Вступление на срединный путь (текущий курс, Аризона), занятие 95

[Speaker 1]
Do they teach it in its infinite variety? No. Alright, that's where we are.

So, but it is taught in its infinite varieties in the greater way.

[Speaker 2]
Yes, it is.

[Speaker 1]
So, whenever you have a person of greater capacity, you need a more detailed presentation.

[Speaker 2]
It doesn't necessarily follow. It's not strict.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, because in the Abhidharma it's the opposite, right? Okay. Alright.

[Speaker 2]
In the Abhidharma, they don't use this particular explanation. If there's more, is that what you're saying?

[Speaker 1]
Right, that's what the Abhidharma says. The five heaps were taught to the most intelligent disciples. And the eighteen doctors were taught to the least intelligent.

Anyway, if the lower way teaches emptiness in its full form, right? Does it then describe correctly what that emptiness is empty of?

[Speaker 2]
It would have to.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, it would have to. Does it describe it correctly in both of its forms, the emptiness to a person and the emptiness to the thing? Yes.

Okay, yeah, that's where we are so far. Let's read it together. One, two, three.

NEDAKLA TANSAKYI DAGME SOBHAR KOMBANI YODH PAR NAMPAK SHAKHO SHEDE DUNG NYEN RANG GI DUNG GYUR GYI NYEN PO TANSAKYI DAGME SOBHAR KOMBAN YOD And we would say that they possess in meditation of oneself. I'm going to do one more, and then we'll talk about it. One, two, three.

YODH PAR NAMPAK SHAKHO SHEDE DUNG NYEN RANG GI DUNG GYI NYEN PO TANSAKYI DAGME SOBHAR KOMBANI YODH PAR NAMPAK SHAKHO SHEDE DUNG NYEN RANG GI DUNG GYI NYEN PO So, they quote a scripture again. And it says something else. It says, yeah, they do have a complete meditation of emptiness.

But the meditation of emptiness that they have is on the lack of a self to a person, okay? And they don't have a complete... Lower schools, right?

Lower track. They don't have a complete meditation on the lack of a self to things. And if you had a total meditation on the lack of self to a person, you could remove your mental affliction obstacles.

And if you had a total meditation on the lack of a self to things, you could remove your obstacles to omniscience. So, let's go through that. So, basically, you have to know there are two kinds of obstacles, okay?

Two kinds of obstacles. One are called Nyonduk. Say Nyonduk.

Nyonduk means obstacles to Nirvana. Okay? And what's Nirvana?

Being Nirvana from Bodhisattva's time, right? So, it's where you're able to remove all the obstacles caused by mental afflictions which are preventing you... Oh, and you do so based on what you saw earlier when you saw emptiness, okay?

That's the definition of Nirvana. So, somebody asks you, what's Nirvana? You say, you are able to remove your negative emotions forever due to seeing emptiness before that.

Okay? Got it? That's the definition.

That's what Nirvana means. And what they're saying here is that if you want to reach that, you have to realize the emptiness of Michael. You have to understand the emptiness of Michael.

If you do, then you'll be able to eliminate your mental afflictions forever. Alright? The first kind of obstacle.

Why would that be? I mean, put it in a normal language. Put it in a normal circumstances.

What does it mean for me to see that Michael doesn't have a self? What does that mean? Supposedly, this is going to help me remove my jealousy or anger.

Let's say I'm upset. Let's say I had a plan and the plan didn't work out. Okay?

So I'm upset about something. Supposedly, if I see that Michael doesn't have a self, I won't be upset. I cannot be upset.

Right? Why?

[Speaker 2]
Huh?

[Speaker 1]
That's a... Yeah...

[Speaker 2]
You would have to say that the upset was based on a false notion of yourself, which was a complete hallucination and might prevent you from getting more upset.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. I think you could say that. You could say that there's no real Michael there, so you shouldn't get upset.

But it's hard to apply. It's hard for people... You know, when you're having a bad day, it's hard to say, Oh, I guess your Michael's not really here.

[Speaker 2]
You know?

[Speaker 1]
I mean, you hear that a lot. No, you hear it very, very... You hear it a lot.

People say, You know, you're not really there, so don't worry. You know? Which is true, technically.

But what does it mean, exactly? What does it mean?

[Speaker 2]
Upsetness. You get attached to him already.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, you could say attachment. But there's a thing, you see?

[Speaker 2]
Stop acting incorrectly. If you knew your material happiness itself, you just wouldn't struggle like a fish out of water. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You stop. There's no Michael there that isn't coming from how you've behaved in the past. So if you start changing your behavior now, that gives you Michael in the future that isn't unhappy about you.

[Speaker 1]
That's okay there, I think. Yeah? Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Your projection of yourself is entirely karmic. And so it can't be changed. There is no deceptive Geshe Michael that is real.

Or unchanging.

[Speaker 1]
You know, I would say something like, Okay, so I had a plan today, right? And it didn't work out the way I wanted. So I got upset.

