Вступление на срединный путь (текущий курс, Аризона), занятие 69

[Speaker 1]
First I'd like to apologize for being late, and I don't like it, and I think it's disrespectful to the students and to the Dharma. But, anyway, I'm late. Then, I see some new faces, so I'll just give a brief introduction of what this class is.

This class is taught in the old way, which means really no formal homework, or no one's keeping attendance. It's to teach you to be a translator. We're in a place in history where there are hundreds of thousands of forgotten texts.

Each one is equal in importance to anything written by Shakespeare or the Bible. They're just unavailable to people, because there's no one to translate them. The few translators there are, they're all working as hard as they can.

I know. They don't sleep much, but it's not enough. It won't be enough.

I don't believe a translator can be made by homeworks and quizzes. You have to want it really bad, and you have to have a passion for it. I encourage you to come.

You don't have to think you can't be a translator because you're not good at languages, or you're too old, or like that. Anyone here can translate. Lots of people who are translating now came just like you two years ago, three years ago, four years ago, ten years ago, fifteen years ago.

They're good, and they're really contributing. It's very beautiful. Like, Lama Kristi's class has these beautiful translations.

I remember the first day she came into class, and she didn't know any kakagas or anything. Anything is possible, and anyone here can do it. You just start, and you have a passion because you want to help people.

If you really have a drive to help people, you can be a translator. You don't have to think that you can't. You don't have to be good at languages or anything.

It's just your heart. We were in Mexico for two months in a retreat. Just before we went into retreat, we were in a small village, and we went to a restaurant called Chilirrino.

We said, what's on the menu? He says, it's Chilirrino. So we ate it, and it was really good.

During retreat, we tried to make them a couple of times, but it was like a disaster. I mean, even a couple of movies wouldn't eat it. They looked different from ours, but almost the same.

But they were like a taco house, anyway. Then when we got out, we went back to the same restaurant, and we met the same guy. We got a piece of paper and a pen, and we said, tell us how to make Chilirrino.

How do you do it? He said, No cartel. I said, what do you mean?

What do you do first? What do you do second? He said, that's not the secret to Chilirrino.

He said, it's your heart. If you have the heart, you can make. If you don't have the heart, you can't make.

He said, you can go in the kitchen, you can stay up for two or three hours if you want. They're just making Chilirrino, but you won't be able to do it. So, if you have the heart, you can translate.

And if you don't, I don't think you will ever translate. And if you're not interested in being a translator, stay anyway, come anyway, this is the way they teach in the monastery. The way we're teaching it here is how they teach in the monastery.

I think for Westerners, and Americans in particular, the way we do the ACI courses is often better. To force you to do homeworks, force you to do quizzes, have everything, a syllabus and a schedule and all that. I think that's sometimes better.

But for this class, we're just doing it the old way. So, just come as often as you can. Expose your mind to these holy books.

And something will happen. Again, when I was in the monastery, I got a letter from Nyingbo today, Venerable Nyingbo. He was like, I took your advice, and I went to Geshe Thubten Rinchen's classes, even though I didn't understand a word of it.

And then by the end, I could understand like three words in every class. And in the monastery, it was like that. When I first went to the debate ground, I didn't understand 99% of what anyone was saying.

But I just sat there for year after year. And your mind will change, and your ability will change. It's a holy, holy book.

This is the way to teach emptiness in the monastery. This book is how to teach emptiness in the monastery. This particular book.

And it's debate. It's by debate. It's by dialectic.

It's by hearing two people argue about emptiness. They don't give you answers, they just give you questions. It's a beautiful way.

It's completely different. Alright, so we'll start. We have to get the the refreshments figured out for the five classes.

So, I don't know. You guys willing to be the people that people come to and talk to? Okay.

So, now Christy and me were thinking to try to be vegan this term. And maybe that will lead to something more. I don't know, but we probably won't.

So, I need volunteers to make a vegan snack for everybody, each class. And we'll start with, I don't know, the 4th of February, right? Next Monday?

Any volunteer for 4th of February? Yeah, okay, so Anatole can start. By the way, talk to Anatole and Adriana, and they'll give you tips, right?

And that includes one vegan snack for everybody, and something out to drink. I personally have been working on almond milk hot chocolate really hard, and not to say you have to make that, but you know, apple cider is nice, and I like that. Mama Christy likes it, it's caramel.

Okay, the following 11th of February, who wants to go next? Yeah, okay. Oh, and if you need money, talk to Anatole, okay?

But it's better if you can like wander around and line up people and try to get someone to sponsor. What was the other one? Naomi.

That's President's Day, so I guess it'll be special. the 25th? Oh, Anika really wants to do it.

You get to do all the homework, okay. So, to review, Anatole on the 4th of February, Anatole and Adriana, Jeff on the 11th, Naomi on the 18th, okay, there's a lot of people, okay? Don't be wimpy, I mean, it's got to be nice.

Okay, and Anika on the 23rd, right? So we won't remind you, and if we're all so tiring, it'll be your fault. I mean, it's not real black karma, it's like a million years of hell to run into the students.

