Вступление на срединный путь (текущий курс, Аризона), занятие 21

[Speaker 1]
So, we were, just those of you who weren't here in the last class, this is the main verse we're talking about. These are the opening lines of the Entering the Middle Way, Master Chandrakirti's most famous book on emptiness, most famous book ever written on emptiness probably, I don't know. It's the main one that we use in the monastery.

And it says, listeners and mid-level Buddhas are born from Buddhas, and Buddhas themselves are born from bodhisattvas. And bodhisattvas, there are three main causes for a bodhisattva. Compassion, the mind that transcends duality.

We had a debate about that in the debate ground, good debate. I almost got beat there. Anyway, I got beat at the end anyway.

And then, the wish for enlightenment. So, here we go. He's going to continue talking about these lines.

And we were to this monster sentence that couldn't be broken. And I don't know how I'm going to translate it, because what happens here is when you start typing, you miss the first line. Let me see.

Oh, I know. If you don't mind, I'll just shrink it. Just until I translate it, then I'll shrink it, unshrink it.

He's just saying that compassion is the root of every higher spiritual quality. And this is because, I think personally, and don't you think that when he's talking about listeners and self-made Buddhas, he must be talking about arhats, right? Of those types, right?

But that's a debate. So, arhats are born from the Buddhas. The Buddhas are born from bodhisattvas.

Bodhisattvas, in turn, are born from three causes. And two of these causes, at last, that was Anatole's thing, are born from love or great compassion. So, then, great compassion is the root of everything.

So, that's why he bows down to great compassion first. And then he says, now he's going to back it up with a quotation from Rangdo. I'm not going to read it with you because we read it last week.

I'm trying to save time. What's Rangdo? Auto-commentary.

Who's auto-commentary? Yeah, Master Chanakyurti. And this is true because the auto-commentary says...

How do I do that thing? How do I get margins on this thing?

[Speaker 2]
Up here?

[Speaker 1]
I go here?

[Speaker 2]
And then what were we using? We call it indent.

[Speaker 1]
So, I type I? Let's try and see what happens. Yeah, okay.

I have to shrink this too, sorry. We'll clean it. Usually you don't have this long of a sentence.

We're here, okay? Can you see where that thing is? We're at Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

And I was looking at a commentary and it supplied Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. So, what's the difference between Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche... What is Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche?

Conquer. Conquer, in Sanskrit? Bhagavan, right?

And then, what's this, the feminine? Bhagavati, like at the beginning of the... Yeah, yeah, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, you know, bows down to the mother of the Buddhists, right?

Wisdom itself. Yeah, so... And this one thing is the...

How do you want to say Lady Conqueror? The Empress? I don't know.

Sounds good. Huh?

[Speaker 2]
Lady Conqueror. That sounds like somebody who conquers ladies, though. Oh.

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Well, it's up to you. Conqueress.

[Speaker 2]
Mother of Mother. Great Mother.

[Speaker 1]
Conquering Lady?

[Speaker 2]
Great Mother. Great Mother. Conquering Lady.

The Conquering Lady or something? Yeah. Victorious Goddess.

[Speaker 1]
Huh?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
By the way, if you're new in this class, this is how we do the class. It's a joint effort, right?

[Speaker 2]
I like Empress.

[Speaker 1]
Is Empress kind of sounds like a con... Does it give the content? No.

Conquering?

[Speaker 2]
Conquering Empress or Victorious Empress? Victorious Goddess. Conquering Goddess.

Lady Conqueror.

[Speaker 1]
It has to have the idea of beating somebody.

[Speaker 2]
Lady Conqueror.

[Speaker 1]
Conquering Mother. Conquering Mother. Mother sounds like...

It sounds like Bjork after she had her kid, you know? She lost all her... She lost all her...

[Speaker 2]
Conquering...

[Speaker 1]
Come on. Conquering Mother. Okay, okay, okay.

Victorious Mother.

[Speaker 2]
Conquering... Lady of Conquest.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Man Conqueror.

[Speaker 1]
See, this is why it couldn't be split.

[Speaker 2]
What was it?

[Speaker 1]
Oh, okay. I kind of like the Ever Ever. The Lady?

What did I do? That's one thing is Lady of. Oh, right, okay.

[Speaker 2]
Could those be dashes instead of semicolons around Great Compassion?

[Speaker 1]
No, it's a list, you see?

[Speaker 2]
Oh.

[Speaker 1]
It's a list separated by semicolons here. And this thing is why I... Now, excuse me, I have to jump up to something.

Cool? Is it okay?

[Speaker 2]
Yes.

[Speaker 1]
I mean, we'll clean up the formatting, but... You get the point, right? And, you know, if Master Chandrakirti himself says that that's why he wrote it that way, then I suppose we can agree, right?

Okay? You all right? So he's saying...

Like, he just really waxes poetic, right, about it. So, that's how... Here we have to do that.

We have to... What is it, indent? Okay.

All right, so now I'm going to unshrink it. And we'll go on.

[Speaker 2]
I think the rest of it was 16.

[Speaker 1]
Was it 16?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, okay. We have to do one more thing. Beth, what's that?

You see here?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
You tell me. It's a quotation. I'll give you a clue.

Yeah, we have to tell where it came from. If we're going to be... We're going to be that scholarly, right?

We're going to go to that level. But we're not going to go much more than that. Just to say, you know, we'll be...

Try to finish it before three-year retreat, okay? That other three-year retreat. So...

We just take a unique piece, any unique piece. I'll ask you, would Nyingje Chenmo be a unique piece to search for?

[Speaker 2]
No.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. I would take something like Upanyida, which means really worthy. It's not very common.

So let's search for that. We're just trying to get the folio number of the text to impress people who read it. Nobody will ever care, right?

Kangyur, Tengyur, or Sumbhum?

[Speaker 2]
Tengyur.

[Speaker 1]
Tengyur, okay. If you're new, this is the sections, you know, would you search the words of the Buddha? Would you search the ancient Indian commentaries?

Or would you search the later Tibetan commentaries? And we're looking for the auto-commentary by Master Chandrakirti, so we'll look through it. Anything else?

