Нагарджуна, курс 1 — Мудрость Арьи Нагарджуны, курс 1: Восемь невидимых (2018, Аризона), занятие 1

[Speaker 1]
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right then, so welcome to the wisdom of Arya Ngarjuna, which is a new course, new ACI course, and I'd like to tell you a little bit about the course and the plan, and then we'll get into it.

So I've been, we've been doing, first there was two retreats a year in Arizona to teach the Lam Rim, the Steps of the Path by Pabongka Rinpoche, which my teacher taught me several times, and over 25 years period. And I thought I would like to pass it on word by word, you know, in my lifetime. And we're making good progress on that.

I think it's been eight or nine years, and it's going a little slower than we expected, but that's because we're going deeper and deeper. And I really love it, and I'm committed to that, and we will finish it. So I think three more years, four more years, I don't know.

The retreats were increased. We added a retreat in Guadalajara, and we added a retreat in Thailand, and so it went from two retreats a year to four retreats a year. And a couple things happened.

I think it became too many for people to come to. I think it's, you know, even if you're like a very wealthy person, to fly to Thailand, and then fly to Guadalajara, and fly to Arizona, it's expensive. So I thought, I was trying to think of how to solve this problem.

So I thought we would kind of change this retreat, the fall retreat at Diamond Mountain. We started doing Kamalashila, explanation of the Diamond Cutter, and I guess it took three or four years, and we finished it. And we did it during the Lam Rim, so people came for seven or eight or ten days for Lam Rim, and then people stayed for Nagarjuna, if they wanted to go, sorry, Kamalashila, if they wanted to go deeper.

And it's too long, like you're gonna get divorced if you stay here for two weeks, and your husband's like, what are you doing? And so I was trying to solve all these problems, and I had an idea that in the fall, in the autumn, which means this month, October, in Diamond Mountain, we could just do Nagarjuna. And then in Guadalajara, if you guys want, and if you will, we have to do some organization work there, which we'll talk about this week, but we could continue with the Lam Rim there.

With mole, I got mole, with some extra sauce. I got mole from Mexico City. I'm so happy.

So, you know, not just Lam Rim, which is boring and technical, and so we spice it. My idea is to spice it with other Nagarjuna spice. So Nagarjuna taught many things, and I would like to add some poblanos and jalapenos, Nagarjuna jalapeno, to Chile, to the Mexico program.

And then same in Thailand, but this time we're kind of trying to make Thailand more of a family retreat, encourage people to bring their parents, which is sort of more common in Asia, and to bring their children and have special programs for them in Thailand. So Thailand's kind of taken care of. We have lots of additional things there.

And then Diamond Mountain in the springtime, we'll just do Lam Rim, which people think is dry and hard. It's been eight or nine years, and they're like, Geshe-la, when's this going to end? Personally, I don't want it to end.

And I think it's very important, so I'm going to keep going, even if there's one person here called Geshe-la. I will keep going, okay? So I'm not going to stop the Lam Rim.

I think it's very important, and I want to pass on what was given to me. So that's the plan. But this time, and then I'm thinking maybe, Tim, we organize some, this just came in my head, some podcast or something in between the whole year about Nagarjuna, because you can't do Nagarjuna once a year.

You need a little reinforcement, so we'll figure out. I did an interesting podcast to Germany, right? A couple days ago, and it was very, people really enjoyed it, and many, many people watched it.

So maybe we try some more of that to keep you up on Nagarjuna, so you don't just do Nagarjuna once a year, okay? So let's try something like that from my bathroom in my house. Just the upper part, and we'll do that.

So I also got a lot of feedback that Geshe-la, in the Lam Rim course, there's not much chance for the students to interact and to participate. You know, you are just talking for 10 hours every day. And this is how I was trained, you know, in the monastery.

You go to class, sometimes 8 hours, sometimes 10 hours. You just sit there, and they talk to you, you know, and they teach you. And actually you're not allowed to ask questions, and you're not allowed to say anything.

Almost you're not allowed to pee-pee either. And so I was brought up that way for 25 years, you know. I did that for 25 years.

So it's in my blood to, I want revenge. I want to make the students sit for 8 hours and don't say anything, and try to look awake. Learn how to sleep with your eyes open.

But I've been watching what Scott and Orit have done such a good job at the college, at our college in Sedona. And I'm very impressed. Mostly it's Orit's idea, because she did an education degree.

There's a lot of interaction. The students have to do a lot of work. The students get a lot of chances to interact.

They get a lot of chances to design things. They do videos. They do lots of cool things.

They do game show. They have buzzers and questions, and they get, they win coffee shop certificates, and it's a lot of fun. So I'm kind of like many of us.

I'm jealous of this program, and I'm thinking how to steal some of those things. So I'm going to change Nagarjuna a little bit different. I gave a program in China called China Soft Power.

We chose, we limit to 40 executives. Mostly they own their own companies, and we want them to learn the ancient culture of China and use it in their business, you know. So this is organized by Stanley and Allison.

They're doing a really good job. It's amazing. Yeah.

And we are, we have a small translator group there, well 40 people, and they are learning to translate one of the greatest books of China, which is by a master named Yun Tzu, who's a student of Xuanzang. Xuanzang went to India for 17 years, walked through India, visited Nagarjuna's library 1,300 years ago, and his student wrote one of the greatest books on interpreting the Buddha, the art of interpretation. And it's 2,000 pages, and it's, sorry, 1,475 pages.

And Geshe-la is trying not to exaggerate. He got information from his partner about this. So anyway, we're going to work through this book.

It's a great explanation of what the Buddha really meant. And so I was thinking how to do both at the same time, you know. I have to go there, and I have to wake up at six o'clock and teach in the morning the translators, and then in the afternoon I have to teach the business executives.

So we made a new system in Shenzhen, which I think is very exciting. The executives come to the translation class. Big, big people.

Some of them have very large companies. One of the people who came before is in charge of 1.5 million people. And, you know, I have this idea that the business executives have to come to the translation class, and then they have to choose the cool ideas.

We call it diamond mining, cultural mining. They have to mine the translators' class for cool ideas to use in their business, okay? And this is what Geshe-la does.

This is why you need Geshe-la. But I'm going to teach you what I do. Then you don't need me anymore.

I take those classic books, important books, I study them, and I go mining. I take out the diamonds, and I make DCI programs. You see, that's what I do.

So I'm telling you my secret. Then I thought, let's let the business executives—they're smart people, they are big people—let them go mining, let them go through the great books, and let them pick out great ideas and say, oh, this would be useful in my business. If you change this to modern life, this would be cool in my business, you know?

Oh, this idea would be cool in my business. I can use this in my business, you see? So it was very smart, because we were very stressed out.

We didn't have much time. We made the student to write the course, you see? And we just tried it.

We tried to experiment. Then they had groups. They got into groups, and each group discusses their great idea, how to use one of the translation pieces in their real—in their business, you see?

And so each group came up with their own application to real life of this ancient book, Yönsö. Take out from Yönsö these ideas and use in their real life. And then we had a competition.

Each group choose two or three of their best ideas, and they have to find a photograph, right? A picture, one picture which is perfect for that idea. So if that idea is about, like, not yelling at employees, then you have a picture of a boss like that, or something.

Something you can remember the application, the idea. And we call idem, right? What is it?

Idea image. So they have to come to the translator course. They have to pick out—each individual person pick out, oh, this idea can use for my employees, or this idea I can use for my investors, or this idea I can use for my customers, you see what I mean?

And then they have to make a picture. Then they get in their own groups. They pick the best ones, and then the groups compete.

The groups have to get up and say, this is our—we have these top two ideas for real life that we mined from the ancient wisdom. And actually that's all I do. That's my whole life, you know.

If I teach you that, I can go to Florida and relax, right? With Vimala's dad and mom. So anyway, so I was thinking, me and Tim were working really hard, Jigme, we were trying to think about how to make Nagarjuna more interactive.

Not old Tibetan system, where I talk and you sit and try not to fall asleep, and hold the pee-pee. So we have this idea, okay? So I'm gonna teach Nagarjuna, okay?

I will teach Nagarjuna's greatest book, which we'll talk about. It's called Wisdom. It's just called Prajna.

Say Prajna. Like the Russians are closer. So we're gonna go through the most famous book of Buddhism, really, and no one teaches it much.

And we're gonna go through Nagarjuna's Wisdom, okay? And I'm gonna explain it to you. And then your job, I'm gonna, and I made pretty tough homeworks for you, you know?

Not ACI style. A little tougher, okay? Little tough homeworks for you.

So one of your jobs, while you are being silent, and while your phone is taking a 10-day vacation, you're gonna do your homework, okay? Which will give you all the important information about Nagarjuna's greatest book. But you're also gonna write an idea, okay?

You're gonna go mining yourself in your room every day, one idea, one different idea. Oh, we can use this in business, or we can use this in teaching Dharma, or we can use this in a family problem. So your job, every afternoon, number one, you have to do your homework.

