Колесо ножей (1998, Нью-Йорк), занятие 1

[Говорящий 1]
Okay, so welcome. Tonight we're going to study a text that you have there, called Tsunche Khorlo, and I'd like to put up the name of the book, and I'd like you to repeat a little bit of Tibetan, because we say it puts a seed in your mind, that later you'll understand it better. And also, the first Dalai Lama said that if you use a foreign language, everybody believes you more.

So, we'll do some of the... can you see that okay? Nope, I didn't think so.

Now you can't see it right? Can you see it? Alright.

So please repeat, Tsunche? Khorlo. You got to wake up a little bit.

Tsunche? Khorlo. Tsunche?

Khorlo. Okay good. Tsunche means ...

Tsunche is a Tibetan word that means any kind of a nasty weapon, like a sword, or a dagger, or anything like that okay? Tsunche means there's something with a sharp edge on it, like a knife okay? And then Khorlo means a wheel okay?

A wheel. And you find Tsunche Khorlo mentioned in the ancient ancient books of Buddhism, two and a half thousand years ago, a book was spoken named Karma Vibhanga, and it's about all the... everything you ever wanted to know about karma.

And in there there's a story about a Tsunche Khorlo, we can call it a wheel of knives or something like that okay? Wheel of knives. And the word became very famous in Tibet, but nobody ever you know, checked out the very early references to it.

So if you go back about two and a half thousand years into this book, there's this beautiful story about a young man. He lives like, I always pictured in Norway or Iceland or something like that you know, he's living on the the ocean. And he lives with his mother, and he's growing up and he's like just getting to be 18, 19 years old.

And he had a father, the father was a seaman, and he went to sea and he was lost, he was lost at sea. And so the the wife is, the mother is very nervous that the son should never become a seaman you know, but everybody in the town is a seaman. So there's this story that he's like graduating from school, and he meets all these other kids from his class, and they're all about to go sign up for the Merchant Marine and you know ancient, this ancient times wherever it was.

Like this is probably another planet actually. And previous life of the Buddha I think probably. So he and his friends decide they're going to go off to sea, and he goes to tell his mother, and there's this scene in the kitchen where he's you know, she's like crying and grabbing onto him and saying you know, I don't want you to leave you know, your father left and I lost him, and now you're all I have left, and please don't go.

And she breaks out and cries, and so he's like, alright this time I won't go you know, and he decides not to go because he wants to respect his mother. And then after a year or two, all his friends are gone, the next group of boys comes along, and they're also talking about going to sea. And he's like really wants to go to sea, but he you know, he makes up his mind this time he's gonna go, and he goes to his mother and says okay, this time I really have to go, because now the last group of my friends are going and I have to go with them.

And then she throws another scene, and there's this time it lasts longer, but in the end she convinces him and he decides not to go. By the way it's a true story okay, it's in Sanskrit and it was translated into Tibetan, and we still have it. Of course it happens a third time, his friends this time insist you know, there's nobody left in town from his age that's not gone to sea, he's the last one, he decides he has to go to sea.

And then his mother throws a big big big scene you know, and she's grabbing onto his leg and begging him, and then finally he can't he can't get her off, so he like pulls off kind of violently to get away, and then she falls and she knocks her head a little bit on the floor or something, and then he runs down to the to the, what do you call it, the dock you know, the docks, and he gets onto the ship and he sails away, and she's crying and her head hurts okay, and and then the story goes that they they went on a long journey, and they reached pretty far out into the ocean, and then there was a great storm, and and the ship started to break apart, and everybody abandoned ship, and he grabbed onto a piece of wood, and and then eventually you know, half alive he reaches this beach and he crawls up on it, and he like crawls into this jungle a little bit, into this little place, and he just falls unconscious, and then I don't know, after like a day he opens his eyes and standing over him are these four beautiful women you know, dressed in these silken robes and very beautiful hair, and they're standing over him looking down at him, and and and they say come you know, come with us to our castle, you can live with us you know, so they pick him up, and they take him into this beautiful palace, and he lives there for like several years enjoying himself you know, with these ladies, and everything is fine, and then one day he's out walking in the garden, and he takes the wrong turn into the forest, and then he gets lost, and he wanders and wanders, he has no food, no water, and he keeps going and going, and then finally he he reaches a big meadow, and he's dying of thirst, and he falls down unconscious, and he's laying there, and then he's he's aware again that someone is waking him up you know, and he and he looks up and there's like, I think it's eight women this time you know, and they're all dressed in these robes and silks and beautiful, and they say oh come live with us you know, no problem, and he they escort him to their palace, and he lives there for like four years you know, and and very happy, and no problems, and everything's fine, then of course he's out walking again, and he gets lost again, and he's walking to the forest, and he comes to this, when you read it in Tibetan it's very scary, the story is very scary, he reaches this huge dark ominous wall, with this huge wooden gate there you know, and everything is dark and scary, and silent, and he it's not at all like the other two places you know, and he he goes in, he walks in just a little bit into the courtyard, and then suddenly the gates slam behind him you know, these big old gates slam, and then he's standing there, and he's looking around, and there are four, what do you call, towers on each corner of the of the courtyard, and he looks up, and there's this long stairway going up to the one of the towers on the outside of the tower, like coming straight down the wall, and he sees a man up there, and everything is dark, he's trying to see what's going on with this guy, and he looks up there, and and he's walking down the the stairs like like very slowly you know, and he's he's like screaming half the time, and and if you look at his head, then you see that there's this like circle of knives, like there's a it's like a circle here, and there's knives on the inside, and they're slicing at his head, you know they're cutting at his head like a helicopter blade, but facing inwards, and they're just cutting away at his head, and chipping off pieces of his skin, and his and his skull, and pieces, and they're flying around, and there's blood everywhere, and and he's like moaning, and he's trying to get down the stairs, and he's like freaked out, and and he he's trying to talk to the guy, communicate the guy, and he he says what's going on here, you know, how did this happen to you, how did you get here, you know, where did this thing come from on your head, you know, and he says this is a tsunji koro, this is a wheel of knives, you know, on my head, and and he says well where did it come from, and why is it on your head, you know, and he says the guy says well you know I was born in in a seafaring town, and and I lived with my mother, and and as a teenager I had these friends, and we wanted to go to sea, and so I asked her if I could go, and she said no no your father died, you know, going to sea, and I don't want you going to sea, you know, and so the first time she asked me to stay, I stayed, you know, and and and then the second time I wanted to go with my friends to sea, I asked her again, and I and I gave the same story, and then there was a big fight, but I agreed to stay, and then the third time I wanted to go to sea, I asked her permission, she said no, she grabbed onto my leg, I tried to get away, finally I forced myself away, she knocked her head on the ground, and and then I went to sea, and there was a shipwreck, and me and my friends tried to swim for sure, and I was the only one that made it, and I went into this forest, and and I fell unconscious, and then when I woke up there were these four ladies standing over me, and he's like telling the whole story, you know, and the guy's, the guy's starting to shake, you know, and then he goes through the second one, you know, the story of the second palace, and the guy's getting really scared, and then he says, then I came to this place, and there was this man up on the parapet, and he had this knife cutting his head open, and I asked him what was going on, and he told me his whole story, and then suddenly the knives lifted up in the air, and came down the stairs in the air, and then came onto my own head, and started slicing it, and I've been here ever since, you know, and that's how I got here, you know, and the guy's like ...

he's like getting really scared, and then the knives start to rise off the guy's head, you know, and and the guy's just like terrorized, and he, but then something happens, somewhere between the time that the knives start from down the stairs, and the time that they reach his head, he decides that, he has this very holy thought, he says, at that moment he develops bodhicitta, okay, bodhicitta is like this desire to become a perfect enlightened being for the sake of other people, so he decides, you know, whatever pain I have to go through, I'll dedicate it, at the moment that the knives start cutting my head, and I feel the pain, and I'll pray, you know, he starts to pray that he takes on the pain of all the other people in the world, you know, anyone who's getting hurt today, you know, any woman who's in labor, any person who's drowning, any person who's sick, any person who's dying, let all their pain come to me, when the first pain comes to him on my head, let all of that pain come into me, because it might as well just be me, you know, he decides that he would be willing to do that, you know, and just as he's getting this feeling, and the knives are starting to settle down his head, and then he perfects compassion at that moment, you know, he perfects that idea that he would be willing to take the pain of everyone, and then he looks up, and the thing just disappears, you know, and that's the original story, because of his compassion, because he reached real compassion, he destroyed the wheel of knives, you know, so that's the original story of the wheel of knives, and a lot of people, you know, it's a hidden deep in some sutra, we found it by accident one day, that's the original story, so then, you know, a thousand years ago, there's this Lama, Dharmalakshita, for those of you learning Tibetan, it's ...

... no, not sure, leave it, say Dharmalakshita, we don't know much about his life, we don't know a lot about his life, we know that his most illustrious student was named Atisha, and Atisha was like the first, one of the first great Lamas to come to Tibet, Atisha, you know, essentially brought a lot of the teachings into Tibet, Atisha went on very dangerous journeys all over the world in his time, he went to Indonesia, took him like ten months to learn the teachings on compassion, and then in northern India, in West Bengal, he traveled and he learned the teachings on emptiness, so he was this being who incorporated all of the teachings on emptiness, and all the teachings on compassion, which was very unusual at the time for someone to have both, because they were missing in India, and he had to take this journey, you know, very dangerous journey, you know, in 1000 AD, by sail, around, you know, like Vietnam, and Burma, and Cambodia, so he embodied both of those, and then the Tibetans managed to coax him to Tibet, and then there were these wars, and he got stuck in Tibet, okay, between him and India, wars broke out in Nepal, he couldn't get home, so he ended up being the first big Lama that taught the Tibetans, eventually the people and his disciples became the first Dalai Lamas, and that's how the whole lineage got down to us, we are actually in that lineage, we are in that lineage of Atisha, so I think Atisha was 982 to 1052, something like that, so we think Shantarakshita, you know, probably was born about 30 years before, and it's interesting that Atisha's teachers, including Dharmaraksita, they seem to have been preparing him for Tibet, you know, like, you know, according to us, they probably knew he was going to end up in Tibet, so they seem to have been loading him with certain teachings, so that when he got to Tibet, he would be most useful, you know, he reached Tibet pretty old, in his time, he was already an old man when he reached Tibet, but it seems to be that his teachers purposely loaded him with teachings that would be useful for Tibetans. Tibetans at that time were just like Westerners now, they didn't know anything about Buddhism, they didn't even have an alphabet to write Buddhism down, and they went to India looking for an alphabet so they could have Buddhism, you know, and they sent a bunch of young men, and like, all of them died except two of them, they came back with the alphabet, and that's how it started.

