Вступление на срединный путь (текущий курс, Аризона), занятие 90

[Speaker 1]
Say, thikpa, gyagamandu. Thikpa, gyagamandu. What's thikpa?

You know thikpa? Thikpa, or a drop, like mingtik. Yeah, tigle.

Gyagamandu means the roof isn't leaking.

[Speaker 2]
Maybe you can sit down. No, in Tibet, when you want someone to sit down, you say, my roof's not leaking.

[Speaker 1]
Thikpa, gyagamandu. The last, where we left off was, there's a way to stop, what was that? Oh, the three paths, right?

Which were? Huh? Yeah, with regard to the bathroom floor.

Thinking somebody else put the water on the floor. Getting upset about that. And then, that will cause more water on the floor.

That's something easier to remember, I think. But he says you can stop that process. That self-perpetuating process.

Self-perpetuating cycle. And that's the job of a, that's what we're trying to do. Stop, break a cycle, break a self-perpetuating cycle, okay?

So let's read it together. One, two, three, wait. If you say der, ta, it means you can too, stop them, right?

If you say der, der, ta, it means, are you telling me you can stop them? Which one would you choose? Yeah, the first one.

Which means, we made a statement, you can stop them. And then, there's assumed in a monastic textbook that he has said, the opponent has said, no you can't. You see, it's always assumed.

It's a yin bei che, and then he says what? Da ma drum. And then you say der, ta, okay?

Say, yin bei che. Da ma drum. Der, ta.

Okay, it is so the case, it is so the case, okay? So we're going to, okay, ready. One, two, three.

Der, ta. Rin chen chen wa le. De mi rang shen ni ka dang.

Du sung ni duang ma tong chi. Ngan zin pan se pan gyur. De le le da ge wa yang.

Xue sung bei chi. Okay. Just a note, when you're doing, you know poetry, right?

Dan dan, dan dan, dan dan dan. Dan dan, dan dan, dan dan dan. It is Milarepa?

Dan, da dan, da dan, da dan. Dan, da dan, da dan, da dan. Okay.

Which brings into question, how do you read this? Listen. Du sung ni duang ma tong chi.

It doesn't fit. See? So when you're reading it in Tibetan and it's poetry, you say, du sung ni duang.

You make it one syllable, okay? Say, I'll say it normally. Repeat after me.

Du sung. Du sung. Ni duang.

[Speaker 2]
Ni duang.

[Speaker 1]
Ma tong chi. Ma tong chi. But we want to say, du sung.

Du sung. Ni duang. Ni duang.

Ma tong chi. Ma tong chi. Okay?

And it is still seven beats. Okay? Just a thing you have to learn.

Mmm. Which is why apostrophe A-N-G was invented. Originally.

Okay? Alright. Uh.

You can too. Uh. Because the.

String of precious jewels. Right? Or something like that.

Okay? Okay? Mmm.

He's been saying something already. Who's he? Ayanagarjuna.

Okay? The greatest Madhyamikan at all time. Except for maybe.

Jetsun Kappa. Etc. So.

Mmm. This means that neither I nor others nor even the three times themselves could even come to exist. Thus then our tendency of holding to a me comes to a stop.

And then to do karma and rebirth. So. Are the three paths there?

Implied? Do you mind? They're not explicit there?

The three paths. The bathroom floor. I mean.

Come on. Which one's missing? No.

The whole first five lines are the ignorance. Right? Okay?

Yeah? It's the thinking that your roommate messed up the bathroom floor. It's the first five lines.

And then the sixth line is. Yelling at them. And then having them do it again.

Got it? So does that prove that you can stop the three paths? Yeah.

Who said so? Some guy. He's pretty.

Pretty good writer. Okay? Nagarjuna.

Okay? Mmm. Okay.

Here we go again. Ha. Ha.

So he said they can be stopped. Right? This cycle can be broken.

Blaming your roommate for the bathroom floor cycle can be broken. And now he wants to confirm that. So let's start there.

One. Two. Three.

Four. Five. Six.

Eight. Nine. 12.

14. 20. 21.

23. 25. 28.

[Speaker 2]
31.

[Speaker 1]
32. And there is a reason, a reason why you can stop that. If you perceive things to be this way.

And kom. Yeah. Okay?

Kom. The original meaning of the root for meditation. Yeah.

If you get used to it. If you see the truth of it and get, and then try to get used to it over a period of time. We might have called this fourth path of the five the path of getting used to it.

You see? But it was a little too long. It was maybe clearer.

Right? So, okay. If you perceive things to be this way and you accustom yourself to it, you see?

Then you are able to eliminate, you are able to stop the tendency to believe in a self. Which is the root of the cycle of pain. Like gyu me pe me.

Gyu me pe me. Yeah. Yeah.

I might just throw in fuel there or something. Like a fire without its fuel. Okay?

That's that idea of, I don't know, in Boy Scouts they taught you to, if a frying pan caught fire on the stove, then you don't try to put the fire out. You just try to get rid of the oil. You know what I mean?

You try to remove the fuel. And then the thing can't burn anymore. Okay?

He has made a statement which is rikpa. He's trying to prove it logically. There's a reason why you can stop it, because it's like a fire, stopping a fire.

Same principle. Rikpa gotsung. Say rikpa.

Rikpa. Gotsung. Gotsung.

Parallel reasoning. Rikpa gotsung. Okay?

It's just the way that you would stop a fire by removing the fuel. Okay? But now, after having done rikpa, he's going to go to another kind of proof.

Lung. Okay? Now he's going to go to scripture.

So he's just being thorough. One. Two.

Okay. By the way, it's seven beats again, which is probably the most common meter. Right?

So how are you going to do it? Da-da. Da-da.

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

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

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

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

[Speaker 2]
Da-da. Okay.

[Speaker 1]
We are working on that. One. Two.