Now, somehow, if I see some kind of emptiness about all this, I won't get upset. Because according to the book, if I understand some emptiness, I'll go to Nirvana. Nirvana means never getting upset again.

How would that happen? By the way, does it mean that all my plans went out? No.

So Nirvana, you gotta be clear on that, okay? Nirvana doesn't mean suddenly all your plans aren't working, okay? It doesn't mean that.

It means how you feel about it changes. And you don't feel upset again. You never feel upset again.

So let's say, you know, I had a plan today and it didn't work out. So why am I not upset? Why does understanding emptiness change that?

[Speaker 2]
Because you don't understand where it came from. See? You weren't attached to the result.

Oh! By the way, I saw this t-shirt I tell you every class.

[Speaker 1]
Yesterday? A long time ago. And it was that cute t-shirt.

Oh, I haven't... And I don't like this t-shirt. I don't have enough.

I want everything. You know? I think that's a lower view.

I think that's a lower view. I don't... I mean, the point of all this exercise is that you can have whatever you want.

And you can be attached to whatever you want. If attachment means you don't want it to go away, then all the Buddhas are attached. Because they want to remain in bliss, right?

They want to remain in paradise. So, you know, to like your car, or to like your house, or to want your project to go smoothly today, there's nothing wrong... There's not a wrong thing.

Okay? It's not a bad thing. And in your heart you know that.

You know, you're not going to follow a spiritual path until you get to the point where you don't care if things work out or not. You see what I mean? That's not a...

To me, I think you have to break through that as a goal. To get to a point where you don't care if things work out or not is not the goal. The goal is to get to a point where you're totally happy, whatever happens, and things exactly happen the way you want them to.

You see what I mean? And that's... No, I think that.

And... I don't think a human being will be satisfied otherwise. You can put them in a temple in Burma and tell them, you know, just be happy with what you get and don't worry if things don't work out.

Just chill. You know? And it won't be enough.

They won't stay in the temple. Sooner or later they'll get up and go and try to... to succeed at something.

You know? That's human nature. And I think it's a good nature.

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
So maybe this understanding would promote a mindful planting of seeds, not just images. Yeah, I think so. To go ahead and produce the results that would...

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. So there's a... If you know what you have to do, if you know why the project didn't work, and you know that the only way to get it to work is to be joyful and help other people with their projects, there's no room left for feeling upset.

You got it? You just know what you need to do. And you do it.

You see what I mean? It's not that... If you really understand emptiness, right?

If you really understand why a project didn't work. You know? Like I didn't help somebody.

Like yesterday I couldn't help somebody. Ningbo was carrying a box out of the garage. I couldn't help him and I just sat down.

You know? And then today my project didn't work out. So...

If I think like that, what will be my next thought? If I think, my project didn't work out today because I didn't help someone carry a box yesterday, then what will my next thought be? You just look around for people to help.

And nobody minds that. You know? The people being helped are...

They like you. You know? I mean...

In the end, if you're a real Buddhist, right? And if your goal in life is to help people, people really don't mind. Once they smell what you're up to.

You know? Like, I want to make you rich. And I want to make you successful.

Or I want to help you with the box. You know? That's all I want to do.

I don't have any other agenda. You know? There's no pride.

There's no worry about my own position or my own benefit or something like that. I just want you to be helped. You know?

So then people like you. I mean, people... There's no room in there for being upset.

You see what I mean? You won't get upset. If you understand the emptiness of the present.

Your first thought will be... Well... Dang!

Yesterday I could have helped him with the box, I think. Your second thought will be... Well, who can I help now?

And then your third, fourth, fifth thought will just be... Well, how do I help them? You know?

What time do I leave? And what... You know?

How will I get the car to take them where they want to go? All your thoughts will be pure. And clean.

And happy. And there's no room for a mental affliction. Got it?

Because you realize that to get what you want you have to be happy and help other people. And that makes them happy and it makes you happy. But being upset doesn't have a place there.

Got it? There's no thought about... I think being upset has to depend on a misperception.

Got it? To get upset, to be upset, you have to misunderstand something. Right?

Because being upset would say... Oh, they didn't do this thing they were supposed to do for the project. You know?

Like, when you start assigning causes to why your project didn't work out today, you start making lists about other people and what they didn't do. And then that causes you to get upset. But they didn't do anything.

You created them also. Right? So, the more you understand who you are and where you came from, it's not possible to be upset.

It's just not possible. You won't think of that. I don't know how to say it.

It would be like your car is having trouble and you open the door and you get out and you go kick a cactus. You know? And, you know, and it hurts.

I mean, you get thorns in your feet. Right? But you laugh.

Why do you laugh? Because we've all done it. No, you laugh because it's so clearly disconnected.

You know? Like, you should go to the front of the car, open the hood, see if something is smoking, you know? But you walk off the road and you kick a cactus.

And you laugh because there's no connection between the car and the cactus. Like, there's as much connection between the people you're pissed off at today and what you didn't get to do. They are the cactus and the project is your broken car.