So they were just like us, this is times we called the Kadampa's, and the Kadampa's were the early Tibetan Buddhists. Their favorite book was called, say Lojong? Lojong?

Okay, Lo means mind, Jong means to train yourself, so people have called this mind training or something like that, I think somebody miswrote it in the flyer for this thing, it's mind reform, I don't know where they got that, but anyway, to me mind training sounds like a Kaplan thing or something, like you're going to get your IQ increased or something like that. The Lo here is not the mind in general, it doesn't refer to mind in general, it refers to perfect compassion, bodhicitta, and it's what that guy got just as he was praying that as the wheel came down on his head that he should take all the pain of other people, so at that moment he had what we call bodhicitta, he had like ultimate compassion, and that's actually what the Lo means, so it's not like training your mind, it's like trying to develop what you would call a good heart or something like that, it's like trying to perfect the attitude of a good heart.

Jong can mean to perfect something, or like that. So it's interesting, the first Tibetan Buddhists were very much into heavy-duty practice, they were not, they knew philosophy, and they were good philosophers, and they knew how to debate, they knew logic and everything else, but their main emphasis was, you know, sitting in caves and trying to develop compassion, like people would sit in a cave for 12 years to try to meditate on compassion or something like that, that was a typical exercise in their day. We don't have a lot of books from the time of the Kadampa's, very few, and about all we have are these short Lojongs, and apparently, Lord Atisha was loaded up by his lamas, his gurus in India, with a bunch of Lojongs, you know, like there's a very beautiful one called Lojong to be used in the event that you meet the barbarians in Tibet, you know, like, what to use on people who are just crazy, materialistic, you know, never heard of any Dharma thing, and they're very useful in America also, as Buddhism comes here, the same texts are very useful, so it seems like, I don't know, it seems like we could connect with those texts, you know, they're very, the text you have here was one that was designed for this Atisha to come to Tibet and use it for people who didn't know anything about Buddhism, you see what I mean? And people who were sort of wrapped up into a material society, and didn't, and were trying to get out of it, but didn't know what to do, you know what I mean? And that's what Lojong was designed for, so that's the kind of Lojong we have tonight, and I think it's, this one is really, really beautiful, it has about four different parts in it, I think you can define four different parts, and if you think about it, those four parts relate exactly to what happened to the kid, with the wheel of knives on his head, you see what I mean?

If you think about it, you can relate the Lojong to those four parts, so that's what we're going to do, we're going to go through the four parts of this book, which, you know, it's 80 pages long, we can't go through the whole thing tonight, I want you to take it home and read it, but I'm just going to give you the guide, a guide for it, a guideline for it, okay? The first section I would call, say maja, maja, I think maja probably comes from Sanskrit, the Sanskrit for a peacock is mayor, and I think it may be come from that, so maja, maja means a peacock, okay, peacock, so when you first read, you know, you can read it at home, but the first few pages of this book, The Wheel of Sharp Knives, okay, it's describing majas, it's talking about majas, majas have this thing, you know, they have these tails, peacocks have these, I don't know peacocks or peahens, but anyway, they have these tails with all these bright colors on them, and all these, those are used in Buddhist philosophy as an example of karma, you see, like they say there are two very deep objects in the world that you should try to perceive in your lifetime, one is emptiness, one is how does karma work, you see what I mean? So these are two like objects that normal people can't perceive, you know, unless you meditate a lot, unless you are trained by a qualified person, you will never see emptiness directly, I mean you wouldn't just see it by accident, you know, it's like, I compare it to learning to play the piano, you, it takes about that much effort, you have to have, to learn to play the piano well, and to see emptiness directly, take about the same kind of effort, and the same kind of training by someone who knows the technique, you know, and, and it's not something that's just going to happen to you if you read a few books, you know, you can read a few books about playing piano, and, and the likelihood of playing piano well, and the likelihood of seeing emptiness after reading a few books about it, are just about the same, you see, impossible, and, and then seeing the real, subtle working of karma, and what comes out of karma, for example, you know, if I brush someone on the street, you know, if I'm waiting at a traffic light, and the guy in front of me doesn't move, and I brush against him, just brush, and I feel just this little irritation for them, and then I forget about it, what, what effect will that have on my future, you see what I mean? Like, what will happen to me 20 years from now, on April 6th, you know, at 3 o'clock, because I brushed that guy, and was a little bit irritated, according to Buddhism, major consequences, okay, according to Buddhism, like, it could cause an hour or two of suffering, just that one thought, because of the effect on the mind, the mind has this way of taking a seed in the mind, and increasing it, like a tree seed increases, like, like if you take a small lemon seed, and you look at the tree that grows out of a lemon seed, according to Buddhism, every single little action that you do, even if it's just a little thought of being irritated at somebody, has like major consequences later, to really see how, for example, this room was created because of something nice you thought to somebody 10 years ago, for a few minutes, is very, very subtle, they say it's more difficult to see than emptiness, like, this room, according to Buddhism, came from some small good thing you thought about years ago, and then you're, because of that, you're perceiving this room. Now, which thought was it?

Who were you with? What time was it? You know, how many minutes did you think that thought?

I mean, this is extremely difficult to see, we say emptiness is like, called kokyur, which means difficult to see, and karma, and what comes from karma, meaning, what comes from the small things you do during the day, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, that's called shintokokyur, which means extremely difficult to perceive, okay, but in your lifetime, you should try to see these two things, okay, you have to try to see these two things. What's it got to do with peacocks? Okay, in scriptures, peacocks have these feathers, and they're each detail of the color in each feather, you know, if you take one feather with like a hundred or two hundred different filaments to it, and you look into the reason why there's a blue there, and there's a red there, and there's a yellow there, why is there a blue right there?

Why is there a red right there? You know, why are these colors here in this painting? According to Buddhism, each one has its own discrete cause, okay, like that peacock in a former life said something sweet to somebody, and that's the cause for this color of this particular feather, okay, and very difficult to sit there and explain to somebody, okay, see this peacock?

This red color was caused by this, that they did 500 years ago, and this blue was caused by this, and the yellow was caused by that. They say almost impossible to do that. That's where peacocks come up in scripture.

In the short term, that color is said to be produced by certain things that they eat, okay, they eat certain kinds of foods, alright, and peacocks are always compared to crows. Crows and peacocks are different. Peacocks have this ability to eat certain kinds of herbs which are poisonous to other animals, like if they found some arsenic or something, they would really like it, and according to scripture, you know, I don't know, tradition, a peacock can digest poisons that no other animal can digest, so, I don't know, and then that those are actually, not only don't harm them, they are the cause for the beauty of their feathers, you know, that you can only get those exquisite colors if you are able to digest arsenic or something like that. So the peacocks are said to be special like that, okay. What's it got to do with training your mind in compassion, okay, what's it got to do with that?

They say that at this part in the text, they're talking about bodhisattvas, okay, and bodhisattvas are people who don't avoid problems in life, they go after them, so if they meet some kind of difficult situation, if they meet some kind of person who is difficult, if they meet some kind of person who is in great need, they not only don't ignore them, they actually are attracted to them, you see what I mean?

So a bodhisattva walks to this room, they're not attracted to the people who are handsome or pretty or smart or anything like that, they're looking out for some kind of problem to get involved with, you know, like they'll go around the world and try to find the people who are worse off, and then collect them and try to figure out some way to help them, and and it's not like they're trying to just take it easy during life, they actually feed off of negativity, you know what I mean? They go out looking for problems, and then they, you know, they feel, what do you call it, they feel somehow, what do you call it, fulfilled when they find a problem, and then they can do something about it, and that's how they spend their lives. So they're like, they're like here the peacocks, okay, so you're gonna read in the story here, in the Lojong here, you're gonna read about peacocks, and it refers to that kind of attitude where, where you know, you're not only not attracted to, you know, fine food and nice clothes and and a big apartment or something like that, you just naturally are attracted to situations or people who are having a serious problem, and then you go, you just like to be around them, you feel attracted to them, and and you you tend to work for them, okay, and that's, that's a peacock attitude. And then crows, they say, if crows tried to digest the same stuff, they would get hurt, you know, it's like if crows apparently don't have the same apparatus that peacocks have, and if they tried to eat the same things, they would get killed by those. So they have to avoid those kinds of herbs, and those kinds of medicinal plants.

These are called oshada in Sanskrit, these are special kinds of plants that grew in India that had very, I don't know, datura is a Sanskrit word, and and and it's a plant that if you use it well, it gives you insight, and if you, if you don't know how to use it, it kills you, okay, so it's some kind of special flower, and and those are all examples of this kind of flowers, okay. It's cool that if you get into the wheel of sharp knives, they start talking about negative emotions being like those herbs, okay, so they say if you're very, very skillful, you can use your own negative emotions for good, okay, and this is an idea, you know, that you read in New Age magazines and stuff, you know, like anger is, you know, use your anger for good stuff, and like that, and you have to talk about that concept, you see, because if you don't do it the right way, you end up like a crow, you hurt yourself, and if you do it in the right way, then you can use your negative emotions, like anger, or desire, or jealousy, you can actually use them in a good way, and you can try to channel them for something good, in the way that peacocks eat these poisons.

