means set up your vacation to your Buddha Paradise, okay?

VYUHA. But VYUHAN is plural, so Kamalashila says, why did Buddha say Buddha Paradises, okay? Yeah, each one makes their own, in the same place, okay?

Each one makes their own Paradise in the same place. Some people say, like Tahiya told me, Geshe-la, this is the most beautiful piece of land in the whole United States, you know? And then other people said to me, Geshe-la, this is the suckiest piece of land in the whole United States, you know?

And they're both true, okay? It depends on your seed, right? So, Kamalashila says, each one of us will make our own Buddha Paradise, okay?

And that's why Buddha said plural. Then he ... okay, I'm just going deep and I don't care about the time, but I'm not going to go that long, okay?

Don't, don't, don't worry. Say, MA LTAG MA BYAS PAR, MA LTAG MA BYAS PAR, very famous Madhyamaka word, MA LTAG MA BYAS PAR means, if you don't look too closely, everything's fine, okay? If you don't look too closely, the world is okay, you know?

You start looking closely, you realize, like, if you say, how can the seed for that tree cause the tree, if the seed never exists at the same time as the tree, how can the seed affect the tree, right? Then you look too close, then the tree is impossible, okay? So, MA LTAG MA BYAS PAR means, you know, don't become dysfunctional, don't go around the world like, oh wow, that green drink's not possible, you know?

That orange juice, the orange is impossible, you know? So, you have to deal with the world, you know? MA LTAG MA BYAS PAR It's okay, there's orange juice, drink it, okay?

Don't like, get weird, don't get a weird Buddhist, okay? There are weird Buddhists, right? Everything's okay.

Buddha Paradise is Buddha Paradise. You will go there, it will be there, but at the same time remember you are making it, like the Diamond Cutter Sutra, you created the sutra, and you create your Buddha Paradise, okay? That's your job.

It seems to me like a good way to create your Buddha Paradise is to volunteer at Diamond Mountain, because like, six of those things are here, all the time, you know? Seems to me it would be a really efficient way to put together your Buddha Paradise, okay? Vyuha.

But, how you talk about the Paradise, okay? How you talk about your Paradise. If you say, I'm gonna go to Tushita Heaven because my lama blessed me, or something like that, okay?

I'm gonna go to Tushita Heaven, alright? You're already a liar, because what you ... when you say Heaven, you think it's already there, okay?

You think, you know, it was there a long time ago, some Buddha probably worked really hard, built it, and then you get to go there if you're a nice person, okay? When you say, I'm gonna go to Tushita Paradise, I'm gonna do Amitabha Mantra, and DRO, and I will go to Amitabha's Heaven, already you made a mistake, already you're a liar, okay? There's no such thing, there is no Amitabha Heaven, okay?

There's no ... there you can go to, you have to make it, okay? The part of Amitabha's Heaven that you go to, you have to make it, okay?

Got it? And if you ... if in the wrong way, you're a liar, because ...

because that word has no meaning, there's no such thing, okay? Got it? That's why Buddha said, if someone say I'm gonna make my paradise, then they do not speak the truth, he said, okay?

Got it? Just nod, alright? Then Buddha says remember, don't stay in colors, don't stay in shapes, don't stay in sounds, don't stay in smells, don't stay in tastes, don't stay in touches, and don't stay in thoughts.

But he already said that part, it's a repetition. Then Kamala Shila says, why does Buddha repeat it? And in this case he says, some people already forgot, okay?

During the teaching, by this time, some people forgot Kamala Shila number one, right? So, Buddha said it again, okay? So, don't think he's crazy, he has to say it again, okay?

Want to go deeper? You have time? You don't have an appointment with a wild pig?

Which of the three questions relates to this question, to this part? You tell me. She says number three, yeah it's a distraction, it's talking about the third question of subhuti, how am I supposed to think, how am I supposed to focus?

