Вступление на срединный путь (текущий курс, Аризона), занятие 110

[Speaker 1]
Say kācig. Take menla. Dong-ni-tokpa.

Me-ba-tha. Gyu-la-ma-le. Okay, now someone may come and make...

By the way, those of you who are following the Tibetan, the verb is down here, at serna. It's a paragraph down, okay? Then you have to go down and find it.

Then you have to come back, okay? Now someone may come and make the following claim. By the way, those of you who are just stepping in tonight, we are continuing with a ten-year course in the most difficult scripture in Tibet, one of the most difficult, and don't freak out, just enjoy, all right?

And I do it a couple times a year to confuse people, okay? No, I want to translate it in case it cannot be translated later. So, and then it's more or less I'm just translating and you're just listening, okay?

So, don't freak out. It's a difficult text and it's important that it survive, okay? In English.

So, that's what we're doing, okay? And we've been ten years on it and we're, I don't know, we are like a quarter of the way through, okay? We're still on the first chapter actually, okay?

All right. So, we spent ten years on the first chapter. Now someone may come and make the following claim.

It is so the case that those of the lower way have no, are unable, fail to perceive emptiness because the gulama? Yeah, uttara tantra, which in English is the higher line states, okay? And we're going to indent it because it's a quotation, okay?

Used to be able to do this in WordPerfect automatically twenty years ago. Okay. Oh well.

There are, there are four, there are four types who have obstacles, who have, sorry, those with great desire, those who espouse other views, the listeners, and the self-made. Oh, and those, and those who are born of themselves. Okay?

Four types of people have obstacles. What kind of obstacles, we'll find out, okay? But there are four types of people have obstacles.

Those who have too much desire, those who espouse other views, the listeners, and who's born of themselves? Self-made Buddhas. Are they Buddhas?

No. Are they self-made? No.

It's a word that's applied, it's a technical term in Buddhism for people of lower motivation who nonetheless make great strides in this life without a teacher because they have spent countless lives with a teacher. Okay? So everybody thinks they are the, everybody thinks, oh, I'm one of those, you know.

But, it's everybody thinks that. But, it's very famous. They have had, they have had a direct personal teacher for thousands and thousands of lives.

And then in this life, they're able to make a little progress on their own. Okay? So they're called self-made Buddhas.

But they're not self-made and they're not Buddhas. Okay. And in this case, they're just called born of themselves.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
And the, and the commentary, right, also says, there are certain people with realizations, right? Or, let's say, there are, yeah, I guess you could say that. There are certain people with realizations who have been living within the greater way.

Okay? And who have no, I'm going to say obscurations, okay? Who have no obscurations.

Aside from these though, there are four types of people, people, other people, who, who live in a state of obscuration. These are people possessed of great desire, those who espouse other views, the listeners. And here, he supplies the easier form of those who are born from themselves.

He just says Rangsangye, okay? And the self-made Buddhas. Say again?

Okay. Oh, yeah. Good, okay.

Who live in, okay. They have obscurations which prevent them from realizing the inner nature, which is calm here, okay? Some of you have learned it as passion.

Here it's the inner nature. They have, prevent them from realizing the internation, internation, internate nature, inner nature, of those who have gone that way and, and, and prevent them as well from achieving, achieving this nature. It means to, there's a word in English, to become something, to manifest this nature or...

I don't want to use realize because that could mean to see it mentally and the point is they become it. There's another word, actualize. Yes, thank you.

Because that's better in Tibetan because it says wenduche and prevent them as well from actualizing this nature within themselves. Okay, got it? This, the complaint or the, the attack of the other debater is that the work by Maitreya seems to say that these two people of lower motivation have obscurations which prevent them from seeing the inner nature of the Buddha.

And inner nature of the Buddha is often a code word for emptiness and it has been throughout our texts so far. They keep saying the inner nature of a Buddha which is the Buddha's emptiness, okay? And that's a long story.

It's very relevant to the question of taking refuge, the practice of taking refuge. In Buddhism, I went to church the other day, okay? It was fun.

And I just went at random and they were baptizing ten new babies. So, it was kind of cute, you know? It was kind of nice and they were baptizing ten babies and then...

So, I was sitting there and... Why did I bring that up? Huh?

Oh, yeah. So, what makes you a Christian in the church that I grew up in is that you've been baptized. So, it's kind of cool to watch them get the stuff on their head and...

But in Buddhism, it's the act of taking refuge that makes you a Buddhist. So, it's a mental state. It's not a...

It's not someone can do something to you. And there's a joke in the monasteries, they say, Oh, chīlāśupakembodhi nambamayin. The Abbot of Sera, sitting on the throne, is not a Buddhist because he doesn't take refuge.

He doesn't know what it is to take refuge, okay? And taking refuge... In the example we had of the husband yelling at you, taking refuge is to think, he's coming from me.

Then that protects you, and that's refuge. You don't create new bad karma by fighting with the husband. See, you just quietly go off and you change yourself, and that changes the husband, right?

So, to... to understand where he's coming from and then go quietly change the season yourself in order to change him is taking refuge. And if you do it, you're a Buddhist, okay?

And you can follow any other thing you want to, but in the Buddhist tradition, you just became a Buddhist. If you refuse to yell at your husband, back, yell back, because you don't want to sustain him yelling, then you just became a Buddhist, you know? So, it's interesting for DCI's work in countries where we're not allowed to be Buddhists that we might make a thousand people into Buddhists in one night.

Okay, anyway. And a lot of that depends on the inner nature of the Buddha. What is the nature of the Buddha?

It's emptiness. Including the emptiness of your husband yelling is part of the Buddha. So, when you recognize that the husband is coming from you and you refuse to fall for thinking that he's coming from himself, then you have actually had some kind of interaction with the Buddha.

Okay? So that... the inner nature of the Buddha pops up at home when your husband is yelling at you and you understand where he's coming from.