So, when they talk about the peacock, they're not just talking about bodhisattvas who go after problems, they're talking about people who are able to channel, or to utilize negative emotions, okay, and this is a very, very delicate concept, and we have to talk about it, okay, but we don't get to it till number three, okay. That's the introduction to the book, you get into peacocks, and you get two kinds of takes on peacocks, one is, they're like bodhisattvas, they, they live off problems, you know, bodhisattvas are attracted to, to difficult situations, and they enjoy them, and they, they just live like that, they look for them all the time, and, and they don't want to just sit back and relax, okay, and then another example, another metaphor being talked about here is that peacocks can live off that poison, and if you are very, very skilled spiritual practitioner, you can use certain kinds of your negative emotions in a certain way, so yeah, but we have to talk about that, okay, because there's a lot of wrong ideas about that, and the idea that it's always healthy to venture anger or something like that, according to Buddhism, is very dangerous.

It's like the, the herbs are like that, you know, anger is like that, if you're like the crow, and you don't quite know how to do it right, you could really hurt yourself, karmically speaking, by venting your anger, and, and if you are very skillful, like the peacock, then you can use your anger in a powerful way, okay, so we're going to talk about, we're going to talk about that, but we don't get there till number three, okay, so now we go on to number two, the second part of the text. Say LEN DE. LEN DE.

LEN DE.

[Говорящий 2]
Good.

[Говорящий 1]
LE, LE means karma, in Tibetan, okay, even in modern Tibetan, LEG A KALI BYED DU means, hey what are you up to, you know, what kind of work are you doing right now, LEG A means work, so the word LE means karma or work, and DE, DE in Sanskrit is like pushpa, and it means a flower, and it also means rice, so DE means the, the, the most valuable fruit, or harvest in, in India was what, I mean in Asia, is rice, you see, so rice was given the name result, because it's the most valuable fruit, you know, the word for fruit, the word for result, the word for rice are all the same, meaning this is the most important thing that can come out of the ground, okay, so, so DE means in karma, in the study of karma, it means consequences, okay, so LEN DE means karma and its consequences, okay, karma and its consequences. And in the second part of the, of this text that you're reading, okay, you're going to get this refrain about LEN DE, about karma and its consequences, and this is where the wheel of sharp knives comes in, okay, like the guy will say, you know what, I went to work today, and somebody yelled at me, or you know what, that fourth relationship I attempted this year has just fallen apart, you know, and, and he'll, and he'll say, well, you know, the wheel of knives is coming back to me, so you have this vision of the wheel, you know, coming, descending on his head, because of something he did in the past. By the way, I guess you figured out that the guy got rescued by the, the beautiful ladies the first time, because he listened to his mother the first time, and he got rescued by the beautiful ladies the second time, because he listened to his mother a second time, and he was gonna get his head chopped open by these whirling knives, because he bumped, he accidentally bumped his mother's head, and, and hurt her head slightly. And in, and in Buddhism, although I'm not going to go into that tonight, anything done towards your parents is extremely powerful karma, okay.

The, the theory being that they have, whether they intended to or not, whether their motivation was pure or not, whether they dumped you when you were a kid or not, they have given you a body and a mind which are equipped to become an enlightened being in this life, like, they either by accident or, or by, doesn't matter how, doesn't matter what their intention was, they have given you a physical body and a, and a mind which are eligible, they make you eligible to achieve enlightenment. So from that point of view, regardless of what you think of them, regardless of even what they were intending when they bore you, they're extremely powerful karmically, you have to be very careful towards them. According to Buddhism, the fact that they have equipped you to become an enlightened being in this life, if you work properly, hard, means that they're extremely powerful karmic objects.

You have to be extremely careful towards your parents, you have to be, you have to be really, really careful to be good towards your parents. Just because they equipped you to become the, in the non-secret teachings of Buddhism, they gave you a mind which can think straight, and if you use it well, you can become enlightened in this life. In the tantric teachings of Buddhism, they gave you a body that, due to its very nature, can allow you to become enlightened in this lifetime, okay, that's something about your physical body that they've given to you, that makes you eligible not only to become a, you know, an enlightened being, but to become like a tantric angel in this lifetime, in, in one lifetime, before you die, because of your physical body that they gave you. So from that point of view, that they've given you this priceless physical body, that has certain elements about it, that if you know how to use them correctly, you can actually become a tantric deity in this lifetime.

From the point of view of having given you that, you know, purposely or not, you know, intentionally or not, you have to be very careful with them, you know, you can't even bump their head by accident, you see what I mean? Very careful karmically. So anyway, this second part of the text, by the way, after we do that, we'll take a short break, because I know a lot of you came from work, and we usually have some refreshments, I think, yeah, not very good, but you know, it'll do, and there's lots of coke to get you wired, so that you're, you listen for the second half, okay, and, okay, anyway, we'll do the second section.

Lende means, so they're comparing it to the wheel of sharp knives, you know, like, it's, you can think of it as a cosmic boomerang, okay, like, you did something to somebody else, when you, and you threw a boomerang, and then years later, this thing hits you, and you're like, where'd that come from, you know, people tend to ask it more frequently when something goes wrong, than when something goes right, you know, why me, you know, why did this happen to me? And they, it's very difficult to connect it to something that happened before. We're going to talk about that, okay, five-minute course in karma, okay, this is from fourth chapter, Abhidharmakosha, 350 AD, Master Vasubandhu, in the monastery it takes about a year, okay, but, you know, five minutes is okay.

Okay, and here you have to know how karma gets planted in your mind, okay, to understand karma, you have to understand emptiness, okay, so it's very cool, if anybody ever teaches you emptiness, and they don't start talking about karma right away, you can be suspicious, alright, because karma and emptiness work together, okay, so here's how it works, so we're discussing your, the relationship that broke up right, like, like, and it happens all the time, it happens constantly, you know, like, you finally meet this person, you think this is the one that it's going to work with, you always think that, and, and, and, and you you see them, and there's this cycle that you go through you know, first you become aware of them, you see them at a meeting, or a class, or, or someplace you know, and you're like checking them out, and then suddenly your eye catches on them, and then, and then you're, you kind of like get interested, and then you get some excuse to meet them, and talk to them, and then you know, you go, you go out for the first date, and it's really exciting, and then about the third date you kiss them the first time, and it's really, really exciting, and this time you say this is going to be different, you know, and then you know, it develops like that, and then you get to be a, a pair you know, and then slowly you start to see faults in the other person, you know, like slowly, one by one, you become more and more aware of faults in them, until finally they seem like the person you'd like, least like to be with, and, and then finally it ends up like, mutually you agree that this is not going to work, or maybe one person decides six months ahead of time, but anyway, and it goes through this cycle like that, you know, it always goes through a cycle like that, and then I'm talking not about that, that has its own causes, and you should study it someday, and you can actually stop it, you can stop it from going like that, but that's another story. I'm talking about the last few days, okay, like when the thing breaks up, okay, like, like there's an event, or there's a situation, you can remember the last one you had, okay, you know, I was in a restaurant or something, and, and after a few tense days you had your final fight, you know, and then you both say okay, this is not going to work, you see you later, you know, and, and then you feel bad for a couple days, you feel like you, you lost something, okay, like, like you lose this person, and, and it seems like that, and then sometimes it seems like a great opportunity, you know, so your mind is going through this half empty glass, half full glass thing, you know what I mean, like, after a while your mind's not quite sure how to look at it, you know, like, you know, two weeks later you meet this fantastic person, and, and then you're like saying, oh that's really lucky that, that I had that fight with them, you know, I never would have met this other person, you know, and, and, and then you start to have two different visions of this incident in the restaurant where you, where you broke up, you know, so, so it's this thing like, is the glass half full of water, or is the glass half empty, you see what I mean, and it's at that point that you begin to appreciate that the event of breaking up could have been a good thing, or could have been a bad thing, you know, your mind is like wavering, and, and half the time it sees it as something sad, and you get kind of weepy, and then half the time you see it as, wow, that's really lucky, you know, that was great, because then I, then I met this other person, you know, so that's an example, a really good example of, of emptiness, okay, like this is one object, and your mind is like vacillating between, oh that was a really good thing, or that was a really bad thing, you know, half the time you think maybe it was a terrible thing, and half the time you think maybe it was a great opportunity, you know what I mean, and your mind is like vacillating between these two ways of seeing this one event, okay, Buddhism says take a look at this event, you know, is it bad or is it good, you know, like try to decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing, you know, and, and the way that your mind vacillates like two weeks later, let's say one week later or something, you know, is a good example of the emptiness of that event, okay, emptiness means, that's a perfect example of emptiness, emptiness doesn't mean some kind of black hole in this, I mean, when you start to talk about emptiness, the first thing you imagine is some kind of like looking up into the night sky and just seeing black or something like that, or, or you know, something like that, looking down someone's throat and it's all dark, you know, or something like that, I mean that's the first thing that comes up into people's minds when you say emptiness, then they get, then you say, a little later somebody says emptiness, and you get this feeling of the emptiness of life meaning meaningless, you know, nothing matters, you know, everything is empty means, oh, I feel empty nowadays, or my life feels empty, you know, and then you get this feeling of emptiness meaning some kind of despair or meaninglessness or something like that, or sometimes you think it means that nothing matters, okay, I mean that's another way to talk about emptiness, or maybe that you're feeling really purposeless, you don't feel any purpose in life, and that's, that's, some people explain emptiness that way, and then I heard a distinguished scholar explaining emptiness as the fact that everything changes or something like that, you know what I mean, this is just a few weeks ago, you know, emptiness means everything changes, and if you get used to everything changing, you've discovered emptiness and everything will be fine, you know, I mean, you just accept it, you know, you watch it, you, you, you commune with it, and then as things change, you'll be happy, and you don't have to worry about it, it's just a question of getting used to the fact that everything is in flux, and then, and then, that's emptiness, and if you could learn to cruise with the flux, then everything would be okay, you know, and that's, I've heard that explanation of emptiness, has, those have nothing to do with emptiness, okay, totally nothing to do with emptiness, here's real meaning of emptiness, Madhyamika Prasangika, Chandrakirti, 650 AD, Umla Jupa, Madhyamika Avatara, and he's talking about that relationship, okay, that last day of that relationship, and, and take that as an object, okay, question being, is it a good thing or a bad thing that you broke up in the restaurant? Okay, because, because, because your mind tends to think it has to be one or the other, right? So was it a good thing or a bad thing?

