Вступление на срединный путь (текущий курс, Аризона), занятие 46

[Speaker 1]
What general section are we in? Do you remember? I'll give you a clue.

The second section, which we haven't got to, is the presentation of the Bodhisattva Belief. So the first section is... It's the three qualities of a...

of a sasakyama, of a person who hasn't seen emptiness directly. So in the middle of that, he's talking about how bodhisattvas have to... It was that cool thing, cycling thing, where you have to have enough goodness to get to the perfection of wisdom, but you have to have the perfection of wisdom to practice goodness.

And then you come back and practice it in an informed way, in a new way. Then just in the middle of that he drops this little thing, you know, about... Some people hear about emptiness, and they hear about the gaccha, and the gaccha being that thing which we deny exists, right?

When we speak about emptiness. What emptiness is empty of is called gaccha. So he says some people go too far when they hear emptiness.

You know, most people don't think about emptiness at all. And then the few people who've heard about it, they overreact to it. They think it's bigger than it is.

And he's talking about that. Why he throws that in right here in the middle, before he goes on to the bodhisattva levels, I don't know. I think he's just trying to prepare our minds for the whole book.

Because that's a big subject in the book, you know. What exactly is the gaccha? Most people go too...

Don't go far enough with what we deny. And a lot of people go too far. So he's talking about people who go too far.

Some people don't understand what it is we are denying. Gaccha. When we use reasoning to examine the idea of suchness.

They understand it to mean that we deny everything that exists. Okay? And you hear that a lot.

I have this discussion with people once a month or something. When we travel, it's about once a day. You know, I heard about emptiness.

It means nothing exists. We were on a... I approached a diamond dealer in Belgium for a million and a half dollars to input the cognitive intelligence faster.

This is like 15 years ago. And he said, I'll do it. And I said, thank you, you know.

And then he said, but you have to ask my guru. I said, who's your guru? Oh, his name is Jambudvipa.

So where is he? I'll go ask him. He's in India.

I don't mind, I'll travel. Well, he walks around India. He's a Jain saint.

He walks around India. And he doesn't get in cars. And he doesn't, you know.

So I said, well, where? In what area? He's like, well, you'll never find him.

But once a year he comes to this festival on the holy mountain. And so I flew there. And I climbed the mountain barefoot.

My feet were bleeding, you know. And I found him, you know. And I said, you know, your student who's a diamond dealer, he wants to give us this money to import scriptures.

And he says, Buddhist scriptures, right? I said, yeah. And he says, Nagarjuna scriptures, right?

I said, yeah. So I know about Nagarjuna. He said, nothing exists.

He said, nothing exists. Shunyata. He said, I don't go for that.

And then we had like a two day debate. And at the end he said, that's exactly what we believe. And I said, great.

So we agree to the million and a half dollars. He says, no, we'll buy cows with it.

[Speaker 2]
We'll save cows.

[Speaker 1]
They have cows saving places. They buy cows and they save them from being killed. So that's where the million and a half dollars went.

But I always think of him when I think of this. It took two days, but he got the gotcha. Then he was like, that's exactly what we believe too.

Okay, so anyway. If you believe that emptiness means that nothing is real, then that opens up other problems. That sort of promotes other diseases.

So he's going to go through some of them. One, two, three. TOK PA KANG YID THAM CHEG DEN ZIN THAM KUN RDZO THAM CHEG NANG PO TZAM THAM Okay.

I'm going to do, just for a couple sessions, what you're going to be doing when you come on Tuesday out to the Lama House at two o'clock? One o'clock. To help do the pronunciation for the class in India.

So anyone who wants to come and help type in the pronunciation for the class in India. We can use like ten people, doesn't matter. Pairs and split up the material.

So I'm going to practice a little bit with you. And then if you're interested, come during the ASAP time, which is Tuesday or Thursday.

[Speaker 2]
Not Thursday.

[Speaker 1]
Tuesday from one to seven. Anytime between one and seven that you can come, you're welcome to come. And then it'll normally be Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We'll have to work for the next four weeks to finish it on time. But this coming Thursday, don't come. Because they'd say people are flying in from all the ASAP centers for a meeting.

Okay? So I'm going to practice a little bit with you. I have this idea.

I'll make one mistake on each line. And you'll tell me which mistake it is. Okay?

So it would look like... Mistake? Where?

Yeah, TH. Okay? It's useless to try to distinguish between TA and TA and DA and DA.

You know, we don't have it in English. Just give them a T. You know?

Which means they've misspelled Ken Rupert's name when he got to the... You know, someone saw this in transcription and confused it for pronunciation. And if nothing else from this exercise these next four weeks, I beg that you learn the difference between transcription and pronunciation.

Okay? Transcription is this first line here. It's English letters that we use to indicate without ambiguity the corresponding Tibetan letter.

So TA is shown with a TH. But not for pronunciation purposes. Just so you can convert it to the right letter.

In practice, TA and TA are pronounced the same by all foreigners. People who don't speak Tibetan. So you just say...

Because we don't have a TH. We don't have the distinction. So you just use a T for both of them.

You see what I mean? And to attempt to show that transcription and pronunciation is just a very common disease among everybody who works with Tibetan or Sanskrit. Okay, so anyway.

Yeah, the TH is wrong here. Got it? It should be just this.

And we're going to do a little bit each day. Let's do this one. Who doesn't know any Tibetan in here?

Yeah. So, please read this line. In the English letters.

The second line. Okay, good. And there's where the mistake is.