Then, for a moment, his nature is that of the Buddha, and you just took refuge. Okay? So, anyway.

Anyway, khenme te. We have to... Do we have to inset this line where the cursor is right now?

Who's saying... And... Who says this, and the commentary also says?

Yeah, so we do have to inset it. You see, it's a quotation. He's coming and saying something.

Okay? Got it? So we have to inset that.

It's at the same level as the sentence before. See? He's saying all this.

Right? Actually, we should inset this another, because this is a quotation within a quotation. Okay?

Got it? This is a quotation, here, and this is him quoting a book. Now the same thing happens again.

He's saying this line, and then we have to inset this part twice, because it's a quotation within a quotation. Okay? Got it?

Okay. And... And I'm going to leave it like that.

Now, somebody comes and says, Kuhn Mendoo, Mercedes. Well, who would be saying that? No, he just gave two quotations that prove that lower track people cannot have seen emptiness.

He quoted two books which we accept. So, who's going to say, after the quotations, who's going to say, no problem, man? It's us.

It's our response. It begins our response. We begin with Kuhn Mete, which means Kuhn Mendoo.

It's a joke in India, because Kuhn Mendoo means no problem, sure. And when somebody in India says to you, no problem, sure, it's a sure sign that you have a problem. So, we know Kuhn Mendoo.

Like if you... Can I get a train on... Can I get a train ticket today?

Will the train be on time? No problem, sir. Is it expected on time?

Yes. And then your diamond dealer friend says, they're never on time. Just relax.

The three o'clock train never comes at three o'clock. So, you're standing at the platform, three o'clock, the train shows up. Exactly at three o'clock.

And you say to your friend, you know, you know, it's exactly on time. Yes, sir, but this is yesterday's train. Okay.

All right. Okay. Then you say, Kuhn Mendoo.

No problem. Anyway, Kuhn Mendoo. And yet there's no such problem.

And yet there's no problem here. Okay. What that means, what those are referring to is the fact that these four types of people fail to perceive directly the nature of an enlightened being, right?

In which they have forever eliminated the two types of obstacles, right? And they are, and these people are moreover incapable. These people moreover have failed to actualize that nature within themselves, okay?

Now, difficult question, okay? Okay. Let's start with the two kinds of obstacles.

What are the two kinds of obstacles? Do you remember? Nyundrip and Shidrip.

Say Nyundrip. Shidrip. Nyundrip means your negative emotions as presented in the second chapter of the Yoga Sutra, for example.

Avidya, Smita, Raghudvesha, Abhinivesha, right? These are the classic kleshas or negative emotions. So those are what prevent you from reaching nirvana.

So they're called Nyundrip, mental affliction obstacles. Note that the nature of the obstacle is the klesha, okay? The obstacle is made of the klesha in the case of the first obstacle.

The second obstacle is called Shidrip, which means she, je, dripa, which means an obstacle to all existing things, okay? Which means your failure so far to perceive all existing things. Obstacles to the ability to perceive all existing things in all time and in all space, okay?

So it's interesting, the second kind of obstacle is not made of something negative, okay? The name is obstacle of all created, of all existing things. So you have to be careful with those, okay?

The second kind of obstacle is an obstacle to enlightenment. The first kind of obstacle is an obstacle to nirvana, okay? He's saying here that there are people who have eliminated both obstacles, okay?

If you say someone has eliminated both obstacles, they must be a Buddha, okay? They possess two kinds of absence, okay? They no longer possess...

A, they no longer possess those two kinds of obstacles. B, they never did possess and never shall possess any self-existence. A Buddha also does not come from themselves.

They are coming from karmic seeds, okay? Which we don't call karma at that point. That's another...what is it? Karma, Shukla, Krishnam, Yoginess, Three-Vidim, Ittarisham, Fourth Chapter Yoga Sutra. That's a long story. Yogis have neither white nor black karma.

Others have all three. So we don't actually say that Buddhas have karma anymore. It's called...

Suna-Myeshi-Tsotso. The collection of the two...yeah, okay. Because they are no longer impure karmas, okay?

There's white impure karma, there's black impure karma, and then there's pure karma. And they don't have impure white or black karma. What makes a white karma impure is that you don't know how to control it or create it.

Like you give a coffee to somebody next week, someone invites you out to lunch and they pay the bill, and you don't understand that one came from the other. So is it a white karma? Yes.

Was it an intentional lunch-producing karma? No, you did it by accident, okay? That's an impure white karma and they wear out.

Okay, anyway. So the Buddha doesn't have those obstacles and the Buddha doesn't have any nature of having come from themselves. Which one is their emptiness?

The second one, okay? Buddhas don't come from themselves, they come from their karmic seeds, okay? But these two absences are often confused in scripture and they are both referred to as the Tathagatagarbha, the Buddha nature within all beings, okay?

So they are mixed up a little bit. It's a very subtle difference, okay? The fact that they have been able to overcome their obstacles is not emptiness.

Emptiness means they never did come from themselves, okay? So those two lacks of a thing are not both emptiness, but they are often confused as the nature of a Buddha, okay? Why is it relevant here?

These guys have failed to achieve the lack, the overcoming the obstacles. And that's what the Uttaratantra is talking about. It's not saying they failed to see emptiness, got it?

Did they fail to see the nature of a Buddha? Well, which nature are you talking about? Oh, the emptiness of a Buddha.

No, they did not fail to see that. They have seen that. Did they perceive, meaning did they fully appreciate and attain overcoming the two kinds of obstacles?

No. So, got it? Have they...

Have they perceived that a Buddha no longer has those two obstacles? Yes. Have they themselves achieved it?

No. Do they truly grasp it? No.

Does that mean they haven't seen emptiness? No. Don't mix them up.

Have they seen the Buddha nature? What do you mean? Which Buddha nature are you talking about?

