Вступление на срединный путь (текущий курс, Аризона), занятие 49

[Speaker 1]
Okay, one, two, three. ,GAL GCIG MA RIG PA DANG DE BAG CHAG GNYIS RIG PA YIN ZHIG GI SKYAB CHE DUS BYED NAS We have a GAL GCIG, so we have to go look for the verb, which comes at the end, right? So, let's go see...

Oh, it's just right here. Okay, the belief. We got to GYAB BYED.

You know when you say in Tibet, you say, in debate, you say, MA GYAB, MA GYAB, not necessarily so, right? That's not necessarily the case. Literally, GYAB means what?

To cover, right? And you see it in the word GYAB, GYAM DRO, which is what? Yeah, refuge.

And it means to go for a place of shelter or protection or coverage, you see. But in logic, GYAB means, for example, humans, GYAB Americans, okay? And dogs, GYAB Chihuahuas.

Like that, okay? Are GYABJES over Chihuahuas, because their set is bigger than the set of Chihuahuas, or Igua, right? Huh?

Yeah, I like that, same. So, what he's saying here is that ignorance and the seeds for ignorance are GYABJES over wisdom or mind. You could say, pervade.

Pervade? Okay, let's read this together. One, two, three.

DE NYID SRED PA NA RIG PA YID SHES SRED PA DANG SANGS RGYAS KYI SA NA RIG PA RGYUN CHE PA DANG NYAM SHA YID SHES KYI SA NA RIG PA RGYUN CHE PA DOD PA Okay? So, they say that our tendency to see things wrong is so much a part of our mind that if you were ever to stop that tendency, you would stop the mind itself. And then there are lower schools of Buddhism, like Abhidharma schools that say, say BEM RIG, RGYUN CHE.

BEM RIG, RGYUN CHE. BEM means physical matter, like atoms, molecules. RIG means mind.

RGYUN CHE means the flow is cut off at nirvana. There are lower schools of Buddhism, and you heard that kind of Dharma rumor, right? It got into American Buddhism early, and it's been hard to stamp it out, you know?

That, oh, you reach nirvana, you just kind of float into nothingness, and you're just nothing after that. And this is a similar idea, because if you stop ignorance, if you stop seeing things wrong, they say it's so much a part of your mind that your mind would stop. Then that would imply also that when you're seeing emptiness directly, what happens?

The flow of the mind would stop. And when you became a Buddha, the flow of the mind would stop. But they believe that.

They think it's like you enter some super consciousness where there's nothing. Where you're not thinking. Yeah, it's understood.

Nyamchak Yeshe literally means the wisdom of samapatti, right? Of deep meditation. But it's understood here to refer to the direct perception of emptiness.

And it most often refers to that, when you say Nyamchak Yeshe, as opposed to what? Jeytab Yeshe. So those are pairs.

Okay. One, two, three. MI RIG TE CIG SANG LAS MA RIG PAS RAB RIG DANG BYA BA DAG GIS YESHE ZHES GSUNGS PA'I PHYIR Okay.

What's MI RIG mean? Yeah, but that's wrong. Because six L's less.

With clear words, yeah? With clear words. Yeah, it's Master Chandrakirti's other great commentary on the Madhyamika Avatar.

What's the difference between the two? Yeah, six L's word by word. And umla jupa.

Madhyamika Avatar, entering the middle way, is a meaning commentary. It doesn't necessarily go word by word. Although so far it has, right?

Okay. M says, speaks of ... Now you translate.

What's MA RIG PAS RAB RIG? We had it the other day. We were practicing ruffles.

Ruffles have rujus. The what? Yeah, it's like an eye problem, right?

Like a cataract or something. The cataract of ignorance. DANG BYA BA DANG BYA BA is an idiom, right?

Meaning what? Yeah, free of. DANG is of here.

BYA BA means free. DAG GIS YIS SU The wisdom, which is free of the cataract of ignorance. Why would that prove what he's trying to prove?

What's he trying to prove? Yeah. It's not the case that ignorance so infuses the mind that if you got rid of ignorance you would ...

It's like saying that ignorance is like a cancer, and if you cut it out, you'd kill the brain or something. But then he says, no, that's not true, because of what? Because Master Chandrakirti speaks about what?

Yeah, a kind of mental state which is free of those. And according to you, that couldn't exist. Got it?

Okay? Alright. Just the word, wisdom which is free of ignorance.

That already implies that you don't kill the mind when you cut out ignorance. Okay? Okay.

One, two, three. DE LTAR NDOD PA NI MUD TEG CHE GYIS PHYIR MA SEMS KYIS RANG BZHIN DUN DOD PA DANG GSUNGS PA'I SHES DANG. Okay, DANG.