Three. DE NI RE, DE DAG YANG DAG CI SHIN DRUG DROG BA DUN MED SHES NE NI, GYUR MED PA YI MED SHIN DRUG NE MED LEN MED NYA NGEN DAG SHES SUM PAS. Okay, what book is DE NI?

Yeah, as the same book says, as the same word states. And so if you, okay. I was looking at a commentary earlier, okay.

And it's a little bit difficult. The DUN MED, DUN MED is difficult. The rest is okay.

Usually YANG DAG is a good thing, okay. YANG DAG usually means what? Pure, like VI SHU DA, right?

It means nice and pure. But in Madhyamaka philosophy, it means things aren't as real as you thought, okay. And then DUN MED, which usually means it's meaningless.

You know, if you say DUN DAG MED WA, that was one of Rinpoche's favorite expressions actually. Say DUN DAG MED WA DUN DAG MED WA Like, stop wasting your time. DUN DAG MED WA, it's meaningless.

In colloquial, you say DUN DAG. Say DUN DAG. DUN DAG MED WA DUN DAG MED WA You know, the whole thing, you're working on this.

What ACI, what thing is DUN DAG MED WA? You know, okay. All those classes in New York, DUN DAG MED WA.

Okay, so sometimes you have to not listen to your lama. Okay, that I was pretty good at. Huh?

Anything you practice. Okay. Okay, so that, so he has proven his example by using scripture from Ayina Gajina.

So it's probably okay. All right. Oh, okay.

One, two, three. KA-CHI-KI TE-DUN TEK-CHEN-GI RIK-CHEN-NAM-KI TEK-CHEN-GI CHANG-CHU TO-PA-LA TO-NI-TO GO-PE DUN-YI SER-NA Okay, what's SER? What's SER?

Say? Cheap? Yeah, SER-NA, good.

Or SER-PO? Gold. What's SER?

Huh? To claim. To claim.

Okay, got it? SER? Gold.

Or cheapness. SER? Say SER.

SER. To claim. Okay.

Which one is here? SER. He's claiming.

Okay, he's not SER. Okay, that's a different thing. All right.

So, in transcription, there's an S for SER and there's a Z for SER. But they're really both S. Got it?

It's just a difference in tone. Got it? SER and SER.

What do you call it? Yi-shun and San-shun. Okay, there you go.

Okay. No Skyping during class. All right.

All right. Some people might make the claim that that just means that if you're on the greater way track, Mahayana track, then you have to perceive emptiness in order to attain the enlightenment of the greater way, sorry. So a couple of questions come up here.

Is there any other enlightenment than the enlightenment of the greater way? Sorry? Anybody?

No, let's say according to my, to Prasangika. Yeah, there's three enlightenments. Okay, Chang Chub Sum.

Really, there are. They're called the Chang Chub Sum, the three enlightenments. Then two of them are only nirvana.

Right? Two of them are, they're called enlightenment, but they're not full enlightenment. And that's why they say Samyak Sambuddha.

Say Samyak Sambuddha. Yang Dabra Dzogpe Sangye. Full enlightenment.

So, I used to ask Rinpoche, you know, is there an un-full enlightenment? Like, why say Samyak? And he said, yeah, there's the lower two enlightenments.

And I said, but they're not enlightenments. He says, yeah, they are when you say three. In the context of the three, they are enlightenment.

By themselves, they're not enlightenment. Dey Nang Sente Gyurpa. As a unit, as components of the three, they are enlightenment.

So, there are two lower track enlightenments. So, what's he saying? He's saying, if you're on a maya on a track, and if you want to attain the enlightenment of the maya on a track, which is full enlightenment, you have to see emptiness.

Correct or not? So, why is it Kathu? Say why.

Yeah, good. Eva said it nice. It's true that if you want to attain full enlightenment, you have to see emptiness.

You have to see emptiness when you're in the greater way. But the guy is saying it as a mayangak, meaning he wants to imply that if you are on the lower tracks, you don't have to see emptiness to get to their version of enlightenment, which is really just a lower nirvana. Okay.

Depends on which school you're in. Because some lower schools wouldn't call it emptiness. They would say, you have to see the lack of a self.

Like Abhidharma school wouldn't call it emptiness. That's what we're getting to right now. Okay.

I'm going to teach you something. Those of you who are getting more subtle, okay? And you'll start seeing it in the readings if you study them.

But it's not to be necessarily expected that a thought as expressed in syntax, in commas and punctuation in one language would translate to another language. In other words, a Tibetan might make a statement with a paragraph and not ever break it, never stop. And so when I was trained in the university to translate other languages, they would say, break it.

If it gets too long in a foreign language, just break it into discrete thoughts. So what I've done here is I've broken it in the middle of a sentence, in the middle of a Tibetan sentence. And I'm going to make two separate English sentences.

Okay, got it? Just because you can't go on. So if you want your book to make it into the Tenggir, if you want your translation to make it into the Tenggir, you can't do paragraph-long sentences.

You just won't be cool. Nobody will go for it. They'll say, this other one is just easier to read.

And they won't necessarily know why. They'll just say, it seems easier to read. Because you don't have to, what I'm saying is you're not bound to stick to their sentence.

You can break it if he's going on for a whole paragraph and there's no, what do you call it, compelling reason why he's doing it. You can just break it into smaller sentences and it will help your readers and your hypertextures. Okay, so.

And also you'll be able to see it all on the screen at one time, which is paramount. Okay, okay, okay. So let's just do a, the thing you do in debate, right?

I like to think of the old, what do you call it, fax machines. And it would send a signal to the other fax machine to wake it up, like in India at two o'clock in the morning and then it would bounce back a signal and say, I'm still here. And then it would send a fax, right?

I don't know what you call that. What do you call it? Handshake, yeah.