If you mean the emptiness of Buddha, they have seen it. If you mean that a Buddha has gotten over these obstacles to becoming enlightened, no, they haven't gotten to that. Which one is the Uttaratantra talking about when it says they haven't done it?

Yeah, according to us. Yeah, the obstacles, okay? That's why we have this paragraph here, okay?

Oh, that's not talk... When that sentence by Maitreya says they haven't got the Buddha nature, it's talking about they haven't reached the point where they've eliminated those obstacles. It's not talking about they haven't perceived the nature of a Buddha meaning the emptiness, okay?

If it meant they haven't seen the emptiness, if we accepted that it meant they haven't seen the emptiness, then it would be possible to reach nirvana without understanding that your husband's not coming from himself. Got it? Alright, I got one nod, I will proceed.

He's going to wrap it up and then we're going to get the most awesome sentences from the Uttaratantra that exist, okay? And you know them, but in case you ever wondered where I got them from, here it is. People, when I teach these things or the Lamrim, they say, oh, that's where you got that thing you taught twelve years ago.

And I'm like, yeah, I didn't make it up, okay? Alright. By the way, I never make up anything.

Everything is direct from scripture, okay? Seriously. Okay.

Therefore, dena, tatuk, at the end of the sentence. Tatuk. Yeah, but what it means is ultimate, at the end.

It means in the conclusion. Or the final. Like the final solution would be tatuk solution, okay?

So therefore, the... How do you want to say when an author's intent, the tatuk intent of him? Meaning, you can interpret what he meant a thousand ways, but in the end, this is what he meant.

But make, give me an adjective. His blank intent. Ultimate intent or his ultimate idea?

Ultimate's okay? Therefore, the ultimate intent, intent of the higher line. Both the tsawa...

Nyingpo, both the tsawa and the drelpa. Yeah, both the... What?

Tsawa and the drelpa. Yeah, both the root text and the commentary is to assert that the tendency to believe that things are real is a nyundip or shitip? The tendency to take things as real is an obstacle to omniscience or an obstacle to nirvana?

To nirvana, okay? It doesn't stop you from seeing... See what I mean?

If you agree that misunderstanding reality is an obstacle to nirvana, then what you're saying, what you're implying is that a person has to see emptiness directly to get rid of their anger at their husband, completely, okay? And that's been our position all along. So we must say that denzin is a obstacle to nirvana, okay?

And they have to say that it's an obstacle to omniscience. Got it? Okay.

Therefore, this is our final, you know, pledge. Seeing things as self-existent is an obstacle to... What?

...to... is an obstacle to nirvana. And, papa-la-tong-ni-to-nyong-gi-chak, anyone who...

who is a higher being, okay? Meaning what in Sanskrit? In Arya, okay?

Must have... must... must have experienced.

The Tibetan word nyong can mean has it ever happened to you? The word means experience, right? I mean, have you ever experienced quesadillas made with...

You see what I mean like that? I don't know why I'm thinking about that. But...

But we have some kind of adverbs in English. We don't say... We don't go up to somebody and say, have you experienced chiliriyenma?

We say, have you ever eaten chiliriyenma, right? So, how do you say that? Anyone who is a higher being must have...

must have blanked a perception of emptiness. That's what he's going to say. Undergone?

Yeah, I think undergone. Is that true? Undergone?

Is that enough to say it that way? Yeah, we have to say directly. He should have said directly, but he understands that you understand.

Do you? Okay. Anyways, a higher being.

Why do they call them higher beings? They are then set apart from other people, all the rest of humanity, okay? By virtue of what they saw.

Partly because they then, at the same time, they see their future enlightenment. Even if it's 500 years off, they have seen it. So, then they behave...

all of their behavior and actions are... are informed by what they know is going to happen. Okay?

So, they are acting differently than other people. Yeah, you could say that. You could say that.

Okay. Technically, collection of merit is what produces their physical body later, and the collection of wisdom is what produces their omniscience, and that's why you need both. Okay, anyway.

You must have long enough experience of emptiness in order to attain liberation. That is nirvana. One must...

one must... perceive emptiness and... and...okay, yeah. So, we're saying... we're concluding the discussion, okay? Which has been a long discussion.

We can conclude, therefore, that if you know what Maitreya was talking about in the Uttara Tantra, you would have to conclude three different things. One, if you still... the tendency to believe that things are real, meaning with your husband, that he has decided to be mean to you, okay, and that it's his choice, and that he has anything to do with it, okay, is an obstacle to nirvana.

A. B, that what defines an arya is the direct perception of emptiness. And C, if you want to reach nirvana, you have to see emptiness directly.

There's no choice. Buddhism asserts that you cannot overcome a negative emotion ever without perceiving that the person towards whom you feel the negative emotion never existed. Okay?

And all other forms of mental therapy, blah, blah, blah, are only patch... What do you call it? Band-aids.

Okay? They're just temporary relief. They're aspirin.

It's not going to cure cancer. You see what I mean? It'll help the pain a little bit, you know?

All forms of therapy, if they don't involve perceiving that the husband you thought was there isn't there, are temporary and cannot make you happy in the end. Okay? All right.

Now the rest I've translated already because I think I jumped ahead a couple... like a year ago because I was so hot to show it to you. So I'm going to kind of cruise through this part.

Here comes a section from the Uttara Tantra which I'm very attached to and which I have taught many, many times. And it parallels the second chapter of the Yoga Sutra where it presents how mental afflictions or negative emotions occur when it starts to outline the five major kleshas by seeing avidyasmita, ragadevesa, avidyavesa, okay? Avidya, ignorance with which you entered this life, the seed for ignorance which was in your mind when you were conceived in your mother's womb, okay?

You entered this life with a tendency to misunderstand things which came from having misunderstood stuff in your last life. So you enter this life with avidya. That's the meaning of avidya in the second chapter of the Yoga Sutra, avidya.

Then that seed opens and creates asmita. Asmita means I am. I amness.