And they have nothing to do with it. All the people you're blaming for everything, all the stuff you're getting upset at, okay, check this one out. You get out of the car and you go to kick a cactus and you kick a rock.

You want to kick a cactus. And you think the rock is a cactus. So, to fix the car, you go to kick a cactus, but you kick a rock.

And you think you got the cactus. You get back in the car and you say, God damn, I thought that cactus. No, it's not.

Because we're responding to people who aren't there. You know? We're accusing people who are supposed to help us, who are the cactus, right?

That has nothing to do with our problem. And then we don't even get the right person. So we're kicking a rock instead.

Okay, got it? It all makes sense. Okay.

But then he says, but then he has another thing. You better understand. Say shiru.

Shiru means, means, this is tricky. The names of the two obstacles are faulty. The names are not parallel.

The names are a problem, okay? Unless someone trains you about the difference, then you won't understand their name. What is mental friction obstacle?

Is it obstructing you from your mental afflictions? Got it? The other one is called obstacle to all things.

Does it consist of all things? Okay, so they're not the same, got it? They're misnamed.

The first one is called obstacles of mental afflictions, meaning what blocks you. And the second one is called obstacles to knowing all things, meaning obstacle to what you want to get to. So the names are not parallel.

The names have a problem with them, got it? The first one should have been called obstacles to nirvana. And the second one should have been called obstacles to omniscience, okay?

And then they would be nice and neat. So what he says here is kind of, now you have to go to a different place. He says, oh my, wait, what's a shiru?

What is an obstacle to omniscience? It means this, okay? Okay, I read a science fiction book, or fantasy book, okay?

Which is what I do later, but under the covers. I have a flashlight. They see like flashlight things going on.

And there's a book called The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, okay? So he did what, 11 volumes, like 800 pages each. Like once you start the first one, you can't stop.

It's like bags of cups, eh? But you can't stop reading, okay? And in the book, there's a fanboy.

He becomes the savior of the world, right? Which is always the way it goes. Because it's all being written by angels to inspire us.

So at some point, he gets captured by some evil sorceresses, okay? And to punish him, they lock him in a small box. He can just stay in a fetal position.

And then they push him. He's very powerful within, right? But somehow, if there's more than seven of them...

So it's very sad, because up to now, he's this fanboy who made good. And he's saving the world, country by country. And then suddenly, these seven mean people lock him in a box, right?

And then he's stuck in this... It's just a chest, like a moving... Like a chest for your clothes or something?

Yeah, a trunk. And he's mashed in there. Just barely he can fit.

And then they close him in there, and they ride him around on a horse all day. And then he pours some teas in there, and then he goes crazy. He's going crazy.

And they give him a little bit of water, a little bit of food, and they stuff him back in. And then... We're like that, okay?

Your mind, right now, is like that. Your mind is like this wizard who could save the world, right? Your mind has infinite capacity.

Every human mind is unlimited in its capacity. And I don't think you really sense that, or I don't know if you really appreciate it. Sometimes if you have a vision of the future and it comes true, right?

Or you think, Oh, my mother had a problem today, and she calls you and says, I had a heart attack this afternoon. And you saw it before? Something like that?

Or you have a dream about something happening, and then a year later the exact... I used to dream about my building in New York, where I worked, before I went to work. Before I...

When I was still in the monastery, I used to dream about these certain windows facing Manhattan. I used to dream about them. And then one day we bought a new building, and I stood on my floor, and I looked up and there it was, you know?

And then you feel some kind of feeling that, Oh, maybe I could be more. Maybe my mind could be more, right? So, the current state of our mind, limited to one moment in time, is like that guy put in a box.

It's like that guy locked in a box. You have no idea. But you were born in a box.

And you don't even think you're in a box, you know? But you are capable of observing everything that's going to happen to you in the future. Now, you're capable of sitting down for breakfast and pouring Cheerios out into your bowl and observing what's going to happen in the next two months or the next 300 years, right?

You have... Everybody has this capacity. It's just covered or blocked.

And because of the nature of time and space, time and space are like Neil Young's songs. If you were in the churches last week, right? Time and space themselves are like Neil Young's songs.

How you see Neil Young, how you hear Neil Young depends on how you treat other people, right? The same with space, and the same with time. Neil Young and time itself are no different.

Meaning, right now you perceive time in a certain way. And that's not the only way it is. It's infinitely different ways.

And because of the way you've been treating people, maybe because of the limited way we treat others and the lack of motivation to help many people at the same time, even when we do help others, or even when we do think of others, it's almost never. And then when we do think of them, we don't try very hard. Okay, I could send a couple hundred dollars to Haiti.

Come on, Geshe Michael. We know you can raise $200,000 in a month because you just did it. But that was for yourself, wasn't it?

You see what I mean? If you had the desire to help, your capacity would be unlimited. There's no limit to your capacity.

You just don't want to, because you're more interested in yourself, right? So that karma of that, lack of space in how you help others, is to be stuck in the present moment, in a box, in a little box. And you won't always be there.

