Неожиданный финал Камалашилы к «Сутре Алмазного огранщика» (2018, Нью-Йорк), занятие 1

[Speaker 2]
So let's give a big warm welcome to Geshe Michael. Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Hi, thank you. It's nice to see so many friends and thank you for coming. Yeah, so I was teaching in China a few years ago and some of my Chinese friends asked me if I could teach the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

There's a commentary that was written about 1,300 years ago by a master Kamalashila. And Kamalashila is famous in Tibet. All systems of meditation in Tibet came from him.

He wrote three great books about meditation called Bhavanakrama. And he actually came to Tibet briefly. And then he wrote this incredible commentary to the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

And it was translated into Tibetan and then it was lost in Sanskrit and also in Chinese. So it exists only in Tibetan now. And we don't have the original to compare.

And the translation is very corrupt. So it's a lot of fun for me to try to figure out what it said. And I've been working on it for about five years.

And now I feel comfortable with it. And I feel really happy about it. And now we're translating it in our translation program.

So we have a goal of translating 108 books from ancient India and then writing commentaries on them. We finished 65 of them. We have 31 translations in progress.

And I brought some of the translations. You got those? Oh, I'm going to set them out during the break so you guys can check them out.

But we have a new college in Sedona. We just finished our first year. This is a thousand pages of translations of ancient books by our team.

And they're doing about 2,000 pages a year now. So Kamalashila is one of them. And so I've been teaching it in a retreat setting at our Diamond Mountain Retreat Center.

And people have been coming to do deep retreat there from about 20 countries. So when I come to New York, I like to just give you a taste of it. So tonight, we've reached sort of the end of the sutra.

And at the very end of the sutra, there's a very beautiful poem. The Buddha breaks into a special poem. And that poem became very, very famous in Tibet and India.

And it became so famous that it's treated as a mantra now. We call it an open mantra. So people recite it.

For example, the monks and nuns, twice a month, have to recite it during the sojong ceremony for confession. They have to recite it. And then they snap their fingers.

And they're supposed to remember impermanence. And it happens in many, many texts. So I thought I would go straight there and work on that with you, this final verse, and give you Kamalashila's take on it.

And then I thought next time I come, we'll just do a review of the whole sutra, which is very beautiful. The sutra was spoken by Lord Buddha 2,500 years ago in a place called Shravasti, which I've been to. They found it.

It was buried about 30 feet underground. And they followed the travelogue of Xuanzang, who was a great Tang Dynasty monk from China. He walked to India.

It took him 17 years. He walked through India. And he studied with all the great masters during the 700s.

And he counted his steps. And because of his record, which is called the Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions, we were able to find Shravasti. And it's a beautiful place.

Buddha was teaching in a garden called Jetavana, which means the gardens of Prince Jeta. And this garden was part of a larger park that was bought for the Buddha by somebody named Anathapindada. A means not, right, in Sanskrit.

Nata means protector. Pinda means food. And pindada means the person who gives food to the poor.

So, he was a very wealthy businessman. So, I think it's kind of cool. Kamalashila likes to say that the Buddha was teaching in a garden near a great city.

And the place was bought by a politician and a businessman. And then Buddha, slowly, in the sutra, he tames them and he teaches them. And to me, it's sort of beautiful that he's...

Kamalashila makes a point that Buddha is both engaging in the world and not engaging in the world. He's in the garden. He's teaching this beautiful teaching in the garden.

But he's teaching it because of a businessman and a politician. And it's kind of beautiful how the Buddha manages to reach everybody in the room with this teaching. And that's what we've tried to do with the Diamond Cutter Institute.

We used the Diamond Cutter Sutra as the basis of it. And it's, by the way, the oldest printed book in the world with a date. It was dated 800.

The Chinese copy. It was found in the Dunhuang Desert Caves. And we like to try to teach it to normal people.

And so we started, I don't know how long ago, eight years? Eight years ago, we just started trying to teach the principles of the Diamond Cutter Sutra to normal people without making it religious. We tried to make it something that everyone could listen to.

Day after tomorrow we leave for India. We teach it at Benares Hindu University where there are very hardcore Hindus. Then we'll teach it to the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce.

And then we'll go to Almaty, Kazakhstan. I think last year was 800? 800 Muslims came and learned the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

Then we go to Vienna. And we've been able to teach it all over the world. For example, we taught it to the mayor's office of Buenos Aires.

And we taught it to all the mayor and his staff. And people are using it for running large organizations. The Diamond Cutter Sutra.

And he took me into his office personally after the presentation. And he asked me, can I use these principles of karma to become president of the country? And he pointed out that they call it the Pink House, which is their White House.

You can see it from the window of his office. So I explained to him, well, you're going to have to do these four steps. You're going to have to collect the karma.

And the four steps involve helping someone else who would like to be president. And he's a very strange guy. He was very intelligent, which is unusual in a politician.

And he looked at me and he said, OK, I'll give it a shot. And he was elected president last December. Mauricio Macri.

And he's running the country on the Diamond Cutter. And it's kind of cool. And the economy is picking...

It's one of the best growing economies in the world right now. It was a mess before that. So he's kind of using these principles.

I don't know, Scott, you have this thing... Scott also taught it in the Congress of Mexico. And...

Orit, his wife, taught it at MIT Business School. And people enjoy it. People really like it.

So I thought tonight I'll show you how we teach it to business people or politicians. And then we'll go deeper into the Sanskrit. And we'll go deep into the text.

But I thought it might be fun for you to see how we teach the Diamond Cutter Sutra to, say, a large Muslim audience. Or, you know, we might be in Dubai. Or we're going to Vienna after that.

So I'll just show you. Now, when I pull this out, you shouldn't fall asleep. Where's Francis?

My assistant. Oh, OK, you ready? He's my...

OK. I like to teach... You know, emptiness is the big subject of the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

And diamonds have a big... a lot to do with emptiness. And the title of the sutra is No Mistake.

And I like to teach emptiness with a pen. I got some complaints. I was in Singapore, and one of the people said, I want my money back.

And I said, why? And they said, well, you teach the pen every time you come. And at least give us back that much money.

You know, like 15 minutes of money. Then, my own friends. I don't know.

You guys know Lam Rim. And Jor Lam Su. Can you hear me?

Jor Lam Supa? No? What's this?

Path of Preparation. Third level of a certain spiritual path. If you get a good explanation of the pen.

If you understand emptiness intellectually. And it doesn't matter, you're Muslim, or you're a Communist Party of China, or you're a Catholic in the Mexico Congress. If you understand it, according to Buddhism, you cannot be born in a lower realm.

You cannot go down after you die. You must become a human or better. So I don't tell audiences all over the world.

I don't tell the President of Argentina, I'm trying to protect you from the lower realms. But it's true. And that's why I keep repeating it.

So don't think I'm weird. I do remember teaching it last year. So let's go.

OK? And it'll be painless if you answer me quickly. So I'm supposed to ask questions and then you answer.

This is an ancient Buddhist way of teaching. OK, what is this thing? OK, Francis, I expect you to help me out, OK?

Second question. If a small dog comes in here, and he comes down to here, and he comes up here, the small puppy dog, right Francis? And I say, and I show this pen to him, what will he do?

Yeah, he will buy it. Yeah. So does the dog see it as a pen?

No, he sees it as something to chew, right? OK, Francis, now I got a serious question for you. Who's right, the human or the dog?

Both. Yeah, you're right. OK, now we reach emptiness, OK?

And it sounds ridiculously simple, and it is, and all the Buddhist teachers would be out of business if people learned it, because that's all there is to say about it. But if, OK, Francis, you ready? If I put this thing here, and all the humans go out of the room, and all the dogs go out of the room, and this room is empty, completely empty, at that time, is this a pen or a chew toy?

