Вступление на срединный путь (текущий курс, Аризона), занятие 89

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so we were saying that to see the emptiness of Michael, I have to see the emptiness of Michael's parts, okay? Michael's arms, Michael's legs, Michael's mind. And all along they've been saying that unless you see emptiness, you can't get rid of your negative emotions.

You will always have jealousy, you will always have anger, you will always be disappointed, so long as you don't see emptiness. So the purpose of the book is to try to see emptiness. And we got to a part where they say, if you don't see the emptiness of your parts, then you'll never see the emptiness of the whole thing.

But remember that when you see emptiness for the first time directly, you see the emptiness of all of Michael. So the first time you see it directly, you see the emptiness of you, Ben or Earl or whoever you are. But to get there, you have to study the emptiness of your parts.

And that's where we're at, okay? That's what we're talking about right now. So if you're new to the class, we read the Tibetan from the Roman letters and you can just fake it, make noises, and nobody will notice probably.

Every third word sounds like what it looks like. So you'll be okay, all right? And just try, and don't stress, and we're just kind of goofing off, okay?

So here we go. One, two, three, grub. Okay.

One, two, three. Grub. Grub.

Grub. Grub. Grub.

Grub. Grub. Grub.

Grub. Grub. Okay.

So this is a common mistake about the idea of self. People say Buddhists don't believe in self, Atman, right? And then they say Buddhists don't accept the idea of self.

So people hear that and they say, oh, if I met a Buddhist and if they said, oh, Mira, are you you? They would have to say no, okay? Because they don't believe in myself, in anybody's self, right?

And that's a wrong idea about Buddhism. That's not what Buddhism is talking about. A self means its own nature, itself.

It's the podium itself. And then in that sense, you have to understand, itself means a podium that's not coming from your own mind, okay? So now I'll ask you again, is the podium itself?

No, why? Because the podium is coming from your mind, okay? Because you decided to think about a podium, right?

No. Good. So why is it coming from your mind?

Yeah, it's karma. So there was karma planted in your mind earlier when you provided a podium or something similar to somebody else, okay? Like you helped out in a class at some point before.

You helped Gyelse clean up the temple after all the students really, really messed it up, as they do every night. And then the karma of that is that that planted a seed for a podium in your mind. And now you look and the podium is not coming at you.

The podium is coming from you, okay? That's the idea. Your mind is projecting a podium out there.

So there's no podium out here by itself. That's an image being synthesized by your mind, okay? From what?

From parts, okay? There's a long thin part here and then there's this weirdo thing here and then there's a base down here, right? So there are basically three parts of the thing.

One, two, three. And if you were a roach, I mean the other kind of roach, you would look at it and you would see a mountain or you would see an unsurpassable plain, you know, or a mesa. You see?

And because you're a human, your mind synthesizes the same parts that the roach sees, but your mind synthesizes it into a podium because you helped someone in a podium way in the past, okay? That's all. And all objects are coming from that.

So when we say the podium is not itself or the podium doesn't have a self or the podium doesn't have a self nature, what we mean is it's not coming from its own side. It doesn't have podiumness about it. If it had podiumness about it, then a roach that came up to it would give a lecture from it, okay?

Really, really, okay? If it was calling out, podium, podium, to everybody, that would be a self. So when we say there's no self, we don't mean there's no Michael or anything like that.

We just mean there's no Michael who is himself from his own side, independent of my karma to see Michael, okay? If my karma to perceive my parts as Michael end tonight, I'll die in a car accident or something. You see?

That's it. That's where Michael's coming from. My own karma.

And when it wears out, I won't see this anymore. I'll see something else. Better or worse, we don't know.

Depends on how many white rocks I have in my pocket. So that's the highest school's idea of what it means to say something is not itself. Something doesn't have a self.

That's the highest school's version. Lower schools have other versions. They would say, for example, Geshe Michael doesn't, there's no self to the person Geshe Michael because he's not substantial and he's not self-standing.

And substantial means basically in this school's self-control. He doesn't have control over his body and his mind. So what does that mean?

What it means to say that this body is Michael is to say that Michael can decide what happens with this body. What differentiates this body from that body is that the person named Michael can control this body. If you say, Michael, raise your hand, he raises his hand.

You see what I mean? So we establish which body belongs to Michael from which body Michael can control. If you say, think of your favorite thing in the world, Michael thinks of the favorite thing in the world.

So he controls his mind also. He can visualize the most beautiful thing in the world. So therefore he has control over his body and mind.

And that's what Michael is. I'm not in charge of his body. If I say, Michael, raise your hand, I can't force him, you see?

No, because that's not my body. Right? If I say, think of the most beautiful thing in the world, he won't think of the same thing as me, maybe.

So I don't have control of that body. Therefore I am me. Michael's here.

Michael pertains to this body because I can control it, right? Like I can control cancer tumors that grow in it. When Michael has a jealousy attack or a depression attack, I can just change his mind.

Right? I have control. So in the end we don't have control.

And then we discover it over the course of a lifetime. And that makes people old to discover that. You see?

They struggle their whole lifetime. That's what makes people gray-haired and puts wrinkles on your forehead. It's finding out that you're not in control.

Like you spend a whole lifetime figuring it out. That you thought you were in control of you're not in control. So the lower schools say the self about Geshe Michael that he doesn't have.

The Geshe Michael about Geshe Michael that's not there. Okay? That's emptiness.

Okay? The Geshe Michael about Geshe Michael that's not there is the one who controls his body, what happens to his body, and what happens to his mind. The one who controls cancer tumors growing or not, the one who controls thoughts of jealousy, uncontrollable thoughts of jealousy coming into his mind.

Okay? So that Michael doesn't exist. And we call that Kansaki Dagme.

Okay? The lack of a self to the person about Michael. So the lower schools say the Michael who isn't there is the one who can control his body and mind.

