Нагарджуна, курс 3 — Мудрость Арьи Нагарджуны, курс 3: Пустота мантры (2021, Аризона), занятие 13

[Speaker 2]
Hi, welcome back to Arya Nagarjuna.

[Speaker 1]
And here we go. We've now reached the 17th chapter, which is LAS KYI BDAG PA. It's an investigation into the nature of karma and the seeds for karma.

And we went through, and we were saying that this chapter is unusual because we can understand it. It doesn't even seem like Nagarjuna. Don't worry, he's going to lose us later.

And personally, I was wondering why he went through sort of the Abhidharma presentation on karma, dividing it into intention and the actions of body and speech that are intended. And then he went through some kind of obscure Abhidharma ideas about different kinds of karma that you can see a person's intention or a halo or an aura forms around them, good or bad. And then that's another kind of karma.

Do you guys want to, anybody want to make $100 and guess why he's going through obscure Abhidharma presentations of karma?

[Speaker 2]
Because they're easy, they're easy conditions to describe.

[Speaker 1]
Why? Why is he working on that?

[Speaker 2]
Because if you think karma is coming from his own side, you can't understand what karma is.

[Speaker 1]
The answer is more easy than that.

[Speaker 2]
So they everyone was an Abhidharma student.

[Speaker 1]
Yay, how much did I say, $100? Pachi, $100. Don't forget to tell Ali.

Yeah, everybody was Abhidharma at that time for 700 years. And then he was trying to reverse that title there. And he did, by the way, single-handedly.

He stood in front of a whole ocean of accountants from the Abhidharma school and he turned them all into hippies. Yay. So anyway, yeah.

So here he's going. And we were wondering, if you remember, why he didn't just describe the 10 good deeds and the 10 bad deeds. And guess what he does next.

You ready? ,GAR PO LAS KYI LAM CHU PO, ,CHU DU PA'I THABS YIN TE, ,CHU KYI BRTEN PO'I DI GZHAN DU, ,DOD PA'I YIN TE RNAMS SNGA PO, ,GAR PO LAS means white karma or good karma. ,LAM CHU PO, the 10 paths.

So the 10 good deeds, the 10 commandments in Buddhism are called the 10 paths of white karma. ,CHU DU PA'I THABS These are a method of achieving dharma. And then Choney Lama says, when Nagarjuna says dharma here, are you Nagarjuna?

He means higher births and definite good. Definite good is called NGES LEGS and it means nirvana and Buddhahood. So when Nagarjuna says in the first line and a half, there are 10 paths of white karma and these are a method of achieving the dharma.

He means higher births and nirvana and Buddhahood. ,CHOS KYI BDE BO'I NDI GZHAN DU, Then the line just says, the result of this dharma is this and other. Anybody want to take a guess of what this and other is?

You get good results in this life and other lives. ,DOD PA'I YIN TE Seen in this life and seen in future lives. ,DOD PA'I YIN TE RNAMS SNGA PO And especially, you're going to get ,DOD PA'I YIN TE the good stuff of the desire realm.

Nice things to eat, nice music to listen to, soft blankets. Just think of the wonders of your future life when you follow these 10 good deeds. What a cushy life you're going to have.

You're going to get expensive creams for your face. I don't know about you, but I start to, I was like, that's weird. It doesn't seem like Nagarjuna to say, you're going to get a new car.

Your hair is going to grow back. You're going to get energy. And then we find out from Choney Lama, he is criticizing.

Okay, got it? He's saying, oh great, the 10 good deeds. What?

More money, more car, more hair. You're going to be healthy. And then we find out from Choney Lama, this is Nagarjuna sort of saying, look how people talk about karma.

Look how these guys talk about karma. You look at the purposes they want to put karma to. And then he's criticizing them.

And what he criticizes is deeper than you think. It's fine to get a lot of money. It's fine to get a nice car.

It's fine to have a good apartment. But it's not fine to think that there's a self-existent relationship between doing the 10 and getting that stuff. Is it okay to have a nice apartment?

Yes. Can I have a big bank account? Yeah, that's fine.

You can help more people. Can I have a big car? Yeah, you can fit more people and go to parties at John Brady's house.

And then, okay. But if you think there's a self-existent connection between helping other people or doing the Medicine Buddha mantra and getting all these nice things, if you think that connection doesn't come from you, then something's going to happen in the next verse. So the next verse kind of reveals what we're really thinking about.