OK, which one? Nothing. You're so smart.

We practiced backstage. Yeah, at that time, it's nothing. And that's emptiness, OK?

There's nothing more than that, than that about emptiness. And you can use emptiness to become the president of Argentina, or you can use it to run a large company. We just gave programs to the largest insurance company in the world in Shenzhen, China, to the HR department, which has a million and a half employees.

And they're using it. Now, the two husbands presentation. It's called Two Husbands in the Kitchen, OK?

So, I'm gonna teach it to you guys. And then we'll get to the Diamond Cutter Sutra, OK? But actually, these two skits is everything you need to know.

You know the Diamond Cutter if you know these two things, OK? So, all the men in the world had a meeting recently. We decided equal rights for women.

Before it was divided into women should cook and take care of the children, and men should make the money. But then we decided that women could also make the money. And then we could watch football on TV.

And so, this kind of became popular around the world. And let's say I'm a housewife in China or something, OK? And now I'm liberated.

I can work all day and take care of the kids and do the cooking, OK? And then I have two kids. Will you be my two kids?

You two guys? Lin Shan? Alma?

OK. So, these are my two kids. Then, OK, I just got to tell you guys something.

Mommy's boss said she has to come in early tomorrow because I have to be on an international phone call. So, we're an international company, Mommy's company. And I just want to ask you guys to be ready tomorrow morning, like one hour early, OK?

And have your shoes on. Have your homework done, OK? You guys agree?

Come on, just agree. OK. Then, OK, next morning, you walk in the kids' room.

You open the door, and they're jumping on the bed. You got to jump on the bed. Yeah, OK, that'll do.

I'm like, you guys didn't get ready? Mommy's got to go early. Did you forget?

You're too shy. Then, OK, then Mommy says, I can't believe you're the stupidest kids in New York City. You know, I just can't believe it.

I was so clear that you had to be ready, OK? Then, who heard Mommy call them the stupidest kids in New York? Yeah, Mommy and the kids, OK?

But it's the same principle with Francis, you see? If I see my hand open, I plant a karma. The awareness of what I'm doing plants a karma, you see?

And when I'm aware that I'm yelling at my two kids, when I hear my words in my own ear, that's what plants a karma, OK? So now I've got a seed in my mind, a karmic seed in my mind, a couple thousand, actually, OK? Now, I don't know, next week, I'm working really hard and I had to stay late, and I'm tired.

I brought the kids home. I went and picked up groceries, you know, and I'm really exhausted. Wait, I need my husband here.

Are you ready? You can be here in front of the piano. I trust you.

So, I'm tired. By the way, this is better than the Diamond Cutter Sutra. Don't worry.

Then, I'm coming home. I'm exhausted, you know. I just want a hug, OK?

That's all that men do anymore. They don't work. They never took care of the kids if they didn't cook.

So, I'm just exhausted. I'm just looking forward to having a hug. Really, you know, you've probably seen You've probably been there if you're married.

You're just exhausted, and you just want to come home and you want somebody to hug you, right? So, you come home, and you open the door, and you go, and they say, You're stupid! OK.

Then, you're like, Wow, he called me stupid. I didn't do anything at all. You know, and it's almost like a single word.

I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything. He started yelling at me.

I didn't do anything, you know. I didn't even say anything. I just walked in the door, and he still calls me stupid, you know.

I'll tell you what. You're stupid. OK.

By the way, why are there two husbands in my kitchen? Now, this you've got to understand. OK.

This husband comes from... I'm sorry. This husband comes from nothing.

I didn't do anything. OK. Ready?

Take a deep breath. I didn't do anything. It's like one word.

OK. I didn't do anything, and he started screaming at me. OK.

Got it? Now, this husband, he's a result of a seed that I planted last week with my two kids. OK.

Why? I called them stupid. What did I call them?

The stupidest kids in New York, right? Now I remember. Then, that planted a seed in my mind.

When I opened the door, the seed opened. And then, from my mind, OK, like the pen, that's why we did the pen first, from my mind comes an image of a screaming husband. OK.

So, this one came from me. OK. This one comes from a seed in my mind.

Can I say I didn't do anything? Why not? I yelled at the kids.

OK. That's where he's coming from. All right.

This husband is coming from me because I did the same thing last week. OK. Got it?

So, you can't say I didn't do anything. You did do something. You did something last week.

OK. Now, we can go deeper. Now, we go to Diamond Cutter Sutra.

OK. This husband doesn't come from me. This husband does come from me.

OK. One of them exists and one of them doesn't exist. Which is which?

Is he exist or not? No, he doesn't exist. OK.

Buddha said more in the Diamond Cutter. He said, doesn't exist, couldn't exist and never will exist. OK.

This husband is impossible. OK. Got it?

How about this husband? Yeah, he exists. OK.

He comes from me. OK. Now, where's the emptiness here?

Emptiness means something you thought was there was not there. Where's the emptiness? He's not there and he never was there.

OK. Which husband? I didn't do anything, husband.

OK. Got it? Just nod.

OK. This husband cannot exist. This husband comes from nowhere.

OK. I didn't do anything. This husband comes from what I said to my kids last week.

OK. This husband exists. OK.

Got it? This one is emptiness. That's the meaning of emptiness.

He can't exist. He never existed. There is nothing in your world which is not coming directly from how you treat other people.

There is nothing in your world that does not come directly from how you treat other people. OK. So, this one who's...

I didn't do anything. He doesn't exist. OK.

Now, you want to go deeper? In China, they go... But I'm getting used to it in New York.

OK. I don't know. Do I get upset when I come in...

I'm tired when I come in my kitchen and my husband starts screaming at me. Do I get upset? Yeah.

If he calls me stupid... You're stupid! I'm not stupid.

You're stupid. OK. That's normal.

Right? OK. Now...

Hmm... Then I get angry. Right?

I get angry. I didn't do anything. He called me stupid.

Now... Answer me. Francis, this is harder.

Which husband am I angry at? I'm going to call him number one and him number two. Which husband am I angry at?

When I say, No, I'm not stupid. You're stupid. Yeah, number one.

Why? I think he's not my fault. I think he's not my fault.

Got it? If I understand he's my fault, can I get angry? No.

He's your fault. I didn't do anything. Yes, you did.

You yelled at your kids last night. I did do something. OK.

Then you're not going to get upset at this one. You can't get upset at this one. OK.

If you understand karma, you cannot get upset at this one. And in fact, the only way to reach nirvana, according to the Buddha, is that, is to understand where things are coming from. That's the only way to stop anger permanently, is to understand where things you get angry are coming from.

Got it? You can't get angry at... OK.

Let's say I understand it is coming from me. OK. Do it again.

You're stupid. No, you're... It's OK.

It's OK. You're all right. Then, if you want to yell, you can go in the bathroom, you know.

Look in the mirror, you know. Yeah, I'm so stupid. Understand?

That's emptiness. That's how you use emptiness in your real life. OK.

He's not here. And he was never here. And where he's standing is empty.

There's no such... There's no husband there. There's not really two husbands in the kitchen.

There's only one. Right? Which one?

Number two, the one who came from me. If you understand that, is it... And you're really thinking about it when you open the door, is it possible to collect another karma?

Is it possible to say you're stupid? I mean, you can, but you will prove that you are stupid. Got it?

OK. You husbands can sit down. Yeah.

All right. Now we'll go... Now you're ready for the Diamond Cutter.

OK? You weren't ready before. I'm not sure you're ready now, but anyway.

OK. Last verse of the Diamond Cutter. Very, very, very, very famous.

OK? If the Bible is famous in the West, the Diamond Cutter is the most famous book in the East.

[Speaker 2]
OK?

[Speaker 1]
And the last verse is... And I gave you this reading. OK?

It's called the Nine Messages from the Diamond Cutter Sutra. There are nine messages in this verse. OK?