So let's do a handshake on this idea, which you do in debating, right? Somebody makes a statement, you make a response, and then you just read it back to them again. Okay, let's get this straight.

Because, so Ben Kramer is Ketub Demadage and I'm the Karthik guy, the guy, the other guy, okay? Okay, I got it, Ketub Demadage. I'm wrong to say that people of, Mahayana people, to achieve Mahayana enlightenment must see emptiness.

I'm wrong to say that because people on lower tracks must see emptiness to achieve their nirvana. Is it right? Say it, I'll run it by you again.

You are wrong to say that Mahayana people have to see emptiness to reach their enlightenment because lower people also have to see emptiness to see their enlightenment. It's wrong to say you have to take money if you're going to go to Safeway because you have to take money if you go to Stop, Swap, and Shop, which is lower track. Okay?

No, I mean, is it a kava? Kava in matha? Yeah, I don't know, I have a problem with this.

I have a problem with this. By the way, the resolution is that we are also doing a Mayangat. He did a Mayangat, we're doing a Mayangat.

He implied something, and we're assuming the implication in our response. Okay? Meaning, meaning, oh, so I guess you don't have to take money to Stop and Shop.

Okay? Why? Yeah, because you only have to take money to Safeway.

No, because you have to take money to Safeway. Okay? He said you have to take money to Safeway.

And I said, well, I guess you don't have to take money to Stop and Shop. Because he didn't say you, he didn't say you only have to take money to Safeway. Okay?

But we're assuming that because that was what you were trying to prove. So I'm also, I'm also responding with a statement that has an assumption. He says you have to take money to Safeway.

So I say, well then, you don't have to take money to Stop and Shop. I guess you're saying you don't have to take money to Stop and Shop. Got it?

You do have to take money to Stop and Shop. Got it? Because I take your implication to mean you only have to pay at Safeway.

Got it? You can, yeah, you are. Actually, both sides are kidding at the same time.

Okay. Which brings me to a question. So, neither I nor you exist.

I mean, Shesumbeche. Shesumbeche. What does Shesumbeche mean?

It is stated. So it is stated. Shesumbeche.

So Rinpoche and I, in the bad days at Sara, when it was really poor and really desperate, we had a big Momo party for the monks. We made, actually we made Shabalay. Shabalay is Tibetan hamburger, patty, in a dough, you know.

So they hadn't eaten Shabalay for probably ten years or something. And we made everybody all the Shabalay they could eat. And then we made everybody Shabalay to take home, you know.

So then they said, well, we are going to show, we are going to put on a debate demonstration for you guys. And because Shabalay was on his mind, he didn't say Shesumbeche, he said Shabalay. And then everybody roared and his name for the rest of his life.

That's what happens in a monastery. You get stuck. He'll be Shabalay for the rest of his life.

So what were we talking about? Alistair, Ngaada Ngena Meveche. So you and I don't exist.

Shesumbeche. Ayan Nagarjuna said so. Ayan Nagarjuna didn't say so.

You should say, if you want to get out of this. Yeah, just because he just said that doesn't mean that's not what he meant. So, Dön Karin.

So what did he mean? What did he really mean? Yeah, there's no me or you who's not being projected by me.

Got it? So, Mayim Bata, Now, that's not the case. Because, Alistair Dön Geshe Michael Nyi Chik Yimveche.

Let's start this way. Alistair Dön Geshe Michael Nyi Chikpa Yimveche. We are the same.

Because Alistair and Geshe Michael are the same. Chikpa Yimveche. Chikpa Yimveche.

Chikpa Mayim Bata. You're telling me we're not the same? Rangshin Gyi Mepa Mayim Bata.

So we're both not lack self-nature? Rangshin Mepa Yimvata. So we both do lack a nature.

So Chikpa Yimvata. So we are the same. So we are the same.

Chikpa Yimvata. Chikpa Yimvata. Pade Yimvata.

Pade Dön Chikpa Yimvata. So we are separate but equal. Chikma Yimvata.

But we're not one. Chikpa means same. Chik means one.

Chikma Yimvata. So we are not one. Kiran Kapse Sayala.

Nga Kapse Sayala. Kiran Kapse Samagata. So it's not true that you have to eat a Kapse if I want a Kapse.

What's a Kapse? Chiro. Tibetan Chiro.

Yeah. Nga Kapse Sayala. Kiran Kapse Samagata.

So it's not true that you have to eat a Kapse for me to get a Kapse. Nga Kapse Sayala. Kiran Kapse Sagata.

So you do have to eat a Kapse for me to get a Kapse. I'm sorry. Yeah, you do have to eat a Kapse for me to get a Kapse.

Kangyong Lungwe Chik, somebody. Kangyong Lungwe Chik. I have to feed someone to get a Kapse.

Yeah. So we are Chik Yimba Thang. Michael kapse sayala, Eva kapse sa gobe chal.

Because for Michael to get a kapse, Eva must eat a kapse. So we are one. Chik Yimba Thang.

Chik Bam Mahimba Thang. Because we are one, we are not the same. That's, I'm picking on Master Shantideva.

I love that. He's not here to defend himself. Luckily, luckily.

Chik Bam Mahimba Thang. So we are not the same. Because Chik Yimba Thang.

And to be the same, Thade Yimba Thang. To be the same, you must be separate. So Chik Bam Mahimba Thang.

Just say Dön, we can go back to it. Yeah. All right.

Okay, we are not the same. So we can't do Dakshin Yimba and Dakshin Yimji. Let's not go there.

No, but think about, what I wanted you to think about is, what's the difference between saying Eva and Michael don't exist, from the point of view of emptiness, and saying that Eva and Michael don't exist from the point of view of karma. And are they the same? Struggle with that.

You can prove that we are one, from the point of view of being projections. Right? But I just, we were just talking about, from the point of view of dependent origination, that for me to be, to get a donut, she has to get a donut.