By the way, I like this. Choney Lama says he has a side comment on that last verse. And there's a picture that he's using with the guy with the airplane tickets.

And he says, by the way, this verse in general is a criticism of people who are focusing on karma to get stuff, not because the stuff is wrong, but because their feeling about the connection between the karma and the stuff is too solid. They don't understand the emptiness of that connection. He says, so that's okay.

We could also say, we could have added another line to this verse that said, you'll get a house, you'll get an apartment, you'll get healthy, and you'll get enlightened. He said, if it was me, I would have added a line to the verse, one more line. So just be aware, that guy with the airplane ticket and a passport, that's a passport to enlightenment.

Which also comes from the Ten Good Deeds. All right. Then the next verse reveals Nagarjuna's opinion about the last verse.

And here it goes. ,GAL TE LTAG PA DE'ER RGYUR NA, ,GNYAD PA CHEN PO'I MANG POR RGYUR, If you do that kind of LTAG PA, what's LTAG PA? B-R-T-A-G ,BA'O RATTA LTA NA LA LTA RGA LTAG PA'I Yeah, pariksha.

If that's the best investigation, you could do a karma. ,GNYAD PA CHEN PO'I MANG POR, You're going to get into a big pile of problems. Many big piles of problems.

So Nagarjuna's like, the other guy can just see him, he's like, well, I was just saying you should do the Ten Good Deeds because you can get lots of money and stuff. He says, God! Think like you do the pariksha like that?

Big trouble. Big, big. So many problems are going to come from that.

Doing your Medicine Buddha mantra is because you think you're going to be healthy later. Just for that. And to think there's a connection like that between the mantra and the good health.

,GNYAD PA CHEN PO'I MANG POR RGYUR, You're going to get into a lot of problems later. Like what? ,DE LTA BA'I NA LTAG PA DE, ,DE NI THEG PA MA YIN NO, Then Nagarjuna goes further.

He says, your kind of pariksha is an anti-pariksha. Your investigation is a stupido investigation. Okay, got it?

That's an idiot's investigation. What? You're going to use karma just to get some money or just to cure your hair or something?

By the way, not wrong to get money. Not wrong to get hair. Just wrong to think there's an automatic connection.

It's how you think about the mantra. It's not the mantra. All right, and I have two kids here.

These are twins. And when you see them, you assume it's a picture of two twins, but that's an assumption. They may not be twins at all.

They may just look similar. Yeah, you can do the mantra and something might happen, but is there a connection between the two? Is it really what you think you see?

All right, and that takes us to the next verse. ,SANGS RGYAS RNAMS DANG RANG RGYAL DANG, ,GNYEN PHYIN RNAMS KYI GANG GSUM PA'I, ,LTA PA GANG ZHING BDE'I THEG PA, ,DE NI RAB TU SPYOD PAR BYA, By the way, there's an investigation into karma that you could have done, which would have been a better investigation. Not stupid.

You could have had a smart investigation. Which one is that? Well, it was described by the Buddha and by the self-made Buddhists and by the great listeners.

These are arhats, people who are reaching nirvana. If you're going to do an investigation into karma, I suggest you follow their investigation and not your investigation. Not think there's a self-existent connection between Medicine Buddha mantra and those money and good health.

I suggest you shift your investigation. To what? To the one that the Buddha described?

All right, well, what's that? ,DE NI RAB TU SPYOD PAR BYA, I'm going to tell you. I'm going to tell you so perfectly.

RAB TU means I'm going to set you straight, 100%. Then he goes off on a very deep subject and difficult subject. So finally, Nagarjuna took off the gloves and he's going to show you his real style.

So here he goes. Hang, fasten your seatbelt. Here we go.

,SPANG RGYA RGYUD DAR DE BZHIN GCOD, ,MI ZAD MI SA LAS NI BU RLUNG BZHIN, And there's a bunch of problems in the carvings, but I figured it out. So SPANG RGYA means a contract and it's often used for loans. When you borrow money 2000 years ago, you have to sign a SPANG RGYA.

Or when you get married, you have to sign a SPANG RGYA. So it could be a marriage contract and it could be a loan agreement. He says, ,SPANG RGYA RGYUD DAR DE BZHIN GCOD, And you have to read across the lines.