It took me five days to teach it recently at our retreat center. I'm going to do it in two nights. I don't know.

I better get my clock out. Is there a clock somewhere? No.

OK. All right. And they did make refreshments for you guys.

Right? Good. Are they good refreshments or cheap refreshments?

Very good. OK. All right.

See anything brought about by causes as like a star, an obstruction of the eye, a lamp, an illusion, the dew, or a bubble, a dream, or lightning, or else a cloud. Very famous. OK?

This is the last words of the most famous book in Asia. OK? And it's the book we named our company after.

Go to the second page. You got Francis' dog with a pen in his mouth. OK?

I know you got cats, but we're just pretending. OK? And he's got a pen in his mouth to remind you that the pen is coming from you.

OK? The dog doesn't see a pen. The dog has different seeds.

The fact that a dog wants to chew it and you want to write with it is proof of emptiness. OK? It proves that that thing is coming from the mind of the observer.

Cool? Just that simple thing proves that the world is coming from you. OK?

Don't forget. Then we got the two husbands. Number one is on the left.

That's Tim. He does not exist. He's emptiness.

OK? He's emptiness. He's not there.

Why? He's ... I didn't do anything.

OK? There's nothing in the world which is ... I didn't do anything.

Because you always did something. OK? According to Buddhism, you always did something.

Everything is coming from you. OK? Got it?

The second husband is yelling. He's real. OK?

But you don't feel so angry because you realize he's coming from what you did last week. If you don't like the way your husband talks, just talk to your kids nicer. Next week.

OK? What's saṃsāra? What's saṃsāra?

Wheel of life. Right? There's big saṃsāra, right?

You go to hell realms, you get reborn as a fish. OK? That's a big saṃsāra.

There are little saṃsāras going on every five minutes in your life. OK? There's a little one just here.

OK? You yell at your kids. That plants a seed in your mind.

Right? You come home. Your husband calls you stupid.

Then you call him stupid. You plant another seed in your mind. Then next week the kids act up.

And it's called a vicious cycle. We call it saṃsāra. Right?

In Buddhism, we call it saṃsāra. You are triggering vicious cycles every few minutes. Your life is a long story of vicious cycles.

OK? You are responding to people you don't like by being bad to them. Then you meet more bad people that you don't like.

And then you keep putting these cycles into motion. OK? Karmic cycles.

All right? So, Buddha says there are nine messages I can give you to help you. OK?

And the first is a star called Tāraka. Say Tāraka. Tāraka.

Sanskrit root term means to cross over. Like Tāra is the angel who can help you cross over suffering. OK?

And transportation comes from that. Tār. OK?

So, Tāraka. In ancient India, the stars were considered to be on a course, like a racetrack. And they would go around the sky like this.

So, they are called Tāraka. Right? Coursers.

OK? And there are six ways to interpret the star. OK?

Buddha says your life is like a star. At the end of the Diamond Cutter Sutra, he says your life is like a star. Like the stars.

OK? And then there are six different ways to understand it. OK?

And I'm giving you the great thinkers of Buddhism. OK? Vasubandhu, who lived 1,700 years ago.

OK? And he wrote the Abhidharmakosha, one of the five great books of Buddhism. OK?

And then I'm going to give you Kamalashila. OK? And then I'll throw in Choney Lama, Dharmapasiddhu, who is one of Tibet's greatest thinkers.

OK? And I wanted to throw in Jamyang Shepa, who's ... You know him.

Jebun, Gomang, 1,700s. Founded Labrang Tashikyo, famous monastery in East Tibet. And then I thought to give you Tendar Tharamba, who's a famous Mongol Buddhist scholar.

And people like that. Kuencho Tembe Dunme. I'm going to give you six different versions of the star.

OK? Because each one is helpful. OK?

And they all wrote books about this verse. OK? And I just thought you would like to hear from different great thinkers.

OK? The first one said, the darkness around the star is the misunderstanding you have about your husband when you come in the kitchen. OK?

The darkness around the star is the fact that you don't understand your husband. OK? And then it looks like he's coming from his own side, because you don't understand where your husband comes from.

OK? So the darkness ... The reason the Buddha spoke of a star is that the star needs darkness.

The star lives in darkness. And when you came home into the kitchen, your mind was in darkness. OK?

You didn't know about seeds. You see? You walked into the kitchen and you opened the door and your husband yelled at you.

OK? Then your mind is in dark. It's in the darkness.

You don't understand that you planted a seed last week. That we call ignorance in Buddhism. Avidya.

You have a darkness in your mind. OK? And because of that darkness, it seems like the husband's coming from his own side.

And that's the star for the first writer Vasubandhu. OK? That's his version.

Got it? The star is a light. The star is your husband.

Which one? Yeah. Good.

Who said that? Very good. You should translate the Dharmakara.

Well, oh no. You're already doing that. It's going to be like the Book of ...

What comes from Ethiopia? The Book of Job or something? Anyway, I hope it doesn't take 2,000 years.

OK. Anyway. The star represents, in the first writer's opinion, Vasubandhu and Kamalashila.

They say the star represents your husband. OK? And he lives in the darkness of your mind because you don't understand that he's coming from you.

OK? Now, what if you get a good teaching on the pan? What if you get a good teaching on the pan?

Or what if you see somebody plant a thousand dollars with a hundred dollar bill? OK? What if someone gives you a good teaching on emptiness?

He says, that's like the dawn. OK? That understanding, the pan, that understanding where your husband's coming from is like the dawn, and the star doesn't stand a chance.

OK? The first husband has to go away. The first husband will fade.

The husband who's not your fault. OK? The husband who's not coming from you will fade if you understand where he's coming from.

Got it? And your understanding is like the sun. And when you walk in the kitchen and your husband yells at you and you remember that it's because you planted a seed with your children, that remembering is like sunlight and the star must go away, the star must recede, and then the daylight comes and you're happy and you're not fighting with your husband.

Got it? OK? Did he say something bad to you?

Yeah. Did it hurt? Yeah.

Whose fault was it? It's always your fault. I'm sorry.

Don't worry, all the good stuff is your fault too. OK? But if you understand that when you walk in the kitchen, then it's like a star coming up against the sun.

OK? And the star has to fade. The husband that you hate, the husband that you're angry at, has to fade.

Cannot stay in the kitchen. Cannot survive. OK?

Got it? OK, we did one, we got 53 to go. Second one.

Tendar Saramba, a famous scholar from Debu, he says, no, no. The star is the truth of suffering. OK?

The star is the truth of suffering. He has a different interpretation. The star is the truth of suffering.

Suffering, truth of... Buddha said four things when he got enlightened. The first thing he said was, everything is pain.

The second thing he said was, there's a cause for that pain. Third thing he said was, you can stop it. And the fourth thing he said was, there's a way, there's a path.

OK? And those are called the four truths, the four truths for a realized being. OK?

First teaching the Buddha ever gave. The first of them is called the truth of suffering. OK?

And it just means the pain in your life. It doesn't mean a principle. OK?

It doesn't refer to a principle. It means the pain in your life. OK?

The husband. OK? The husband who hurt you.

OK? Like that. That unexpected hurt from the husband.

OK? The pain that came from the husband in the kitchen can only occur in the darkness. OK?

So now we have a second kind of darkness. OK? You don't understand where he's coming from.

You don't understand he's coming from your own mind. And because of that darkness where? Yeah, in your own mind.

Then you feel pain. OK? Then you feel pain.

If you don't like the pain, then remove the darkness in your mind. How? Learn how you're planting karma all the time by how you treat other people.

Just learn what you're doing. OK? And then that darkness is gone and the star cannot remain.

And it's like the sun came again. It's like the sun came again. OK?

Got it? If the sun comes, meaning you understand where your husband's coming from, the pain will also go away. OK?