Alright. Okay. So there are some non-Buddhist schools in ancient India that said the very nature of the mind is is avidyā, right?

Ignorance. And the mind can't be separated from it. It never will be.

In order... The only evolution you can do is to get rid of the mind. And then enter some...

Then they say, well, what's left? And they say, cosmic consciousness or something, you know. Then you say, is that a state of mind?

And they say, I guess, you know. But that's another thing, okay? So we're just like saying, come on, you know, your belief that ignorance and the seeds' fragrance are so endemic in the mind that if you remove them you would kill the mind itself is the same as these ancient non-Buddhist schools that said the same thing, that said the very nature of the mind is to be impure.

Okay. One, two, three. YOD CHEN GYI CHE PA CHEN DRA BA ZHIG GYI DE KHO NA NYI NGON SUM DU THO BA'I TSUL GYIS PA'I LEN DU THA NI DU SEM GYI DE KHO NA NYI NGON SUM DU THO BA SUM PA'I CHE He's giving a second reason.

It's called a two-headed reason. So the question came up. YOD CHEN means what?

Yes, subject. What's YOD? YOD is object.

So YOD CHEN means subject. So the very word in Tibetan for the mind is sometimes YOD CHEN, which means that which possesses an object. So the idea that subjects and objects could ever be...

that you could ever have a subject without an object or an object without a subject is impossible, even according to the word they use in Tibetan and Sanskrit. So, so questions came up. How is it that the subject's state of mind, how does it act when it sees emptiness directly?

And this is like an issue that came up in the end of the Yoga Sutra. How can a defective instrument, the mind, which is ignorant, which is infused with ignorance, how can it ever fix things? How can you ever see the truth with a defective state of mind?

If the telescope, the glass is broken, how can you see stars? How could you even look at the telescope? How is that possible?

And then they say, in response, they say that, nominally speaking, the mind can catch itself doing the wrong thing, nominally speaking. What does that mean? What does that mean?

It's like this, I don't know, I think it was in the Yoga Sutra book, which, by the way, worked. It's interesting, it worked in the sense that it sold 8,000 copies so far in the first two months or three months. So it's like infecting the whole yoga community.

Now it's like an idea, it's like the Christian idea, to put out a new interpretation of what they've already grown up with, and it worked. That's like equal to the garden for the last six or seven years or something, in the first two months, three months. So it's working.

That kind of thing is working. But anyway, in there it says, it gives the example of a movie on an airplane. Nowadays on the airplane they're too cheap to hire an actor to put their seatbelt on in the safety film, and they do it with animation.

So they have this really stupid looking guy putting his seatbelt on because they're too cheap to hire a real actor or have four seats of a plane used for half an hour. And so you are learning something from a mirage. There's a fake person telling you, here's how you put your seatbelt on.

And then by watching this fake person you can undertake an action which can save your life. So does the fake person function as a person? Yeah, yeah.

I mean it's just nominally a person. You can just call it a person, a fake person. But it functions.

I mean the movie, if you pay attention to the movie and there's an accident and you listen and you put your seatbelt on, then the fake person can save your life. So it's the same. The mind is infected.

The mind is wrong at all times. But not when it makes a conclusion about whether something is real or not. So like if I say, we did it last time, did these milk duds come from the store?

And you say no. And so I say, well where did they come from? And you say they came from your past karma, right?

But then if I say, go get me some more milk duds, everyone will go to the store, right? I mean you will, right? So I mean intellectually you understood.

The mind, which is defective, made conclusions about the milk duds that yeah, they come from giving milk duds to people. And even as you understood that, you were thinking about the milk duds in the wrong way. Even as you understood that, you were believing that the milk duds came from a store.

Those milk duds that came from a store that Geshe-la is holding up didn't come from the store, because that's what you're thinking. Deep down inside that's what you're thinking. And the next time you need milk duds, you won't be like running to your house to get some to give to somebody.

You will get in your car and go to the store. And that's ignorance. That's an act of ignorance.

But the mind that's still wrapped up in that act of ignorance can still make proper conclusions. And you can still start to birth wisdom, which sees that these come from giving to somebody. And then sooner or later that wisdom will beat the wrong way of thinking about the milk duds.

Why? Because it's right. And they say that in scripture.

It's just right. So sooner or later truth will out. The truth overcomes false.

Sooner or later. If they keep going head to head, then sooner or later when you want milk duds really bad, you'll start handing them to other people. As an instinct.

As part of instinctual behavior. And then you're on your way out of samsara. Samsara means there are days when you don't get milk duds.

