Вступление на срединный путь (текущий курс, Аризона), занятие 91

[Speaker 1]
Good to see everyone from foreign lands again, and new people, hi. So we've been studying this book called Uma Chidin. We have to talk.

Good talk. About, Uma means middle way, means emptiness, right? And Chidin means, it's a monastic textbook.

So this is a book that they study in the monastery after 12 years of lower middle way, which you guys didn't do, which you'll be able to do later when we're having fun, after the terms end. I think we'll go through those books. So normally, this whole book is a four year course.

And we've been on it for six, seven years. And we've actually got through the first 20 pages or so. So this is going to be a while.

But anyway, this is the most important book on, this is a commentary on the most important book on emptiness ever written, which is by Jetsun Kappa, called Gom Barabso, Clarification of the Buddha's True Intention. And we're at a place where they're trying to talk about different degrees of emptiness, OK? And in the monastery, there's a tradition that if you're new to a class, you just walk in, and you sit down, and you listen.

And if you don't understand half of it, it's fine, OK? Because they say that's better than sitting in a class that's below your level. So they say, it's like playing tennis with a really good player, and they smear you, but you learn a lot.

So don't stress, OK, if you're new, or you haven't been here for the last seven years. Don't stress, OK? Just have a good time.

Learn what you can learn. And don't walk away saying, oh, I didn't understand everything. The Tibetans think that the desire to understand everything in a class is a kind of pride.

And they say Americans have a big problem with that. Westerners, they don't want to be in a class that everything is over their head, you know what I mean? Or a yoga class, for that matter, which I have a problem with.

So just relax, and learn as much as you can, and have a good time, OK? And what you'll find out is that just by sitting here for seven years, they will take you on a tour to Vietnam, right? Right?

And is that where you talk? Singapore. Yeah, they're in.

Anyway, they just drag you on a tour, and they give you, with 10 minutes to go to a talk where 1,200 people are coming, Geshe Michael comes up and says, you're going to debate on the stage in front of 1,200 people, right? They're practicing behind the stage. As the curtains are opening, they're practicing.

And they did great. They did really great. I met 20 teachers from Diamond Mountain, and they did awesome.

They did really awesome. So it's just from sitting here and getting the transmission of it, OK? It's not from thinking you understand it, OK?

It's something else is going on here. Something deeper is going on here, OK? There's a transmission.

I spent about 12 years on this with my teacher, and I was really bad at it. And when I couldn't sleep at night, he said, oh, read Umechidon. And I'd read it for like 10 minutes, and I'm gone.

And so it's a transmission, you know? And it's not a Western thing. It's not that I'm trying to convey information to you, and you can spit back the information on an exam or something.

It's a transmission of an energy of people who have seen ultimate reality over 25 centuries, you know? And then now you're getting that. You're in the bath of that warm water.

And just relax and enjoy it. And don't get into this American thing of, you know, I have to know everything. I have to understand everything the first five minutes, you know, or something like that.

And so just relax and have a good time, OK? So here we go on what you're not going to understand. So I'm just going to review for you, OK?

We were talking about whether the main question right here is, so I'll ask you a question. And by the way, this debating, it turned out helpful, right? The people who went to Vietnam or Singapore or Hong Kong or Taipei, they debated on stage.

And they had seeds in their minds for debating. And they didn't skip a beat, nobody. Nobody missed a single beat.

And 20 different people were up there, you know what I mean? And so this has a function. And the people loved it, you know?

The crowds loved it. They tried to steal these guys. Like 10 different companies tried to steal our teachers in four countries, you know?

They said, we want them. You know, like Herbal Life Company, they have $2.5 billion sales. They said, give us six teachers for the next six months.

Just leave them here, you know? And they can train our staff. No, they wanted that.

And I said, well, give me some time, you know? But we'll talk about that later. So question B, do people on a lower track, lower track meaning people who are not necessarily working for the good of the world, people who are not interested in saving the world, OK?

So people who haven't got this motivation where I'm going to save the world, all right? Can those people see emptiness? Can those people see ultimate reality?

If you don't have the karma in your heart to be doing all this for the world, to save the world, is it still possible to have the highest experience that a human being can have, right? That's the debate, OK? And then part of the answer comes, well, can they reach nirvana?

Can they reach nirvana? Can lower track people reach nirvana? Yes or no?

Yeah, they can. Yeah, they do lower our heart, right? They reach nirvana.

What's nirvana? The permanent cessation of all negative attitudes, negative emotions, because you have seen emptiness, OK? nyön-döp-ma-lo-pa-pa-mi-so-so-thang-go, OK?

So, do lower people reach nirvana? And what is nirvana? nyön-döp-ma-lo-pa-pa-mi-so-so-thang-go, OK?

Eliminating your anger, your jealousy, your desire, your hatred forever, because you saw emptiness directly, OK? So, does that fit lower people? So, have they seen emptiness directly?

But their scriptures don't even explain emptiness correctly, OK? Where did their scriptures come from? Lord Buddha.

OK? Run that by me again. You're telling me they saw emptiness.

Yes. So, how did they learn emptiness? By studying scripture.

Do their scriptures describe emptiness correctly? No. Who taught them to see emptiness?

Who taught them that wrong kind of emptiness? Lord Buddha. Oh, why?

Because that's all they could handle at the time. That's all they could handle at the time. You can get up and give some lecture that nobody understands and they all leave and they, you know?

Or you can drop down to their level, you know? And start talking about bathroom floor and stuff like that, you know? No, I mean, you have to.

You have to give your talk at people's level, right? Unless you gave them an introduction about how they're not going to understand anything. So, you know.

So anyway, that's where we are, OK? Just to put it where we are. We're trying to suss out how can a person who's been studying the wrong explanation or a lower explanation of emptiness, how can they see emptiness directly and thus eliminate their negative emotions forever?

And Buddhism says that it's not possible to make meaningful progress on a spiritual path without seeing emptiness directly. That's all. That's the bottom line.

You cannot do more than short-term fixes of your anger, jealousy, hatred. It's not possible to do more than very temporary stalling of your negative emotions unless you understand emptiness. Not possible, OK?

Which is to say, if you can't grasp the contents of this book, according to Buddhism, you can never be happy. You can never ever have real peace of mind. Not possible, OK?

