Серия «Сутра Алмазного огранщика» — Мастер Камалашила: медитации на «Сутру Алмазного огранщика», часть вторая (Аризона, 2016), занятие 4

[Speaker 1]
Okay, what did I promise you this morning? Emptiness of emptiness. Okay, Kongxin du kongxin.

So, here's where it comes. What I thought was many years ago when America was starting, there wasn't enough churches, so the priests used to get on a horse and ride around and give sermons to people in their little cabins and one of those guys decided to put numbers in the Bible, so it would be easier that people could remember what part they're talking about. So, I had this idea to do the same thing with the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

So, I used Kamalashila's system, how to split the Diamond Cutter up. Okay, and then you always know what verse I'm talking about. If I say, this is part number, we're on part number 30 this morning okay, in Kamalashila this is the 30th part okay.

So, then you can, I can tell you the next meditation comes from verse 30, part number 30, and then when you read the Diamond Cutter Sutra or you recite it at home in Chinese or Spanish or German, you can, you know where the meditations go. Then we had this idea to print the whole sutra and put the meditations in the proper place okay. So, we're going to probably finish that this afternoon and then somebody's going to go to Tucson.

It'll be about 60 pages long, it's the first half of the sutra with the meditations in their proper place according to Kamalashila and the sutra split according to Kamalashila and then numbered, so we can always be on the same page. That's going to be expensive, I think about, because it's all color, so I'm thinking about $25 each. So, I don't know, if you don't mind.

I hate to ask for money, how about I'll pay half and somebody else pay half? It's about $1,200 each okay? Anybody?

I'm half. Stumps are ... you have that money?

You have enough money? How about stumps and chins? Stumps and chins okay?

Mom and daughter, so $600 each. Stumps $600, chins $600. I'll do half okay?

Something like that. So, give it to Nicole and then she'll ... won't sleep tonight, or something.

Okay. So, we're on verse 30 and I'll read it to you. He says, sabuddhi, these bodhisattvas don't think of things as things and they don't think of things as not being things okay?

They don't think of thoughts as conceptions and they don't think of thoughts as not being conceptions okay? So, they don't think of things as things and they don't think of things as not being things okay? Not thinking of things as not being things is the emptiness of emptiness okay?

So, we have to talk about it alright? So, Kamalashila, the way he teaches is the old Buddhist way of teaching and someone will ask a question you know? So, did Buddha say we're supposed to not think of things as things?

And he says yes, he said that. Then they said, well are you supposed to think of things as not being things? And he said no.

And then they said, but I thought you guys talk about emptiness right? Then emptiness means that nothing's there right? And he said no, not the way you, not the way you're talking about it, because you are thinking of nothing as coming from its own side, but we don't think that nothing comes from its own side okay?

And we can take an example of the person who hurt you the most in your life okay? And everybody has one. It's usually your ex-husband or ex-wife okay?

Could be somebody else but, okay? So, Kamalashila says, when a diamond cutter person says nothing or emptiness, they don't mean it like other people do okay? They don't mean the same thing when they talk about nothing.

And then the other guy who's debating with him says, well why do you say that? I got to start this over again, Mr. Wu has to hear this. It's okay.

Okay, ready? About the emptiness of emptiness. So, the other guy says, you Buddhist guys believe everything's nothing okay?

And then Kamalashila says, that's right. And the other guy says, so you think everything is nothing? And Kamalashila says, I didn't say that.

And the other guy says, but you just said everything was nothing like I said. He said, yeah I said everything is nothing, but not the way you said. He says, well what do you mean when you say everything's nothing?

He says, I mean, there's no gakja. That's what nothing means okay? If now, those of you who know gakja okay?

This is cool, this is Kamalashila's new idea. We don't think nothing exists okay? The way you think when you say nothing, because if we did, there wouldn't be any self-existent thing to cancel.

I'll say it again, three times okay? The other guy says, you think everything's nothing? And we say, that's right.

He says, are you sure you believe everything's nothing? And we say, you're right, we don't. He says, why'd you change your mind?

I didn't change my mind. Do you think everything's nothing or not? We do, but not the way you do.

Well, what's wrong with the way I think everything is nothing? When you say everything's nothing, that means you can't have a gakja. What's a gakja?

It's the thing that emptiness is empty of. I need my purse again okay? I want to introduce you to my credit card collection.

Poor overused things. There's one special one. Their company is very smart, they made it orange on the side, so in my purse I could, you know, I can always spot it okay?

Take it out. This one is like 10,000% interest okay? It's a, and a huge, what do you call it?

Limit. They increase it every week, I don't even want it you know? And it's the lousiest credit card in America okay?

I hope they don't sue me. It's called Discover Card okay? So, alright, like this is the closest thing to not a credit card.

This is for emergencies. When all my other credit cards are full, I will use this one, but I hate to use it because it's like twice as much interest and I can charge as much as I want. It's a very dangerous card, but I need it, and many places won't take it okay?

Because it's so dang, you know, they say, if this guy has this card, he owes everybody money. So, many restaurants won't take this card. You never heard of it Chinese people, it's called Discover okay?

You heard American Express or MasterCard. This is for people who used up their MasterCard. I love it.

When I'm overseas I have to say mantra. I have credit card mantra. You know, the lady was, I will buy something, they'll say, is there enough room on the card?

I'll say, om mani padme hum, om mani padme hum. So, you're in the restaurant right? And you told Nick and Aaron that you would buy them dinner.

I'm talking Hudson's now. And you're out there on the porch in Sedona and you're enjoying dinner, and then the bill comes, you know, and you make this big noble gesture, you know, I'll take the bill. You know, these are my friends, I'm gonna pay the bill, you know.

And then, you know, they give you the bill, and then you're like, you're reaching your pocket right? And then what? You changed your pants, you know, the old pants you wore for two weeks without washing.

Then you decide, I shouldn't go out with Nick and Aaron if I smell funny, so you changed your pants, but you forgot to put the credit card in your new pants okay? And then you, you're like this okay? You're looking for it, and the waitress said, did you lose something?

And you say, yeah, I thought I had my credit card. And she said, well what kind of credit card is it? Then you say, discover.

And she's like, we don't take that. Okay? You are missing a non-credit card, got it?

Got it? Okay? What's not in your pocket is not a credit card anyway.