The hurt you feel. OK? All hurt, all emotions of pain around any person are coming from you.

You hurt someone. Got it? And when you understand that, the star has to go away.

The pain will actually go away. All right? Got it?

That's the second writer's interpretation of the star. OK? The star is pain.

OK? What was the first one? Did you forget it already?

The first star was the first husband. OK? The second star is the pain you feel when he says things to you.

OK? That's the second star. All right?

Ready for a third star? How many stars we got? We got six.

Mind-only school. Anybody in the mind-only school? No?

You forgot all that. OK. There's a school of Buddhism called the mind-only school.

Very popular in China. It was a hit in China for about a thousand years. OK?

And it says something interesting. Your life revolves through three principles. Your life revolves through three principles.

This is mind-only school. OK? This is the mind-only school.

The first is things you think are there that are not there. Things you think are there which are not there. Illusions.

OK? Things you think are there but they are not there. In the kitchen, which one?

Husband number one. OK? A husband I'm not responsible for.

I didn't do anything. He just started yelling at me. OK?

That husband exists or not? Yeah, good. Now, we can kick that husband out of the kitchen and there'll be a space in the kitchen where he used to be.

Understand? What's the space called? Emptiness.

That's emptiness. That's Buddhist emptiness. OK?

Emptiness doesn't mean you close your eyes, everything's black. It doesn't mean that. Emptiness is a very useful, powerful thing.

You can make money. You can become president of whatever. Mrs. Merkel is reading the book. So, there's a space there where the first husband was. And that's called emptiness. And that allows someone else to be in the kitchen.

Huh? The real husband, who came from me. OK?

Why? Husbands are like movies. OK?

They have to play on a white screen. OK? There has to be a space for you to put your husband that's coming from your karma.

Got it? There's a picture coming out of a karmic seed in your mind. If you meditate seriously...

By the way, we're going to have a meditation class Sunday, right? At the Three Jewels. The new Three Jewels.

But we'll teach you a special meditation. If you do it regularly... And we're going to have a 30-day challenge.

If you do it regularly, you will be able to observe karmic seeds opening in your own mind. Husband. Husband.

Husband. Husband. OK?

Usually it's too fast. The movie goes so smooth that you think it's not separate frames. But if you meditate very seriously, you can actually observe seeds coming out, opening, and husbands coming out of your mind.

OK? So... Mind-only school.

Three things have to be there. Number one. A husband who was never there.

First thing. OK? Second thing.

The space that's left over when you kick him out. Because he doesn't exist. Got it?

And then there's a space. There's a white screen available for the... The real husband.

OK? Got it? I'll say it one more time.

Mind-only school. Which is a very high Buddhist school. Not the highest, but pretty cool.

They say there's three things going on everywhere. Not just your kitchen. OK?

Everywhere in your life. Your office. OK?

Your car. You know, your bathroom. There's always three things going on.

Number one. There's somebody there that you think is there who's not there. OK?

Because you think he's not coming from you. Got it? That's a fake...

Fake people all around you. OK? That you think are not coming from you.

OK? Got it? They don't exist.

Got it? Are you responsible for every person you ever met in New York City? You are.

OK? I'm sorry. OK.

In this system. OK? Then, if there was a person that you're not responsible for, that you ever met in your life, you can kick them out.

They don't exist. They never existed. OK?

When you remove them from the scene, it leaves a white screen. And that's called emptiness. In Buddhism, that's called emptiness.

And because there's a white screen, you can project a real husband onto it. OK? Got it?

Which husband is that? Which number? Yeah, the real one.

Coming from your mind. And if you meditate regularly, you can catch yourself doing it. And it's cool.

It's really cool. Because that gives you permission to create your future. That gives you power to create your future.

If everything in your world is coming from how you treat people, then you can design 2018. I mean from June. OK?

Something like that. And I'm talking financially, you know. I'm talking health-wise.

I'm talking husband and wife-wise. I'm talking how your meditation goes. I'm talking how your world goes.

OK? Those things are under your control if the kitchen story is correct. OK?

Got it? So that's the next author. He says, in the absence of...

OK, I'm on number three, page two. In the absence of the first partner, the second partner can appear. OK?

Appearance marries emptiness. OK? We need a blank screen to show the movie of your life.

OK? If you get this stuff, your life can be so amazing. Millions of dollars floating around.

Just going whoo-whoo-whoo, you know. Like strange stuff happening. OK?

And you can have beautiful, beautiful relationships. Like better than the movies. And your health can be weird, you know.

You can be 65 and you feel like you're 25 and you're doing weird stuff. OK? Because it's all coming from you.

You see? If you just know this stuff, you can have what you want in your life. OK?

And your meditation can be good because that's also coming out of seed. Got it? All right.

Number four. This author wants to say, look, the darkness is not... The darkness around the star is not just a bad thing.

You can read it either way. OK? They're all talking about the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

They're all talking about the poem at the end of the Diamond Cutter Sutra. We probably won't get past the first thing. OK?

But this author wants to say, look, the darkness around the star doesn't just mean misunderstanding your husband. It doesn't mean that. That darkness is the white movie screen that was left behind when you kicked out the first husband.

That wasn't coming from you. That's a nice darkness. Darkness is a nice thing.

OK? That's one author. That's the white movie screen.

OK? And it allows the stars to shine. Can you imagine a star shining without darkness?

You need darkness. So in that author, he's like, no, the darkness is this beautiful emptiness. Don't pick on the darkness.

It allows light to come. OK? Got it?

All right. That was easy. Yeah.

Fifth one. This is from Nagarjuna. OK?

I stole this one from Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna lived 1,800 years ago. He's the first really great Buddhist teacher after the Buddha.

OK? And he said ... Oops.

Sorry. That's a llama. Llama phone.

He said, look, those stars are looking down into all the bodies of water on the planet, whether it's the Pacific Ocean or a bucket of water or a teardrop in a child's eye. The stars are looking down. And all the bodies of water on this world, Pacific Ocean, bucket of water, teardrop in a child's eye, they are all reflecting back what?

Stars. This is Nagarjuna. He's like, no, no, you don't get it.

This star, Buddha's talking about star. He's talking about the stars looking down and seeing themselves reflected back to them. Related to the kitchen.

We have this thing at our school. I give a hundred bucks to anybody who gets it right. Okay, canceled.

No, I usually wait longer than that. How does it relate to the kitchen? Yeah, who said that?

Okay, I owe you a hundred. Come to me after class. I'm serious.

That's how I make money. Give it away. No, exactly.

When you come in the kitchen and you see this ugly face, your husband says, you're stupid. You are seeing yourself. Nagarjuna says, that's what the Buddha meant with the star.

Forget all that darkness and all that stuff. He just means when the star looks down, the star sees themselves in all the other people in the world. The percentage of irritating people you meet every day is exactly the percentage of irritation you give other people.

Exactly. Okay? 63.2%. It's exactly what you are. You want to know who you are? Tell me who you met today and how you felt about them. Because that's exactly who you are.

Because you're a star watching yourself in the water. Okay, got it? It's depressing.

Okay. I'm sorry. Okay.

I like that one. That's Nagarjuna. He says, the star is looking at itself.

You're seeing yourself in other people. Okay. An exact percentage according to what you do.

Okay. All right, last one. This is from me.

I just threw this one in. Because it seems to me that one of the reasons the Buddha mentioned the star is simply impermanence. Okay?

Every morning, the stars have to go away. Okay? So the sun comes up.

It's brighter. And then the stars have to go away. And I put here, number six on page three.

Hugs, hard words, and partners pass. Okay? That's the daily fate of stars.

I mean, the Buddha was trying to tell people, you know, all the things you love, you will lose. Okay? Everything you care for, you will lose.

Everything you work for, you will lose. Okay? Your own body, you will lose.