It's just not going to ever... According to Buddhism, it can't happen. You can debate whether that's true or not.

But we're shirshak chigyore. Shirshak chigyore. What's that mean?

Shirshak chigyore. Shirshak. Shirshak means, let's take that as assumed.

In a debate, you say shirshak. You know, you say shirshak, OK? Shirshak that the highest thing is perception of emptiness.

You know, let's start from there. Believe it. Believe it for now.

And then let's proceed, OK? Shi means foundation, right? Shir means as the foundation.

Shirshak means, let's set that as the foundation, OK? So they'll say, you know, Sangye Chogye Rinpoche, shirshak. You know, let's start from the idea that the Buddha is the highest thing you can be.

Because maybe the guy doesn't believe that. But let's start from there. Just for argument's sake, OK?

So for argument's sake, let's say that unless you understand the contents of what we're talking about tonight, it's not that you can't get enlightened or blah, blah, blah. You can't. But you can't according to Buddhism.

If Buddhism is correct, you can never be happy. You can't be happy. You can't reach a state of contentment.

It's not possible. Because the belief that things are not empty, the belief that things are coming from themselves is the root of all unhappiness, OK? That you cannot have a negative emotion unless you believe something is not coming from you.

You can't have a fight and push people unless your mind is seeing things wrong. It's not possible, OK? It's just not possible.

The opposite of that, the converse is that you can never be truly happy. You can never be truly contented if you don't understand emptiness, OK? So, these are not just some philosophical blah, blah, OK?

What we're doing is we're struggling as individuals who have problems to reach a place where we'll be happy. And so, it's not just some kind of... It sounds like philosophy.

I've had very serious Tibetan scholars tell me, all those monastic textbooks, they're just, what do you call it? Hair splitting, you know? And it's not like that.

If you... They raise questions that you need to answer if you're ever going to be free of jealousy and anger and hatred. And if you don't answer them, you won't be free.

That's all. You have to answer these questions, OK? So, here we go.

So, basically we're talking about two kinds of emptiness. Things are empty, and people are empty, OK? Kamsakhi dharme and cukhi dharme, OK?

So, what's the emptiness of Geshe Michael? And what's the emptiness of the lectern, right? And these are two different kinds of emptiness, all right?

Generally speaking, it's harder to see the emptiness of yourself than it is to see the emptiness of the podium. Because it's harder even to perceive yourself than to perceive the podium, OK? Like, it's easy.

If I point to the podium, you're OK, right? If I say, who are you? I mean, that gets hard, all right?

It's harder to think of who is Geshe Michael than it is to say, oh, there's a podium here, all right? So, we divide emptiness into two separate kinds. Trying to grasp the ultimate reality of an object, you know?

And then trying to grasp the ultimate reality of how I think, or how I feel, and those are more difficult. So, you start with things, then you work up to people. But when you perceive it directly, what?

You see the emptiness of me first. So, Geshe Michael sees the emptiness of Geshe Michael first. That's the first emptiness he ever sees directly.

Because that's the most important one for me. If I'm going to deal with my anger or my jealousy, I have to understand myself first, OK? Then I can worry about your anger and your jealousy and keep your book for you and stuff like that.

All right, which we're very good at. OK, then if you can't keep your own book, then maybe you can keep somebody else's. So, this is tricky, OK?

We had a discussion about this today. Lama Palma is going to teach this in her class, I think. Her first Tara class, right?

This term. But the idea is that anything that is produced wears out. That's a big deal in Buddhism, OK?

Anything that grows must die. In fact, the birth of a thing assures its destruction, OK? Like when you debate, you know, why am I going to get old?

Then the answer is, because you were born, right? You don't need any other cause than that, you see? But in a more subtle way, why do you get old?

Yeah, because you see yourself getting old, which means your karma in your mind to see yourself as young is wearing out, OK? The karma that produces the human body, left unattended, wears out by necessity, everybody. I took a class from Sri Dharamitra last month in Phoenix.

We had a really good time. And there are a lot of good yogis there, I'm telling you. There's like 200 really good yogis there.

And he couldn't demonstrate the poses. The man who wrote the book on 406 poses, the man who did the chart, which is on the wall of every yoga studio in America, couldn't do the poses, because he just had his knees replaced. So, he had someone else doing the poses, you know?

And things wear out, you know? He's been doing enough yoga, and he certainly eats well. You know what I mean?

He's the man about what to eat. And he's the best yogi physically in America's history, right? But things wear out because your karma wears out.

So, your body was produced by certain kindnesses towards other people, and then they wear out, okay? So, is the fact that all things which are born wear out, is that emptiness? No, it's not, okay?

It's a useful idea. It will help you in your spiritual quest, but it's not emptiness, okay? But would it be wrong if you were going to go teach a class in Vienna next month, and someone asked you, what's the emptiness?

Would it be wrong if you judged that the best thing to say to them was, oh, it means everybody wears out, because their karma wears out, you know? That would be okay, okay? Because the people in the audience might need that, all right?

So, it's not correct, but it's not wrong, okay? And that's a quotation by Arya Nagarjuna, okay? Describing how higher schools of Buddhism say that an apple tree is empty, because it never started, it never grew, okay?

And then another school, a lower school might say, an apple tree is empty because it wears out, because it was caused, okay? All right? That's what he's getting into.

Are they describing an outer thing? Yeah, what? An apple tree.

Are they discussing its emptiness? In a way, a kind of emptiness, you know? We thought it was getting old because of bugs, or, you know, not enough water, or, you know, storms.

And then someone comes along and enlightens you and says, no, the apple tree got old, or the apple tree fell down, because your karma to have apples is wearing out, because you aren't sharing enough meals with other people. You see what I mean? So, is that a kind of emptiness?

Yeah, okay? All right? Okay.

Yeah. You can say that. You can say that, for now.

All right. When the passage says, this is a pretty good objection, okay? By the way, so, we came to a scripture that said what the lower schools are talking about about why the apple tree gets old, okay?

And what we're talking about of why the apple tree never grew in the first place. Okay? They both called emptiness.

They're trying to explain emptiness. They heard the word emptiness. Their teacher talked about emptiness.