Even if it was there, it wouldn't help you. Okay? Now, if Kamalashila says, if Buddhists mean nothing when they say emptiness, the way you think about nothing, then we couldn't have a discover credit card.

Got it? Our nothings, our nothings are special. Our nothings are not normal nothings.

Our nothings are special nothings. Our nothings are nothings that could never be there. Got it?

Okay? Is there an iPhone on the table? Yes.

Is there an iPhone on the table? No. Okay?

Is there a purple elephant with two heads on the table? No. Cannot be Geshe Michael.

Doesn't exist, even at Diamond Mountain. Many strange things walking around at night. Okay?

But no purple elephants. Okay? That nothing is different from iPhone nothing.

Got it? Why? iPhone can exist.

Purple elephant cannot exist. Okay? So, when we get to verse number 30 in the Diamond Cutter Sutra, Kamalashila says, our nothing isn't the same as your nothing.

When you say Buddhists are crazy because they believe nothing exists, we say you're wrong. Then the other guy says, why? And we—now listen, listen, listen, listen.

We say there does exist an idea of a discover credit card that works. There does exist a picture in your mind of a purple elephant. There does exist in a Buddhist person's mind the picture of the person who hurt them, who decided to hurt them, who wasn't their fault.

It's not my fault. I didn't do anything. These are the two famous mantras of people who believe everything is coming from the other side.

I can't believe I didn't do anything. It's not my fault. Okay?

It's one word right? I didn't—I didn't—I didn't do anything. It's not my fault.

Okay? She just started attacking me, you know? She left me, you know?

I don't understand, you know? Bad person. Okay?

Got it? Okay? So, Kamala Shila says something very deep here.

Okay? We don't accept the nothing that you guys do. Why?

Our nothing is special. Your nothing is nothing. Then they say, why is your nothing special?

Our nothing is full of people who hurt me, who decided to hurt me. Okay? Got it?

Those are special nothings. Why? They made your whole life miserable.

Okay? Nothings who made you unhappy. Okay?

Guess what? Every person who ever made you unhappy wasn't there. Okay?

Was never there. Why? Because nobody can make you unhappy.

Okay? Nobody has this. The only person who can make you unhappy is you, because when you do bad things to hurt other people because you think they're coming from themselves, then you plant seeds to make more people make you unhappy.

Got it? Okay? The tragedy of life, the irony of life, is that all conflict is between real people and unreal people.

Okay? Every war ever fought, every divorce ever divorced, was between a person and nothing. Okay?

The other person who hurt you wasn't there. Okay? On the cover of your notebook, there's a handsome guy, I think it was Nick, looking in the mirror on the front of your notebook.

Okay? On the very cover. Right?

There's the guy. Okay? Listen, he's looking in the mirror.

Okay? There's two faces there. One is in front of the mirror, and one is in the mirror.

Okay? Got it? The one in the mirror is not real.

Okay? You shouldn't try to shave that one. Okay?

Nothing will happen. It will just scratch against the glass. Okay?

It doesn't work. That reflection isn't a real guy with Tim-like whiskers. Okay?

Alright? It's just not there. There's not a real guy.

It's just a reflection in the glass. Okay? And it would be stupid to try to do anything to the reflection.

You know, like try to shave the reflection, or squeeze a pimple on his face. Your fingers will just hit the glass. Okay?

But every time you get angry at someone, you're doing the same thing. Okay? You're doing the same thing.

You're trying to pick a ... squeeze a pimple in the glass, and nothing's gonna happen. Okay?

Every person who ever hurt you was a reflection of you, and they're not real. Okay? They're not real.

Okay? Got it? Now, the emptiness of emptiness.

Ready? But does the reflection exist? Yeah!

It's there. Otherwise you can't shave. You can't put on your lipstick.

Okay? Of course there's a reflection there. Okay?

Emptiness is empty of something, okay? Which is nothing. Got it?

Okay? Without the idea of a person who hurt you, or decided to hurt you, okay? Without that purple elephant, you can't have emptiness.

And it's really cool the way Kamalashila treats nihilism here. I'll say it again. The other person says, you Buddhist people believe nothing exists.

Kamalashila says, I didn't say that. And the other guy says, but you said everything is empty. Kamalashila says, right.

But it has to be empty of something. See? Something has to be gone.

Okay? Something has to not be there. If there's nothing to not be there, you can't have kongshin.

Okay? Got it? What's the thing that's not there?

The person who hurt me, who decided to hurt me. Okay? Does it exist?

Not really. Now listen, listen, listen. Does a picture of them exist in your mind?

Yeah! Is there a purple elephant in this room? No.

How do you know? Well, I close my eyes, I think of a purple elephant, what it should look like, then I go like this, and nothing matches the purple elephant. Okay?

Got it? Okay? You close your eyes, you think of a purple elephant, and then you open your eyes and you see, does anything match it?

Okay? And you say no. Okay, so it doesn't exist.

Got it? But if you cannot have that picture of something which couldn't exist, you can't have emptiness, and that's the emptiness of emptiness. Do Buddhist people believe nothing exists?

No! Well, why not? Because we believe the picture of the thing that couldn't exist, exists.

Okay? Only in your mind. Only a picture in your mind.

Okay? There's nothing out there to match it. Got it?

What do you call that picture of a thing that couldn't exist in Tibetan? Say Gagja. Say Gagja.

Very, very, very, very, very famous. RGAGS PA'I DNGOS LA MA RIGS PA'I DE'I DNGOS MED RDZIN MA YIN Shantideva's most famous line, okay? If you can't identify a self-existent thing, you will never see emptiness.

Okay? Because that's what emptiness is. Empty out.

If you don't know what a discovered credit card looks like, you can't check if it's in your pocket or not. Got it? Okay?

Even though it's fake and useless. Okay? It doesn't work.

It's just a fake, okay? Jada. Okay?

It's just fake, okay? Even if you've had one, it doesn't help you. Okay?

Still, I'm gonna keep it though. Okay? So, let's review what we learned.

Okay? Emptiness means something's not there that you thought was there. Okay?

In the case of Buddha's emptiness, the thing you thought was there cannot really exist. Okay? Cannot really exist.

But you can't have emptiness if you can't imagine the thing that doesn't exist. Okay? You need to be able to make a picture in your mind of the thing that doesn't exist.

Then you can look for it and say, it's not there. Okay? Does the imagined object exist?