And our school says that's not strong enough. That doesn't go far enough. Okay?

Got it? So we say that... We can say that the idea that emptiness of the person...

Emptiness of Michael means there ain't no Michael who can... There. There ain't no Michael there who can control his body and mind.

Okay? We can say that's a kind of emptiness or a flavor of emptiness. And they would call it gross lack of a self to a person.

The gross lack of self to a person. Some schools. Lower schools.

Okay? And then when we say here held in common means we can talk about that as a kind of emptiness in our school. We can say that's a kind of emptiness.

And in that sense we're agreeing with the lower schools that it's a kind of emptiness. Okay? So if I said to you describe to me a kind of emptiness which is held in common or which is described in a similar way in different schools.

Okay? I want you to give me a kind of emptiness which we can sort of agree on as a lower kind of emptiness with other schools. With lower schools.

Okay? Got it? And then you say yes Geshe Michael I can do that.

So Geshe's gonna tell me. And then what if he says the Geshe Michael who's not coming from his own karma. What?

What if he says that's the emptiness that the lower schools also agree to. Then we'd have to say he's wrong. Got it?

Okay? That's what's happening here in this paragraph. Okay?

Somebody's trying to say we say yeah the fact that Geshe Michael's not substantial which in this presentation and this scripture means in control of his body and mind. We can call that a lower form of emptiness but we don't call it the most subtle form. Okay?

Got it? To the person. About person.

And again the whole point of these philosophical discussions the whole idea of discussing these things is you know you could just stand up here and say oh look you know the lower Madhyamika school believes in this kind of lesser emptiness. You could get up here and say that. And then you could say oh and we believe in a different kind of emptiness.

But really you have to get a sense in your heart in your guts that if you want to remove jealousy if you want to be happy then you must see the higher form. It's not enough to see the lower form. Got it?

That's the point of the book. It's not like to say oh this school's wrong and that school's right. You know?

The point of the book is will you be happy next week? Or will you be happy tonight? And to the extent that you understand that everything in your life is coming from your actions towards others how much or little you care for other people to that extent you will be happy.

And if you think all you need to do is understand you're not in control is that enough? I mean do you want to go through life saying nothing I can do about it? You know?

I mean no because that's the implication of the lower school's position. That's the implication of the lower school's position. You don't have control over stuff.

And then you hear that at Buddhist teachings. You hear people get up and say don't stress. You know?

You're going to get cancer. You're going to get anger. You can't control it.

So just relax. You know? And is that a is that where you want to spend the rest of your life?

Do you want to spend the rest of your life with not so bad or I couldn't do anything about it anyway. You know? Is that as far as Buddhism goes?

You see? Just to have some kind of fatalism or some kind of, I don't know get used to the fact that you're not going to ever be happy. You know?

Because that's the implication of the lower emptiness. But we want an emptiness that can can change everything. The higher emptiness can change everything because if every object in my experience is coming from how I treat other people then death itself is coming from how I treat other people.

And also the condition of my body whether it's flesh or light. You know? Whether it's restricted to one body or whether I could emanate a billion bodies.

That's also changeable. I can do that. If things are coming from how I treat others then by treating others in an infinitely kind way I can change even death on my body.

And then to a person who understands that this planet begins to look like a a small corner of the universe where they just made a lot of boo-boos. You know? Now like a person who clearly saw those things could very well look on this whole globe this whole planet and all of human history as just a fluke.

Like an unfortunate fluke in the universe. Like there are other planets where people figured it out already. They treat each other nicely.

They give money to each other. They feed each other. They love each other.

And because of that karma they don't have this kind of body anymore. And then those people are looking at our planet you know? And saying you know, look there's still a little pocket of of like roaches over there.

You know? Who are just hurting each other and they think they can get things by by hurting other people. And there's just a little pocket of like total stupidity still left there.

Now it's if you understand these ideas clearly then you could get to a perception of this entire globe as a minor error in the universe. And just something we need to fix. You know?

This is maybe the last place where people are still dying. You see? That's probably why they haven't contacted us yet.

Okay. Okay. Hmm.

But think of it that way and it's a beautiful idea. It's a beautiful thought. You know, the whole universe most of the universe is populated by people who figured this out a long time ago.

In the way that we figured out how to fly get planes iron to fly in the air. Right? And then they're just ahead of us and they figured out this.

And then we're just sort of retards or something. You know? No, like we're just a little pocket.

This is not the whole universe. This planet is not the whole universe. And the condition of people on this planet may be not normal.

You know? And I think as the more you understand these ideas and get in contact with those energies you begin to think that way.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
All right. Here we go. One, two, three.

Kamsa Rangshin Ki Mepa Mato Gna Kamsa Ki Dame Zopa To Mi Nu We Chi Okay. Those of you who don't know, I mean, this is a debate custom and you'll see more of that. Okay.

Reason being, okay, and that's because if we fail to perceive that the person has no nature doesn't exist. So, he's giving you a clue. He says, how are you going to perceive what I call Geshe Michael doesn't have any self?

Just realize that Geshe Michael, there's nothing about Geshe Michael that exists in and of itself. Okay? By nature.

But through any nature of his own. So, question. Does Geshe Michael have a nature?

So, Rangshin Yodata. So, he must have a nature, right? Rangshin Ki Dubata.

So, he exists through some nature. Yeah, he has two legs, two arms. He's a human.

That's one example. Okay. Rangshin Ki Dubata.

So, does he exist through some nature? I mean, if I had fur, and I had a longer nose, and, you know, I was barking, that would be a different nature. I must have some nature that allows you to recognize me as a human, right?

So, Rangshin Yodata. He has a nature. Rangshin Ki Dubata.

So, he exists through that nature. I mean, that's how we recognize him.

[Speaker 2]
Right.

[Speaker 1]
So, Rangshin Ki Dubata. So, he's not void of such a nature. Huh?