You have to say MI ZAD. And you guys know MI ZAD. I taught you in the Lam Rim over and over and over again.

Four Laws of Karma. BYAS PA CHOS MI SA BA The fourth of the Laws of Karma. If you do do something, you will get a result.

BYAS PA CHOS MI SA BA Literally, BYAS PA means if you do something, CHOS MI SA BA means it's not just going to fade away over time. You can't hope that you can lie to your mom and then the karma is just going to wear out sooner or later before 20 people lie back to you. You shouldn't hope that you can do something wrong, keep it quiet, don't tell anybody, and after time, everyone's going to forget.

Because that's not how karma works. Everything's recorded and everything expands. So don't...

He says that principle, CHOS MI SA BA. Don't forget that word because we're going to have to come back to it over and over again in this part. CHOS MI SA BA means, in Tibetan, karma's not just going to fade away if you wait long enough.

In fact, the opposite. So don't think CHOS MI SA BA. Now he says that...

Now in Abhidharma, you can take a general proof and in the Abhidharma school, it becomes a tool. The fact that CHOS MI SA BA, the fact that karma doesn't just fade away in Abhidharma system is a separate thing. It's a real thing, like a cup or a table.

Hey, did you bring your cup? Yeah. Did you put it on the table?

Yeah. How's your CHOS MI SA BA doing? Yeah.

What? How's the fact that your karma's not going to fade away? How's that feel this morning?

And in fact, in the Abhidharma system, every time you do anything, you also do a CHOS MI SA BA. You give money, you do a CHOS MI SA BA. Got it?

You do a nice thing for somebody, you pick up another CHOS MI SA BA. You put it, here's another CHOS MI SA BA. Means that good deed's not going to just go away.

So it could be for good deeds or bad deeds. And they do that in Abhidharma. They have the idea like THOB PA.

When you achieve nirvana, what connects you to the nirvana? Then in fact, there's a problem in Abhidharma because you're not there anymore. Then you got to get an achievement.

And it's an entity. It's like a cup. Do you have an achievement?

Did you reach nirvana yesterday? Yes. Did they give you an achievement?

No. Oh my God, it's going to fall off. Get an achievement.

So it's called A THOB PA. So now we're going to go off on a subject called, what do you want to call that in English? CHOS MI SA BA.

It don't go away. Did you get a don't go away? Did you pick up a don't go away when you donated the money to ALL?

Were you careful to get a don't go away from Pao when you made the donation to the CLOB DU DO RO? Did she also give you a don't go away? Did you pick up a don't go away?

Okay, got it. It's a contract in a way. We guarantee that you're going to have prosperity.

Why? You just donated money to the most important project in the universe. So we give you a written guarantee.

That's called a BANG RGYA or CHOS MI SA BA'I BANG RGYA. That's a don't go away contract. Okay, got it?

Because we're going to spend now like a couple of hours on don't go away contracts. BU LON GZHIN means it's like when you take a loan. BU LON GZHIN means it's similar to when you take a loan.

They give you a contract and you sign it. When you take the money, you get the contract, the don't go away contract. That don't go away means you don't go away without paying back.

All right, so you can have a don't go away with good things and with bad things. Okay? All right, here we go.

We're going to dig deeper into don't go away Z. Okay, it's a noun, right? All right.

And that's going to be pretty much the rest of the chapter. Now, now Nagarjuna's going to repeat what the last 700 years of guides said about don't go away Z. Don't go away Z.

What's the don't go away look like? Well, I'll tell you. DE NI GANG LAS RNAMS PA ZHIG According to GANG, meaning dhatu, meaning realm, those can be divided into three.

You got don't go aways in the desire realm. You got don't go aways in the form realm. You got don't go aways in the formless realm.

But he says four. Why? In the Abhidharma system, you can have something outside the realms.

And that's pure things. GSAGS BYAS BDIM MA LA BDIM MA LA things, like nirvana or Buddhahood. He says you can get a don't go away that's not in samsara.

It's outside of samsara. So let's call it four. Three for the samsaric realms and one that's outside of samsara.

Four don't go aways. Whose idea?

[Speaker 2]
Abhidharma.