But, okay. And tonight we'll have, tonight we'll be winning, because we have leftovers from the big film, which went really well. We raised $1,600 for airfare.

For sale. Where's Greta? Oh, yeah, back there.

Yeah, so she did that. Okay. We've been on a long debate about what makes a person special when they see emptiness the first time, right?

How do they change? Especially if they have ultimate love in their hearts. So, they've been talking about the difference between someone who sees emptiness directly for the first time, but doesn't have ultimate love, and then someone who sees it for the first time and does have ultimate love.

And they say the person who sees it for the first time and does have ultimate love becomes a whole new type of being. I like to think of it as a higher form of evolution. You know?

Like this person just went from monkey to human, or from tribolite to monkey, or something like that. It's that big. In terms of civilization, in terms of the evolution of a species, for one person to see emptiness directly is more important and more rare than a tribolite crawling out of the ocean and walking on land.

You see, it's a whole leap in evolution for people, for the whole planet, for any one person to see emptiness. It's more important than all the progress made by mankind in the last 50,000 years, say. Think of it that way.

It's more important than all the progress made if one person can see emptiness. That's an evolutionary leap which is extremely rare and important in the world. And you are very close.

If you've had a lot of training in emptiness, and you're meditating, you're doing everything right. You see? If you're doing yoga, your channels are opening.

Especially your heart chakra. Lama Kristi is teaching a special practice for the next five weeks. Very important, very high practice on opening the heart chakra.

So, you're close. You have yoga, you're doing physical yoga, you are studying lots of emptiness, you are doing lots of study. The dream, the vision of Tantra, to see the world as divine, that also has one of the most powerful ways to open the heart.

And you have your daily meditations and your retreats. So you have all the tun khen, say tun khen. Tun khen means favorable conditions.

Like you are surrounded by all the conditions you need to see emptiness. So, you're doing fine. I think I can say without exaggeration that in the world you may be the people who have the tun khen the best.

In my mind, in my opinion, you are the luckiest people in the world. You have the best chance, I think. You have everything you need, you see?

In India, things are different, you see? Not everyone is there because they want to be there. A lot of them were put there by their parents.

So you have like half the people or three quarters of people. They are sincere and they are good people and they are fine people and they are working hard. But they are there because of their culture, you see?

They are there because mom and dad put them there. And they are not there because their brother got killed or their mother died or someone got cancer. That woke them up and brought them here, you know?

So, I think you have the best chance. So they've been arguing about what makes a person special when they see emptiness the first time. And we got through a lot of argument already.

I'm going to review a bit with you. He's promising to go through three sections. He's going to talk about the Sutra on the Ten Levels.

The Sutra on the Ten Levels. The Sutra on the Ten Levels. Who wrote it?

Yeah, Lord Buddha. Someone came up to me recently and said, Who wrote the Ten Levels? Yeah, I don't know.

If it's a Sutra, it was taught by Lord Buddha, right? One Buddha. It doesn't have to be this Buddha actually.

Except for the Vinaya Sutra or the Yoga Sutra So the Sutra on the Ten Levels says that people who are listeners and self-made Buddhists, these are two kinds of people who do not yet have ultimate love. They are not driven by the desire to save the world. They are mostly trying to get out of lower births or something.

Themselves. They are not driven by love for others exclusively. So, he's going to talk about how, look, Lord Buddha even said that these people see emptiness.

You see, because our other debater here has been trying to say that bodhisattvas, people who have ultimate love, differ from these two kinds of people, listeners and self-made Buddhists, because the bodhisattvas have seen emptiness. And we say, no, that's not the only thing that makes them special. Those other people have seen emptiness.

What's the implication? You don't need ultimate love to see emptiness. When I was trying to imagine a person like that, in my own study with Khen Rinpoche, I don't know, like 15 years ago, I was wondering how could you have enough good karma to see emptiness if you didn't have love, because he was a physicist.

And he was giving a very good argument about why we never step on the floor, why we never touch the floor, and how the floor doesn't really exist. And then I was thinking, yeah, I guess it is possible. Some kind of a person who just comes across the emptiness of things.

And what's he going to do with that? Nothing. He will die with that.

So first he's going to quote this sutra to prove that people without this high motivation can still understand deep reality. Then he's going to quote other scriptural references to support that. And then finally he's going to use logic.

These are the two great Buddhist methods to prove anything. Like what's Japa's last name in Hawa? It's so cool.

Lung Rik means he can prove stuff with scripture, Lung, and he can prove stuff with logic, Rik. So they called him Lung Rik. It's a nice name.

Japa means love, ultimate love. So it's not a bad name. So first we're going to do the author of the commentary.

I don't know who that is. I guess it's Chandrakirti's kind of auto-commentary. A Bodhisattva is just the emptiness, right?

A Bodhisattva is just the emptiness. They outshine the lower saints, lower arhats, by virtue of their family, but not by virtue of their state of mind. By virtue of their family, their Rik, but not by their state of mind.

What's that mean? If you say this person outshines this other person by virtue of their family, they're a Bodhisattva. Say, Tering Sangye Riksuke, Sangye Sessun, Thakye To.