But, well, I don't know. It says here. Rangshin Ki Meva Matodna.

Until such time as you realize he has no nature, you will never understand emptiness completely. Right? So, he doesn't have a nature.

Huh? He does have a nature. He doesn't have a nature.

That's okay. Who said that? Yeah, okay.

Ernie gets the cupcake, okay? But you have to bake it. All right.

So, yeah. None of his own. You have to say his own, okay?

So, Geshe Michael's human appearance is not his own. It is my own. So, then I do have a nature which is my own.

So, Geshe Michael's appearance of being human doesn't belong to him. So, it's his own. Yeah, okay.

That's the own means. Okay, got it? He does have that nature.

That nature pertains to him. But you're sticking it on me. You're applying it to me.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
People ask me... I mean, when people ask you, why is the Dalai Lama getting old? Why does he appear to be older?

And then you say, to whom? You have to say, to whom? And then, what does he see when he looks in the mirror?

We have no idea. We don't know. And that applies actually to the person sitting next to you.

Okay? You don't know what they see in the mirror. Okay.

Say again? Shi tu me pa. Nah, that's a different thing.

That's a different thing. ka chi nye rang gi da me ngun tsun du do pe du ka sa rang gi tu pe du Okay. You ready?

One, two, three. ka chi nye rang gi da me ngun tsun du do pe du ka sa rang gi tu pe du ze yu gi towa ngun tsun du do pa la che ne So this gets back to an old argument. Okay?

Buddhism has two great divisions. Mahayana and Hinayana, or Theravada. So, that's what we call higher school and lower school.

So, higher track and lower track. So, Mahayana track, which is higher way, the higher way, the greater way, they have a certain presentation of emptiness. Got it?

And then the lower way has a different presentation of emptiness. Okay? But the higher school, Mahayana, the higher track, they claim that people on the lower track can get rid of their negative emotions forever.

They can. With their limited resources, they can still get rid of jealousy forever. They claim that.

Higher school claims that. Which, according to what I just said, means that those guys in the lower schools must see the highest form of emptiness directly. Because we made the claim that you cannot get over your negative emotions.

It's impossible to overcome your negative emotions as long as you still don't understand emptiness. Okay? Completely.

Okay? So, and then, but our school also says that those lower guys can get rid of their jealousy forever. So, what do we think?

Okay. They must be able to see emptiness in its full form, in its highest form. But aren't they the guys who claimed that emptiness was a different thing?

You see? Weren't they the guys who were saying emptiness means Geshe Michael's not in control of his body and mind? Wasn't that their position?

It is their position. Okay? So, there's a confusion.

And that's what we're getting to. Okay. Okay.

Okay. So, Kacig... This is difficult.

I'm going to do it this way and we'll see if it works out. Okay. That would be expected, right?

I mean, it would be expected to... Like, if you said to a person who wasn't up to speed on emptiness yet, and they thought... They went to a Buddhist lecture and the speaker said, Don't stress.

You can't control your body and mind. It's going to get older. Your mind's going to get senile.

You know, calm. Be calm. Watch your breath.

You know? Don't worry about it. You know?

Then you'll be a better person. Okay? And that's all.

They stopped there. So, if you ask them, Do these people in the lower schools who remove their jealousy forever, do they see emptiness? And then what would they say?

What would they say? Yeah, they do. And if you ask them, What kind of emptiness would that be?

They would say, Oh, the fact that Geshe Michael's not in control of his body and his mind. Yeah. Naturally, right?

You would expect that, right? So, some people say that that's... Okay.

So, if that's all you see, that Geshe Michael's not in control of his body and mind, can Geshe Michael then remove all his jealousy with just that knowledge? We say no. Okay.

We say no. We say, Even if a person in a lower school... Even if a person's in a lower school, but if they get rid of their jealousy forever, then it must be because they saw the highest form of emptiness.

But it wouldn't be strange for a lower school guy to say, Look, when a lower school guy sees emptiness directly, it's the fact that Geshe Michael's not in control. Got it? Okay?

If you don't get it, just nod. Okay? And then it's okay.

Huh? Nice question. Okay?

Did you get Jerome's question? So, if you're a person in a lower school, and you perceive something directly, which gets rid of your jealousy forever, right? Then you must be seeing the highest school's form of emptiness, right?

Doesn't that then make you a member of the high school? Why not? Yeah, in terms of your philosophical viewpoints, you would be high school.

But we also add what? Yeah, what's your motivation? Why are you trying to see emptiness?

Is it just to be happy yourself? Because you can do it. If you just see that everything is coming from you, and how you treat other people, and then you treat other people well, then slowly your life will become a paradise, and beautiful things will happen to you, right?

So, you can achieve... You can make yourself happy without any higher motivation than that, right? But a Mahayana person, what distinguishes a Mahayana person at that point is, are they doing it to save the world?

Would they like to... Would you feel comfortable stuffing your face, having a big pancake breakfast in the lizard lounge, right? If everyone else in the room was really hungry, would you feel comfortable eating a whole stack of pancakes by yourself if everyone else in that room hadn't eaten for three days?

Could you do that? That's what those guys are doing. They see emptiness directly, they get rid of their own negative emotions, and that's it, they're happy.

They're just happy, and they go through life happy, and you can. You can do it. So, what...

what makes them not Mahayana is that they're willing to eat the pancakes in the lizard lounge and watch everybody else be hungry. Huh? You're saying that describes me?

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.

I don't know. I'll answer it in a tantric sense, okay? I'll answer it from a tantric viewpoint.

When a Mahayana person sees emptiness directly, or a person who's about to become Mahayana, during the aftermath, right, when they come out of that direct experience, because of the opening of the heart chakra and the release of prana from the heart chakra, from doing your yoga correctly, you see directly the face of every living being that you will serve, you see? And then you know that you will spend the rest of eternity serving them. And in that moment that your heart chakra opens and the prana flows for the first time through that area, you see the face of every living being on all worlds, in one moment, okay?