The ta is the same as shunyata. Asmi is the first person singular I am. I amness.

So that creates a perception that things are coming from themselves. That leads to ragadevesa. Ignorant liking and ignorant disliking.

Ignorant liking and ignorant disliking. Is it wrong to hate eggplant? No, it's not a food, okay?

You can call it that other name and it's still not a food. What's that thing? Yeah, obviously.

Give me... Like, one time... I think they do that because they want you to order it by accident.

So... Anyway, whether you call it aubergine or eggplant, it still sucks, okay? So...

You know, avidya... Ragadevesa means... Is it wrong to dislike eggplant?

No. Is it wrong to try to avoid eggplant? No.

Is it wrong to avoid eggplant by, you know, like throwing it out of your mother's refrigerator if you find it there? Yeah, that is wrong. That's a...

a misunderstanding of how you get rid of eggplant. How do you really get rid of eggplant in your world? Don't make other people eat stuff they don't like.

Like, ask your partner what they would like for dinner and don't insist on what you would like for dinner because if you insist on what you would like for dinner or you don't ask them what they would like for dinner and you just cook what you want for dinner or go out and buy what you want for dinner and don't think about what they would like for dinner, then you're going to go to your mom's and find an eggplant in the refrigerator and she's going to cook it for you. I'm not kidding.

I'm not kidding at all, okay? To dislike... To rid the world of eggplant by serving everyone you like you know what they like is intelligent dislike.

That's not what raga and dvesha. Raga and dvesha are unintelligent liking and disliking, okay? So, then what?

Abhinivesha, right? Perceiving it the wrong way, basically. You're born...

You come into this life with seeds to misunderstand stuff. One second after you're conceived you start misunderstanding stuff. You approach an object such as an eggplant.

Abhinivesha comes out. That's... You can call it ignorance in the moment.

And then that immediately leads to raga and dvesha, okay? And then the Yoga Sutra says, and then you collect karma, right? Durstad durstad janma vedanya.

You start to collect karma, okay? So, I like it because the Yoga Sutra's presentation is the same as Maitreya's. And here it is.

And I love... I think this is one of the most important sections of Buddhist scripture on the planet, okay? So, here it is.

dang dzin nyi gyi bar ja la ten ne de nyi kye Based on the seeds for the two ways in which we grasp to a real self, those two themselves arise, okay? What's that mean? Misunderstanding people and things comes from seeds for misunderstanding people and things that you were born with, you came into life with, avidya.

In the Yoga Sutra, avidya. de la ten ne rang ngon ne drub pa'i yi myong dun nangway tsu min yi che kyi nam dok kye Due to those we get thoughts which misunderstand the way in which some things appear to be attractive, and others to be unattractive from their own side. You see an eggplant, you take it to be unattractive from its own side, okay?

And then you try to throw it out quietly, okay? And that's wrong action, okay? That's misinformed action.

What's an informed action? You stop, you say, I gotta get my mom to stop buying eggplants at the store, so I will be more considerate of my partner's desires for dinner, okay? Right?

That's how you get your mom to stop buying eggplant, okay? But the eggplant looks bad to you from its own side. And the pizza looks good to you from its own side, okay?

Alright. Based on that, see it's all a... what do you call it?

It's a domino effect, okay? You're born with a certain seed, it activates. You misunderstand the eggplant, what happens next?

You get raga and dvesha. What's the raga in Tibetan? Here, in this sentence?

Dvesha. What's the dvesha in this sentence? Shidam.

Shidam. Okay, got it? What are they in the Wheel of Life painting?

The rooster and the snake. The rooster used to be a pigeon. Pugrun.

In the ancient times, it was a pigeon. Somehow it got changed to a rooster. Why a pigeon?

They are said to enjoy fornication. They are attached to...

[Speaker 2]
more than other creatures.

[Speaker 1]
According to scripture, they are desirous beings, okay? Pigeons are... they make out a lot.

Okay. Okay. So, it looks like that thing is...

is... is gross from its own side. What's the thing?

The eggplant. And then... you know, then you get a feeling of hating it, in the way that you hate your husband when they're criticizing you.

But there's no husband there and there never was. The whole effort of feeling angry towards your husband is wasted, because the one you're angry at was never there. What's the litmus test that you're having the wrong perception?

Anger itself. If you can be upset by someone, you do not understand their nature. How do you know you have...

What's the sign you're having an anavidya attack? Any... any...

any upset feeling. Any upset feeling. I hate eggplant.

I don't know why the hell she always buys an eggplant, you know? Then you're already admitting to ignorance. Who bought the eggplant?

You did. Even though you're broke, you bought the eggplant. Then because of the feeling of hating the eggplant, because it appears to you to be gross from its own side, because you developed ignorance, because you came into this life with the seeds for it, got the domino thing, what happens next?

LESAK. You create karma. You create karma.

In this case, you quietly... throw out the eggplant, okay? That's LESAK.

Then you make bad karma. Then you make bad karma. By the way, it doesn't have to be bad karma.

No, also impure white karma, okay? I love this person, you know? I want to give them something.

I will steal something for them. Like that, okay? Like impure white karma.

Or like that. Almost any action we do is ignorant. Even the good karmas we do are ignorant.

What will happen from those good karmas? They will produce a nice result which will wear out. You will find the partner and you will lose them.

You will become healthy, you'll be able to do yoga for a while and then you'll get old. Like that. They wear out.

If they're done without knowledge, they wear out, okay? Is there anything more to this domino? We got him up to making karma.

What's the next one? Let's see what he says. DE DBANG GI KORWA KOR.

Okay? DE DBANG GI KORWA KOR. DE DBANG GI means...

LE DE DBANG GI means due to that karma or by the power of that karma WE KORWA KOR which means what? We spin in samsara. We spin.

Why do they say spin? Self-perpetuating downward... It shouldn't be like this, it should be like this, right?