And Buddha says, focus, when you're talking about Diamond Cutter Sutra, means you don't think your husband come from his own side, that's distraction, got it? Okay, you want to go deeper? Okay, he says there's two kinds of distraction, drondok and kunda, say drondok ...

kunda. Very famous in mind only school for example, drondok means, you believe something is there which is not there, you believe something is there which is not there, in the case of the husband, the husband who's not my fault is not there, but you believe it is there, so we say overestimate, overrate, there's nothing there but you make something, then it's called over ... overestimate, too much, there is no husband there who's not your fault, but you create one, and that's our most common mistake okay, we make people there who hurt us and we don't understand they come from us, we create them, where there's nothing okay, but Kamalashila says in this case you're doing the opposite, what's that mean?

Your distraction is the opposite kind, something's there that you could have that you think you couldn't make, something's there that you could make but you think you can't, what? Guest suites at Diamond Mountain, pave all the roads at Diamond Mountain, make three universities around the world for people to go to, or make your paradise, so he says in this case, that distraction is underrating, underestimate your capacity, oh Geshe-la I can't even make a new toilet in my retreat cottage, how am I gonna build a Buddha paradise you know okay, like I can't figure out the refrigerator, how am I gonna build a Buddha paradise, I figured it out yesterday but it took a you know a while okay, we were so happy when we got here, so don't underrate yourself, you are a paradise maker, you are a Buddha give birther to, okay, you're a special person, you can give birth to Buddhas and you can create paradises, don't underrate yourself, that's a kind of breaking subuddhi's third question, you are distracted, underestimate yourself okay, got it? Cool?

Alright, then he goes on in the sutra, he goes on to ... hey how about the people gonna stay in my paradise with me? Okay, who's gonna make them?

Me? Okay, that's easy, I'm not gonna teach you that okay. He mentions Rahula, somebody with a big body okay, he says you're gonna have people in your paradise with a big body, and Kamalashila says that's Rahula, Rahula is like this deity, God, who's as big as the planet, their body's as big as ...

they use planets like marbles, they play games with planets you know, like ... I got three, okay let's ... they play with planets okay, big guy, but even that body is coming from you okay, even big ones okay, and that's ...

okay I'll go very fast through a very complicated thing, and that's because their body of the people you make in your paradise are neither one nor many, they are not whole, and they are not parts okay, do they have parts? Yes, they have arms, legs, head okay, the people you're going to live with in your paradise, like your mom or your dad, you're gonna meet them again, they're gonna be in your paradise okay, for sure okay, then are they one thing or are they many things? Are they many pieces or are they one thing?

Neither one, neither one okay, is it one thing or two pieces? Then in Buddhism we say neither one, why? Two pieces aren't there by themselves, that also coming from me, when I put it together it becomes one thing, that also coming from me, how many pens which are pieces coming this way?

None, how many pens which are one thing coming this way? None, therefore nothing is one or many okay, got it? And therefore everything is one or many, no problem, mayo and tea, okay let's go, we're almost done, that's so easy ...

we're getting there ... which one are we on? Is there any more?

Oh my gosh, yikes! I'm gonna try not to rush okay, I'll try to relax, you too, you too okay, I'll give you one more pee pee break, don't worry. Meditation number 24, karma, stupas, journeys, and teachers.

So, one of the biggest things in the ancient India was the Ganges River, and if you ever ... I don't know, if you go from Varanasi to West Bengal ... Bengal, you have to cross ...

in some places the bridge is like a mile long, the Ganges is big okay, then Buddha said, subuddhi, try to imagine all the drops of water in the Ganges River okay, got it? Then he said, imagine that each of those drops of water becomes another Ganges River okay, Ganges River's equal in number to the drops in this Ganges River okay, and then suppose each one of those drops is its own planet, is a separate planet, and then suppose somebody covered those with diamonds or gold and offered them to the Buddhas okay, would that be a good karma? Would you get a lot of good karma?

And then of course the Buddha says yes, and then Buddha says, if you teach one verse of this sutra to another person, it's more good karma okay, alright? It's more good karma. Then Buddha starts going crazy and saying all the good karma you're going to get if you teach this sutra okay, and Master Kamalashila summarizes it in four different kinds of karma okay, ready?