Of course, it has to. If you don't know what a discovered credit card looks like, you can't decide if it's there or not, and decide it's not there. Okay?

Got it? So, Kamalashila says, the point of verse 30 in the Diamond Cutter Sutra, Buddha says, bodhisattvas don't think there's things there, but they also don't think there's no thing there. Because they understand what's there is a picture.

Reflection in the mirror. Unreal. Okay?

Alright? Got it? Sorry, I should say the thing that's not a reflection.

Okay? Got it? Does emptiness exist?

Yes. Okay? Negative things can exist.

Absences can exist. Okay? If the absence of a purple elephant wasn't here, we would all be squashed.

Got it? The absence of purple elephants is here in the room. It's a negative.

Okay? Does there exist an absence of a credit card in my pocket? Yes.

Okay? So, negative things can exist. If they didn't exist, that thing would be here.

Got it? Okay? So, emptiness has to be empty of something, and the thing it's empty of is something that couldn't exist.

Therefore, Buddhists don't think nothing exists, and it's a wrong idea for a Buddhist to say, nothing matters. It's all an illusion. Just don't worry.

You know? Don't be happy. Don't be sad.

Just be like that. Someone kiss you. Someone punch you.

Okay? Nothing exists. Don't worry about it.

Good thought come in your mind. Bad thought come in your mind. You get a cappuccino.

You don't get a cappuccino. That's the ultimate goal. That Buddha doesn't look like that.

Okay? You see these paintings, right? Buddha's not like, go ahead, hit me or kiss me, I don't care.

Okay? They are happy. Okay?

Alright? That's a very wrong idea. Okay?

Sit in meditation, look at the wall, don't think about anything. Good thought come up, don't think about it. Bad thought come up, don't think about it.

Buddha never ever ever taught that. Okay? Right here, Kamalashila says, the way you think nothing and the way we think nothing, it ain't the same thing.

It's not the same thing. Our nothing is special. Why?

Our nothing is something's not there that couldn't be there. Your nothing is something's not there that could have been there. Got it?

Okay? You alright? You're alright.

Okay. That's okay. So, this meditation is very important.

Okay? Now, this number sixteen, right? It's very important and you can practice it.

By the way, in Kamalashila number two, course number two, this one, there's 45 meditations. What number are we on? How many days we got left?

How long did it take to do the last one? About nothing. I don't know, about an hour.

Geshe Michael, why did you put too many meditations in the course? I couldn't bear to pick them out. Well, what are you gonna do?

My idea is every time I come to your country, like Singapore, we can have a special class and do the rest of them. You see what I mean? So, if I come to Guangzhou, we can just like hang out and do the rest of them.

Okay? In Taiwan last year, one student owns the hotel, which is very useful, and it's the only time I got to stay in the penthouse. In the time I was there, three or four days, I couldn't see all the rooms.

I got lost. I think there's six bathrooms or something. So, anyway, the clouds are at the same level as the ...

right? You were there. I thought, oh god, this feels like Gandalhagyama.

We can have Dharma teaching on the clouds, you know. So, we did, right? We did the rest of the Kamla Shila one that we didn't finish.

So, my proposal is we just do as many as we can carefully, and I'll give you all of them, and then when I come to your place, like Guadalajara, or I don't know, Moscow, Kiev, we can do the rest of them, okay? For fun. Okay, alright.

Let's do one more, okay? So, number 17 is about Gagya. Emptiness means you have to cancel something.

What's the picture? It's a mirage, okay? It's a mirage.

It means, it looks like something's there, but nothing's there, okay? That's kongshim, okay? Okay, let's do number 18.

I'll quote Kamala Shila. This is one of the sexiest sentences in Kamala Shila. Okay, you ready?

Let me go back to the ... yeah, it's the same verse. It's the same section, okay?

Kamala Shila says, things are real, okay? The things around you are real, okay? But only as mental construct.

Mental construct means, in Buddhism, you see pieces out there. Black, round, white, red, blue. You see pieces.

Then a karmic seed opens in your mind, and it makes a little picture of Elena, okay? You're coming for me. A little picture comes up in your mind.

Then your mind organizes all the pieces together. Which thing your mind organizes, good or bad, nice or not, scary or beautiful, that depends on your karma, okay? If you had a good karma seed, when it opens it makes a nice person, okay?

If you had a bad karma seed, when it opens it makes a picture out of the same parts which is not nice, okay? There's no Elena out there, okay? There's pieces.

There's hand pieces, shoulder pieces, head pieces. Then my karma seed opens and organizes into a good Elena or a bad Elena, okay? Got it?

Now listen to Kamalashila, okay? Ready? When you think to yourself, these are all only my own mental construction, construct, you are in that moment living in a mental construct, okay?

Unless you are seeing emptiness directly, unless you are seeing emptiness directly, then in the moment that you understand Elena, you are misunderstanding Elena. Because you are using mental constructs to understand a mental construct. You, and her, and the room, and the computer, and the commentary, you are making all of them, but while you're understanding it you forget, okay?

While you are understanding that she's coming from a seed in your mind, and your mind is making her, you're also aware of yourself, right? Like, I'm making her. The me that you think of at that moment is a construct, the situation is a construct, and you think, oh, I finally understood.

Elena is a construct. I understood. And you are in a constructed room, and you are having a constructed understanding, got it?

When you understand that someone else is coming from you, you is also coming from you, but you don't, you can't think about it. And the whole room is coming from you, okay? And the understanding is coming from you, but you're inside of it, you can't think about it, okay?

Got it? You are using wrong ideas to think about right ideas, okay? Got it?

Unless you're seeing emptiness directly. All other understandings of emptiness are misunderstandings, because you misunderstand the person having the understanding, even while you're having the understanding. You can't get out of it.

Your equipment is defective. It's like you have a telescope and the glass is cracked, and you're like, wow, look at those two moons in the sky. And it doesn't matter how you turn the telescope or how you focus it, you're still gonna see the wrong thing, okay?

It's very difficult to see the truth with equipment which is broken, okay? You can, even when you see it correctly, some teacher explains it to you correctly, and you understand it, you are still having a wrong feeling about you at the same moment, okay? Got it?

Okay? When you understand you are creating Elena, you forget that you are creating the understanding also, and you can't get out of it. It's a catch-22, okay?

You're gonna keep doing that. You okay? I feel so happy because the Chinese people look confused.