Got it? Examine whether those are contradictory or not, in your own mind, sometime. Okay, when you're trying to prove that you and others are the same, or one, that you are really one with others, examine the idea that you are one because for me to get a churro, you must get a churro.

Or are we one because there really is no you, and there is no me, who is not coming from my mind. So, work on that. Somewhere I think they meet in some beautiful place.

Okay? Very profound. Really profound.

Okay? All right. Which would mean that the meaning of emptiness is dependent origination.

Which would be weird. Okay. That is interesting.

You just had the nicest part of the whole term just there. Okay? Try to remember that.

Try to work on that in your meditation. Okay? You can think churro and projection or something.

Okay. All right. Here we go.

One, two, three. tong ne te chen gyi rik chen nam kyi te chen gyi jang chuk tok pa la tong ni mun sung du tok ne te gong pa ten shing Yeah, I can do that. Is that good?

Okay. So, he's kind of saying that those who belong to the greater track, watch how those of the lower track have to see emptiness to reach their own enlightenment, and then they go ahead and try to see a higher emptiness to reach their enlightenment. Okay?

That's what he's saying.

[Speaker 2]
All right?

[Speaker 1]
Does that make them the same? Does that make those of the lower track and those of the higher track the same? Okay?

Because they both have to see emptiness in order to get to the enlightenment of their track. Right. So, that's the next thing he's going to talk about.

He's going to come up in somebody's mind that, well, then how are they different? If people on the lower track have to see emptiness directly to get to their goals, and people on the higher track have to see emptiness directly to get to their goals, then why are there two tracks? What's the difference?

Okay? Got it? Okay.

One, two, three. ön kyang khe pha me pha ma yin te nying je na mun lam kyi wang kyi kor we ne su gyewa len mi le kyi khe pha yö we kye It is not the case, though, that there is no difference. Okay?

Okay? What's the difference between higher track and lower track then? Are they different in the fact that they must perceive emptiness directly to reach their goals?

Do they differ in any other significant way? Yeah. One is, the higher track is willing to I like that.

Yeah, I'm with Evam. This is a lower argument to me, you know? Right?

Because that's that old argument, you know, if you had compassion, you would come back and suffer with the rest of us. You see what I mean? If you were a nice guy, you wouldn't go into some paradise, you would purposely take rebirth in samsara and suffer here along with the rest of us.

Okay? Which implies a couple of things. I mean, well, it just implies that an arhat could suffer to start with.

You know, someone who had already escaped samsara could be back in samsara. It's not possible. It's that story of that lama who, when he was dying, tried to go to the hell realms and he got all upset because the more he wanted to, the less he could get there.

So I think we have to take this as what? Changden, maybe. I think he's fudging it with the word ne.

But what's another reason why he's using the word ne? There's a lot of nes and lembas running around in this sentence. Okay?

If we go back to the verse, ne me, men me, you see? There's no staying, there's no taking. I think he's taking us back to the verse.

I think he's trying to get the verse in there. But I think Jason's totally right. I think he's fudging it by saying the place of samsara.

You see? See what Jason's talking about? He added this word, the place of the cycle.

He never said they take birth in the cycle. He said they take birth in the place of the cycle. And Jason's saying, well, maybe that gets him out of the problem.

And I think he's right. I think that's why he said that. So that's a very sensitive statement.

One, two, three. te tang te ni le te tang chang chu sem pe kyang ton ne chang chu nge pan du wen kyang te ni nge je yi chang chu par du si sam jol she sung pe kyang You need to know the last words there, sam jorwa. Do you know sam jorwa?

What's a sam? What did you say? Yeah, a sam is like a retreat border, right?

Sam. And what's jor? Yeah, so Eva said it right.

There's an idiom in Tibetan for crossing the border into a new life. And it's called sam jorwa. To join the border.

It means to cross the border into a new birth. So now, si sam jorwa means, like what's si pe korlo? The wheel of life or the wheel of suffering life.

So si sam jorwa would mean what? To take a rebirth into pain, into the cycle of pain again. He says definite urge.

I mean, is there a better way to say that? Certainly, maybe, certainly. Yeah.

Yeah, okay. To seek. What's that part mean?

Say again? Yeah, the highest track people see how the lower track people get to their goals by seeing if there's directly, and then they make a resolve to try to do the same thing. Got it?

Okay. I'm going to fudge it, okay, purposely. Somebody asked last night in the tantric class, could you ever purposely express an ambiguity in the original language, in the English, to make it more comfortable for yourself, okay?

Why did I say the enlightenment instead of their enlightenment? Whose enlightenment? Yeah.

You could be talking about whose enlightenment? All beings. Because that is a promise.

That is a commitment that is made, right? Until all beings reach enlightenment, I will continue to work, right? Or something like that.

So I think I would leave it that way because I feel uncomfortable saying until the day of their enlightenment because the whole argument was premised on them having reached their goals. To me they've already reached their goals in some sense, so to say until the day of their goals is kind of weird. They've already reached their goals.

Got it? It's like that. If they had not reached their goals, they would be taking rebirth anyway.

They wouldn't have to decide. Got it? You see what I mean?

You see what I'm trying to say? Got it? So it's weird to me to say until the day of their enlightenment they're going to voluntarily and knowingly take rebirth because if they weren't in enlightenment they'd be doing that already.

Anyway, you see what I mean? Got it? Okay.

So I'm fudging it for him. Okay. Because they don't have those pronouns necessarily.

Okay. Okay. We've reached a major section.

We've reached a new section. He first proved by logic that you had to see emptiness to get rid of your jealousy forever. Okay?

Must. Which implies as we were talking earlier you cannot be happy unless you see emptiness directly. You will never and we were saying in the class you will never have a whole happy week without seeing emptiness directly.