Okay? And you are like a star. Okay?

Your condition is no better than a star. That is, that, when the sun comes up, death. Right?

Then the stars are gone. Okay? We are like that.

Every morning. Okay? We just keep dying.

And it's so funny that, I don't know, how many million people here? Five? I don't know.

Eight. Eight million people working all day to build a house, to have a family, to dress a certain way, to have a certain car. You will lose it all.

It's crazy. It's crazy. Eight million crazy people.

You know, they should empty out the asylums and let those people live in their apartments. Okay? It's all gonna go.

Okay? Your life is like a star. Okay?

Your life in this world is like a star. We had a very sad thing happen at our college. We had a, the last term was, ended on Thanksgiving Day.

And we played, I played rock and roll with my friends. And we all danced. And the drummer died two days later eating Thai food with his wife.

And he's totally, he's 45. And he just dropped dead. And his wife's holding him in her arms and, you know, and then suddenly we all got a better lesson than we had from the Sutra.

You know? It was really weird. And she's a wreck.

She's, she's broken. Literally broken. And, that's the story of your life.

You are a star. We are a star. Okay?

Don't forget it. Then do something good with your life, right? Okay, second one.

What time is it? Chuncheon? 8.30?

Give me five more minutes, okay? Then we have refreshments.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Second one is called the cataract. And it's a, it means a person with a growth on their eye. Okay?

And it affects how they see things. Okay? A person with a problem with their eye.

Okay? The first partner was, never, is not, and never will be. That's how Buddha described the first partner.

Okay? The first partner is not there in the kitchen. And, they have never been in the kitchen.

And, they couldn't be in the kitchen in the future. There's no such person. Who?

I didn't do anything. That one. Okay?

I didn't do anything. Okay? That partner doesn't exist, cannot exist, will never exist.

Okay, got it? That one. But, we have a defective instrument.

Okay? We have eyes, like scratches on your eyes. And you see people.

You see people out there who are not there. Which husband? Number one.

You see them because the instrument of perception is defective. You have a scratch on your eye. There's something wrong with your eye.

Okay? And all day, every day, since you were born, you think you see people hurting you or making you happy who are not coming from you. But it's a scratch on your own eye.

Okay? Your instrument of perception is defective. Okay?

Your own eyes are defective. Your own mind is defective. You are born defective.

There's a major defect from the factory in every human mind. It's the, and it's this deep, deep, deep belief that someone exists out there who's not my fault, who's not coming from me. You see what I mean?

It's a deepest tendency in all living creatures' minds, even ants, birds, fish. According to Buddhism, they have this defect in their mind and they believe things are coming this way. They believe things are coming this way.

They believe the pen is coming this way. Don't chew on my pen. That's a pen.

Got it? The dog's like, Dog, you could be chewing on it. Right?

It's not a pen from its own side. Relax a little bit. Can you try to see it from my point of view?

It's tasty. It's got a good consistency. Okay?

It means it's coming from the beholder. Things are coming from the beholder, but you have a defective mind. Okay?

That's the first one. Okay? That's the first one with the eye defect.

It's a scratch on your eye. Okay? Second one.

If you understand that, the hurt disappears. If you understand it, the hurt disappears. It's difficult for anyone to hurt you.

Okay? People hurting us is probably the greatest pain of this life. Right?

People who hurt us. You know, ex-wives, ex-husbands, etc. It's probably the greatest pain in this life.

That's the... Then he says, the real hurt doesn't have to be there if you understand about the scratch on your eye. Okay?

They're coming from you. That's a problem with your eye. Okay?

They're not being cruel to you or bad to you. You were bad to your kids last week. Duh!

Buddha's like, duh! But you have this ancient tendency to believe that things are coming this way and you don't understand they're coming this way. You are looking at scratches on your own eye.

Got it? Your eyes are defective and they always have been in a deep-rooted way since you were born. Since before you were born.

Okay? You were born with a defect in your instrument of the perception of the world. You believe every person is not coming from you.

You strongly believe that. There's a joke in Buddhism. When I explained the pen and Francis and me both agreed it was coming this way and you were looking at my hand and the pen, you were still thinking it was coming this way.

Okay? It's your scratch on your eye. Okay?

You can't help it. It's born. You're born with it.

It's inborn. Okay? Alright, number three.

The partner, the kitchen, the kids, and the life. Chandrakirti called it a hair sticking to the porcelain sink. So he says you have a porcelain sink, white porcelain sink, right?

And you keep cleaning it. You keep trying to clean it because there's a hair. I don't know.

Men will understand better than women. There's always hairs on the sink because they're falling out, right? Mr. Foley. So, you know, and you keep rubbing. And he says, no, it's a scratch on your eye. Stop rubbing the sink.

Stop trying to fix your husband. Stop trying to negotiate with your husband. Stop trying to tell your husband what you need or why he's wrong or how he should greet you at the door.

Okay? Why? He's the hair on the sink.

What? It's a scratch on your own eye. Okay?

It's a scratch on, it's a defect in you. Don't try to talk to him. It's hopeless.

You already knew that. In this system, you can fix, she got the husband to cook and wash the dishes without talking to him. There was no negotiation.

She wasn't reasonable and she didn't blackmail. Okay? She just fixed him at the source.

Where? Here. It was so cool.

There was no discussion that he should wash the dishes, ever. And there was no hint that he should cook. But she forced him to hint.

She forced him to cook and wash the dishes. Now, I have a deeper question. You want to go deeper?

If you answer right, you can have a snack. Now, what happens if the man and the wife had come to my talk together? And the man is sitting there thinking, I'm going to use the four steps to never ever ever wash the dishes.

And the wife is thinking, I'm going to use the four steps to make him make him wash the dishes. Okay? It's like the Titanic meets the iceberg.

Which one will win? How can both win? I mean, he can't wash the dishes and not wash the dishes.

A single object cannot be two things at once. Wait, you didn't catch it. A single thing cannot be two things at once.

Right? Right? Francis?

This can't be two things. It can't be a pen and a toothbrush at the same time. Yeah, it can.

And there could be a dog's reality in this room. And there could be a human's reality in this room. And they fit together quite nicely.

Okay, got it? Physicists have just figured out. They say 16 levels or something.

I almost said a bad word. The Buddha said it a long time ago. Yeah, of course.

In the man's world, she'll be washing the dishes. In the woman's world, he'll be washing the dishes. Duh!

No problem. Don't give me this thing that one thing can't be both. Don't give me this thing that two realities can't be going on in the same room at the same time.

Okay? That's easy. That's a no-brainer.

Okay? Got it? That's the Titanic question.

Okay, one more, and then I promise. In Mexico, they call me Senor Ultima Causa, Mr. Last Thing. Okay.

Hmm. Oh, yeah. Number four on page three is very interesting.

It's called the confirmation. It's called the confirmation. Okay?

So, you and your friend both went to the pen talk. Okay? You have a you're a woman, you have a lady friend, and you both went to the pen talk.

Okay? But your friend was listening and you weren't. Okay?

Then you yell at your kids. Your friend is there, you know, I don't know, she heard through the window while you're yelling at your kids. Okay?

And then, and then she happens to be in the kitchen when you came in. Okay? Got it?

We got an independent witness. Educated. Educated.

Educated in Buddhism means knows karma. Okay? She knows karma.

She went to the pen talk. She knows emptiness. She saw you misbehave with your kids.

Sorry, kids. And then she was there when you walked in. And the husband said, you're stupid.

Now, question for you. How many husbands does she see? Yeah.

Only one. Got it? Got it?

She's your reality check. She's your reality check. She doesn't even see husband number one.

Why? Because she was listening during the pen. Got it?

She doesn't see husband number one. Okay? That's called the confirmation of emptiness.