Mr. Wu told me, try to confuse the Chinese people, they love it. Anyway, I'm not just ... this is kamalashila, okay?

It's the emptiness of emptiness, okay? Even while you are understanding the object, Elena, you are misunderstanding the room, and you, and today, okay? You can only understand one thing at a time, and then you misunderstand everything else.

The understander you misunderstand. Got it? You okay?

So, that's why it's so hard to get out of samsara, okay? That's why it's so hard to get out of a cycle, okay? You must see emptiness directly.

At that time, you're not mistaken, okay? All other perceptions according to Madhyamika Prasangika are mistaken. I think we can do one more and then we'll take a break.

What is the picture? I don't remember. Oh good, good question.

Yeah, I just wanted to see if I could get sued by the movie company. You tell me, how many people saw Titanic? Now be honest, especially boys, how many people cried when they saw Titanic?

Come on. I cried. I ran out and called my lama.

What were you crying about? Two fake people on a fake screen, on a fake Titanic, with a hit of fake iceberg, okay? They don't love each other, and they got paid to love each other, okay?

He wasn't telling her sweet things on the front of the ship when she's going like this. Five minutes later, they're like talking to their agent. Did we make enough money out of that?

The whole thing's fake, okay? Got it? Does that make sense?

Yeah. Don't forget, the situation is fake, okay? When you understand Elena, the situation is fake, okay?

Even while you're understanding Elena, you're misunderstanding Elena. What's a barometer, what's a sign of that? You finally feel comfortable with this process.

There's parts of Elena, I get a mental image comes out of my seeds, and then I understand her, and then Geshe-la says, you don't. Then you're like, what do you mean? That's a sign you weren't understanding.

If you can get upset when Geshe-la says, you didn't understand anything. You're like, what do you mean? That's a sign you're taking your understanding self-existent, okay?

Alright? You don't understand anything, what do you mean? If you understand where the understanding coming from, you can't get upset.

You don't understand anything. That's okay Geshe-la, you can say that. Okay, got it?

Okay, one more thing then we'll take a break. What's the next picture? What's the next picture?

A young child with eyeglasses, okay? What must have happened? Did she go to the store and pay money and get the eyeglasses?

No. Okay, if ... okay, this is logic, okay?

We're gonna go to logic. Deduction. If you see a young child with eyeglasses on, what can you deduce?

What can you guess about their parents? They care about her. They had her eyes ...

my brother, my little brother, he kept failing in school till like fourth grade. He failed over and over. Everybody called him stupid.

Suddenly, the teacher in fourth grade said, he can't see anything. He needs glasses, you know? They gave him glasses.

Suddenly, he got smart. He couldn't see anything, okay? So, when you see a small child with eyeglasses, it's a proof that someone loves them, and someone took them to check their eyes at a very young age, okay?

The seeing is proof of some love in the background, okay? Some ... and she's grateful, right?

My brother was so grateful to the teacher. Still, he's grateful to this teacher, you know? You made me not stupid, thank you.

Okay? So, the idea is, Kamalashila says, if you see, what? Emptiness.

It's proof that you were grateful in the past, because that's the karma it takes, okay? Being grateful to your teachers, your parents, directors at Diamond Mountain, this is a good time to hit you up. The staff works really hard here, okay?

The way to see emptiness is gratitude. Understand? So, I know some of you gave a donation to the staff last week.

That was last week. This is this week, okay? Different retreat, okay?

And they did a different week of work, okay? So, I propose today we fill up this bag with some extra thank-you money for the staff. I'll give $500 again, no pressure, okay?

You got to find it in there, good luck. Okay, but give something, okay? Let's make them crazy.

Let's give them a lot, okay? Last time you gave a lot, they almost had a heart attack, it was really ... I was really happy, okay?

So, here we go again. Then tomorrow, we'll ask them to come. Is that okay, Melissa?

Yeah, Michael? Yeah, okay. We'll invite them in tomorrow and thank them, okay?

You got it? Okay. So, this meditation about the young girl with eyeglasses means ...

the karma to understand what I'm saying today, a lot of it comes from thanking other people, okay? According to Kamalashila, okay? The karma to understand the emptiness of emptiness, okay?

The karma to understand what's going on today is thanking other people. If you had trouble in class today so far, if some of the things I said sound crazy, then what can you do before tomorrow? Thank somebody, like put some more money in the bag, okay?

And then tomorrow your mind will change, okay? According to Kamalashila, the seeing, which is the eyeglasses on the girl, right? The seeing comes from thanking.

In her case, she's got to thank who? Her parents were kind enough to take her at a very early age and check her eyes, okay? So, that picture is supposed to remind you, if you want to see kongshing, if you want to see emptiness, just go crazy thanking people, okay?

And if you start ... you know, right now you're like, Geshe-la I only know two people I can thank. Well, start making a list, okay?

Then tomorrow it will be four people, and by next week there'll be a hundred people. And it's so fun to thank people, okay? Don't thank people artificially, you know?

Don't go around thanking people who didn't do anything for you, okay? I'm not asking that. Just think about it, who helped you.

There's many many people to thank. I'm not saying you have to, oh, thank you Yi Yi, you know, for being here, I don't know. Like, just thank the people who really did something for you, and you will be thanking people all day, okay?

You just don't think about it, okay? I was watching these guys take the chairs to the fire offering last night, and they do that kind of stuff, they are lifting stuff all day, carrying stuff all day, and everyone's just think the chairs got there. Probably the chairs flew there, you know?

And especially when we all go home, the chairs are gonna fly back to the temple, you know? We don't think somebody has to carry them, right? And it hurts to carry many things, okay?

So, okay, if you want to see emptiness, thank a lot of people, okay? According to Kamalashila, this is one of the main karmas to see emptiness, okay? Alright, let's take a break, and we'll do some more later.

I'll answer some questions later, okay? Get some questions ready, okay? See you in 10-15 minutes, okay?

So, two questions. When I'm in the crystal at the end of the death process, and I'm looking at this emptiness, and I feel happy about the potential to help all beings, then who's the old me that sees the new me, right? And it seems confusing because there's two me's right there.

And then the second question was, when I feel the science ... I'm sorry, yeah, oh yeah, okay. So, let's do the first question.

Yeah, the idea is that the old me, right? Who's not a Buddha, looks at the emptiness and says, I would like to be that now. And then it becomes the new me, and the old me is gone.