They didn't take notes. They didn't do homeworks. They forgot.

And then what they remember is that things wear out as emptiness, okay? And then the higher school is saying, look, the tree never grew in the first place. All right?

But are they both emptiness? You can say they're both a kind of emptiness. They've both been spoken of as emptiness.

They're both attempts to explain emptiness. How's that? Okay?

That's what this quotation is saying. Now we can start on new stuff. What?

Okay, what we do in this class, we translate as we go for fun. And I ask you to repeat the Tibetan with me. And just fake it, okay?

Like, generally say the words in the middle. The letters in the middle. Because there are suffixes like the word I know.

How should that be pronounced? Kanao, right? I Kanao.

And in Tibetan has a lot of these silent first letters, okay? So, I'm just giving you a clue. And then, you know, you never know when it will come out.

I had someone in the car one day, and we were driving through the forest in northern Arizona, and they said, Chom Dende. I said, what? This is Chom Dende.

I said, where did that come from? He said, I don't know. You know?

So it comes, it means the Buddha, right? The conqueror. It's a good word.

But this happens, okay? So just make noise, and then Chom Dende will come out. Okay, one, two, three.

De, mi, te, pa. Wait, wait, wait, wait. If we go up, it means we believe it.

If we go down, it means we're being sarcastic. Are you telling me, okay? The first three words here mean that's incorrect.

What you just said is incorrect. So should we be going down on the tail, or should we be going up on the tail? Going down is sarcastic.

Are you? No, I'm telling you. No, anytime, anytime our side responds with that's incorrect, do we believe it or not?

So you should go up. Okay? That's all.

It's already right. We're saying, what you're saying is wrong. Okay?

So it's, no, it's not. In English, we accent the first part. No, it's not.

And in Tibetan, you accent the second part. No, it's not. Okay?

Okay, here we go. De, mi, te, pa, ta. De, ta, yu, na.

U, ma, pe, ne, pa, yu, pa, du, pe, gyu, gu, so, pe, ngu, po, tam, che, na, gyu, chen, ne, cang, wei, ngu, po, tam, che, na, dong, yi, ne, jin, yin, pa, ha, zha, te, wei, Okay. De, mi, te, pa, ta. No, it's not.

Okay? That's not correct. That can't be correct.

What did he say that's not correct? Eh, when the passage says that the Torah won't be emptied, what it means is that, I don't know, it sounds pretty good to me. Don't we agree with that?

Seems to me we agree with that. Let's start, let's go slow. I mean, you should break it down.

When you're not sure, break it down into pieces, okay? Is it true that something that grew from a seed could never wear out if it were self-existent? Is that true?

Is it true to say that if something were self-existent that it could never wear out? Yeah. Okay?

If something were self-existent, it can't wear out. Is that true? Yeah.

What does self-existent mean? You gotta appreciate it. Something you don't like.

Someone you don't like at work, okay? Someone you're having a problem with at work. I know nobody has anybody like that, but just in case, right?

So, if they were self-existent, they could never change or have a heart attack or leave. Okay? If they were self-existent, or whoever your problem person is in your life, okay?

If they were self-existent, they could never wear out. You would have to be around them forever, okay? Why?

But they are changing. They're walking around, they yell at me, the voice gets louder, softer. That's change.

Yeah. So their asshole-ness is coming from them. Yeah.

If they possess that object, that characteristic in and of themselves, right? Then it would just be part of them. It'd be part of their nature and it would never change.

Okay? Got it? It would never wear out.

If it's not self-existent, it could wear out. What's that mean? If it comes from me, then it can wear out.

If it comes from me, then they can change. Then there's hope. If it comes from me, there's hope.

Why? If it's coming from my karma, if I have a person in my life who gives me a lot of problems, then if it's coming from their side, I just have to wait till they die or go away, right? Really.

Because they're not going to change if it's coming from them. If it's part of their character, right? But if it's coming from me, then I have control.

I can change it, you see? So, how would it be coming from me? Like, let's say they're just, I don't know, violent.

Let's say they're violent. They speak violently, they act violently. Say again?

Yeah, yeah. I've been violent. Which is the only reason I can see it.

Did you ever try to explain to a really good person why this person is bad? And they're like, I don't get it. Yeah, no, but you don't understand.

You keep telling people you don't understand. You know? So, there's someone who is violent to you.

Someone who causes you harm, right? And then, the real sin is that you have been harmful to others. You have hurt other people, right?

In all the many ways that we can hurt other people. Even down to just putting somebody down, right? That's why you see violence.

Because it's always exaggerated, right? The result is exaggerated. So, the cause might be just putting somebody down.

And then the result is actually someone threatening you, right? So, we say it's coming from us, okay? In a practical sense, what does that mean?

What's that have to do with how you respond to them? Yeah, how? How do you stop a karma?

What's the main way to stop a karma? You can say do the opposite. You first control yourself.

Don't do that anymore. Don't hurt other people. But to do the opposite is even more powerful, right?

So, I wanted to express something that I've been thinking about a lot in my own life, you know? You always have a choice. I mean, if you look at unhappiness, it boils down to thinking basically, someone hurts you, someone says something to you, someone threatens you in our example, right?

To me, the unhappiness comes in trying to decide what to do back to them, you know? To me, that's what the Karmic Management book is about. Nobody really gets it in America.

In Taiwan, it's sold out in the first two weeks. 10,000 copies sold in the first two weeks. Somehow, they get it.

Try to understand this. Someone hurts me. The real struggle, especially for spiritual people, right?

Or for people who are trying to practice kindness, right? The struggle is, what do I do? The problem comes then, what do I do?

What's the right thing to do? So, I mean, it's not even so much that they've hurt you. It's like the suffering comes in about what should I do?

What should I do back to them? And then you start making lists. Maybe I should have the police come.

Maybe I should put a guard on my door, you know? You start making lists about things and then they don't work. Depends on what you're protecting, I guess.

So, what do you do? You're struggling to think, what should I do? Right?

And some of the struggle is negative. Because some of the struggle is, how should I hurt them back? Right?

90% of the time, right? For anybody, there's a little bit of, how should I hurt them back? Right?