So, that experience is the direct experience of bodhicitta. And that's different from sort of a happy intention or something like that, you know? So, I would answer it that way.

I would say they haven't had that experience. Tantrically, okay? Yeah.

Fully. That's... By the way, that's not me, that's him.

He has it right here. He has it in the paragraph before. Dzogparthok.

Dzogparthok. Fully, fully perceived. Okay.

No. No, they say the basis is different, meaning the person who's having the perception is different, but that doesn't make what they see different. You see what I mean?

Got it? The basis of the realization, meaning the body and mind in which the realization occurred, is different. But the emptiness that they perceive is not different.

The emptiness that you perceive the first time you see emptiness directly and the experience of seeing it directly are in no way less than a Buddha perceives it. The emptiness part. The emptiness part.

And I was talking about jayatabhyasi anyway. Which, what am I saying? I was talking about afterwards.

Right? I was talking about afterwards. Like...

ten minutes later, when you come down. All right, we got to get going. Or it might take thirty years to do this book.

But that doesn't so much matter, right? One, two, three. Drup-tha-ok-ma-nam-dang, chö-kyi dak-me, tra-mo-ngön-sung-du-tok-pa, yö-me-kyi-go-ne, je-pa-mi-rik-te.

Okay. So, he's just saying that thing. That the question that you...

He's really got to the question that you asked. And a well-written textbook for a monastery should beg a question. It should anticipate the student's next thought.

So now he's saying, if you try to make all the distinctions between schools based only on their ideas of emptiness, then you'll get problems. Sooner or later you'll get problems. And if you base your decision about whether or not they directly perceive the ultimate form of emptiness, right?

On what school they're in. On what level they're in. Then you're also going to have a problem.

Okay? Got it? Alright.

One, two, three. Ka-sa-rang-shin-me-pa-ma-tok-na, ka-sa-kyi-da-me-tok-mi-nu-pa, she-sin-be-kyi. Okay?

Okay? That we finished already. Okay, let's read this one.

One, two, three. Ka-sa-rang-gya-tu-pe, ze-yu-du-zin-be-to-pa-de, jik-ta-rak-pa-yin-te. So the word, the big word here is jik-ta.

Say jik-ta. Jik-ta. Jik means, if you spell it with an S, it means scary.

Like jik-je, Bhairava. Okay? If you spell it without an S, it means to destroy.

So, jik-ta is, they translate it as destructible view, or view of destruction. Okay? So, ta means to see.

So, what does that mean? When you have a wheel of life, which is Lord Buddha's illustrated explanation of how you get in trouble. And the first link of the twelve, it's twelve links or twelve links in a chain reaction that causes our suffering.

Right? So, the very first link is called jik-ta. Okay?

Jik-ta. View of destruction. And there are two explanations about why it's called jik-ta.

One is that it's focused on the person, which is destructible. Falling apart as we speak. Okay?

You'll be two hours older at the end of class. Two hours closer to your death. Your wrinkles will be two hours more advanced.

And that's how you die. So, that's a jik-ta. Okay?

If you look at your body, that's a jik-ta. But a more, what do you call, optimistic way of explaining it, is what? It's a view which will be destroyed.

Eventually. Eventually you will destroy that view. But jik-ta is described as focusing on me and mine and thinking that this is not coming from how I treat other people.

Got it? Okay? So, perishable view.

Destruction view. Wrong view. The wrong way of looking at the world is to look at anything in the world and believe that it's not coming from you because of how well you've treated other people.

Got it? What's the second link of the Wheel of Life? Dambho marigpa.

Nyipa du-jig gi le. Yeah, it's the guy making pots. Okay?

So, according to that explanation of why we suffer or why we don't get the things we want, according to that explanation, it's all due to jik-ta. Okay? The karma is created from jik-ta.

We make bad karma and we make temporary good karma, wear-outable good karma, because we have jik-ta.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
So, here's the translation of this. What's he saying then? What's he saying then?

In terms of the Wheel of Life. Yeah, he's saying, even though the self that they believe doesn't exist is not the big one. Okay?

If you do hold on to that, it will cause you to collect karma. Got it? So, in that way, it does cause you trouble.

Got it? So, okay. Say, lung-jung.

Lung-dok. Lung-jung. Lung-dok.

From the lung-jung. Lung-jung means the forward progression of the Wheel of Life. From step one to step twelve.

From one, jik-ta. From seeing things the wrong way. Up to death and old age.

Going in that order, from one to twelve. Okay? We can say that, this lower idea of a self, this lower wrong idea, can cause the Wheel to spin.

Okay? What's the ma-ing-ga? Yeah, got it?

If you want a lung-dok, which means turn the Wheel back, which is what we want to do. If you want to chop the Wheel, you want to cut the Wheel, it's not enough to think that I'm not in control. Got it?

So, it can get you in trouble, and if you get rid of it, it can't get you out of trouble. Okay? Got it?

Alright, that's too bad. Alright. One, two, three.

KA-SA-RANG-KYA-TU-PE JE... Again. That's a lower...

That's a lower... Okay. Yeah, okay.

One, two, three. KA-SA-RANG-KYA-TU-PE JE-YU-KI-DONG-WE DONG-NI-TE KA-SA-KI-DA-ME-RA-TA YIN-BEI... Okay.

I'll just translate it and you're okay with it. Okay? Is it true that Geshe Michael is not in control of his body and mind?

Yes, especially Geshe Michael. Is that a kind of... Is that a flavor of emptiness?

Yeah, you could say a flavor of emptiness. We could say a gross flavor. A more obvious flavor.

But to be... To really... To be most accurate, if you get in a debate in the monastery, you'd want to say it's not a gross form of emptiness.

Okay? It's not a form of emptiness at all. Okay?