Then the old me is gone. So, that's called NGA RGYAL, and means for as long as you can, hold it. You try to hold the idea, now I'm a different person.

I have a Dharma body, and I would like to show on many different worlds, okay? So, it's called BDAG PA'I GNOD RDZOR. BDAG PA'I GNOD RDZOR means ...

it's a beautiful word in the secret teachings, Vajrayana. It's called the yoga of make-belief, the yoga of faking it. So, GNOD RDZOR means yoga.

BDAG PA'I means artificial, okay? So, it means ... it's called the yoga of pretending you are Spider-Man, you know, until it becomes you.

So, there's an uncomfortable period between being a normal boy and becoming Spider-Man. Between there, you are pretending to be Spider-Man, but you're not really Spider-Man, okay? Then pretending you're Spider-Man creates karmic seeds to become Spider-Man.

So, a lot of Vajrayana teaching, Diamond Way, involves pretending you are Dharmakaya, and then pretending you're a Dharmakaya helps you make the seeds to become Dharmakaya, okay? That leads to your second question. If somebody sits down and explains to you the 112 signs of a Buddha, right?

If you're in the room when they're explaining what an angel looks like, right? We say you are very close to becoming an angel, or you wouldn't hear about it, you know? You would decide to go to Tucson today and see a movie or something, okay?

For some reason, you wouldn't be in the room when we're talking about Buddha signs. If you're in the room when we talk about Buddha signs, or if you're doing a meditation where you pretend the wheels are on your hand, then we say you are already very close to having them, okay? Because you're in the room when people are talking about them, okay?

So, while you're pretending to have wheels on your hand, you can think in your mind, you know, this is cool because I must be close to have them. People ask me, can you see these beings, you know? Can you see Buddhas?

And you can, and when you get close to being them, you can see them, okay? Tantra has two levels, very famous, okay? SKYE RIM RDZO RIM, okay?

SKYE RIM means the exercise of trying to make contact with angels, real angels, like the first half of Tantra is dedicated to methods for meeting angels, enlightened beings, real, real ones, and talking to them, and hanging out with them, okay? Then level two of Tantra is where they train you, because you can meet them and talk to them, then they train you to become like them, okay? So, those are called the SKYE RIM and RDZO RIM, okay?

So, it's kind of similar what we're talking about. If you already heard about the signs, and if someone's about to teach you all the karmas to get the signs, it means you're very close to getting them, okay? Or you wouldn't be in the room.

And, I don't know, those of us at Diamond Mountain for years, we've seen really weird things happen to people the day before they got the explanation about the signs, you know, they broke their leg, or you know, some weird thing happened, you know, somebody in their family died, and they're just about to hear all the signs and then they had to go away, and somehow they didn't have enough karma to be in the room, okay?

Which reminds me, I didn't tell you the karma for all the signs. So, let's just go through it quickly, and then I'll take more questions, okay? So, now I'm talking about the essay you got, it's in your notebook, we talked about the first two parts.

What was the first part of that essay? What source? Yeah, so the first part of that essay was Maitreya said, here's the 112 signs, okay?

How many major signs? 32? 80 minor signs, minor marks.

So, remember in that essay I always put S1 or M1, S means major sign, M means minor mark, okay? What was the second part of that essay? Yeah, how to group them together so you can remember them, okay?

Like, how many signs on my hands? How many signs below my tummy? How many signs below your tummy?

Three, okay, good. And then the third part of the essay is by Gung Thang Kway Chow Denpa'i Dunme, okay? Famous Lama, and he went and got all the karmas.

He found all the different karmas that you need to get each of the signs. So, I'm starting on page 19. I'm starting on page 19, and this is where he starts to explain the karma to get each of the signs, okay?

Where did he get it? There's a very, very famous commentary to Maitreya by a Lama named Haribhadra, Haribhadra, okay? Hari is another word for Singha, lion, like Singapore, okay?

So, Haribhadra is the Sengesambo in Tibetan. And very, very famous commentary, huge, huge commentary. And he discusses the karma for each sign, okay?

So, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it, you can read it yourself, but just for purposes of transmission, I'll go through some of the signs with you, okay? First one, and he tries to give examples of real people. So, there was a young man named Sudhana in the scriptures, and he did three things, he prostrate to his teacher, he walked around his teacher.

In Buddhism, if you see some holy thing you walk around them, okay? In the secret teachings, if you see somebody you think is, could be, you know, Buddha, but you're not sure, like you're going to the shopping mall, and especially on ... what's that road called in Singapore?

Which road? What's the main shopping road? Forget it.

Not Takashimaya, that's ... it's like Lotus Road or something. I don't remember.

Anyway, if you suddenly see somebody you think might be Buddha, there's a custom in Tantra that you walk around them three times, okay? So, if you're not 100% sure and you don't want them to hit you or something, you can just kind of make a wide circle around them, you know? And then you kind of look at them and maybe they give you some sign, okay?

They go like ... you know? And then you can just go on, you just be happy, okay?

Today I met a Buddha, okay? So, it's real, it happens. How many people around you are Buddhas in disguise?

Is it one in this room, or is it everybody except me? We don't know, okay? I really don't know.

It's safer to be safe, right? Maybe everybody. Respect everybody, could be, right?

Buddha. So anyway, he did prostration, he walked around his teacher, and especially he took his teacher where the teacher has to go, like help ... I was my teacher's driver for 25 years, okay?

And it's cool, it's very cool. Jigme has been my driver longer than that I think. Anyway, so I made a mistake when I told you it was the cause of this.

It's really the cause of the wheels, okay? I heard that someplace, maybe it's correct or not, I don't know. Here it says that helping your teacher, especially taking them someplace, is cause of these wheels, okay?

Karmic cause, okay? Then he says, don't think those wheels are like tattoos or somebody drew them with a pen, they are three-dimensional, they are like somebody pressed them into your head. Okay, second sign, S2.

What is the second sign? Yeah, the bottom of his or her feet is smooth as a frog's belly, okay? We used to have frogs when I was growing up, desert frogs, and in the beginning we picked them up and feel their belly, it's very smooth, but when they get scared they pee-pee.

So, we stopped doing that. So, in his previous life Lord Buddha was called the Lion, and he always kept his promises, especially his vows. So, here commitments means vows.

When he took refuge vows or Bodhisattva vows, he kept them, and because of that the skin on his feet became smooth, okay? The goal is not to have smooth feet, okay? It's just an extra, you know?

