Полный Танец льва: на лифте к прямому восприятию пустоты (2018, Аризона), занятие 6

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so I'm ready for that in the last 15 minutes. Let's just start with the five levels. The difference between today and yesterday is we're going to close the meditation properly and not leave the poor Lama hanging in the ...

in your meditation space when you go to work. He gets hungry, she gets hungry, okay? And that's pretty much the complete lion stance.

Okay, here we go. Someday I'll translate all the literature, but I need time. I still didn't figure out what's the right thing to do with flies.

When I feel really good I let them crawl around, but mostly not. It's better to catch them and take them outside. I made a video how to catch a fly?

Yeah, somewhere, maybe Jigme can find it. You can catch them in a cup, it's something you learn in three-year retreat. My record is 120 in one day, okay?

And my record on a single cup is seven. So, if you wonder what people do for three years. Alright, here we go.

So, until the air conditioner comes on, let's listen to small noises in the room. By the way, when it gets ... the desert gets cold at night, like maybe 20, 30 degrees colder can be, so you have to get used to layers.

So, have a sweater and have a t-shirt and then take them off and put them on, otherwise you'll get sick. Small noises in the room. Desire realm.

Ground level. European ground level. Zero.

First form realm level. Come to your heartbeat, then come inside your heart, more quiet, then to the inner core of your heart. Still sunny inside.

If you do good exhales here, extra exhales, it'll help later. Sugar crystals, single point. Ocean, wide ocean.

Blue sky. Turn off the mind. Fight thoughts, and then let the thoughts go.

Invite any teacher that you've had in your life. You might want to try a new one. By doing the lion's dance, you can build up the number of teachers that you appreciate, and you will discover that you've had many, many teachers.

Maybe even a pet that you've had. Your children. Now think of some beautiful quality that you appreciate.

It has brightened your life. And now go to your past lives. See if you can find or imagine a cause.

Use your third eye, which is logic, which is Nagarjuna would call an examination of your past life. Come back to your lama, teacher, and again appreciate this quality. How nice it is to have it in my life.

Ask them respectfully to move to the side. Bring a second version of them whose good qualities come from inside of them and not from me. This is a fake teacher.

Second husband in the kitchen. And then ask that fake teacher to go away and bring the real one back. Enjoy their quality one last time.

And then let's come down. Second round. No thoughts.

Mind's turned off. Let the thoughts wander. Don't relate to them.

Stay in a very quiet place. Then come out a little bit. Watch the thoughts.

Try to block them. Back to the sky. Expand your mind.

Come to the ocean. Come to the sugar crystal. The core of the heart.

Then inside the heart itself. Still a lot of sunlight. And every once in a while do this exhaling thing where you push out extra air.

Keep your body relaxed. And then back into your body. Watch the beating heart.

Third round. Let's go back up into the inside of the heart. The end of the meditation will speed it up a bit.

The mind is tired. And show your flexibility. Xinjiang.

Into the core of the heart. Sugar crystal. Ocean.

Sky. Turn off the mind. Block thoughts.

Turn off the mind. Watch the thoughts. Don't connect with them.

Just ignore them. Come back to the quality of your teacher. Just enjoy it.

Kind of congratulate yourself for creating it. Try to decide you'd like to keep seeing it. So you'll keep doing what you did to plant it.

Round four. We jump down from the ninth floor to the first floor. European counting.

And we're back in our body. And we are watching the heartbeat. Still pretty short.

Keep the meditation moving. There's a tendency to bog down, to get stuck on one level. Come back to that quality of your teacher and remind yourself of the specific action in the past life that planted this quality.

Imaginary past action. Remember to push out exhales every once in a while consciously. Two or three at least.

Back inside the heart. Remember the quality. Where it came from.

To the inner chamber of the heart. Lots of sunlight. Very quiet.

Back to the teacher. Try to get in touch with the feeling, the mistaken feeling, that this quality is inside them. It can't be both.

It can't be coming from me and coming from the inside of them. Sugar crystal. Fake teacher.

100% coming from the inside of them. There's nothing I can do to change the quality or keep it going. Ocean.

Relaxed. Broad mind. Again, try to get in touch with that feeling that the good quality comes from them somehow.

Like a pen that has to be a pen. Cannot be a chew toy. Sky.