You know, you can't, you can't decide, you see, your mind is like, I'm talking about two weeks later when you meet the second person, so your mind now is recreating history, it's rewriting the history of this breakup, you know, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing, maybe it was a lucky thing, you know what I mean? And, and then you start to see it totally differently, okay, the fact is that breaking up isn't good or bad from its own side, okay, that's a sign of emptiness, the fact that you can't make up your mind whether it was a godsend that you broke up with this person, or whether it was hell that you broke up with this person, the fact that you can't make up your mind, says Buddhism, says the highest schools of Buddhism, is an indication that that event, and all events are empty, okay, meaning not good or bad from its own side, okay, not good or bad from its own side, it's an event, and it's blank, it's like a blank screen or a blank board, it doesn't have any quality of being good, and it doesn't have the quality of being bad from its side, okay, if it did, then, like say, if breaking up was always a bad thing, then you would feel bad about it forever, and you would feel the same kind of bad about it forever, okay, because it's 100% bad, okay, but what happens in reality is that you keep changing, right, your mind keeps changing, and you can even come to a point where, what, you decide this is the most fantastic thing that ever happened to me, you know, then I met Joe, and everything was good after that, okay, so that's an indication, says Buddhism, if you understand that, about that argument in the restaurant where you broke up, then you understand emptiness, and there's nothing more to say about it than that, okay, that's emptiness, and every object in the world is the same, okay, whether you see it as good, or whether you see it as bad, it's not something that's coming from that object, it's coming from where? It's coming from you, okay, it's coming from your mind, okay, so if your mind is in a certain mode, you see it as a disaster, if your mind is in a different mode, you see it as a wonderful opportunity, okay, and your mind tends to, tends to vary...

which one is it by the way? No, I mean, this is where Buddhism says, is it A, B, C, or D, you know, is it good, is it bad, is it good and bad, or is it neither good and bad? What do you say?

This is like Nagarjuna's famous thing, you know, let's take that argument in the restaurant where we broke up, was it a good thing, was it a bad thing, was it good and bad, or was it neither good and bad? And Buddhism says what? None of the above, okay, that's its emptiness, that's the emptiness of that event, okay, really?

And that's what they get into all this, you know, mystic stuff, forget it, it's as simple as that, none of the above, none of those four applies to this event, okay? Does that mean you didn't see it as good at one time? Does that mean you didn't see it as bad at one time?

Does that mean that over a period of months you didn't see it as good and bad? And does that mean that a year later you might not see it as something that was neutral, neither good nor bad? You say no, it just depends on your state of mind, but in and of itself, from its side, that thing is empty, and that's all that emptiness means, that's all that emptiness means, okay?

So what's the big deal about perceiving emptiness, you know? So, you know, well how's it supposed to help me, you know, am I supposed to go around thinking that, you know, every time a car hits me it might be a good thing, you know, every time I'm drinking a milkshake I better be careful, it might be a bad thing, you know, I mean it could make you really schizophrenic, you know, like how is this supposed to help a normal person, okay? What's this got to do with your life?

How is this supposed to make you an enlightened Tantric angel in one lifetime, okay? Supposedly if you don't understand this stuff, you're not eligible to practice Tantra, okay? You have to understand this stuff, and then if you understand it, then you have a good foundation for Tantra, okay?

So, so what is it, you know, what is it I'm supposed to think about? Am I supposed to, you know, break up with everybody, or am I not supposed to break up with everybody? What am I supposed to do, you know?

How does that got to do with anything? This boils down to the question of, if breaking up is empty, then why do I see it as good sometimes, and why do I see it as bad? The real key is there, okay?

Why did you see it as bad at first, and why did you see it as something good later? Yeah, we would say karma, okay? It's like this, it's very interesting, when you're in the middle of a breakup and it feels really bad, can you, by sheer willpower, decide that you're gonna see it as a good thing?

I mean normally, okay? Big breakup, after six years or something, I mean not normally, okay? I mean, maybe in an extraordinary situation, if you've just taken some drugs or something, you can try to see it as something good, but under normal circumstances, if you really were attached to this person, and you like this person, and there's a big fight, and there's a breakup, under normal circumstances, you can't just decide that you're gonna see it as something nice.

It hurts, and you feel bad for months or something, you know what I mean? You can't just decide, oh I'm gonna see it as something positive. I mean, you can try, and there are schools of Buddhism, you know, lojongs that say, try, you know, try to make the best of it, try to see your enemy as your friend.

The fact that they have to say that means you're seeing them as your enemy, okay? So that's not, apparently it's not some kind of willpower thing, apparently you can't just, as a car is hitting you and breaking your leg, you can't look down and say, you know, I'll just think about that as something nice, because it hurts, okay? There's something in your mind which is making you see it a certain way, okay?

Does breaking a leg hurt self-existently, from its own side? No, some people love to see legs get broken, who? Doctors who charge a lot of money to put your pins in there and stuff, you see?

And they see somebody come in who's got a lot of... I mean, talking about this really weird doctor, okay? I don't think there's that many of them, but you know, I mean, to them somebody breaking their leg could be like, they could see their child's college education paid for, right there, you know what I mean?

I'm talking about an extreme circumstance, but it's... but even something like breaking your leg or having to do a lot of expensive dental work, I mean, it could be perceived, possible, by somebody as a tremendous opportunity to get their kid through the, at least a freshman year or something, you see what I mean? So, so even such a thing as that, is not...

it's empty, okay? It's empty, it doesn't have any nature of its own, it's not good or bad from its own side, somebody could see it as a tremendous opportunity, you know? I mean, even a Buddhist could say, okay, now I get to feel some pain, I'll use it as an opportunity to take on somebody's pain, you know, they'll say this is a great opportunity, and they don't see it as a bad thing at all, but why?

Is this just a decision that they make? Buddhism says no, Buddhism says this is forced on you by your karma, okay? If you see the breakup, and when you see the breakup as seeing something bad, you don't have a choice, you know, when you're feeling a toothache, or when you feel sick or something like that, it's not like you can just decide you're gonna feel better five minutes later, it doesn't work, try it, you know?

I always say, people always tell me, oh, if you're a really good monk and you meditate in the Himalayas for years, somebody could drill your teeth and you wouldn't feel it at all, so I always say bring me this guy, you know? In 15 years nobody ever brought me this guy, you know? It's not like that, Buddhism is very adamant about two things, A, the thing is empty, B, the way you see it is forced upon you, you don't have a choice, okay?

You don't have a choice, but isn't there a case where people can say, okay, I'm gonna choose to see this way in a good light, does that ever happen? Does it ever work to say, okay, this guy hurt me, but I'm gonna choose to see it in a good light, can you do that? Yeah, you can do that, I mean there's lots of Buddhist teachings, Shantideva, Bodhisattva's way of life, try to see things in a good light, okay?

If you can, what's happening? According to Buddhism, your karma is forcing you to see it in a good light, you see? It doesn't break the rule of what I said, it's very interesting, okay?

You're not really having any, any willpower over the situation right there, your karma just changed, and you're able to see it in a different light, you see, it's very interesting. We say that every way you see things is forced on you by your past karma, okay? Very interesting, okay?

If you see the breakup as being a bad thing, you're being forced to see it that way by your past karma. If you see something as a good thing, you're being forced to see it that way by your past karma, you don't have a choice, okay? So does that mean, what is it, determinism or something?

No, what do you have, free will. Does that mean Buddhism says there's no such thing as free will? I mean, if there's no such thing as free will, we're stuck, right?

Whatever karma you've planted in your head a hundred years ago, you're stuck with it, that's it, no changes now. Is that, is that what Buddhism says? No free will?

No, it says no free will in the present moment, okay? No free will in the present moment, okay? You want to have a good year, you want to have a good month at work in March of 90, oh sorry, March of 99, then do something kind to somebody today, you see?

It's like, I don't know, investment strategies, you see? Buddhism says that karma takes time to ripen, so Buddhism says you can't change the way you see things at this moment, you can't, okay? If you're in the dental chair, and the guy's drilling you, and he hits a nerve, you're gonna jump, and you can't do anything, it's too late to do anything about that.

Somebody came to Lord Buddha and said, can you help my parents, you know, they died yesterday, they said, forget it, I can't, you know, too late, you know, you know, people always, people don't come to the monastery where I live until somebody dies, they're always coming when somebody dies, we're always going to the mortuary, and the guy's laid out, and you know he didn't come to do prayers, and he didn't meditate, and he wasn't interested for his whole life, and now they're asking you to do something, you know? And you're like, you know, you do some prayers, but it's too late, you know? You have to, in Buddhism, you have to take care of these things ahead of time, you know, proactively, so if you don't want to have a lousy 1999, you have to collect some good karmas now, okay?

You have to put some good karmas in your mind now. How do you put good karmas in your mind now? Because by the way, at the moment that it comes, at the moment the breakup happens, and if you feel something bad, you don't have a choice about that, it's too late, okay?