You can say you're a good person and you're a pure person, but someone hurts you to some percentage of your mind is thinking, how should I get them back? This is, that's what makes you unhappy. So, two things make you unhappy.

One is not knowing exactly how to respond. And then all the time you spend on debating the possible responses, right? Should I yell at them?

Should I be nice to them? Should I hit them? Should I make them a cake?

You know? And then on the other part of your mind is, I hate it. I don't like them.

I don't like what they're doing to me. And I don't like them. So then these make you unhappy.

You see what I mean? So, if you understand emptiness, if you understand that the best way to stop them is to be, what do you say? Do the opposite, right?

Do the opposite. What I'm trying to, what I've been exploring in my own life, and what I think you might want to think about is really, if you understand emptiness, then you would only do something positive. You see?

There would never be a negative element in your response. Maybe you could call the police, that's okay. To restrain them.

Maybe you could try to restrain them physically. Maybe you could punch them in a kind way. Really.

You know? Maybe. But the point is that whatever you're doing, you're doing because you want to be good to them.

You see? You want to do something nice to them. You see?

Because you don't want to see violence. So you're not going to do violence, you're going to do kindness, right? But what I'm saying is, if the better your understanding of emptiness gets, the more every aspect of your response is positive.

You see? Is kind. Because that's all that works.

You see? So you can think of it as a kind, they call it a blissful path to bliss. Every part of your response is happy.

And then it makes you happy. Got it? It's very profound.

If you are feeling unhappy, when considering how to respond to a person who's doing violence to you, you are already something's wrong. Already something's wrong. Because the only possible response is happiness.

The only possible response is kindness. And it's fun to be kind. It feels good to be kind.

You see what I mean? If you really understand emptiness, your responses will get more and more happy and kind. Because that's all you can do to stop them.

Got it? So then there's no, how do you call it? There's no tension or anxiety trying to think of what to do to them.

Because your decision is already you have to do the opposite. You have to be kind back. No matter how bad they are to you, you have to be kind back.

And then you just get happier. You see what I mean? I don't know.

That's how emptiness makes you happy. What I'm saying is that anytime you have a problem, your immediate thought in your mind should be, what kindness can I do to anybody to stop this karma? Got it?

Anytime you have a problem, the immediate reaction in your mind should be, what kind of kindness can I do to someone to stop this karma? So then what are you doing? You're just doing kindness.

And there's no headache. There's no anxiety. There's no pressure.

You just feel happy. Someone hit me today. So who should I bake a cake for?

You see what I mean? Your mind will start to become like that. Someone yelled at me today.

So who should I encourage? Your mind will become just thinking of kindnesses that you can pay back people with, so to get rid of them. It's very hard to express.

Someone will do something bad to you and then you'll say, what kind of good things should I do to stop this karma? So what are you doing? Either during the day you're thinking to do good things already, or during the day someone's hassling you.

And then your reaction is to do a good thing to stop them. So you're doing good things when they're not hassling you, and you're doing good things when they are hassling you. So then you feel happy all day.

Do you get it? Okay. I'm not sure.

Okay. But then there's no anxiety and there's no tension and there's no unhappiness on your part. Someone hurts you.

And the immediate thought of a person who understands emptiness is, what kindness can I do to stop this karma? And there's no thought about, should I hit them? Should I call the police?

You're not doing that. You're thinking, who should I be good to to stop this thing? And then you're just thinking all day about being nice to other people, because you don't like this person.

Okay? Alright. It's easy to say.

I just think it's a bad habit. I just think we have a bad habit. If you really try for a while, someone hassles you.

The biggest problem you have in your life right now. Just pick it. And then a person who understands emptiness is automatically considering kindnesses that they can do to counteract them.

To counteract the bad karma. You see? They're just automatically thinking that.

They're not thinking revenge or hurting a person back. They just don't even think of that. I mean a real emptiness realizer is even just from a class, they are automatically thinking, what kind of good thing do I have to do to stop this person?

The stopping them is fine. What do I have to do to make this person leave Arizona? Be nice to and don't think you have to be nice to them.

Okay? Because usually you're not strong enough. So that's why we say third party karma.

So collect your karma with third party. Be nice to your yoga teacher. Be super nice to your yoga teacher to get rid of this person.

You know? You can do that. And then you're just being nice all day.

I don't know. It's more fun. I think you have to learn about emptiness so many hours that when the real poop hits the fan, when you have a serious problem.

You know, I'm making fun of your problems but to you they're serious. And my problems are serious to me. If I told you my problem, you would laugh.

And you tell me somebody, I had a lady at work, she's Thai. She was my main colored stone manager. She said, Geshe-la, I'm leaving the company.

I said, why? Tasini kata pituk, right? And I said, why?

And she said, everybody hates me. In the whole company, everybody hates me. I'm like, Tasini, everybody loves you, right?

You knew her, right? And I said, she loves, everybody loves you. She said, no they don't.

And I said, why? And she said, they point their feet at me all the time. You know?

I said, what? She said, they point their feet and they're always pointing their soles of their feet at me. That means they hate me.

That means they hate me. And I said, what are you talking about? She says, we grew up in Thailand.

If you point your feet at somebody, you hate them. It's very disrespectful, you know, to point your feet at somebody. Like you go to the Emerald Temple in Bangkok, there's a sign that says, don't point your feet at the Buddha.

There is. Take your shoes off, okay, but don't point your feet at the Buddha. So I had this long argument with her.

No, people in America don't understand about this pointing your feet thing. Everybody loves you. She left the company, right?

She left. So I'm not making fun of your problems. Alright?

But, you know, for you, they're serious, right? No, for you, the person who is causing you the most problem is, it's a very serious thing, right? It obsesses you, right?

You think about it half of the day. Whatever person hassles you, you think about them a lot. More than you think about your lama.

More than you think about your partner. You think about someone who hassles you, you know? Now you can twist it around, you see?

You can contemplate the people who you don't like, and then you can scheme how to do good things to get rid of them. You see? But in the end, you're just doing good things.

That's what I'm trying to say. I don't know. I found it very helpful.

Okay. Oh, so is it the case that if the person you don't like were coming from their own side, you couldn't change them? Yeah.

And the fact that you can change them is based upon the fact that they're coming from you. So if a person has been violent to you, but you respond with constant kindness and peacefulness, then they will change. Okay?