When you show it with your finger, you should go like... Meaning, you... you order something from the take-out which you know...

you're not even thinking about your partner, it's what you want. Indian food. Then...

you know, then due to that, next week you see an eggplant in your mother's fridge. Due to that, you throw out the eggplant and then she buys another one. Okay, got it?

So, it's a self-perpetuating downward cycle. It's called in Sanskrit? Sanskrit?

Sansara. Sansara. Sansara.

Sam's Club Samsara. Okay, then DE DAG KORWA DE YANG Now, I didn't translate the second half of this sentence, but now I'm going to. Okay?

Yes?

[Speaker 2]
What is the fifth level spirit karma?

[Speaker 1]
LESANG Yeah, we do things. We do things. Yeah.

Raga and Devesa you can count as one step. You get feelings of hating and wanting, which if you're a yogi, if you're into the inner body, is manifested where? The Raga and the Devesa are manifested where in the inner body?

No, in the two side channels, right? Those who are what create the two side channels. And the knot, the granthi in the side channels, which are created by Raga and Devesa, create a knot here, then prana is jammed, then prana starts to gel, and it creates a thing called your skull in the womb.

And then the other chakras create the other major bone structures of your body. And the fact that you are mortal is coming from ignorant disliking of? Eggplant.

Eggplant. Your very mortality, according to Buddhist Tantra, yoga, is created by your misunderstanding of the eggplant and how you respond to the eggplant, which implies if you could reverse that process by... chinantab means what?

No, chinantablatso a bit. Chinantablatso, not... outer and inner method.

If you could use yoga to open those knots, Niguma designed a practice for that on the outside, and also partner practice. Or if you could from the inside use understanding of these steps, then you could undo the knots and your body would return to its normal condition, which is light. Okay?

This is a mistake. This is a temporary boo-boo. The physical body is a temporary boo-boo.

It cannot be... It has no future. You must die.

If you... If you get stuck with one of these, you're in trouble. If you can reverse the damage in this lifetime, you have a chance.

And that's practice. That's yoga. That's doing your yoga.

Okay. By the way, I had a beautiful class today and she's wonderful, and I hope she can come again. I think Erin brought her, right?

Thank you for that. Okay, here we go. We continue to spin in the cycle, but there's a second sentence here.

And all of this has happened due to the fact that we have failed to realize, to perceive, perceive, lun sum tu nyingpo, directly, the essence of those who have gone that way. In this case, essence means their emptiness. Okay?

Just before this, the essence referred to the fact that they've overcome the two obstacles.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Got it? So, it's difficult. And that's it.

That wraps up the whole Uttaratantra. It's so beautiful. I haven't taught you the last sentence yet.

That last sentence. Okay? What's the sum mean here in the very last line?

Spoken. By whom? My trail.

Where? Yeah, so we got to go back here. We got to go back up to the top.

What this text is really saying, then, then, is the following. Okay? So, we got to go up to the top and insert that sum.

Got it? Now we are paraphrasing the Uttaratantra. Okay?

Paraphrase means what? Yeah, you got to shorten and you say it in a nice, comfortable way for everybody. Okay?

If someone came up to you and told you one of the most important things you ever heard and said they were just paraphrasing the Uttaratantra or it's commentary, what would your reaction be? I'd say, show me the original. Can you read the original to me?

So he does. He inserts the original, which I like. And it's difficult.

It's very difficult. Okay? But here we go.

I'm kind of pushing it, okay? I might not give you a break because we have somewhere to get to tonight. Right, Darcy?

Yeah, okay. Okay. As the...

Yeah. Itself puts it. Okay?

You know, I always heard those lines. I always heard the domino progression attributed to the commentary of the Uttaratantra. But then to try to go find it because it was always paraphrased was really difficult.

But I did. Okay, so anyway, here we go. As the commentary itself puts it.

And so, infants who have a seed... What do you call it when a seed is dormant? Seeds lying dormant within them begin to...

begin to relate to objects. Whoa. Relate...

begin to relate to objects. Did I do something wrong? Oh yeah, you're right.

Okay, lying dormant within them. Begin to relate to objects in a way in which they grasp to signs within them. Okay?

This is a technical term in Buddhism. To grasp to signs. Let's go back to our example.

What's our example? Besides the eggplant. I mean, you could compare him to an eggplant.

Your partner. Or her, okay? I had some guy in China, he said, Why are you always talking about the husband?

In technical terms in Buddhism, to take the indicators that your husband is angry. Red face, loud volume, additional decibels. You see, which are in themselves only colors and sounds.

They are not anger. Then you interpret them as anger. And then you believe that that anger is a quality of his, is a sign that belongs to him.

And in technical Buddhism, that's called samadhimba. Samadhimba means Lakshana in yoga. It's called the...

You grasp to signs that he's angry. And you believe that those signs attach to him self-existently, you know? The red face and the...

I mean, he could be red because he's turned on. You don't know. But if you have the wrong karma, you will interpret the red face as anger.

And the additional volume could be that he's excited to see you, but under the influence of your negative seeds, you take it as he's yelling. You see what I mean? That all of those things could be something beautiful and nice, but your karma demands that you hear them in a wrong way and you see them in a wrong way.

And that's called samadhimba. Grasping to signs within that person. Because nothing is within them.

An example I often like to give is aspirin. Why? Because the bottle always says active ingredient.

And there is no ingredient in aspirin which is active. It's only active if you have the karma. And that's why some people get relief and some people don't.

And it's also why every year they come out with one which really, really works. But they have to come out with them every year because they don't. All right.

I'm going to split this up into little pieces because it will make it more... seem more domino-ish. Okay?

Infinite grasp to signs within the objects. From that comes a source of things. They...

they relate... they... they view...

they think of... these objects in a mistaken way. Okay?

From that comes a source of things. Comes another source of things. What?

Yeah. Negative thoughts. All right?