Umayya. That'll just save us time. We don't have to look through all the tantra, all the Prajnaparamita, all the Vinaya.

You know, we'll go straight to... And if you're lost, that's okay. Just stick here.

Every time you see a thing change up on top, it's going to another couple hundred pages, okay? And this is not it, okay? This is another Upanyida, okay?

How about this one? By the way, where you see the white box is where it found a hit. Is it the same quotation?

Yeah, it is, okay. I wonder if there's any differences. You see, we've been exploring differences, right?

Anything that helped? I don't think there's any big differences. How about this?

Kyabme is a little bit spelled differently, I think. Let me see, where is that? Here?

No, sorry, Kyabme. Wow, he got this one perfect. Okay, so we'll leave him alone.

What folio is it on? How do you know what folio it's on? You go up until you hit an ampersand at the beginning, right there, right there.

Can you see okay?

[Speaker 2]
It's hard to read.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, sorry. Yeah, it's 220A. Why A?

Front side of the page, okay? So they count pages A and B. If you ask how many pages is this text, we're on page what now?

I got something for you, by the way. Remind me. We're on page 440, because we're on 220A.

You see what I mean? But it's folio 220. So when I'm bragging about how many pages ACIP has input, I always say 440 pages.

You see what I mean? Okay, so 220A. And this is easy, because we've already given all that.

Found at folio 220A. And then I just give the text number TD3862. And again, that used to take me maybe four hours to find on a good day, you know, before the database.

So it's really nice to have. Okay. Okay, what we usually do if you're new, we usually just read it together.

This is a trick that I learned from my Greek teacher, and it works. It'll start popping into your mind in six months or something, okay? So if you don't know how to read it, just fake it.

Just make any noise at all. No, I mean, look at what it says and take a guess. And don't go too loud on the ones that look really strange.

And then you open your mouth, and then all the other people say it right, and then it somehow drills it into your mind. They used to tell us that in choir at church, you know. Just open your mouth.

If you can't hit a high note, open your mouth, and the other people's vibration will make the note vibrate in your throat. Just try to get there. And it makes the sound come out of your...

It's like a sitar, the lower strings, you see? So anyway, it'll resonate. The other people's thing will resonate.

So do the ones you can do, and then fake it on the other ones. Okay, here we go. One, two...

Oh, and I'll do this, which means what? The next word is a high tone. This is a low tone.

And this? It's a pre-nasal. Put a little M sound in front of it.

And then this? It's a silent, drawn-out... It's a prefix letter that got lost, but you draw it out in linguistic compensation.

This one? Cut it short. The ending letter gets thrown out, but therefore the sound gets cut short.

So those are all you need to know. I can say this first word here, which is... Look up there.

It says nyen, right? If you make it high tone, nyen means famous, and nyen means to listen. Okay?

Say nyen? Nyen. And it's not so much tone as force.

You know, like, what the heck are you talking about? You see, we use it in English for other purposes. You know what I mean?

So it's like nyen. It's not so much nyen. Nyen.

Okay, it's not so much that. I'll give you another example. This is another example.

Say wang. Wang. Wang.

So that's like a strong tone. Le. This is le.

Say le.

[Speaker 2]
Le.

[Speaker 1]
Le means brain. Le means from or karma. You see what I mean?

So you've got to get this straight. You're talking to somebody and you're saying, oh, I've got a problem with my karma, and you say, I've got a problem with my brain. You know what I mean?

No. Most foreigners never get it straight. They never get it straight.

So watch me when I do this. Oh, what's this mean? Yeah, the Brazilian lady at the Brazilian airport who goes, flight number five.

And that means it's a low tone voiced, which we don't have in English. We don't have it in English. So you need to...

Say ka. Ka. Say god.

God. Then kod. Kod.

We don't have it in English. So you've got to know it. Say ka.

Ka. And this should shake. Ka.

Ka. Ka. Ka.

Okay? And then there's ga, which is third column head letter. And then there's nga.

Nga. Which is a prenasal. Okay?

And then there's ka. Ka. Ka.

Ka. Ka. Ka.

Nga. Nga. Nga.

Ka. Okay? And you'll know the differences.

Okay, here we go. One, two, three. Nyen rang tu wang le chung na Nyen rang te kang chung su de Chi ta bu she na Okay.

Nyen rang. Just, you know, I'll say the word, then I'll say what it is, and you're going to follow with me. Nyen rang.

Listeners and self-made Buddhas. Okay. She na.

If you say, if you ask. So you may ask. You may ask.

If it's true that listeners and self-made Buddhas Am I okay? Did I miss something? Is that okay?

Oh yeah. Say kya wa. Kya wa.

Then say chung. We had it last time. What's the difference?

Do you remember? Honorific. Yeah, it's the high, high honorific.

So you've got to reflect it somehow. And it's sort of corny to say, take your holy birth, but it's a, he's gone up two levels of honorific for this verb. So I think we have to say something.

That's why it's so holy in all my translations. It's just I'm trying to reflect this honorific, high speech. Okay, you ready?

Here we go again. Now let me get it up higher. One, two, three.

RANG DUNG DUG DUNG NYE WA SHI WE NYE SHI TSOR DUNG DUG NYE WE THEG PA CHU MU GANG SA NYAN PHRA YIN ZHING Okay. RANG MY SELF DUNG MI LING Come on, I feel like I'm doing a solo. DUNG YAL SUFFERING It's DUNG YAL DENG PA.

He's just putting one syllable for DUNG YAL DENG PA. The truth of suffering. So what's this one?

KUN JUNG DENG PA The truth of the source of suffering. Okay. SHI WA It sounds like Shiva, right?

Peace. Peace. Okay.

Listen to this one. SHI WA SHI WA SHI WA SHI WA What's SHI WA? Peace.

What's SHI WA? Rest in peace. Okay.

All right. Big difference. No, big difference.

You say SHI SONG means he died. SHI SONG means he's in a state of peace. Okay.

They're similar, right? They're obviously linked in ancient times somehow. But nowadays you have to make them different.

THEG PA CHUNG MU HE NA YA NA Okay. All right. We better stop.

That's getting kind of weird. Okay. So he's going to get in now.