Because you didn't know how to get them. That's samsara. It's not like, oh, I'm going to give up samsara so I'm not going to eat milk duds.

It's not like that. It's not like that. Really it's not like that.

It's, I'm going to give up samsara so I'm going to, because I like milk duds, I'm going to give them away every time I get some. Then you're leaving samsara. So chocolate is in samsara.

Or not. Okay. Now you hear these people speak as if, I don't know, I'm going to give up samsara.

I'm going to go to Diamond Mountain and stay in a tent. And then samsara is waiting there for them. It's like that.

It's not like that. Okay. You can be in samsara in the tent at Diamond Mountain.

And you can be out of samsara in a regular job with a regular family in a regular city. All right. I think I'm going to sit down and sing a bit here.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
One, two, three. per na dri ma jen gyi do gyi gyi kha mer jukpa na me tri ma sek kyang gu mi sekpa tar Okay. What's per na?

Yeah, for example. Very famous. Tri sum ma, what's juk?

Stick something into something. Yeah, right. Or to get somebody to do something.

Okay. She had like ten juks in the last text she was doing. It's like, for example, do gyu.

Do gyu means like, it's apparently some kind of substance. Do means stone, right? And I think it's a kind of asbestos.

But the point is you can make fabric out of it and it won't burn. So, do you want to say asbestos or do you want to say fireproof? Fireproof?

Yeah? We used to use it in the diamond business. We would chew it.

And then you put the raw diamond, you make it into like gum. And my teacher had this big tumor on his throat. And we didn't figure out why.

But anyway. And you put the paste on the end of the tool. And then you put the...

When you have a round diamond that you can't hold it with the claws of the instrument, you just stick it into this asbestos. And then you set it down on the wheel and it's so hot that it just tightens up. It dries up in like a second.

And it holds the stone until you put a couple of facets on it. And then like a couple of years later they told us this is highly carcinogenic to even get near it, you know. Anyway, I don't know what they use now.

Putting a piece of fireproof... Okay? Alright?

It's a kind of cloth that is... Like you have asbestos cloth. It's got oil stains on it.

You stick it in the fire. The oil stains burn off. What's the oil stain a metaphor for?

Ignorance and... It's seeds. It's seeds.

Yeah. And the cloth is the mind. Okay.

Let's see if he says that. One, two, three. ,NYAM ZHAG YI ZHIG GIS TSE NA PHYI MA ZAD KYANG, ,YI ZHIG RANG NYID MI ZAD PA LTA BU YIN PA'I PHYIR, Yeah.

Is that enough? Okay. Okay?

Sorry? It means the direct perception. It's that NYAM ZHAG YI ZHIG and RJES RTOGS YI ZHIG thing again?

Okay. One, two, three. ,DE YIN TE RIN CHEN DRANG BA LAS, Oh, what's going to happen now?

What are you going to do? You're going to go to this ,DI'I, ,DI'I, ,DI'I, ,DI'I, ,DI'I. Okay?

Here we go. ,DE PHYIR DE LTAR MTHO BA GROL, ,GANG GIS MTHO BA RGYUR SHES NA, ,THA NI DRU NI SEMS LA GCOD, ,CHAD PA DANG, Okay? Who sees emptiness?

The mind. And do you reach liberation? Yes.

So you must still have a mind then? Okay? So it can't be that the mind is destroyed when you...

Okay? When you lose your ignorance for a while. Alright?

Like that. But just nominally it's the mind. Yeah, that's fine.

These are nominally milk duds. Are they ultimately milk duds? Why?

That's true. But also, when we say ultimately, what we mean is that you bought in a store. When we hear say ultimately, we mean that came from a store.

Okay? Nature coming from a store. Okay?

That's all. That's all. No, because when you say it could have been anything...

We had a... The word for milk in Sanskrit is kshira. And the word for dud is...

We said it was bindu. And then we called them kshira bindus. And in retreat, three-year retreat, it meant you were having lung?

And your poops come out like this? So you got kshira bindu? Yeah.

Like a whole day. Like you work for an hour and you get one little kshira bindu. That means you have lung really bad.

If you ever want to know, I mean, if you're in a long retreat, if you're doing good, if your winds are doing well, seriously, your poop starts to get less and less. But then if on top of that you get lung, it gets constipated. So yeah, it's true that these aren't self-existently called milk duds.

Milk duds could refer to something else. But that doesn't... And it's true, but it doesn't...

I mean, it doesn't directly help you get liberated. But if you say, you don't get these from the store. These didn't come from the store.

Then it's... Normally they're milk duds. And when we say milk duds, we normally mean things that you bought in a store.