Blue sky. Some kind of joy that you can keep that quality going in your teacher. You can keep your teacher for many lifetimes if they're coming from you.

Because karma multiplies, they can teach you things you don't know, even though you're creating them. Let's go to the mind. Turned off.

Enjoy the teacher with confidence. I can keep this person in my life, this beautiful thing. I can have support.

Always go to the core of the mind. Don't watch thoughts. And one last time, appreciate what we have.

So many teachers in our life. Even the people that hurt us. Round five, we'll go down quickly.

Back to the inside of the mind. Center of the mind. Come to the sound of the fan, the air conditioning, or the sounds in this room.

We're tired. The mind is tired. The body's tired.

Show that you can still be flexible. You can jump to the outside and then back in. Back to the mind.

Follow some thoughts. Block them. Back to the sound of the fan.

Consciously back to the sky. Consciously back to the fan. Consciously back to the ocean.

Consciously back to the fan. Crystal. Back to the fan.

Core of the heart. Back to the fan. Inside the heart.

Back to the fan. Back to your body. Watching the heart.

Back to your teacher. Well-appreciated teacher. Ask them to stay with you, guide you throughout the day.

Remind you that things are coming from you, especially in challenging moments of the day. Please guide me. Please be there to consult.

That would be easier if they were in our heart. So ask them, would you be willing to stay in my heart all day? And when I forget that things are coming from me, when I have hard times, I'll think of you, where you came from.

They very happily agree. This is tradition. They're super happy that you are so smart to invite them to stay with you for inspiration.

And they nod and then they start to rise up from their meditation cushion in front of you. As their body rises, they get smaller and smaller. When they reach the top of your head, their body turns around, facing the same way as you, and they settle down on the top of your head.

They're about the size of your head. And you can feel the warmth of their body on the top of your head, like honey, warm honey. And their body gets smaller until it's this size of your thumb, thumbnail.

And then invite them to come down, and they start to flow down your spine, your head and then your spine. And you can feel them warm, pleasant, as they come down. Then get that chamber in your heart ready, this beautiful meditation space, golden room, lots of cushions, flowers, sunlight, probably some snacks.

And they descend into the room, quite comfortably sitting in this small apartment in your heart. They're happy to be there when you need them. It's traditional to take three long exhales, imagine it's a golden light, and you're giving away the karma of spending this time in the specific causes of seeing emptiness directly, which is the one way you can help every person in this world, directly.

It's not selfish to sit here, and it's not just for yourself. This is the best way to serve other people, which is what we were born for. So three long exhales, share the karma with the people of this world, and then slowly open your eyes.

Take a stretch. Wow, you did all five rounds. You did all five rounds in one time.

That's for the weekend, okay? Not when you have to go to work, you'll get fired. Questions?

I owe him a question, and then Vivian, okay? Right here. Drink something, drink something, drink something.

Thank you, thank you Geshe-la, for teaching. Last night, I decided if this question, if I have this problem in my mind again, I will ask you. Yeah, I don't want to ask it now.

Okay, okay. Thank you, Geshe-la. You're welcome.

I like this beautiful meditation. Thank you. You made it.

Thank you. Geshe-la, so last time in your Heart Sutra teaching, you told us to invite our teacher to sit on the top of the head, and then the moonlight will pour in and fill in the whole body. And this time you told us to ask the teacher to descend along the middle channel to sit in the chamber of the heart.

So, I want to know the difference of these two ways, and what they mean differently. Okay. Bringing them down the elevator, down the spine, central channel, chong mai, is traditional.

I think there's also a tradition that moonlight is very calming. So, sunlight is supposed to function to ripen things like crops, and then moonlight is supposed to make you feel peaceful and calm. And there's a tradition, if you're having a hard time in your retreat, you can go outside and stand in the moonlight, and somehow it's supposed to make you calmer.

And so, I think if you feel kind of nervous about the day, or you have something big meeting and you feel nervous, then use the moonlight. But tradition is to bring them down. So, it's considered almost like bad luck to leave your Lama somewhere, and I gotta go now, and you know, I gotta go to work, and good luck.

So, it's considered almost like you didn't finish the meditation. So, nice to park them here. Other questions?