Because she said nan go. Okay? That's why this is not a good transcription.

Because a person who doesn't know Tibetan will pronounce it wrong. And the purpose of pronunciation is that someone like her will pronounce it correctly. Okay?

So this is the way you do this one. Now pronounce it. The whole line.

It's okay. Say nan go. Nan go.

Do the go on your throat and hold your tongue. Mo. Mo.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, nan go. Okay, good. Okay, good.

Anyway. When you're starting a syllable with a sound that doesn't exist in English, help them. Split it off.

Make it simple. Which is nan.

[Speaker 2]
Nan doesn't exist in English.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. It's okay with you? Maybe I put a mistake in there.

Isn't it true, as he's about to say in about two pages, that all forms of thought of a person who is not a Buddha yet and who's also not in the direct perception of emptiness are incorrect? So isn't it correct to say that all forms of conceptual thought is a way to say not being in the direct perception of emptiness. Aren't they holding things wrongly?

When you nodded, are you wrong? Do you believe that you are wrong? Yeah.

I asked you, are all forms of conceptual thought mistaken? And you nodded. That means you had a correct conclusion concerning emptiness.

And you weren't in the direct perception of emptiness because your eyes are still open. Okay? So now you have to tell me what you just thought was wrong.

If it's wrong, then I'm right. If it's not wrong, then you're wrong.

[Speaker 2]
Seriously.

[Speaker 1]
If it's wrong, I'm right. If it's not wrong, you're wrong. Good.

Yeah. The conclusion you drew is correct. How you perceive every part of your thinking is wrong.

So that's what he means here. You just have a conceptual thought. And every component of the thought you were holding to be self-existent, to exist in truth.

But your conclusion was correct. And that's okay. Got it?

You can use a defective instrument to come to logical conclusions. Alright? And all deceptively objects exist only in mind.

That's that thing where you tell somebody you're projecting things. So they say, Kimberly is just my projection. Therefore, Kimberly is just my mind stream.

Therefore, I'm this incredibly lonely person. It's just me in the universe. And everything I see is in my head.

Okay? And that's not correct. And that's a very subtle...

It's a useful thing to know because when you teach your own students, this is a very real and disturbing mistake they can fall into. And then you have to present that idea that I'm projecting Kimberly as a separate person. So she is a separate person.

So I'm not alone in the universe. Okay? Like that.

But, my relationship to her in the universe is such that since she is my projection, if I'm a good person, I can perfect the world. Right? Okay?

So it enables us. Right? It empowers us.

Okay. Let's go one more. By the way, those of you who are serious translators, which is everybody, this is a way, this word then here, that you can indicate what they call sequence, sequential ne.

Ne can mean through, and ne can mean sequence, meaning this happens before that happens. So in this sense, in this case, ne means sequence, meaning they think Gac Chai is everything, and then they, and so they believe this. Subsequently they believe they have these wrong ideas.

So that's where the then comes from in the second paragraph. It came back from the end of the Tibetan in the first paragraph. Okay?

It's a useful thing to know for translating. And the grammar texts make a big deal about it. If it's true that all deceptive objects are only in my mind, right?

If the whole normal world is only in my own head, then when I become a Buddha, and I'm not making that mistake anymore, there's no more deception, right? Then they can't exist. Okay?

And so everything at that point is just emptiness, right? And then you say, well, okay, then I guess a Buddha's body doesn't exist in a paradise. Their physical body.

And they never emanate. And then they say, why? And you say, kunto denpa yinpe yinchen.

Because that's also a deceptive object. And they say, no, no, that's not a deceptive object because they're not deceived by it. And then we say, what?

Can you say an object is not a deceptive reality if a Buddha is not deceived by it?

[Speaker 2]
No.

[Speaker 1]
Remember, the definition of deceptive reality is that reality which fools someone who's fooled by it. You see what I mean? So it's that reality which fools a normal person, is deceptive reality.

So is a Buddha's embodiment or their emanation body or their paradise body, physical form, are they deceptive reality? No, even to a Buddha. No, it is deceptive reality to a Buddha because it's defined as that reality which would deceive a lesser person.

You see what I mean? It's really, they're no longer deceived by it, but that doesn't mean it's not deceptive reality because deceptive reality is defined as that reality which deceives a normal person. You see what I mean?

So that reality, all physical matter, all non-emptiness things are deceptive reality. But if you believe otherwise, if you believe that deceptive reality is what's appearing, everything appearing to your mind is deceptive, therefore it doesn't exist, then when you look at a Buddha's form, it shouldn't exist. And if you reach a stage where there's no more deceptive reality, then you should just exist in emptiness, and only emptiness would exist.

And in that case, there'd be no mind or body of a Buddha, only their dharmakaya, only the emptiness of their other bodies. But they don't have any other bodies, so there's no emptiness anyway. Okay, all right.

It's all a big misunderstanding of what deceptive means. Yeah?

[Speaker 2]
In this definition, you gave a deceptive reality.

[Speaker 1]
Description.

[Speaker 2]
Description. Oh.

[Speaker 1]
No, I mean, it's a pretty airtight description, but it's either one definition or the other.

[Speaker 2]
The type of receptivity would be, it doesn't specify direct or indirect. Right, could be direct. So when you perceive an emptiness, when perceived indirectly, it's deceptive.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, you could say that. But he wouldn't say that. We just said that that would be denzen.

Is it denzen? Are you holding to the thing that's truly existing? If you have an intellectual understanding of emptiness.