You can change them. Got it? Okay.

So, it is true that if they existed to some nature of their own, they could never wear out. That's true. Does that mean the fact that things wear out is empty?

If you added more explanation. If you said, oh, because they're projections and blah, blah, blah. If you added stuff.

But I'm shirshak. Shirshak not adding anything. Shirshak.

If you were kind enough, you would go away. No, no. That's true.

I'm saying, I'm the lower school, okay? And Michael Brennan has asked me, what's emptiness? And I say, nothing lasts, man.

Look at Dharma Mitra. Nothing lasts. And that's all I say.

And I don't give you anything else. Is that emptiness? It's not.

It's not emptiness. I mean, just to go around saying everything wears out. It's not emptiness.

First of all, emptiness is a negative thing. You'd have to say something is not something. You see what I mean?

Emptiness has to be expressed. I mean, that's one simple way to... Yeah.

But if you went to somebody and said, things wear out because they're projections and they aren't what you thought they were. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that here's two guys.

I got two guys up here. This is the lower school guy on the right, of course. And he says, he says, you say, what's emptiness?

What's the meaning of Buddhism? He says, everything wears out. Don't get attached to anything.

Just live your life in some kind of undisappointability. I like that. Okay?

Because everything is going to let you down anyway. Don't try to have a relationship. Don't buy a house.

Don't have a car. Don't have a family. Just hide in a cave.

You know, life's going to screw you. Okay? Then this person here.

They do teach. They go around saying, Buddhism's essence is that everything, nothing works. Everything falls apart.

And then here's this other guy saying, everything falls apart because you've been hurting other people. If you helped other people, things wouldn't fall apart. You wouldn't get old.

Your body would actually change into what we call the illusory body. You'd be an angel. Because it's all coming from you.

It's not that things wear out from their own side. It's that things wear out because you're not pumping in enough new good karma. Alright?

Got it? So, is this emptiness? It's not emptiness.

Okay, got it? Is this emptiness? Things wear out because you're not pumping in enough good karma.

Okay? Got it? Is this emptiness?

Because this is emptiness, is that emptiness? Who said? Oh, you've lost it.

See? You shouldn't interrupt the train of thought. Okay.

Here, I'll do it again. Hey man, everything goes away anyway. Just get used to it.

Things go away because your karma runs out. If you collected enough good karma, you'd turn into an angel. You wouldn't have this problem.

Okay? Is this one emptiness? Yes.

Is this one emptiness? No. Is it true that because this is emptiness, that's emptiness?

No. Because this never was emptiness. Got it?

Okay? The last quotation, which is up there. Some guy is coming up and trying to sell us that.

Because there's a version of emptiness that involves things wearing out. Understanding why things wear out. Saying that things wear out is emptiness.

Got it? Yay! That's why we only finished 20 minutes.

But that's incorrect. Okay? But that's incorrect.

Because if that were true, I hope I can do this. Think about all the different things such as miyuku, miyuku, miyuku, miyuku, somebody object. Yeah.

Miyuku, say miyuku. M Y U Nyu. Not myu.

Got it? In Tibetan, M-Y changes to like senyor. Nya.

Okay? Alright, got it? So it's miyuku.

But that's incorrect, because if that were true, think about all the different things, such as nukus, which are? Yeah? Nuku has two meanings.

One is a sprout. One is a bamboo pen. Nuku is the Tibetan word for pen, because pens were made out of bamboo shoots.

Got it? So don't get confused. This is sprouts.

Okay, because think about it, such as sprouts, which followers of the Middle Way assert, Wow, how did he do that? Did that come out of here? I'll just stick it in here.

Okay, he got a lot of practice in Asia. He was a star in Asia. Yeah, nge par yu.

Yu, what? They exist. No, yu is yin.

Yu is exist. Got it? You got that?

Yin means is. Yu means exist. Okay?

What's here? Yu. What?

Okay. Nge par yu. Which followers of the Middle Way assert certainly do exist.

Okay? Think about all those things, such as sprouts, which followers of the Middle Way assert certainly do exist. Since in all of them, since in all these objects, all the reasons you've put forth are complete, then they'd have to be saying that all the things there are, and emptiness itself, are in fact the same thing.

And that would be a bit too much. Okay, ha jang taewitr. Say ha jang.

Ha jang. Ha jang. Ha jang.

Taew. Taew. Ha jang taewitr.

Ha jang. Ha jang taewitr. Ha jang taew.

Taew means consequence, right? Like if you say everything in the world is red, I say, well, I guess the sky is red, right? Taew.

Okay? Like from what you're saying, there's this absurd consequence that the sky would also have to be red. Taew.

Taew. Ha jang taew means, come on, that's going a bit too far, don't you think? Okay, that's going a bit too far.

What? The fact that things wear out is the ultimate teaching of Buddhism. Well, what's the ultimate teaching of Buddhism?

By the way, you see teachers like that. They just dwell on this thing like, look, everything's going to end. Don't try to have a relationship.

Don't try to buy a house. Don't try to have a family. Don't try to have a good job.

Just give up, you know? Just, renunciation means don't try anything. You hear that because it's all going to fall apart, right?

There are people who say that. That's the core teaching of Buddhism. Well, they fall apart because your karma wears out.

If you just would get your ass to make some new karmas and get serious about making karma, your body would change into light. You wouldn't have to get old or get sick or bald. Okay, all right?

But if what this guy... If the lower schools and the higher schools explain emptiness in the same way, got that? If the higher schools and the lower schools are both talking about the same subtle form of emptiness, got it?

Then what this guy says should be the same as what this guy says, right? And if that's true, then everything wearing out is what the world is empty of. And then all the stuff that this school says, come on, it certainly does exist, would have to not exist.

Why? Because it wears out. It has emptiness.

Because you said emptiness means wearing out. Got it? I'll say it again.

He said the ultimate teaching of Buddhism is that things wear out. And then somebody else said, the lower schools do teach emptiness. And in fact there's a quotation that says the two emptinesses are the same.

So he said, okay, I get it. Everything wearing out because of your karma is the same thing, right? He says, right.

So you're saying things are empty of what you think is emptiness. Right. So they don't have wearing out.