It's like extra bonus, okay? The goal is to become Buddha, right? So, don't worry too much about your feet, okay?

The goal is to ... the feet are just a sign of something more powerful, okay? So, the outer signs are not that important, okay?

It's the karma that they reflect, okay? If you have them it means you kept your vows, okay? So, the important thing is keeping your vows, it's not how soft are your feet, okay?

Got it? Don't get all hung up on the signs, okay? Oh, I'm not a good person, I have cracks on my feet, okay?

Don't ... please don't think like that. If you think like that I'm not going to teach signs anymore, okay?

The goal ... it's just a sign that you are ... of something inside, that you're a good person.

That's the important thing, okay? Not the sign. Can you have cracked feet and be a nice person?

Yes. Can you have cracked feet and keep your vows? Yes.

Do all people who keep their vows not have cracked feet? No. Okay?

So, don't take it too seriously. Keep the vows, don't worry about your feet. Okay.

S3. Then you guys know the four ways of collecting disciples, right? Attracting disciples, okay?

Number one, give them cool stuff, you know? Like, alright, you know, give them gifts. I like Dharma gifts, you know, but you can give them smoothies and things like that, okay?

Second, encourage ... be encouraging, okay? Like, I think my teacher didn't hear about the second one.

Right, JB? Boy, he used to yell at me all day. Anyway.

Okay, third one? Yeah, like, try to get them to do the real practice and not just talk about it, okay? Don't just study, but carry it out in your real life, okay?

Fourth one? Yeah, you have to do what you're describing, okay? You want a teacher training?

This is a teacher training. By the way, the Singapore group just gave $15,000 donation for scholarships to the DCI-ACI teacher training. I liked it, thank you.

And on the application form, I asked Scott Noreed, please put a pie chart and it shows all the cost of having the training, what it costs us to have the training, so that you know we are not making money, okay? We are losing money nicely. It's very Buddhist, okay?

So, you know ... so, by the way, you're welcome to apply, the application is online. Where?

Sedona College of International Management, am I right? It's on the DCI website, okay? On the first teacher training at the new college is in January, you're welcome to apply, okay?

And the application process is tough, it's ... we got the application from Harvard and Princeton, okay? So, don't blame me, we just copied it.

I mean, shh! And we want ... we want to make it serious, and we want you to be serious, okay?

And there's a charge for the 10-day teacher training, and that's a donation to Sedona City Taxes, Air Conditioning Company, Internet Company, Water Company, okay? Maintenance, blah blah blah, okay? The first program at the college is November 4th, 5th, and 6th, it's already too small, okay?

We are almost double capacity, okay? Some people won't be able to sit in the classroom, okay? So, you know, is it a big fancy building?

It's not ... it's already not enough on the first day, okay? Some people will have to sit and watch a TV screen, okay?

In the first classes that we ever hold there, it's already too small, okay? So, we didn't ... we should have made a bigger one, but it was expensive, it is expensive, okay?

I'm sorry for that, but that's the way it is, okay? Almost half the people in the first program will be watching on a TV screen, okay? Cannot be in the class, okay?

All right, so, that's what made these webs between the hands of the ... fingers of the Buddha. He says begins from the first joint on down, okay?

So, from here to here there's some, like webbing, okay? But he's careful to say, you can still wear a ring. So, those of you who are married, you don't have to worry, somehow you can still wear a ring, okay?

Okay. I think it would be interesting meditation to think about what's a connection, you know? Like, what's that got to do with my fingers, you know?

This thing between my fingers, why does that have to do with attracting disciples, okay? Maybe it's bringing people together. The word in Buddhism is bringing people together, the four ways of bringing people together, okay?

Okay. Fourth major sign, Buddha came to have youthful skin, firm and trim, because he gave other people things to drink and eat, okay? So, we have this dream of ...

these are called correlations, right? Like, Geshe-la, what do I have to do if I want, I don't know, if I want my lips to be more red without lipstick, then what kind of karma should I do? When you have questions like that, you can go to this list, okay?

You want to know that one? Which one is that? Bimbadharma ...

well, it's a mark, it's on this list, yeah, he put it on this list. He's got the marks here also, but not much detail, okay? You can look it up.

Okay, number five, major mark. Then he has this distinctive, kind of larger ... like the back of his hands are ...

if you look in a painting, a good painting of the Buddha, it's kind of big, okay? In Tibet, there's a very strict custom of drawing the Buddha, okay? There are instructions in the scriptures, how big should the nose be, how big ...

and you ... when you draw a thangka of Buddha, it has measurement from here to here, here to here, here to here, here to here, here to here, like hundreds measurements just to draw Buddha. You're not allowed to be artistic.

So, people get bored of those thangkas because they're all the same, okay? You are supposed to follow the exact dimensions that Buddha was, okay? So, you can check it out.

Why porridge connects with not having indentations on your body, you have to figure it out, okay? Kongkong means you don't have like unattractive dips in your body, okay? You're nicely rounded, okay?

Okay, sixth major sign. Buddha's long fingers mean he helped give other people longer life, longer life, okay? And there's a famous incident where our Buddha, in a past life, called ...

what's it called? Nyingtop Chenpo, Mahasattva, Great Courage. He was born as a prince named Great Courage, and you know the story, he gave his body to a tiger, tigress, and her four cubs, and they became his first five disciples, okay?

In ... yeah, Sarnath I think. Okay, let's do one more and then I'll take some questions, okay?

Then Buddha, when he found people having disagreements or fights, then he tried to use wise and peaceful means to stop it, okay? And because of that, he got nice heels, very ... what do you call it?

He can do three pose perfect, okay? All four sides of his feet are very strong and equal, okay? I like the story of the first Panchen Lama.

He lived to almost a hundred years old. Many of you studied his lamrim. He has a great lamrim.

It's the first two or three years of our Tantric course. Three courses of Diamond Mountain Tantric course is the first Panchen Lama's lamrim. And one day he was in retreat on a mountain, like back here, and ...

we own all of this land by the way, that you can see out the window, and some more on the other side for future cottages, okay? And some ... his assistant who was bringing him lunch said, oh by the way, you might want to know there's a war gonna start outside your cave, you know, in about half an hour, okay?