So this is meditation 24, I put four words up there, karma, stupas, journeys, teachers okay, these are the four things that are going to happen if you teach the diamond cutter in New York or Singapore or Guangzhou or wherever you are okay, here we go. Number one, you make a huge good karma okay, we talked about it. If you're interested in the sutra, the words are, they would indeed create much merit, so the Buddha says, they would indeed create much merit okay, that's indicating the first of the four results of teaching the diamond cutter, you get a ...

there's an English word which I can't say, especially with V here, something load of karma okay. Secondly, that place where you taught it becomes a stupa, it means that becomes a holy place you know, I was teaching the diamond cutter sutra in a small hotel room, there was no place to sit, we were sitting on the bed, everybody was sitting on the bed, and if people in this world really understood how important it is to talk about these ideas, then that bed in room three six four eight would become a holy place, and people would come there just to walk around the bed all day, and do mantras you know, I was thinking we have to push the bed into the middle of the room, so there's enough room to ...

just enough room to walk around okay, then you laugh but it's true you know, people go to these temples and maybe nothing ever happened there you know, it's just biggest one, people like, I built the biggest temple, I have the biggest Buddha, I went to see the biggest Buddha, forget it you know, if you teach jing gang jing correctly, he said correctly right, in a shimbaka, in a Starbucks in Guangzhou, then later generation should walk around that Starbucks to get good karma, because that became holy place, because something really important happened there, not there's some tooth of Buddha that's maybe a tooth of a dog we don't know you know, forget it, or it's the biggest Buddha in Asia, forget it, that Starbucks become more holy okay, that becomes real stupa okay, so I like it, everyone's going to be walking around Starbucks, Starbucks can get more business, American economy go up, okay, by the way, in the sutra the words are, that place becomes a stupa, so those are the direct words in the sutra. Third one, journeys that are difficult to make are made easily okay, journeys, spiritual journeys okay, spiritual trips, spiritual tasks become easy, become easy, things that were difficult to do become easy okay, and the sutra word for that is they become someone truly wondrous, those people who teach it, those people who study it, become special people, and and Kamalashila says that means those people can make their spiritual trip easily, something very difficult, long journey to Buddhahood for them becomes easy okay, that's a third one, journey, easy journey. Fourth one, very cool okay, anytime anybody in this room, or listening online, teaches Diamond Cutter Sutra one sentence to another person, then the Buddha is there okay, then the Buddha is there, in the Starbucks okay, then you say, you mean in mind the Buddha? You have to think about it, Buddha is there.

Then Kamalashila says, where in the sutra did Buddha say that, you want to hear? Quote from the sutra, this is because we can say that the teacher himself is in that place, as well as every other spiritual teacher who ever lived is in the same Starbucks at that moment, every Lama, every guru, every teacher in history is also in the same Starbucks, it's really crowded in the Guangzhou Starbucks, when you teach Diamond Cutter Sutra, they all come, they all want to see you do it, it's so cool. Who said that? Buddha said that, not Kamalashila okay, Buddha said that.

Then Kamalashila says, by the way, the reason the Lord Buddha talks about drops of water in a big river or ocean, and talks about diamonds and gold, is that teaching the Diamond Cutter is like water for the planet, it's like ocean for the planet, it's like jewels for the planet, it's most precious, and it's everywhere, like water you know, emptiness is everywhere, like ocean water, and it's precious, like jewels okay? So, there's a reason why he used the image of jewels and water, water's the most precious thing on this world right? You can't live without water.