Right. And you're saying the middle way believes that too. Right.

So the middle way doesn't believe in any fucking thing. Sorry. Okay?

Then they don't accept the existence of a single thing. Why? You're saying they believe in the same emptiness you believe in.

Well, what kind of emptiness do I believe in? You're saying anything that wears out is empty. That's emptiness.

Okay, so all the things which wear out don't exist. You're saying Madhyamika believes that all the things that wear out don't exist. Because that's emptiness.

Got it? But Madhyamika does say things exist.

[Speaker 2]
Right.

[Speaker 1]
They say like a car bumper hits you, it breaks your legs. Right. That's middle way.

The Garjuna said what? It reminds me of Woodstock. What was the thing that...

What was that guy who got up at Woodstock? What was the guy? He said, Max...

What Max? Yeah, Mack Yasber. He got up and he said...

What's the first thing he said? He said, I'm a farmer. And then there was 500,000 people clapped.

It was so cool. So he gets up, you know, in front of 500,000 drug-crazed hippies. And the first thing he says, he owns the land there.

You know, and he can't think of anything to say. And he's like... He's like, I'm...

And then he says, I'm a farmer. And then everybody goes wild, okay? Why is that relevant here?

Arya Nagarjuna said, look, I have no argument with farmers. You know, Arya Nagarjuna said, I have no argument with the world. You know, they have a problem with me.

I don't have a problem with them, okay? Things work. Things grow.

You know, things wear out. I don't have a problem with that. That's not emptiness.

Okay? Got it? Yeah.

So, what can we conclude? The emptiness accepted by this guy is not the same emptiness accepted by this guy. So, how the heck does this guy see emptiness?

How the heck does this guy get in nirvana? It doesn't solve our problem. Okay?

This guy's been struggling. This guy's been really struggling and saying, emptiness means that things wear out. Okay?

So, how does a guy like that get to see emptiness? It's not fair. Okay?

Alright? Got it? That's a serious question.

Alright. Alright. And that would be a bit too much.

Okay. Basically, what our commentator is saying is that there was a quotation in scripture that said that the subtle form of emptiness accepted by the lower schools, that they do accept a subtle form of emptiness. There is a quotation like that.

If you ask them, what's your subtle form of emptiness? They'll say, things wear out. Okay?

And so then, the only conclusion that we can make is that when they say things wear out, they must be thinking things wear out because my projection wears out. Which would mean that their version of emptiness is the same as our version of emptiness because that's the only way he's going to see emptiness. Got it?

Because if we're stuck with his emptiness being our emptiness, then we have to believe that nothing exists because things wear out. If everything that wears out doesn't exist, then nothing exists. Like, stuff like bananas and popcorn, you'd have to say don't exist.

You know? If because they were... Let's prove it.

Give them some juice and stuff. Okay? No, their emptiness is that they wear out.

You see? That's the meaning of their emptiness. So when they wear out, there's nothing anymore.

Something like that. Everybody says Nirvana is sensational. Okay, let's go to one more paragraph.

Do not get distracted by popcorn. You can eat it with your touch. And you don't have to look at it at all.

Okay? Your eyes stay glued to me. You eat the popcorn like this.

Like it's a really good movie. Okay? Like it's the really good part in...

I won't say. Okay. One, two, three.

Okay. Okay. One may then ask the following question.

I want to... For those who are like seriously taking this class, which I think three of you, the words say ser. Ser.

Okay, it's right there, the Z-E-R. Say ser. Ser.

Say ser. Ser. Ser.

Ser. Ser. Ser means gold.

Okay? Ser means to say. Got it?

So you're not gonna make that mistake, I know. You're gonna say serma. But ser in scripture has a very important meaning.

It means they claim.

[Speaker 2]
You know?

[Speaker 1]
They say. You know how you can say the word say and it means I don't believe it? He says he's an expert at surfing.

You know? And the way you say says. He says.

He knows how to drive a motorcycle in Saigon. You know? He says.

Okay? That's ser. Okay?

But when it's followed by na, what's it mean? If you ask, okay? Then it's not...

There's no pejorative meaning. You're just saying, okay, if you wanna ask me a question. When it's followed by na, don't translate it as claim.

That's what I'm saying. Okay? When it's followed by na, then it just means if someone comes and says.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Which you can translate as... Thank you. Pretty good.

So, how did I translate it? You know, one may then ask the following question. Lama Christy complained to me.

She says, you always put then in there somewhere. Which is true. Okay.

Let's assume that in the scriptural collection of the lower way, they do teach that the fact that produced things where is emptiness. Okay? Alright, let's assume that you're correct.

Let's say that in the lower schools, they do say, if you ask a person from the lower school, what's emptiness? If you go to a lecture by a person from a lower school and they're teaching Buddhism, and you say, what's the crucial, what's the core concept of Buddhism? They say, nothing lasts.

Don't have any hope for anything. Just get used to it. Nothing's gonna go the way you want.

You know? Buddhism consists of the right kind of recognition to the screw-ups of life. Okay?

That's all. Got it? That's emptiness.

Okay? Okay? Okay?

How does, you know, how does that work? You know, how is it that someone can say, this most profound of all Buddhist concepts, the concept which is gonna make you happy, which is gonna give you finally the peace that you really want, right? You want some kind of contentment.

You wanna be able to go home and just be happy? Sit there, go home from class and be happy. That's what you really want.

You know? So, how does that work? You know, how is that emptiness?

How do they even think that's emptiness? Got it? It's a good question, right?

I mean, to start with, it's not really a negative, in a way. Okay. Whoa, this is too long.

Jetsun Kappa and Nagarjuna have this problem that they didn't hear about periods. Yeah, I'm sorry. We can't make it smaller.

Okay. Here we go. One, two, three.

Ngepa, pangpa, chakra, kirpa, sepa, drdja, tantra, gopa, yewa, shula, nupa, dunga, shengi, sammi, jorshi, minjung, mikyewa, dini, ingwa, dini, kyan, nompa, te. So this is a, okay, first meaning, how is it that these guys claim that just things wear out, that's emptiness, okay? Where did they get that from?

Who said, where'd they get this idea? Okay, got it? Okay.