To do your homework, do you have notebooks yet, Tim? No, they need them this morning, they have to take notes. Yeah.

Okay. Hmm. Okay.

You'll get a notebook, okay? And you have to take notes, okay? Because there is no reading.

There is no reading, okay? Maybe I'll give you wisdom at the end, but it's just from your own notes, and from your homework. You're gonna have to create at least one cool idea, mining for diamonds every day, okay?

So this is a trick. If you're a teacher, I'm teaching you a trick, Aldo. Like, now they're gonna listen more carefully.

You should see those business executives, they're like, yeah, last time they were like, you know, now they're like, I'm gonna get, my idea is gonna be better than Aldo's, you know? And so, you gotta take notes, okay? If you hear a cool idea, write it down, okay?

And then you'll get a homework, okay? And it'll be on your homework. So your homework has three parts.

Number one, there's about, I don't know, six to ten questions that you have to answer, okay? Number two, there's a meditation assignment from the lion's dance, and it's just, do level one, do level two, do, okay, like that. Then number three, there's a whole page assignment that says, what's your cool idea from today's teaching?

What's your cool diamond mining idea, okay? And there's a box at the bottom of the homework that you're gonna get graded on your idea. And it says, there's, I think, four questions on the homework.

I have it right here. Number one, is this an important idea, you know? Like, I don't want to see, I learned from the Gajana that I should have two cups of coffee every day, you know?

This is not important, okay? So, first grade you get is, how important is this idea? Is it something that everybody needs?

Number two, is it creative, okay? Or did you copy the first homework answer? You see what I mean?

Did you do something cool? Is it cool? So, you gotta think cool, okay?

We want cool, okay? We want something fun and interesting and cool, okay? Number three, is it authoritative?

Is it really in the Gajana or did you make it up, okay? And this is a line that you have to have as a teacher, how much you put of your own idea and how much is in the Gajana. And I want about 75% in the Gajana, okay?

I don't want you to rewrite the Gajana, okay? You are using the Gajana, okay? And if you're smart, you will find a cool idea, a diamond inside Geshe-la's morning teaching, which other people didn't notice.

That's the goal, you see? You find some cool idea that people can use in their life, which is inside Geshe-la's teaching, but the other people next to you didn't hear it. They didn't notice it, okay?

And be open to anything. I'm open to anything, okay? If you say, here's a new way to tie your shoes every morning, you know, do it with your left hand, maybe something cool, okay?

So, I like creativity. I grew up in that kind of environment where my parents encouraged us to be very creative, okay? So, creativity, important, authoritative, and the most important thing, the fourth thing your new idea is going to be graded on, is can you use it in real life?

Is it something people can use in their real life, okay? So, it can't be too new age, okay? It has to be something you can use in a real life, like the two husbands in the kitchen.

I use it every day. I use it almost every day. I invented it, okay?

That's what I found in the scripture, and I use it myself every day. So, we want something that people can use in their real life, okay? Now, how will your stuff be graded, okay Tim?

We're going to put you in groups from the first day. So, your homework will say, what's your group number, okay? And you will have a group number.

I think the groups are seven to ten people, I don't know. Seven to eight people, okay? And you will be in a group.

You won't meet your group till the end of the week, okay? But you will have a group number, like group number, like we can say sunam is in group number five, okay? And please put that on your homework.

There's a space, an empty space, where you put your group number, okay? And then Tim, my suggestion is the homework graders. Number one, we make a commitment from the management of ACI to grade your homework in 24 hours, okay?

You will get your homework back the next day, okay? Not the old ACI system, where it goes to another country and comes back after seven years, okay? All right.

So, we commit, and we're going to need some volun- Tim's creating a special team to grade the homeworks. Why I think that's important, each homework grader will grade a different team each day, okay? So, if there's a homework grader who's really stupid and doesn't understand your great idea, you will only meet them once, okay?

Your homework will only meet them once, okay? So, if the homework grader is not creative themself, don't worry, okay? You will get a fair treatment, fair, equal abuse from each of the homework graders, okay?

So, I like that system. Homework grader has to do different teams every day, okay? And we have to rotate through the team.

So, you're going to, all the homeworks from group five are going to go to one grader, and then the next day they go to a different grader, okay? Got it? So, it's kind of fair.

Then, at the end of the week, we're going to ask you to choose your two, the two, we call them real applications, okay? So, I invented a new word, you ready? Called real app, okay?

Real app. Then, we're going to say it fast, real app. Not relapse, okay?

Real app. It means application to real life, okay? Real app.

So, Geshe-la, now we have idims, right? Yeah, that's the picture. Then we have real apps, that's the idea of how to use the scripture for my real life, okay?

Then we have live tools, but that's DCI talk, and I don't want to mix DCI talk and ACI talk. I think they should have our own languages. We shouldn't mix them too much, because that's for business people.

There's some countries where we're not allowed to teach ACI, and we should respect that, and we should be careful. Then, on the other hand, we should have our own language for ACI, and we'll make it better than DCI, okay? So, real apps, okay?

Then, on your homework, on the last page, you're gonna, three things for your real app, okay? And you'll get your homework today, for today's class, if Geshe-la ever gets to the class. First thing, about a real app, you need a good name.

You get a good propaganda name, catchy name, okay? Catchy name like, Two Husbands in the Kitchen, or The Pan, or The Four Steps, okay? Don't call it, My Ideas for a Real Application in Life, of Taken from the Gajna, of How to Use the Four Steps, okay?

Make a good, short name, like you're marketing your idea to the world, okay? Like, make it a cool name. Like, we call this course, The Eight Invisibles.

This course, we're gonna have five Nagarjuna courses. We will do five years of wisdom. This book will take five years, okay?

The first year is called The Eight Invisibles. Now, aren't you curious about what's invisible, besides your paycheck? So, make a cool name like that, okay?

So, your first job, give it a cool name, okay? For marketing, you know, iPad, iPod, you know, what do you call it, iPhone. You know, they have these names, right?

They made them up, okay? So, I'd like a cool name, okay? Number two, then describe your cool idea.

I said one or two sentences, but if you're Geshe-la, you will have 23 commas, okay? Like, describe your cool idea, okay? If it takes longer, it's okay, but the homework graders are gonna have a breakdown, so, okay, more than two sentences, okay?

But don't go on the back of the page, and don't write too small, okay? By the way, if you speak a foreign language, Tim's gonna make sure you can write everything in a foreign language, and the graders will be from different countries, and so, don't worry about it. You don't have to write in English, or Chinese, or Spanish, it's up to you, okay?

What language is comfortable for you is fine, and Tim's gonna make sure we have graders for each of them. Oh, yeah, I'm up for it, okay. Good luck.

This is your job, you know, this is your job. If you need, I'll write you an idea from Nagarjuna, how to do it. Okay, and uh, last thing, you cannot use the internet, but I would like you to write down what kind of idam would you like for your idea, okay?

What kind of picture, photograph, are you gonna find at the end of the week for your cool idea, okay? Like, what's the picture that's so cool about for your idam, okay? And we will give you access, okay, Tim, to a website of, I like 123RF, it's a stock photograph website, they cost about three dollars or five dollars, and they're very high quality, and I use those, I use that website.

I think they have beautiful photographs, so we'll give you that. Now, on the last full day of retreat, or maybe starting the day before that, I'm not sure yet, we will, you will meet with your group, and you'll be allowed to talk, and you will go through, I think we need two days of meetings, Tim, but we'll work it out. You have time to sit with your group, and everybody gets to show their best two idams, and their best two ideas, and then your group is gonna choose, how many, Tim?

I don't know, just two? Yeah, I think that's all we have time for. Your group will choose two to represent your group, okay, of the whole proposals, okay?

And you have to find the pictures on those days, last day and a half or something, okay? You have to find your pictures, okay? Then we'll have the grand competition, where all the groups get up, and you choose one of your members, or two, two?

To get up, maybe two, and to present your idams, and then we'll vote for the best ones, okay? So, that's the plan. We stole it from China Soft Power, we stole it from DCI, we stole it from the college, okay?

And we're gonna do it better than they do it, okay? Cool. Any questions about this process?

And you will get a notebook every day, and the notebook will have some readings in it, but not the main reading, okay? Okay, now, when I taught ACI the first time in New York for seven years, I made rules. I had about, I had about seven students, and I made a rule.

I made a new rule. You have to come to every class. Sorry, when I do a course, it has 10 classes, okay?

If you miss more than two, you cannot come back until the next course. That was my rule in New York City. And your ticket to the next class is your homework.

If you don't have that ticket, you don't get in the class. Third thing, I locked the door at the start time. I locked the door, and I remember a certain guy named M.W., who banged on the, he came one minute late, he's banging on the door. He says, you are Darma Hitler, you know? And I'm like, yeah, we'll come back next week. And we were yelling through the door at each other, you know?

And I said, new, new management, new management, you know? This is the new system. And I lost half of the students in the first week.