Yes, Susan has a hard one. In the back, in the back, back.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you. So, my session yesterday, last evening, last evening my session, I was using a very particular and unique quality of my Lama, and it occurred to me, or this is what occurred to me. If we call Arya Nagarjuna, Arya Nagarjuna, and we call Arya Asanga, Arya Asanga, why don't we call Je Tsongkhapa, Arya Tsongkhapa, and why don't we call Geshe Michael, Arya Geshe Michael, and wouldn't it be incredibly powerful seeds for us to do so?

And I'm embarrassed that it took me so long to figure that one out. I'm embarrassed that it took me so long to figure that one out.

[Speaker 1]
So, there's a tradition that if you do see emptiness directly, I think one of the ... you know, you have many deep realizations. I think one of the coolest is real bodhichitta, that you ...

very powerful. You see all living beings in about 20 minutes, and you know, so some ... you have very important experiences, and you have love for those beings, one by one, individually, you know, in sequence, one by one.

And then, because as we're going to learn in which chapter, time is also flexible. But one of the strongest realizations you have towards the end is that I shouldn't talk about it, and I shouldn't tell people about it. And I ...

I think one of the main reasons for that is that lying about that experience is one of the biggest bad karmas you can do. If you haven't seen emptiness, and you say you did, even if you think you did, it's a very serious bad karma. It's one of the four worst karmas.

And if you are a maria, if you did see it, and you talk about it openly to people who might not believe about it, then you're kind of causing them to have bad karma when they make fun of you, or they don't believe you, or they write something on the internet about you, and so ... and then terrible, terrible things will happen to those people, even in their lifetime. And so, I think there's a tradition ...

there's this tradition not to make a big thing about it, because you will hurt so many people. But, if you really believe it about your teacher, I think it would be appropriate to call them that. But I would do it kind of privately, for those reasons, okay?

About Tsongkhapa, I don't know, there's no big custom of calling him an Arya. They call him Manjushri, and you know, they kind of skipped the Arya, and went to the Buddha. So, you know, that's the, you know, that's the tradition for Tsongkhapa.

And we're going to do some Tsongkhapa today. He wrote a commentary to wisdom, which Choney Lama, you know, that's called the Ocean of Emptiness. And then Choney Lama's commentary is called, I'll give you a boat for getting across the ocean.

And Tsongkhapa's commentary is much more difficult, and deeper, but I think it's kind of less accessible to us. I'm translating his other commentary on this subject, and it will take about 20 years. So, I think, you know, I'll just give you some little pieces once in a while of his commentary.

I'm going to quickly do the technical parts of meditation, and then we'll take a pee-pee break, okay? Is that alright? Can you give me ten minutes?

Okay. And when I first studied the Lion's Dance to teach it, I thought, Khedug Je, which is what I mainly used, and we should translate that if we ever have time. He didn't really give the technical description of the eight levels, okay?

Now I'm going to talk about the eight levels. He didn't go into them. So, I thought if I'm going to teach it, I should review the traditional explanation of the eight levels.

So, I've put it in my notes. I have 140 pages of notes for the Lion's Dance. So, here's my notes.

I got it from two different sources. The best explanation I could find of the four form realm levels of meditation, which we call causal form realm. It means if you do those four meditations and you don't do anything else, you will be born later into the form realm, okay?

So, they're called form realm meditations, but they're not form realm. They're just meditations to go to the form realm, okay? And form realm, as I study it more and more, that's what's good about having a long life, you can study more and more.

It's very similar to Marvel superheroes. Extremely similar, okay? So, think ...

the guys who made those movies, they had some seed. They were in the form realm recently, and they can think about Iron Man and Superman, okay? So, it's very similar.

It's really very similar. They use planets for marbles, okay? They play with planets, you know?

When they play football they use a planet, okay? Really, okay? They are extremely powerful, okay?

Alright, so here's the four form realm levels. This comes from a Lama named Tsonawa. Say Tsonawa.

He lived ... his monk's name is Shireb Sangpo, which means pure wisdom, and he lived in the 1200s. We don't know exactly when.

200 years before Tsongkapa. He was Kagyu. So, this is like Jesus studied with Jewish teachers, you know?

The person who created Christianity studied with Jewish teachers, and Tsongkapa studied a lot with Kagyus before he became a Tsongkapian, okay? He started Tsongkapism. We followed Tsongkapism, okay?