The mind is already forcing you. By the way, is it somehow like a projection of your mind? Yeah, okay?

I mean, it's just your mind seeing it as bad today, and maybe your mind would see it as good tomorrow, I mean, everything is like that, and then Buddhism says, but it's not therefore unreal, okay? That's the way it always was, okay? It's very interesting, you know, people say, oh I get it, everything is just my projection, you know?

Like, the next time I break up, I'll just try to think of it as something good the first day, instead of two weeks later, but your mind can't do that, you see? It is a projection, but that doesn't make it not real. It is real because...

it's a projection, okay? Buddhism is very interesting, okay? I mean, normally you'd think, oh, it's just my projection, so it's not very real, and Buddhism says, no, no, no, it's real because it is your projection, and it's always been your projection, okay?

So take care of your projections. How do you take care of your projections? Collect good karma, okay?

I'll make one more point, and then we'll take a break. This thing about how karma works, you know, when I was growing up, I grew up in America, I didn't know anything about Buddhism, I never heard of a Buddhist, much, and when I started hearing about karma, I was thinking, it sounded... I didn't believe it, you see?

They said, oh, crush a bug now, get killed 200 times later, you know? I'm like, yeah, right, you know? And it just didn't seem to...

I remember reading in the World Book Encyclopedia when I was a kid, that this is something made up by Buddhists to control their children, you know? Don't eat that cookie, you know? Disobeying me, you'll get this wheel of knives on your head later, you know, Johnny.

And that this is just something made... I mean, I remember reading that when I was a kid. Karma is something made up by Buddhist people to control their kids and the society, you know?

And keep them under control, you know? And it's just made up. And then later, when I was in the monastery, they trained us, and it's very, very beautiful, it's a very, very beautiful idea, how karma works.

You know, it's not some, like, random thing or something like that, it's very cool. And I'll show you just briefly, okay? How to say, very briefly, what am I holding in my hand?

Yeah, people say a marker or a pen, okay? People say, let's say a pen, okay? Very briefly, if a dog came into the room, a puppy, playful, a German Shepherd, okay?

And I, you know, wiggled this towards them, would they see it as a pen? No, they don't conceptualize it as a pen, you know? They see it as, maybe something interesting to chew on, they'll check it out and try to chew on it for a while.

Which one is it? You know, is it something to chew on, or is it a pen? It's empty, okay?

It depends on who's looking, okay? From its own side, it's just a black and white cylinder, okay? I mean, if you're a human with a certain background, you see it as a pen.

If you're a German Shepherd puppy who wanders in here, you automatically see it as something that you slobber about, you know what I mean? And so, we say that it doesn't have any pen from its own side, and it doesn't have any chewable thing from its own side, okay? So why are you seeing it a certain way?

And Buddhism says, and whether you believe it or not, I thought you should hear how we say it works, okay? And then you can cook it, you know? My Lama always says, oh, you can cook it, you know?

You can think about it, it says that if in the past, at some point, someone you knew needed something to write with very much, and you had a pen in your pocket, you know? And you knew that they needed it, and you maybe even wanted to keep it, but you knew that they needed it. So like, out of some kind of compassion for them, and out of a non-selfishness, you just automatically thought, well, I'll give them the one I have, you know?

And then you reach out your hand, and then there's this videotape that goes on. According to Buddhism, the mind works like a videotape, and you are aware, and you perceive your hand going out, and then you're focusing on the pen as a pen, the cylinder as a pen, right? And then you're handing it to them, and then you see their hand take it, and you see them take it, and then you have some kind of emotion at that time, like some kind of a feeling.

And if it's like some kind of joy, oh good, I've helped someone, you know? That the power of the joy, and the perception of all those things as a pen, you're thinking of the cylinder as a pen, and then you're thinking of it as transferring ownership, and then all of that is recorded in your mind as some kind of impressions in your mind stream. Later, and then they stay in your mind from moment to moment.

How they stay is very beautiful. I mean, they describe, you know, in Buddhism, according to Buddhism, the mind changes how frequently, you know? How frequently do you have a whole new mind?

According to Buddhism, 65 times every finger snap. Your mind comes in and out of existence 65 times in a finger snap. So there's this huge argument, you know?

Suppose that when I gave this cylinder to someone, and thought of it as a pen, and I saw them reach out and take it, and I felt this joy about it, and okay, you say I put some kind of karmic impression in my mind. Well, how could it stay in my mind for years, if my mind is being destroyed every millisecond, you know? How is that possible?

Then there's this beautiful explanation of it, like a billiard ball thing, like there's a whole line of billiard balls, and you hit the first one, and then it hits the second one, and that hits a third one, that hits the fourth one, and they say despite the fact that the mind changes, you have a new version of your mind 65 times a second, the energies are transferred. Each time the old one goes out of existence, it transfers its energy to the new one. It's very beautiful.

So, impressions can stay in your mind, or energies or potentials can stay in your mind indefinitely, okay? Because they are transferred, they're actually transferred from moment to moment. It's kind of cool.

Do we believe that in America, you know? Do we believe in the transference of karmic energies? Is it something they teach you in school?

I mean, you say no, but then you send your kids to school, don't you? You know? And why?

Because you're hoping that whatever they learn in the first grade, they will retain till the second grade. Where do they retain it? It's somewhere in your brain, okay?

Somewhere in your mind. So, you know, it's funny, you know, Americans, they say, oh, this is all new to me, I don't know if I can accept that. And I say, do you have a kid?

They say, yeah, I have a kid. I said, did you send them to first grade? Yeah.

What grade are they in now? They're in third grade, you know. Do they know ABC?

Of course they know ABC. When did they learn it? In the first grade.

Well, where did it stay from the time in the first grade to the time in the third grade? I don't know, in their minds, you know, some kind of karmic impression, you know, then they start, then they realize that they do believe in that, you know, that's why you send your kids to school. You believe that some kind of impression can be made on the mind, and you believe that that impression can be carried, what?

Hopefully until they get old enough to support you, right? So, you know, you believe that, you really believe that, or you wouldn't send them to school. Or else they'd forget everything every week, and they'd have to go back to first grade every year.

Once a year, they'd have to go back to first grade to relearn the ABCs, because there's no such thing as mental impressions. So you do believe, we do believe in mental impressions. So it's very cool, it's very interesting.

Then Buddhism says, at some later date, someone presents you with a be careful...cylinder! Okay, it's all it is, is a cylinder. This is not a pen from its own side. Prove it.

Bring me a German Shepherd puppy, see if he grabs it and writes a love letter to his friend, you know. From its own side, it's only a black-and-white cylinder. If you're going to be a real scientist, you have to say, objectively speaking, this is just a black-and-white cylinder, okay.

But according to Buddhism, someone is going to pop out a black-and-white cylinder, or a hundred, and you'll see the same thing played back. It's very interesting. You'll see the arm go out, you know, you'll see this black-and-white cylinder, and because of the motivation, the joy, because of the emotion, because of the motivation or the intention that you felt when you offered it to someone else in the past, you are forced to see it as a pen, and you are forced to be given it.

You see, you're forced to see it being given to you. It's only empty, and your karma, playing back the video, right, forces you to perceive this...it's only an innocent cylinder, okay. From his side, he's just an empty thing, a blank cylinder.

But because of these impressions that you put in your mind before, by being generous to somebody, heartfelt generous, then you see this cylinder is coming back to you this way. Okay, it's very interesting, okay, it's very interesting. If this were true, and if everybody in the world understood it, what would everybody in the world do?

Give everything! I mean, give as much as you can, with as much joy as you can, you know what I mean? That would become your obsession.

You want to get rich quick? Give everything away, you know, I mean, and it would be very...by the way, Buddhism says you don't have to be shy about it. Once you know how it works, for God's sake, go ahead and do it, you know.

Buddhism doesn't say that it's selfish to get rich. If everybody did this, would everybody get rich at the same time? Yeah, Buddhism says no problem, there's no such thing as not enough resources, or something like that, okay, it's very interesting.

No such thing. That's a creation of the mind, you know, there would be plenty for everybody. If everybody was practicing Buddhism, we wouldn't have to worry about how to share stuff, because everybody would have had this perception of money coming in, you know, and then they could say everyone would become a certain economic level, it's very interesting.

No such thing as having to have to worry later about how to share these resources, just teach everybody to be generous to each other, and then automatically everyone, they'll discover a way to make energy from a teaspoon of water or something, you know I mean, those things happen, right? They discover oil, and suddenly oil has the ability to run all these things that didn't exist a hundred years ago. Why?

Why does oil have that ability? You see what I mean? We say oil is empty, it's a black liquid.

If you happen to see it as a new cheap fuel that everyone can use to be comfortable, then that's your karma, you see what I mean? And a hundred years ago people didn't have that karma. Was the oil there a hundred years ago?

No, it was just a black liquid, it wasn't a cheap fuel, because people didn't see it that way. It's very interesting, it's very interesting. So, what's it got to do with the text?

We're at Lende, this is how karma works, okay? This is how karma works. Karma can only work because things is empty, and you gotta get used to that, okay?

That's the real meaning of emptiness, forget all this crap about, oh it's some light thing in your head, you know, you see a golden light or something like that, it's all completely wrong. No Buddhist text ever said that, you know, for centuries they've been trying to get rid of that idea, it keeps coming up again, you know, and then somebody starts teaching it that way, you know, it has nothing to do with that. It's the last time you broke up, okay?

Remember that, and that ambivalency you had about it, was it a good thing or a bad thing, that proves its emptiness, okay? One question, then we'll take a break. Yeah?

Michael said that it seems kind of, what do you call it, self-centered or self-interested? I mean, you'd be going around doing self-interested generosity, haha, if I give him five bucks, I'll give 500 back, here, have 500, you know? I mean, if you really believe in that, it's Buddhism, you gotta get used to this, you see, you gotta get used to this, and I don't know, I think it's some Judeo- Christian hang-up or something like that, but the concept of everybody being totally happy, because everybody is intelligently, this, His Holiness calls it intelligent, was enlightened self-interest, he calls it enlightened self-interest.