It's a very common prayer. That is the Bodhisattva vow ceremony. When you give someone Bodhisattva vows, in Tibetan that's what you say, Tering Sangye Riksuke.

Today I've been born into the family of the Buddha. I'm the father or the son of the Buddha. Like that.

So, they have joined a new family. Can you join that family and not see emptiness? Yeah, okay, you can get ultimate love.

What is ultimate love? What's the definition of ultimate love? Sangye?

The desire to reach Buddhahood, to save other people, right? It's not like just somebody who's nice, who's willing to share their tricks and stuff, maybe. It's not just that.

People think, oh, he's a Bodhisattva, he's nice. Or they give up things that they want and he's nice. It's not like that.

It's someone who is really driven to reach a high state in order to help other people. We were just in LA. You're going to hear this over and over again, right?

Because your parents are a high karmic object. We go to see our parents and to serve them for a week or two weeks. But it's always the same thing.

I went in the bathroom and threw up violently. I had this horrible migraine. I just couldn't...

It's so hopeless. Their lives are so hopeless. It's such pain.

You just want to take them out to dinner, but the dinner is so painful. Just to hear, just to listen to how life is going. And they're getting old.

And every time we go in the last few years, major obstacles to spiritual interest start dropping. Like heart attacks and cancer. And their friends dying off.

More and more friends dying off. And every year the resistance gets less and less. This year, every single member of the family wrote us an email before and asked if we had any advice about this or that.

It was really weird. Because at a three-year retreat, they didn't want to talk to us. So to want to stop that on a grand level, to want to stop death on a grand level, is it possible to stop all pain?

Is it possible to stop all suffering in the world? That's not a nice guide. That's something higher.

That's some kind of vision or some kind of determination that it must be possible to stop all suffering. So bodhisattvas are thinking like that. They're not sharing their cookies.

They're doing it to perfect themselves. So they can help people. Give real help to people.

And every year you get older, it will become more, how do you call it, critical. It becomes more, I don't know, you become more serious each year that goes by. You see more and more of life.

So you're lucky because you're young and you'll have all the ammunition when you hit it. The ammunition will be ready. Because it will all be in your mind.

So, first of all, bodhisattva does outshine these other people by virtue of their family, which means their love. But they don't outshine them by their state of mind. What does that mean?

They've seen emptiness too. These other people have seen emptiness too. You can't say that bodhisattva has seen emptiness better than a buddha has seen emptiness.

If you see it, if you see emptiness directly, that perception has no difference from how a buddha is seeing emptiness directly. To see emptiness directly is to see emptiness directly. And it doesn't matter who.

It's a hundred percent. It's as good as a buddha seeing emptiness directly. It's like that.

But you can't go back into it the way they do. So, is it possible for people who don't have ultimate love to reach Nirvana? Yeah.

Why? What is Nirvana? Say, Nyangde.

[Speaker 2]
Ki. Sya.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, give it to me. Give me the definition of Nirvana.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Nyangde malupa. Say, Nyangde.

Malupa. Pangbe. Sosa.

Nyangde. Malupa. Get that sweet U, okay?

Malupa.

[Speaker 2]
Pangbe.

[Speaker 1]
Sosa. Pangbo. Nyangde means mental afflictions, anger.

We went through them, right? Everyone is an expert now. We love to talk about mental afflictions because we don't have to study before.

We don't have to prepare anything. We just walk in and say how we went with it yesterday. Nyangde.

Malupa means totally, all of them. Pangbe means got rid of. Pak means because you analyzed something, you understood something.

Sosa means one by one, it means the four are your truth. Basically, you realized that it's possible to get out of suffering. You directly saw that it's possible.

Sosa, pangbo. Based on that you got rid of your mental afflictions. These lower practitioners have gotten rid of their mental afflictions.

That's not the debate. That's not the debate. But the guy says, oh, do they do it like non-Buddhists do, get rid of their mental afflictions?

Do they get rid of them the way non-Buddhists do? What's the guy going to say? He's going to say no.

Well, how do non-Buddhists get rid of mental afflictions? They just get more spaced. They just get more spaced.

Like, heroin would do it for a while, really. Major amount of alcohol would do it for a short time. And then, just meditating on nothing.

Just learning to sit and think about nothing. It brings you some kind of peace of mind. Heroin, alcohol, and wrong meditation.

Untrained person's meditation. It's possible to get into a deep state of sort of like, I think also a long vacation in Mexico near the ocean one day. You know?

Swimming every day and no trouble. You'd just be like, you'd feel sort of happy like that. And you wouldn't have any anger.

Your anger level, your jealousy level, your desire level, you'd eat less, you'd get less angry, you'd have less fights. Everything would be nicer for a while. And that's the problem.

All the above. Heroin, alcohol, what was it? Stupid meditation and trip to Mexico.

Now, these things, they suppress your mental perceptions. They temporarily bring you some kind of peace of mind. So quiet.

I asked a guy, a guy, I don't know if you remember, a guy, a heroin addict came to the Three Jewels in New York and he wanted to join the classes. And at that time I interviewed everybody. So I took him out to the cheap Thai restaurant, like a $3.95 lunch. And I said, well tell me about yourself. And he said, well I'm a heroin addict. And I said, I just always wondered here, I never tried it.