There will come a day when you can see directly, 500 years ahead, to a certain day and a certain time, you can see yourself sitting there, and you will know exactly what you're going to be doing 500 years from today. And you see, there will come a time. And that's the normal human state.

That's the normal mental state. We are in a box, you see? We are abnormal.

We're not normal. We are handicapped, somehow. Okay, got it?

So there are certain obstacles that prevent you from seeing the way you can see, if you try. If someone taught you how to see more, you wouldn't be limited anymore to this time, or this place. So those are called shivit.

Those are the second kind of obstacle. And we have them.

[Speaker 2]
Could you sum that up in a few words? Would that be grasping things having a nature of their own?

[Speaker 1]
We're getting there. So, now you have a... What I wanted to do was give you a sense of the second kind of obstacle, right?

It's very beautiful. It's the lock on the box. Okay?

It's the lock on the box. You were born in the box, and you don't belong there. You could easily speak all the languages of the world.

You could easily repeat Einstein's equations, and more. Every mind has this capacity. You just somehow...

It's like someone drugged you since you were born, and you're not seeing things the way you could, or the way that you are. There's something... You've been put in the box, okay?

By these evil wizards.

[Speaker 2]
So, anyway.

[Speaker 1]
So, you get a feeling for the two kinds of obstacles, right? The first one is you're getting upset. Okay?

Or misunderstanding your project. Okay? That's the first one.

And that keeps you from being happy. If you reached Nirvana today, your projects would still screw up. Because that's all the karma.

Got it? But you would be happy all the time. You know, your project would screw up, and you'd look at it and say, Hey, maybe I'll just be nicer to people.

You know, I mean, it would be a reason to be nicer to people. And you wouldn't get worried or hurt or angry or anything, right? Nothing.

So, how does that differ from the box that prevents you from seeing all time and all space right now? Because your mind... Something very important to say.

You have to understand, your mind by nature can see all things. That's the nature of your mind. It's just being...

What do you call that? It's like confined, or there's some kind of artificial lock on it. It's worse than a blinder.

It's like a metal box or something. You know, you're being confined. Confined.

You're confined. By certain forces. And if you remove them, what would your life be like if you knew all the lottery numbers?

I mean, what's...

[Speaker 2]
We'd all go into retreat.

[Speaker 1]
I don't know what you would do. Well, you would help people. But I mean, anyway.

Now, the reason I want to get your... You have the feeling now, right? Of the two obstacles, okay?

You have the feeling of the two obstacles. He says, the first one comes from grasping to Michael where there is no Michael. The second one comes from grasping to things where there are no things.

How does that figure? Do you have any idea? I'm open, okay?

That's what he just said, okay? A lack of complete meditation upon the lack of self to things is the antidote to the obstacles of omniscience. To omniscience, okay?

You are blocked from seeing all things because you misunderstand objects. And you are blocked from achieving happiness because you misunderstand yourself. Does that follow?

How? I'm not quite sure.

[Speaker 2]
The mental afflictions are your feelings in reaction to something because you misunderstand your relationship to them. So that makes sense in terms of the mental afflictions blocking from Nirvana. And then your misunderstanding of the objects from the subject-object point of view is why a lot of omniscience has got to do with knowing all things.

[Speaker 1]
So your misunderstanding of things leads to your inability to see all things. Okay, stop. Stop it right there.

By the way, when they say lack of a self to Michael, they mean that. And they don't mean Michael's arm or Michael's mind, okay? That's a little delicate, okay?

Lack of a self to things also includes my arm and my mind. Lack of a self to a person means specifically lack of Michael who's coming from his old side. Okay, that's delicate.

You have to think about that. When you get enlightened, the way you think about me, Michael, Edward, Matt, the idea you have when I say your name will be completely different. And we are very attached to our names, right?

I mean, somebody... If Michael Rhodes is on a trophy or a certificate, it's a good thing. And if Jessica Cohen is on a certificate, it's okay, I'm happy for you.

But it's not the same, right? To see your name in a newspaper or see your video of your trip to Taiwan, or... This is different from watching someone else's video.

We have a thing about our names, right? We have an attachment to our names. And it radically changes when you see emptiness, okay?

You realize there's some false value to your name that they won't call you Michael after that. It doesn't matter anyway. Even your sweet, dear name won't matter so much, okay?

Alright. So what I mean to say is when they're discussing the two kinds of emptiness and the two kinds of a lack of a self, when they say a lack of a self to a person, take your own name, and you'll be closer to realizing what it means, okay? When they say lack of a self to a person, kansaki damme, atma niryaka, right?

Something like that. Put gala niryaka. Then you will...

Mira will see... Mira will see something about Mira. And Jared will see something about Jared.

It's different for each person. So it's not the person. It's me.

It's not even me, okay? Think your name, okay? Something...

If you can work on your name, if you can crack something about your name, you'll be a happier person. Okay? How do you feel about when someone says your name?

The very deep feeling you have about your name, right? Jack. How do you feel at that moment?

They say Jack. Oh, he said Jack in class. The thing that happens to your heart at that moment is crucial to nirvana.