I mean, this is nice. You know, in the debate ground, we were discussing what's a listener and what makes you a listener. Everyone started to throw in ideas about what a listener was.

And this is the classic source for it. So if you learn the next page, you'll be able to talk about listeners. Okay.

Why is that important? You know, we always have to think, how does this connect to my life? You see, what's this got to do with my life?

Right? And you'll see the idea of a listener is someone who hears a certain level of Dharma and can report it to other people but can't do it themselves. You see what I mean?

That's a really sad state. It's almost a comment on who we are. You see what I mean?

Oh yeah, Geshe Michael could get up and teach about all that stuff in Tucson. And then the first moment he gets in a hot spot, he just can't do it himself. You see what I mean?

And it's like that. Then you're like, oh God, I'm just a listener. I'm just a reporter.

You see what I mean? So everything has a deeper meaning. There's this karma you have if you're listening to a teaching.

It's always aimed just at you. You see? It's the weirdest thing.

You can sit in a group of 5,000 people and the Dalai Lama gets up and he's like staring at you. And he's like criticizing you, you know? And you're like...

You know? And that's the sweetness of the Dharma. That's the magic of the Dharma.

So think about, am I a listener as we go through the description of a listener? And then we'll try not to be listeners. Okay.

Oftentimes, by the way, those of you who are going to be translating say dukkhun. Right here, dukkhun. That's a code word for dungyal denpa dangkunjung denpa.

It's such a common expression. Of the Four Noble Truths, two of them suck, two of them are great. You see what I mean?

Dukkhun suck, right? And then the other two are great, right? Okay, dungyal and kunjung.

Suffering and the source of suffering. That was precise. It's not even here.

And then the end of suffering and the path. Lam goklam. You see?

So oftentimes they'll just say dukkhun and you got a no. And you won't find it in the dictionary or, I don't know, maybe eventually you will if it gets hypertexted. Okay.

By the way, the hypertext is going really good. Eric's doing a good job. It's like amazing.

It's something that I wanted for a long time. And he's almost halfway through the catalog. 2,300 titles.

Hypertexting them. With a crew. With a nice crew of people around the world.

He's really organized it well. Okay. Okay, here we go.

Ready? One, two, three. DE LA NYIN TU SHE CHAL WEY GYU SEN YOD TE DE SHIN SHEG PA LA DEN DREL SA MU DE KHO NA NYI NYAN ME DE DUN NYER KYI KANG SA NAM KYI TE PA JE BAE GYU SEN KYI DE DA SHEN PAE SHIN Okay?

He can't help it. Every sentence is a debate. He just can't stop.

You know, sometimes he does it when he doesn't have to do it. You know what I mean? And he's just like, you know, like this.

Okay, so, what was Kim before? Oh.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, sorry.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, yeah. Okay, there comes this. I'll show you something we have to do in the Tibetan.

Okay? This is how I would handle this and we'll talk about it. Actually, listener in Tibetan means listen and hearer.

Listen, hearer. NYIN TU, say NYIN TU. So, NYIN means listen.

TU means to hear, right? And we can't go, you know, the early translators into English made up words like listen, hearer, and they won't survive. And that's some kind of principle that I should talk about.

Translation is a, what do they call it with Darwin? Survival of the fittest. You see what I mean?

Translation, the art of translation is survival of the fittest. Like, one Stephen Batchelor came out with Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life before entering the bodhisattva's behavioral pattern. It stuck.

And everyone else has had to use it because it's just good. You see what I mean? And it will survive.

And whoever wants to translate it more literally as entering the path of the behavioral activities of, you know, they just won't make it. People, they'll call Snow Land and say, we don't want to print your book. You see what I mean?

And it's just selective evolution of what's correct and also sweet. So you can't call them listener-hearers. So we shorten it to listeners.

But then when you get a Tibetan who's making a literal explanation of why they call it Nyen Thu, you have to tell, you have to reflect that in your translation. So this is how I handle that. I put Nyen Thu after the word for listeners.

When he's giving a tsik-she, tsik-she means what? Do you guys know? It's a commentary on the pieces of the word of their name.

Then you have to put the pieces in there because they're called listener-hearers because they listen to it and then they allow other people to hear about it. You see what I mean? So that's why they're called, they're really called listener-hearers.

Although they're not hearing, they're letting someone else hear it. You see? Here it's thupa chepa, which means they enable someone else to hear about it.

You see what I mean? So they're the listeners, but they're not the hearers in listener-hearers, which we've shortened to listeners because listener-hearers is not going to make even a diamond-cutter press.

[Speaker 2]
Okay? All right.

[Speaker 1]
We're getting there. Good question. There's always a subuddhi who brings up the next paragraph.

[Speaker 2]
Do you mean to, should you capitalize him when you're referring to the one diamond?

[Speaker 1]
I'm not going to capitalize enlightened beings. I do it in my Tantric translations. If you've seen the Dakye translations and stuff like that, because I feel, but I feel like it's cloying in a public translation.

In a translation that will go to the public, I think it's too much connected to God and Christianity, which is the only place where it's capitalized, outside of German. But it's too similar to that, right? But in a Tantric translation, I translate anything that relates to an enlightened being to show respect for it, right?

And I know that that audience, whoever gets that translation, which will be only the people who got initiation, they won't think it's cloying, you know? So, yeah. Did you have a question?

[Speaker 2]
You just, when you were talking, you said that they enable them to hear. You said they help them to hear. Enable is good.

[Speaker 1]
That means they wouldn't be able without them, but this is more like help, meaning other people could also do it, you know? Okay. And lots of people of that kind get it on their own.

Okay? It's not that everyone who ever hears it hears it through a listener. Okay?

Yeah?

[Speaker 2]
So, they help them to hear it by teaching it?

[Speaker 1]
Well, they report it. Now, if you want to call that teaching, that's a question, right? If I get up and teach something that I can't follow, I guess I'm just reporting, right?

And, you know, sometimes I feel like that. So, okay, anyway. This will be...

Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Do they become arhats?

[Speaker 1]
Sorry?

[Speaker 2]
Do you speak...

[Speaker 1]
He never said they're arhats, but normally they're talking about arhats, like...