Why do I keep repeating source of things? The Tibetan here is kunjung. Have you seen kunjung before?

Yeah, it's one of the four... noble truths. It's one of the four Arya Truths.

The source of things. Okay? That's the spelling of the source of things.

He wants you to know he's calling back to the four Arya Truths. Source of all suffering is what? The seed.

The original ignorance. Ignorance in the moment. Attachment.

Repulsion. And then finally, doing something are all kunjung. He's calling them all kunjung.

The source within the four parts of the four Arya Truths. Number... There's two ways to present the four, but two in most presentations.

Sometimes you can present it cause, effect, cause, effect. And sometimes you can present it effect, cause, effect, cause. But we're not going to get into that.

Okay. From the negative thoughts. From the source.

From this source. From the negative thoughts comes the source we know as lay. Karma.

Okay. He just wants to keep saying source. The seed with which you were born in your mind for avidya, what the Yoga Sutra calls avidya, in the second chapter.

And it has different words. The same word is used in different chapters in different meanings, especially asmita. The source of ignorance.

The seeds that you're born with are kunjung, the source of suffering. When those seeds open and you first have mentally... first misunderstand things, that's also the source of suffering.

When that makes you misunderstand how a thing looks, this eggplant is gross, that's also the source of suffering. When you respond to that appearance of it as gross with distaste, that's also the source of suffering. And then especially when you act on that and throw out the eggplant, which all of you have to pledge to do, that's also the source of suffering.

So the source of suffering, when you teach the four Arya Truths, Noble Truths, is typically divided into two different things. What are they? Karma and kleshas, karma and mental afflictions, okay?

Got it? So here we... all the ones up till now have been relating to mental affliction, and now we have one which relates to karma.

But they're all source, they are all the source of suffering, as presented in the four truths by Lord Buddha. By the way, if you have to pee, just go, okay? Because I'm going to keep going because we're trying to get to a certain point.

All right? So don't be shy. Can you work your thing?

And from this... and from this source, from the karma, comes the source in the sense of kyewa. Say again?

Yeah, rebirth, okay? Rebirth. Got it?

This afflicted state, all of these things, the negative emotions, the karma, the fact of being born, this afflicted state, all of these things, no moreover that... okay, no moreover that this afflicted state, all of these things, the negative emotions, the karma, the fact of being born, arise, spring forth, because these infants fail to understand a certain inner nature complete... correctly as it really is.

Okay? Which inner nature? It says a certain inner nature.

It says kamchik, the one of a Buddha, which is a code word for emptiness, okay? So, how is he wrapping up? Who said all this stuff just now?

Yeah, it's Maitreya himself. I'm sorry, it's Arya Sangha himself. If you think my paraphrase is not so cool, listen to himself.

Listen to his own words, okay? They're the same. They're not quite as clear to us, because they're obscure Sanskrit stuff, but...

he's trying to tell his opponent, I didn't make this stuff up. Look, this is direct from Asanga himself, okay? Even the...

what do you call it? Domino-ish-ness of it. Right?

This is bad. So I'm inserting it all because it's... it's a quotation.

Let me see something. Oh man. Okay, we're almost there, okay?

Moreover, it is stated that reversing... that escaping from this cycle, right? Depends upon perceiving directly the essence of those who have gone that way.

As the... there's the commentary to what the higher way itself says Do Trang. Trang means to quote, to quote.

Quoting a Do, a Sutra, okay? So he's pulling out the big guns, right? He's not just quoting Asanga or Maitreya, he's quoting Lord Buddha.

If you can't accept Lord Buddha himself, then what can I do? Okay, where are you pulling out your quotation from Lord Buddha? I'm not pulling it out, my...

Asanga is pulling it out, it's in his commentary. Alright? So now we're going to get a quotation from Lord Buddha, which...

what do you call that? It sounds like perpetuate, but it's not that. Claims to...

Anyway, it's a quotation from Lord Buddha, which is supposed to be the source of the progression that you've always learned from the Uttara Tantra. So that's exciting. I can see you're excited.

The whole progression you learned in the Yoga Sutra second chapter, the whole progression that you learned in the Uttara Tantra that you've been living with for so many years, apparently has a sutra source, according to Asanga. And now we get to hear it. So this is a big deal.

Alright. Sorry? Higher line, you're right.

I'm sorry. Good, I'm glad you're here. Okay.

Okay. Suppose... Jampel?

Oh, gentle voice. Why is Lord Buddha, in an open sutra, addressing a tantric deity? Huh?

Yeah, in the sutras, all of those tantric deities are posing as normal bodhisattvas, okay? In the sutras, Subuddhi, who's supposed to be, I think Maitreya, asked Lord Buddha, Uh, Ji, could you teach me about emptiness? And it's all a big setup.

He's a fall guy or whatever. It's all been rehearsed back at the studio. And now they're going to do the Heart Sutra, the Diamond Cutter Sutra, right?

So Subuddhi, who's already enlightened, is going to ask, Ji, I don't get this emptiness stuff, Lord Buddha. And then Lord Buddha is going to say, Oh, let me help you out, okay? Suppose, oh gentle voice, that someone's mind, their thoughts, their awareness, is unable to delve into the fact that nothing kyewa starts and nothing gagpa stops.

Okay? This is a quotation, so we have to... Do things start.

Did you have your first argument with your husband ever? Was there a first argument? Yes, okay.

Will there be a final argument? I mean, I hope not, but... Well, I hope so, but anyway.

Did it just happen that you had your first argument? And we have to say, no. And then we have to say, well, whose fault was the first argument?

And we all have to say, it was me. Okay? But at the time we didn't think so, or else there wouldn't have been an argument.

Okay? Okay, so... Nothing starts and nothing stops, by itself, from its own side, by coincidence, just by chance, by random.

Okay? Everybody wants a perfect universe. Everybody wants complete justice.