There's some deep misperception of Jack when I say Jack that's blocking you from nirvana. That's what he said. Got it?

Okay? Got it? That's the crucial one because that's the one you start with.

Right? When you see emptiness directly the first time, it will be the emptiness of Mira or the emptiness of Earl. Okay?

But not of Canada. So what I mean is in your three-year retreat, right? When you have time to meditate, then if you really want to see emptiness, work on...

start from your own name and work on that and chip away at it and see what's going on there. Why do I feel so good when they say Mira is a great Dharma teacher? What is it about the word Mira?

And then work on that and it will take you closer to nirvana and closer to seeing emptiness directly. People always ask me, well, what's the meditation I should do about emptiness? You know, and you can think about the emptiness of the pen or you can think about the emptiness of, I don't know, whatever.

But the big time one is Ava. That's the big one, you know. Work on that one.

And specifically the name. Okay? Very delicate.

Very powerful. Okay. One, two, three.

Dhik chen me Nyo mon pe Sa bun ki Nyan po Dzo pa Gon pa Nyo ya She sung de Say tika. So say tika. Tika.

The part of your tongue that touches the top of your mouth is which part? Say it again. Tika.

What part of your tongue touches the top of your mouth? Tika. Not with a normal person.

It's this part, okay? It's the top of the tip. Okay?

And if you want to say, there's a whole series of dentals or T sounds or D sounds or N sounds in Sanskrit that are retroflex. Meaning you bend the tongue back. And you can read that in a book and you can struggle with it for years.

Or you can just have somebody tell you about the tongue thing. Okay? So, you can say tika.

And the top of the tip of your tongue is touching the top of your mouth. Right behind your teeth. Okay?

Now, try to see if you can touch the underside of the tip of your tongue. Right there. Okay, see?

Right there. See if you can touch that in the same exact spot. Tika.

[Speaker 2]
Tika.

[Speaker 1]
And then you make this weird, like, Naomi's face look like this. A bulldog. You make a bulldog face.

And that's correct.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
So it's easy now. Like, dakini. Dakini.

You know, these words like that. Is it dakini? Anyway, retroflex words like bandita.

Bandita. That's why in India, it sounds a bit like that. Okay?

Alright. So it's a very, very easy way to make the correct sound. So, tika means commentary.

Okay, it's an old word. And the Tibetans didn't translate it. They just called it tika.

Okay, tika. Okay, so tika generally means the big commentary. And this is true because the great commentary.

Caesar what? Yeah. Okay?

But the text says nyomongpa. Say nyomongpa. It doesn't say nyomong.

Okay? So those of you who are getting deep into translation. There's a difference in Tibetan.

Nyomong means negative emotion. Nyomong means a negative emotion. Nyomongpa means that which is involved with negative emotions.

Different thing. Okay? Different thing.

Is this nyomong? Is this nyomong? Is this a mental, is this a negative emotion?

Is this nyomongpa? Got it? Why?

It has been created through my negative emotions. And in fact, I mean if you really want to get fancy. The what do you call it?

The layout, the configuration of your physical body at any given moment is an exact map of your mental state. Okay? Exact.

At least as it was just prior. Right. You have to say that because in our heart we have to say that.

Yeah. Okay? So you know, I tend to get right arm problems.

Or my right shoulder hurts in yoga. Or stuff like that. And that's all related to more anger than desire.

This week. Okay? Alright?

And in fact, you have to, you can observe the state of your mind from the state of your body. Including illnesses, aches and pains, your height, your width, your weight. Everything is a exact reflection of your mental state today.

Okay? Everything. Yeah.

And then if you want to, if you're not going to make it to Meera Shana's talk thing, I mean my talk thing, I would go ahead and tell you how the condition of the road between here and Buhi is determined by the same thing. But I have to say that. Okay.

Then, what is mentally of things having to do with... You see what I mean? You have to say it that way.

If you understand scripture well, you have to say it that way. People say, well, just put mental affliction. And you say, no, that's not correct.

Okay. Yeah. I don't know.

I was afraid you'd ask me that. Dikchen. Sashe Dikchen.

Sashe Dikchen. It's Je Tsongkapa's commentary to the root text on wisdom. Okay.

Okay, here we go. One, two, three. Lobam Sangye Sangkhira Ched Dunde Jalpa Etar Shepa Yinde Jalpa Buddha Palita De We got to go back.

Okay, let's read this together. In the commentary of the Master Buddha Palita on the seventh chapter. Oh, I'm sorry.

Anyway. Buddha Palita says, in his commentary to the seventh chapter of what?

[Speaker 2]
The root text.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, the root text on wisdom by Iron Guardian. He says, you can find in the lower, in the Hinayana scriptures, you can find a correct description of emptiness. Can find.

Okay. But then Master Baba Viveka, who is his sworn enemy, okay, says, no, that's not right. Because if it were the case that emptiness were treated fully in the lower way, there would be no need for the?

Great way. Great way. Got it?