If anyone asks you, then after that they won't bother you because no one can say it. Alright, so this is ... and he wrote the best commentary to Vinaya, which is what we did yesterday at the Sojong, okay?

He wrote the best explanation of monk's vows, nun's vows. So, Allison is translating the main text about it, and we're in the middle of the nun's vows, 364 nun's vows, and they were lost in Tibet a thousand years ago, and we're recreating them from the ancient books. So, we're working very hard on that.

We're about halfway, I guess? I don't know. Anyway, he gives a good explanation of the four form realm levels, and I also have to peepee, so I'll teach it first.

Is that okay? You have time? Okay.

Number one, okay, when you describe the form realm levels, you usually describe them in three parts each, okay? So, when you describe the qualities of the form realm levels meditation, it's always in three groups. Each level is explained in three groups, okay?

So, the first form realm level, which we're using the heartbeat, right? It has three groups of qualities, alright? This is traditional.

This comes from Abhidharma. Number one, there's a list of qualities which are called antidote, okay? The first group of qualities.

I can see this is gonna need a peepee in the middle, I think. We'll do that, okay? Maybe we finish the form realm or something, or ...

we'll see. Okay, so antidote means, as you move up the eight levels, you need some energy to shoot the previous level, okay? It means that you're blocking the desire realm to go to the first form realm.

So, the first group of qualities is called the fix or the antidote. So, if you're going into the first form realm level, there's going to be certain things which force you out of the desire realm, which block the air conditioner, okay? So, it's called the blocker group.

My Lama would say blocker group, okay? It's the group of qualities that push you out of the desire realm, out of the air conditioner, okay? It's called the blocker level, blocker group, okay?

And that's going to be true for each level. There'll be certain qualities that help you. It's like the rocket, sends up the thing and then the rocket falls down and the guy keeps going, okay?

It pushes you out of the desire realm, okay? It blocks the desire realm, okay? Second group of qualities is called pinyin, which normally means help, but in the study of meditation it means sustaining.

A group of things that sustain you, like vitamins. We can call it vitamin group, okay? The first group of qualities pushes you out of the last level.

The second group of qualities gives you strength in this level, okay? And then the third group of qualities is called the essence, the essence qualities. It means what is the state of mind?

What is the essence of that state of mind, okay? What's it made of? What's that state of mind made of, okay?

So, now we have three groups for each level, okay? Don't forget you asked me to teach this, I didn't offer, okay? But now you'll know, you will be an expert.

I love that if you know a lot, and there's probably a lot of real labs in here somewhere, okay? So, three groups for each level of the eight levels, 24 groups, right? So, for the first level, qualities which help you boost out of the desire realm, booster, they push away the desire realm, they push away the air conditioner.

Second, qualities which make you stronger while you're in the form realm, first form realm, okay? Level. And then thirdly, the essence of that state of mind, what's the essence of the state of mind, okay?

And I have to say again, and don't forget, if you really reach those form realm levels, if you reach the first one, your meditation is better than almost anybody in the world, okay? To reach the first one, okay? So, it's rare and it's difficult.

We pretend, okay? To go through the levels, but it's all desire realm. If you ever get to the first form realm level, you'll be lucky, okay?

And it's a platform for seeing emptiness. We normally don't even try to go to the second one, okay? But in this exercise we do.

Okay, here, who's in the first group, alright? Now, don't forget, what level are we on? First form realm level, okay?

And the first group of the first form realm level, which is how do you block the desire realm, okay? And that's called vittarka and vijjara, some of you know. Dopa and chöpa in Tibetan.

It's in the Yoga Sutra. Yoga Sutra is sort of a confused presentation of Buddhism at the time, okay? So anyway, this helps stop the desire realm.

Two states of mind. It's called, in Abhidharma, it's called, RTOGS DANG CHOS PA TSING ZHIG GNYIS. Say, RTOGS DANG CHOS PA TSING ZHIG GNYIS.

TSING ZHIG GNYIS, okay? TSING means rough, coarse, not subtle, okay? Really, like anger.

Anger is TSING, compared to calm, compared to having a nice coffee, I mean, before the coffee kicks in. So, anger compared to calmly sitting in a coffee shop. Anger is called TSING.

TSING means rough, rough state of mind. And then ZHIG means more suave. I love that word.