And the assistant is not supposed to tell him things like that. Like when I was in retreat when 9-11 happened, and we had good attendance, they didn't tell us anything. On the day I got out of retreat, someone told me about it.

And then the newspapers came to interview us, because we are the only people in the world that didn't know about it, like two years later. So anyway, Panchen Lama said, okay I will break my retreat, and he went down, and he stood between the two armies, and they're both Buddhists armies, and they know his famous Lama. He said, if you're gonna have a war you have to kill me first.

Then they're like, oh man, we want to have a war. And he said, and I'll pay you both a bribe if you stop. And he gave them a huge amount of money, okay?

Each general, he gave a big amount of money to keep them from fighting, okay? So that kind of karma makes your feet more firm, okay? Changes your feet, okay?

Then I'm not gonna do the rest of them, we don't have time. You can read them yourself, and the idea is, you learn the correlations for things you want in your life, okay? If you want your life to be more stable, then try to stop other people from fighting, like people in your family are fighting with each other, then try to make peace.

Maybe bribe both sides with some money, please stop fighting, and then because of that your own life will be more stable. So you can read these karmas in your reading groups, and then I think you guys can figure out the karma for many different things, okay? This is a great source for different kinds of karma, okay?

What's another great source? The Wheel of Sharp—what? The Crown of Knives, okay?

Wheel of Sharp Weapons is a bad translation, okay? It's a Crown of Knives, okay? What's another good source?

Lamrim Chemos, okay? Jataka Tales are good, okay? Alright, I'm gonna take some more questions.

Up to Hero. Thank you for the teachings Geshe-la. You're very welcome.

About the emptiness of emptiness—oh, excuse me, somebody asked me why the photograph. It's supposed to be the bottom of a well, okay? So, when you look down a well, it's very dark at the bottom.

And I was trying to show, you know, the black represents emptiness, and it has its own emptiness, because it's deep, okay? Deep is a code word in Buddhism for the emptiness side of things. So, I knew you would get it.

Okay, Nick. So, about the emptiness of emptiness, you're saying emptiness is empty because it couldn't be—something couldn't be empty without the Gakja, or if we didn't deny something, it wouldn't be empty. So, that's Kamalashila's argument here.

That's what Master Kamalashila— There are many other arguments, yeah. Right, of course. That's—I mean, I just wanted some clarification.

He's basically saying that it depends on this Gakja to be empty. Kamalashila went on a—I mean, you have to read Kamalashila, but by the way, I have my notes, and I've translated most of the text in my notes, so people like Michael and Melissa can teach the detail. It's not an official translation, okay?

It's a rough translation, but his argument is that because of statements in the Diamond Cutter Sutra, in history, people misunderstood it and thought that everything was nothing, or that that was emptiness. And then his argument is very fresh. It's not one that we've ever heard before.

He said, if everything is empty, then there's no Gakja. If everything is nothing, then there's nothing we deny when we say emptiness. That's all.

And I'm calling that the emptiness of emptiness. Is it a lower school? No, it's not a lower school.

Oh, it is a lower school to say that emptiness means nothing exists. That's like, that's like Buddhist school flunked out, flunked out of Buddhist school. Failed Buddhist school.

Like, didn't even make it to the lower school, okay? Is it a lower school to say that emptiness is empty because it depends on, like, a cause or a condition for it? That's a tricky question, okay?

So, the perception of emptiness depends on the Gakja, right? Understanding emptiness depends on the Gakja, but legally you can't say that an empty thing grows from something else or something like that, because they don't change. Anything that grows from a seed goes through this sine wave thing where it starts, it gets bigger, it peaks, and then it dies.

And you learned that in DCI 7, I think. Yeah, so it's illegal in any Buddhist school to say that emptiness has a cause, yeah? I think you could say it has a condition.

I think you could say that, yeah? If the Gakja didn't exist, then because emptiness depends on the Gakja, it couldn't exist. You can say that, but both are constant.

So, then you have to learn the difference between constant and eternal, okay? And that's a DCI level 7, big thing in DCI level 7. When Buddhism says something is unproduced, uncaused, but it exists, it doesn't mean it's eternal, okay?

For example, this cup has its own emptiness. When I break the cup, that emptiness goes out of existence. So, while it's here, the emptiness is a hundred percent emptiness, never less.

But when the object which has it is destroyed, it goes out of existence, okay? That's all. No problem.

And that has to do with subtle impermanence, and many, many people misunderstand that. Most people, okay? Thank you Geshe-la.

You're very welcome. So, when you say that the cup goes out of existence, then the emptiness... No, the emptiness goes out of existence.

The cup is destroyed. Okay, when the cup is broken, emptiness goes out of existence. Yeah.

So, for a Buddha who has no mistaken perception, how can emptiness exist for a Buddha? There is no Gakja or Buddha. That's a good point.

They remember the Gakja they used to have. So, when they are in ... they say that they are, you know, in a perception of emptiness in all moments, with appearances.

So, they're remembering their mistaken perception of appearances before? Yeah, that's correct. Yeah, they have to.

Otherwise there's no emptiness. That's correct, yeah. They have an awareness of the self-existent thing they used to think was there.

For example, their ex-husband, or ex-wife, okay? The person who makes you most angry still. They still remember how they used to think about it, yeah.

Or they still see how other people see things, and so they're aware of the Gakja. That's a good point, yeah. You don't have to be believing in an existence ...

self-existent thing at present to appreciate Gakjas. Good point. One more question, I think.

Am I right? Do we stop at 9.30? Am I right?

Okay, okay. Thank you Geshe-la, here. Hi.

Oh, by the way, while Jasmine's ... just before you start, I'm going to interrupt you before you start. So, in December we're going to have the next Lam Rim retreat, ten days, free, okay?

All these retreats are free. You don't have to pay anything, you don't pay anything for the teaching. You pay for your stomach, and you pay to sleep, but there's no charge for the teaching.

Then Jigme gets up and whines about how little money I have, and you make a donation, okay? But there's no charge for the teaching, okay? So, if you have time in December, especially if you're in Beijing, and it's so cold there in December ...

I was there, I almost lost my American nose, you know? It was so cold in Beijing. Then you just get on the airplane and come for three hours to Thailand, to the beach, and we will have Lam Rim there, okay?

It's a very, very beautiful hotel on the beach, and you can stay warm while all your friends in Beijing are freezing, and you can also get enlightened. So, if you'd like to come, talk to Jasmine, and also ... Yeah.