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
If Lord Buddha explained emptiness clearly in the lower way, there would be no reason for him to have talked the great way. Is that true? What would you say in response?

What's your teaching? Yeah, or you could say... Yeah, the other bodhisattva activities are covered.

The other four...

[Speaker 2]
How to remove the obstacles to our missions.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, you could say that too. Okay? Or infinite presentations.

Okay. So, this is Master Baba Viveka, who is the lower half of the middle way school. Okay?

The upper half of the middle way school is our ground rule. It's what's wrong with me. It's what we believe.

Okay? We do accept the teachings of the higher half of the middle way school. But there's a lower half of the middle way school.

The middle way school itself is the highest of four great schools of ancient India. Okay? So, even the highest school has a little bit of lower half, which is not correct.

Okay? And then there's the higher half of the middle way school, which is correct, called Prasangika. Okay?

Where does Tantra fit in? Mine only. Mine only.

Body only. Yeah. Yeah.

The view here in the higher half of the middle way school is shared by the open teachings and the secret teachings. All Tantras are based on the Madhyamika Prasangika view of emptiness. And in the last couple of readings we had, the first pension lama went so far to say, you know, the foundation of Tantra is the perception of emptiness using a state of bliss.

Okay? The foundation of untarnished Tantra is the direct perception of emptiness using bliss. Right?

So then the first pension lama said, well then why do the Tantras only talk about bliss and what is to achieve bliss? Why? Yeah, he said a beautiful thing.

He said, you don't need to improve on art and Tantra. You can go to Tantra. You can go spend 20 years in Tantra.

They don't have presentations, except for Jetsun Kappa. They don't go in very deeply into the... I mean, there's supposed to be bliss and emptiness, right?

But the whole book is about bliss. Why? Because they said, that's enough.

What you're reading here is all you need to practice the only path which can get you enlightened in one lifetime. What you're reading here, as far as emptiness, cannot be improved upon. It is not improved upon in the teachings which get you enlightened in one lifetime.

Alright? So, now, so, that upper half of the Little Way School covers both the open and the secret teachings. And in fact, you can't practice the secret teachings unless you understand them.

Where is the Master Baba Veda sitting here? He's actually, he's a white sheep in his own school. He's, he's in the lower half here.

Slightly wrong. Slightly wrong. Okay?

He's not in Veda, what? It's not Tantra class, okay? It's not Tantra class.

Got it? Okay. Alright.

And historically, what happened? Arunagarjuna wrote his book.

[Speaker 2]
Because he read 8,000 verses.

[Speaker 1]
Which I think it would be fun to study. It's really, really disgusting. I mean, it's not a book like this.

It's like a science fiction, it's like a passageway. And being in the middle, being in the middle, you have, it's woven into him, he's ignorant, okay? So there's a lonely white man and he, he extracted all the philosophy out of the asatra.

Which kind of was a loss in some way. He made it very kind of standard and dry. You know, it was in this long series of amazing Vedas and stories.

You know, weird stuff happened to people. Weird, beautiful things happened to people. People having magical lives.

It's a whole thousand pages of people having magical lives. And then he, he just took out the philosophy. And then Buddha believed in it a lot.

He wrote an explanation of it. So you can put Arunagarjuna around 218 maybe. And you can put Buddha Belita somewhere around, I don't know, 300, 400, we don't know.

And then came Lama Venka and he said Buddha Belita got it wrong. Got it? And then who came?

Master Chandrakirti. He said, no, Lama Venka, Buddha Belita didn't get it wrong. When he was explaining, Arunagarjuna was explaining.

Got it? So you have to feel the lineage. Arunagarjuna took the stuff out of the asatra put it into these little verses, which are sort of asatra.

And then Buddha Belita wrote a sort of a dry commentary on that. And then Lama Venka wrote a really dry commentary on it in two huge volumes explaining why he was wrong. And then Master Chandrakirti came around and said, no, Lama Venka, no.

When you complain about Buddha Belita, he's correct. Got it? So, Buddha Belita said, you do see emptiness taught in the lower way.

And then, what do you think Lama Venka said? Him. He said, I'm having deja vu because this is a lecture I was given by Jeffrey Hopkins in Damsala when I was 20.

And I'm like, Lama Venka, why doesn't he speak English? So anyway, Lama Venka said, no, you're wrong. If the Lord Buddha had taught emptiness in the lower scriptures, then he wouldn't have taught the higher scriptures.

Got it? In this, both of them arguing about the seventh chapter of Ayurveda. Why was that important?

Okay? So, he's been asserting that Buddha Belita responded or Buddha Belita described how in the lower way emptiness was taught. Okay?

He's been talking about that. And then, you know, the guy that debated, the theoretical debater in the book, he says, I don't believe you. I said, okay, well, let's quote him then.

Is that okay? We'll quote him directly. Instead of me explaining to you how Master Buddha Belita did say that the lower way had full teachings on emptiness.

Okay? Instead of me explaining to you, let me just quote Buddha Belita. Okay?

So why did I italicize Buddha Belita? Because that's the name of his commentary. It's like calling, I don't know, Who is that guy?