[Speaker 2]
So, they can practice the teachings?

[Speaker 1]
But not the bodhisattva ones. Apparently. That's the point.

But we'll get more. You can debate it in the debate ground. By the way, this is where you collect your questions for the debate ground.

Anything you would wonder about is the first thing you should bring up in debate ground. Don't prepare what's comfortable for you and take it to debate ground. Start a debate about what you don't understand.

You see, that's the key to becoming a Geshe or whatever you want to say. I watched it for 20, 30 years in the monastery, you know. The guys who want to be safe, so they only debate about what they really understand.

They don't learn anything, right? And then the guys who take risks, you know, they'll start a debate about something they don't understand very well. Then by the time the night's over, they understand it.

And you multiply that times like 300 a year, then they get really good at it, you see. So, go for the stuff you don't understand. Go for the stuff you're not too clear about.

And let somebody make a fool out of you. But you'll know it by the time that... You'll never forget the ones you got made a fool out of.

I especially remember those from my debate days. Whenever I was in a huge... I remember Geshe Tashi leaning out of the front row, you know, in the junior Geshe debate and asking me a tough question.

I'll never forget this. Every time I think of him, I think about this question. You know what I mean?

So, it's good for you. Okay, somebody else got a question? Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Profound dependence? It's a trick.

[Speaker 1]
It means emptiness. Emptiness. Yeah, in the form of emptiness.

He's been saying that.

[Speaker 2]
What's the Tibetan for that?

[Speaker 1]
The Tibetan for that is tendrel sabmo. Tendrel is dependent origination and sabmo means profound. What's sabmo?

Saddle. Horse saddle. Okay, so be careful.

Alright, here we go. Something like that. I'm kidding.

Oh, we got to read it. Ready? One, two, three.

Okay, he can't help it, right? Okay. You're asking about high tone, low tone.

Here's two right next to each other. Say, shé. Shé.

Shé. Shé. Shé.

Shé. Okay? So, why did they use a Z?

There is no low tone S in English. So, we just have to use another SH sound. Does that mean you should say zh?

No. Only if you're from calm. You know?

You must say geshi zhupa. You see what I mean? And they do.

But you'll say I'm weird. Okay? Alright.

Do you have a fear of teaching? Sorry? There's quite a lot of fear of teaching in the Second Life.

Oh, he does that. I'll show you where he does it. And when he does it, I do it.

You see what I mean? If he's being repetitive, we call it dupikin. Say, dupikin.

Dupikin means the fault of classical composition that you have unnecessarily repeated something. So, we assume that a great writer has not done it. Has not done it.

You see? He's repeating himself for a reason. So, here it's called, say, tupacepa.

And then down here, tupacepa. So, if you're a really sensitive translator, you want to do just what he did. Because he's doing it for some...

And he actually had a third one. Look up here. Tupacepa.

He's following a theme. He's got three tupacepas. You've got to be really sensitive to that.

When you get really good at translation, you're like, boom, boom, boom. Three tupacepas. So, I have to use the same English.

He's on a roll here. He's like, now I tell you that. Now I'm going to...

And now I'm... You know, and he's like, you've got to get that feeling in your translation.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
You get that after about 30 years. Okay, I looked up this quotation. It's really beautiful.

Lord Buddha is like... He's with some people who... He's just got enlightened.

And he's kind of like Minjigpa. It's this famous Minjigpa. What is that?

Abhaya, right? About what? I am Mr. Great, frankly.

[Speaker 2]
You know? Yeah, yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Nani jipten dina chokshe ja. He walks. He takes five steps, three steps to the east, west.

And then he says, I'm the greatest being in this planet, frankly. You know? I've finished it.

You know? I'm done. And I'm out of here.

You know? He says it to the people. I think it's those five first disciples.

He just says, Lord, frankly, I'm out of here. You know? I've made it.

This is how I did it. You want to know? You know?

And he's just not afraid to say it. There's a certain thing where it's not pride anymore. It's just...

It's called Minjigpa, Abhaya. It's her ordination name, Jigme. It's Naropa's ordination name.

Just a coincidence. Okay. Here we go.

Okay, here we go. One, two, three. Nyen tu kyi kye du tra wa ka ni tu dro la yuk pe de wang du che ne de la tu dro pa she che pe gyur sen yu te He's like this.

Yu te. Yin pe che. Where's the Yin pe che?

Let's go and look. She pe che. There it is.

Right there, right? So, he said, Yin pe, he's up here. You see?

Okay? Okay. Nyen tu, le sen ne.

Good. That's about all you know here. Okay.

You ready? Oh, we did it already. Okay.

So, anyway, here you get the, just some comments. Those of you who are going to learn to translate, you should learn this word, kye du. That'd be nice on the homework.

Okay? You guys can, you're doing the homework, right? Okay, thanks.

I didn't ask. I just assumed. You guys are still grading?

Yeah. Okay. Which one are you grading?

Yeah, you're grading. Okay. Say, kye du.

Du means a substitute for something. And the only place you see it is on envelopes, when you offer a lama five rupees in a white envelope and you write, mendel du du, which means, in substitution for the universe, I offer you five rupees. You say, mendel du du, gork na pu.

And then, you know, and, you know, like when you pass your guest, you get 4,000 of these envelopes and you open them all up and it's not enough to buy lunch with. Now, remember that we were in Mongolia? Do you remember?

Yeah. We spoke to 9,000, 10,000 people and they all offered some money and then we gave it to the restaurant at dinner and it wasn't enough to cover it. But it was like a wheelbarrow full of Mongolian money.

But anyway, du means in substitution for. So, ke du means a linguistic substitute, which means, it always means the equivalent Sanskrit term or the original Sanskrit term for some Tibetan spiritual expression. You see what I mean?

So, you always have to think of it that way when you see it. Sravaka is misspelled. Why is it ba instead of wa?

Tibetans don't have a vi. Okay? They had to choose something.

So, they chose ba. Now, in Bengal, it's pronounced ba a lot of the time. You see?

And that's where a lot of Tibetan Buddhism derives from. And in manuscripts, you'll see b's and v's interchanged in Bengal. So, the Tibetans are not so stupid.