Don't feel guilty that you're having pleasure, or happiness, or bliss, you know, the whole purpose of studying Buddhism is to reach bliss, then so where does the bodhichitta stuff come in? Ah, as soon as possible, so that you can teach other people how to do it, and that's all. Definition of bodhichitta, sem chen tham je la mik shin, rang gi dro, dzog chang dun nye kyi dunpa dang, sem den du gyur pe, thek chen juk gyi rik sum ne pe, sem bah, sem gye gyi tsen ni, that's a definition, get to total bliss as fast as you can, yourself, so you can teach other people to do it, and don't feel guilty about it, you see, I mean, I don't know where that comes from, you know, your sworn duty as a bodhisattva is to reach bliss as fast as you can, so you can show other people how to do it, because if you haven't reached it, and you go around showing other people what's it mean, you know, like, what are you waiting for? Something?

You see what I mean? And people say, oh, bodhisattvas stick behind and they try to help other people, forget it, the day you get enlightened, according to Buddhism, you're able to emanate on a trillion planets at once, so should you delay it? You see what I mean?

Should you feel guilty that you're experiencing this bliss, and able to emanate on a trillion planets as a trillion helpful people? And that's why Chenrezig has a thousand arms, I mean, you should try to pull it off as soon as possible, and don't feel guilty about it. You should try to think, it's my responsibility to do this as soon as possible, because other people are in pain, you know, because as we speak, people are dying around the world, and they don't have to die, it's a mistake, you know, that doesn't have to happen, people don't have to have...

bad things don't need to happen on this planet, it's a mistake, you know, if we just taught them this stuff that we're talking about tonight, everybody could have enough money, you see, I mean, it's not like you have to feel guilty, that's some weird thing, I don't know where that comes from, okay, your duty as a bodhisattva is to get your rear end into ecstasy as soon as possible, because then you can really be helpful to other people, and so, according to Buddhism, it's no contradiction to get everything you ever wanted for the sake of others, you see, that's no contradiction at all, and this idea that you have to whip yourself, or monks shouldn't be happy or enjoy anything, it's just wrong thinking, you know, you watch the Dalai Lama, tell me if he enjoys eating a meal, forget it, you see this guy, I saw a video two days ago, he was having cereal, this is CNN, they called us, we're translating for CNN's documentary on the Dalai Lama, and he's like eating, you know, and he's enjoying it, you know, and the guy says, oh, his holiness, CNN interviewer, you know, they're filming, he says, what do you think of when you wake up in the morning? Well, compassion, you know, and I'm not kidding, you can see it, it's coming out, I don't know, soon, and then they say, where's your holiness? He says, what?

You know, he says, you know, exactly what kind of compassion, how's that work, what do you think about it? I'm eating breakfast! Wait a minute!

You know, he's enjoying his breakfast, so is that wrong, is he somehow a bad monk, because he's enjoying something, you see, not at all, you know, not at all, your job is to be happy, and get into a pure state of mind, purity and happiness, and then teach other people to do it, and that's all, yeah, so it's not at all selfish to get rich with your knowledge of karma, because I'm sure you're gonna use it for other people, that's the idea, you know, no problem, no contradiction at all, okay, in fact you probably have to do it that way, okay, all right, have some refreshments, and we'll start like in 10 minutes, okay, so in the second part is the real wheel of sharp, what do you call, wheel of knives, and as you'll read in your book, the guy starts, the author starts describing how things are coming back to him like a boomerang, and what I wanted to do was, I didn't want you to go home thinking the same old thing about karma, you know, like, oh squish bugs and get sick in 30 years, or something like that, it's important to understand how it works, okay, so I can't, you've got some kind of idea, the foundation is emptiness, okay, the foundation is emptiness, like you can't understand karma unless you understand this thing about the relationship breaking up, or the pen, or the cylinder that I was talking about, unless you really appreciate that those things are not good or bad, the breaking up in the restaurant is not good or bad from its own side, that's, that's emptiness, that's what emptiness means, and then karma is important, and it's important to do good karma, because everything is empty, so if you want to have the events around you to be pleasant, you have to be good to other people, if you want the same events to be painful, then be bad to other people, you see what I mean? And if you want to perpetuate painful events, then respond to, to, you know, a painful event with anger, or hurt somebody, or something like that, that, according to Buddhism, that's the only way to make it happen again, it's very interesting, you know, if you perceive that incident as the restaurant, at the restaurant as painful, and then because of that, you try to hurt that other person, according to this theory of emptiness, you'll start seeing something else as painful, and then you'll respond again, and then you'll see it again, and then you respond again, and then you see it again, and that's why the, the word for this kind of life is called a circle, samsara means self-perpetuating circle, something bad happens to you, you do it back again, it comes back to you again, why? Because things are empty, and everything is just your perception, and your perceptions are forced on you by the last time you reacted bad. It's very interesting, you're creating all the bad things that happen to you, and when you react bad to them, you create the next one, and it just keeps going like that, it's like an endless circle, until you break it, okay?

So that's very interesting, and according to Buddhism, the fact that you don't understand this principle about emptiness, is what hurts you, okay? Your real enemy is that you don't understand what we just talked about, okay? So what's number three?

What is, what is section number three? Say SHIN RJE. SHIN RJE.

SHIN RJE. Maybe she knows SHIN RJE. SHIN means uh, SHIN RJE means Lord of Death, okay?

When you read the Tibetan Book of the Dead and all that, SHIN RJE plays a big part, okay? SHIN RJE ZHES. RJE means Lord, like the King of all Stones is the Diamond, so it's called DOR RJE, RJE means King, okay?

RJE, SHIN means Death, Lord of Death, okay? And, and if you look carefully at your book, the first page, you know, it's a tradition in Buddhism that on the first page, you bow down to some kind of holy object that will set the scene, you see? So if you bow down to Bodhichitta, this is going to be a book about kindness.

If you bow down to Manjushri, this is going to be a book about wisdom. Who does he bow down to? First page.

Page one of the Tibetan, when the Tibetan starts. That's supposed to set the scene. The rule in Buddhism is that you, you tell the reader what it's going to be about by bowing down to the right person.

Yeah, but what's it say, two down? I bow down to the angry one, the Lord of Death, okay? You know, this is a very weird way to start a Tibetan book, this is totally unusual, you know, they never do that.

I mean, it's so morbid, you know, I'm gonna write a book, who shall we prostrate to at the beginning? Obeisance to the Lord of Death, you know, what's the point, you know? And then he goes into this beautiful thing about the peacocks, and then he talks about seeing emptiness, and how things, what goes around comes around, because of perceptions, and because things are empty, and then what happens in, I don't, I marked the page, but you can figure it out.

At some point, about three-quarters of the way through the text, he says, he's been describing how the wheel of knives works, how the cosmic boomerang keeps coming back to you, how? Your own perceptions, working on empty things, okay? Your own perceptions that you planted in your mind, are making you see this as a pen, and if you happen to see it as a, something to chew on, and you start salivating the minute you see it, use a dog, you're a dog, you see what I mean?

That's what makes a dog a dog, it's very interesting, what makes you a human? The fact that you see this as a pen. And what does it take for you to turn into a dog?

Just a slight shift in your perceptions. Seriously, Buddhism doesn't say that you die, and then you go to a dog factory, and there's dog bodies there, and they open up the back, and they shove in your spirit, and then they sew it, and then you're walking around like a dog. It's much more terrible than that, I mean, it's much more frightening than that.

The minute your perception shifts slightly, forget about seeing this as a nice pen or a bad pen, which happens all the time, if the perception shifts a little more, takes how long? 30 seconds, one minute, two minutes, if it shifts a little farther towards the edge, you start to see this as something to chew on, then you are a dog, you see what I mean? It's very interesting.

The shift in seeing your body from something breathing, to something not breathing, happens in a few minutes. And according to Buddhism, your body is empty, whether you're seeing it as breathing or not breathing, is a slight shift in your perceptions. Then it gets frightening, then you can say that because you are empty, because your body doesn't have a nature of breathing or not breathing from its own side, and it's only your projection, then it's very easy to die, then death can happen, you see, all events can happen because things are empty, you know, there'll be a slight shift in your perceptions, and you'll perceive yourself being hit by a car or something like that, it's very interesting. Karma comes back to you through perceptions, and not through some outside events, you got to get used to that, you know, getting hit by a car and dying tonight when you walk out, is a perception shift, and it can happen to anybody, if it was an external event, you'd be pretty safe, you know, it takes time to get a car down the street and hit you, you know, but if it's just a little shift in your perceptions, then we're all eligible to die in the next 10 minutes, and that's the way it really is, so it's very interesting, you know, this karma stuff is very frightening, because things are a projection, things can change immediately.

So the point is, number three, Shinje means Lord of Death. What is it that here, you know, he gets hit by a car and starts thinking Lord of Death? No, it's very cool.

What did he say were the two meanings of the peacock, way back when, about an hour ago? What were the two meanings of the peacock? He compared two things to a peacock.

Yeah, first of all, Bodhisattvas are like peacocks, because they can live off, they thrive on crap, you see what I mean? They go after all the bad situations, they love problem situations, because they love to help people, you know, they get off on that, that's what they do. But what's the other example, do you remember?

Yeah, using negative emotions, and this is where it gets to it, okay? Number three, Shinje means the guy who's, he's been relating his problems. What?

Oh, you know, I wanted to have relationships, but they always break up. It's the wheel of knives coming back to me, I must have hurt somebody in the past, you know, I wanted to have money, but I never have enough money, my credit cards are always overloaded, you know, oh, it must be because I wasn't kind to people, I didn't share things with other people in the past. And he goes through this long thing about describing how what comes around, what do you call it?