Who wrote Zoe's Tale? Frank Scalza. You know, this Italian science fiction writer.

It'd be like calling the book Frank Scalza that he wrote. Or something like that. Yeah.

Or Bible. God. It'd like be calling the Bible God.

It'd like be called the Bible God. Okay, you got it. Let's have a snack.

That reminded me. Do you have any snack? Does anybody?

Yeah. There's probably some, there's probably some dry noodles out there. Okay.

One, two, three. Chodam chedam vedho Sheh sum pa la Dam me pa Sheh pa ni Mo ni Ved te dun te Kap ched cha we Dam ni Mo ni ki Tshin re chi Sheh sum be Okay. Does Geshe Michael have a self?

Meaning, is Geshe Michael himself? Yes. No.

You see, so, to you, when you're sitting there, with your students, and you're trying to explain to them the cause of their bad day, you know, why you had a bad day, why you're not happy, you know, why, you want to know why you're not happy? Because you're grasping to a self-nature of the self. You know, and then they're going to look at you like, but, but, what's more correct to say would be, Mira didn't want to know why you got upset today, is that you're not Mira.

I mean, and then it should be that striking? Okay? It should be that, it should be something that the person would say, you're crazy, what are you talking about?

Of course I'm Mira. I have a birth certificate to prove it. You know, like that, okay?

You should be like, it shouldn't make any sense to them. If it makes sense to them, you said it wrong. Got it?

Okay? Cat, the reason you have any hard time today is that you're not cat. Okay?

Got it? And then there's this thing comes up in your heart, and you say, of course I'm cat. Look, I mean, they yell, cat in class, and I stand up, and everyone look, you know, that's me.

I am cat. But then you have to think that the feeling you get from the name cat is mistaken. The thing you think when they say cat.

I don't know about you, when they say Geshe Michael, I think there's this little tiny half-inch thing somewhere deep in my heart. There's a little sign that says Geshe Michael. No, it feels like that.

It feels like that. And, it certainly doesn't feel like it's coming from what I did yesterday. Okay?

Got it? It certainly doesn't feel like it's coming from how I was to other people yesterday. Alright?

Geshe Michael is not a result of how many other people in the yoga class I was thinking about yesterday. I believe that. If you said, Geshe Michael, are you resulting, is Michael a result of how many people you thought about during Darren's yoga class yesterday?

Other people, not yourself. How you were looking and how you were doing. Would you say that's true?

Would you say Geshe Michael is coming from how many other people you thought about in yoga class yesterday? Which wasn't many, right? I was just trying to keep up.

You know? For me. Right?

So, that's what it means to say Geshe Michael is not Michael. Got it? Okay?

So, he's trying to say that here. Gurupalita is trying to say that here. Look, I can go around running around saying you have no self-nature.

Okay? I can go up to Darcy and say, look, guess what? You have no self-nature.

And then she'll say, okay, yeah, I understand. And then, but if I say, Darcy, I understand something. You're not Darcy.

Then things get serious. Then you have this reaction deep down inside. Wait, wait, I have a son in my heart.

It's written, Darcy, that's me. You know? You believe that.

It's not, she's there. And it's not just some thing coming out of my mind, in my head, from how many people did I think about yesterday in yoga class. Got it?

You think that. We believe that. Right?

So he's trying to make it easier for you. He's saying, no self of its own means you don't have any nature of your own. And that's how we, the classical example for things is what?

When you talk about its own nature. Fire. Right?

Is fire hot? Can fire be divorced from its nature? Yes.

No. I don't think so. I mean, if you touched something that looked like fire and it wasn't hot, you wouldn't call it fire.

Right? You'd say, oh this must be a hologram or something. You know what I mean?

I don't think, essential nature means if it didn't have that thing it wouldn't be that thing anymore. Okay? Is fire hot?

Yes. And the guardian said, no. Okay?

It doesn't have a nature. And then you say, you're crazy. Because if fire wasn't hot then it might as well be ice or something.

You know what I mean? What are you saying? And then he's saying, you, get this, okay?

When I say fire doesn't have any nature of its own, what I mean is, you put the heat in the fire. You put the hot in the fire. The hot doesn't belong to the fire and the fire didn't have the hot until you put it there.

And so it's not a nature. It is its nature, but not this. Nature.

Okay, got it? It doesn't belong to the fire. You're putting it there.

Yeah, I think you have a real problem there, right? You have a real problem there. If...

Can that heat be... Can the heat be distinguished from the fire?

[Speaker 2]
Sure, I mean, you're on the other side of a metal wall.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. You see the outline. You see the fire looking shape.

You know? And then you feel its heat. And in my mind, I don't know about you, but when you say the fire is hot, really what's happening in my mind is I have a picture of a flame and I think it possesses hotness.

There's a flame and then hotness is a quality in it. And... which is itself a wrong perception, right?

But anyway, could you divorce the heat from the flame? You could, I mean, but then it would just be a flame and not fire. You see?