It became four students, you know? Then I'm like, maybe I'm too strict, you know? Maybe I made a mistake.

And then it exploded. It became like 80 students in one year. It exploded.

I can really learn something, you know? I do homework every time. I do quiz every time, which is happening starting tomorrow, in the beginning of class.

Oh, after the meditation, okay? So you're meditating on your quiz. No.

People learned a lot. And they loved it. And more and more and more and more people came.

We gave up our first classroom space. We got rid of it. We got a new one.

We got rid of that. We got a third one. We got rid of that.

We got a fourth. We had to keep expanding and growing and growing, okay? And then a hundred people ended up coming to Diamond Mountain for the first advanced classes.

Now, in the advanced classes, I thought, let me relax a little bit. I shouldn't be so tough, you know? And I gave homeworks, but I did not require them.

And I had no quizzes, I think, right? Do you? No quizzes.

And I trust people to come when they, that they will come to everything. And they didn't. Guess how many people finished all the homeworks?

Out of 138 people, three finished the homeworks, okay? Then I decided that's not such a good system, okay? So what do I do with you guys?

I have a new idea. I don't think I can force you to do everything, but I have an idea, okay? So every person, this group is, is, is, is limited to a hundred people.

How many people here, Tim? 100? 108.

That's a good number. I will not expand it past 108, okay? And you have to earn a seat here at Nagarjuna.

So the people who finish the most homeworks will get a seat at the next Nagarjuna, okay? And it's competition. So the 108 people who do the best, who finish the most, okay, they will get the best seats, they will get the best retreat cabin, they get to choose their cabin, okay?

Tim's gonna make this all work. Okay, so you get your first choice on your retreat cottage, okay? And you get guaranteed seat in the class, okay?

If you come for, and I don't, I'm not doing it by internet, okay? Buddhism is passed on by human beings, okay? I'll do internet if I have to do internet, but I don't like it, okay?

I'm not an electric. I'm a human being, you know, and I, I prefer to teach in person, okay? So once a year, you can spend the money, you can get here, okay?

Once a year, get here for all the days, and I will prefer, I will give the seats to the people who come for the whole program. I'm not interested if you're interested in two days, or three days, or five days, you know? It's really just disruption for the other people, see?

It's a feeling you get in the retreat, we're all silent, and so that's my deal, okay? I'm not going to kick you out, because we need you, we, we need to sell all the rooms, but as it grows, the people who, who finish their work, and who come on time, and who come every day, they will get the best cottages, and they will get a guaranteed seat. We taught at MIT.

They have a program once a year called the Gathering of Titans, and there's 72 chairs in the room for 15 years, and there are 6,000 people waiting for a chair. There's a list of 6,000 people waiting for a chair, and, and you get the chair by coming and participating, and you know, and people fight for those chairs, and when we came into the room to teach them, we had to sign a contract that we will not talk about what goes on in that room, so I can't tell you that they are close to curing pancreatic cancer and other things, okay? Amazing group of people, okay?

So I kind of like that, okay? So it's an honor to be here. You can make it once a year.

You don't have to make it four times a year. It's not going to bankrupt you. If your husband wants to divorce you, bring him to a beautiful buoy, and you know, he can see all those wonderful things.

There's an old cow there, okay? Understand? Good?

Okay, that's my deal for you, okay? And I want a hardcore Nagarjuna group, you know, and I want cool Nagarjuna people, and you have to be here, so you know, this week I made deals with people. You can come five days.

You can come four days. Some people are coming for one day, but that's the end, okay? Starting next time, I'm not interested in any deals, and the people who came to the most classes this time, they will be treated.

They'll sit in the front. They will get special cappuccino. They will get their own choice of retreat cabin, okay?

Once a year, okay? And I think I'll do some podcasts too, just Nagarjuna podcast videos, so you don't, you know, one year is a long time. So, we'll try to do something in between, you know, from my bathroom at my house.

Okay, all right, let's start Nagarjuna, because I kind of have to cover your whole homework. I will take another break before the, before the, what time we finish? Okay, oh, okay.

So, I'll go for a while on Nagarjuna, and then we'll take a juice break, okay? First, you have to, Luksa Sogore, say Luksa. Sogore.

Adam, you got that in your head? I, yeah, Luksa Sogore means you have to make room for the green drink. You understand?

Pee pee. And then we'll take a, we'll take a Luksa Sogore break, and then we'll, we'll have green drink. Green drink goal is to make you smart, okay?

Not like coffee. All right. So, we're gonna study Arya Nagarjuna.

I, I don't even know how to start on Arya Nagarjuna, you know. I guess the first thing I'd say is that Arya Nagarjuna is a Arya, okay? And he's called the Arya.

Sometimes he's just called the Arya. Papa in Tibetan, and Arya in Sanskrit. And in history, he's, he's the most famous Arya, okay?

Arya means a person who saw emptiness directly during meditation, deep meditation. So, if you want to be an Arya, if you want to prepare someone to become an Arya, you should do two things. You should teach them lion's dance, and you should teach them Nagarjuna.

Guess what we're doing this week? Yeah, you're doing both, okay? So, in general, I think I can say that about every 500 years, one person is an Arya, okay?

About once every 500, average, one person is an Arya. Now, if you have a special group of people, it's possible all of them become Aryas, okay? We can break this rule, okay?

The first teaching the Buddha ever gave, five people reach Arya in the first teaching that the Buddha ever gave. So, during that first day, five people became Arya. So, don't think it's impossible, okay?

You are unusual people. You live in a world where education is very, very high. The number of people on the planet who can read is about 80%.

That's the highest it's been in history. In history, it's never been that way. So, we live in special times.

Almost everybody has a connection to the internet, and we live in different times. So, I believe we can increase the number of Aryas, okay? So, don't think it's impossible.

It's been rare, but we have different tools now, and we have different education background. So, I think it's possible. I think it's possible all of you can become Arya, and that's what I want.

That's the goal of this course. I don't care that you know Arya Nagarjuna's birthday or the Sanskrit name of his third book. You know, it's nice, but what I really want is, this is a five-year course on how to become Arya, okay?

And I'd like you to teach it. It's part of my dream that you teach it. We had no limitations in the past on teaching, and we're trying to put a few limitations on it, just in case teachers have bad behavior, drinking or hurting people sexually, or things like that.

We are trying to control a little bit closer. So, I would say, I want all of you to teach Nagarjuna. I want all of you to become a Nagarjuna teacher.

You can become unofficial teacher. You are not working for ACI. We call sharing in your living room, okay?

So, you got to get a big living room, all right? But sharing, anyone can do, okay? Teacher, ACI teacher, we will have some requirements.

We will have some examinations. We will have some training, okay? So, maybe I don't call you ACI teacher.

Maybe I call you Nagarjuna sharer, okay? But my dream is that you share with other people, Nagarjuna, and with good behavior, okay? With good personal behavior, okay?

All right. So, first of all, he's an Arya. Arya literally means higher person, okay?

Higher evolution. I like to think of that picture of the gorilla walking behind the ape, walking behind the caveman, walking behind the guy, and you see a higher evolution of people, okay? So, there's turtles walk from the ocean onto the beach.

Then, they slowly, they learn to walk on two legs. Then, they become monkey. Then, they become caveman.

Then, they become human. And then, you become Arya, okay? Then, you become Buddha.

You see, you have an evolution of species, and Arya is as different from a normal human being as a monkey is from a turtle. You see, different, completely different kind of being. So, that name Arya means higher evolution, and it's the goal of human beings, okay?

We are not finished with our evolution, you know? You were a monkey a million years ago. Then, you became a kind of good-looking ape.

Yeah. Then, you became this guy, kind of not so good-looking. And then, you have one more step to go.

We are not finished, okay? Human evolution is not finished, and we still have one more step. People who understand the pen in DCI language, people who understand that the world is being created by seeds in their mind, okay?

And who live according to that understanding, because if you understand where things are coming from, you can have anything you want, any kind of happiness you can have. You can have financial independence. You can have a beautiful family life.

You can have a different kind of health, even at old age. You can be different if you understand where things are coming from, okay? So, this is Arya.

So, maybe the first homework question and the first quiz question might be—I'm not very good at keeping secrets, you know that. That's what Veronica said, don't tell people that. I said, okay, okay.

Don't tell them what I ate yesterday. All right. What's the one event in his life that defined Arya Nagarjuna and his position in the Buddhist tradition?

He saw emptiness directly, okay? He saw emptiness directly. That defined his entire life and his entire teachings.

And his teachings are so famous that he's called the second Buddha to come to this earth. His nickname is Sangye Yanggyal Jumpa, which means—in Buddhism, they call him Buddha number two. Second time Buddha showed up on this planet was Arya Nagarjuna, okay?

And his teachings about emptiness are the most famous in this planet, on this world, okay? His teachings about emptiness are the foundation of all teachings on emptiness in Buddhism, okay? His teachings.

And his most famous teaching on emptiness is called Wisdom, okay? It's just called Wisdom. Prasna, okay?