So that's all. It's like an admission that normally people in the world would say, when they say milk duds, they think of something that you buy in a store. But ultimately they're not that.

Okay? But you can say milk duds that you got from the store. That's okay.

Because your karma made the store. And your karma made the milk duds. And your karma made the person who brought them here.

Like that, okay? Yeah, you can say deceptively also. Yeah.

He just wants to point out that the instrument is broken. He wants to remind you that the instrument is broken. Okay?

You can say that. But you can also say deceptively they come from the store. That's why it's deceptive.

No, I don't think so. To a deceived state of mind, they came from the store. That's what deceptively means.

Right? Didn't we say that? Okay, anyway.

But it's good. What you're saying is good. I'm just not in the mood to...

Okay. Uh... Okay.

All right. Okay. Oops.

One, two... Do you know that second word? What are you going to say on the second word?

YIN. Say YIN. Like strong.

YIN. When it has a prefix letter. YIN.

Okay. One, two, three. CHOS YIN LTOS PA NAS KYANG JI LTAR MED YI DAG PAS KHOS NA TSOR DRIS MED DRIS MA CAN JI LTAR MED YI NANG CHUG NA DRIS MA TSIG KYUR NUS PA YIN LTAR DE GZHON USA WA YI SEM DE PHYAG LAS KHYAD DRIS MA CAN YE SHES MED YI DRIS MA SIG DE NYID USA MA YIN NO SHES GSUNGS PA'I SHES Do you remember how we translated this?

Yeah? Who wrote it? I think it's Arya Nagarjuna.

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Okay. Sorry? Yeah, I think you can do that.

Let's see. Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Here you have to understand, clear light can refer to emptiness or the mind which is perceiving the emptiness. And sometimes it just refers to primordial state of mind. So, the mind has a nature of clear light.

It can be infected by mental afflictions, but then when you see emptiness directly, you burn off the mental afflictions, but the clear light stays. The primordial state of mind stays. Okay?

One, two, three. GNAS LUGS NGON GSUM THUB RTOGS PA'I THEG PA GSUM GYIS NYAM ZHAG YID SHES GSUNGS PA DE SAGS MED YID SHES YIN PA TSUNGS KYANG What's GNAS LUGS? GNAS LUGS is a synonym for emptiness, and it means ...

GNAS means to stay or remain, LUGS means system or way, and it means the way things are. The way things really are. Okay?

So, GNAS LUGS is a synonym for emptiness. NGON GSUM THEG PA GSUM GYIS Then he's talking about the NYAM ZHAG YES SHES, which is what? Yeah, the mind of a person in the direct perception of emptiness, which is NGON GSUM THUB RTOGS PA'I GNAS LUGS, which is perceiving the way things really are directly.

But then he says THEG PA GSUM, of the THEG PA GSUM. What are the THEG PA GSUM here? Yeah, I think we have to read it as the three tracks, listener, self-made Buddha, and bodhisattva, right?

And not as ... Yeah, not as Hinayana, open Mahayana teachings, and then secret Mahayana teachings. Because you're not going to get, in a book like this, he's not going to go deeply into any tantric stuff.

So, he's probably referring to the three tracks, okay? So, there's no difference in the wisdom. I mean, all three tracks can see emptiness directly, right?

So, from the point of view of that wisdom being pure, or free of the stain of seeing things as self-existent, they're all the same, okay? Whatever your personal motivation is for seeing emptiness, saving all living beings, taking care of yourself, getting yourself out of suffering, it doesn't matter. The direct perception of emptiness in each case is the same.

That wisdom is the same. KYANG! Yeah, yeah, yeah.

How am I? Yeah, yeah. One, two, three.

DE'ANG THAMS PA'I SEMS SKYE DU SBYORG MIN SBYORG GI KHYAD PAR YOD DE Say, SBYORG MIN SBYORG. SBYORG MIN SBYORG Okay, two predecessors, right? Okay?

This is interesting, because mostly we've been saying DE'ANG THAMS PA'I SEMS SKYE ultimate bodhichitta is what? But now that's not good enough. Why?

Yeah, now it's kind of implying that you've got to be on the bodhisattva track. So we kind of have to refine our description of ultimate bodhichitta, okay? One, two, three.

NYIN RJE CHEN PO'I GZHAN DBANG TU GYUR MA GYUR DANG YIN TEN RGYA KHRAG LA SOGS PA'I NUS PA THOB MA THOB DANG STONG NYID RIG PAS NAM DANG THA YAS PA'I RGON NAS THOB MA THOB DANG SAB DUN LA LO RGYAS MA RGYAS LA SOGS PA'I RGYAS PA YOD PA'I GZHAN Sanskrit, how do you say? Kshira Bindo. Our favorite store in Varanasi is Kshira Sagar, which means the ocean of milk, which is a sweet shop.