What comes around, goes around. He goes through explaining all the cause and effects for different results that you don't want, like not having enough money, having a spouse who's not faithful to you, not feeling healthy, not being able to concentrate, things like that. He goes into every single one, there's a chart at the end of your book where we summarize them all.

One of my students said, hey, this is cool, you know, you could actually do a chart of this leads to this, this leads to that, this leads to that, and there's a chart in the back, which is very rare in Buddhism, you don't see it very often, okay. Then after he gets through whining like that, right, after he gets to say, oh, you know, the wheel has turned around on me, oh, it's because I did this and this and that, then you feel this sudden shift in the book. Do you got it?

I think it's here maybe, is that it? Yeah, page 26, okay, right in the middle, and he says, now I've realized who my enemy is, and then suddenly, this is really cool, the author turns into the Lord of Death, and he's like, you know, and he's like, it's totally different, you know, up to now he's been like this guy, he's whining about his bad luck, you know, I did this to somebody, I got this back, and then suddenly right here, he's totally changes into a different being, this is very like tantric, you know, very unusual in a Tibetan book, I mean, in a non-secret book, this is an open book, this is not a secret book, or else I wouldn't have given it to you, anyway, but at this point, he becomes this like fierce being, you know, he totally changes, if you read it from then on, he's like, I'm gonna cut your skull open, you know, I'm gonna rip your brains out, you know, and he's totally transformed into a different being, and he goes into this chen si chen, which is like, this thing of a deity, a tantric deity, you know, ripping somebody's skull open, you know, and stuff like that, you know, where did this come from, what's this guy doing? This is, he's using his anger in a nice way, okay, suddenly he recognized the enemy, who is the ultimate enemy? We'll put it up here, say dang dzin, dang dzin, this is really cool, dak means self-nature, nature of its own, dzin means to think it has that, what does that mean?

Is this a pen on its own? No, it's just an innocent cylinder, okay, who's making it a pen? You are, okay, your mind is making it a pen, why can I say that with impunity?

Because if you show it to a German Shepherd puppy, he doesn't see a pen, if it was a pen from its own side, he should have seen it as a pen, but he doesn't, actually when you say the dog's chewing the pen, you're being unfair to animals, he's chewing a chewable thing, because for him it's just something to chew on, it's not a pen, he's not ruining your pen, he's doing what should it be done with that, that's a chewable thing, okay, because he sees it that way, is it valid that he sees it that way? Is he as right as you are? Yeah, for him it's a chewable thing, it should be chewed on, okay, it doesn't have any nature being a pen from its own side, okay, that state of mind which doesn't think that way is called dang dzin.

Dang dzin sees a pen as being God-given quality of this cylinder, you know, it should be a pen, and dogs shouldn't chew on them, because they ruin them, okay, like it's unfair to animals, right? It's totally valid, his perception of it as something to chew on is totally valid, given his brain, okay, and if you see it as a pen, that's because something of... that's your karma, right, coming out, you see it as a pen.

To believe, oh it's got to be a pen, because I see it as a pen, is some kind of ignorance, and that's dang dzin. According to Buddhism, this is the source of all suffering in the world, okay, it's that belief that this thing's got to be the way I see it, okay, it's not empty, it's a pen in and of itself, okay, how does this cause problems? My favorite song is the best song, everybody should see it that way, I don't know why people don't see it that way, this person that I don't like is bad from their own side, okay, and then if you come up to this person and say, by the way they're just neutral, and if you see them as something bad, what?

That's your problem, because of some kind of karma you...they're neutral, prove it, their wife loves them, their mother loves them, okay, they see that person in a totally opposite way, that proves that that person is...empty, or neutral. Neutral should have been a better translation maybe. All objects are neutral, whether you see them as good or bad depends on you, okay, and whose fault is it, if you happen to see it as bad?

It's yours, okay, you'll get to a part in that text, read it, okay, it says this blacksmith is sitting there trying to make a steak out of a piece of iron, and then suddenly he's...I'm sorry, he's making a sword, and then suddenly he's like, stabs himself in the gut, he says, that's you, you're doing that all the time, okay, like you're blaming anybody else for anything bad that happens to you, okay, like someone says something bad to you, then what do you do?

By the way, what's the only way according to Buddhism to get someone to say something bad to you? The only way, say something bad to them. What's the natural human reaction to somebody saying something bad to you?

It's very interesting, you know, that's why it's called a circle, it's very very interesting, the natural human reaction is danzen, and then enlightenment is the opposite, an enlightened reaction is the opposite, no I won't get mad because I want to break the wheel, I want to stop this perpetuating my own suffering, I understand that I'm doing it, I understand that if I return violence with violence, then I'll create more violence for myself, I'm tired of that, I don't want to do that anymore, so then you just stop, okay, you stop, by the way, does that mean you can't be firm with other people?

Not at all. Don't forget, what was it that made the pen reappear? Mainly?

Something else, something else, the joy okay, the intention is paramount in Buddhism okay, like how you feel at that moment as you do it, is mostly what decides how deep the impression is in your karma, in your mind, you know, if you're gonna get a thousand pens back, or one pen back, all depends on how much joy you have at the moment that you give it, it's very interesting, you know, like just to do wimpy good deeds is not going to do much okay, you have to be like, two things have to be going on, you have to be happy, and you have to understand what you're doing, that's called the perfection of wisdom, prajnaparamita, means you understand as you give the thing that this is what's gonna happen, you totally understand the whole dynamic of what's gonna happen, you give away your money knowing very well what's gonna happen, what?

You're gonna get loaded with money okay, and there's no problem there, there's no, you don't have to feel guilty, when all the billions of dollars comes back, you can give that away too, and help people with it, you know I mean, no problem, you don't have to feel like selfish because you understood everything now, okay, use it, yeah... The one dollar is much more powerful, but if you give the one dollar with joy, totally understanding the emptiness of that dollar, totally understanding that that's gonna make you perceive 10,000 green pieces of paper as dollars, in the future, and you do it knowing that rule of karma, you know, knowing how karma works, with emptiness, forget it, that's, then it becomes an enlightened act, you know, then it doesn't end, according to Buddhism, it'll just keep coming to you, you know, it'll just, this stuff works, I'm not kidding okay, I was in a company, we started with $50,000, we ran that company by these rules, it now sells 125 million dollars a year, swear to God, Forbes magazine is like pounding down the door, wants interviews about how we did it, you know, I'm not kidding okay, anything, I mean if that's what you want, you can get it, it's not the goal right, the goal is to get it and then do it, help people with it, but, and by the way, that's number four okay, number four is... and then I'll take a few questions, because I know some of you want to ask a question.

Say, SEM RGYAS.

[Говорящий 2]
SEM RGYAS.

[Говорящий 1]
SEM RGYAS means to give birth to the idea, or to give birth to the heart, or something like that, and it means bodhichitta okay, it's the Tibetan word for bodhichitta. Bodhichitta meaning, it would be absolutely no fun to know all this stuff, and not share it with other people, you see what I mean? Like, you finally figure out how to straighten out everything about your life, and then you just keep it to yourself, you know what I mean, I mean it would be kind of weird, it would be almost like unnatural to do that, and SEM RGYAS is just simply, when you get to the last few pages of this text, he starts going crazy about, hey, let's share this with everybody, you know, he's like, you and me, let's do it together, you know, and he starts expressing his, this kind of love for other, this is real compassion, you see, you want real compassion, it's not feeding poor people, that's a kind of compassion, but what if you could teach everybody in the world to make all the money they wanted, I mean that would be compassion, you see I mean, that would be extraordinary, and if there were certain books that told people how to do it, then you would go crazy about trying to save these books, you know, somebody's got to save these instructions, this stuff works, you know, and then, and then you'd have to try to preserve those things, like, like the last recipe for AIDS cure, or something like that, I mean these books are more important, if what I said is true about emptiness and karma tonight, if what I said is true, then, then you can do it yourself, and then you can share it with other people, and that's what he gets into at the end, it's very cool, he's like, he's like, man we can give this away, you know, I'll get it good at it, and then I'll start giving this away, he goes out of the, the FU mode, you know, like for about ten pages he's in this really pissed off mode, at what? At the fact that he didn't figure it out earlier, okay, and by the way, that's the only good kind of anger, all right, anger is never useful at another person, you know, never, according to Buddhism, you know, this argument that it is, or something like that, never, it just plants crummy karmic seeds in your mind, want to avoid it like the plague, but to get angry at your own lack of knowledge is fine, you see, to say oh my god, I should have figured this out earlier, you know, and that's all he's doing, okay, he's like, that's what he's doing when he gets, when he gets mad, he's getting mad at his own, at himself that he didn't figure it out earlier, okay, and then what, you know, he's not really angry, he's just saying okay, now I figured it out, I'm never going back to that, you know, I'm never going to back to acting selfishly, or stupidly, or anything like that, now I figured out how everything works, you know, now I'm gonna do it that way, and then suddenly he changes into this beautiful Bodhisattva angel at the end, and he's this beautiful, compassionate, sweet, loving being, he comes out of Lord of Death mode, and then he goes into this, he ends the book in this very, very beautiful, you know, angelic, helpful mode, okay, like that. Those are the four parts of the book. It's kind of late, anybody have any questions?

I think you had, you had one question, right?

[Говорящий 2]
I have a question about, when you say that everything is neutral, then why is it that Buddhism also has such an emphasis on right behavior when, you know, when everything is neutral?

[Говорящий 1]
It's a very good question, okay, he said, why does Buddhism spend so much time talking about acting properly, or acting good towards other people, if everything is neutral? Check it out, because everything is neutral, you must be good, okay? I don't mean that actions are all neutral, what I meant when I said neutral was, none of the reality around you has a pleasurable content, or a painful content.