Smooth state of mind, more smooth, okay? So, TSING means like agitated, rough, rough state of mind. TSING means rough.

TSING also means like sandpaper, okay? Rough. And then ZHIG means smooth, cool, mellow.

Mellow is good. Mellow is good in English. So, these two states of mind, vittarka and vichara, which I call noting and examining.

Noting and examining. Watch. Look at me.

Ready? That's called vittarka. You saw it, you noticed it, but you didn't have time to see what kind of numbers, or what's the shape, or what's the color.

You know, I just go like this. Then I said, did I have something in my hand? Yes.

What was it like? Well, Geshe-la, I didn't have time to see the detail, okay? That's called noticing, noting, okay?

And then, when I hold it up and I say, you know, take it, take a look, you know, see how the back looks, that's called examining in meditation, in the art of meditation. It's called vittarka, examining the object, okay? The first one is ZING, rough.

The second one is ZHIG. Oh, you're checking it out carefully, okay? Rough and careful, okay?

Now, so, you transition from one to the other to get out of the desire realm state of mind. You transition from one to the other to get out of the air conditioner. The air conditioner is ZING, rough.

You notice it, okay? And then you go deeper, you go more mellow, and then you start to enter the first form realm. So, the first form realm kind of has both, because you're kind of transitioning from the air conditioner to the heartbeat, and you're looking at the air conditioner and you're saying, you're noticing it, oh that's rough.

Then you look at the heartbeat and you're like, wow, that's more mellow, I think I'll go there, I think I'll go there, okay? So, we say antidote states of mind, blocker states of mind, two, in the first group, in the first form realm level, okay? Two states of mind.

One, rough, you know, leaving the air conditioner. Two, mellow, reaching the heart. Okay, got it?

Cool? And these both help you push out of the desire realm. Everybody okay?

It's kind of cool, this is, you know, okay. Now, that's the whole first group. So, how many in the first group?

Two, for the first level, okay? It's just rough state of mind and suave state of mind, okay? Smooth, mellow, flowing, okay?

Now, while you're in the first form level, watching the heartbeat for example, okay? There's two vitamins, okay? I'm gonna call them vitamin states of mind.

They kind of sustain you, they make you feel strong while you're in the first form realm level, okay? Two states of mind, okay? Say, DGA' BA DE BA, DGA' BA DE BA.

DGA' BA means mental happiness. You feel happy mentally, okay? Oh, this is such a quiet place, this is much better than the air conditioner, or the refrigerator, or my kids yelling, or the garbage truck, okay?

This is nice, I like this, you know, okay? There's DGA' BA, mental pleasure, okay? And then DE BA, DE BA means physically you feel good.

Oh, I'm wired, my back's straight, my legs don't hurt yet, you know, my stomach's tight because I did that exhale thing. This feels ... I'm in the groove, in the groove!

I feel wow, I'm going, this feels good, okay? If you do yoga you get more DGA' BA, okay? Asana, yoga exercise, asana, really means exercise for being able to sit longer in meditation.

The purpose of yoga, the word asana. AS is a root that means to sit on your ass. Probably ass comes from that, I'm ...

no kidding. ANA is a root that means to do, you see, so AS ANA means it helps you to sit, it helps you to sit. So, yoga's original purpose, and if you read the Yoga Sutra, the older yoga books, there's not a lot of exercises except ones that help you to sit for meditation.

Then later people added stuff, and Sripadavi Joyce, Mr. Iyengar, they added British military exercises that were taught on their tea plantation. So, it's not all of those things are ancient, okay? But I like them, I think they're good, and I also do the tea exercises.

Okay, alright, yeah. We'll do, we'll do the third group and then we'll take a pee pee break, because my pee pee is informing me that we can't go into this kind of detail. Okay, so how many guys in the second group?

Two, yeah. Mental pleasure, physical ... physical pleasure, mental happiness, how's that?

Pleasure and happiness, GAD DE. Sorry, DE DGA. Alright, last one, which is what?

Third group. Yeah, what's the essence of this mind? SEMS TSE GCIG PA, EKAG RA, EKAG RA, single-pointed mind.

Laser, you're already into a laser-pointed mind, laser mind. You are sticking on one object. It's very common for a beginning meditator who studies the ancient literature about meditation, when they reach this word, EKAG RA.

There's Agra, which is where the ... what's that place? Taj Mahal, is in a town called Agra.