In the following way. The commentary to the 60 verses on reasoning says, consider that thing which is the elimination of every bit of this suffering. Consider their certain elimination.

Okay? Consider their purification. Consider the end.

Consider freedom from all desire. Consider, oops, oops, I got too many. Consider the end.

Uh, uh, I'm a Niroshua. Uh, what's a good word for putting something to rest in the way of meaning of stopping it? No, it has to be, I'm, you can't say I'm disintegrating my mental affliction, where you couldn't, right?

Be nice, right? It has to be almost, but a peaceful word. Pacifies doesn't imply destruction.

You can pacify the enemy, but you don't get rid of them. Now you're getting crazy on me. Niroshua, to really put to peace, you see?

Huh? That's getting there. It means the end.

Give me another word for the end. It has to be a noun. I don't like, what do you call those things, gerunds for, don't know how many pack any power.

That packs power, but it's kind of, no, it, the final end. Okay. I got another problem for you.

Nupa. Nupa means when the sun goes down. But it, in scripture, it means for something to subside.

Noun. It has to mean to end. It, it, when they say nupa, they mean it ends.

They say the dharma will nupa in this world. There will be the day that the dharma The passing. The final end.

The passing. I like that. The passing.

Never again encountering pain. Okay? The fact that nothing happens.

The fact that nothing stops. Okay? This is shiwa.

Peace. Kyanomba. Do you know it's a rare word?

Kyanomba. Kyanomba means beauty. Okay?

And it's a synonym for nirvana. It's a synonym for cessation. It's a synonym for emptiness.

Okay? Is there a stronger word for beauty? This is peace.

This is That's a different meaning like CG, right? We're talking like not so much big but just beautiful. Kyanomba means like sublime.

Yeah. That's great. Who did that?

A couple of people. Yeah? Alright.

Here she's sublime. Okay, I like to you know, indent it because it's a quotation. Sorry?

Did we put two Ns? Oh, you're right. Let's go back and take one of them out.

Which... I like the N, the final N so we'll change the first one. Purification.

Give me another word for ending. This one implies wearing out. It's close but it's a little too scientific for me.

We want poetry. Seriously. Decay is a process, you see.

I want the end of the process. Yeah, sepa. Not sepa.

Sepa means like when a shoe wears out. That's sepa. When your soles of your shoes wear out, they're called sepa.

The finish. Okay. The finish.

Okay, now try to hang in there. We got another ten minutes, okay? Try to hang in there.

We want to see what this quotation is saying. Somebody said Who wrote the 60 verses, by the way? Arya Nagarjuna.

Arya Nagarjuna. Who wrote the commentary? I'm not sure which one it is.

Okay. We can look it up in ten years we don't have time. Consider the elimination of suffering.

The definite elimination. Purification. The finish.

Freedom. The end. The final end.

The passing. The end of pain. The fact that nothing happens.

The fact that nothing stops. Something, something, he switched gears there. Do you see it?

Where? Where did he switch gears? Between what and what?

Nice. Between what and what? Between never again encountering pain and the fact that nothing happens.

Got it? Up to then he's just talking about the end of your suffering. Then suddenly he jumps to the fact that nothing starts.

Why would someone well, Nagarjuna agrees with me. Why? No, he's, no, he's, they got both parts, they have to have both parts of the quote.

He's trying to say what? Put an equal sign where Mira said. Say, never again having pain, the end of all your problems, freedom from desire, purification of all suffering, equals nothing happens.

Nothing stops. What are those two last things? That's emptiness.

Who says? This guy says. This guy says the fact that nothing starts, the fact that nothing stops is emptiness.

This guy says, oh, you think that's emptiness? Yeah. Oh, do you believe in this guy?

What's his name? Na, Na, uh, Nagarjuna. Right, Nagarjuna.

He's something important in your school somehow, right? Yeah, I mean, he started the middle school. Oh, so, I seem to remember some quotation about the end of suffering, wearing out of pain, stopping, purification.

And then he says, it's emptiness, it's peace. And you say, yeah, he said that. Okay, so our, our idea about what emptiness is, is proven by Arya Nagarjuna.

Emptiness means things wear out. The guy who gets up and says, hey man, Buddhism means just grin and bear it. You know?

Things are gonna screw up. Every good thing in your life is gonna wear out. Just get used to it, try to be happy.

You know? Okay? That's emptiness.

Got it? Why? Nagarjuna said so.

Got it? It's a great quotation for him. Right?

We, he's, it's a perfect quotation, it's a perfect debate. Why? What makes it so beautiful?

What makes it so gyan nomba and sublime? Tibetans go, somehow blowing on it gets all the, what makes it gyan nomba? What makes this guy using that quotation gyan nomba?

Why is it so sublime that he did that? He's not just using any old book from this guy. He's using one of the main books written by the founder of his school.

Okay? And you wanna debate somebody from Sarajay, you go read the Sarajay textbooks. And you get some ammunition from there.

But it's not so difficult because Sarajay guys aren't, you know. But anyway, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. She's the kind of Sarajay.

No, the lesson here is not that. The lesson here is that what is the one, what do you call it, anchor of all debate? What's the one thing that all debate is based on?

You must be proving to him something that he already understands, something he already believes. He just didn't think of it. Got it?

Okay? You're not trying to, all arguments used with your wife, with your boss, or in the debate ground, must be positive on what they already accept. You're just showing them a shuffling it around for them.

Do you believe this? Do you believe in this guy, what's his name, Nagarjuna? Yeah, yeah.

Oh, did he ever say that things were out? Yeah, he did. In the same sentence, did he say that with Nirvana and emptiness?

I never thought of it that way. You know, the reaction to a good debate, if you're going to be a good debater with your spouse, or your boss, or on the debate ground, right? Use what they already accept.

Because that should be proved any time you're trying to prove something to somebody, use things which they already believe, show them a new way to arrange them. And they say, God, I never, their reaction should not be, I hate you, or, you know, I told you I took out the garbage yesterday, or, you know, their reaction should be, God, I never thought of it that way. You're right.

Because they can't argue with all the components. Everything you say is true. And they accept what you say is true.

You're just showing it to them in a new light. And that's the essence of good debate. If you go too far to something they don't accept, in Buddhism, your argument is a fallacy.