[Speaker 1]
He, Choney Lama said, CES BDAG MA BA'I RGA' ZHIG meaning some detailers, some Abhidharma guys. All right, so first you can divide it into four types. Depending on where the don't go away is residing.

What's next? DE'I RANG BZHIN LUNG MA BSTAN What's LUNG MA BSTAN? You guys know this.

DGE BA, it's not DGE BA. It's not MI DGE BA. Yeah, karmically neutral.

And that's a little tricky. A lot of these, a lot of these instruments which keep spiritual stuff on you are karmically neutral themselves. So a don't go away, a contract isn't good or bad.

I mean, there can be bad stuff in the contract or there can be good stuff in the contract, but the paper is like, you know. The instrument, the vehicle for the contract, which is a don't go away, is neutral. It's like paper.

Then you can write something nasty on the paper or you can write something nice on the paper, but the don't go away is neutral. And then it could be a bad one, it could be a good one. All right, next verse.

MTHONG BA'I SPAR BA MA YIN TE BSGOMS PA'I SPAR BA NYID KYANG NYON There's a mistake in the carving. Let me fix that while I'm thinking about it.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
MTHONG BA'I SPAR BA MA YIN TE Very important. It is not eliminated by MTHONG RNAMS. Yeah, you can see emptiness directly and it doesn't do anything to your don't go away. Okay.

Delicate question. By the way, Nagarjuna is trying to impress on us. What's a don't go away?

What makes karma stick to you? What makes karma stick to you? Well, it's don't go away.

What's a don't go away like? Well, it's karmically neutral. It could be in different realms.

And unfortunately, you don't drop the don't go aways when you see emptiness directly. But maybe you get rid of the bad karma but keep the don't go away? Okay, question.

We're not sure yet. And BSGOMS PA'I SPAR BA NYID KYANG NYON It is eliminated by the path of habituation. $100 tell me why it should be.

$100. Don't forget what school we're in. Don't forget what school we're in.

And what if I say a don't go away can be eliminated at the end of the path of habituation? Why? What happens there?

Lower school. Lower school.

[Speaker 2]
And you're suffering.

[Speaker 1]
I want more precision. For $100, I need at least two words. Lower school.

Lower school. Okay, I'm cutting it to $50. BEM RIG RGYUN BYAS PA Cut the flow of BEM PA, BEM PO, and RIG PA.

Lower nirvana. Cut the flow of BEM PO and RIG PA. Lower nirvana.

For $12. Forget the BEM. BEM PO means your material body.

And RIG PA means your mind. RGYUN BYAS PA means, in the lower school, you blink out. You just blink out.

Then you don't suffer anymore. Yay! Then the debate by the higher schools is not too complicated.

What's nirvana according to you? Oh, you blink out. What?

Your body blinks out, your mind blinks out. Right. What do we call you then?

Arhat. Where's the arhat? Okay, it's a very funny, that's an ancient debate.

Where's the arhat? All right. So probably your don't-go-aways are going to finish if your body and mind finish.

Okay. All right. DE PHYIR CHOS MI SA BA YID LAS KYI RGYUD PA'I RGYUR Don't forget we were having this trouble of saying, if the karmic seed changes, right?

Sorry, if it doesn't change, it can't give a result. And if it does change moment by moment, it disappears in 1 65th of a second. So how can it transmit your...

How can there be a CHOS MI SA BA? How can there be a... What do we call it?

No, what's the word we use? How can the don't-go-away flow over time if it's instant, coming in and out of existence moment by moment? Then he says here, DE PHYIR CHOS MI SA BA YID It's not the karmic seed that creates the karmic result.

It's the don't-go-away. The seed comes and goes, but the don't-go-away stays. Then when the seed disappears, the don't-go-away stays with you.

And then the don't-go-away gives you the money later, after you give a donation. Got it? The don't-go-away can stay.

Got it? Okay, this is okay. I can see you're impressed with this idea.

Okay. GAL TE BO BA'I RANG BA DANG LAS PHO BA LAS GCIG RGYUR NA If the don't-go-aways could disappear just because you reached a higher path in the five paths, or just because something's happened to your karma in general, then DE LA LAS GCIG LA SOGS PAS Then LAS BYAS PA CHOS SA BA LAS BYAS PA CHOS SA BA Say LAS BYAS PA

[Speaker 2]
LAS BYAS PA

[Speaker 1]
CHOS SA BA

[Speaker 2]
CHOS SA BA

[Speaker 1]
Then you could hurt somebody and never get a result, which breaks every law of karma and everything the Buddha ever said.