Then, in this section the Buddha is called two other names, one is Tathagata, the person who went that way, Tathagata, the person who went that way, and he's also called Arhat, Ultimate Arhat, and he's also called the Totally Enlightened One, three names, they give him three other names. Tathagata, the one who went that way, Arhat, enemy destroyer, and the Totally Enlightened One, Samyak Sambuddhaya, Samyak Sambuddha, Totally Enlightened One okay? Then Kamalashila says, that also has meaning, gone that way, why is Buddhists called gone that way, Tathagata okay, went that way, he says that way has two meanings, that way meaning number one, he took care of other people's needs and he took care of his own needs, both, tatha, that's how he made his journey, he took care of what other people needed and he took care of what he needed, tatha, that that's how he did it, that that was his style, konstilo, ultimo, alright, and that also means emptiness of course, tatha, that that way means emptiness okay, DRA BCOM PA, Arhat means destroyed negative parts of himself, destroyed them okay, Fully Enlightened Buddha means got all the good qualities, he's complete okay, so those three names are added here. Alright, we finished meditation number 24, we're still going ... this one's pretty easy, I mean we can do it pretty quick okay, number 25, what's the picture?

It's a guy, is he like bored or is he excited? He's excited, yeah, he's excited okay, because the sutra here starts talking about, again about teaching okay, and Buddha says you should explain the diamond cutter to other people, and you should teach it correctly okay, and then Kamalashila says what's he mean, why does he divide it like that? Explain means to explain the words of the sutra okay, like we just did Tathagata, we just did Arhat, we just did Samyaksa and Buddha, explain the pieces of the words, that's easy okay, teach it correctly means get the student excited, teach it correctly means get the student excited okay, if the student is bored you're not correct, you're teaching it but not correctly okay, it's very interesting, he doesn't say you have to explain emptiness correctly, he says if you don't inspire your student, you're not teaching it correctly, to inspire your student you must be a good example okay, you must be a living example, DZI BA'I PHRAS MED, you should be a ...

right? You should be a living example okay, they should look at you and say, Harry met Sally right? Should I tell a bad story?

Stanley's like, yeah! Excuse me, okay I didn't make this movie, it was made by somebody else, I mean ... there's a movie called Harry Met Sally in America, old movie, and it's a guy and his girlfriend, I didn't see the movie, I just saw one small part, then they go to a restaurant you know, and Harry says to Sally, so you know, tell me the truth you know, I'm like the best lover you ever had right?

When I make love, nobody can do it like me right? And she looks at him and she says, not really, and he gets angry, what do you mean? She says, you're not really so great you know, in the band you know, you're just kind of like average you know, then he says, no no, I'm really great, and she says, no no no, he says, every time we make love you're like, I must be great you know, she said, you never heard a woman can fake it?

He says, you're not faking it, it's real, she said, no, sometimes I have to fake it you know, he says, I don't believe it, she says, I can fake it right here, right now, he says, no no, she says, you want to see me? Yeah, you try, then she starts going ... then everybody in the restaurant is like ...

like this, and she's going ... and he's like, everybody in the restaurant is like this you know, wow, what's going on? And then this old lady comes in, very well-dressed, she has pearls, expensive suit, business suit, older lady, she comes in, she sits down, she's like also watching this lady ...

then she's like, the waiter comes over and he says, what would you like to have for lunch you know, and she says, give me whatever she's having, I'll take the same thing, why I said that? Living ... he's excited, the old lady's excited, I'll take ...

I don't know what she's having, but I want it, you know, so when you teach it should be like that, okay? Like, it shouldn't be boring you know, it should be, oh, kamasutra says ... you know, everybody's like ...

should be, everyone look at you and say, I want that, you know, what she has, I want that, you know. I told you many times, I went to a meditation class to check my student, they're teaching good or not, and I sat in the back, I didn't say anything, most people don't know who I am you know, then she's like, very nervous person all the time, and she was teaching meditation, then she got some cup of coffee and she's like this, and you must be calm in the meditation, then I was sitting next to these two ladies, and one of them said to the other one you know, I don't know what kind of meditation she's teaching, but I don't want to learn it, that ...

that meditation I don't want to learn, what she's teaching I don't want to learn, okay? So, Buddha said teach correctly means, teach after you experienced it, and you reached it, then teach it, you know, don't be like, I don't want to learn what she's learning, that's the opposite of the lady in the restaurant, okay? That's like the lady in the restaurant says, give me anything except what she's having, okay?