And I will repeat something I said in the Lam Rim course. You know, I go around the world all year with my friends and other teachers, and we teach these courses, okay? Then, you can't go to all of them unless you are very wealthy, okay?

And you don't have family, okay? So, you have to use your good judgment, you know? How many can you come to without disturbing your family?

Because you have to keep your commitments or you won't have solid feet, okay? So, it's not Buddhism to hurt your family, okay? You made a promise to your wife, you made a promise to your husband, you have responsibilities with your children and your parents, and you know, it's part of Buddhism to keep your responsibilities, okay?

So, I love it when you come to everything. I love to see you. I love to be with you, but you have to use wisdom to choose how many programs you can come to, which programs you come to, okay?

Don't hurt your family, don't hurt your job, don't hurt your income, okay? You have to be responsible, you know? Like women who have a child, you know?

Then they have extra responsibility, and you have to do ... you know, then you have responsibility to your husband, you have responsibility to your children, and then you have ... you have to do both, okay?

You have to balance those things. So, I don't want you to become Dharma, hippie, broke person, following Geshe Michael around, attacking other people's refrigerators, okay? Sleeping on their couch, and things like that, okay?

You should have a life, you should have a career, you should have an interesting job, you should make money, and you should support the people you're supposed to support. At the same time, you should become a great meditator, a great teacher, okay? So, but I ask you to balance it, okay?

I don't want you to become irresponsible, okay? Keeping your old commitments is part of keeping your new commitments, okay? Alright, now we'll actually have a question.

First, a little advertisement for the Thailand retreat. For anyone who are here in this room today, you can still enjoy the early bird prize of September for the Thailand retreat. And other people outside will not have this priority.

[Speaker 2]
Even nothing is nothing. I would like to confirm my understanding. Is it true that there are two husbands?

The husband that was not created by our seed is not there. The husband that was not created by our seed is nothing. First, I would like to confirm this understanding.

Second, I would like to ask you, when you were talking about the seven steps, you repeatedly used the credit card that was not in your pocket, and the husband that was not created by our seed is not there. These two examples are empty. But you told us that the first example is not empty after all.

The second example is the real emptiness. Then why don't you directly enter the ultimate emptiness? Why do you have to use the credit card that is not in your pocket at all?

[Speaker 1]
The question is about meditation number 16, the deep well. It's talking about even nothing is nothing. You used two examples.

One is the discovered credit card. One is the pink elephant. What was the second one?

The purple elephant. Purple elephant, yeah. Also Geshe-la, you used to use the example.

You can also use your ex-husband, or ex-wife. Who hurt you? So I want to confirm my understanding of this by using another example that you often use, which is the missing husband in the kitchen.

Does it mean that the husband who doesn't come from my seed is not there? It's the nothing here? Yeah, that's correct.

That's the first question. Second, in DCI level 7, you talked about... but let me say one thing.

The first nothing is the husband in the kitchen who call you phantom, who doesn't come from you. The second one is that you do have a picture of him in your mind. So it's not that there's no picture.

Okay? So, if you say there's nothing there, that's also not true. There's a picture in your mind of a husband who's angry, who's coming from his own side.

That picture exists. That false picture, fake picture. But it exists, okay?

Yeah, came out of your seed, yeah. So, I'll tell you something we're going to study tomorrow. And this comes from my own experience.

So, I sat in my teacher's class for 25 years, okay? Almost every day. Sometimes all day.

Then he kept saying, everything's empty, everything's empty. Then I finally got upset, you know? And you're not supposed to...

in Tibet you're not allowed to ask question or interrupt. Then I just couldn't stop. I said, Rinpoche, the door is there.

I see the door. What am I doing wrong? Just stop all this philosophy.

Just tell me what am I doing wrong, you know? I see a door. It's a door.

Is it wrong? He said, no. But every time you see a door, you have a feeling about it deep down.

What's the feeling? Oh, I remember David Stumpf bought this door in Tucson at the Home Depot, you know? I remember it came from Tucson.

I remember we had to pay money. I remember we built a temple to hold the door, you know? This is where the door came from.

All of those feelings are wrong. So, we call nested. In computer language, nested.

One idea is in the other ideas, in the other ideas, in the other idea, okay? So, when you look at the door, it's always mix up correct perception and mistake perception at the same time. Nested, like an egg in a nest, okay?

Is it a door? Yes. Did it come from Tucson?

Yes. Did we pay money for it? Yes.

Is that where the door came from? No. Okay?

But there's this feeling that the door came from Tucson. It's correct about Tucson, but it's wrong that this is why the door came here. So, in English, you can say difference between why and how, okay?

How did the door come here on a truck from Tucson? Why did the door come here? I helped someone else make a door.

Got it? Second related question is in DZI 7, you talk about emptiness a lot, and you're using two examples. One is the missing credit card that could be there, but I didn't bring it with me.

The second one is the husband, which is not coming from your sister. Doesn't exist. By the way, it's important to say even if the credit card was there, it's fake.

Okay? The fake credit card is missing. But in DCI level 7, you say ...

you didn't say that, and you said the first example of the missing credit card is not the real emptiness. The second one is the real one. So, Jasmine's question is that why do you still use the first example to talk about emptiness?

Why don't you just use the real example? What's the trick? There's two gotchas.

You want to go deeper? Yes! There's ...

you can divide ... gotcha means thing we want to stop. Okay?

And ... if you want to go deeper, there's two kinds of gotcha. There's a LAM GYI gotcha, and a RIGS PA'I gotcha.

LAM GYI gotcha means the thing you have to stop with your practice. The thing you have to stop with your practice. Okay?

RIGS PA'I gotcha means the thing we deny exists. Okay? Now, the first kind of gotcha is something which does exist.

The second kind of gotcha is something which cannot exist. Things you want to stop in Buddhism. Okay?

For example, I want to stop my anger. In that case, we can call anger gotcha. Does anger exist?

Yeah! Okay? Then also, I want to stop this idea about the husband who didn't come from me.

Does he exist? Cannot. Cannot exist.

Okay? So, technically, there's two gotchas. One is the real credit card, like American Express, and one is the fake credit card, like Discover.

Okay? First one really exists, and I didn't bring it to the restaurant. Second one, even if I brought it to the restaurant, I can't use it.

That's the story of my credit cards. Okay, got it? Chew on it!

Alright.