Forget nirvana and forget enlightenment. It's not possible to have a whole week go perfectly unless you've seen emptiness directly because you'll be having mental afflictions during the week. So he proved it that you had to see emptiness to get rid of your jealousy, for example.

Then if it's true that people on the lower track have gotten rid of their jealousy what can we say about them? They must have seen emptiness directly. That was his thing.

That's what he's been trying to prove. Got it? So he did the whole thing logically for like three years.

Poor guy, he's so slow. He did it all logically for three years. And then recently he's been proving it with scripture and he started with Mahayana Sutras.

Okay, if you don't accept Lord Buddha then what can I do? Lord Buddha said so. But then the guy was particularly stubborn so he said, okay, if you don't accept Lord Buddha let's try the great commentators of ancient India.

Let's take Arya Nagarjuna let's take those people like that. If you can't accept Lord Buddha can you accept Nagarjuna? Then he probably comes back and says but you're selling me the whole package from a Mahayana point of view.

You're only quoting Mahayana Sutras. You're only quoting great Mahayana commentary tradition. Can you prove it from the point of view of the lower track?

He's giving him a challenge. Okay, you proved it from your own viewpoint. But can you prove from the point of Hinayana literature that you must see emptiness directly to get rid of your jealousy?

Prove me that. Got it? Okay.

Which makes sense because the argument is all directed at you can't use a Mahayana scripture when you're arguing with a Hinayana person. That's a rule of debate which is ignored universally when you're arguing with your friends and your spouse. The rule of debate is you can't use authority that you don't both accept.

I said so. Or Walter Cronkite. People I believe in said so.

And they say, well that's not who I believe in. You can't use as authorities people your opponent doesn't accept. So really, all that six months up to now of struggling through Mahayana sutras and struggling through Mahayana shastras has been irrelevant to the discussion.

Okay? Because he's not a Mahayanist. He's a Hinayanist.

He wants to hear do people from the lower schools believe that you have to see emptiness directly to get rid of your jealousy? Because I don't think they do. That was my original position.

Got it? I'm not asking you whether Mahayanists believe that. That's not the question.

So it's good he finally got here. Okay, here we go. One, two, three.

Nyi pa te men ki doi she je nga pa la You should learn this word, okay? Nga pa. Say, nga pa.

Don't say, nga pa. Nga pa means crazy monkey. Okay?

Say, nga pa. Nga pa. Different, right?

Hear it, hear it. Nga pa? Nga pa.

Nga pa. A myrga is a gorilla or a chimpanzee. Okay?

A human gha. And this is nga, okay? And gha means to place something.

Like, place the glass on the table is nga pa. Nga pa the glass on the table. The reason I'm making a big deal about it is you will often see the expression sem jen tam je, which means what?

All living beings. Chang chu gi go pang la go. I will place them.

Go is the active form. Go pa is the more passive form. I make a commitment to go pa.

All living beings. It's a cool word. Like, I will take them like a chess.

What do you call? A chess piece. Like a chess piece, I will pick them up and I will put them in enlightenment.

That's go pa. It's very beautiful. That's man lam.

That's nin je. What is that? That is the specific man lam that he just talked about.

Why did he just talk about a man lam? Why did he just talk about a prayer and compassion? That's what distinguishes the lower track from the higher track.

It's higher track from lower track, okay? What? Nga sem jen tam je chang chu bla go pa.

I will... I don't know if it's a good word for that. What's a good word for that?

What do you do with a chess piece? I mean... Place, I think, right?

It's a hard word. It's like, I will pick them up and I'll drop them off there. Okay?

Go pa, okay? But right now, she je go pa means I will set forth she je. What's that?

We had it once before. It's proofs or corroboration. Evidences, okay?

I'm going to... Snack time. Lower way means snack time.

Okay? Who's doing... I saw them doing some cool snacks.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
What are you going to call she je? It's not quite proofs, you see? It's...

Arguments are very close. But argument would imply that it was arguable. Say again?

That's closer, but give me one word. Evidence is really close. It'd be like supporting...

It's supporting statements or something like that. What do you call it in law? Yeah, that's too long.

We would lose a few readers there. They would close the book and turn on the TV. I think we stick with proofs.

Who said that? Yeah, I think we stick with proofs. It's not exactly proofs, but it's the closest thing I feel.

That's short and sweet, right? Okay. Supporting statements.

Okay. Okay. Possibly, I think so.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
But no. I think they might say he's too radical or something. That he was...

You know, I once had a debate with a Jain master at... Where was it? Palitana.

On the tip of the sacred mountain of Palitana. And he said, You're a Buddhist. He was like 95 years old.

He said, You're a Buddhist. I said, Yeah. He said, That Nagarjuna.

And I'm like, What about Nagarjuna? We're replaying a debate 2,000 years ago exactly the same, probably the same place. I'm like, In Gujarat, right?

And I'm like, What's wrong with Nagarjuna? He said, He doesn't believe anything exists. I said, That's not what he said.

And he said, Well, what did he say? And I said, He just said that nothing existed that didn't come from karma. He said, I can accept that.

Okay? That's all. Right?

So, why did I bring that up? Oh, yeah. So, what I mean is they have this perception of Arya Nagarjuna as being unacceptably radical.

Gone off the deep end. Most Hinayana. Yeah.

Okay. Not only is it true that the sutras and classical commentaries of the greater way state that one must perceive emptiness in order to reach liberation and nirvana. It is also the case that the sutras of the lower way say the same thing.

Got it?

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
What should he do now? Shit! Say, Shit!

Shit! Now, make the face. Come on.

[Speaker 2]
Shit! Shit!

[Speaker 1]
You didn't make... You're smiling. Come on.

Shit!

[Speaker 2]
Shit!

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, which means what? She's still trying to... It means, what does show mean?

Yeah, show means hit me. Show me the... Show me some quotation.

Give me some quotation. Okay? Ooh, this is extremely beautiful.