Okay? An independent witness who understands seeds walks into the room. They don't see a first husband.

They never saw a first husband because there was no first husband there if you don't have cataracts. Got it? Cool?

All right. If you agree it's cool, you can have a refreshment. I'm gonna be up here.

Okay. We're trying to keep the three jewels healthy. We're trying to think of ways to keep them healthy.

We raised the construction money. It was a lot. It was like two, three hundred thousand dollars.

We did it. And they have a beautiful place. And God bless.

Now they need rent money, which is more profiteous than construction money because it's every month. So we made this book. It was delivered by the printer an hour ago.

This is a translation of the Diamond Cutter Sutra and three other traditional languages. There's Chinese, the traditional Chinese edition. There's the traditional Sanskrit edition.

And there's the traditional Tibetan edition. All in one book for you to not read. So anyway, I would really appreciate it.

We'd really appreciate it if you buy one. A hundred percent of the money is going to pay the rent at three jewels so we can continue to have free classes in this kind of stuff and paid yoga classes and things like that. Okay.

So where do they buy it? Table outside? I will sign them.

I did the translation. I finished it in Travesty. So I'll sign books.

Or if you just want to come up and say hi, I have a lot of old friends here. And please respect that other people also want to say hi and I'm only here once a year, I think so. Okay.

We'll see you in about 15 minutes. Oh. Say again?

Okay. I'll be down the stairs near the book table. Okay.

Thank you. Okay. See you then.

Thank you. All right. I forgot to tell you the Sanskrit for the...

So it's Taraka is the star. Right? And then Timidam.

Say Timidam. And Tim came into Latin as timid, to marry, to fear, to be in the dark and to be separated from happiness. Okay?

And if you know Russian, Tyomny comes from that. It all means darkness. Okay?

So that's what Timidam means. Okay? So we have Taraka, Timidam, and then we have Dipo.

Okay? Say Dipo. Dipo means a butter lamp.

Okay? By the way, I'm going to test you. There's a big debate in Buddhism.

Is this verse about impermanence or is this verse about emptiness? Okay? There's a big controversy for 2,000 years.

Is this verse in this verse, is the Buddha teaching impermanence? Which is how we use it in the monks and the nuns' sojong. We use it as impermanence.

We snap our fingers, meaning I'm going to be gone like that. Or does it relate to emptiness? So, so far, how's the vote going?

First one was what? Star? Impermanence or illusion?

Yeah, you can say both. Good. I mean if you didn't have an explanation of it, you would say impermanence because they fade every morning.

Okay? But now that you had an explanation of the dark being the misunderstanding in your mind and the star being husband number one, now you understand it relates to illusion also. Okay?

So it's kind of 50-50 on the first one. How about the timara? The...

What do you call it? Cataract. Mostly illusion or mostly impermanence?

Kind of illusion. Yeah, that's the impermanence. Yeah, it's also impermanence.

That's right. So, so far, I think we got about a 50-50 vote. Okay.

Third one. Deepa. Deepa comes from a Sanskrit root, root deep, which came into English as dew, Indo-European dew, which came into deva or divine, meaning God.

In Latin, it's dew. It's pronounced dew. And then the father in the sky is Jupiter, which is Jupiter.

Okay? So that also comes from dew. So Zeus comes from dew.

Tuesday comes from dew. Okay? Meaning a light, a lamp.

Okay? And we have a butter lamp. There are six meanings to the butter lamp.

Okay, number one. The scene in the kitchen requires trigger and a fuel. Trigger and a fuel.

Okay? The trigger is compared to the wick of the butter lamp. So, I don't know, in Tibet, every December something, we have to celebrate Tsongkhapa's birthday.

The young monks don't look forward to it because they have to make by hand the wicks for the thousand butter lamp offerings which happen in every house. It takes about three months to make the wicks. You got to sit there all day and make cotton into wicks.

You see? So that's called the nirrenki gyu. It means the material cause of the fire, the thing that flops into the fire.

And then there's called authentic chicken, which is a contributing cause, which is the butter. Okay? So you need to have this ignorance go on.

You have to have a main seed and you have to have fuel, fuel for it to continue. So, we say, when I yelled at the kids, okay? That's called karma freshly planted.

In Sanskrit, it's sanskara. Okay? Freshly planted karma.

Like when you first plant a watermelon seed in the spring. You know, you put it in the ground and you cover it. And then we call it sanskara.

At that point, it's called fresh karma. And the seed is freshly planted in your mind. Then a week goes by and I don't know what's happening in the karmic seed, but I like to think it's like a little factory and people are running around and yelling and, you know, we got to get this sprout out.

And, you know, like it's a miracle. If you're a gardener, like I'm a gardener. When you plant a seed and then what's happening between April and June, something's going on inside the seed like Santa Claus' helpers are down there doing something.

And then suddenly it breaks open. Okay? Just before it breaks open, we call it vasana.

Okay? So, a seed, a fresh karmic seed is called sanskara, which means, I just yelled at my kids. Okay?

Or I just gave dad the hundred dollars, which is Francis' when he goes to college. Okay? So that's called sanskara.

The first moment is called sanskara. And then just before it opens, we call it vasana. Okay?

Vasana means something has caused the seed to mature inside. Okay? Something has caused the seed to mature inside.

And we have separate explanations for good seeds and bad seeds. Okay? And what's very interesting, I mean, very, very interesting, what makes a seed go from sanskara to vasana?

What makes a seed go from fresh to pregnant, ready to crack open? Okay? It's misunderstanding the seed.

Okay? It's very weird. Okay?

Okay? Because you don't understand how you plant a seed with the kids, that misunderstanding also is carried with prana. And that prana causes negative seeds to get fat and pregnant and to open.

Okay? If you didn't misunderstand the first husband, your karmas couldn't open. Okay?

So, we say you cannot destroy a karma because there's a justice to the universe. If you hurt someone, you must get something bad. If you help someone, you must get something good.

No power in the universe can destroy a karma. We say that. Okay?

But, if they don't get water, yeah, really, and a million karmas can sit on the tip of a needle. A billion karmas can sit on the tip of a needle. Karmic seeds in your mind, inside your brain, they can live indefinitely.

So, you can kind of arrange for all your bad karmas to be put into suspended animation or something. And it doesn't break the rules of justice. You see?

They're still there. They're still bad. They can still open.

But as long as you don't misunderstand them, they are damaged. Okay? And they cannot open properly.

Okay? What's the opposite? If you make a good karma?

Yeah, you rejoice. Okay? Prana flows with the thought.

Lungsem jupa cikpa. Prana flows with thought. So, if you think about a kindness that you've done for another person, or you think about a kindness you've seen someone else do for another person, then we say, your karmas will open faster.

Okay? They will also go from sanskara to vasana faster. Good karmas.

Okay? That's why we say step number four in planting a karma is every night before you go to bed, you just think of all the sweet things you saw today, whether it was you or somebody else. So, instead of thinking about Trump just before you go to bed, just think about people you saw who had integrity, honesty, good people who were leading a good life.

And then, all those seeds will open. Okay? That's very important.

Okay. So, the first image of the lamp is that it needs fuel and it needs a wick. Right?

The wick is your karma. The fuel is how you think about the karma. Got it?

And if you think about it right, then bad karmas can't burn. Okay? It's very interesting.

Got it? That's the first image of the lamp. Okay, second one.

If you don't try to understand where the first husband came from or the second, now we got an existential discussion. Did the first husband come from any place? Huh?

Wait, the first husband does not exist. I said, never existed, cannot exist now, will never exist in the future. Where did they come from?

They don't exist. They don't exist. We call rabbits antlers.

Okay? Now, no, but it's a trick question because obviously you can get angry at the first husband. Right?

So there must be some existence there. Okay? And that's in your mind as an imagination.