We use the expression flavors of emptiness in the Mahamudra presentation just to make people feel comfortable and to understand it better. But you know that they are not emptiness at all. Right?

Okay? The lower ones are not even a gross form of emptiness. Is there a form of emptiness not listed in those six which is the highest form of emptiness?

Okay. Meaning, is there a tantric form of emptiness? Could you say it?

In what? I don't remember. I don't remember.

Is it? I think that's Ranggupa presentation. Okay.

Yeah. Apparently. Okay.

One, two, three. Stop there. Carving error.

Okay. There you go. Okay.

All right. Here we go. One, two, three.

What's toktau? There's a very famous prayer by Je Tsongkhapa called toktama. The prayer of the virtuous beginning and end.

So they say... I mean, in that prayer, Je Tsongkhapa is saying when you do a good deed, let it be with a good beginning, you know, good intention. Then throughout the good deed, enjoy it.

Do it with a beautiful intention. And then at the end of the good deed, don't let it break down at the end. You know, you're tired.

It's the end of the day. You're about to go to sleep. And then finally you regret the good deed.

You know? So he's saying toktau. The beginning, the end, and the middle should all be with strong virtue, strong intent.

Okay? Toktau. Now, this quotation says the lam sums are toktau me.

Yeah, the three paths don't have a beginning, don't have an end, and don't have a middle. That's what the quotation says. Okay?

He's just kind of doing an ADD thing. Okay? Like, why is he jumping to some obscure quotation?

Maybe they were debating it that day when he wrote the book. I don't know. Okay?

So there's apparently a quotation that says the three paths have no beginning, have no end, and have no middle. Okay? I went and looked it up because I wanted to know what.

What three paths are you talking about? Okay? Got it?

And I looked up toktau and it took me a long time to figure out it was carving error. And I don't remember what it said, so let's go look. This is...

Those of you who don't know, when we go around the world begging people to donate money so that Tibetan refugee women can type in the ancient scriptures, this is why we're doing it. Okay? So we typed in...

I don't know. We typed in about... How many...

I don't know. A couple hundred thousand pages, anyway. And then we can look through those hundreds of thousands of pages in about a minute.

It used to be faster until Vista. And we can... It was faster in 1998, actually.

Seriously. And before... Yeah.

So, anyway. We're going to search through about 200,000 pages in a minute, or half a minute. And we're going to see if anybody explains what these three paths are.

Because then our translation will be more accurate. And we'll also understand what the hell he's saying. Okay.

So we do a piece of it. We do a piece of the quotation. And we search for that piece.

We have a choice. We could search... We could search the ancient Indian scriptures that were spoken by Lord Buddha.

We could search the Kangyur. We could search the commentaries written in India, which is the Tenggur. Or we could search the Tibetan commentaries written since then, which we call Sumbum.

Okay. Kangyur is maybe a thousand-something texts. The Tenggur is maybe 3,000 texts.

And then the Sumbum is 200,000 texts. So we're going to search the Sumbum. Okay.

And we'll see... We'll see if it hits anything. You see, this one...

This is a debate, okay? And I'll just... This is what I do all day when I do your readings.

I have to do this on every third sentence or something. I have to go look it up and see if it's spelled wrong or something is wrong. It takes hundreds of hours.

So, korwe togma me te. This happens to be a debate by some lama about, is there a beginning to our pain? Does our pain have a beginning?

And he says, korwe togma me te, there is no beginning to pain. Okay? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Neither. Okay? They've always been there.

All right? Why? Lam sung togta, un me pa she sung be e chir.

Because that book says the three paths have no beginning, middle and end. But he doesn't explain it. We have to go find another one.

So, it was just in the Vinaya, now it's going through Tantra, which is about half of all of Lord Buddha's teachings. Okay? Just so you know.

It's about, in the Tengyur and Kangyur, about a thousand and a half tantric works. Okay? I know there's another one here somewhere.

Each time the number changes on top, it's about a hundred pages. Okay, here's another one. I'll say it.

Gunpo lu. Lam sung togta, un me pa. Okay?

What is that? Yeah, Arya Nagarjuna. Gunpo lu.

The... The savior, Naga. So, now we know who said it anyway.

Okay? Now we said it... We at least know who said that the three paths don't have a beginning, a middle and an end.

Okay? Hmm... But he doesn't explain it.

Somebody does explain it.

[Speaker 2]
I don't know.

[Speaker 1]
So, this is what you would have to do if you were going to translate something responsibly, and you wanted to know what everything was. You know, like your class materials. If you wanted exactly to know how to word it, you'd have to find a commentary on it.

It's particularly slow tonight. I don't know why.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, this gets a little interesting. All right? Okay.

So, he says... Okay? The twelve links of the wheel of life.

Okay? The twelve links of the wheel of life. How do they spin?

That highest Aryan name, Nagarjuna, said... There's no beginning, no end, and no middle to the three paths. And therefore...

Therefore, the kinkor, the mandala of life, of the cycle. And mandala, don't forget, means disc, or anything circular. So, he's referring to...

He says gelme. Gelme is where you take a... We saw it with Shashadri and Melissa when their child, Anamika, did the play, the Shiva play.

Okay? And you get a baton, and you make... You put cans of fire on either end, and then you spin it like this, and it looks like a circle of fire.

If you do it fast enough, it looks like a circle of fire. That's a gelme.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
So, what he's saying is... There's an illusion of substance to the circle of pain. Okay?

It spins, and there's an illusion of substance to the circle. Gelme, kinkor tabo, penson ki, gyur chen dini kor gyur. And because of that, we suffer.

And guess what? He doesn't say what the three paths are. I have a feeling, by the way, in a lot of cases, I have a feeling the author didn't know.

And he just skipped it. Okay? But I can't know for sure.

Well, you can go find a commentary by Nagarjuna, or on Nagarjuna. But I wouldn't help you, you see. He wouldn't say, here's what I meant when I said lam-tsam.