Nama, Mulamajamaka, Karika. But the short name is Wisdom, okay? Guess what you're studying?

Wisdom, okay? And I always wanted to teach it. For 20 years I wanted to teach it, but I couldn't find the right people.

Now I found the right people, okay? And I've been waiting for 20 years to teach this, okay? All right.

He also—Nagarjuna came about—the Buddhist history say 400 years, but probably we now believe it's about 600 years after the Buddha, okay? So there's about a 600-year, 700-year gap, okay? I guess you could say 700-year gap after the Buddha came Nagarjuna, okay?

So, what happened during those 700 years? Buddhism got really boring, okay? Buddhism got really boring.

I'm sorry. It's Stanley's book called Abhidharma, okay? If you really can't sleep at night, Stanley's translation is available.

And these guys, these monks, got all the Buddha's teachings and they made a very dry book called Abhidharma, okay? Abhidharma. So for 700 years after the Buddha, kind of the boring people took over.

They're kind of sitting in a monastery and they have lots of rules, and they're very dry, dry books. And I translated it for 12 years. I studied it for 12 years.

It was the first 12 years of my training was Abhidharma Kosha. I translated the whole thing. I wrote a dictionary for it.

I translated one of the most famous commentaries. I spent 12 years on it, and I love it. I respect it, and it's boring, okay?

And the emptiness teaching is not there, not the same. And the compassion teachings, Bodhisattva teachings, are not there. They are missing, okay?

Then Nagarjuna came and said, we got to put these two things back. These are sexy, you know? Emptiness and the Bodhisattva's way of life.

We got to put these back into the teachings. So that's his, he's also famous for doing that. He put this, he put the jalapeno back in the Buddhist teachings, okay?

He brought the taste back to the Buddhist teachings, okay? So he's famous for that, okay? He's famous for starting the Mahayana, starting the Mahayana, the great way of Buddhism, where we have an ideal to help the whole world.

I'm not just trying to reach nirvana for myself. I'm trying to help the whole world become happy, okay? And he sold that idea.

He started, he woke up that idea, right? Of course the Buddha taught that, but these kind of accountants took over after the Buddha. And Nagarjuna came back in.

He is sexy, he is fun, he is cool, he is Miles Davis, Miles Davis, famous jazz player. And he said, less is more. He said, do-do, do-do-do-do-do, you know?

And he's like, put some spaces in your work, you know? Make it poetry. Don't drown people in words, like Geshe Michael does, okay?

Like, and he put poetry back in the Buddhist teachings. And almost all his teachings are poetry. Almost all his teachings are karika.

Say karika. Karika means written in poetry, written in poetry, okay? Almost all his major works, I think, I don't know, 90 percent, he wrote in poetry.

And he wrote sweet, brief, like mysterious poetry. His poetry is awesome. He also wrote a lot of tantra.

He wrote a lot on tantra. His teacher, Saraha, who I think Sarakni is named after, I don't know, probably. His teacher was a great, great tantric teacher, okay?

His first teacher, Saraha, was a great tantric teacher. So, a lot of the secret teachings that we study, especially something called rimna, the five stages of tantra, these come from Nagarjuna, okay? So, he was a great teacher of the higher, of the secret teachings, diamond way, diamond way, Vajrayana, okay?

And Nagarjuna was the one who tied together the bodhisattva way of life to emptiness, you see? He said, you cannot be a bodhisattva unless you understand emptiness, you see? It's not being nice to other people, or helping poor people, it's not enough.

You have to understand those poor people are coming from you, okay? You must understand, you cannot love people until you understand they're coming from you. It's not possible to really love people until you understand they are coming from you.

You must combine the two kinds of bodhicitta. We learned it at the college for two weeks this month, last month? Anyway, recently.

What's the two kinds of bodhicitta? What's the two kinds of the wish for enlightenment? Number one, I myself will become a Buddha to help all living beings because a Buddha can serve all living beings directly at the same time, okay?

As a dog, as a tree, as an ocean, as their complaining mother-in-law, okay? Only a Buddha has this power, okay? I want to be a Buddha so I can help all living beings at the same time in any disguise.

Disguise as a movie star, disguise as a dog, disguise as Tim Lowenhaupt, you know, okay? I want to be a Buddha like that, okay? Why?

So I can help them become a Buddha, okay? That's bodhisattva, first level bodhisattva. Bodhicitta, the wish to become a bodhisattva.

What's the second kind? What's ultimate bodhicitta? The direct emptiness of, the direct emptiness of, the direct perception of emptiness, okay?

The direct perception of emptiness is ultimate love, okay? Its name is ultimate love, okay? You really love people, you really care about people, you really want to help people, then struggle through Nagarjuna's wisdom, okay?

Struggle through his book and it will help you see emptiness directly. Only then can you really serve people, okay? You cannot serve them before that.

The service is not very good. You're like a three-star hotel if you didn't see emptiness directly, okay? That makes you a five-star hotel, okay?

Then your service is high quality, okay? Got it? Okay, so it's interesting that the greatest master of emptiness in history is also the person who brought bodhisattva way of life back to the world.

Is there a connection? That might make a good reel out, okay? Some connection there.

The one person who could explain the best how to see emptiness directly is also the person who brought bodhisattva ideal back to Buddhism, okay? And if you're a Christian, if you grew up in a Christian country, there's some interesting connections there. The disciple Thomas did go to Dojok, to northern Afghanistan, and did teach in Madras, in Chennai, just before Nagarjuna.

So it's kind of, and Nagarjuna was hanging out in those places, so it's interesting to dream of some connections between the two. I don't know. Okay, second homework, oops.

We're going to use four principle sources, okay? I like principle sources. I don't like to just talk about my own idea.

I like to take you to this incredible, our lineage has, John just found a hundred, two hundred thousand more books in Mongolia, okay? Buddhist books. And is Christina here?

Kasika? Who are you? Yeah, and John Brennan.

We should give them a hand, yeah. Yeah, they raised a million dollars to save those books, and it will take 20 years, but we have enough for the first couple weeks, right John? Just kidding, a couple years.

Okay, here's the books we're going to use, okay, in this. Number one, guess. Wisdom, okay?

We're going to use Nagarjuna's book called Wisdom, okay? And I'm going to explain the longer title, I hope, today, so you can do your homework. But it's just called Wisdom, in Sanskrit, Prasnya, okay?

It's called Wisdom. We're going to use the Tibetan translation, because the Tibetans were like fanatic translators. Every single word is translated perfectly.

I worked on the Abhidharmakosha for 12 years. I found one extra word in it. They used two words to explain one word, only once, in the whole thing, okay?

They are amazing. So we're going to use, you know, my training is in the Tibetan. I'll be working mainly from the Tibetan text.

But luckily, we have Christina, we have Aisha, we have Vimala, and they have found the Sanskrit, and I'd like to thank them. Yeah, okay? So we'll be using the Sanskrit also.

So sometimes I'll take you to the Sanskrit, because English comes from Sanskrit. All Western languages, from Iceland to Iran, come from Sanskrit. So, sorry about Chinese, there's some kind of mistake.

But you have a lot of loan words from Sanskrit, from the Tang Chao. So we'll be studying in Sanskrit. By the way, the subtitle of Wisdom, okay?

The small title under the big title, is Root Verses on the Middle Way. Root Verses on the Middle Way, okay? Root Verses on the Middle Way, okay?

Now, there's a very famous commentary by Tsongkhapa, okay? Tsongkhapa wrote a commentary. It's called the Ocean of Emptiness.

I translate it as the Ocean of Emptiness, okay? And it's big, it's huge, and it's deep, and it's beautiful, and it would take us 20 years to do it. And I'm willing to, but I don't, you know, it didn't, the Lam Rim, it didn't seem to work out too well.

So, there's another beautiful commentary. By the way, Tsongkhapa states, you all know, 1357 to 1419. If you want to get into a, if you need a password, to guess a password of someone in our group, try 1357, okay?

It's true. Sorry, I shouldn't have put that online, right? Okay, now they'll empty out our accounts and find out they're empty already.

Okay. So, there was a Lama who came about two or three hundred years after Tsongkhapa, named Choney Lama, Choney Lama, C-H-O-N-E-Y Lama. Recently, I, by mistake, I didn't type the C, which makes Honey Lama.

And I've started calling him Honey Lama, but I call Veronica Honey Lama also. But anyway, if you can't remember his name, it's Honey Lama with a C, okay? Choney Lama.

His monk's name is Drakpa Shedrup, D-R-A-K-P-A. Might be on your homework. D-R-A-K-P-A.

Second name Shedrup, S-H-E-D-R-U-P. He was born in 1675. He passed away in 1748.

He wrote 250 unbelievable books, and we are translating many of them in our college. And his explanations are unbelievable. His explanations are beautiful.

And we can understand them. So, I'm going to use him mainly, okay, to teach you wisdom. He has a 100 page, a 200 page commentary, 100 folios, which is about a thousand pages in the English, okay?