Sanskrit scholars in the early years thought they were just dumb. But actually, if you're sensitive, what you're seeing is a very valuable, what do you call it, historical artifact of how Sanskrit was pronounced a thousand years ago. You see?

They don't say shravaka even in India nowadays. It's like a sra, sravaka. You see?

And so, it's not just that Tibetans are dumb or they can't spell. And somebody I was taught, I was reading something, the cool thing about learning Sanskrit and Indo-European is you can find historical artifacts about your own culture that precede writing. You see?

If you understand where your language has come from, you'll know more about your old culture that you come from than with pottery and buildings and tablets. You see? The language you speak is a historical artifact that, if you understand it, can tell you more about mankind than 15,000 years ago than any excavation can tell you.

You see? It's very interesting. Just how you speak and the words that you use and which words came into Sanskrit.

It's really interesting. But anyway, so we're going to say shravaka because that's the way most modern Sanskritists mispronounce it. And we don't want them to think we're dumb.

It's just shravaka. Also applies to the idea, okay, of one who listens. So now we're going to get more into the idea of why are they called those who listen and proclaim?

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Oh, we didn't read this. Let's go. You ready?

You thought you got out of it. One, two, three. TE CHEN GYI LAM DE BU DANG CHE PA DE LA THOON NAY DE DUN NYER GYI TE CHEN GYI RIG CHEN GZHAN LA DOB PA CHE PE GYUR SEM GYI DE DAG SHES PEN SHES He just can't, like, you can't imagine what it must have been like to have lunch with him.

And he's like, because I saw him, you know, and then he like cooked a dal and then there was rice. Okay, okay. And this is that they are given the name because they do listen to.

Okay, here's the idea where they're reporting the teachings to people who are on a higher path than they are. You see, like they hear Mahayana. They hear about high compassion teachings and particularly in this school, what?

Teachings about... Yeah, like higher forms of emptiness, right? And then they report them to people who think that's cool.

Okay. You're already getting this implication of what? They just report them.

They can't do it themselves. You see what I mean? Like they can actually report what they heard in the debate ground about, you know, projections and emptiness and karma, but then they can't really get it themselves.

You see, or they can't act on it themselves. So does that create the composition? I'm sure it does.

Yeah, I'm sure it does. Geshe-la, someone online asked what, well, pe-chir means, but... What, what means?

[Speaker 2]
Pe-chir. You know, so I guess it's like pe-chir. Pe-chir.

Like what it actually means.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, yin pe-chir. Yeah, it just means because. Because that's true.

I've been translating as, it's true that dot, dot, dot, you know. And it gets boring, it gets repetitive. I want it to be, why?

Because he's doing it. Yin pe-chir, yin pe-chir, yin pe-chir, yin pe-chir. You know, he keeps doing it.

That kind of thing, you don't try to spice it up. You don't try to vary it, you know, because he's doing it for his own reasons. So you have to be able to distinguish between when he's repetitive for his own reasons, and you shouldn't try to spice it up, and then when he's repetitive, because it's repetitive in Tibetan, and it would be bad composition in English to repeat it, and you don't want him to sound like he can't write to an English reader.

So in that case, it's your responsibility to spice it up, or to vary it, where it would sound off in English composition, you see? Okay, here we go. By the way, the first line is, oh, the Dhammapekhara says this.

It's true, because the Dhammapekhara says that. And then he's going to quote four lines from the Dhammapekhara. What's Dhammapekhara?

What's pema? Lotus. This is the Lotus Sutra.

He's going to quote the Lotus Sutra. But why I stopped to alert you is that I want you to sing-song the verse. We're going to do it in pairs.

Let's just practice this first line here, where the cursor is. Say, gung-po. Gung-po.

Ter-ring. Ter-ring. Dak-chak.

Dak-chak. Nyen-te.

[Speaker 2]
Nyen-te.

[Speaker 1]
Gyur. Gyur. See, it's da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

Unless you're doing Milarepa. And then it's da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Da!

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Da! Da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

And that's when the First Panchen Lama is like often swiping that kind of meter. But this is normal meter. Let's do it again.

Gung-po.

[Speaker 2]
Gung-po.

[Speaker 1]
Ter-ring. Ter-ring. Dak-chak.

Dak-chak. Nyen-te. Nyen-te.

[Speaker 2]
Gyur.

[Speaker 1]
Gyur. So when we get there, you've got to do that. Here we go.

One, two, three. Te-yin-te. Tam-chuk-pe-ka-le.

Gung-po. Ter-ring. Dak-chak.

Nyen-te. Gyur. Chan-chuk.

Tam-pa. Yan-da. Dam-pa.

Gyur. Chan-chuk. Pa-yi.

Da-yang. Rak-tu. Gyur.

Te-we. Dak-chak. Nyen-te.

Mi-se. Skip the six. Go for kan-gyur.

Mi-se-sang-gyur. Da. Se-su-be.

Se-su-be. He's still going, you know. Okay.

I was looking this over and I just couldn't get this one line here. Mi-se means, do you know what se means? Huh?

To wear out or to end. Like ham-ko-se-sha means what? My shoes have worn out.

Like the soles of my shoes have worn out. So that in colloquial se means worn out. What's se mean?

To kill somebody. They're probably related linguistically in the old centuries ago, but you don't want to make a mistake and kill somebody with your shoe. Okay.

Here this is what? Se. Say se.

Se. The other one is se. Se.

Okay. Se. Se.

Se. Se. They're both s.

One is strong. One is not. Se.

Se. Se. Okay.

Big difference. All right. Now, how to say?

So mi-se means never ending. And I was like, it doesn't make sense here. And I was busting my brain.

Then I said, well, maybe it's misspelled, you know. So it's a long story. I'll go show you.

Kangyur, tengyur, or sumbu. Kangyur. Lotus Sutra.

It's a Lotus Sutra. Okay. Now, unfortunately, those schmucks from ASCIP haven't finished the kangyur.

But now it's not there. Or at least I didn't get it yet. I couldn't find it in that piece.

Let's try another piece. Here we go. I just want to draw your attention to where the arrow is.

Say, de-we. De-we. Dak-chak.

Dak-chak. Drog-pa. Drog-pa.