I think he would say it involves a wrong perception, but the conclusion is correct. You see, the conclusion is correct. Is it a donut?

Yes. Is how you perceive it correct? No.

Because you think you can get it if I'm nice to you. Or if you're nice to me. But you can only get it if you've given away donuts before.

So, but is it a donut? That's a correct perception.

[Speaker 2]
Correct. By correcting invalid?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, of course. I can eat it. And if you don't want to, it's okay.

It's more for me.

[Speaker 2]
In the previous paragraph it says deceptively existing things are not deceptively occurring.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, that's true. But deceptive existence is defined as deceptive appearance. Okay, let's go on.

Let's try to do a little pronunciation here. I'm going to... I'm just...

Okay, where's the mistake? Yishi could have been... You could have...

You could have... What do you call it? Colored it to Yishi.

Yishi. But I think it's... I wouldn't go there.

Me... We're going to agree that we don't use a Y at the end of these sounds unless it's an a-gi-gu-i, okay? Those of you who know, the possessive.

So we're reserving the Y for a-gi-gu-i. Sorry? Good.

Okay? Sama... Now, there's a rule...

And you're going to learn this and if I teach it to you now it saves me time later. Okay? Prepositions, which technically in Tibetan are postpositions.

Why? They come after. You don't say at the level.

You say level at. Sama. Okay?

Break them off. Break off all particles. Possessive particles like...

What? Ki. Locative particles like...

Na. Okay? Break them off.

Alright? That's just the rule. The thing is not that some of these rules couldn't have been different, but it's to be consistent is the goal.

To have rules is the goal. You know? That someone said this is the way we're going to do it and that it's internally consistent is the big deal.

You know? Because then people can learn it and make the right sounds. Okay?

Which is the goal of transcription... of pronunciation. Sorry.

This one I don't try to split it nowadays. Okay? We could have said what?

It could have gone like this. Where's our victim? You ready?

Say the first one then say the second one. Is there a difference to you? Not much.

You see, it's not worth it. It's just not worth it. It's a tiny pause perhaps.

But it wasn't meant to be a pause anyway. Say it in Tibetan. Sangye.

Yeah, you know, you can't... You could try to make the distinction, but I don't think it's worth it. Nowadays I'm thinking it's not worth it.

Just sangye. Okay. Did you have a question?

[Speaker 2]
Are we still using the transliteration scheme that you put in the Release 4.0?

[Speaker 1]
Pretty much.

[Speaker 2]
So if we were to print that out for people then that would be helpful?

[Speaker 1]
It'd be helpful. Yeah. Yeah.

We actually defined this system in the Release 4.0 ACIP.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
It was like... I don't think anyone's ever done it. But no one ever read it anyway.

Okay. And it's useful to do. Okay.

Now this is a huge chunk that has to stay together given that the verb is down here. But we're going to insert the verb up above and cut it in half. So where do we cut it in half?

We can just take halfway point. One, two, three. A couple of things for translators here.

Technical things. When you read this there's a thing we call distribution. What it's saying is that nyen rang means what?

Listeners and self-made buddhas. Nyen tu dang rang sangye. It's an abbreviation for nyen tu dang rang sangye.

Nyen rang. Listeners and self-made buddhas. Then you have to supply.

Distribute means you supply a piece from another part of the sentence which is le chung. Okay? Which is down here.

Le chung. So nyen rang tu bong le chung. Tu bong chang sem le chung.

Chang sem chu sum le chung. Right? So instead of saying le chung three times he just put it at the end.

And we're meant to what's called distribute. We're meant to plug it in to each of the first two cases. Got it?

So what it's saying is that the buddhas are born from... Sorry. These lower arhats are born from the buddhas and the buddhas are born from bodhisattvas and bodhisattvas are born from the three qualities.

Okay? So I'll say it again. Buddhas are born from lower arhats.

Sorry. Lower arhats are born from buddhas. Buddhas are born from bodhisattvas and bodhisattvas are born from those three qualities.

Can you say it in English? Lower arhats are born from buddhas, buddhas from bodhisattvas and bodhisattvas from three qualities. You see, we do it in English also.

We distribute. It sounds better. But in Tibetan syntax it comes at the end.

Okay? So in your mind you reserve. It's a little hard to translate.

You're like waiting for the end to see what's going on here because it doesn't make any sense. What it says here is lower arhats, buddhas. Period.

Buddhas, bodhisattvas. Period. Bodhisattvas, three qualities.

From born. Okay? And then when you get to the from born you like supply it in the back.

Now knowing that it's coming by the time you're good at scripture you pause to indicate the distribution. So, just a technical thing. You'd read it like this.

de dang dyepa ni nyera tubong tubong, chang sen chang sen, chö sum mey tu You see, hear the pause? Because they know the distribution is coming. Lower arhats are born from buddhas, buddhas from bodhisattvas, bodhisattvas from these three qualities.

We use the tone of the voice and we use a slight pause in English. So when you're reading this, the correct reading, if you're reading for your teacher in the monastery, you'd go nyera tubong tubong, chang sen chang sen, chö sum mey tu Okay, got it? Let's try it together.

Let's do the whole thing. One, two, three. de dang dyepa ni nyera tubong tubong, chang sen chang sen, chö sum mey tu ba de u ma gyupa rang gi gyö ja da Okay, good.

Nice, good. It's tough to learn. Sound obtuse.

We stole the contradiction right here. Gyalwa, okay? We have to.