It's an extraordinary commentary. I can translate it if you give me time, okay? If I have time, I can translate it quickly, but you got to help me, okay?

If I spend a lot of time doing other things, I cannot, okay? So, it's up to you. I'm about to give you the name, but thank you for asking.

Guess what? It's called a ship for crossing what? The ocean of emptiness, okay?

So, he's making a joke. What's the joke? It's, yeah, he's saying, look Tsongkapa's book is too hard.

You need a boat. Don't go swimming out there. It's too far to China from California, you know?

Don't go swimming. Take my ship. Take my boat, you know?

Get on my boat. You have a chance to make it over the ocean of emptiness. If you don't take my boat, you're gonna drown somewhere in Tsongkapa's commentary, okay?

So, I think it's a beautiful ... I just noticed it like a week ago. I'm like, oh my god, he's talking about Tsongkapa being hard, you know?

You need a ship to cross Tsongkapa, okay? So, that's three books, and then Choney Lama wrote a kāne. Say kāne.

Kāne means the author goes through a famous book, and he only ... what, Adam? Yeah, he only goes after the difficult points.

He just talks about the nasty points that are difficult to understand. So, Choney Lama wrote a second commentary. It's shorter, but it's nasty.

It's hard, okay? It's called Difficult Points in Wisdom, okay? Difficult Points in Wisdom, okay?

Those are the four that you need to put on your homework, and the next question on your homework says there's another very, very famous explanation of Nagarjuna's wisdom. Who wrote it? What are his dates, and what's the name of his book?

Anybody? It's called Entering the Middle Way, okay? Entering the Middle Way.

Now, wisdom has a nickname, okay? Wisdom has a nickname. It's called Middle Way, okay?

So, Middle Way, you know, we're going to study what Middle Way means, okay? But, it's also a nickname for Nagarjuna's book. Sometimes they call ...

they don't call it wisdom. Sometimes they call it The Middle Way, like people from Mexico City or New York City who think they live in the most important city in the world, they just say ... the Mexico City people call it Mexico.

You say, where are you from? Mexico. But, what city?

Well, Mexico. Then New Yorkers, you know, I'm from the city. You're like, what the city?

I'm from the city, okay? Right? Right.

You can get some coffee from the New Yorkers. Anyway, it's just called The Middle Way. When you say The Middle Way, you're talking about wisdom, okay?

If you write an explanation of it, you can call it Entering the Middle Way. Entering the Middle Way. How to enter the Middle Way.

And that verb in Tibetan and Sanskrit is the verb for crossing an ocean also, okay? It's a pun, okay? So, Entering the Middle Way, which was written around 650, 650 AD, by Master Chandrakirti.

Chandra, C-H-A-N-D-R-A. Kirti, K-I-R-T-I-I. Chandrakirti.

He wrote Entering the Middle Way, which became the most famous explanation of emptiness ever. And all emptiness teachings later come from there. All teachings in Tibetan on emptiness, thousands and thousands of books come from Chandrakirti.

Chandrakirti comes from Nagarjuna, okay? So, so don't ... what does Chandrakirti mean?

Chandra means moon, moonlight. Kirti means famous, and it means his ideas are like moonlight. They cover the whole world, you know?

If you guys do your job, and if you learn wisdom, and if you share it or teach it, then this moonlight will spread to the whole world, okay? It's up to you. You can be the next Chandrakirti, moonlight, moonlight giver, something like that, okay?

All right, I'm getting through the ... I'm getting through it. So, I'm going to go through with you Choney Lama's commentary.

Again, if I get time, I can translate. If I don't get time, I can't. It's up to you.

I'm working on 16 books right now in Tibetan. I'm working on about 10 in English. But if I translate this extra one, it's up to you, okay?

But the first thing in Choney Lama's commentary, okay, is one, two, three verses. He bows down to his teachers, okay? And this is ...

every Buddhist book starts with respect for the lineage and your own teacher, okay? I can't teach you if I didn't have my teacher, you know? I would be a college professor somewhere teaching, I don't know what, politics probably, okay?

I mean, I cannot teach without my teacher. He cannot teach without his teacher. And it goes like ...

you have a direct lineage to Chandrakirti, okay? I can count you the ... I can count you the lineages, the masters.

You have a direct phone line to Chandrakirti. Living beings have passed it down. You are in the lineage now.

You are the next one in the lineage, okay? You have direct lineage. Has never been broken.

Nobody taught it very wrong in their sharing in their living room for 1,300 years, and 2,000 years if you count Nagarjuna. For 2,000 years, it has been passed on without being broken. And you are some weird karma.

You are sitting in the room where the next generation is happening, okay? So, how you got here? Probably you're an amazing person.

I know you don't want to believe it, but I'm sorry. You are amazing. If you're sitting in this room, you are amazing, okay?

All right. So, I think it's significant that ... and I might even make a homework question about it ...

that the very first thing that Choney Lama says, if you want to see emptiness, find someone who saw it, or find a person who can give you a clean teaching about it, you know, an accurate teaching about the instructions, okay? Find a teacher. Find a living teacher.

Not electrons, okay? Blood and bone and coffee teeth, okay? Like that, real person.

No, I mean, you know, find a real teaching. Because the blessing of these things comes from human to human, from person to person, okay? There's a talking blessing you can get on the internet.

There's a spiritual blessing you have to be in the room, okay? And those seats are going to get competitive, I believe, in a while, which means you have to finish your homework, which is your ticket to get your seat. All right, one more, and then I'll take a break, okay?

Tim, don't get worried. No, he's like Geshe-la. Hmm, let's do story time, okay?

Let's do story time. So, we're very lucky. It's hard to find a good biography of Nagarjuna.

I want to tell you a little bit about his life. Tomorrow, I'm going to tell you about Choney Lama's life, because I wrote a biography recently. It's about 20 pages, and I'd like to give you a biography of Nagarjuna, okay?

And this was written by my lama, meh, Khen Rinpoche, Geshe-la Tsongkhapa, right? And so, he translated one of Nagarjuna's books into English, and he wrote a nice introduction, okay? With my good friend and jealousy object, Art Engel, who was his best student.

And I did say it, okay? And I wrote him this week, I asked him, can we use your translation? So, he translated with my lama, and he gave permission to print it for you.

So, it's going to be in your notebook. You will have the history, biography of Nagarjuna. I think it's the best one I've ever seen.

But I'm going to go through some of it with you, okay? So that you forget about the pee-pee break. Okay.

And then we'll go to the rest of the homework. Then we'll cover the rest of the homework, okay? Yeah.

Okay. And I'm going to mix in some of the oral teachings from the monastery about Nagarjuna, okay? He was born in South India, okay?

Which is kind of unusual. Most of our masters come from North India, okay? He was born in South India, which means he was more mellow.

People in the South India are more mellow. And there's a place called Vidarbha, which is land of the palm trees. And in our monastery, which is in South India, there's a tradition.

When you go from the airport, which is Bangalore, to our monastery, you pass through where Nagarjuna was from. And there's lots of people selling coconuts. So, when you see the coconut sellers on that drive, that's where Nagarjuna is supposed to be from, okay?

When he was born, his parents took the child to a fortune teller. And he said, this baby is very, very special, but he's going to die in seven days. The baby will die in seven days.

And the parents were like, well, what can we do to make it longer? And they said, well, if you make offerings to 100 people of food, if you feed 100 people, he will live for seven days. And if you offer to 100 monks food, which I guess the writer was a monk, he will live for seven years, okay?

And he will die after seven years. There's nothing you can do, okay? So, of course the parents fed the monks and the people.

And then when seven years was coming, they decided to travel with the child somewhere, because they didn't want to be there when the boy died. They sent the boy with some people on a trip. And coincidentally, they walked to the monastery of Nalanda, which is the most famous Buddhist monastery in history.

And when they were there, they met Saraha, okay? Saraha was there, this great teacher, great tantrica. There are some surviving tantric poems by Saraha, very famous songs of spiritual life.

And so they told Saraha about the boy's condition. And they asked him if there's anything he can do. And he said, if you make the boy a monk, it's possible he will survive.

But he has to do special mantras. So he gave the boy special mantras, especially on the night of his seventh birthday. And he was doing mantras to Amitabha, and he survived.

He defeated the Lord. He faced the Lord of Death with Amitabha's power, and he defeated the Lord of Death. And so he had a good start to his monk's life.

Later on, Saraha taught him a lot. And he had other teachers in the monastery. And eventually, he became important in the monastery, Nalanda Monastery, okay?

And I'll tell you a personal story. I used to be the accountant for the monastery, because I was the only person who could use a calculator. So there's 2,000 monks, and I'm the only person who can use it at that time.

I used to have contests with a guy using an abacus, and he would beat me a lot. Sompen? And so anyway, I used to complain to one of my teachers, Geshe Tutor Rinchen, you know, I said, I hate this accounting stuff, you know, it drives me crazy.

I want to study. I want to translate. I don't want to count, you know, how much bags of flour the monastery used, and you know.