And I wondered what it is. Why do people take it? And he said, one reason.

It shuts my mind off for a couple hours. You know? I don't have to listen to my mind for a couple hours.

That's all. Ten years I've been addicted to heroin. I just don't want to listen to the thoughts going blah, blah, blah, blah.

It makes me crazy. And he'll do anything to get to heroin. So it's like that.

You can do it. You can reduce, you can remove mental perceptions temporarily. You can quiet your mind.

Which is why an addict does that. Also an alcoholic, I think. It's just so refreshing.

And so peaceful for a while. You know? So the example he gives, what he means by non-Buddhist is very specific.

These are masters of meditation. These are very high Hindu saints. Who are very serious practitioners.

And they spend their life meditating. And they're good at it. And it'd be wonderful if we were even close to them.

Right? But they learn to go from, they call it, say, shirat.

[Speaker 2]
Shirat.

[Speaker 1]
Shirat in Namma Chin means this. I gave up the 12 cups of coffee a day I used to have at ND. Okay?

And I went to about 6 lattes. Just before Surya Retreat every day. You know?

Then at Surya Retreat I went to Tibetan tea only. Black tea with milk and cream and salt. And then I dropped out.

Yay! And I tried to do herbal tea with milk, which was really gross. But I needed the milk, you know?

And then she talked me into herbal tea with massive amounts of honey. Which you remember. I mean, that's a jar of honey in there.

And then I went to herbal tea with less honey. Herbal tea with agave. Tried herbal tea with dates smushed in.

But it didn't work. And then, herbal tea, you know, with still some caffeine, green tea. And then went to, you know, like that.

That's Shirat in Namma Chin. That's Shirat in Namma Chin. I did not remove my desire for tea.

I did not remove my desire for tea. You see? It did not remove my desire.

It just took me more and more subtle. You see? That's what Shirat in Namma Chin.

She means peace. Rak means rock. And you just get subtler and subtler but you're not dealing with your addiction.

You're not dealing with your desire. It's still there. And that kind of meditation is the same.

You get quieter and quieter and quieter and quieter. Then you go back to a highway, someone cuts you off and you're still screaming. You see what I mean?

So, why did it come up here? Why are we talking about Shirat in Namma Chin? Are you telling me that those lower arhats, Buddhists, reached Nirvana, the end of mental circuit, by Shirat in Namma Chin, just by getting more subtle, just by going to herbal tea?

What do you say? No. Well, how do they remove their maleficence?

They have to see emptiness therapy. It's the only way, right? You have to see emptiness therapy.

Why? Because the Bodhisattva has shamed them. And that's what it means to have shamed them.

Got it? I'll run it backwards. Does the Bodhisattva have shamed these other guys?

Yeah. Because he sees emptiness and they don't, right? You're supposed to say right.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
So, I guess the lower people who got to Nirvana didn't get there by seeing emptiness. Right. No, you're the other guy, you're the other guy.

Come on, be the other guy. So, how did they get to Nirvana?

[Speaker 2]
Shirat in Namma Chin.

[Speaker 1]
It's more and more subtle. They just went deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper, quieter, quieter, quieter, quieter, quieter. That's what they're saying.

They don't get to Nirvana. You can't. You can't.

It's impossible. It's the futility of trying to be more calm. It's futile.

It's the futility of seeking that alone as a path. It doesn't work. It's not possible.

At least you'll get old and die. You see, even if you can somehow keep yourself locked up somewhere where nobody bugs you for your whole life, you know, and the cook is just by some kind of omniscience is making you the food you wanted. You know what I mean?

Like if you could do that, if you could encounter an upsetting situation, you would still get old and die. You see, you can't. It's not possible.

But, do you need to make your mind peaceful to see emptiness there? Absolutely. Right?

Samdhen Dambo. Say Samdhen Dambo. Mierdo.

Mierdo. Mierdo. Mierdo.

Mierdo. Your mind has to be in that same deep meditation, Shirakamana Chen, to see emptiness directly. So is it useless?

No. It's part of the path, but it's not the path. And all those band-aid methods, you know, like, what was the first mental friction band-aid method, trigger?

No, in the suits. In the suits. Huh?

What was it? Dham. I'll give you a clue.

Dham, mikyo. Dham, mikpa, or yo. Three synonyms.

It was the object. The proximity of the object. So is it a good method to try to just avoid the people who piss you off?

It's a start. That's what Lama Kristi said. That's what monasteries were made for.

That's what a Buddhist monastery is for. It's to avoid the objects of desire. There's no ladies there.

Supposedly there's no good food there. And supposedly the house is just under a tree. You're just sleeping under a tree.

That's the old time. So there's nothing there. You avoid the object.

Is that a Buddhist method? Yeah, it's fine. You need that kind of thing to get to the direct perception of emptiness.

After you see emptiness directly, you can have a big house, and you can eat whatever you want, because you're not going to have a mental perception. But there are useful methods. There are great methods.