Alright, make sense? And that's because these beliefs contribute to all those statements such as the fact that the fact that the listeners and self-made buddhas are born from the learned label, that these learners and self-made buddhas are from the bodhisattvas who turn to the learned label is in fact the very subject matter of learning the new way. Okay?

Got it? It's okay? Sometimes when he's being cute, you should be cute too.

You know? I mean, he's trying to be cute, so don't stifle him. You know?

No, when you're translating for a lama and they say something cute, then make it cute. We were joking around the other day. Who was it?

Oh, Krishna Das. He said, I was sitting next to Professor Thurman at His Holiness' talks in Tucson, and His Holiness said if someone bugs you or hurts you for a week, just be nice. And then, if they hurt you for a month, be nice and keep doing good things back to them.

And if they hurt you, I don't remember exactly, but if they hurt you for like six months and then they still keep hurting you, then tell them to eat shit. You know? Which is, khyapa so.

You can learn, khyapa so. Say, khyapa so. So is the imperative of sa.

Sa means to eat. So is the imperative. Khyapa means, is the unhonorific word for poop.

It's a very insulting word. It's a khyapa so. And if you don't pronounce it right, if you say, khyapa so, it means, eat ice.

So, you got to say it right. If you say, khyapa so, it means, eat a stick. Okay?

So you have to get your pronunciation right. So then the translator just sort of got red and said, tell him to go to hell or something like that. And then Krishna Das said, Professor Thurman like leaned him and said, exactly what I leaned to her and said, that's not what he's saying.

Why did I say that? Oh, so when the Lama's being cute, no, when the Lama's being cute, don't like block them. They've made a decision.

They're taking a leap. So, don't like clean them up for them. You know what I mean?

Okay? If they wanted to clean it up, they could have done it themselves. Okay.

Oh, we have to read this. One, two, three. Okay, good.

And I'm just supplying another contradict. Just to make it, yeah. I think I got some statements.

How did we translate that thing about the buckets on the well? Sochun is that bucket rope thing. What you can do is go back to Sochun.

That's why I don't convert them until I'm done with the text. So I can go back and look up Sochun. You see here, when we translated the root text, like a water wheel, right?

But I think we changed it later with Mr. Alexander. Ever turning wheel. We had a big fight about it, right?

Let's just steal this. Okay. If I had extra time, I would.

Yeah, hopefully. I think that would be nice if you had editors that could do that. But they'd have to know Tibetan.

Who have no true existence? You're coming through. Just the same as the way.

Turns continuously. Continually. Revolves continuously.

Sorry? Revolves. Revolves is good.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
So what he's telling this guy, follow the reasoning, follow the logic. That guy said the Gac Chak extends to all things. Emptiness refuses all things.

Right? So we said, what does that imply? Well, then, all the normal stuff that appears in the world is just in your head.

And it's deceptive. Therefore, when you get to enlightenment, it doesn't exist anymore. Oh.

So, are mental objects and physical objects deceptive reality? Yes. So you must be saying those don't exist in a Buddha paradise.

Right. Okay. He's basically saying all deceptive objects are wrong.

And invalid. So, then, you can't say that. You can't agree even to the most basic subject matter that was set forth from the very beginning as the whole subject matter of the whole book.

Because you can't agree that Buddhas are born from Bodhisattvas. Or that when Buddhas speak what? Dharma.

Physical Dharma. Tape recordings. CDs.

Bhoktimba classes. Those are deceptive reality. So, they can't be affecting Arhats.

They can't be affecting Hinayana people. You know. So, you've thrown that out, right?

[Speaker 2]
Oh, okay.

[Speaker 1]
And I guess you've thrown out that love. Right? Or knowledge.

That the book started out by saying these three qualities that you should develop. Right? I guess you got those out too.

Okay. And also that whole description about people being stuck in perpetual downward cycles. Like buckets banged around in a well.

You have to throw that out too because that's just deceptive reality. Okay? Got it?

So, basically your position cancels everything about the book. I mean, that's in short commentary to the book. We'll just throw the book out.

Okay? He's like getting his... What do you call it?

Getting his punches into the guy. Is the fact about... Has to have twice the effect?

[Speaker 2]
Which one? The fact of the fact. Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You do need it. Think about it. Cook it.

The fact that the fact is the very subject matter. The fact that that fact is the subject matter. That's what the sentence is saying.

Okay. You see this little thing here? That little thing.

That's like a beautiful ornament in the text. And it means what? Big new section coming up.

Like you might see two of those in the text or five of those in the text. So like you've graduated, right? Like you guys stuck it out.

It's been like almost two years now, right? So we're about to start the real text. I keep telling you that, right?

But here's the ornament to prove it. Here's the ornament. Like you made it to the main subject matter.

How long is this text? I mean it's 736 pages in word format like this. We're 187 pages into it.

We're almost like a third. But you have to take out the English. So we're like a tenth or something.

Okay? Like a tenth. Now we're 10% done.

We're about to embark on the 90% about what? Here's the subject. Let's read it together.

One, two, three. Sumba gyal se, pakpe sa, nyam su, len su, she pa la. Sa chu nam sha, jil te.

Su su, ngo wo, she pa. Sa yin dem, she pa o. Say she pa o.

OK, and that's a big terminator particle. Let's call it a termination particle, OK? Bo.

We've reached the third part. And you can just say, now we're going to start in part three, or you can do what? Like, be polite, like be a gentleman or a gentlewoman, and go back and tell them what part three is.

Who's going to remember? That was like 50 pages ago. So don't be lazy.