He said, oh, big mistake, you know. I said, why? He said, who do you think was the accountant at Nalanda Monastery?

I said, I don't know. I don't care. He said it was Nagarjuna.

Nagarjuna was the accountant. I'm like, no way. He said, yeah, it's true, you know.

I said, well, why would they put the best scholar in the history to do the accounting, you know? And he said, the karma of mishandling Dharma money is so serious that only Nagarjuna could handle the karma. You see, if you lose one penny, ten cents of Dharma money, terrible, terrible karma.

Very serious karma. So they decided to, only Nagarjuna can handle this karma. He said, the accountant in a monastery is the most trusted and most amazing person in the monastery.

Only they can do it. I'm like, yeah. I think he tricked me.

Anyway, that's a tradition. Okay, and so he became the accountant, and then he decided, I should just learn how to make gold. Okay, we call alchemy in English, how to make gold from iron.

So he said, if I could learn that, then all this accounting is not really necessary, you know. I could have more time to myself if I didn't have to do fundraising all the time, like this week. Then he heard that there was a someone on an island, like a very strange island.

There was a magician who could make gold out of iron. So he decided to go there, like walk across the water, but you need a special kind of sandalwood leaf. You need a special tree leaf to do this walking across the water.

So he kept one in his pocket, monk pocket, and he kept one in his shoe. And he walked across the water, and he met the magician, and he said, will you teach me how to make gold? Okay, let me see.

Let me, where is that? I'm reading from this. Yeah, hang on.

I want to read it to you correctly. Okay, and so they started to exchange knowledge. The magician taught him how to make gold, but he stole the leaf out of his pocket.

So he thought he cannot go back, and he will have to stay on the island, and he can't teach other people how to make gold. But Nagarjuna had one in his shoe. So he got back anyway, and he used his knowledge to support Nalanda Monastery.

And there was a famine for 12 years. No money, no food, and he supported all the monks using alchemy. Okay, now it's not in the biography, but there's a tradition that he was kicked out of the monastery for some time, because it was not allowed to use alchemy for a monk.

A monk not supposed to keep money, not supposed to have money, so it was not approved to use this magic. But he did, and the monastery survived because of it. But he was disciplined, and he was asked to leave the monastery.

Okay, that's an oral tradition. He was actually kicked out of the monastery. So he, I think he must have learned how to handle disappointment, or trouble.

You know, he saved the monastery, and he was kicked out of the monastery. Okay, so that's an oral tradition. There's a tradition that he kicked out the highest total of monks ever kicked out when he became the Abbot.

Later he became the head of Nalanda, and he kicked out 8,000 monks for misbehavior. They were not doing nice behavior. They were breaking the rules, probably with girls, or alcohol, or money, which is the big sambal, three jewels.

And he disciplined. They say, tradition says he kicked out about 8,000 monks. He took upon that.

Then there was a problem that, are you okay? Stories okay? All right, this is the easy part.

And probably there's some ideas to be mined in this story. That's up to you. Be creative.

So anyway, there was some of the books that the Buddha taught, Bodobudamida, the perfection of wisdom, Prajnaparamita, were missing in the world. Okay, this is 700 years after Buddha, and some books are missing. So he was thinking how to get them.

He had two students who came to his class, two young men. When they were in the class, the whole room smells like incense. When they leave, the incense smell goes away.

So he decided these must be water dragons in disguise. Naga, okay? Naga.

Naga means dragon. Like in England, they have lots of dragons, right? And you gotta find, maybe you can find some, was it St. George or St. Michael? I don't know. Somebody's killing dragons. Anyway, there's a big tradition of dragons in Europe.

There's a big tradition in China. In Buddhism, they're called Naga, and these are called water dragons. They like ocean.

They like lakes. One of my Lama says there's a Naga living up here. We have a spring here.

He says there's a Naga living there. You can't see them. You have to be a special person to see them.

I have not seen them. I trust the Lama. By the way, he might come in the spring to teach Geshe Lotar.

So that would be a big honor. They are just like in the, what they call that movie? Hobbit?

What's the movie? Lord of the Rings. Yeah, in the Lord of the Rings, Smaug, Smaug, Smaug, the dragon, bad dragon.

One thing about that movie is true. They like to collect beautiful things, okay? They're like Japanese book collectors.

Half the books in Mongolia disappeared into the basement of Japanese book collectors. They can't read them, but they like them. You see what I mean?

Dragons are just like that. Anything bright, like gold or jewels, okay? You can see the movie.

I assign you to see the movie. What's it called? Lord of the Rings.

Three movies, right? You have to. So that's a true story.

They like, there are dragons. They like those things. What's the most valuable thing in this world?

It's Boroboromido, okay? Perfection of Wisdom. So they used to take the books home, into their dragon homes, and keep them.

And they, usually they sit on valuable things, so it's hard to fight with them. Anyway, Nagarjuna figured out that these two young men are actually water dragons in disguise, and their father is called Dakshaka, the most famous water dragon of all time. And he said, do you guys have any of these missing books back in your dragon land, you know, that you are hiding them?

And they said, yeah, we do, you know. And then he negotiated. He was tough.

He used all his skills. And he became the master of that dragon, okay? In ancient India, master warrior is called Arjuna.

Arjuna. In the Bhagavad Gita, the hero's name, the biggest warrior, is Arjuna, okay? It means number one, Jenlang-I.

Jenlang-I? Number one. I the Jenlang.

Jenlang-I. He's number one wolf warrior in the whole world. Arjuna, he's the boss.

He defeat the dragon, okay? So his name is Nagarjuna, okay? Nagarjuna.

We put the two words together. Nagarjuna. He, the person who could control the dragons, okay?

And when, on your notebook, if you ever get it, I put a picture of him for you. Usually they have snakes on Nagarjuna's head. And they have a big hood.

And they are shading his head, because he was also bald, probably. All wise people are bald. And they are protecting him from the sun.

Like, they used to take care of him. So sometimes the water dragon will show as cobra. And they will cover Nagarjuna with their hood.

So you can see eight or nine Naga, snakes, in the picture. That's to show his Nagarjuna. So you can always identify Nagarjuna easily in a painting.

He's the guy with the snakes over his head, okay? All right. Let me see if there's anything else to keep you from pee-pee.

Let me see. Yeah, they tried to get him to stay there. He said, no, I'm too busy.

He built a lot of temples. He built a lot of monasteries. He was a builder, okay?

And he loved to build statues. He helped to restore the Buddha tree, Bodhi tree, in Vajrasana. Nowadays it's called Bhogaya.

So he protected that tree. He built walls around the tree. He's famous for taking care of the temple there.

He spent a lot of money, and a lot of time raising money, to build different kinds of temples, and to take care of monks. He was a big organizer. He loved to organize things, and he built a lot of different monasteries.

What's the other thing? Oh yeah, I read in the Tang Dynasty Records of the Western regions, right? This is Xuanzang, this famous Buddhist Chinese who walked to India for 17 years.

He wrote two famous ... well, his most famous book is, you know, became the novel Journey to the West. But he was required by the Emperor of China to write an economic and military assessment of India and the other kingdoms, and it still survives.

He counted his steps on the way, and based on his books, we found Shravasti, for example, where the diamond cutter was taught. Based on Xuanzang's counting his steps in that book, we found 20 feet underground, six meters underground, they found Shravasti city. And I've been there where he taught the diamond cutter.

The platform is still there. So, Xuanzang, and this is just my own addition, okay? He mentions that he went to South India during his travels.

He also went to Sri Lanka, and he found Nagarjuna's library, and he said the first ACIP was started by Nagarjuna, okay? Nagarjuna was a really crazy about saving ancient books, collecting ancient books, preserving ancient books, and he had the first database, Buddhism. So, I think it's kind of cool that we're doing the same thing here at our college.

Okay, last thing. I don't think there's anything else. Let me see.

Yeah, I'll tell you more about his books. He was a good meditation teacher. He believed in meditation a lot.

There's a funny story in his biography about his student whose name was ... what was it? Oh, Sinki.

Sinki. Sinki, okay? He had a student named Sinki, and he was teaching meditation to him.

This is a famous story. He, as a joke, he told him to visualize that he had horns on his head. He said, you know, go to the cave.

The student was like, always bothering him, when I meditate, what should I do? I taught you the lines then. Yeah, but what do I do?

Okay, go. Meditate on horns on your head. Then he didn't come back.

And there was a big thing at the monastery, maybe Sinki died in the cave, and they sent these monks to the cave. And he's sitting there very hungry and tired. He said, what's the problem?

I can't get out of the cave. Why? My horns are too big.

You know, I can't get through the door. Okay, so he had ... maybe he was a good meditation teacher.

Okay, Nagarjuna. Okay, last thing. They say, some people say he lived for 700 years, because he was an alchemist, right?

He had power over that. Some people say 900 years. But the story of how he died is still pretty famous.