It's a heart drop.

[Speaker 2]
Oh, mmm. Okay.

[Speaker 1]
I want to teach you something here. This is a great sentence. Somebody, I mean a hundred years from now, somebody can write a grammar book based on this, okay?

Look here. See, GYUR MA GYUR? Say, GYUR MA GYUR.

Down here, THOB MA THOB. Down here, THOB MA THOB. And down here, RGYAS MA RGYAS.

That's how in Tibetan you say whether or not blank. Okay, so here it means are or not. Are or are not.

Attained or didn't attain. THOB MA THOB, right? THOB MA THOB.

Perceived or didn't perceive. RGYAS MA RGYAS. Developed further or didn't develop further.

Okay, got it? So you say, KHO YONG MA YONG MI SHES Say, KHO YONG MA YONG MI SHES. I don't know whether he'll come or not.

But in Tibetan it's KHO. KHO means what? He.

YONG MA YONG means come, not come. MI SHES means I don't know. Okay, KHO YONG MA YONG MI SHES.

I don't know whether he'll come or not. And you just say, I don't know he come, not come. Got it?

So whether or not blank, you always just say, you repeat the verb with MA between. Say, GYUR MA GYUR. THOB MA THOB.

THOB MA THOB. RGYAS MA RGYAS. YONG MA YONG MI SHES.

You go like that. You know, whether or not. Okay, so that's how you say whether or not in English, in Tibetan.

Okay, here we go. In so far as, what am I going to say? Whether or not you are, what's GZHAN DBANG?

What's it mean in mind only that, now he's going to sit in front of all the monks and nuns in Dharmasala and explain. Other power, what's it mean though? What's that?

What's it mean other power? Yeah, you're like at the mercy of something else. It means at the mercy of something else.

Under the power of something else, right? So whether or not you are GZHAN DBANG of NYING RJE CHEN PO. Yeah, whether or not you are lost to the power of love, you see?

You're GZHAN DBANG by love. Like you're just controlled by your love. You've lost your independence to your love.

How do you want to say that? Overcome? I think it's stronger than overcome.

You're a slave. Yeah. It means that, it means that.

And when mind only says GZHAN DBANG, what they mean is that things are a slave to their causes. You see what I mean? That's what I mean.

Whether or not you are a slave to great compassion. Do you guys know RIG PA THA YED PA'I GONE? RIG PA THA YED PA'I GONE?

Do you remember that? Bodhisattvas like to see emptiness. RIG PA THA YED PA'I GONE.

Which means what? THA YED PA means limitless, countless, infinite. They love to hear another argument for emptiness.

They love, tell me one more. So, like a Hinayana person, sometimes the distinction between Hinayana and Mahayana is drawn by how many arguments did it take to get them to see emptiness. And you would think that it should be the opposite.

Right? Like Mahayana people are somehow smarter, so they should just need one good argument and then they see emptiness. But the scriptures always say, a Mahayana person, they want a thousand different proofs.

They'll keep asking you, give me another proof. And then, I saw Chittu Da, I gave you Chittu Da. No, I want Tashi Dandara Rigpa.

No, I want this other. And they keep asking for more arguments in support of emptiness. It's like more and more Bok Chumba classes.

No, I mean you hear one argument and then you hear another argument, and then you get a different argument, and then you get a different argument. First they're doing it based on time, then they're doing it based on space, then it's like atoms, then it's subject and objects. Keep giving me more.

So, whether or not you have perceived your emptiness through the use of infinite ... Well, it says Taiyipa. And whether or not ...

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
And so on, Lhasa Upa. Okay? So, this could be a debate ground question, you know, is the direct perception of emptiness by people who are Hinayana and Mohayana, is it the same?

Now, if you're the defender, what would you have to say? Now, when you're defender, you have two choices, right? Yes or no?

No, you have three choices. Well, you have four, but what's the third? Ask for a clarification.

Ask for a clarification. As regards to what? You know, as regards to what?

You see? In the way they see emptiness, you know, that they saw emptiness directly, no difference, right? What he said up here.

From the point of view that they are unstained wisdom, right? No difference. They are wisdom free of impurity.

From that point of view, they're all the same. So, but are they the same in being ultimate bodhichitta? No, because there's all these different distinctions.

Whether or not you are a slave to your great compassion, whether or not you're going to be able to attain billions of high spiritual qualities based on your perception of emptiness, whether or not you came to emptiness through infinite number of proofs, and whether or not this emptiness is going to, your understanding is going to keep growing exponentially. Yeah. That if you don't have compassion, even if you do have the direct perception of emptiness, yeah, that there's some that you wouldn't acquire.