Like, go back and find it, and tell them where we are, OK? So what you can do is take a little chunk out of this thing, pakpaisar. Let's try pakpaisar.

And you don't have to spell the beginning right. OK, this is where he first presented these three divisions. First of what three parts?

Explanation of the causal levels, OK? So the explanation of causal levels has three parts, a general presentation on this system, and more particularly, how you practice the paths, the levels of a non-arya, and then how you practice the levels of a bodhisattva who is an arya, OK? Don't forget that.

This book's not just about bodhisattvas, like the guide to the bodhisattva's way of life, which is really, when he says bodhisattva's there, what's he talking about? Not only that, non-bodhisattvas. That book was written, he calls us bodhisattvas.

He says, a bodhisattva should be doing this. He's like calling us bodhisattvas when we're not. I mean, that book is two levels down on that point.

But here he says, when he mentions bodhisattva in this context, he's saying, he's assuming, shirshak, someone who has seen emptiness directly. So just remember that as we go on. So as per weight, and this is an outline thing.

As per weight, it took us about 150 pages to get to the first of the three divisions. It took us half a page to do the second division. And it's going to take us 600 pages to do the third division.

That's why you shouldn't, as many baby translators do, just accept that as how you're going to split your book up. But don't fall for that. Don't make the Tibetan outline your outline for how you split the book up physically.

Don't make part two half a page, and part one 50 pages, and part three 700 pages. It just means the person didn't understand the function of the parts in Tibetan. All right.

So I'm just going to cut out this whole thing. Why not? Who cares?

It's just a computer. OK. And we'll go back to where we were.

Oops. I didn't mark it. Ooh.

Oh, you're right. She's right. I should have just searched for the ornament.

So what comes up now, I have to be careful to cut out later. All right. What did I call it?

Part. OK. That way you can, this is how you can translate 30, 40, 50 pages for class tomorrow.

You just keep copying and copying. OK. And it's correct.

It's more correct. This brings us to, OK. You should learn the word namsak.

You should learn the word namsak. And I want to show you something about that. We were spelling it on the overhead the other night, because it's salam namsak.

And I'll show you something, just so you know. Is it namsak, or is it namsak? OK.

We're looking to see how namsak is spelled. What's the best way to find out? Where to search?

You can search the right dictionary, but what's even more conclusive in a way? Yeah. Search the books written for the last 1,000 years in Tibet.

Why not? OK. All the books, or a big chunk.

Namsak with a G, all right? One vote for G. Two votes for G.

Three votes for G. This is boring. I thought there was going to be a, there's a B.

Three to one. Four to one. Five to one.

Six to one. I thought it was going to be more controversial. Seven to one, eight to one.

OK. Not very controversial. Anyway, this word is spelled in two different ways.

Don't get confused. Namsak means everything you wanted to know about blah, OK? It's a very, very common word.

The tantric text you're studying, what most people would call it is a salam namsak, a treatment, or a, give me a translation. It's everything you want to know about the paths and levels of tantra. Give me one noun.

A what? Yeah, you can say that. But it more implies, you can say that in very specific contexts.

You can say that. Presentation is OK. It's a little bit too general.

Namsak is more like, it's like everything, in English it's exactly everything you wanted to know about plumbing, or everything you ever wanted to know about, it's everything you ever wanted to know about blah.

[Speaker 2]
It's like the media, a complete presentation.

[Speaker 1]
A what?

[Speaker 2]
A complete presentation.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, what were you going to say?

[Speaker 2]
It's like the media, whatever it is that you, that it's on.

[Speaker 1]
Well, but sometimes they're only a page long. That's a problem.

[Speaker 2]
Someone said idiot, not comprehensive. Carol said idiot's guide. Idiot's guide is good.

[Speaker 1]
How about comprehensive presentation?

[Speaker 2]
Let's do that. Yes, compendium.

[Speaker 1]
Compendium is like collecting things. I use it this way. Let's see, comprehensive.

[Speaker 2]
Explication.

[Speaker 1]
Explication's really good. Who said that? I like that.

You win a hat.

[Speaker 2]
He has a hat.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah? You got to get in, if I can get in. It's in her bag.

I was going to give this hat to whoever came up with the best one. Sorry, I don't have one. It's the only way I could go to the beach.

Thank you. Thank you.

[Speaker 2]
I'm glad you earned it.

[Speaker 1]
In general, explication are good. OK, here's a hard one. Say ngo.

Ngo. Ngo can, as a translator, be open-minded when you get here, OK? Listen to what he's trying to say in normal English.

Ngo normally means what?

[Speaker 2]
Essence.

[Speaker 1]
Essence. It can also mean, you know, definition. And it can also mean just a description, or the nature of something.

So don't get stuck. This is a translator's role. This is maybe one of the most important roles of translation.

Don't expect that the world is going to be so neat, that there's a single Tibetan word and a single English word that corresponds to it. Like, don't expect that. And don't put your readers through that.

Don't keep translating this as essence every time it comes up. Because it has like four or five totally different meanings in English words. So don't just, out of convenience, be lazy and say, oh, I'm always going to translate this word as this word.

Somebody came up to me that day and said, I have this project. We're going to translate the 10-year with computers. I said, oh, how?

And they said, well, you know, like Ngo would be essence. Yeah, so every time it comes up, it will be essence, right? Or like that, you know?

It just doesn't work that way. It's every time saw comes up, it's going to be earth or dirt. You know?