Talk to me about this statement. The first reason is true, because enemy to stars, meaning people who have achieved nirvana, of the list of self-made types, meaning lower kinds of nirvana, lack the wisdom that realizes emptiness. True or false?

Who said it? We said it. Rangguk said it.

Let's say Rangguk. Rangguk. What's Rangguk mean?

Our side. We said it. This statement is stated by us.

Is that possible?

[Speaker 2]
Why?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, we're being sarcastic. What's it in Tibetan? Tengyuan.

What's it in Sanskrit? Asantika. That's why translating these things is so hard.

It's so hard. You have our side saying something which is absolutely wrong. And he's saying it with a straight face.

He didn't say, Are you telling me? He didn't say, Right? He didn't say that.

He just said, Because people who are born selfish can't see emptiness, right? You know, he's just saying it. That's why it's so hard to translate.

It's wrong. And our guy is saying it. So it's very difficult to translate and to read.

Then he says, Oh, I guess they're just like these people who get spaced out and don't get mental afflictions, right? Because they don't reach the direct perception of emptiness which is the only way to remove unhappy thoughts from your mind. Permanently, right?

Why is that? Why is that? What's the big deal?

Why is that? Why can't I get rid of anger unless I see emptiness? I mean, briefly.

Why? How does a person who has seen emptiness directly deal with their anger differently than a person who hasn't seen emptiness or never heard of it? I think, yeah, they know where it comes from.

Lama Kristi, we call it either the shower or the rock. I like the shower, she likes the rock. Okay, so I'll tell you the shower, she can tell you the rock.

I used to, in college, what do you call it? I sold myself as a slave to this family. I babysat their kids twice a week to live in their house because I didn't have money.

So I would live in their house, babysat twice a week. I was the nanny. I was a good nanny.

In fact, they offered to hire me permanently when I went to come live with them. They begged me to stay for money. But the shower, I had to go downstairs to use their shower.

So sometimes I'd go to the shower and the floor would be all wet. And it was cold, it was like New Jersey in the winter. It was really disgusting.

Why can't these kids, why can't their parents teach them to put some towels on the floor when they mess it up? I was all pissed off. One day I went down there and I went in the afternoon to the bathroom.

I walked in there and the floor was half an inch of water. And I'm like, God, those stupid kids. Then I realized they hadn't been there all day.

And then I realized what? I took a shower. Right?

And I put the water there. And I'm like, that's not so bad. You know what I mean?

That's why a person who has seen emptiness is different. That's why they deal with it differently. Why?

Someone says something to them which is very unkind. Someone says something which is a negative thing.

[Speaker 2]
Not so bad.

[Speaker 1]
Why? I made it. I put the water on the floor.

I created this person. Every single syllable, every gesture of the nose, when they talk to me, when they say something unkind to me, every detail. It's not that I created just the words they said.

I created the tone. I created the circumstances. I created the weather outside while they were saying it.

I created all the sneer on their face. I created everything about them. Then you're like, okay, I guess I can't get so mad.

You don't get mad at them anymore. And the more you understand emptiness, the more you use this only and ultimate method of removing anger. It's the only way to remove anger.

Otherwise you're just coping with anger. Master Copa. Even most Buddhist books, I can say 99% of Buddhist books I've seen, they're just all about coping.

And they don't get to the point, which is emptiness. When Lord Buddha taught a book that wasn't emptiness, what did we say about it? He wasn't saying what he wanted to say.

He was just around some dumb people. He wrote a book about patience and something like that without mentioning emptiness. Emptiness, it's called chong dun.

It's not what he really wanted to say. He just had to go down to their level. We say that any Buddhist book that doesn't directly speak about emptiness is not getting to the point at all.

This is one of my pet peeves, the thing about the parts. And I listen to even very high lamas teach it and it's just flatly wrong. Maybe they're doing it for some reason, but I can't see that.

But it's just wrong. Is a person their parts? Is a person...

Am I the sum of my arms, legs, mind, history, thoughts? Who is that? What else?

Who else is there? What else is there? What's wrong with that?

[Speaker 2]
It's just a bunch of different stuff. You say that's just a bunch of different stuff.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, if you chopped off my arm and my legs and my every other part and you put all that there, and what?

[Speaker 2]
There has to be a mind putting it all together.

[Speaker 1]
Right. There has to be the idea that it's getting right. That's the last part.

That's the final part. Somebody has to come up and their karma has to force them to draw the outline around these parts and say that's Geshe Michael. That's the last part.

If you count that as a part, then I am the sum of my parts. If you don't count that as a part, I am not the sum of my parts. The last part is very tricky.

You can't just say it's the idea that you're Geshe Michael. It's more accurate to say the idea forced upon the viewer by their karma that I am Geshe Michael. Then you have everything.

Then you have all the parts. Like that. Until your karma forces you to see their face as sneering and not as smiling, you can't get angry.

Right? That's the last part. So just to get up in a talk and say your parts are not going to help me, I don't think it will help anybody.

Okay, so I'm not my arm. I'm not my toe. I knew that.

Am I all my parts? Yeah, I think I am. Why not?

I'm not the carpet. I'm all my pieces. Okay.