Like omniscience, for example. Yeah. Okay.

As you move up through the ten levels, he's going to talk about it right now. Okay. Yeah, they would still grow, right?

But not constantly? I don't know. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
One, two, three. Huh? Good.

Well, here he said tar yepa. Yeah. Tar means limit, and ye means like, whoo.

Ye means whoo. So, tar ye means limitless. Literally, it's limitless.

Okay. Some people think the ye and yeshe is related. The ye is related to y-e-s, meaning like infinite.

Okay. One, two, three. sa chu nyam shak yeshe chu po de sak me yeshe yin bar sung kyang rab ga la sok pe sa chur je pe gyu tse yu de What do we call rabga?

We had a word for it. The first bodhisattva level. Some think bliss.

Nah. What was it?

[Speaker 2]
What was it?

[Speaker 1]
Nah. Okay, you just mark where you were. You go back to the beginning.

You say, look up rabga for me. Yeah, okay, extreme bliss. Thank you.

By the way, that's why I don't like to convert the text done with the whole translation. Because then searching is problematic if you convert it first. You can't do that if you're working with a converted text.

It's very unpleasant. Nonetheless, there's a reason why we divide it into ten levels. What did we say?

Extreme bliss. I should have capitalized it back there. Alistair will straighten it up when we print it.

Nonetheless, there's a reason why. See, this is an interesting question. What's the bodhisattva level meda?

Is it just a measure? You see? Is it a measure?

Yeah, is it like a ... Because when you say stage or level, it's demoduchi, right? Demoduchi means neither mind nor matter.

It's an idea. It's a measurement of how far you've gotten. Right?

If I say one inch, is that physical or mental? It's a concept. You can represent it mentally or physically, but in itself it's a concept.

So normally when you say level or path or stage or something, you're talking about a concept. I haven't gotten to a certain point. But the nature of this path, the nature of the bodhisattva levels is wisdom.

It's a state of mind. Okay? Got it?

It's yeshe, prajna. Okay. One, two, three.

YEN DEN GYI DRANG DANG MI MTHUN CHOG SBYONG BA LA THU PHUL DU CHUNG BA THOB MA THOB DANG DBYIN PA LA SOGS PA'I BAR CHEN LHAG TSUL DANG RNAM MIN GYIS SKYE BA DZIN TSUL LA SOGS PA'I DGONG NAS CHUR CHE BA'I PHYIR Okay. Help me out here. THOB MA THOB Good.

Whether you have attained or not. Okay? Whether you have attained or not.

THU, what's THU? THU means power, but we have a lot of words for power, right? So, learn these different words.

This is something useful in this class, as a translator class. Say, DBANG THOB ZHUGS THU Okay, DBANG THOB ZHUGS THU DBANG means power in sort of a general way. You know it can mean empowerment.

You know it can mean sense power. It's sort of a power as a ... What do you call it?

Not concrete. Power as an idea. You know, like that.

There's a word for that. And then THOB means more like force. You know, like he used force to enter the house.

That would be THOB. He was a one guy, but he used THOB to enter the house. Okay?

Like he is a powerful guy, strong, but he used THOB. And then say ZHUGS. ZHUGS more means ...

That's more like ... You can say strength. Like ZHUGS RGYA means when you're all trying to move a rock on the trail.

And you say ZHUGS RGYA. Everybody go ... Everybody umph, you know?

Everybody use their ZHUGS. So in that case, ZHUGS means like ... What would you say?

Physical strength. Yeah, that's good. Mainly ZHUGS.

And then THUGS has a whole different connotation. THUGS means power in a mystical way, and sometimes in a negative mystical way. Like THUGS RGYABSHA means he cursed me.

He put THUGS on me. You see? It's right here.

Yeah. So THUGS can mean mystical good power, but in colloquial Tibetan, THUGS RGYABSHA means he put a THUGS on me. It means he cursed me.

He put a curse on me. Something like that, okay? And they take it very seriously.

Like Pabongka Rinpoche, if you've seen a picture of him later in his life, he's overweight. He looks huge. And then you see the earlier picture, like that's in Nambra Lakchang, he looks very thin and strong, and they say he got THUGS RGYABSHA, that by some ...

he was dueling with some other guy, mystically, and I think he wiped the guy out, but the guy also injured him, and then he got this ... he changed. Physically he changed very drastically, okay?

So that's a THUGS RGYABSHA. Okay, so whether or not we have attained ... he says, a PHUL DU BYUNG BA THUG, that's the same as PUN TZAM TSOG PA THUG.