Mi-se. Mi-se. Bazaad.

Bazaad. This one is zaad, right? Mi-se means something totally different.

Okay. Okay. And that in itself is a long story.

Like, mi-se can mean unbearable or lousy. Okay. Like mi-se-pa.

Like se-pa. It comes from se-pa, patience. Like lama-se-pa or geshe-se-pa.

But sometimes it's spelled se and sometimes it's spelled se. And it means unbearable or lousy. Okay.

Mi-se. Like unbearable. And so this one means never-ending.

This one means unbearable. Okay. This is the original in the Kangyur.

Okay. So he has misquoted it. Which we've seen a lot, right?

Because where did they learn it? They learned it in the debate ground. You see, they learned it in the debate.

They heard somebody quote this and they just pick it. They just, man, listen to this. And they memorize it on the spot.

They hear it four or five times. They hear this verse quoted by an older student. Like somebody who's almost got their geshe.

And they hear it over and over. And then they think they got it. And they're pronounced exactly the same.

Se with the prefix and se without the prefix. They sound exactly the same. So then he just, when he writes his book, he writes it that way.

But it doesn't make any sense, you see. So anyway, I gulfored it. And then I looked up mise in what normally means unbearable.

I found it means a Sanskrit equivalent that means lousy. And if you want it, it's like shudra or something. It's like flimsy or not so great or like that.

So now let's go at it. And that was from the Mahavir Padi, which is an old dictionary that was used by Tibetan translators to translate from Sanskrit. So here we go.

Which is in the Tengu. It's in the Tengu bilingually. It's one line of Sanskrit written in Tibetan letters.

And then it's a line of Tibetan written in... You see, it's really beautiful. It's an extraordinary text.

We should hypertext that someday. He thinks he's going to be done when he finishes the entire... Okay.

[Speaker 2]
You're leaving the DAP? I'm sorry.

[Speaker 1]
Oh yeah, I'm sorry. You're quite right. Yeah, do we make a note?

I don't think so. I mean, just where it's just a simple misspelling and where we have confirmation from the Kangyur that we just correct the spelling. I don't think we have...

I don't think he... And where it's a homonym and all... You know, it's just a simple bubu.

It's not like something that we have to report a variant That's a different thing. Okay, here we go. And this is true because...

Right? Now the real name of the Lotus Sutra is the Holy Dharma of the White Lotus. Okay?

Nobody in Tibet ever calls it Lotus Sutra. Okay? It's called the Damche Pekar.

Say Damche. Pekar. Nobody ever calls it Pe-do or Pe-me-do or something like that.

That was just an abbreviation by some westerner. Okay? It's stuck now.

Yeah? It's stuck now. It's stuck, unfortunately.

But so did Heart Sutra, and I don't mind. I mean, shorter is... They'll get used to that.

No, I think... This is a semi-formal translation, so... That I would...

I agree, though. I think that's up to you. When you re-teach it to people, which you all have to do, you'll point out that this is the Lotus Sutra.

Okay? Like the Heart Sutra is a lot easier name than the Essence of Wisdom Sutra. But Diamond Cutter is not a better name than Diamond...

Sorry. Diamond Sutra is not a correct translation of Diamond Cutter. Okay.

Anyway. Help me out. Rabdha-ja.

Ja means to express something. Rabdhu means really. Okay?

But what it means is, we'll go out and spread the word, over and over, or something like that. So, I don't know. Proclaim?

Well, we use proclaim. They want to say... And they use the word yang, which means over again.

Like what you said, we'll repeat, you see? And rabdhu means, like, all the hell over the place, you know? So, what's a nice way to say that?

Spread? Expose? Expose.

Spread's pretty close. Spread, I think, covers it, yes. Continue to spread.

[Speaker 2]
Or spread widely. Broadcast.

[Speaker 1]
It is broadcast. It's a good word. It is broadcast.

I like spread. Does that give the feeling of the yang, the repeating, you see? We too will.

How about we too will spread? We too will spread.

[Speaker 2]
Because the Buddha wasn't just repeating also.

[Speaker 1]
No, but we're missing the over again thing. How do we do that?

[Speaker 2]
Continually spread?

[Speaker 1]
But it doesn't mean continuing action of them. It refers to repeating what he said. You see, when you say continually spread, it means they will do it over and over again.

Echo is nice.

[Speaker 2]
I like that. That's good.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, that's good. We will echo and spread. And spread what you have said.

[Speaker 2]
Krishna? Yeah. Why don't we just go through speaking about listeners?

Would somebody claim that they will become their listener?

[Speaker 1]
He's going to give a whole commentary on it. So don't worry. Ask me that in about six hours of class from now.

He's going to kill this subject. You're going to be so tired of listeners. So don't worry.

It's coming. Okay. By the way, this is, if I'm not mistaken, I looked it up, and it's people listening to the Lotus Sutra from Lord Buddha.

And if I'm not mistaken, it might be people like Indra and worldly gods. And they're like, we'll do our best. We're just schmucks, you know.

But we'll try to pass on what you've said and proclaim. We listen and we will proclaim. So that's why he's pulling out this quotation.

Why? It has both those ideas of listening and proclaiming in the same verse. You see what I mean?

We will not only listen, but we will proclaim. But in a sense, we are unworthy. Why?

Because we can't practice it. You see what I mean? That's the implication of this verse.

You see what I mean? And that was the me say. And if it had been misspelled, it would have been, and in a sense, we'll be your never-ending unlisteners.

So, okay, here we go. And we would have missed the whole point, right? Okay, let's read it together.

One, two, three. nyen tu yin na nyen tu kyi ja she du yu pe ma kya se He's up there. Te.

He makes his, what do you call it? He makes his, what do you call it? His assertion.

He's like this. He's making his assertion, right? Druk ca, in logic.

And then he comes down with the ta, with the reason, which he hasn't done yet. He's at the assertion. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da Da-da-da-da-da-da-da Okay, so he's up here now.

When he get a te, that's a colon meaning my assertion is done, here's the reason. Okay, so the te is the colon. Let's say some English words.

Nyen tu. Listener. Good.

Yin.