So first, this is what it's saying here. As long as you think something is itself independent of how you are seeing it, you will suffer. Okay?

If you understand that you are making the person angry, you are creating the angry person, then you will collect karma. Why? You will collect karma as long as you think that the angry person is coming from the wrong side.

Why? No, but why will you collect karma?

[Speaker 2]
You'll react.

[Speaker 1]
You'll react. You'll do back to them what they did to you. This is the human history of 50,000 years of mistakes, 50,000 years of ignorance, 50,000 years of responding to violence and violence.

Because they don't know anything. And it will just continue. They told us Vietnam would be the last war.

Then they told us Korea was going to be the last war and World War II. How was the World War II? There was one World War, I mean the Great War.

And then it goes on and on and on and on. Somebody yells at you and you're like, and then you make karma. And that is another karma.

And then you have another person and then another person and they don't end. You can't end it. Without perceiving their emptiness you can't end it.

Okay, we're caught up. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do it tonight, but I'll start next week.

I'll start with people in the class and then we could teach them, but since we're late I think we'll just do a couple pieces and I sense that it's time to put sugar in you, to pep you up. So I have some very good news. You know, Giselle and Ben came from Australia and they said we're going to devote a good part of our luggage to feeding the first transfer class.

So you have Arnott's Mint Slices. You have Arnott's Tin-Tin Malutmo. More Tin-Tins.

You got, I guess Tin-Tin is popular. Crunch, Tin-Tin Crunch. You got, Violet Crumble.

You got, oh, Cadbury Peanut. That's the one she really loves.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
And you got Mandarin Slice. That looked good to me, I'll give it away. You got, Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Chocolate.

That must be good. Can you start, Giselle? I'm going to take a piece of this because this is the, this was what made one person's aircraft in the last place.

Okay. Okay, next week, no non-vegan stuff, okay? This will be your last hurrah.

Unless it's soap. We have some more stuff over here, but I'm afraid to make you sick. We have like three weeks extra soap.

The last night we were in New Mexico, so we put it, we covered the porch with soap and then all of a sudden, immigrants came. And I thought maybe they all got sick. Maybe not soap, right?

She says I don't have to try the trunk. Can't give you food and stuff without trying it. Okay.

Here we go. Your pronunciation will improve if you have stuff in your mouth. Dekedo?

Yeah. Dekedo?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
What are you studying? Poke. What's poke?

Po means Tibet. Okay? It's called because bu means to call.

You can hear it. And India is the holy land. So they call their country by reference to the holy land.

Oh, it's just a stone's throw. You could call Tibet a stone's throw from the holy land, right? So dekedo ya means the same point is made in the following word.

It's an idiom. It's an idiom. Okay.

We'll try to read it again.

[Speaker 2]
I don't remember.

[Speaker 1]
One, two, three. Okay. What's the wrong guy?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Oh. Who wrote the Art of Culminating?

[Speaker 2]
That's a trick question. That's a trick question, right?

[Speaker 1]
Okay. No, people have been tricked by that question. Not you guys.

Okay. Oh, I'm going to teach you guys the older translators, okay? Say, Che Tam Che.

Che Tam Che. Rong Shin. Rong Shin.

Me Par.

[Speaker 2]
Me Par.

[Speaker 1]
She Par. She Par. Che Tam Che.

[Speaker 2]
Che Tam Che.

[Speaker 1]
Rong Shin. Rong Shin. Me Par.

Me Par. She Par. She Par.

Say, Rong. Rong. Ruffles have ridges.

[Speaker 2]
Ruffles have ridges.

[Speaker 1]
I don't have a good chill. I mean, probably. Say, Rong.

[Speaker 2]
Rong.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, I mean, if you speak Spanish, right? Or Portuguese or anything. Rong.

Okay, say, Rong. Rong. It's not with your front teeth on your lower lip.

In English, right? Say, Rong. Rong.

Rong. That's wrong. It's thrilling your tongue on the top of your mouth.

Rong. Maybe French also? Yeah, Rong.

Okay, so, Rong Shin. Me Par. She Par.

You go. People mistranslate this. This could be translation rule number 456.

I don't know. Okay? Just because the subject is positive, doesn't mean you have to phrase it that way.

What's it say? Che Tam Che means what?

[Speaker 2]
Che Tam Che.

[Speaker 1]
Everything in the universe, everything in the world, in the universe, Ramshin Meva, doesn't have any nature of its own. Does this have a nature? Is this one of the things in the universe?

It is, I mean, it's starting to disappear. Up till now, it's one of the things in the universe. Doesn't have a nature.

Is it a cookie? I mean, the box says cookie for me. So does it have a nature of being a cookie?

But this said no. Yeah, of its own. Ramshin, Ramshin, its own.

Is it a cookie? Yes. Does it have a nature of a cookie?

Yes. Does it have its own nature of being a cookie? No.

No, I make it a cookie. I make it a cookie. I can know if it had been made from eggplant, it wouldn't be a cookie.

You just say no, it's not a cookie. It looks like a cookie, but it's not a cookie. I make it a cookie.

Because of my karma. This is why I gave it away. But here a young translator, an inexperienced translator will make a mistake.