I'm sorry. Earth. So Bodhisattva dirt?

I mean, Bodhisattva earth? Or, you know, which word, which single word are you going to pick for the computer, you know? It'll never work for Tibetan philosophy.

It'll never work for Buddhist philosophy, you know? Because one word in a context, a great translator should translate it in the way it would be said by a college-educated person. So how would you say it?

An explanation of the Ngo of each individual level. So he's going to give you an overview of the 10 levels. And he's going to go through this thing of presenting the blank of each separate level for you.

[Speaker 2]
What characterizes each level?

[Speaker 1]
Uh...

[Speaker 2]
Features. Core. Features.

[Speaker 1]
It's more... It's less core than core and more core than feature.

[Speaker 2]
Specific.

[Speaker 1]
Very important.

[Speaker 2]
So why is essence there? Essence.

[Speaker 1]
Well, essence means... If I say I'm going to explain the essence of what you're going to do on Tuesday, you know, I would give it to you in 30 seconds, right? This is the main part of the book.

It takes you the whole book to give you the Ngo of these 10.

[Speaker 2]
Details.

[Speaker 1]
The what?

[Speaker 2]
Nexus.

[Speaker 1]
Nexus, man. What were you going to say?

[Speaker 2]
Details.

[Speaker 1]
Uh...

[Speaker 2]
Highlights.

[Speaker 1]
It's not a highlight. See, highlight also implies showing.

[Speaker 2]
Aspects. Core. Attributes.

Essentials.

[Speaker 1]
Essential also implies that you don't give much detail, right? I'm just going to give you the essentials. I'm not going to give you detail.

The detail that's predation. You need candy or something. You don't throw these things.

Or these. Somebody found a Krispy Kreme outlet over here. I'm not hinting.

Whoever gives me the best word. Yeah. I think Cat wins here.

There are two of them in there. OK. A detailed explanation.

Whoa. OK. Now, I'm going to give you the Ngo of these 10.

Oh, did I hint at that? And how about, I have my own preference nowadays for yunten, but you tell me, yunten, guna in Sanskrit. How about good qualities?

Good qualities. I would say almost high qualities. I'm going to go for high qualities.

High spiritual qualities. Okay, you'll read, I'll eat. One, two, three.

Eat double. Don't forget, if you eat the whole thing, you won't get any in the future. This is a principle we were talking about at the board meeting last night.

Doing other's books for them. Like, writing other people's bad deeds for them. Okay, eat.

There's no end to it.

[Speaker 2]
Any more notes?

[Speaker 1]
Okay, find my mistake.

[Speaker 2]
Satsu.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, satsu, good. Yeah, okay. Satsu is not one unit.

Which brings up an interesting question. You can't do the pronunciation of a text unless you can read it. You know?

Because you don't know where to split the words. You see? So, but still come on Tuesday, okay?

It'll still save time. And 90% of what you do will be correct. So, okay.

And, yeah, you might get stuck scanning something. Okay, so I can't say I misled you. Okay, I'm going to put two mistakes in here.

You tell me. Chuchipa is correct. Yeah, I'm going to pull it down from up there.

Sorry? Yeah, tun is T-U-N. Okay.

A, an O sound that comes before certain suffix letters like na is umlauted. So it goes from O to uh, right? Say O.

Uh. Now if you ask a normal person on the street, if you say uh, now write that down. They'll put an O or a U?

Well, they'll put a U-H probably, right? But between vowels, they hear it closer to a U than to an O. And it is closer to an English U than to an O.

So people who like spell B-U-T-O-N, which is the way everyone in the world spells it, they're just mixing up what? Transcription and pronunciation. You see?

It's just endemic. Everyone does it, you see? They see a naru, so they think it has to be O.

But the sound is U, you see? So people will look at what you're doing, they'll say you're crazy. That's fine.

Okay. But it's more correct. There's another mistake here.

Yeah, we're in Namchar. Okay? That's a silent prefect.

That's a silent headhunter. Okay? You'll do it, I'm just warning you.

I'm just setting you up. You'll come up on Tuesday, you'll have a whole line like this. And then I'll say, come on, we already told you that.

All right? Okay. Here we go.

How are we going to do that text when we hit something like jitikpa? We're just going to print the text like this. You see?

And it's not going to be even on the right side. Got that? You see what I mean?

Okay? And are we going to try to do this? I don't think so.

It's too much. It's no problem for a person sitting... And it'll come out.

Whoa, slow down, honey. It's no problem for a person sitting in the audience who doesn't speak Tibetan to see it like this somehow. You know what I mean?

That's okay. I don't think we'll try to space it like that. Yeah?

I do, when it's open, vowel before it and it's very strong. As in... What would that be?

Ganden. This one's a little harder. I don't know.

This one's not even consistent, okay? It's nilnjar. But God, I mean, try to pronounce nilnjar.

You know? It's maybe a little cruel. Ganden's okay, right?

Ganden's okay. But nilnjar. We just don't do that in English, you know?

Nilnjar. Yeah, it's a little like... I don't know.

My general rule is... Now you get into a new point. Earl brought up a new can of worms.

You opened a big can of worms. The person... The person who's writing the pronunciation has to know how modern Hasa dialect speakers pronounce it.

Okay? I'll give you an example. How do you do this one?

It's dunkor. For no good reason at all. It's not a third column.

It shouldn't be a premezo. But how about this one? Modern speakers say gyelmsen.

Okay? So that's another thing. But we're not going to get into that.