Agra means highest tip, the tip of something. And EKAG RA, it means EKAG RA, EKAG RA means one point, and my Lama continuously said one point means one object. Okay, so when we talk about laser mind, or tip of needle mind, it just means you are restricting yourself to one object.

You are not floating around. Your mind is focused on one object. So, the nature of the mind, the third group, is a kind of concentration, a kind of focus.

You can say focus. The nature is focus, you're feeling good physically, you're feeling good mentally, you are considering the air conditioner and rejecting it in favor of more suave state of mind, more smoothened state of mind. Those are the five states of mind, or the five states in three groups of the heartbeat.

Okay, we finished the first one. Okay, you alright? Take a pee-pee break.

And we'll keep going, maybe we do a little bit each day, something like that, because we have other stuff to do. I have to see Adam, just a moment, and Ale, Ale is here. That was a nice break.

I got the two vitamin group members feel better in my body, then that made feel better in the mind. Okay, alright, second form realm level. What are we going to call it?

Booster? Booster group? Blocker group?

The group that pushes you from the first to the second form realm level, okay? It's called crystal, crystal, okay? The state of mind is called crystal, crystal state of mind, and it means crystal clear like glass, okay?

Crystal like glass, clear like glass. In Tibetan it's RAB TU THANG BAR, with the DV, DVANG BAR, okay? And it means the mind is like crystal.

And what it means is, you went beyond the rough state of mind on the air conditioner, and you went beyond the suave, I was told to say suave, the suave state of mind, and now you don't have either one anymore, okay? Your mind is clear of those two states of mind. You don't have vittarka and vajra.

You are not noting anything anymore, and you are not examining anything anymore, so you moved up, okay? Sometimes I like to teach that, you know, I go to a IGA, there's a grocery store in our town, and my town is all inhabited by hippies who forgot to stop being hippie, like me, and so when you go to the grocery store, purposely they play 60s, 70s music, you know, and then you're pushing your grocery cart and you're listening to the music, and then sometimes they'll play a good song, like Jimi Hendrix all along the Watchtower, and I will, I will, wow, now they're playing Hendrix, you know, and I start listening to the bass line, you know, because I play bass.

Joe probably listens to the lead guitar, Nick, I don't know, but I'm listening to the bass line, you see? So, RTOG PA, vittarka, noticing, means if your friend asks you, is there music at the grocery store? You say, yeah, I heard the music.

Then they'll say, was it, what was the details of the music? You say, you know, I didn't hear anything I really liked, so I didn't really listen to the details, but there was one song by Hendrickson, and I vittarka, I vittarka the bass line, or I checked the details of one of the songs, okay? I stopped, I stopped pushing the cart and I listened.

That's called detail mind, vittarka, okay? Smooth mind, not rough mind, okay? But at the second form level, you drop both of them, okay?

No more, you're in the store and you're just looking at the hot chocolate or something, you can't even think about the music. You see, I mean, something else has got your attention, like your meditation object pulls all your attention and you don't have awareness of the other things, okay? It's, and that's called crystal mind, okay?

And so, there's only one member of the first group that pushes you out of the last, the first form realm, okay? Second group has the same two members as the first form realm level. Physically, you feel in the groove.

Mentally, you feel happy because you're in the groove, okay? Got it? So, physically, your body is straight, your knees aren't hurting, your back's not hurting, and that normally comes from doing exercise, like yoga or something, okay?

It's hard to meditate for long periods of time if you're not doing some kind of exercise, like jogging or walking, okay? You will start to hurt, okay? Alright, and the third group is the same as the first form realm level.

Eka Agra, say Eka Agra. Yeah, single-pointed mind, okay? So, two of the groups are the same, it's only the first group is different.

When you go from the heartbeat to the inside of the heart, you're supposed to lose the states of mind focusing on any way, in any way, on the air conditioner or even the heart as something that you're examining, okay? You're in it, alright? Okay, third form realm level, okay?

By the way, the names of these levels, they don't have sexy names, you know? I'm sorry, maybe Buddha was busy, he had a board meeting that day, and he didn't give them cute names, they just called first form realm, second form realm, third form realm, fourth form realm, okay? It's kind of boring.