What will they say? No, it's just a plain old grammar thing. They will say what?

All things in the universe don't have a nature. We don't say that in English. We don't say all things in the universe don't have a nature.

What do you say in English? Nothing in the universe has a nature of its own. Just be aware.

Like baby translators, they get stuck in the Tibetan. And then it doesn't make sense. It's wrong to say all things in the world don't have a nature.

That's not correct English, right? So how do we translate it? Nothing in the universe has any nature of its own.

Okay? Say uh. Okay, alright.

Okay, let's read it together. One, two, three. Be careful.

Okay. By the way, Aaron, if you see anybody out there called ready for Kripa Lama Kristi's class, can you tell them they can come in? They can hang out for...

I'll go in about 15 minutes or so? Is that okay? Okay.

More experienced translators, what does ngepa mean? What does ngepa mean? Like even in Tongan, what does it mean?

[Speaker 2]
Literal.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, or definite, right? Ngepa. Ngepa.

Ngepa means I'm not sure. It's not sure, right? Ngepa means positive, sure, fixed, right?

Literal in the study of Tongan. But here it's a verb, and you won't see it often as a verb, and it trips up a lot of baby translators. Okay?

What's it mean? What's ngepa? Ngepa.

I ngepa it. What's it mean?

[Speaker 2]
To be certain.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, to be certain. Less baby translators will translate it as to be certain. Really sophisticated translators, it means to ascertain.

What's the difference between certain and ascertain? You see, it's like that. It means to ascertain.

Which means what? To see something truly in a way. I ascertain the truth, right?

So it's like ascertain. From certain, right? As a verb.

Okay? So. From this we can ascertain the fact.

[Speaker 2]
If it's not that way.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, and if it weren't that way. What weren't that way? See, we're not only translating in a snail's pace, it's so hard to keep your mind on what we were saying before.

And I scrolled it up so you couldn't cheat. If what weren't the way? What?

Go back further. What did it say just before that? In a few words just before that.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
If they hadn't seen it yet. Okay? The Dode Satchitra, the Sutra on the Ten Levels, is saying, when it says what?

That they have seen emptiness. The Buddha himself is implying that these lower people have seen emptiness. Because he said what?

The Bodhisattva does outshine them by reason of his family. But not by reason of his state of mind. Which is to say that they, those lower people, have seen emptiness.

Okay? Great. If it were not that way, deta mayena.

If these lower nirvanaists had not seen emptiness, which should already sound weird to you, why? How can you get to nirvana without seeing anger? I mean, come on.

You know? Are you going to take a drug or something? How are you going to get rid of your anger?

You know? So it should sound weird to you. But as soon as somebody says, oh, these lower nirvana guys have not seen emptiness, you're like, come on.

You know? Alright? I learned that from her sister in high school.

They don't say get real anymore. They say something else. Anyway, I already forgot it.

Okay. From this we can ascertain the fact. And if it weren't that way, then, then they would be without any understanding that ngopos don't have a nature of their own.

What's a ngopo? Be careful here, okay? Be careful here.

Here's another translation trick, okay? Ngopo is a translation of bhava. Say bhava.

Right? It stands for bhava. Bhava can mean two different things, okay?

It can mean ngopo in the sense of a working thing. Is this a ngopo? Why?

You can use it. That's the definition of ngopo. A working thing.

Something that does something. Right? But ngopo can also mean in ancient, in translations of bhava, it can just mean a thing.

Okay? So be careful. Be careful.

Is he saying those guys that reached nirvana didn't understand that working things have no nature? Or is he saying those guys that reached nirvana didn't understand that anything had any nature? What's he probably saying?

He's probably saying anything. Okay? We don't see any reason here to to talk about working things.

Okay? Anyway. Then they would be without any understanding that things have no nature.

This is a really tough translation thing. Okay? Here's a really tough translation thing.

There's a cheer at the end of here. Okay? So I'm talking to the people who are already translating.

Okay? There's a cheer at the end of this statement. What does it mean?

Yeah. Because. And in English we have to take the because and go...

stick it at the top. Right? You don't say the sky is blue, certain chemicals in the oxygen.

Because. You know? You say the sky is blue because.

So you have to go back and take the because and put it at the front. In 99% of cases. 99.999. Here's an exception. Here's an exception. It's really important if you guys are trying to translate. I mean this will mess you up.

He's putting the cheer before he states what he believes. He's putting the cheer long before. Okay?

He's saying if it were not the case that they had seen emptiness then they wouldn't see that things have no nature. And because of that. Okay?

Got it? It's totally out of normal. Okay?

It's tricky. Okay? So we got to take that cheer and start the next sentence with that.

And because of that we don't even know what the next sentence is saying yet. Okay? Hang in there.

You got ten more minutes. The sugar is running off. I know.

Okay. One. Two.

Three. Okay. tan.

Rang. Gi. Le.

Na. Par. Che.

Pe. Chan. Su.

Gi. Le. Par.

Ger.

[Speaker 2]
La.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. And because they have not seen emptiness, they have not seen that things have no nature, then they would be people who were free of desire, in a worldly way. What's a worldly way mean here?