There was a king and a prince. Yeah, and the prince and his evil mother wanted him, the boy, to be the new king. But the old king wouldn't die fast enough.

And the boy was complaining. And they went to ask somebody, why does this king live so long? He's living too long.

My son will never be king. They said, oh, he has a connection to Nagarjuna. He has spiritual karma connection.

As long as Nagarjuna is alive, the king will live. If something happens to Nagarjuna, the king will die. So, they just made a plan to kill Nagarjuna.

And they went to ask many people how to kill Nagarjuna. And they said, don't ... you don't have to assassinate him.

You just ask him. He's a Bodhisattva. He will give you his life, you know.

Just say, I need your life. And he ... of course he will agree, you know.

So, the boy and his mom went, can you ... will you die for us? Can we cut off your head?

He's like, yeah, okay, go for it. And they took a sword and they ... they tried to cut his head, but they wouldn't work.

They couldn't cut his neck. So, they're like upset. Nagarjuna's like, I'm sorry, it's not my fault.

It's your fault. And they said, was there any way to kill you? And he said, yes, there is a way to kill me.

And they said, what? And they said, many lifetimes ago, I was a farmer, and I was cutting the harvest with a knife, with sickle. And during the harvest, I killed one bug.

I cut one bug in half with the ... when I was cutting the crops, I cut one bug in half. So, I have this karma.

I still have this karma, this seed. So, if you try this kind of blade of grass, one piece of grass, you can cut my head. And they said, great.

And they went and got the seed of grass, and they cut off his head and killed him. Okay? So, he lived ...

there's a lot of confusion about his books. There's a lot of confusion about what he wrote. Partly it's because he lived so long.

Partly, after that, people named their kids Nagarjuna. So, there's a lot of debate. But that's the short story of Nagarjuna.

I have to say, before I give you a break, in one minute, I haven't so far found a nice explanation of how he saw emptiness. Okay? There's no ...

with Tsongkhapa, we have a record in his biography, which Jin ... he picked out yesterday, he picked out the first page. We have the story in Tsongkhapa's biography, but ...

and I can check more today, if I have some time. I'm not aware of a ... that it's in the history books that I've read, about, you know, what happened to him when he saw emptiness directly.

Okay? All right. Take a break.

15 minutes. Come back. I'll finish your homework with you.

Okay? Go. Come back on time.

Okay? Okay, here we go. This is your homework questions.

I have to go fast, or I can't finish. Okay? That's the problem of this kind of system.

All right. All of Nāgārjuna's writings are traditionally put into three groups. Okay?

First one is called the ttsok. Say ttsok. These are praises he wrote, songs of praise, like love poems to Buddha.

Okay? Songs of praise. Then tamtsok.

Say tamtsok. These are like discussions, or something like that, discourses, teachings. And the most famous one there is called ratnavali.

Okay? Ratnavali, which means the string of jewels. It's like a rosary made of jewels.

Okay? That's very, very famous. Ratnavali, sometimes called ratnamala.

Okay? And then there's his books called books on reasoning. Okay?

Like how to figure something out. Okay? Books on reasoning.

Okay? And for us, these are the most famous. Okay?

For us, these are the proofs for emptiness. You can call them books of proofs. Six books of proofs.

Okay? Six books of proofs. In the old days, there was five.

Then they moved ratnavali into the proofs for emptiness. One of his letters to a king was moved from discussions to proofs. So now we call rik-sok-truk.

Say rik-sok-truk. Six books of proof for emptiness. Proof of emptiness.

Then I had a guy who came to me recently. He said, we work out things with our heart, not with our head. You know?

We are working on our heart, not our head. Then it bothered me a little bit. I didn't say anything, but I went home and I said, well, we figure out with our head how to work with your heart.

You see? Like, we do work with our head a lot in this tradition. We do.

Why? Because if you use your eyes or your heart, you may not ever understand that things are coming from you. You need someone to explain it to you.

You need someone to explain it to you logically. Even people who don't like logic, they say, I don't like logic because ... and I say, shut up.

You just use logic. You don't finish the logic, but you are using logic right now. When you say because, it's logic.

You see what I mean? So, people try to prove to me why they don't like logic. Okay.

So, we have a basic mistake we are making about the world, which was built into our brain, and our eyes, and our ears, and our heart. There's a mistake in your equipment. Then you see everything wrong.

Everything. The only way you can fix it is with because. Somebody has to say because.

It depends. There's a dog. There's a human.

They see different ways. It must be coming from you. You need that.

Okay. It's called proof of emptiness. Okay.

So, his most famous books is the third collection called Books That Prove Emptiness. Okay. Books on Proof.

Okay. I'm gonna give you six. It's on your homework.

Might be on your quiz. I hate it when you study these six, and what's their specialty of each of the six, and then Geshe-la doesn't put it on the quiz. It's not fair.

But that's your problem. Okay. So, here's the six.

Okay. And number one is Wisdom. Okay.

The most famous book he ever wrote. It's the longest, one of the longest books he ever wrote himself. It's 32 pages in the Tibetan, okay, of poetry.

And here's now, on your homework, you have to say the name of the book, and you have to say the specialty of the book, because each of the six books has a specialty. The specialty of Wisdom is to prove that the objects of your perception—color, shapes, people, buildings, sky—okay, we're not talking about the emptiness of you. That comes later.

We're talking about the emptiness of the things around you is the subject of Wisdom. Okay. That's the main subject of Wisdom.

The emptiness of the things and the people that you see around you is the main subject of Wisdom. Okay. It doesn't mainly talk about the state of mind, the emptiness of your mind.

It does not. It's focusing on the things around you. Okay.

Now, next book. I like the name. It's called Smashing Mistaken Ideas to Dust.

Like with a big hammer. You know, boom. Smashing mistaken ideas to dust.

Just smash them. Okay. This is, guess what it talks about.

Specialty. The emptiness of the mind. The emptiness of the perceiver.

Okay. The emptiness of the mind. Wisdom focuses on the emptiness of things and people outside, and then Smashing Mistaken Ideas to Dust focuses on the emptiness of your mind.

Okay. The thoughts you hear in your mind are also coming out of seeds in your mind. Jenny is coming out of seeds in Jenny's mind.

Okay. Jenny and the thoughts in Jenny's mind, they're also coming out of seeds. Okay.

They are also empty. They don't come from their own side. They are coming out of how you treated people yesterday.

Okay. Got it? All right.

And that book shows that the state of mind which sees emptiness is the key to Nirvana and Buddhahood. So that it demonstrates that the subject state of mind which sees emptiness is the key to become Buddha. Okay.

And to reach Nirvana. Okay. What's the difference between Nirvana and Buddha?

Adam. Nirvana. I mean just easily.

Yeah. Nirvana, you overcome your negative emotions. Cannot get angry.

Cannot get jealous. Cannot have desire. Okay.

Then Buddhahood, you can help all people at the same time. Much higher. Okay.

Nirvana and Buddhahood. The mind which can see emptiness is the subject of smashing things to dust. Okay.

All right. Third one. Seventy verses on emptiness.

Seventy verses in the Sanskrit about emptiness. Okay. It's called Seventy Poetry Verses About the Subject of Emptiness.

Okay. What's the specialty idea there? It's that even though everything is empty, it still works.

Hundred percent. Hundred percent. Okay.

Is gasoline empty? Yes. Does it make your car go?

Yes. Okay. Just because it's empty doesn't mean it doesn't work.

Okay. Things are empty, but you still have to be a moral person. You still have to follow morality.

Okay. Emptiness doesn't free you from that. It forces you into that.

Okay. All right. Number four is called Defeating Every Argument.

Defeating Every Argument. Every time someone gives you an argument, you defeat it. Okay.

That's a very interesting subcategory of the last book. Okay. Number four is kind of going deeper from number three.

What was number three teaching? That things can work. Number four teaches logic can work.

Logic doesn't come from its own side. Thinking doesn't come from its own side. Good reasons don't come from their own side, but they work.

Okay. They're empty, but they work. Okay.

Good proofs for emptiness are empty also, but they work. Okay. They can work.

Okay. Perfectly. Okay.

That's very cool, right? So, in a way, book four is a sub-book of book three, and book three is a sub-book of book one. All five of the other books come from wisdom.

So, you might put the word in the subtitle of wisdom that these verses are the? Mula? These are the root verses.

Got it? The title, the subtitle of wisdom is what? Root verses on the middle way.

Root verses on the middle way. Okay. Mula.

Sorry. Prajna. Say Prajna.

Nama. Mula. Madhyamaka.

Karika. Okay. The word mula, root, foundation, is in the title of wisdom.

Okay. Root verses. Why?

Because it's the root of the other five books. Okay. And it's the root of every book on emptiness since then.

Okay. Can we call it mula? Can we call it root?

Duh. Okay. Why?

Every book on emptiness comes from this book. Okay. It is the root.

Okay. So, the nickname, one of the subtitles is, say mula. Madhyamaka.

Karika. Okay. Root verses on the middle way.

Okay. All right. Number five.