You see, unfortunately, he would assume you knew. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It's coming. Okay.

Here he quotes it again, but he doesn't explain it. He doesn't say what the lam-tsam are. Okay.

Well, this is sort of a... This is Je Tsongkhapa's explanation of it. And I'm not going to read you the whole thing.

But what he's saying is that you... What is he saying? You get upset at somebody in this life.

Okay? You get upset at somebody. And depending on how powerful the object is, you will get some kind of result.

Right? Some karmic result. So, you get upset at maybe the highest karmic object.

Right? Briefly. Or maybe for the whole day.

And then... So, that's jikta. Okay?

That's... That's a wrong view. That's a wrong idea.

And get this. Okay? Get this.

Get this, if nothing else. Get this, and you can have your refreshments. Okay?

Is it possible to be upset about water on the bathroom floor upstairs in the lama house if you figured out that you're the one who left the shower door open? But can you get, like, furious and scream? Like you can at your roommate.

Do people do that? Do you stand at the lama house through that little tiny mirror and say, you left the shower door open, you know. You put water on the floor, you know.

You're an idiot, you know. Do you... Most people do that.

I mean, no. But... But do people go to their roommates who left the shower door open and say, you know, I told you a hundred times, it's no fun, especially in the winter.

We have... I have one pair of clean wool socks and I go into the bathroom and then they're soaked for the whole day and they're freezing, you know. And I asked you and I told you and we already talked about it, you know.

And I even put a sign on your door and then you did it again, you know. And can you get upset? There seems to be a distinction between getting upset when somebody else screws up and getting upset when you screw up.

Okay. There just seems to be that. Okay.

So, could you... Could you be disappointed in somebody for something they supposedly did to you if you understood that it's coming from you? Could you get up disappointed in them?

Would you be disappointed in them if you had correct view? If you understood where things really came from, is it possible to have serious disappointment towards another person? Not possible.

Okay. Not possible.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
But if you do have this... If you do have the view, okay, if you don't understand that they're coming from you, is it possible to be upset? Like your roommate.

Okay. Then, what will happen after that? What happens if you get upset?

You collect karma. Okay. Get upset.

Misunderstand. Collect karma. And then what?

You can say rebirth. You can say rebirth. In the wheel of life, you can say rebirth.

But I can say what? What's a tiny rebirth? I'm talking mini samsara.

What's a one-week samsara? They'll leave the shower door open again. Got it?

Because of the karma of you being upset at them. And then what'll happen? You will see it as coming from them.

And you will say something. And then you will have another shower door open. And then you will say something.

You'll see it the wrong way. And then you will say something. And then they'll leave the shower door open again.

And it's like this beautiful dance. Okay? And that's the three paths.

Okay? But it's worth it to go look it up. Right?

It's worth it to understand it. Right? Wrong idea about who they are.

Then collect karma because of that. And then rebirth, meaning the rebirth of the water on the floor. Got it?

That's a mini samsara. And your life, that's the story of our life. That's the story of our life.

And it's a it's a baton with fire on it. Got it? And it looks substantial.

Like it looks like we could never get out of it. It looks like our problems are so concrete. There's no way to get to just have a dumb roommate and we're stuck like that for years.

You know? They can't be changed. You know?

And then your life is not fun. And then you're not happy. Okay.

Now you can have refreshments. Okay? Do you guys have any?

If anybody wants to come in at this point and be more comfortable on the other side of the room or if anyone here is feeling too hot sitting next to Zachary because he he puts oil on his beard so when he does karate you can't grab his beard. No, I was talking to him about it today. He's a martial arts master and he has to grease up his beard and then sometimes he doesn't wash it off.

Okay. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

Okay. I showed him that move. I showed him the beard plucking beard plucking karate move today and he was pretty amazed.

No, you can do it. It's like impolite to do a huge loud yawn. Okay?

Like a small discreet one is okay. Alright. Here we go.

This is a small sentence. His last assertion was what? Yeah, there is a meaning to this to this quotation which is a really artificial way to get your book to sound like a debate.

You know? Oh, there is too a meaning to the quotation. Why?

Because I know the meaning. Why? Well, here it is.

You know? And he could just say here is the meaning. Right?

Okay. Anyway. So, a question for you.

The and so on is a frustratingly vague mis... You know, what do you call when you fill in the dot you fill in a space on a form? What?

No. Like you say, I blank agreed to pay you just that blank spot on a contract. Okay?

So, he is like leaving it blank. He is saying, guess what? The three paths are mental affliction, rebirth and so on.

I mean, come on. Just tell us the third one. Okay?

All right? Maybe... But I'll tell you something tantric about these scriptures.

Okay? I'll tell you something tantric about these scriptures. Assume they wanted you to wonder.

Assume it was on purpose. And then your life is a lot more mysterious and wonderful. You know, like, why did he leave out the third one?

You know? So, he mentioned... He mentioned the water being poured on the floor again.

And he mentioned how upset I was about it and how I thought about it the wrong way. But he didn't mention... What?

The karma of thinking bad about my roommate. He didn't mention yelling at my roommate. Now, why?

You know? And then you have to... If you really believe in tantra, in a tantric worldview, then you approach the scriptures that way.

Nothing is a mistake. Nothing is for no reason. Everything has a reason.

Every difficult or... Every seemingly difficult act committed by a divine being has some reason behind it. And our job is to figure out what.

Okay? It's a pleasant sort of paranoia. Okay.

All right.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
I'm sorry? What was the second half of hyphen? Fourth line down.

One, two, three, four. Things it sees. I'm sorry.

Yeah, okay. That was just a mistake. Why did he say thing instead of thing?

What's the connection between my thinking and thing? Okay. Okay, let's read it together.

Wait, let's eat something. No. I guess they're out of cookies.

One, two, three. Just a joke. Just a joke.

I'm not asking for cookies. I don't... ...