If the don't-go-away could be eliminated even by great spiritual attainers, then you're saying you could do a bad deed and get no result. Not possible. So the don't-go-away has to stay.

Maybe it doesn't create anything. I don't know. KHYER NAMS SU NYID MTHAL BAR GYUR Look at all the problems you're causing.

Then he says SOGS, he says other problems too. And then Choney Lama says, are you curious about what the other problem was? And we're like, yeah, we were really wondering.

And he says LAS MA BYAS PA DANG MA BYAS PA Problem number three, law number three of karma. Yeah, if you don't do it, you're not going to get a problem. If you don't steal money, you're never going to lose money.

Karmic law number three, if you don't do it, you don't get a result. Karmic law number four, if you do do it, it's not going to just fade away. Okay, got it?

So the CHOS MI SA BA principle of a, what was it? Don't-go-away. The don't-go-away is so useful because we can still keep the last two laws of karma.

Okay, all right, here we go. By the way, I have a Titanic sinking here. You ready, Pachi?

I worked so hard. You know there's no pictures of the Titanic sinking? So I got this one for you guys.

And okay, by the way, if you had a credit card when you got on the Titanic and you used it a lot on the Titanic and then it sank, how's your SPANG RGYA? How's your credit card bill? What's it going to look like?

Zero, okay, got it? Your don't-go-away sank with the Titanic. That represents nirvana.

The discontinuation of your body and mind. That's the sinking of the Titanic. It also takes your credit card bills.

Nobody on the Titanic got charged for the food and drink thing. I wonder, probably not. The company probably failed the next day.

So anyway, I thought it was a cute example of discontinuation of body and mind. And then all those SPANG RGYAs, all those credit card agreements went down in the ship. Then maybe nirvana is defined by, finally you escaped your credit card bills.

Why? There's no body or mind left to pay them. Got it?

Okay, is it a cute photo? Yeah. I thought we should take a vacation to the Sanskrit for don't-go-away.

What's the Sanskrit for a don't-go-away? And here you go. AVI PRA GNAS ZHA It's probably in Israeli, right?

AVI. Hey, AVI. PRA GNAS ZHA So it's four parts.

A, VI, PRA, GNAS ZHA So please repeat. A, VI, PRA, GNAS ZHA Sorry, GNAS ZHA A, VI, PRA, GNAS ZHA Okay, so A means, Christina? GNAS VI means very much.

PRA means super. And GNAS ZHA, the root GNAS ZHA means to be lost or to fade away. Got it?

Very much, very much completely didn't fade away. Very much completely didn't fade away. A, VI, PRA, GNAS ZHA Okay, got it?

So you can use the Sanskrit. Hey, you got any don't-go-aways? Sorry, you got any AVI PRA GNAS ZHA?

They say, yeah, I got some AVI PRA GNAS ZHA. I hope I can keep the AVI PRA GNAS ZHA of my donation to the Go Club. And I hope I can lose the AVI PRA GNAS ZHA when I reach nirvana of all my credit card debts.

Okay, like that. All right, good. So learn the word.

Generally GNAS ZHA as a root in Sanskrit means to be destroyed or to be lost. It's probably connected to not. Okay, all right.

Next verse. By the way, it's a long chapter, I'm sorry. But I know you guys are fascinated.

Okay, now the other guy says, well, if you can lose your AVI PRA GNAS ZHA, it sounds like a Jewish pastry, right? I don't know. You can get...

Where is that nice bakery? Is it still there? What's...

[Speaker 2]
Going on second half?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. No.

[Speaker 2]
You know, that one goes in and out of business like all the time.

[Speaker 1]
No, but it was there for like a hundred years. Okay, anyway, you can pick up some AVI PRA GNAS ZHA here. Anyway, the guy says, okay, I understand that if the Titanic sinks, all the credit card bills go.

But what about life to life? Do you lose your AVI PRA GNAS ZHA when you skip to a new life? When you cross the border, SNYING MTSAMS SBYOR BA, into a new river, do the AVI PRA GNAS ZHA come with you?

Do the can't-go-aways come with you or not? What do you guess, by the way? They do go away?