Got it? Okay. Just one more point there, there's a word in Heart Sutra called CHOS KYI RNAM DANG GI STIN GYIN ZIN, Buddha goes into meditation at the beginning of the Heart Sutra, he doesn't say the Heart Sutra, it's a discussion between two students, he's in meditation, but that meditation has a word called Dharma Paryaya, say Dharma?

Paryaya, and I always wondered about this word Paryaya, it means ... usually that word means a synonym, like our heart, enemy destroyer, deserving one, these are all synonyms, they all mean the same thing, okay? So, for many years I wondered about what's this word mean, and it comes in the Diamond Cutter Sutra, he says anyone who teaches Dharma Paryaya, Diamond Cutter, okay?

Anyone who teaches this particular presentation, so I learned to translate it as, this particular presentation of emptiness called Diamond Cutter, okay? This particular presentation is called Paryaya, okay? Then he explains it, Kamalashila explains it, so if you're interested it also comes in the Heart Sutra, it's a weird word in the Heart Sutra.

He says ... it means this presentation of emptiness, as opposed to, rather than, wrong ones, okay? Rather than wrong ones, okay?

That's all. Buddha keeps saying anyone who teaches this particular presentation of emptiness, okay? This whole section relates to what Kamalashila calls, not getting into wrong teachings, and he uses the word PHYI, in Sanskrit it's BAH YIR, outside teachings, outside teachings.

So, if you ... if you don't know Buddhism very well, you can say, Master Kamalashila is saying don't ... don't study Jewish teachings, don't study Christian, those are outside, okay?

But what's it really mean? Yeah, wrong teaching about emptiness is outside teachings, don't ... don't go to outside teachings.

And then Kamalashila says, he's not talking about Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, he's not talking about outside like that, he's talking about Buddhists who teach emptiness are wrong, that's outside, don't go to outside teachings, okay? Got it? Just nod, I know you're tired, I don't care.

I think we got two more to go, sorry. Okay, what's the next picture? Sailing ship, okay?

Sailing ship. Ship for ... old ship, sailing, okay?

With this sail for the wind. Now, this is a cool part in the sutra, so Buddha says to Lord Buddha, I like this sutra you're teaching today, I really like it, what's the name of the sutra? You know, later when we talk about it, what's the name of the sutra?

The Buddha doesn't say ... Diamond Cutter, okay? Nowhere in this sutra does Buddha say Diamond Cutter.

Diamonds aren't mentioned in this sutra, only the title is Diamond Cutter, okay? And the title is exquisite, the title is the best title you could give to any book, okay? It's exactly correct, and if you don't know about it, buy the Diamond Cutter business book and it's in the first few chapters, okay?

Diamond is important, cutting the diamond is more important, okay? Anyone who calls the Diamond Cutter Sutra the Diamond Sutra, doesn't get it at all. Nothing.

Throw it out, if you see that book, throw it out, okay? Anyone who calls the Diamond Cutter Sutra Diamond Sutra doesn't understand anything about the sutra, okay? Don't even open it, okay?

Sorry, but that's how I really think. Okay, so what does Buddha say? I think you should call this book Borobudur Mido, Prajnaparamita, okay?

You should call it the Perfection of Wisdom, that's all. Sometimes it's called the Perfection of Wisdom in 700 lines I think, okay? He says call it the Perfection of Wisdom, and then Kamalashila starts to explain the word Prajnaparamita, okay?

Prajnaparamita, Perfection of Wisdom, in Chinese Borobudur Mido, right? Borobudur Mido. Okay, same word.

PHA RA means the other side, PHA RA means the other side. Other side, yeah. IDDRA means gone, and it exists in English in the word exit.

X means out, ID means gone, go out, exit means go out, okay? This is the place to go out. So, IDDRA, and then M on the PHA RA means the object of this verb, so go across, go to the other side, PHA RA MMMM IDDRA, Paramita, sorry just kidding, PHA RAM IDDRA, PHA RAM IDDRA, LONG NAS PHA RAM, yeah, so it means gone to the other side.