When you find out you've had it all along, no one likes it. Every irritating person you ever met was coming from you. Okay.

Every disaster in your life was coming from you. Where am I? Oh, you're right.

Okay. Is that why Bill Gates put the... Yep.

The red line on it.

[Speaker 2]
Kangxi.

[Speaker 1]
This person, the one whose mind and thoughts and awareness are unable to delve in this way, will begin to tokpa. But how is it spelled here? It's without a S, which changes the meaning 180 degrees.

Imagine. Fantasize. Hallucinate.

Okay? So, we'll begin to have mistaken ideas about things. Okay?

We'll begin to have mistaken ideas about things. Okay? He's tracing...

By the way, we're up to asmita in Yoga Sutra terms, right? This line was about avidya in Yoga Sutra terms. Now we're up to asmita in Yoga Sutra terms.

First paragraph, in the womb, they are carrying in their seeds from their past life. Second paragraph, that ignorance reactivates in this life. Okay?

Okay? And then, they begin to relate to... or then they begin to perceive things in the wrong way.

This is talking about the raga and dvesha. Okay? It doesn't say raga and dvesha directly, but it's the same language.

The Tsoshin Mayimba in Tibetan, in the wrong way, is the same language that is used later to describe desire and hatred. Okay? They begin to hate eggplant or their husband.

Okay? Due to ignorance seeds opening, due to ignorance seeds being carried into the... in their mind, into the new birth.

Then what happens? Oh, sorry? And then they begin to...

Oh, okay. No. Oh, yeah, right, right.

Oh, yeah, I was going to cut the relate to. Then they begin to perceive things in the wrong way. Okay?

Ignorance, ignorance prevents the arising of... of it occurring to them, of their arising of... of a...

what do you call it? Arising of... of an attitude in which they perceive things in the right way, in which they say to themselves, in which there is no trace of a mistaken idea.

Okay? A person in whom ignorance... or misunderstanding.

I prefer misunderstanding, right? Let's say ignorance. A person in whom ignorance...

ignorance never arises, never sees the birth of the twelve links of... yeah, suffering, the cycle of suffering. Okay?

The wheel of life. Okay? That's the quotation, okay?

From sutra. All right? And that's supposed to...

that's... that's the sutra that who used for their little domino presentation.

[Speaker 2]
Master of Sangha.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Master of Sangha. Arya Sangha.

Okay? I went and got the full sutra for you, if you care. Nobody cares.

You're all... you're all tired. Anyway, I'm going to make you sit through it.

I went and got the full sutra. If you care, the sutra is... is called parpa-sangye tamje kyi yula jukpe yeshe nangway gyen.

The ornament of light in which wisdom engages... in which the wisdom of all Buddhas engages in all objects or something. That's the name of the sutra.

And the whole... the whole exchange is there in those little print there. Okay?

By the way, it goes further and says anyone who overcomes the twelve links will never have to take another birth. Okay? A person who has no other birth no longer has problems.

A person who has... no longer has problems has certainty. A person who has certainty has reached the ultimate.

A person who has the ultimate is the ultimate... is the... is the real meaning of there being no person.

And anybody who reaches that state is beyond description. The sutra keeps going. Okay?

All right. One more paragraph, then we're done. Okay?

And even though this is all the... and even though this is the case, it's still not true that there is some contradiction with the other statement. Okay?

What is the other statement? kor sum nambar topa kham kor sum nambar topa kham Whoever has this wild idea about the three spheres, okay, he's going to say we have not contradicted that statement. Okay?

All the statements we just pulled out are meant to prove that your problems are caused by not seeing emptiness. All those quotations from sutra that we just finished and the long story from the Uttaratantra were meant to say, repeat, that all your problems are caused by not perceiving emptiness. And if you have overcome those problems, you must have seen emptiness.

Okay? But still we don't contradict a quotation which they pulled out long ago and which we've all forgotten. So what would be the prudent thing to do?

Let's go look it up. Let's go back to the front of the book, search down, and see if we hit it and see why there's no problem. Okay?

So look, we take a piece, kor sum nambar top, okay? So we go to the top of the book which is 400 pages ago and we say, kor, what was it? Kor sum.

Hey, there it is, okay? Whenever you imagine that one of the three spheres is there, this is what we call an obstacle to omniscience. Good, mercy's got it.

Mercy's making a face, which is correct, for once. He shouldn't be saying that misunderstanding emptiness is an obstacle to omniscience. Okay?

Our position is that it's an obstacle to nirvana. Who made this crazy statement? It's from the Uttaratantra, okay?

It's from the Uttaratantra, alright? What that implies is you can't get rid of misunderstanding things, or you can't see emptiness until you become a Buddha. You won't see emptiness until just before you become a Buddha.

But we've been trying to say that even people with lower motivation can see emptiness. So he can still, after all is said and done, he still can... You ready?

You got to start, Darcy, okay? I'm almost ready. He still got to come back and say, but you didn't deal with the first quotation we had a problem with, where the Uttaratantra itself said that misunderstanding reality is an obstacle to omniscience.

You still have this problem. So the last thing we do in this whole discussion, which has gone on for like two years, we have to say, but referring back to your original quotation, there's not a problem. What does it mean the three spheres?

The giver, the gift, and the giving. I'm glad you used that example because we're in the first chapter of Chandrakirti's... of the most famous book about emptiness.

And in the first chapter, he treats the first of the ten bodhisattva levels, which is distinguished by extraordinary capacity for giving. Okay? Once you reach the first bodhisattva level, you are distinguished by your capacity to give to others.

Things, love, protection, etc. Right? So why did we get into a big discussion of emptiness in the first chapter and not in the sixth chapter which treats the perception of emptiness?

Yeah, because he says, you can't even give properly if you don't understand emptiness. If you don't get emptiness, you cannot give things properly. To understand emptiness in the act of giving, you must understand the three elements of an act of giving, which are...

Go again. The... The giver.