Wow. We're lucky to get to this. Okay.

One, two, three. Ten, six, seven, eight. What is expressed in the first one or two syllables of each line?

Yeah, who said that? Yeah, the five heaps, okay? What are the five heaps?

You know, in yoga, yoga tradition, they would say, what are the parts of a person? And they would say, the body and mind. So, in Buddhism, you say it a little bit longer.

You just say, the five parts. Okay? But the, what are the, what is a person made of?

The five parts.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
But we call the five parts, we call each of those parts heaps, because, uh, yeah. What is it? Pung dang ke go re ke go, pung bo ke che kam nam yin.

From the Abhidharmakosha. Pung dang ke go re ke go, pung bo ke che kam nam yin. Uh, we, we say skandha, or, or heap, in the Buddhist tradition.

In the sense that it involves many components. So each of the parts, in itself, involves many components. So what's the first heap?

Your form. My physical form. And that involves many components.

So we can call it a pile. You know, a pile of stuff. It translates skandha as pile of stuff.

Pile of stuff. Okay? Not, not heap.

Okay? Pile of stuff. Got it?

So I have five, piles of stuff. Okay? What are the five piles of stuff?

My physical form. Which in some interpretations, which I think are more correct, would include the, the podium next to me. Okay?

Because I'm seeing it. Uh, and then, uh, svarva? Yeah, my feelings.

Is that a pile of stuff? Yeah. Why?

Yeah, I have good ones, yeah. I have good ones, I have bad ones, I have medium ones. dushi?

How about dushi? Is that a pile of stuff? What is dushi?

Say again? Say again? Uh, close.

Dushi? Discrimination. I like her.

I don't like him. He's tall. He's short.

She's one way. He's another way. He's, he talks nice to me.

They don't talk nice to me. Uh, it's called dushi. Okay?

Uh, uh, discrimination. All right? svarva dhan dushi nam korway gyuyin, korway gyuchir rimgyuchir.

svarva dhan dushi ni, uh, korway gyuchir rimnyi, korway gyuchir rimnyichir. Anyway, we separate out of, we could have said body and mind. We, if you said, what is Geshe Michael made of, we could have said body of mind, but we chose to separate out two parts of him.

His, his capacity to feel and his tendency to discriminate. Why? korway gyuchir, rimgyuchir, pumbo namne, tsora dhan, dushi lokshi, pumbarsak.

I finally remembered it. Uh, we separate out those two heaps because, korway gyuchir. They cause pain.

They cause all suffering. Okay? So we don't say body and mind in Buddhism.

We say the five parts because two of them have been separated out because they're the cause of all trouble. Then somebody's going to say, what is the nature of those two? We'll say mental functions, functions of the mind.

They'll say, are there any other functions of the mind? And then they'll say, and what about Geshe Michael? Is he a part of Geshe Michael?

Is, is, quote, Geshe Michael is part of Geshe Michael. Is his name a part of Geshe Michael? Where are you going to put that?

Yeah, so, heap number four, say duche. All the stuff. Okay?

Duche, pumbo shile shin, from the Abhidharmakosha. Uh, the fourth heap is everything left over after the others. You know?

So people struggle to translate sanskara. Uh, they call it volitional factors. You know?

It's just other stuff, man. Abhidharma said so. Pumbo shile shin.

All the other stuff, after you get the four other ones, that's duche. You don't have to call it volitional factors. Okay?

All right. Check it out. They call it volitional factors.

Okay. Uh, having now covered all mental functions, having covered all the physical parts of me, having covered the conceptual parts of Geshe Michael, which are involved in his name and his identity, and his persona, is there anything left of Geshe Michael? His raw awareness.

Okay? Because mental functions are, are jealousy, anger, discrimination, logic, you know, remembering. Uh, things like that.

Okay? But, but main mind. Main mind.

And you don't have to think of, you don't have to think of a, a big mind that has these attachments on it, like an iPod with all these things coming out. You don't have to think like that. Think of it as your raw awareness.

The fact that you see light. The fact that you think. The whole fact that the world is alive.

You see? That's the fifth heap. The fifth heap is wondrous thing.

It's awareness itself. It's the fact that you are here. It's so beautiful.

The fifth heap is like I'm alive. I'm aware. I can feel.

I can sing. I can, you know, I can see. I can think.

You know, I'm not a dirt cloth. You know? I'm not a rock.

I have this magic. I have this miracle of, of awareness.

[Speaker 2]
You know?

[Speaker 1]
Where does it come from? What is it made of? It's like, where did it come from?

You see? It's so beautiful. But I, I have the raw capacity of awareness.

You know, whether you're having a good day or not, it's like goddamn amazing that you're aware. You know? What's that guy?

You're, where is Grant? You're flying through the air in an iron chair, man. Like, have a sense of joy already.

You know? The guy is on the plane complaining about something. And the guy next to him is like, after 50,000 years of human history, you are flying through the air in an iron chair.

You know? Like, be happy already. You know?

So, you know, you're having a, you're having a good day or a bad day, or somebody said something bad to you, or you're not satisfied with something, but, my God, you're aware, you know? You have awareness. You're alive, you know?

It's so cool. Okay, that's the fifth heap. Now he says something about each heap.

About each part of the human person, he says something. What does he say? Sook, your physical body, means a bubble that forms and then pops.

means to pop open. means a bubble, okay? So, you are like a bubble.

Your body is like a bubble. Does it have substance? What's inside a bubble?

Nothing. It's just air. Okay, nothing.

No substance. It's like, it's like donuts that you get from bad donut places and you bite into it and there's this big hole in the middle. It's all air.

I'm not talking about the hole in the middle. I'm talking about the part that was supposed to be substantial. You bite it and you look at it like a cave and there's nothing there, you know?

And you're like, you don't feel so good about it, you know? So, okay. Okay, so what about chuhi chubur da?