What's PUN TZAM TSOG PA? PUN TSOG ... Yeah, like extraordinary, or special, or amazing, okay?

Whether or not we have attained ... what do you want to say? PUN TSOG THUG.

That'd be CHOG. That'd be KHYAD PAR. PHUL DU means like, perfect.

How about perfect? What? That means free of stain.

This means special, or really cool, or ... what's a good literary word for that? PHUL DU BYUNG BA.

Excellent is good. Excellent. Then how do you want to translate?

By the way, it's THUG that you need to BYOM your MI THUN PHYOGS. THUG that you need to BYOM your MI THUN PHYOGS. MI THUN PHYOGS means everything that's working against your spiritual progress.

It means the other side. MI THUN PHYOGS means the bad guys. Attained excellent THUG to destroy your MI THUN PHYOGS.

So how do you want to translate that? Say again? They would say it differently.

They would use a word for demon. MI THUN PHYOGS means all the things that work against you. Your doubt, the heat, lack of money, everything that works against you.

That's fine, yeah. We have attained an excellent THUG to ... I think sometimes you have to say that.

How are you going to translate THUG? Power. I think you just have to ...

power?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, okay.

[Speaker 1]
I think that you can't really translate these four different words for power in Tibetan with one English word. I don't think so. Okay.

And here's the main thing that separates the levels, okay? What separates the bodhisattva levels? Read, DBYIN PA, LA SOGS PA'I, BAR CAN, LHAG TSUL.

On the ... This is hard to translate. LHAG means taking it to a new level.

BAR CAN means your perfections. DBYIN PA means giving and the rest. That's what distinguishes the ten bodhisattva levels mainly, which is what?

The degree to which you have attained each one in a LHAG PA form. It's not that you're practicing giving more at the first level. It's that your perfection of giving has gone to a new level at the first level.

That's what LHAG PA means. So how do you want to translate it? On the degree to which you have taken the perfections of giving and the rest to a new level?

It's the implication that you've already developed them, but you're just taking them ... you're BOG DBYIN PA almost. You're almost taking them to a new level, you see?

Okay. Okay. And the last one is ...

That last one is kind of weird, but that's what it says, okay? I mean, you wouldn't think they'd be talking about that at this point, but it's what it says. Okay.

So these are what separate the ten bodhisattva levels from each other. But the main one is have you reached a new level in the corresponding perfection? So, you've attained the third bodhisattva level.

If you've attained an extraordinary level, of what perfection? Say again? Patience.

Patience, yeah. Okay? Like that.

Got it? But there are also differences in the spiritual qualities you've attained, the way that you're able to destroy things that are working against you, and what kind of rebirth you'll take.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah? Did I mix it up on purpose? Let me see.

I guess I did. One time an editor asked me if I did that on purpose, and I think I do. But okay.

The first bodhisattva level? In which bodhisattva level? Or the ...

No. You've taken it to a new level, but you haven't destroyed ... you haven't reached the perfection of patience.

I mean, you haven't perfected your patience. You've reached the perfection of patience. And you've brought the perfection of patience to a new level.

But you haven't perfected your patience. I'd say when you ... when you eliminate your mental afflictions, deceive your mental afflictions, nirvana.

Eighth bodhisattva level. Something like that. So you've gotten to a higher level, but it's not perfect yet.

I'm just going to translate this, okay? He's just quoting something that says the same thing. So, I want you to get on to something else today.

Okay? So he said, we make the distinction in the ten bodhisattva levels based on the number of spiritual qualities you're getting, the degree to which your power to do what? To smash your obstacles is perfected, the level to which you've been able to take giving and the rest of the perfections, and the different kinds of karmic results you're setting up for yourself.

That's how we distinguish the ten bodhisattva levels. But we don't do it according to what? The ten are not different according to what?

We don't put forth ten different bodhisattva levels because of a difference in the wisdom of emptiness. Okay? What he says here is, rang gi nguwa kye par kyi, chepa yewa mayin.

It's not that we're dividing them because there's any basic difference in their basic nature. Okay? We do not, however, make this distinction based on any difference in their basic nature.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
You mean, is the sentence too long? Oh, is it... I will assume the reader...

the reader will get it, I think, by then. Actually, he's going to clarify it right now. Okay?

I'm just going to read this to you, okay? Because we have like one minute left. But I'm just going to translate it off the cuff and then we'll do it next time, because it's kind of beautiful.

He says, chepa yewa kye tsen dey la yin kyi, chepa dey la ngo la rikme mindar kye par med de. That's the reason why we divide them into ten. But it's not that we are dividing them into ten because of any difference in their basic essence.