The gift. And the recipient. Okay?

Some scriptures say the act of giving, the giver and the gift. Okay? Or sorry, and the recipient.

But anyway, let's stick with your version because it's better. What does it mean to understand those three elements as you perform an act of charity? Okay?

It means, I'm perceiving a person in front of me who hasn't got money because I was cheap in the past.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
I'm perceiving myself as having money to give them because at other times in the past I was generous. Okay? And then the thing which I'm giving them, you know, what the money or the food or whatever it may be was actually created by my generosity.

All three of them are coming from my karma. The person that I'm giving this stuff to, the fact... Me myself, the thing I'm giving them, and if you take the other version, the very meeting of me and them, the fact that I have met them to give them something was all created by past seeds.

It's not coming from itself. There are no accidents in charity. The people to whom you are giving stuff are probably going to be giving you stuff next time.

There's a joke in the diamond business. Be nice to the people you meet on the way up because you meet them again on the way down. You know, I've seen it so many times.

You know, the buyer will abuse the salesman. The buyer will lose their job. The buyer goes to the salesman's company and gets a job as the salesman's assistant that they used to abuse.

And then there's some abuse takes place. So, like, a true act of giving will have a lot of humility in it because you realize they're coming from the fact that you were not generous. The fact that you have to see people around you who need things is coming from you.

The fact that you see yourself is coming from you. The fact that you have anything to offer them is coming from you. The fact that you ran into them is not an accident.

It's coming from you. If you can keep informed in those three ways, then your giving is informed. And that's bodhisattva's act of giving.

An act of giving without a knowledge of karma and emptiness is not a perfection. It's not a bodhisattva's activity. It must be imbued with an understanding of emptiness, okay?

And then it's real charity, okay? Comfortable with that? But we still have a problem.

We have one more problem to get over and then we can go home. Everybody's like, uh... We have to deal with the fact that the uttara tantra itself said something about the failure to recognize those three elements in an act of giving is an obstacle to omniscience and not to nirvana.

So let's go back to our... Let's go back to our kursum. Okay, there we go.

Detta yin kyang. Oh dang, we forgot to get the wording. Let's go back.

There we go. We're going to take the quotation and then go to the one we're on and insert the quotation. Okay, and even though this is the case, it's still not true that there's some contradiction in which...

which referred to... Now we can be very precise imagining that one of the three spheres is there. Are the three spheres there, Dennis?

Yes. Yeah, I mean there's a gift and there's a recipient and there's a person giving it. But are they really there?

Are they there in the way you used to think? We can say no. And same with the husband, right?

Or the wife. What does it mean the way you used to think? You used to think that you were just a great person somehow and you have money and that they were dumb somehow and they don't have money and that the money, you know, is yours and that you just ran into them today at the hospice training and there's no reason why that particular lady came today.

And if you suggested that that lady who gave us the hospice training today came from us, that would be a little crazy because I've never met her before. Okay, got it? Is she there?

Yes. Is she there the way you used to think? No.

Is she there because you created her? Yes. And I like go around in my life and I see all these beautiful people or I hear new rock songs and like today in the class I'm like, damn, I created that.

Okay. She was pretty amazing, right? To have such a person come is a blessing.

And that's because... This is, by the way, we're wrapping up, okay? This is the last sentence.

And that's because this statement is trang dun. Trang e. Trang e.

Huh? Literal. Is not literal.

Is figurative. Is figurative. It needs...

It is... It is one of those statements which must be reinterpreted, okay? By the way, reinterpreted is my translation of gongpa chen.

Gongpa chen... Sorry, let's do it a different way. Gongpa chen...

It's one of the statements which has been made with an ulterior motive. Is that okay? What's the most famous example in scripture of a gongpa chen statement?

Kill your mother, kill your father. Which means don't be afraid to leave your home to do your exploration and then come back and serve your father and mother. You see what I mean?

But in your exploring years, you might have to leave home for a while before you come back and take care of them, okay? So, those statements which have been made, right? With an ulterior...

motive... Is that okay? They were saying kill your father, kill your mother has been stated with another thing in mind.

How do you say that in intellectual English? Gongpa means with a deeper intention. With a what?

Yeah, ulterior motive sounds sneaky, right? That's not so good. With another intention in mind.

With a different intention. With a different intention in mind. How's that?

That would imply that the first one is valid. Anyway. It was only made in...

in order to Je Tsujimba attract certain disciples of the... Take men. Of the lesser way.

Disciples who were not fit vessels. Oh, sorry. In order to attract certain disciples who were fixed in the...

in the lesser way, okay? And... who were not fit vessels to be granted that teachings on tombanyi, emptiness, okay?

Did Lord Buddha say that you can't get to Buddhahood? Sorry. Did Lord Buddha say that the failure to perceive emptiness directly is an obstacle to Buddhahood?

Yes. Why didn't he say the truth and describe it as an obstacle to nirvana? There were people who just wouldn't get it.

Okay? They just wouldn't get it. So he simplified.

And he... he tried to put a fire under their butt so they would try to see emptiness directly. Got it?

All right. Now we are having a celebration. Why?

Hang on. I got to do one sentence. Look at this next sentence.

I'll give a dollar to anyone who can translate it. Venerable Phil. Okay, good.

Part two. Okay? We just reached chapter two after ten years.

Yay! All right? We're on a hundred year track here.

And so we're going to have a champagne party. Here comes the champagne. Everybody...

Oh, so, okay. Here then, I have to translate. It's considered good luck in Tibet to translate one...

like five words of the next chapter. And then you take your break. Okay?

Here is the second part from above. Ta-da! Okay.

You're done. You have reached the second chapter. You earned your...

Go have your champagne. It's just sparkling apple juice, okay? But you can pretend it's champagne.

All right? We'll stop there. And then we'll just do this for gewa di, okay?

All right. Congratulations. Yeah, ninety more years.

Okay.