They probably don't go away. Otherwise there would be no karma in the next life. Okay, here's the real answer.

GAM GSUNGS LAS NI CHA TZAM DANG If you go from the same rebirth to the same rebirth, if you go from human to human, you keep your AVI PRA GNAS ZHA. Or if you go from desire realm to desire realm, you keep your AVI PRA GNAS ZHA. CHA MI TSUNGS PA THAMS CAD GYI There might be some not keeping your AVI PRA GNAS ZHA when you change to a different realm because those devas are not going to have the obvious suffering that you should have had if you were born in the human realm, right?

If you had gone from the human realm to the human realm, you'd be having some gross sufferings that devas don't have. So if you go from human to deva, something must have happened to some of your AVI PRA GNAS ZHA for trouble, because they don't have trouble. Got it?

All right. No, I mean, when you go from a human birth to a deva birth, in that birth, you don't have the gross pain that you have in this realm. Nobody breaks their arm in the deva realm.

It doesn't happen. So maybe something happens to your AVI PRA GNAS ZHA if you go to a different realm from the human realm. All right, CHA MI TSUNGS PA THAMS CAD GYI DE NYID SNYING MTSAMS SBYOR BA'I TSE SPYOD BU'I KHO NA SKYE BA RGYUR But, okay, ready?

I'm sorry. Your karma might not go with you, but your AVI PRA GNAS ZHA will go with you. How's that?

Your karma may not go with you, but your, what do we call it? Your don't go away? Will go with you.

How's that? This is all ABI DERMA. Okay, I'm sorry.

By the way, the only reason why Nagarjuna would give a lot of wild ABI DERMA ideas is if he's going to destroy them at some point. I'm just telling you. All right, next verse.

I'll say, I'm sorry, next verse. MTHONG BA'I PHYIR LA RNAMS NYID PO Now, MTHONG BA'I PHYIR can mean something you saw at the path of seeing, but it can also mean DER BZHTA' DER BZHTA' seen in this life or seen in the future life. And that's what it means here.

So as far as, are you going to see it? As far as DER BZHTA' DER BZHTA' When you do any kind of, well, how should we say? Anytime you commit a karma in this life, your won't go away is DER BZHTA' in this life.

You pick it up in this life. Whatever karma you commit in this life, you pick up a don't go away for that in this life. DER BZHTA', it's seen in this life.

RNAMS NYID PO And that could apply to BSAGS CES or BSAGS MED in the ABI DERMA system. Good karmas, impure karmas, or pure karmas, which is a long subject. THAMS CAD LAS DANG LAS KYI DE Also, both types of CETA NA and CETA YID PA.

CETA NA and CETA YID PA. We studied it a long time ago yesterday. CETA NA comes from CIT.

CETA NA CETA YID PA Yeah, yeah. Intention and intended. So that division, he says, whether you commit a karma mentally or whether you commit a karma because of what you were thinking, both of them, you still pick up a don't go away.

Whether it's mental karma, which is thinking karma, which is intention, or it's the action of body or speech which was intended by them, you still pick up a don't-go-away. This is all details of don't-go-aways. ,'AVIPRA NA ZHES, ,THA DE BA NI SKYE YOD ZHING, This is cool.

You get a separate don't-go-away every time you make a karma. So you're basically collecting don't-go-aways your whole life. Your whole life, your pocket's filling up with don't-go-aways.

Every tiny thing you do, you get a new don't-go-away. It's discreet. It says here, ,THA DE BA NI SKYE YOD ZHING, It arises discreetly.

,NAM PAR MIN KYANG GNAS PA YIN, This is really controversial. After the karma ripens, the don't-go-away stays with you. Well, what's it do?

Don't ask me. He doesn't say. But according to the Abhidharma, the don't-go-away stays with you even if the karma is destroyed or it ripens and it finishes.

Even if the seed finishes, the don't-go-away stays with you somehow. So we must be collecting zillions of don't-go-aways. What do they do if they don't hold the karma anymore?

I don't know. It's kind of like an empty pocket that you spend all your money. I guess you can still have the pocket, right?

All right. Now the Abhidharma guy says, Nagarjuna, you forgot to tell them how to get rid of your don't-go-aways. And Nagarjuna's like, oh yeah, let's talk about that.