Then he's going to clarify. pe na, tsa nam ga la drub pay je, ji dang gi da, da jang nam gyi rang nyi kyi, tokpa ji tawa shin du dru mi nyu dang. shen la du mi nupay dey shin du.

pe na means, for example, tsa nam ga la drub pay je. Je here means the print which is left behind by something. Okay?

It means the after. So the print which is left behind by a tsa drub paying across the nam gah. The ...

what do you call it? The tracks which are left by ... the trace which is left by a bird who flies across the sky.

Okay? The trace that's left by a bird flying across the sky. ji ten pay da jang nam gyi, rang nyi kyi tokpa.

ji ten pay da jang nam gyi. Da jang is ... We're going to have to learn this word, okay?

Say, da jang gi kye bu. Da jang gi kye bu. This is a word I learned in one of the cafes after the winter debates.

You see? I heard da jang gi kye bu in the ... Somebody was debating da jang gi kye bu for like two hours.

And I had no idea what they're talking about. So then in the winter debates, you know, you have 3,000 monks come from different monasteries. Even bumbos come.

Sakyas come. You know? And then afterwards, you all ...

Like midnight, you all break. The giku lets you go, you know? Then everybody rushes to these cafes, these makeshift cafes that are set up all around the monastery by anyone who wants to make some money.

You know? And they just set up all these cafes. And you rush to the cafe, and then you have tupa with your friends for like three hours, and you debrief.

You know? And you say, I heard this thing, I heard da jang gi kye bu in the ... I heard it in the debate.

What are they talking about? What's da jang gi kye bu? Because you don't want to admit that in front of the other school, right?

So ... And so we're hoping to set something up like that for fall maybe. Like some kind of a temporary student center, if the real one's not finished yet.

But anyway. It's like to hang out till three o'clock and talk about what's a da jang gi kye bu. Da means term.

Jang means trained. Da jang ... A person who is da jang means ...

You know, we do this thing with a pen, and a lot of times when you say, why do you think of it as a pen? Somebody will say, I'm a da jang gi kye bu. In English they'll say, my mom taught that word to me for it.

Like that's the word I was trained in for that thing. That's a da jang gi kye bu. It's a very important idea in Majjhimika.

Are you seeing this as a pen because someone taught you to call it a pen? Because you're a da jang gi kye bu? Or are you seeing it as a pen because of something deeper, or more ancient?

Is it a karma? Can you make a dog into a da jang gi kye bu? You see?

Why are they not seeing it as a pen? Can you teach a dog to call it a pen? You see what I mean?

So da jang means ... It's an important idea. So here it means, people who know in the world, people who understand how to see the track left by a bird as it crosses the sky.

RANG NYID KYI RTOG PA JI LTAR BAR BZHIN RANG NYID KYI RTOG PA JI LTAR BAR BZHIN They don't have a way of describing to a person who's not a da jang what they're seeing. You see? They don't have a way to tell somebody this is what it looks like.

People who can see the track left by a bird as it crosses the sky, right? And they go to try to explain it to somebody who doesn't have that ... who's not on that level.

Right? They can't. They can't explain it to them.

DANG GZHAN LA BSTUN MI GNUD And the other person wouldn't get it either. Okay? They don't have the words to express it.

And the other person wouldn't get it anyway. Okay? So this is all talking about what?

Yeah, the direct perception of emptiness. It's a very beautiful subject. The next subject we're getting into is so how does an Arya explain it to people?

How can an Arya explain it to people? RANG NYID KYI RTOG PA JI LTAR BAR BZHIN DU MI GNUD They can't express it to others totally, properly. Alright?

On the one hand. Because there are no words for it in their language. And the others wouldn't get it anyway.

So from their side they can't express it perfectly. And from the other person's side they're not ready to grasp it. You see what I mean?

It's like people can see birds fly the track left by a bird in the sky. Then we'll talk more about that. Because if it's not possible, then what are we doing here?

Okay? Alright? Now it's a big debate.

Is it inexpressible? Beyond words? Yes.

Djebalen depa. Say djebalen depa. Djebalen depa means it's beyond words.

It can't be expressed in words. So why did you write the Gomparabhsa? You see what I mean?

If nobody can get it. So then there's this big debate, there's this big discussion. What does it mean to be beyond words?

How can we communicate something to someone else which is beyond words?

[Speaker 2]
Right?

[Speaker 1]
And you don't get to find out until Monday. Alright? Okay.

Or maybe not on Monday. I don't know. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Okay. ...

[Speaker 1]
You might want to think about, if you have free time, He's using this thing about the bird in the sky to prove why we don't make the division of the ten bodhisattva levels according to a difference in the wisdom.