I gave you four choices. Heroin? Alcohol?

Space Mountain Meditation and Puerto Vallarta.

[Speaker 2]
Alright, okay?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, I gave you four choices. That's what worldly way means here. Okay?

There would be... And what's that mean? Are they free of desire?

Add an adverb. Temporary. For the time being.

Until they get back on the flight. You know? Until they go back to the airport and people are screaming at them that they've got five bags and they're all overweight.

Right? Okay. Because of that, you'll be free of worldly way.

And then... The Bodhisattva who had just reached that first state of mind would in fact outshine them. Even that Bodhisattva.

By virtue of his or her capacity of discrimination. But what's he really saying? And then we'll stop.

Okay, you get this and we'll stop. He's accusing the other guy of something. He's accusing...

He's making a tenure, right? A prasangika. He's making an absurdity that must be true if what he said was true.

What did he say? What is his main position? These lower people haven't seen emptiness.

They haven't seen emptiness directly. Okay. Have they reached nirvana?

Are they free of desire? How did they do it? Did they?

They went to Puerto Vallarta. That's all. Really.

That's all. Right? Okay.

Oh! They went to Puerto Vallarta. Right.

That's why he outshines them. Right. So he outshines them not only in their family, but also by his state of mind.

Okay? Got it? Even a baby Bodhisattva who just got that first state of mind.

What's he talking about?

[Speaker 2]
The wish.

[Speaker 1]
It could be the wish. It could be just a wish. He could be saying something very radical.

Well, then, a Bodhisattva who hasn't seen emptiness outshines them by virtue of his state of mind. Okay?

[Speaker 2]
Got it?

[Speaker 1]
Because they're just in Puerto Vallarta. Got it? Like, he's really...

It's like a huge insult in the scripture. Oh! Well, I guess that a Bodhisattva who hasn't seen emptiness outshines them by his state of mind.

Why do you say that? Because he's got bodhichitta. He's got love.

He outshines them. Why? They didn't even see emptiness.

They're like getting along in Puerto Vallarta. Okay? Got it?

Got it? Like it's a big diss. It's a big diss to this guy.

Come on! You're really stupid. You know?

He outshines. He didn't even have to see emptiness to outshine him. He just loves people.

Which is better than hanging out in Puerto Vallarta because you think it's going to help your mind. Got it? Say, nah!

Okay? Then you get to go. Okay.

Alright. It's very cool. Alright.

Is it good to go to Puerto Vallarta? Alastair. Oh man!

We got to talk. Ah! We got to talk.

There's this huge Indian palace somebody built and they don't use it. It's got like a hundred rooms like for a yoga retreat next to a beach, you know? But anyway.

[Speaker 2]
In this totally isolated little village.

[Speaker 1]
Anyway. It's important to understand one thing. Like we talked about in the mental indication class.

Right? Indication class. There were six triggers.

Six things that can trigger a mental affliction. Five of them, if you can stop them, will give you temporary relief. Will give you temporary relief.

I have a friend who was in deep depression. Really deep depression. And they came to me.

This was like 15 years ago, you know? And they said, can you help me? And I gave them lots of mamsum.

I gave them eight verses. I gave them katapa stuff. I gave them mamlum stuff.

I gave them shakti deva. I gave them all the stuff, you know? Then I called them the next week, you know?

I said, can I speak to them? They said, no, they're gone. I said, where?

They went to a... what do you call it? They went to a mental place.

And I was shocked, you know? I said, well, how are they treating them? They're giving them drugs.

They're giving them antidepressant drugs. Like, big time antidepressant drugs, you know? And then I felt really bad, you know?

I had the ultimate answer. I said, they're going and using antidepressant drugs, you know? And then I talked to the person later and I said, how do you feel now?

They said, good, better, you know? And I said, well, what did it? Was it the eight verses or was it shakti deva, you know?

They said, well, actually it was the antidepressant drugs, you know? And I felt kind of depressed about that. And I said, well, you know, you know, I felt bad, you know?

And I said, well, what is it about antidepressant drugs that you couldn't get from shakti deva, you know? And they're like, a person in trouble like that, they just need a break, you know? They just need something to break it.

For five minutes, for ten minutes, for one day. If they get some space, if they just get in another space for two days, three days, then they can take shakti deva, then they can use shakti deva. But the deepened depression, you hand somebody shakti deva, they can't use it, they can't do anything.

You need that thing to kick you out for a couple of days, get a few days space, then you can start shakti deva. You should have known that, but what I mean is, for mental afflictions, until you can get some space, the emptiness thing might not help. You see?

You see what I mean? Like you have a problem with anger with somebody, and you sit there and say, oh, they're coming from me. You still get angry, you know?

And you need some peace in your mind. It's not bad to use these other methods, to meditate more, to eat well, to get more sleep, to avoid the person, because you can't handle it yet, even with your emptiness understanding. These are good methods.

These are appropriate methods. These are necessary for most of us. And then they put you in a place where then you can start to use the emptiness thing.

So pratyamayata is an option. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Cool. Sorry I keep you late. Thank you.

Okay.