But, as Choney Lama points out, it's really PHA RA THU CHEN PHA, PHA RA THU CHEN BYED, PHA RA THU CHEN BYED, PHA RAM IDDRA MAKER, it's not gone to the other side, it gets you to the other side. The other side of this ocean, Pacific Ocean, is Guangzhou area, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, okay? That's PHA RAM, compared to San Francisco and Los Angeles, okay?

But you haven't gone there, you're going there, okay? This sutra takes you there, this is not Guangzhou, it's the ship, okay? Got it?

So, the word is gone already to the other side, but it means the ship that takes you to the other side, it's not the other side, got it? Okay, the word is a misnomer, the word is not correct, it's not a perfection, it's a perfectionizer, okay? It makes you perfect, it's not a perfection, okay?

We are not studying the perfection of wisdom, we are studying wisdom which makes you perfect, okay? It's not a perfection yet, okay? So, the word is mistaken, where the ship is the perfection of wisdom.

Now, I ask you a question, is the book a perfection of wisdom? No, the idea is perfection of wisdom. Understand GONG ZHING, understand your husband takes you to the other side, understand he's not there, the one who's not your father is not there, that takes you to the other side.

If the book teaches you that, we can give the book that name, but it's just a name, it's not the ... the book is not the idea. Many people have the book and they still fight with their husband, right?

It means it didn't take them to the other side, okay? They have the perfection of wisdom in their house, they pray to it every morning, they read it every morning, and then they get up and fight with their husband, then that wasn't the perfection of wisdom, okay? Got it?

Okay, alright. Other kinds of knowledge are that, are not this, because they cannot take you to the other side of the ocean of pain, that's kamarashila. Other kinds of understanding are not prajnaparamita, because they cannot take you to the other side of the ocean of pain.

So, the ocean is pain, ocean is trouble with your husband, okay? Ocean is trouble with your husband. If you have this idea, you can cross it.

If you don't have this idea, nothing else can help you. You can go to a marriage counselor, they will tell you stuff, you know, stop squeezing the toothpaste from the left side, squeeze it from the bottom, your husband will be happier, you know? No, people say stuff like that, but it doesn't fix it forever.

Okay, alright. I'm going to read you one more thing and I'm going to stop for today, because I think you're getting tired, and we'll just have to do a longer one a different day. There's a beautiful prayer in Tantra, Vajrayogini, jingga yu jangmo, and there's a famous prayer called, kha che shel sang taway mun lam, it's the prayer to see her beautiful face, okay?

It's called the prayer to see her beautiful face, her beautiful smiling face, of the woman of the sky, okay? Which is Vajrayogini, highest Buddha. Highest Buddha is a woman, okay?

Don't tell all the men, okay? And it's a prayer to see her face, so many of you studied here at Diamond Mountain Tantra, you know this prayer, and it's secret, but there's a part in it from the Lam Rim, so I'm going to read it to you, because it's ... then you can understand the ship, ready?

Okay, this is just for good luck, those people who come to Lam Rim regularly, I will teach Tantra later, those who don't, I will not, clear? Alright, you don't have to come every time, because then you'll be bankrupt and your husband will leave you, but uh ... try to come, you know, pretty frequently, okay?

Alright, not ... don't be crazy, but just when you can, okay? Okay, I pray that by the power of the good karma of studying this Diamond Cutter, okay?

This is the prayer, I may be taken under the care of a Lama who possesses every qualification, because these are the real source of every spiritual goal. May I always please my Lama, and never be apart from him or her, okay? And by the power of this deed, may I board the good ship of spiritual leisure and fortune.

May I set the white sails of constantly remembering my death, and that wind will make the ship go, okay? Remembering my death, and then on the trip I should have the fair winds of carefully observing the loss of karma and its consequences, which you will learn in Guadalajara, and you already learned in DCI, and may that wind carry my ship across the terror of the sea of the cycle of pain that we live in now, okay? That's a prayer.

Very famous ship, okay?