I'm not going to bust your brain from that. Suffice to say that premezos that are really strong, I would put in like ganden. And ones that aren't so strong, I wouldn't put in.

You see? And it's not just open vowels. How do you say that dharma star in the Vajrayogini tantra, in Tibetan?

Chunjung. That's a premezo. And it's not an open vowel.

But it's just the way Tibetan speakers pronounce it. And it's so heavy that you better put it as chunjung. Because if you put chujung, they won't know what you're saying.

Okay? Alright? So now a new call.

You have to know the text. You have to be able to split it up. And you have to know how modern speakers in central Tibet would pronounce it.

Okay? So it gets a little complicated, right? And you'll make mistakes, but it'll still save me time.

Okay. Should we tell them what the first is? Come on, it's just, it's in the last sentence.

You know? That's okay. I mean, then it's okay to say that here's the first.

You know? They just had it in the last sentence. What are we going to give them?

A general explication of the ten levels. Here's the first. How do you want to pronounce, how do you want to translate kundu?

Kundu means everywhere. U means light. It's the name of the 11th Bodhisattva Lama.

It's not too bad. Don't get too stuck in the literal meaning. I mean, if someone wanted to say like a lot of light in English, how would they...

Normal English. Like, when Geshe Michael goes like that, there's kundu. I ain't bringing no jelly beans in.

I mean, how would you say it in normal English? Just a lot of light. That has a...

[Speaker 2]
No, it's the name of a Bodhisattva Lama.

[Speaker 1]
It's actually a Buddha Lama, but... I like dazzling light. Okay.

Who's did that? Okay. I kind of like it.

It's dazzling, it's like dazzling.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
So this is nice. Here we're about to learn the sources for for Master Chandrakirti's presentation, right? His book, Entering the Middle Way, is now outlined at the 10 Bodhisattva levels, plus the 11th level.

But where does he get it from? You know, here's the big question, in Tibet, in the background. Where'd you get that from?

Who says that? Okay, here we go. Oh, where's that?

Okay. On his knees? One, two, three.

One, two, three. Okay, final mistake. Nah, I'm never going to learn it.

It can't be that obvious, okay? Like you hand him to Ali, and she like wanders through. Okay.

All right. Tell me, where's the boo-boos? Good.

There's the first mistake. D-B-U, when it's D-B-U, the B changes to... U.

Okay. Sorry? Nice.

So here's a big rule for pronunciation. Use a Y for, for apostrophe I, for agikuyi. What is agikuyi?

Genitive, possessive. It's like apostrophe S in English. Whenever you see this apostrophe I in Tibetan, it means apostrophe S in English, okay?

Which is really weird in English. Like if you're learning English, and there's this apostrophe S there, you say, why is there an apostrophe there? What's it mean, you know?

Okay? Try to teach that to a non-English speaker. Any other problems?

I would split you and gay. Yeah. Okay?

Okay, good. Should you capitalize the name of a book, for example? Uma, Rinchen, Tara.

I don't bother. Because in Tibetan they don't, that's not how they show you that it's the name of a book. You see what I mean?

That's, sometimes I do it like in mantras, like Bhairava, just because it looks almost impolite to say Bhairava without capital B. But otherwise not. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
In the pronunciation?

[Speaker 1]
Oh, in English for sure. In English for sure. But, but Tibetans don't do that.

Okay? How do you translate Uma, Rinchen, Tara? Rinchen, Tara.

Did we say precious jewels?

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Now you may be remembering something from the last relationship talk. And for those we simplify things, like grossly. So don't, also don't get confused.

Just keep your audience in your mind. Like in a general talk in Tucson, we're not going to say Mahimika, Ratna, what is it? Mala.

You know? We're going to say string of jewels. And then, but when we get to here we might say something else.

So keep your audience in mind. And don't be afraid to morph for different audiences. That's your job.

That's what Buddhas do. Na tsog shing du, na tsog suk kui, na tsog thap kyi, na tsog du gyur gyur, na tsog sap pa, ji shing druk se ma, shing gyur druk kui, dashi shog. Where is that?

Five na tsogs there. Where? End of the Vajrayogini sadhana.

You know, may I appear in different ways, for different disciples, on different worlds, who have different motivations, and different kinds of thinking. You know? Morph.

And then, let your language morph in different contexts. You know? Okay.

I'll throw out a question. Or... What do we say?

Something light. Dazzling light. The Tibetan word here is rakpa.

For the ampersand. Rakpa. As like charak.

It's going to come a lot in Tantra. Char means subtle, rakpa means the opposite. I don't know.

You know, my generation, the 60s, right, Michael? Gross meant, it had so many connotations. That's gross.

Do you prefer, is it rakpa or gross? Which do you prefer? Sometimes I use the word that Rinpoche used just to honor him.

What do you say? Okay, let's go with that. Sometimes I just put that in to honor Rinpoche.

Then when I read it, I think, oh, that's what Rinpoche would have said. Sorry? Sorry, you're correct.

What's the tenth level? Dharma, Magga, Samadhi. Fourth chapter of the Yoga Sutra.

It's in the fourth chapter of the Yoga Sutra. It's very cool. Cloud of Dharma, right?

This will be the, oh, let me move it. Okay, one, two, three. Oh, your slaps are getting good.

A couple of pronouns here that are interesting. Je-sun-jang-ne or Jin-dang, okay? Jin-dang.

You heard Rinpoche, Jin-dang? And, what's the other one? Rinpoche, Jin-dang?