Then the next day, he didn't have a board meeting, when he got to the formless realm, and he said, oh let's think of some cool names like endless space, endless consciousness, okay? So, the formless realm levels have their own sexy names. The form realm levels just have their misnomers, misnamed form realm, they're not form realm, they lead to the form realm.

Alright, what pushes you from the second to the third form realm level? Three states of mind, three states of mind. Three states of mind become more prominent, okay?

Booster states of mind, blocker states of mind. Number one, equanimity, equanimity, okay? Number two, recall, recall.

You are able, and I will explain them, R-E-C-A-L-L, recall, okay? I'll explain it. And then shishen, I gave, I hid a good word for this the other day, what was that Nick, do you remember?

I hid a really good word for it. Vigilance, vigilance, let's call it vigilance, yeah. Okay, I'm going to explain those three words, okay?

Upeksha, equanimity, which, it has three important meanings in Buddhism, okay? The word equanimity, neutral, has three important meanings in Buddhism, okay? The Sanskrit is upeksha.

You know pariksha, which means to look all around the thing. Upeksha, upiksha, upeksha means overlook. It means you don't care anymore, you are neutral, okay?

Upeksha, upeksha means neutral state of mind. So, I'm going to give you three choices for this one, okay? And first one, first meaning of DANG NYON, is duje DANG NYON, means neutral karma, karmically neutral, okay?

Like, not good deed, not bad deed, okay? It's like LUNG MA BSTAN, okay? Same meaning.

Second meaning of upeksha is you treat people equally. In the four immeasurables, we have upeksha, where you treat people equally, okay? You treat all people equally, okay?

Then there's a feeling DANG NYON, TSOR BA DANG NYON, VEDANA, which means you don't feel good, you don't feel bad, you feel anesthetized, you feel anesthetized. It's like the doctor put a shot of Novocain in your mouth, okay? And you can't feel any, you don't feel anything, you are just neutral feeling, okay?

Those are the three kinds of neutral, and there's a debate about which one this is, okay? There's an argument about this one. If you want my personal opinion, I think it's kind of a neutral state of mind, equal state of mind, okay?

I don't think it's neutral karma because all of these eight are good karma, okay? It's supposed to be a god rebirth, right? Deva rebirth.

So, I think you have to say they would all be good karma. Dirty good karma. We call it dirty good karma, okay?

So, I don't think it's that one. The feeling neutrality comes in the second group, so it can't be that one. So, I kind of feel like it has to be almost like equal state of equanimity, kind of equanimity, okay?

I feel like that personally. I've seen a debate, okay? Alright, let's go on.

Recall is easy. Recall means you have a strong ability to bring the object back to mind if you lose it, okay? You have a strong ability to recall the object back to your mind if you lose it, okay?

At the third level, alright? So, the dominant mental function at that time is this very strong muscle to pull the object back, okay? And vigilance is also strong.

The mind is watching. The vigilance is very highly developed to bring the object back to the mind, sorry, to detect, smoke detector state of mind, that you have wandered off the object, okay? We call smoke detector.

It goes beep beep beep. What? You're not, you're off the object, okay?

What is the object? Core of the heart, right? Core of the heart, okay?

If you wander back to the air conditioner, or your kids make noise in your apartment, then at this level you have strong, super strong ability to go back to your object, okay? Do you have these two functions at the first two form realm levels? Of course.

It's just that they are highlighted at this level, okay? They are just, they are the stars of this level. Probably because the other guys are gone.

Alright. Vitamin group, you know, the group that sustains you during the second form realm level, okay? Is interesting.

Physical well-being, physical pleasure. We're at the third form realm level. What did you ...

sorry, we're at the third one. We're at the second group inside the third form realm level. We're in the second group inside the third form realm level.

And what sustains you? And it's interesting, you no longer feel pleasure, mentally. Your mind is zoned out, okay?

Your mind is spaced out, like this. And you don't even feel happy anymore, okay? It's like very drunk, really, okay?

Very drunk, and you're like this, okay? And somebody say, are you happy? You say, I don't know.

So, now you get a taste of the form realm meditation, traditional. And they say, they claim that non-Buddhist groups in ancient India would be spending a lot of time on this, you see? They want to reach a place where they're like, you know, they're not thinking about mind.

Mentally anesthetized is the goal. And they think that's nirvana, but the problem is, those seeds wear out, and then you get an appendicitis or something. You know what I mean?