[Speaker 2]
Is.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Da. Word.

Sound. Okay. Yu.

Is. What's the difference between yin and yu? It's something every translator should know.

In English, the word is has two totally separate meanings. Right? He is John is in the sense of identity.

He is that thing. He has that identity, right? Then there is a car outside means it exists outside.

You see? We usually say there is, we don't say is actually. So there is, is yu.

Is, when you say somebody is something, we call it predicate nominative or predicate adjective. It just means that is that, identity-wise. So think, there is two is in English.

And in Tibetan they are separated. Yu means there is. And yin means it is.

Okay, got it? You got to learn that. It's very important in colloquial.

You know? Nga, Michael, yu. You know, new people come to the monastery.

I, Michael, exists. You know? Because they want to say I am Michael.

You know? And then the Tibetans are like, huh? You know?

Okay. There is two is's. All right?

I am trying to protect you, those of you going to the monastery this summer. Okay? This is tough.

Okay. In its technical sense. By the way, you know, he started pedantic here, but then I saw that it's in Gombo Revzel also.

And we'll get to that. Like, we've been, those of you who don't know, we're alternating between two texts. One is Jetsun Kappa's most famous text on emptiness.

One is, I think, the best monastic textbook ever written about that book. So, they run parallel. And in some places, they're word for word the same.

So, this part is actually something that Jetsun Kappa made a point about. And this is a big deal in logic. Okay?

This is a big deal in logic. You can call somebody a cow, but that doesn't mean they're giving milk. You know?

It doesn't mean that the literal sense of the word cow applies to them. Okay? You can have nicknames for people that are not literal.

Okay? Yeah, okay. And by the way, this is one of my pet peeves.

This is Kappa, my cow. My cow. Okay?

And there's no way to really translate that in English nicely. You know? Doesn't cover.

What it means is, just because, blah, blah, blah, that doesn't mean that. We say it like that. Just because you're an animal doesn't mean you're a cow.

You know? You see? And in Tibetan, they just have one little word that says, just because, blah, blah, blah, you aren't necessarily blah, blah, blah.

You know? But in English, we don't say it that way. And you see these weird translations like, you know, being a listener isn't covered by the technical sense of, you know, because kyap, in a different pronunciation, means cover.

You see what I mean? And it's just like that people didn't know Tibetan well enough to say, just because that doesn't mean that, because that's how we say it. You see what I mean?

And they just say coverage. There's no logical subset coverage. You know, come on.

Or pervasion, yeah. It sounds like perversion or something. You know what I mean?

We don't say, we don't say there's no pervasion between a cow and me. Or, you know, just because I eat a lot doesn't mean I'm a cow. You see, we say, just because, blah, blah, blah, doesn't mean I'm a blah, blah, blah.

You see what I mean? That's how we use ma kyap in English. Now, how are we going to do it in the debate ground, ma kyap, I think it's just not necessarily.

Okay, like that. Okay, anyway, here we go. What's he going to do now?

Tun pe yang dak. Those of you who studied Course 13, that lucky number. What was that?

That's why I made a Course 13. Logic, yeah, logic, okay. Yeah, so what is the tun pe yang dak?

Tun pe yang dak means he's going to give his example to prove, he's going to give his, when you say sho, you know, somebody says sho to him here. Show me. Show me what?

Yeah, somebody who's a listener but to whom the technical sense of listener does not apply. Who could you give me? Well, how about if Bodhisattva is sitting there listening?

Is he a listener? Does the technical sense of listener that we've been using apply to him? Like he can listen to Bodhisattva's stuff but he can't do it?

You see what I mean? Well, maybe. But, anyway, in the general sense, no.

That would be a good sho, a good shuchan. Give me an exception. Sho means, well, give me an exception.

God damn it. You know, and then somebody says, a Bodhisattva is in the audience. Is he a listener?

Yeah. Was he a listener in the technical sense of a Hinayana person who just reports it and can't do it himself? No.

Okay. All right, that's the debate here. Summe kanga nyantu la nyantu guja jhuktu yukhya kshetu me le chho.

Actually, he's going to give a much different example but here we go. One. Two.

Three. Summe kanga nyantu la nyantu guja jhuktu yukhya kshetu me le chho. Okay?

Get it up there in the debate ground. It drives me crazy you guys going like this. Get it up here, you know?

Get it up here. I got so criticized. Rinpoche saw me once in the debate ground because I just couldn't bear to have him watch me.

We made a deal. He never came. But the one time he saw me, he said, stop this.

This is like seven-year-olds are doing that, you know? Get it up here, you know? You know, like.

It gives you some force when you do it. Okay. If your hands aren't bleeding at the end of debate, you're not doing it right.

They should be split here, okay? They didn't even spray blood in the guy's face. That's really cool.

Okay. And this is Jeevika.

[Speaker 2]
Does everyone do it right-handed on the debate ground?

[Speaker 1]
No, not at all. If you're a lefty, it's considered a very, a big deal. When Geshe Thutorenshin saw her writing with her left hand, he's like, a lefty, you know?

No, because it's Vamapada. What's Vamapada? It's the left-hand path.

It's a very high, it is the highest Tantric path. Vama is a beautiful word because it means your left hand. But it's also the source of the word feminine.

So it means woman. It literally means woman's path. And it literally means left-handed path.

Both. It's one word that means both. And so if you like doing things with your left hand, it's considered really a big deal among people who know.

And then if you hand something to an Indian with your left hand and they don't know, it's like spitting in their face. Because that's the hand you use to wipe your bottom. And they don't have toilet paper.

So it's a very drastic thing to use your left hand. It's very much a statement. And people who know are like, oh, lefty.

And people who don't know are like, ew, you know. Okay, so anyway. And this is true because...

Oh, hang on. I think I got it backward. Yeah.

Is that right? Help me out. What's he talking about?

He's saying that somebody could be a person on the listener track and be in the formless realm? Yeah. So is that the technical meaning of listener?

I think so. Not the literal meaning of listener. But what?

[Speaker 2]
They can't listen.

[Speaker 1]
They can't listen. Why? There's no form.

In the formless realm, there's no form. Formed there, it means no physical reality in that realm. You are a purely mental being.