Does an elephant with two heads purple color exist? No. But can you imagine it?

Well, yeah. Can you get upset about it? Yeah.

Okay? Alright. Second one here.

If you don't understand why the first husband was never there, the fire will spread to your kids next week. The fire will spread to your kids next week and you will say something again to your kids. You see?

It's a cycle. It's a cycle. And if you get if you get in the habit of not understanding where the husband really came from, then it's going to burn.

It's going to spread. Okay? We call Ayatana in Sanskrit.

Chepa in Tibetan. It means to a conflagration of exponential fire. It will spread like crazy.

Okay? All your relationships will be poisoned if you can't learn that the first husband was never there. If you keep accusing the husband of hurting you, then it will hurt your relationship with your children.

It will hurt relationships at work. Okay? It spreads.

This fire spreads. The fire of misunderstanding tends to spread. That's its nature.

It's like a fire. Okay? Alright, third one.

That's too complex. Nang tong. Say nang tong.

Nang means how things appear in your life. And tong means how things were never there. Which is which in the husband?

Which is the appearance and which is the emptiness? Which husband is emptiness? Yeah, number one.

He was never there. It wasn't, I didn't do anything. It's not my fault.

That one was never there. That husband is emptiness. Okay?

The second husband is appearance. Why? It's flowing out of your mind.

He's flowing out of your karma. By the way, in case we don't get to it tonight, I'm going to skip there, in fact. There's a debate in a Buddhist monastery.

Okay? They'll say, you know, is the first husband real? And you say, no.

The first husband never existed. The one who, it's not my fault. That one never existed.

Is the second husband real? Yeah. Does the second husband have emptiness?

Yeah. Because he can't be there if there's not the space left by kicking out the first husband. Okay?

The first husband is impossible. We kicked him out of the kitchen. He was impossible.

Then he left the space. That's where the second husband can be. He's the white screen.

That's the white screen where the second husband can be. Where's the second husband coming from? Your mind.

Your seeds. Okay? Creating your husband.

Okay? Now there's a joke in the monastery. So a student will say, yeah, even though he's coming from me, he's still real.

Okay? Even though the second husband is coming, you can still get a kiss from a husband who's flowing from your mind. Okay?

It's that good. Your mind is that good. Okay?

I'm not kidding. I said, is the pen real? Yeah, it's real.

Is it coming from you? Yeah. Even though it's coming from you, it's still real.

Okay? And some guy said, no, it's not. I said, come here, get a mustache.

He's like, no, no, that's okay. I said, then you think it's real, right? Well, okay, I think it's real.

Yeah. So an immature debater in a Tibetan monastery will say, even though it's coming from me, it's real. What will a more mature debater say?

Who said that? You're cheating. You already know this stuff.

Yeah. A more mature debater will say, it's real because it's coming from me. Which means, anything that's not coming from you is not real.

Got it? So don't go apologizing for your karmic seeds. Oh, you know, everything's coming from my mind, but it still works.

Nagarjuna says, ah, that sucks, don't talk like that. Okay? Everything's coming from my mind, and that makes it real.

Got it? Don't apologize for your karma. It's coming from me, but it's still real.

Ah, shut up. Oh, it's coming from me, and that makes it real. That's better.

Okay, got it? Just nod. Okay.

Anyway, so in Buddhism, we talked about, we always talk about the projector and the empty screen. Okay? The projector and the empty screen.

The projector is your own mind. The movie that's loaded into it happened with the kids. Okay?

The movie was loaded. And then I walked into the kitchen and the movie played. Okay?

Got it? And the movie needs an empty screen. Tell me what's the empty screen.

Huh? The absence of number one. Yeah.

And that allows number two to have a place. Okay? For projection.

So, anyway, this Lama wants to say lamps stand for the projection. Cataracts stand for the emptiness. And stars stand for the marriage of emptiness and projection.

That's just one guy's opinion. Alright, next guy. Yeah, number four is what I just talked about.

Nagarjuna says refusal. He says, don't say, things are coming from me, but still they're real. I hate that.

Who said that? Nagarjuna. Okay?

He said, don't say that. Say they're, they're coming from, they're real because they're coming. Yeah, he says, don't use but still.

I want to hear because from you. Okay? Got it?

Alright, next one. Page five. Tomorrow is going to be a wild day.

Alright. One Lama objects to the lamp always being used to demonstrate pain. He says, don't call the wick a bad seed and don't call the fuel misunderstanding the seeds and the misunderstanding makes the bad seed open harder.

Don't keep talking like that because good things also come that way. You know, good things also come from seeds and there's fuel for good things also. What's the fuel for a good seed?

Yeah, rejoicing just before you go to bed. Okay? And it's so cheap and it's so powerful.

You know, they say you can get 10% of another person's karma if you're just happy about what they're doing before you fall asleep because the state of sleep is so powerful and it goes on for so many hours. Just slightly enjoying someone else's goodness before you sleep, you get 10% for free. You don't have to do anything.

Okay? It's very famous. It's repeated in many scriptures, you know.

You want to have an easy... I mean, if you understand this stuff, you can have a life which is extremely financially successful. You can be very healthy.

You can have beautiful, beautiful relationships. You can have beautiful meditation. And your life is just like magical.

And we do it. We have that kind of life. We just want you to try.

We have it. It's weird. It's like supernatural, you know, and money just goes, you know, and people are just...

All over the world, we have 20,000 people studying weird stuff you know. 800 Muslims? In Almaty.

I can't even say the name. When we were going... What's the other place north of there?

The capital. The new capital. Astana.

Yeah. Astana? Anyway, I can't even pronounce the name of the cities.

And they're wild about this stuff. Okay? And then, in my own country, people are...

Anyway. Okay. All right.

Number six. Life is a candle. Okay?

That's... That's easy. I put that one there because it's an American expression, right?

Life is a candle. It will burn down. When you're born, they light the candle.

Okay? And it starts to burn. And no one can slow it down and no one can stop it.

Okay? It's just burning. Every day, you're burning.

I went to... In the monastery, yoga is secret. Physical yoga is secret.

And you only learn it when you learn tantra. And you have to be a Geshe to qualify for that. So then, you know, when you become a Geshe, suddenly, you find out this nerd in the monastery is a yoga teacher.

You know? And you're like, Wow. I never thought it was you.

You know? He said, Yeah, it's me. And then...

And then one day, I remember, I was walking home and I met the nerd and his friend. You know? And they said, Where have you been?

I said, Well, I just did a yoga class. And they said, Well, how long was it? And I was very proud.

I said, It was two hours. And they said, Ah, why are you doing yoga? I said, I want to be healthy.

They said, You're two hours closer to dying, man. That yoga class just cost you two hours of your life. What are you talking about?

Live longer. You get it? That's life as a candle.

That's the sixth interpretation of the candle. Okay? Life goes very fast and it starts burning.

I say it, a lesser emptiness and a lesser comfort. A lesser emptiness and a lesser comfort. There's a form of emptiness.

There's another kind of emptiness which is not as powerful. It's like, what do you call it? Grade B emptiness.

Okay? And it's where you also have a feeling that your relationship will last. You see?

You also have a instinctual feeling that your relationship will last. And that's a mistake. Okay?

It's a misperception. All relationships pass and the people in relationships die. It's a question of who dies first.

It's not a question of whether. Right? So, and all uncomfortable situations in the kitchen also die.

You know? Sooner or later you get along for a day. Okay?

So, they say even pain is impermanent. You see? So, that's supposed to be a comfort.

Okay? You know? The troubles you're having will sooner or later go away.

Either you'll die or they'll die or you'll make up. Okay? And that's a lesser emptiness.

That's a lower school emptiness. It's a kansaki dharme rakpa. It's the rough form of the lack of self to a person in the Abhidharma school.

Okay? Things will change. Things will change.