Okay, so here's how to get rid of your don't-go-aways, extra don't-go-aways. All right. ,DE NI DE BU PO BA DANG ZHI BA RGYUR NA RGA PA GYUR, The second part here is easy.

If you're ZHI BA, you lose your don't-go-aways. Yeah, if you die, you lose some don't-go-aways. It doesn't seem to make sense because you should be able to carry it into your next life.

And DE BU PO BA means serious, heavy, graduating karmic result. This refers to stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner, and arhat. These are called the four fruits.

When the fruit is big, heavy good karma, heavy spiritual realizations, yeah, it could cancel your don't-go-aways. And I don't know, but I'm imagining jor lam su, the mastery level of jor lam. You can't go to a lower realm anymore, so they must have destroyed your don't-go-aways.

It must have damaged some of your don't-go-aways. But then he just said they can only be lost when you become an arhat, I don't know. Okay, DE'I RNAMS NYES BSAGS MED DANG BSAGS DANG PHYIR PAR ZHIG PAR BYA You could have enlightened don't-go-aways and you can have samsaric don't-go-aways.

Okay, everyone in the room is going to sleep. Let's see if we can go on. I like this picture, okay, Pachi?

I built my lama's house. It took me, oh wait, there's one more picture on here. Yeah, I built my lama's house.

I paid for it and I built it. And no one came to help me. I mean, one guy helped me for a day or something.

So I was up on this high, it's two stories high. I was up in the third story on the ladder. And I'll never forget it.

It was winter, dead of winter. I'm up on the ladder painting the house like this. And these people would come, Mongolian old men, and they'd say, hey, Mike.

I'm like, what? They'd say, I got to go to the store. I'm like, I'm painting the house that no one's helping me paint.

And they'd say, but I'm going to the store. I need a ride. I was the, Chibita?

I was the public horse of the whole community. So anyway, why am I talking about that? If you get high enough, you leave the toolbox at the bottom.

If you're working on the third story, you always forget some tool. And then you have to climb down this very dangerous ladder, two stories, and get the screwdriver and go back up. And then you forgot the paint, and you're by yourself.

And anyway, what I'm saying is if you get high enough, you can leave some of your, don't go away, be high. Okay, I don't know why that image came to my mind. All right, let's go to the next verse.

So we start saying, we start thinking, well, then this whole don't go away thing is starting to sound a little uncomfortable. This feels like really a lower idea that once you commit a karma, it can't just go away. It starts to feel uncomfortable, right?

This whole idea of a don't go away, it sounds weird. Then suddenly, Nagarjuna shifts gears. He says, following verse, SDONG PA NYID DANG BYAS PA DANG KHOR BA DANG NI BDAG PA MIN LAS RNAMS CHEN MI SA BA'I PHYIR SANG NYID RNAMS KYI BSTAN PA YIN Who taught don't go aways?

The Buddha. So Nagarjuna says, hey, don't think don't go aways are a stupid idea. There's a real don't go away.

As he seems to shift gears here, he's like, look, I know you guys, now you don't have much respect for don't go aways, but there is a real don't go away. Let me tell you about the real don't go away. Then he starts to describe it.

SDONG PA NYID Don't think that just because something is empty, it's going to destroy the don't go away. Don't go aways do exist and they are empty, but that doesn't mean they don't keep your seat. Don't think that don't go aways can't hold your karma with you for lifetimes just because they are empty.

That's a misunderstanding of empty. When I say a don't go away is empty, I don't mean it doesn't work because you guys keep thinking that. Every time I say empty, you guys think it doesn't matter anymore.

But when I say empty, I mean it does matter. Don't go aways are empty, therefore you better learn about them and respect them because it means they work. It doesn't mean they don't work.

So that's the first thing Nagarjuna has to say. SDONG PA NYID BYAS PA BYAS PA means this... What do we say BSTAN PA RGYUN BYAS PA?

This... When you cut off the flow of something?

[Speaker 2]
Let's say cut off the flow.

[Speaker 1]
Terminate? Truncate. It should be BYAS PA.

SDONG PA NYID DANG BYAS PA DANG Oh, that's... Yeah, that's certainly a mistake. By the way, I mixed the Ten-Year Version and the Charning Lama Version so I could detect problems.