Okay?

[Speaker 2]
So you can say technically but not literally. Right.

[Speaker 1]
Can be applied in its technical sense. He says can be properly applied. No, but not in the way it means, right?

It generally means? But not... I guess you could say that.

What's the word in English? Connotation and denotation, right? Is there another word for literal?

Because I don't want to repeat literal because we... Well, you could say it, but not in its literal sense. I think literal is okay.

Is that okay? You guys satisfied with that? Good debate.

So he didn't use the example I used, which is a bodhisattva sitting in the audience, right? He used somebody is in a place where they can be on a listener track, but there's no listening going on there. Okay?

But that's not exactly what he meant up here. But anyway, we'll let him go away.

[Speaker 2]
Are our readers going to understand that? Sure. They're smart enough.

Not that it's on a listener track.

[Speaker 1]
Should we explain the formless realm thing you mean?

[Speaker 2]
No, just that they're on a listener track.

[Speaker 1]
I'll let him... There's some things you need to teach her, I think.

[Speaker 2]
Anyway, okay. Did he pull the opposite way in the previous paragraph, though?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, he did. He did. That's the problem.

How can he be a listener in the first place? Who? The person in the formless realm.

I don't know. He maybe has a listener's motivation still. That's all I can think of.

This is a good debate ground question. Maybe he still has that lower motivation. Right?

You see what I mean? What places you on that track? What distinguishes that listener track?

Yeah, you can't do it for yourself. You're only doing it for yourself. So maybe he's a Dharma student who had...

How do you get born into the formless realm? Yeah, you do these great meditations on your breath. You just stare at your breath for hours and hours and hours.

That gets you born in the formless realm. Rupa Anugama in the Yoga Sutra. Pitaka Vichara.

In the formless realm, it has to be a functional reality. It's all just mental beings. I know, but what's the point of a listener in the formless realm?

It has to function to be a listener. No, he still has his mind, right? Does he still have his mind?

Yeah. So does he still have motivation for his practice? But there has to be a functional I for that motivation.

I don't think so. I mean, when he's asleep, does he have a functional I for his own motivation? But is he still a listener?

Does he stop being a listener when he falls asleep? You know what? If he has that motivation in his mind, he's on a listener track.

If he's already on a track. So say he died. He was on that listener track.

He died. He got born in the formless realm. He still has that motivation.

He's still a listener. But he ain't listening, is he? That's all.

That's all he's saying. So don't bug me, but bug him. But does that follow from what he said before?

That's what's bothering Ted, I think.

[Speaker 2]
Contrary to your example of the bodhisattva.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, yeah. It's the opposite example.

[Speaker 2]
We see bodhisattva in the formless realm. No, it's contrary because the bodhisattva has a different sort of motivation.

[Speaker 1]
I better say literal sense. But you see, he switched it, right? Didn't he?

Didn't he switch it? No, he's okay. I think he's okay.

He's okay. Okay. You guys take it home and worry about it.

Okay. That's how we get out of deciding. Am I supposed to stop at 7.30?

Oh, I'm sorry. I get to do one more. You're going to meet me.

You meet me. Here we go. One, two, three.

Don't hit the person behind you. Okay. Okay.

Can't, oh, can't properly. I like that. And actually it fits the Tibetan better, what you said.

She is like described. Oh, sorry. It's better for the Tibetan.

And I just like this. I wanted to do this line because, say tsokye. Tsokye means born of the lake.

And it's a poeticism. And when you learn to translate Tibetan, they took all the poeticisms from Sanskrit and translated them literally. So you just have to know, you get a sense that they're talking about, this is a metaphor.

This is a, what do you call that? It's a poeticism or an epithet. You see what I mean?

And you just smell them. You get to where you can smell them. And tsokye, born of the lake, is, what's a big lake in Tibetan, by the way?

Gyatso, which is the ocean. Okay. Big, big lake.

Okay, but anyway, tsokye is important in the dake, in the Vajrayogini Sangha. When they need a secret word for something, they use lotus. And then to make it more secret, they'll say tsokye, which means born of the lake.

And then nobody will know what you're talking about. And I translated it that way in the dake. If you have the sadhana and you ever wondered, what the hell is he doing?

It says, the child born of the lake. What's that? It's called twilight language.

It's a code. It's all code for initiates. So, tsokye means born of the lake and it refers to a lotus.

Okay, we'll stop there. Oh, kam is important to me. Why?

Some of you know kam. Kam tsok and len tsok. Kam tsok means a dry meaning.

Len tsok means a wet meaning. Kam tsok is a meaning where nobody serves refreshments. They call it a dry meaning.

People say, is this a kam tsok or what? I didn't get anything. And I say, no, let's have a len tsok.

Okay, break out the Tibetan tea. And the kapse, which unfortunately, she opened the box and everybody was there yesterday. Anyway, so I had to share it.

Then I had to go scrounge other people's.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, anyway.

[Speaker 1]
That's all. We'll stop there. Thank you.

Okay, cool. Thank you. Nice job.

You're getting good. And I said it before, I'll say it again. Some of you weren't here, but just stick in it.

Just stay here, okay? Like in the monastery, you walk into a class, you have no idea what's going on. Nothing for two, three hours.

You have no idea what the guy's talking about. And it's very much a tradition to sit there. Just like they'll say, you go up to Lama, you say, you know, frankly, Geshe-la, I didn't understand anything you said today.

Especially it's not my language, you know. And then they'll say, just sit there. Don't go, you know.

Just come back every goddamn day. And then after like a year, you get everything, you know. And you don't even remember that you couldn't get it before.

You see what I mean? So just keep coming. And you'll be speaking Tibetan and you'll be reading Tibetan, okay?

It's just a magic that happens if you just come like a donkey. They say, no, say, kupa utsuk. Kupa utsuk.

Kupa utsuk means just the goddamn foolish persistence. You know, Swami Sivananda called it asinine persistence. And you just keep going, you know.

And then just one day you wake up and you see a scripture and you're like, wow, I can read that whole thing, you know. And so keep coming. Even if you don't know what's going on, keep coming.

Okay. I think that particular notice, right? Okay.

All right. See you in a bit.