It's neutral in that sense, blank. And whether you perceive that breakup as something wonderful, or something painful, depends totally on whether you have kept an ethical lifestyle up to that moment. So then it becomes imperative to be ethical, you see what I mean?

You hear a lot of sick, totally sick explanations of emptiness. What? Everything's empty, so you can do whatever you want.

But if you understand emptiness the way I just explained it, everything's empty, so you better give away all your stuff, and you better be good to other people, you see what I mean? Why? Because everything's empty, okay?

That breakup is empty, you see? You want to perceive it as something, as part of your growth process? No, because it still hurts, you see?

He's saying that, if it's, if its real nature is to be neutral, and then, because of some good karma you did in the past, you happen to have this perception of it as, as something good. Well, but isn't its, isn't its base reality still something neutral? Buddhism would say no, it's an artificial, pleasant event, and that's why it's real, okay?

Like, when, when you feel pain from a dentist drill, that is a projection of your mind, and that's what makes it real, you see? It's very cool, it's very cool. Those things are like an illusion, because they, they don't come from their own side, actually they are being created by you.

Does that make them less painful or pleasurable? Not at all, check it out, go stand in front of a taxi cab, you know what I mean? According to us, it's only a projection that your legs are breaking, but they break, and it hurts, okay?

So it's very interesting, it's very, very interesting. And by the way, you can make anything happen you want, you see? You study that chart at the back, you know, let's say you, you have a health problem, I have lots of students who have health problems, they come to me, what can I do about my bad back, you know?

And I say, here's the karmic cause for that, remove the cause, go after the cause, don't go exercising and eating vitamins and having a back operation, figure out the karmic cause for it, and wipe that out. Come back to me in six months, you know, and they're like, wow, you know, it's amazing, you can get anything you want this way, it's very interesting. And that's the goal of Buddhism, and it's not selfish, because what are you gonna do after you get it?

You're gonna share it with other people, that's like the most beautiful thing you could do, okay? That's not selfish, it's not selfish to create perfect happiness for yourself, because then you can go teach other people how to do it, no problem. That's some kind of American hang-up or something, you know?

To be a good Buddhist, you have to be miserable, or at least neutral all the time, you know? Not like that, yeah. Yeah, she said that, like if everything is a result of karma, how can you be planning karma at the same time?

And in fact, the lowest school of Buddhism called Abhidharma, they say that. They say that karmic results can never be good karma or bad karma. They say exactly what you said.

And then the upper school say no, like ... let's take overeating, okay? Is it a good karma to have something tasty?

Yeah, I mean it's pleasurable. By the way, the definition of a good deed in Buddhism is anything that brings you pleasure later karmically, okay? That's the whole basis of morality.

What? Is this gonna give me a good thing later or not, okay? That's the whole basis of morality.

So, is a big, you know, chocolate cheesecake the result of a good karma, if you like chocolate cheesecake? We have to say that, right? We have to say if you like chocolate cheesecake.

Yeah, it is. If you eat it without mindfulness, and you eat too much and you hurt yourself, is that collecting a new bad karma? Yeah, because you are damaging this incredibly precious thing, instrument that your parents gave you.

Remember we talked about that? They have given you this incredibly precious instrument, you know, this is mortal and quite unsatisfactory, but you can use it to reach high spiritual goals, and if you damage it according to Buddhism, you're really doing something thoughtless, you know. So at the same moment, you're experiencing the result of an old good karma, and you're creating a new bad karma.

So in Buddhism it says no problem, you know, you can be doing both simultaneously. In fact you are all the time. Okay, very interesting.

Yeah. Yeah, she said if you do... This is a very interesting question, what's the Buddhist position on suicide, or other forms of hurting yourself, which could be, you know, emotionally hurting yourself.

We say it's just, it's just as bad as murdering someone else, maybe worse, you see I mean? Like, it's not like suicide's okay, because the only one you're hurting is yourself. We say that you are wasting, you are ruining one being's chance to reach enlightenment.

Now it happens to be you, but you're still wasting this incredibly precious instrument, and you are guilty of like, like throwing away a golden opportunity when you hurt yourself. So yeah, in Buddhism that's this, it's even a little bit more bad karma to hurt yourself than other people. You are one of all sentient beings, you know, we're supposed to protect and save and help all living beings, and hey what, you is one of them.

They always say that, you know, the Lamas always say that, they say don't forget that that last one there is you. So, you have to not only be kind to all other living beings, you have to be kind to yourself, because you are one of them, okay? Equally, okay?

Okay, one more and then we'll start.

[Говорящий 2]
What about the actions of another person, or being, to hurt you? Say it's aggressive, has specific negative intent to hurt, and maybe not physically, say emotionally in some other way. Is that neutral?

How do you put that in perspective?

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, it's a good question. So he says, what if somebody else is attacking you, not just physically perhaps, but emotionally also. Is that karmically neutral, or what's going on?

It's a very cool question. Not collecting good karma, let's say at work that someone is attacking someone, like the boss is attacking one of your fellow workers, you know, verbally, or emotionally, which happens all the time. Alright, first of all, I'll ask you a bunch of questions.

Do they deserve it? Have they earned it? I mean, just answer, you know, according to this theory.

They have earned it, okay? Could they be perceiving it that way if they hadn't earned it? No, no, we say no.

They couldn't be seeing that happen unless they've earned it, you know. Does that mean that you should sit there and not help them? You see, this is a common mistake about the idea of karma, okay?

Do they deserve it? Yes. Did they earn it?

Yes. Should you sit there and watch them get hurt? Is that right thing to do?

Buddha says absolutely not. You must come to their aid, you must come to their assistance, okay. Next question, but if you are successful in helping them, isn't that just another thing that they earned?

Yeah. Is that a problem? No.

You got to get used to that way of thinking. I'll read it by you again. If you come to their aid and you end up helping them, who created that?

They did, okay? Is there a problem with that? No.

Should you just stand there and ignore them? No. You have to do something.

Last question, as you punch the boss in the nose, okay, out of total compassion, for whom? For him, because he's collecting bad karma. For them, because they're getting hurt, okay?

And if you pull them apart and force them up against the wall, you know, if you have any kind of bad intention in your mind, will there be a powerful karmic impression made in your mind? Absolutely. So, so what kind of attitude do you have to have while you are being forceful in Buddhism?

Total compassion for this person. I don't want you to collect new bad karma, I don't want them to get hurt by you collecting your bad karma. Out of love for you, I'll shove you up against the wall.

You see what I mean? And Buddha did it all the time. There are many stories of Lord Buddha doing that.

It's very interesting, you know there's these ten bad deeds in Buddhism. Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, slander, harsh words, idle talk, craving, ill will, wrong view, okay? Three you do with your body, four you do with your speech, the last three you do with your mind.

Buddhists are allowed to break every one of the first seven if it would be a good thing for other people. Why do they say only the first seven? It's never a good karma to think something bad.

It can never help anybody, you see? It can never be of use to someone else, to hate somebody on someone else's behalf. You see what I mean?

You see what I mean? Like it may be necessary to push somebody up against the wall, and do violence, you know, to break the first one, you know, in order to come to someone's assistance, but you're never allowed to break the mental ones, you see I mean? Because it would never be of service to mankind for you to collect some real new bad lousy karma in your heart because you were angry, you see?

So when a Buddhist comes to the assistance of someone, even using force, the main thing, the most important thing is that you have to have a compassionate state of mind while you do it, and it's very difficult. And in the monastery they grill us year after year, drill it into us, you're not allowed to use force until you're able to use it with joy, you know? Which makes it, you know, then they say, and you're not ready!

So I say be very careful about using force, okay? Until you can do it pretty much totally out of love for the other person, then you're not allowed to use it, okay? But when the time comes, you are.

And the Bodhisattva vow, I mean one of the most elementary vows is that when someone else is getting hurt, you must do something, you know? You must, and that's a good karma. The book says very clearly, it's very interesting, the book says not only is it not a bad karma, it's an extraordinary good karma, and the power is like 10,000 times more.

It's very beautiful, you know? It's very clear in the book. Last, last question.

She says if you can't help being angry, you should just sit there. No, you have to act, okay? You have to act.

I mean, if it's a choice between collecting a little bad karma yourself because you're angry, or preventing someone else from getting hurt, you still have to act, but ideally you should, you have to try to watch that, okay? Otherwise the karma, you're just creating more bad, you're creating more evil at that moment, okay? Because of the intention, okay?

The intention is what makes a deed mainly good or bad, okay? Okay, we'll do a short prayer, and that'll be it, okay? Oh, by the way, we have free classes almost every night, and you can look in that thing, and you're welcome to come.

We're about halfway through a session. Tuesday and Thursday night class is extremely difficult. The people in that class have been doing it for seven years, some of them, and it's a very, it's a very advanced subject about emptiness, mind-only school in Buddhism, so if you want to, you know, you can come and listen, but don't get freaked out if it sounds like too hard.

Friday night is a very beautiful class about the Wheel of Life painting, what it really means, each part of it, what it means, and that would be a nice class to come to. Wednesday night is a very sweet meditation class taught by one of our monks, and Monday night is, if you want to know how to do your daily practice, like how to do your, how to design your own daily meditation in the morning or something like that, that's happening on Monday nights, and you're quite welcome to come to any of those classes. They're at two different addresses, so you got to read the thing carefully, okay?

And we don't charge anything, and we don't harass you or anything like that. You have to eat cookies and stuff, okay? There's a children's class on Saturdays at 2, and you're welcome to bring your kids to that if you like.

It goes from about, Kirin is 2, and about 45, 50? There's actually more adults who come than kids, but, you know, most of the kids are around, you know, I'd say 5 to 15, okay? And they're learning a Lojong text from a thousand years ago, and they're getting pretty good at it.

It's a very short one, okay? Okay, go ahead. Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much for coming, and that we could talk about this stuff.