In Buddhist logic, a true statement can be untrue if it's used in the wrong context. Okay? Like, if you jump to, that's why you should give me a credit card to Bloomingdale's.

What? Because I didn't take the garbage out? Wait, that doesn't, you didn't, you gotta show them the logical steps.

You can't jump from here to here. You know? No, you gotta work with stuff they accept, and then bang them on the head.

Okay, got it? That applies to your whole life. Alright.

Alright, we're gonna stop there. No, we have five minutes. Let's go.

We might die tonight. At least we did five minutes more. By the way, the quotation from Arya Nagarjuna is not finished.

So I guess we could finish it and, you know, it would be kind of cool. I have this theory though in my life that sometimes I just don't finish things like where they naturally end and then somehow it flows better. Like you're not picking up in a new quotation.

You're picking up the last three words of the old quotation and then somehow it puts your mind back on what you were doing before and it creates a flow in your life. You don't stop at one chapter and then we close the book. You read the first three paragraphs of the next chapter.

And then somehow your life flows better. Okay, here we go. One, two, three.

Di, da, te. Phung, bo, tam, che. Nge, pa, pang, pa.

Si, pa, se, pa. Duh, cha, tam, tel. Gok, pa.

Nyang, en, le. De, pa, o. She, sum, me.

That should be a mantra. Say, she. She.

Sum, me. Sum, me. She.

She. She. Sum, me.

She. She. Because it God damn says so.

You know, you gotta, you gotta have that in a debate ground. You just gotta have it. You have two weapons, lung and rik.

What are they? Scriptural authority and reasoning, okay? Reasoning you can use on anybody almost.

Scriptural authority must be a scripture which is shared by both parties. Yes, in a debate, at the winter debates, you can't use Saramay textbooks, because you're debating people from Debung and Ganden and Sergei. Okay, you cannot use your own textbooks.

You have to use Jetson Kappa, because he's one level up. Everybody in all the group of monasteries accepts Jetson Kappa. We had one time, Sakyas came to the winter debates.

So we used Sutras, we went back to Kangyur and Tengyur. Okay, I mean, you have strategy sessions. You put guys, you put guards at the windows and doors, and you have strategy sessions.

What are we going to use against them? Kangyur, Tengyur, kick their ass. You know, and then, no, you have these meetings, and your coach is there, and he's like, we're going to get them on this one, you know.

And then Bombos came. Bombos came to the winter debate. These are the ancient shamans of Tibet.

They came to the, they had a lot of guts, like five of them. There's a thousand other guys, you know. And they wouldn't even say Chöchen, why?

Chöchen means, let's take as an example, but it uses the word Dharma. Chö means Dharma. And they objected to saying the word Dharma.

They would not say the word Dharma, because they don't accept Dharma. It's like saying Catholic Chöchen to a Baptist, you know what I mean? And they're like, could we use some other word?

You know, so it's really funny, we said, okay, Bunchen, you know. Okay, Bunchen it, we don't care, you know. But then you have to go to what?

Rig, yeah. Then you have to go to logic, okay? So, if you and your spouse share no common beliefs, you have to go to logic, okay?

And hope they'll accept logic, okay? And there are people who don't accept logic. And then you say, nyön bingwa dang dzöpa me.

Say, nyön bingwa... ...dang dzöpa me. How can you debate with a madman?

And then you just walk off, okay? All right, that's a custom. Okay, where were we?

Ditate. Why did I say... Why did I get into all that?

Oh yeah, because you need to use the same scripture. It's the beauty of him using Nagarjuna, Arya Nagarjuna. Okay, we got one more minute.

Here is how it is. All the heaps... ...are totally...

...are... ...eliminated. The cycle... ...of pain itself...

...is finished...

[Speaker 2]
...pre-attachment...

[Speaker 1]
...cessation. Okay? It's very beautiful, right? But he's continuing that quotation.

Last question, okay? Just for you... ...hardcores, hardcore people. Meera saw correctly. He was going off on... ...how you were gonna get rid of your mental afflictions...

...and get rid of your pain, right? Suddenly he switches over to... ...nothing starts, nothing stops, okay? Is he necessarily going back now that he starts talking about nirvana? Is he... ...is he backtracking...

...to the end of pain when he talks about nirvana? And the end of desire, you know? Is...

Did he go like... Did he do this thing... Did Arya Nagarjuna do this thing where he starts saying, you can get rid of your pain, you can get rid of your suffering, nothing starts, nothing stops, and you can reach nirvana, and you'll be all right, you know?

Is that what's happening? It seems like that, but what do you know? Rangshingin Yangde.

Say, Rangshingin Yangde.

[Speaker 2]
Rangshingin Yangde.

[Speaker 1]
What is the natural nirvana inherent in all things? Nervousness. Yeah, okay.

Got it? Don't think that when someone mentions nirvana, they're necessarily talking about... ...the end of your negativities. Because nirvana can also mean... ...the very... ...the ultimate nature of all things. Because that's how you get to nirvana. Got it? The name of the result is given to its cause.

Okay? Got it? Then you should debate me whether emptiness is a cause, but nobody was that sharp, so...

Okay. So hang in there in this class. We'll have a good time.

I'm really trying to commit this term... ...as far as I can to get here on time. So we'll start it on time, 6.30, because then it gives us more time to have fun. And then you don't get home at 3 o'clock or something, so... And then we'll just have a really good time. And don't stress.

There's a lot of new ideas here. I like to say... ...if there wasn't any new ideas here, it probably wouldn't help you. Because you've heard everything else. Right? You've tried everything else.

Most things. You know? You've tried most other things.

If I wasn't saying something unusual, it's probably not gonna work anyway. Okay? So it's gotta be a little bit challenging, a little bit new.

Supposedly it's gonna be a whole new breakthrough in your life. And I would say in closing, just really try to get the... ...try to grasp what we're trying to do here is the capacity to be truly happy. The result of attending Diamond Mountain University and understanding the courses and taking the courses should be that you're capable of walking home, sitting down in your room and being truly contented and truly deeply happy. You know? And it will come.

If you keep on this path, it will come. Okay? Really.

It's so beautiful. Okay? Kya nomba?

Say, kya nomba? Okay, good night. Okay.

Alright.