You can't stay there. Okay, alright. So, all you have is the physical pleasure.

Your body feels good in the meditation, but you don't have mental pleasure at the third form realm level, okay? Good? I'm just gonna do the form realm levels today.

We'll save the form realms. Okay, now we need a third group, which is essence. What's the state of mind made of?

It's still the same ... yeah, ekagra, single-pointed mind. It's still single-pointed mind.

It's still ... if you have to say what's the state of mind made of, you would say it's made of focus. You can say focus, one point focus, focus.

The ability to focus. And by the way, the author Tsonawa, Jetson Tsonawa, he quotes the Abhidharma Kosha for each one. He backs his up with Kosha Abhidharma.

It better be good Mr. Myrtle. Yeah, I agree. You debate it in the debate ground.

I'm just reading the book. I agree. Well, not really.

Spaced out in the sense that you don't even feel pleasure anymore. You're just like ... it's like ...

I don't know. It's like a physicist looking at a specially good formula, and their mind is captivated by the formula, but they don't feel happy necessarily. Like when I translate, I feel focused, but I may not feel joy or something.

I just feel this intense focus, okay? Something like that. Alright, fourth one.

Perfection of recall, okay? Recall is now perfect, okay? At the fourth one, the recall reaches a deeper level.

You can say maybe immediate recall. If you slide off the object, you bring it back instantly, okay? Perfect recall.

CHEN PO'I YONGS SU BTAG PA, okay? And perfect equanimity. BTAG YONGS SU BTAG PA, and there's debate about which one it is, okay?

So, maybe you can explore that while you're in the sugar crystal. Nice, nice, okay? So, those are the two states of mind that push you out of the third form realm level into the fourth, okay?

Those are the antidote states of mind that push you out of the third form realm level and into the fourth, okay? Your recall is now perfect, and your equanimity is perfect, okay? And again, there's a debate about the equanimity.

Okay, now, guess what happens, guess what feeling is sustaining you at the fourth form realm level? Neutral feeling, totally neutral, okay? No pleasure body, you're not aware of the body feeling good, and you're not aware of the mind feeling good.

You are zoned, spaced out, in English we say spaced out, you're like this, you know, supposed to be. Like someone gave you ... you know before an operation you take anesthetics and your mind is just like ...

okay, it's like that. Classical fourth form realm level is like, you know ... by the way, $50, and I'm ...

I'm just investing in Nick's yoga center. Why would that be a good karma? Why is this considered a good karma?

I'm gonna split it with everybody. I need 50 bucks for Nick. Can you find ...

50 is a hard number. Okay, yeah, because in a normal day we are constantly, every few moments, we are collecting negative karma, small ones, tiny ones, not killing someone or stealing someone's purse. We are like, I don't like the color of her blouse, this guy should brush his teeth more, you know, we are judging, I'm a judging expert, we are judging people, criticizing people every few moments normally, and small irritations, it's too hot in here, I can't believe they can't get the air conditioning right, why they blow it at people, why didn't they put it on the roof like other people do?

I was wondering that myself. But, those are all small bad karmas. If you are in deep meditation, you don't have a chance to make the normal small bad karmas.

Your mind is focused, so you don't have time to have the small irritations and the small judgments that we have every few moments, okay? So, I think in English, and good luck translating this, by default, by default, you will ... you know, just by accident, you don't have a chance to do your normal bad deeds.

It's good karma, okay? Alright? Alright then, we finished the ...

oh, what's the essence? The same, okay? Same.

So, there's only one member of the second group, it's neutral feeling, and there's only one member of the third group, which is focus, okay? Focus. And I think we'll stop on that, and we'll do the rest tomorrow.

You have to remind me, okay? I'll make a mark here. We're going to do formless realm levels.

We're going to examine what are they made of. So, this is supposed to give you a better appreciation of what's happening during the heartbeat, inside the heart, inside the center of the heart, and in the sugar crystal. Now you have more information about what's really going on.

And then we're going to cover the four what? Tomorrow. Formless realm meditations.

For that Tsongkapa gave a nice explanation. When he was pretty young, he wrote a long commentary on Maitreya and the Sangha, and he has a nice explanation of it. So, I'm going to use that.

Okay, let's go to the homework we didn't finish yesterday.