Chubur means froth on a wave. Chuhi chubur da. So froth, same idea, just bubbles inside.

Just nothing inside. It's a translation challenge when you get to these statements. How are you going to differentiate between ua dapa and chuhi chubur?

Like, that's a burning question that will probably keep Evam awake tonight, okay? Like, two kinds of bubbles, right? Sometimes I phrase froth.

Okay, migyu. What's a migyu? We had migyu in tantric class.

It's the first of the signs of dissolution. A mirage, okay? Migyu means mirage, okay?

Mirage. So he's saying, your body is like, your body is as substantial as a bubble. Your feelings are as important as whatever's inside a bubble.

The distinctions you make between friends and people you don't like is like a mirage. It's as important as the water flood on a hot day on the road between here and Bui, you know, that you think you see. All the distinctions you've made in your life between people you like and you don't like are as important as the Pacific Ocean you saw on the road between here and Bui.

Got it? Okay. No, really, that's what he's saying.

That would be, oh, I'm sorry, I skipped Duce. And then volitional factors is like a Chuxing. Do you know Chuxing?

Chuxing means bamboo or sugar cane. Cane. Called a water tree.

It's called a water tree. Why? It's totally hollow, not substantial in the middle.

Geshe Michael, Geshe Michael is as substantial as the insides of a bamboo. Got it? All right?

Like that. They were talking, we're going to start a business seminar company. So they, like, Lama Aura offhandedly says to me, we're dropping the Geshe.

You know, I'm like, but that's all I am, you know. And she says, yeah, but it's weird, you know, just Michael Rhoads. And I said, but we can't do that, you know.

So what he's saying is like, it's just, it's just empty. Okay? Nothing there.

All right? Who said that? Ni Me Nyen.

Say Ni Me Nyen. The friend of the sun. The friend of the sun.

Who is that? It's an epithet for Lord. It's an epithet for Lord Buddha.

It's an old epithet for Lord Buddha. The friend of the sun. Ni Me Nyen.

Okay? It's a beautiful word. To be the friend of the sun is a holy thing.

Okay? The sun is greater. Katsel.

Katsel means bespoke. Okay? It's the old word for said.

It's extremely polite. Katsel is like bespoke. All right?

Where is that stated? Where is that quotation from? Sorry?

No, it's very similar to the end of the Diamond Cutter. It's very similar. It's really similar.

But, where is it from? Yeah, what is Tensei? Yeah, I spent years trying to figure out Tensei.

Tensei is a section in the Kangyur. It's a huge, massive, rambling bunch of scriptures that were all glued together. And it means miscellaneous stuff.

Tensei means miscellaneous stuff. But it's a section in the Kangyur which is lower school. Lower way.

Okay? Why? Because we're on lower way sutras.

It's a sutra, but it's lower way. It's a huge, rambling thing of all mishmash. What do you call that?

It's miscellaneous stuff. No, it's not a pitaka. But it's a section.

It's a traditional division of the Kangyur. It's actually a huge, rambling thing that was glued together over many centuries. Okay.

Nothing more than... Okay. Namo Kristi.

You need me to stall any? Are you ready? I should stall?

I should stall? I have to go to Tucson. I don't want to get there until 10 o'clock.

Like another 10 minutes or something? Okay. Let's do a little more.

I don't mind. Oh, yeah. What was it meant to prove?

Say it louder for everybody. It's funny. That's exactly the right...

What he's saying is exactly true. Yeah. It's supposed to prove that you have to see emptiness directly to stop jealousy.

Let's see if he helps us a little bit. One. Two.

Three. I got to teach you an idea. Okay, you ready?

Say, Tegmen. Tegmen. Du.

Du. Rigne. Rigne.

Tegmen du. Tegmen du. Rigne.

Rigne. So, can you move between tracks? Can you move between lower track and higher track?

[Speaker 2]
Yes.

[Speaker 1]
How, so? Yeah, if you suddenly start having what he called it today, two things. Yeah, prayer and compassion.

By the way, that prayer is specifically the prayer where, you know, you have an epiphany in your life and you say, now I'm going to work for the benefit of all living beings. For the rest of my lifetimes, I'm going to work for all living beings. So, that's the moonlam they're talking about.

It's not like the prayer that you say when you're going to the sadhana and you're tired and you're like... It's this heartfelt epiphany, once in a lifetime thing where you say, I'm not going to stop till I get enlightened. I'm going to save everybody.

So, if you've been on a lower track and you suddenly have this strong emotion, strong resolution, then you graduate to a higher track. Do you, let's say you're already on path of seeing for a lower track and then you have that epiphany thing. Where do you, in which path do you enter the higher track?

Do you get to go to path three directly or do you have to go up through one of the higher track and then make your way down to three again? Say, Gendun Nishu. Gendun Nishu.

What's Gendun, Ernie? Sangha. Sangha.

And then, Nishu means the twenty. The twenty. So, Gendun Nishu is a separate course of study in the monastery that explores the twenty permutations.

How do you get up to the higher track? Can you go straight to Tonglam or do you have to go through Tsoglam again? Could you graduate from lower Tonglam to a higher Gomlam without going even through the higher Tonglam?

What happens if you reach Nirvana on a lower track? Do you have to go through all of the higher track just because you didn't have Bodhicitta yet? Okay, like that.

If there's twenty permutations, I'm not going into it, but it'd be a nice thing to study one day. Huh? That's a teaching of the Perfection of Wisdom.

So, it's spras, Majjhimika Svatantrika. Okay? Which brings us to Lake Dendje.

So, Tegmen to Rig Ngenpa means who are locked into a lower track. Okay? From the beginning.

Got it? So, they are locked into a lower track. They haven't been moving between tracks.

Can you drop from a higher track? Yeah, you know, I gave my eyeball to this guy. I reached into my eye socket.