Now, it's not gom. Okay? Say gom.

Say gom. Not the same. Okay?

This is not meditate. Meditate is gom. This is the original meaning of meditation, which is gom, which means what?

Get used to it, get used to something. So, this is the original word which you don't see very often. Kom can also mean to walk, but that's another problem.

Okay, so, he says, you gotta get used to the idea. You have to understand, and then get used to the idea, that du sum du rang shen nyi ka rang shing gi mey pa. That in all the time that has come up to now, and in the present moment, and in all time to come, there ain't no...

there is no you and me. Okay? In all the time there was, in all the time there will be, and in the present moment, there is no you and me, by nature.

That exist by nature.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Somebody explain the lack of you and me, according to the San Pancho teachings of Master Shantideva, in my preferred way. Oh, you are brave. You are brave.

[Speaker 2]
For me to taste a donut after food, you need your mouth.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, good, but it wasn't a donut, if you please. Okay, it was a churro. Well, he didn't say Mexican.

Okay, so, for me to get a churro, which I didn't, I have to... by the way, I have to say, a couple of days after... the day you...

We had churros, remember? I had four churros. He was there, he saw it.

Okay. In heaven, I had four churros. So, how do I get a churro?

Yeah, I get a churro in crossing the line of my teeth. If I crossed the line of his teeth with a churro, which I tried to do, but he wouldn't eat it. Uh, probably some semi-churro I'll get in the future, with a hole in it maybe, but...

So, therefore what? Therefore what? No, come on.

No, what am I saying about you and me? Therefore, what's true about you and me? Yeah, you are me.

Be careful. I'm going past Shantideva. Shantideva said, we are the same.

And then he said, let's switch you and me. When the churros get handed around, let's give Michael more, as we usually do, but just put Michael inside of Earl. That's as far as Master Shantideva went.

But what are we saying? What's he saying? What is...

Yeah. Earl is Michael. Earl is Michael.

Not Earl is like Michael, or Earl has equal rights to a churro as Michael. Or let's pretend Earl is Michael and give him the churros, and feed off your usual selfishness. Okay?

It's more than that. If I can't get a churro crossing this border, unless I cross that border with one, then what happens to the border of Michael? It extends to that border.

Got it? Then, then, du, sun, du, rang, she, ni, ka, rang, shin, gi, me, pa. Then you can say that in all the time up to now, and in the present moment in this class, and forever after that we know each other and don't know each other, we are.

He is Michael. Okay? Why?

I have to feed him to get food. I have to feed him to get food. For Michael to be fed, he must be fed.

So he is Michael. Got it? It's beautiful.

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
But it makes him...

[Speaker 1]
Or what's... Yeah, it is. If I say, is his arm your arm?

You say, no. And I say, why not? You say, poke that arm with a needle.

I don't say, ouch. Ergo, it's not Mira's arm. That's how we define ourselves.

You know, you don't take care of other people. Did you comb his hair today? Did you have it done or colored or, you know?

No, I mean, because it makes you happy. You know, we have that misperception. It's a mistake.

It's a very serious mistake. Okay? So, if you perceive that there's no natural division between me and that mouth, then you can...

Pong. He says, pong. What's pong?

Eliminate what? The three paths. You can stop the three paths.

Okay? Naturally. Why?

Or not naturally? Huh? No, yeah.

No, I can't complain about the shower... the water on the floor anymore. Why?

Because the person who put the water on the floor is Michael. Got it? Okay, then I can overcome those three pathways to what?

Let's rename them. Lam-tsum. What kind of lam-tsum?

Pathways to pain. Pathways to cycles of pain. Self-perpetuating pain.

Okay? Got it? It's cool.

It's really cool. Yeah, then I'll have it. I'm having it for all of you, probably.

What is the gui-sta? Oh, yeah. Okay.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Are you saying that she has a gui-sta?

He said, do you have to give a churro into every mouth in the universe? No, get this, okay? Get this.

This is really cool. Okay? This is really cool.

Language on this planet is inherently defective. Language on this planet is inherently defective. It just doesn't work.

It cannot express ideas properly, because you said, do I have to feed every mouth in the universe? But in a place where these ideas were well-known already, they wouldn't use the word every anymore, because there's only one mouth. You see what I mean?

So then you're asking me a diamond dealer question. You're asking me to respond to a question which is phrased wrongly. You know, it's like saying, do dogs blue?

[Speaker 2]
No, it's exactly the same.

[Speaker 1]
You have to understand. You asked me, am I supposed to put a churro in every mouth in the universe? It's already a mistaken...

It's like saying, do dogs blue? You know what I'm saying? I don't know what you're talking about, you know?

Because we don't need. Okay. I got out of that one.

Okay. To stop them. Yeah, you mean that?

I'm sorry. Say again? Oh, then.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, latene. Yeah, if.

I translate it as if. Okay. Instead of saying based on that, you know what I mean?

Okay. You could say due to. Normally it's due to.

Okay. I was thinking about it, though. I was struggling with it, yeah.

Okay. So that's all. Notice something important.

We're not talking about being nice to your roommate. We're not talking about trying to understand your roommate, you know? We're not talking about using different psychological approaches with your roommate.

How would you like it if you had your wool socks all soaked for the day? Did your mother ever mention about closing the shower door? How do you say?

All the decisions. This is what the karmic management book is all about. All the decision making is taken away.

There's no longer any need to debate in your heart different ways of approaching your roommate. Should I be tough? Should I say, did your mother really teach you or didn't teach you?

Or could I go in and have them feel my socks? Or should I just take baths downstairs and not have to worry about the water upstairs? You see, these are decisions that even a good Buddhist makes.

Even a good Buddhist is struggling. Should I confront them? Should I be mention it to them gently?

Should I not say anything and go down and just take my baths downstairs, you know? And never walk in that bathroom. You know?