I have the Charning Lama Version, you have the Ten-Year Version. And the reason I did that is so I could detect any problems. So anyway, SDONG PA NYID DANG BYAS PA DANG So don't think that's because it's empty.

Your don't go away is just going to disappear. BYAS PA Truncate. We had the two extremes, thinking things are unchanging and thinking things just stop.

Third thing, korwa. You better figure out this don't go away thing, says Nagarjuna. First of all, because the Buddha said it.

And secondly, because it is the king of samsara. It runs samsara. Don't go away runs samsara.

They are the bus drivers for samsara. The don't go away's in your karmic pocket are the bus driver of your samsara. So you got them better figured out because they keep your karmas with you.

So you better figure it out. So he says, this is not BS. This is real.

The Buddha talked about it. We have to figure it out. Because they are running, you're suffering.

Last thing, BDAG PA MIN Don't think they are unchanging. That's not correct. Don't think that a karma stored over time would have to be unchanging.

That's also a misperception. The Buddha did say karma can be stored over time and come back to you. That doesn't mean the karma is unchanging.

It just means it's replicating or something like that. So what he's saying is, I've made a lot of fun of the Abhidharma guys in a bunch of verses here, but actually they're pretty cool. This idea that karma don't go away, that's for real.

That's for real. He says, I just brought it up because you guys think if it's empty, a don't go away can't work. But I want to tell you, if it's empty, that's the proof that it can work and karma will stay with you.

So you better watch your karma. This don't go away stuff is for real. Why?

Buddha said so. That's Nagarjuna. And it seems like a long class, but it's okay, right?

All right, here we go. GANG PHYIR LAS NI SKYE BA MED JI LTAR RANG BZHIN MED PA'I DE PHYIR GANG PHYIR DE NI MA SKYES PA DE PHYIR CHOS GSAM MI RGYUR RO Then Nagarjuna goes into why a don't go away should work. Nagarjuna goes into why a don't go away should work.

And he says, LAS NI SKYE BA MED Don't go away is work because you cannot do karma. Don't go away is work because you cannot do karma. Meaning?

Which exists from its own side. So he's kicking, now he's like, yay, finally I confused you. Here, I'll say it again.

Don't go away is work because karma, you cannot do karma. Don't go away is work because you cannot do karma. DE LTAR RANG BZHIN MED PA'I DE PHYIR Why?

Because karma doesn't have any nature of its own. It's coming from your seed. GANG PHYIR DE NI MA SKYES PA And because you cannot do karma, it's going to stay with you without going away.

Because you cannot do karma, it's going to stay with you and cannot just go away. Because you cannot do karma, you do get, don't go away. Got it?

Because you cannot do karma, you do get, thus, don't go away.

[Speaker 2]
If that sounds like karma and don't go away, so it is, okay.

[Speaker 1]
Don't go away is keep karma on Christina, whoever Christina is.

[Speaker 2]
It's like a glue.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, it's like a glue. This is a very Abhidharma idea. By the way, if you really want to ask questions, what keeps the glue on you?

Then the Abhidharma says, THOB PA'I THOB PA You got to have a glue for the glue. Then the other guy says, do you have a THOB PA'I THOB PA? Do you have glue for the glue for the glue?

And they say, nope. It ends at the glue for the glue. So don't worry, you don't need glue for your glue glue.

You don't need glues for your glue glue, but you do need glue for your glue. All right. I like this next picture.

It's called The Rules, Why Stuff Works. I like to say the rules hold true because they don't exist. You got to follow the rules of karma because they don't exist.

Meaning, even the laws of karma are coming from you. Well, then Geshe-la, they should be adjustable. If the laws of karma are coming from me, then I should be able to do a good deed and get a bad result.

Under weird circumstances, if it's coming from me, then I should be able to mess with the laws of karma. And that's a fallacy. The fact that something's coming from you doesn't mean you could change it.

That there's not patterns. That there's not inevitable patterns. The fact that something's coming from you is not a proof that there are not inevitable patterns in life.

And that if you hurt someone, you're going to get hurt. Are you creating that law? Yes.

Can you change that law? No. Well, if it's coming from me, I can change it.

MA GYUR, not necessarily. Okay, we'll talk about that later. Okay, it's a tough class.

Listen to it a bunch of times. We're not done with our examination of karma. We got one more class to go.

Okay, see you next one.