He asked for my eye. I reached into my eye socket. I worked my fingers gently around my eyeball and I ripped it out and handed it to him.

And he threw it on the ground and stamped on it. You know, forget the Bodhisattva thing. Who is that?

Is it an idea? I think so. Yeah.

Okay, so, you know, in theory, he would have dropped. Like, so you can go either way. You can go to a lower track or you can drop to a lower track or you can rise to a higher track.

Okay? But in this case, Tegmen to Rig Ngenpa means you are locked into a lower track. You are gonna finish to the fifth path on the lower track.

There's a special word for that. Locked into a lower track. Okay?

Okay. Right. I just invented that expression.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
There are sages such as Master Bhavaviveka. Okay. Who take the position that those who are locked into a never what?

Never what? They never see emptiness directly. Never perceive.

Okay. So there are sages such as Master Bhavaviveka who take the position that those who are locked into a lower track from the beginning never do see emptiness directly. Or don't, let's say don't see emptiness directly.

Because I think they would say they could graduate, right? They then would also take the position that this particular sutra is not describing the Sala form emptiness. Why?

Why? The sutra about the five parts of you being as about as important as the Pacific Ocean line between here and buoy. The sutras which say that.

Say again? That's one thing you could say. But who's school does that sutra belong to?

It's a Hinayana sutra. Okay? So if you're in the school of thought that says Hinayana people never see the real emptiness.

Right? Then what would you say about that scripture? About the bubble and the illusion and all that.

Is it describing the highest emptiness? No. Right?

Okay? If you're in a Madhyamaka school and you believe that people in the lower track don't remove their jealousy forever by seeing emptiness then could their scriptures describe the highest form of emptiness? No.

So they're not... So Master Baba Viveka, believing that they remove their jealousy without seeing emptiness directly that the books that are written for them shouldn't describe the highest form of emptiness. Got it?

Okay? Who is Master Baba Viveka? Yes, Svatantrika.

Lower middle way school. Lower middle way school. So that's a problem if you get too much into that school if you spend a long time on studying that school which I did.

Because you spend 12 years in the monastery on that and then you spend 4 years on Prasangika. And you get really confused. When you hit Prasangika you're very confused.

So it's a delicate. To stay too long in that school is a little like studying Po'o too long. Seriously.

You know how they say don't get too familiar with the teachings on Po'o because, you know, you don't... Learn it, put it on the shelf. Okay?

Say again? Oh, right, okay. Satya.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
They're getting tired, Lama Kriti. Yeah? I can call it off?

All right. Okay, we'll stop there. But just to say where we're going.

We're going to explore lower school presentations of pure emptiness. Real emptiness. Okay?

So that's a cool place to be. Because you might run into, say, the Vipassana crowd who follow Guenkoji, who was my first meditation teacher. So they don't accept any of the Mahayana scriptures.

So to have a... Or Thignan... No, not Thignan.

But if you wanted to have a discussion with them, you'd have to be referring to these scriptures. And then you could, you know. You could have it in your toolbox if you went to Thailand or Sri Lanka or other Hinayana countries.

You could discuss with them. And I did in Thailand, from Tenzing. Because they don't...

They never heard of Chandrakirti. You see what I mean? Okay?

So this is just one more useful thing to have. And then... I mean, the...

What do you call it? The crucial purpose of this class is that each one of us in here could apply this to our own jealousy. Okay?

Or whatever is your... I'm just saying my specialty. I don't know what your specialty is.

Okay? It could be anger. It could be whatever.

But... But just... Every time you come here, every class you go through, it'd be cool in the following days.

Like when you're driving two hours to Tucson. You know? Or you're flying on a plane back to New York.

You know? You want to be happy, right? I mean, we all want to be happy.

The closer... The more arguments you can think of about emptiness or the more information you can get about emptiness, the more likely you are to be happy. You see?

It's just... Forget enlightenment and all that. You know?

Just to have a really good week. To have a really fine week. You know?

Ferris Bueller's week. Okay? No, I mean...

To have a really nice week. You'd have to understand emptiness. See?

So, what we're really studying in this class is ammunition to have a good week. A truly fine week. Like a blissful, a cool week.

Okay? Got it? And...

You can judge your emptiness understanding from what? What kind of week you're having. You know?

No, from the amount of happiness you have during the week. You can... It's a barometer of your emptiness understanding.

Okay? If you're having these wild ups and downs in the week or you feel depressed or upset for extended lengths of time, then your emptiness understanding needs... You need more vitamin...

Emptiness vitamin. You know? You need more content...

You need to think more about emptiness when you've got those two-hour drives to Tucson. And you can go on autopilot, right? Just go brainless.

Just drive. And then think about what we said in class. You know, he said something about bathroom floor or that's all I remember.

You know? And... And then...

The goal is to have a... You can get to a place where you just have an incredibly happy week.

[Speaker 2]
You know?

[Speaker 1]
And that's because of... And it's stable and it will stay that way because your emptiness... Because it's based on understanding emptiness.

Okay? It's like a love affair which is based on a concern for humanity rather than on sex or something. You know what I mean?

The foundation of the relationship is a concern for the welfare of humankind and not something shallow. So... Your happiness level, if it's based on emptiness rather than external factors...

You know, did I get my permit? Is my cesspool approved? You know...

Do I have enough money for the first week of three-year retreat? You know... You know...

Your life is not controlled by any of those circumstances if you understand emptiness. Everything else can screw up. Everything else can be random and...

And what do you call it? Crappy. And then if you understand emptiness, you'll still be really happy.

And it ain't that why we're here. Isn't that what you want? Did you want to learn Tibetan grammar?

Or did you want to be happy all week? And you should say... Bo!

Okay. Okay, mister. Not so low.

I know you're a tough guy and all that, but we can't go that low. Okay. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Okay. Okay. Good night.