It's a comfort but not much. Right? I would rather live forever and I'd rather my husband or my wife live forever.

Okay? All right. And you can.

If things are coming from you, you can. Okay? That's why we're here.

All right. We have about ten more minutes. I'm going to start the rabbit coming out of the hat which is called let's see taraka, timidam, dipo, maya.

Say maya. Maya as you know means illusion. Okay?

And they're going to go into some of the meanings of illusion. Okay? And that's the taraka, timidam, dipo.

Fourth of the nine messages from the final verse of the Diamond Cutter is maya. Things are maya. Okay?

Then different lamas say different things. There are nine different interpretations here. Okay?

First one, your job, your family, and yourself. We are always deluded, we're always tricked into believing they are coming from some place other than where they are really coming from. And you know now.

They're coming from how you treated the kids last week. Okay? That's all.

So the first meaning of illusion in Buddhism is that you didn't figure out where your husband's coming from, where his behavior's coming from, where everything's coming from. It's an illusion. You think it's coming this way.

And in fact, the word in Tibetan for a person who doesn't understand things is sotong. Do you know sotong? Sotong means people who think things are incoming.

People who think things are coming this way is the opposite of arya. Sotong means incoming seer. They see things coming this way.

So that's an illusion. We believe the world is coming at us when actually the world is coming from us. So that's the first meaning of illusion in the diamond cutter.

Second one. Even the tongue is a broken instrument of perception. Even the tongue taste ronyawa, right?

Even the tongue is mistaken. Even your senses are defective. Your senses make decisions about where stuff is coming from.

I like this. I like honey. It's sweet.

I don't like eggplant. It shouldn't be a food. No, it's true.

It's coming from this way. Eggplant is coming this way. It's the only thing.

But even your tongue is fooled. Even your tongue believes that sweetness is coming from the honey when actually it's coming from you. It's very interesting.

And things that taste bad are also coming from you. There's nothing in anything. There's nothing in anything.

There's no sweetness in any food. There's no bad taste in any food. It's all coming from you.

When your tongue hits the honey, the taste is flowing this way. It's coming from you. It's very interesting.

When your husband yells at you and you feel hurt, the emotion, the pain is coming from you. It's very interesting. I guess there's wives who love to have husbands yell at them or something.

It's like the pen. Okay? I didn't meet them, but...

Okay, number three. Then they start to talk about... There's a very famous, famous story in Buddhism about magician, the village magician.

And if you've ever lived in India, village magicians are cool. Before the internet, they were the coolest thing in India. They're very, very amazing.

They have incredible skills. They're rascals. They can make...

They will take a piece of wood. It's called dew in Tibetan. They throw it on the ground.

Then they do a mantra. They have special mantras. They have a special powder.

They throw the piece of wood on the ground and they go... The original meaning of mantra was magic spell. So they'll do mantra and they'll throw powder.

And suddenly, everybody sees a horse. Okay? Suddenly, all the...

Everybody... And I've been there and it's weird. And you really see a horse and you're like, whoa, whoa.

And you have this... You get... Everybody backs up.

It's really just a piece of wood on the ground, like this big. But because of the mantra and because of this powder, everybody in the audience sees a horse, you know? And then somebody who comes up later will say, well, why is everybody so excited?

There's just a piece of wood on the ground, you know? Because they didn't get the mantra and they didn't get the... Then they say that's an example for understanding emptiness.

Okay? So the lady who came into the kitchen without hearing about the pen first, she's like the... the people who got fooled by the mantra.

Okay? Got it? She's like the person who's under the magic spell.

Okay? She thinks her husband is coming from him. She sees a mean husband who...

I didn't do anything. She sees... I didn't do anything, husband.

Okay? She's like the person who got the mantra on them. Okay?

Who's the... Now, does the magician see the horse? Yeah, he sees it because he got the mantra and he got the powder.

But does he believe it? No. He knows he's seen something false.

That's a person who went to Lincoln Center and got the pen talk. Okay? Then they're going to go home tonight.

Their husband's going to yell at them, where were you? And, you know, they're going to say, ah, you didn't fool me. I know you.

Then he'll get more angry. So we say that that person is like the magician. Okay?

The one who went to the talk at Lincoln Center and heard about the husband and comes home and the husband's angry, she will be calm, you know, for at least a few minutes. By the way, in the beginning it lasts about that long. Okay?

Your memory of this talk will fade within 24 hours and then the next day you'll be upset. Okay? But if you go home right now, quick, don't go anywhere else and just pray that your partner's angry when you get there.

You can practice. Okay? All right?

Now, what about the we call by the way, that's Jatop Jatop Yeshe. That's Arya after they saw emptiness directly, but now they still see the thing coming this way. Okay?

So there's possibilities like that. Is there anybody who just doesn't see the husband? Number one.

Yeah, I mean like a very highly trained person. Okay? A very, very highly trained person.

They're just over it. You know? They understand.

They don't even see the first husband. Okay? All right.

Now, illusion, the meaning of illusion in the ancient times is called the discrepancy. Okay? And then we'll stop.

Okay? It's called the discrepancy. Between what and what?

That's the meaning of maya. If anyone ever asks you, you know, what does the Sanskrit word maya mean? Illusion.

What does it mean? You can say it's a discrepancy. It looks like it's I didn't do anything.

Okay? But it's really I did do something. Okay, got it?

That's the meaning of illusion. Okay? I'll say it again.

A discrepancy between the way a thing appears and the way it really is is the definition of maya in Buddhism. There's a discrepancy between where he really came from and where it looks like he came from. It looks like he had a bad day at work.

Okay? What's real is that you yelled at the kids last week. Okay?

So they don't match. Okay? Those two understandings don't match.

That's called maya. Then that's all that illusion means in India. It means that.

The way it seems to be, he seems to be coming this way and the way he really is don't match. That discrepancy is called illusion. Okay?

Maya. Got it? So how do you get caught in maya?

Huh? Yeah, or yell back at the husband. Right?

Yell back at which one? Which husband? Number one.

You're yelling at nobody. You're yelling at nobody. Okay?

You're yelling at nobody. When I was in Ukraine and we taught the husband, the two husbands, you know, we were talking about it afterwards with some Ukrainians. A hundred million people died in World War II.

And a lot in Ukraine. And they were looking at me and they said, let me get this straight. If what you say is true, then the husband you yell at is the one who's not there.

Am I right? Yeah. That means every enemy you ever had in your life wasn't there.

It's not a question how you feel about them or you should be compassionate or it's not about that. They literally weren't there. Okay?

The one you hated. Was I didn't do anything. The country who fought your country.

I didn't do anything. We didn't do anything. You know?

The country you're angry at doesn't exist. The people, be them Arabs, Russians, Jews, whatever you choose, somebody, the ones you hate, they don't exist. They never existed.

Every war fought on this planet, every casualty, every death, 100 million in World War II was the result of nobody. There is no enemy. Is there an enemy in the kitchen?

No. There's a guy flowing out of how you're treating your kids. How can you get angry at...

The enemy is not there. Couldn't be there. Wasn't there.

Never will be there. Got it? Okay.

So, as a result of this, compassion should be easier. It's not. You have to practice, practice, practice.

Okay? Basically, you have to wash your brain. You see what I mean?

You have to stop your old way of thinking. Okay? Anytime someone hurts you, the instant reaction should be, what did I do?

Who did I yell at? Then you're not fighting back. Then you're not...

You cannot fight back. Okay? You don't have time.

You're trying to figure out... That's like the ultimate Buddhist insult. Someone says, and you're like...

You go like that. It means, where the hell did I plant you? If you really want to insult a Buddhist, when they talk, just go like...

Okay, well, try to use it at home tonight and tomorrow. And I'll see you tomorrow. And we'll go on.

Thank you. Okay, bye. Good night.