And then all those decisions take time and they take mental space in your mind. And they cause more wrinkles. Because, no, it's a two minute or one minute discussion in your head, right?

And it's stressful. It's stressful. Why?

There's no way to know any of them is gonna work. Anyway. You see what I mean?

You're sitting there, the reason you're not sure what to do is because they don't work. That's the second problem. So, should I confront them?

Should I be nice and let them feel my socks? Should I just avoid that bathroom? You know, the time it takes to think that ages you and makes you unhappy and makes you confused, you see?

And the reason you're discussing it in your head is what? None of them works. You see?

Or what can we say? None of them is known to work all the time. Because in your heart, you know, it might work to confront them and it might not work to confront them.

Maybe they just get pissed off and pour water from the sink on the floor. You know what I mean? Or maybe you go downstairs and start using the bathroom.

They decide they like baths too. You know what I mean? No, you don't know if it's gonna work.

So, you have two problems going on. You're struggling. You're using the mental time to discuss three ideas in your mind about how to work with this person.

A. And then B. Even if you come to some decision, and what do you do?

You make odds. You play odds. You know?

You say, the odds of me confronting them and getting them to do what I want, 10%. The odds of me doing the touchy-feely thing with them, sitting down on their bed, letting them rub my feet, you know, 12% odds. The odds of going downstairs, just switching my whole bathing routine.

I bathe downstairs in the bathtub now, you know? And the odds of that are like 80%, right? Most likely, they're not gonna immediately start taking baths, right?

So, then you just play odds. No, I'm serious. You calculate odds.

You really do. And if you're me, you say, you know, I lived with three brothers, right? We fought constantly.

So, I'm like, OK, you can have the shower. I'm going to take the bathroom. I just take the bath.

It's OK. I don't like baths so much, but you have the shower.

[Speaker 2]
You know?

[Speaker 1]
And then 80% odds, it'll work out. But it's still not 100%, you see? So, you still have mental stress, and you still have tension.

And even if you get down there and three days go by without water on the floor, you don't know that they're not gonna decide to take baths on the fourth day. See? So, you must suffer unless you see that they are you.

They are you. Got it? As long as you perceive them as your roommate, you can't win.

You can't win. And you'll just have stress and tension. Multiply that times a thousand and that's the story of your day.

It's the tension and stress of not knowing what's gonna work. You know? And trying to make decisions between bad choices, right?

Really, they're all bad choices. If you stop all that, if you perceive that they are you, you know, the guy who puts the water on the floor is Geshe Michael. No, no.

Somebody else put it on the floor. No, but they are me. Got it?

If you make that leap, life is... you can make a paradise in a matter of months or years. You can make a paradise.

What did he do at the beginning of class? I'm not saying you. I mean anybody.

Anybody. We're yoga friends, so it's okay. But what are you doing when you're there?

You're offering a perfect world. That's what you do in the beginning of class. You offer a perfect world.

Well, now you have your chance. Forget this little hand thing. People are struggling.

You know? Mine are always like crooked and when I give a big talk, I'm afraid, so I can't... I kind of just fake it.

And so, you can offer a perfect world during the class, right? You can create a perfect world. Honestly, the better you get at this worldview, the more you study this worldview, the faster and more...

what do you call it? Masterful you get at creating perfection in your life. And all the things you've dreamed of, you know, like weird stuff.

Weird stuff that only had a 1% chance of happening. They happen. You can get them to happen.

It's really nice. It's really cool. And then you're like...

Was it you or Sykes? David Sykes. I'm not saying you're similar, okay?

But it's this thing where you put a t-shirt and said, hey, this stuff really works. Was it? I don't remember.

But somebody in New York in the early days came in one day with a t-shirt that said, hey, this stuff really works. And so then it's... I don't know.

You can have everything you ever dreamed of way, way, way beyond what you dreamed of. Like things you never, never thought would ever happen can happen. It's just cool.

Forget about wet bathroom floors. I mean, you can do really cool stuff, you know. So...

But you need this viewpoint and not a lower one. Got it? Not one that says, oh, be calm, Geshe Michael.

People will wet the floor once in a while. Just be calm. Watch your breath.

Don't get upset, you know. Live like that, you know. That's the lower view that we started out with tonight.

And you're not going to be satisfied with that, right? You're going to say, I'm getting rid of floor wetters permanently, you know, in my whole life, you know. How do you do that?

In the... metaphor of the wet bathroom floor, how do you get rid of floor wetters? Do you go downstairs to take baths?

Yeah? And then what? And then what?

Yeah, don't... don't do it yourself. Don't do it yourself anymore.

Okay? And be super careful. Be really careful.

Like, I'm at this point where I got this thing down now. I drain the bath first. Then I dry off in the bathtub.

You know what I mean? And then, because Eva is my ballet teacher, I can get one foot out and dry it before it comes down. You see what I mean?

And then I do this pirouette thing. And then I dry the other one. And then...

Michael is completely dry by the time he puts down the second foot, which was... You see what I mean? And with that kind of care and that kind of attention to detail, you short-circuit the old bad karma.

And then just people don't do it anymore. And then you can take a shower upstairs, or you can talk to them, or you can not talk to them. And you can take a bath if you want or not take a bath if you want.

Right, Zack? So, then it doesn't matter what you do. You see what I mean?

Then what happens to decision-making? There is none. There's none, you see?

Your mind is free, you see? There's no, like, calculating odds anymore. Your mind is free.

You know it's going to work. You just do it, and you know it's going to work. And really, if you sustain this worldview, and if you keep up acting this way, you will get everything you ever dreamed of.

Absolutely everything. Like, really, really, really, other world stuff will happen in your life. You will go to heaven in this life.

You will go to heaven in this life. Okay? Okay, now offer a prayer.

Okay. I'm all shaky. Okay.

Okay. Okay, then let's study this book for many years, okay? And then let's do some more.

Alright? Okay, okay. Disperse, disperse.