Sixty verses on reasoning. I was hoping Nick would be here because he's translating it, and impossible commentary to it. But, in this book, Nagarjuna discusses the two extremes.

Okay. The two extremes. Ready?

Number one. If things, sorry, let's see. Number one.

Things exist the way they look like. Things exist the way they seem to be. It looks like Wangsha is coming from Wangsha.

From here. From here. Over here.

It looks like Wangsha is over there, and Wangsha is coming towards me. It looks like that, but it's not true. Okay.

So, that's called things exist. Things don't exist the way you thought. Okay.

They don't exist the way they seem. Okay. Then somebody got extreme reaction.

They said, if things are not the way they seem, then they don't exist at all. I can do whatever I want. There's no karma.

There's no morality. Everything's tantra. Okay.

Now, someone's gonna take that out and put it on the internet. Okay. All right.

Got it? That's the two extreme. Extreme number one.

Everything exists the way it seems to be. Extreme number two. If it doesn't, then it doesn't exist at all.

Okay. These are two big wrong ideas. Now, question for you.

If the homework questions say, what's the word Madhyamaka in the title? You're gonna say, middle way. Okay.

Everything exists the way it looks like over here. If it doesn't exist the way it looks like, it doesn't exist at all over here. And where's my head?

My shining head. In the middle. In the middle.

Okay. Okay. That's the meaning of middle way.

Okay. Don't go this way. Don't go this way.

What's this way? Everything exists the way it seems to be. Wangsha's sitting over there.

I'm over here. She's coming at me. That exists.

Oh, but she doesn't exist that way, Geshe-la. Okay, then she doesn't exist at all. It's all illusion.

Wangsha's not there, you know. I don't have to send that letter I promised to send for her two months ago. You know, she don't exist at all.

Okay. These are two extreme. And middle way means middle way.

Now, book number five, called Sixty Verses on Reasoning. Okay. That one talk about those two extremes.

Okay. That one talks about those two extremes. And it says, if you understand those two extremes, you can reach Nirvana.

You can reach Nirvana. Okay. What did I not include just now?

Yeah, I didn't say Buddhahood. Book number five. Main subject.

Avoid the two extremes. Use the middle way. Reach Nirvana.

But he didn't talk about bodhisattvas. He didn't talk about Buddhas. It's almost as if he designed that book for those Abhidharma accountant people.

And it's true. Okay. Book number five was written for those people, those boring, you know, people who don't talk about bodhisattvas.

They don't talk about enlightenment. They don't talk about saving all living beings. They just want to reach Nirvana.

They go to a cave, they try not to do anything, and they reach Nirvana. Okay. So, book number five was mainly meant for lower way people, like Abhidharma type people.

Okay. And by the way, he doesn't mention it here, but Nick can tell you. For book number five, he uses the lower way sutras to prove that Buddha talked about emptiness to the Abhidharma people, but they forgot to put it in the book.

They didn't understand it. Okay. The accountants forgot to put emptiness in the book.

Okay. That's part of book five. Nagarjuna is showing them, and Nagarjuna does a very cute thing.

He doesn't use any higher way sutras in book number five. He uses their own books to prove they are wrong. Okay.

He uses the Abhidharma accountant guy's books to prove the accountant Abhidharma guys are wrong. Okay. Got it?

Okay. Book number six, which was kind of stolen from the collection of discourses, Tamki. So, it's called The String of Precious Jewels.

Okay. Ratnamala or Ratnavali. Okay.

Ratna is bao, jewel. And string of, it means rosary, okay, of jewels. And that's his longest book, except for the one we're studying.

They're about the same length. Okay. And many, many lamas in the world like to teach this one.

This one you can hear very often. It's very, very beautiful. It's very powerful.

I think during Lam Rim dessert periods in Thailand or Mexico, we will use that. Okay. We'll use, it's very sexy.

It's very beautiful. It's different. It's a different presentation.

Okay. Why? It focuses on explaining why, if you stick to the middle way, if you avoid the two extremes, you can also reach full Buddhahood.

Full Buddhahood. So, what's the difference between, on your homework, between book number five and book number six? Book number five focus on using middle way to reach personal nirvana.

Personal nirvana. Mike reached nirvana. Okay.

Book number six focus on reaching the same middle way, same two extremes, how to reach full Buddhahood. Okay. Now you understand his six great books on emptiness.

Okay. And it's really something you should remember. Probably there's about three or four things there you can use in your life.

Okay. That's up to you. Okay.

Probably there's some kind of flow between the six books. I didn't, I feel it's there, but I didn't figure it out. Probably there's some kind of cool flow.

Okay. Tim, I might go a little bit over. They told me their butts don't feel bad yet, and they want me to go a little longer.

Maybe homework six question says, give the title of our book in Sanskrit language. Okay. And tell me some English words that come from those words, which are called cognate.

Okay. Cognate means an English word that comes from the Sanskrit word. So you can appreciate the Sanskrit title more, if you understand some English words that come from the Sanskrit title.

Okay. All English, 90% of English comes from Sanskrit. If you know Sanskrit well, and you pick up a newspaper, you can see all the Sanskrit laying under the page.

It's very cool. Okay. Here we go.

First word is prajna. Say prajna. Okay.

Prajna. Prajna means wisdom. Okay.

Pra means number one, best, most good. Okay. Pra means very good, super good.

Okay. It comes in the English word proud. I'm number one, proud.

I'm number one, proud of a boat. I'm the front of the boat. The front of the boat is called proud.

Okay. The word forward comes from pra. It means up ahead, in the front.

Okay. So P becomes F in English. Okay.

Sanskrit P becomes F, from. Okay. Forward.

Okay. Jna means to know, and in English we have this word know. Okay.

Why they put, those of you who, you know, the English spelling is crazy. K-N-O-W. Okay.

K-N-O-W. Geshe-la, why is the K there? We don't pronounce it, right?

We don't say K-N-O. It comes from Z-N-Y-A. It comes from the J.

Okay. So, know comes from Z-N-Y-A. So, what does prajna mean?

Best knowing. Best knowing. Wisdom.

Wisdom. Best knowing. Okay.

The word recognize comes from that. The word ignorance comes from that. Okay.

All right. Okay. The next word in the title is the word, word.

But word's not here to learn it. Say Nama. Nama.

Nama means name. Okay. Nama means name.

Okay. That's easy. I don't have to explain that.

Nominate comes from that. Nominal, name. Okay.

Very few people call Nagarjuna's book by a single word. Very few people call it wisdom. They will call it foundational verses on the perfection of wisdom, or something like that.

They will give it a long name. Okay. Who wouldn't do that?

Nagarjuna. Okay. Okay.

Understand? He says, like Miles Davis, less is more. Okay.

He never didn't write in poetry. He never didn't write in short words. He loves sexy short names, like you are going to give to your real applications.

Okay. He loves short names. Okay.

So, call it wisdom. In this room, call it wisdom. When you get outside, you can say foundational verses explaining the middle way of the perfection of wisdom, and accumulating of knowledge.

Okay. If you want to write a book that no one will read, okay, and won't last for 2,000 years, give it a long name. Okay.

Okay. So, prajnanama means, I call my book wisdom. That's all.

Okay. It's like a quotation mark, wisdom. Okay.

Then there's a little explanation, subtitle, sub name. Ready? Mula.

Mula. It means cow. Just kidding.

Mula means root. Mula means foundation. Okay.

In English, we say money is the root of all evil, and we call money mula sometimes. So, you can remember. Okay.

Mula means root. There's a very few, there's a Latin words for the wall, like mure, which means mural, means written on the wall. So, ammunition comes from that.

It means a fortified wall. It means foundation. Okay.

So, mula means, we know muladhara chakra in yoga. I'm sure Uta's gonna stimulate your muladhara chakra today. I'm gonna do yoga, so if you want to be cool, you can hang out in here and do yoga.

Just today. Madhyamaka. Okay.

Madhyamaka. Middle way. Okay.

Madhya. And it came into English as medium, or moderate, or middle. Middle comes from madhya.

Madhya. Okay. Madhya.

Keep middle way. Don't go to these two extreme. Okay.

Everything is looks, is the way it looks like, or if it's not, then it doesn't exist. Stay in the middle way. Madhyam.

Okay. Middle way. Okay.

Last word of the title. Say kartika. Kartika means, it's in poetry.

It's written in poetry. Okay. Kartika.

It comes from the word kar, which means to create, or to make. Karma comes from that. Create comes from that.

Cereal comes from that. In English, the K became a C. Crescent comes from that.

Okay. It all means to do something. What?

To make something. What? To make it into cute little verses that people can remember for 2,000 years.

Okay. All right. Last question.

I'm not even gonna tell you. You're gonna have to figure out that one. Okay Tim, I made it.

Nine minutes over. You have some announcements or anything? And I'll go through the commentary tomorrow.

Okay. We'll start through the commentary. I had to explain the rules for you today.

Who's feeling like doing a mandala? Connie? It's all about you.