Deve-je-dang. Jin-dang. Say Jin-dang.

Very common word, Jin-dang means those who follow, like a disciple or a book that follows another book. Jin-dang. And the Rinpoche, Jin-dang as opposed to Deve-je-dang is very, very famous.

Rinpoche, Jin-dang means those who follow after what makes sense. And Deve-je-dang means those who follow after what they believe. And you're the first type, which is superior.

You don't believe what your lama says. You establish it for yourself, first, and then you buy it. Okay.

Ladies and gentlemen, Ten-lam-be-be-je. Say Ten-lam-be-be-je.

[Speaker 2]
Ten-lam-be-be-je.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Be-be-je. Okay?

Just a note for translators, okay? Do-de. What's Do-de?

What is it in Sanskrit, you know? Sutra-pitaka. Sutra-pitaka.

Say Sutra-tripitaka. Sutra-pitaka. The basket of sutra.

Okay? And the trip-tripitaka. We say tripitaka.

The tripitaka is the three baskets of scripture. Okay? But here would be a mistake to translate it as basket of sutra.

It doesn't refer to the basket of sutra. Sometimes they use the general word for all the of one of the classes of sutra for a sutra. So, don't always think that you have to translate Do-de, Sutra-pitaka as the basket of sutra.

Don't get caught. This is one book. This is one sutra.

It's not a whole section from all the sutras. It's just a... I don't know why they did that, but they do that.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah? In the last part about the chair, Oh, good.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, you're right. Okay. It should go right here.

Okay? Cool? Good point.

Okay. Now, this is our last section because we got three minutes left. Anything unusual about these four lines?

Five lines? Yeah, it's in verse. What's an easy way to know that?

There's a comma in front of the sentence. There's a comma in front of the sentence. That's always a...

What do you call it? A giveaway that this is going to be poetry. Normally.

Normally. And then obviously it's also in the same meter, those four lines. Which means you're going to have to read it in meter, which is 99% of the time.

Okay? Unless it's First Panchen Lama or Milarepa. And that would be And he uses the to put the most powerful word.

Pain is what you get if you're not nice. Hell is where you go. It sounds like that.

Milarepa sounds like that. And then the emphasis in a normal line of verse would be somewhere about three-quarters of the way down. So it's not as strong, really.

Milarepa quite invented this. So here we go. Don't forget your But don't overdo it.

It doesn't matter. Literature really makes fun of me, right? Now the opening line is just saying from this book.

So you don't have to did did there. Okay? One, two, three.

Dhenile Jita Nyanta Tepala Nyanta Sani Geshe Pa Deshin Tepa Tempo La Chanchu Senpe Sa Chuo Shistu Me Now, this is a Dhamaka. Okay? This Chuo right here.

If the meter requires it, you can smash it into one. If the meter requires it, you can split it into two. Right here, it's what?

It's two. Chuo Sa Chuo But if you didn't need the meter, it'd be Sa Chuo. Got it?

Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Okay? The only point for a translator is that the just so comes at the beginning of the first element. Okay?

Jita in Tibetan. Tibetan syntax would would and then a and then a translator who's not sensitive would say, similarly you know and we don't really start sentences with similarly. Or do we?

Maybe we do. Just so. Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Huh?

[Speaker 1]
You can say just as too. Yeah. No, but I what I want to say is Jishin always comes at the beginning and and think about putting it in different places to make it more interesting.

Okay? Than just saying similarly. Come on.

Okay? Alright. Let's see.

Just a a preview of what's coming up next. Are they why are they called bodhisattva levels? Sorry?

She says because they're the levels that a bodhisattva travels. In the normal presentation do you does a bodhisattva start on their first bodhisattva level? Yeah, only after they see emptiness directly.

So think about it. They're not bodhisattva levels. I mean, you can only a bodhisattva can travel these levels.

But not everybody who's a bodhisattva is on these levels. How's that? That might imply that the word bodhisattva and bodhisattva level doesn't mean what bodhisattva usually means.

And you have to think about that. Okay? What's the main subject matter?

I mean, what's the main quality that distinguishes each level from the other? Yeah, it's the perfections. It's the six perfections.

The first bodhisattva, six bodhisattva levels are related to the first six perfections. And in fact, the sixth bodhisattva level in this book takes probably 67% of the book. Why?

That's wisdom. Okay, that's emptiness. You know, so they will give a presentation of giving and patience and all that.

But only a few pages each. But then when they hit level six, that's the whole book. And then they just wrap up with the other four.

Okay? That would imply that the bodhisattva and bodhisattva levels refer to what? Well, it implies that it refers to bodhisattva activities.

You see, levels are bodhisattva activity. But it's not that either. So, you can think about it for three days.

Okay? Alright? Why are they called bodhisattva levels?

Okay. Well, that's his next subject. Alright.

[Speaker 2]
Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Okay, thanks.

[Speaker 1]
If you have time on Tuesday, please come. Even if it's just for the hours. If you have other classes, you can fit in the hours.

It's fun. And John Brady needs the help too. He's got a lot of work to do.

He does a lot of work in preparation for our courses. So, like, right now he and Ali are are managing all the input that's necessary for all your Bhogchenpa and your Tantric course stuff and everything else for the fall. He's already...

They're working on that right now. And you don't have to have any particular skills if you just want to come and help scan stuff. It's very helpful for the next semester.

You see? So they're already working on the next semester now. So, if you can, Tuesday or Thursday.

Okay. Alright. Oh, what's this?

Oh. Hmm.