If you could take the heat out of flames somehow, that would be a flame in a movie and you go up and touch the screen and it's not hot. That's a flame. That's an image of a flame, but it's not hot.

It's not fire burning. The movie theater is not an image of burning down, right? But does a fire have heat?

[Speaker 2]
Yes.

[Speaker 1]
But when you say hot, it means part of it. It possesses it. And then if you're really deep into Madhyamika, you have to say, yeah, it doesn't have heat because the heat's not in it.

Okay? I think just the word in it would be enough for a lot of all this Madhyamika language. Is heat in the fire?

It is in the fire. Who put it there? Yeah, it's not part of the fire.

Right? In that sense, it's something unsupplied. Right.

That's what I'm trying to say. It's not fire without the heat. That's what I'm saying.

We're getting there. We're getting there. Now, then what they would say is it's not really fire?

[Speaker 2]
No, they would still say it's a fire. Cold fire? No, it's just a fire, but they're just not feeling the heat.

Like Shavrat Nisar in Abednego?

[Speaker 1]
Okay, all right. What he's saying is that you put the heat in the fire and it's not part of the fire. Therefore, it's not part of the fire.

The fire didn't happen and didn't have heat in it. The fire happened and you put the heat in it. Got it?

You put the fire in the fire. So, there's still a dependency. There was a jagged right edge and there's a jagged left edge and you combined them.

You put the fire in the fire. We call it exploring the rock valley. You can keep going down.

Who put the right fire there? Okay? Got it?

And then I think whenever you're hearing a talk like this, you have to stop and say, how is that going to make me happier? Because the point of all this, I think it's really important to stop every five minutes and the whole purpose of what we're doing at Diamond Mountain, the whole purpose for our life is to help people, is to do something for people. So, what does it mean to talk about this?

How am I supposed to do something with that? Because everything we do, you go on a tour, you write a book, you give a talk, you make a poster, it's only to help somebody. It's only for that, right?

That's all it's for. And if you're doing something that's not helping somebody, then there's no point to do it, right? So, I mean, how is the fact that fire doesn't have its own heat, why is that something that could help somebody?

[Speaker 2]
It shows all the pain in your life.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, or it just shows why some people can't appreciate me or you. I mean, it's just that. How you experience anything is coming from you.

That helps, right? You go out of emptiness into dependent origination, you help people. Got it?

Guess what? The last mean person you met was coming from you. Okay?

The last mean person you met wasn't themselves. That's emptiness, okay? You go up to somebody and say, who's the person that irritates you the most in your life?

And they say, Joe Schmo. And you say, guess what? Joe Schmo's not Joe Schmo.

And they say, okay, that's interesting. And then you say, but let me take you one more step. Do you want to know why they're not Joe Schmo?

And they say, why? And you say, because Joe Schmo's coming from you. And they say, and then they say, well, that's interesting.

If the guy who irritates me the most in my life is coming from me, then I can get rid of him. This is useful information. Tell me more.

You see, like, tell me how I can get rid of him. This is useful. This is something I can use.

Does it matter that the guy's not hot? No. Does it matter that Joe Schmo's not Joe Schmo?

Yeah. Why? Because the dependent origination of God is that he's coming from you.

Well, then I can get rid of him. I can fire him from my life. And here I am.

Just tell me how. You know. And then what?

[Speaker 2]
You treat other people better.

[Speaker 1]
Well, then you get this assignment, right? It's a self-assignment. You go from emptiness to dependent origination to a self-assignment.

Got it? To a what? Guess what?

Self-assignment. Homework assignment. One that will do.

You go up to somebody and say, Who's the asshole in your life? They say, Joe Schmo. Do you realize Joe Schmo's not Joe Schmo?

You know. You know, you could say that probably you went to some Buddhism class or something. What's the point?

We say the point is that he's not himself because he's not in himself. What you see is coming from you. The irritating person in your life is coming from you.

So you say, Okay, well, then I'll just decide that he shouldn't exist. And you say, No. That's not really the way you do it.

You have to quit being an asshole to other people. You know? You give them a self-assignment.

What I mean is, if you understand emptiness, if you understand that fire is not hot, then you understand that whatever upsets you is not itself. Then you understand that it's coming from you. And then the next thought in your mind is, Let me serve someone.

Let me take care of someone. Let me make someone happy. Okay?

Then... Then, by the way, was there any mental affliction in there? Did you get upset in there, either?

No. No, you didn't. You see?

Because the more you understand emptiness, the more your mind immediately goes to what good thing can I do to stop this guy. Got it? And then trying to do nice things just makes you happy.

There's no room there for being upset. There's no time in the process.

[Speaker 2]
But what about all our... like our resistance to responsibility, our...

[Speaker 1]
how...

[Speaker 2]
resistance to, you know, responsibility for the fact that Joshua exists, the fact that it doesn't. Does it seem to work immediately? You know, you can work at clearing the karma of something.

And why would that karma that you're doing now go ahead of all the other karmas you've been doing since the beginning of time? So, you know, why is this karma now, this moment, going to be more powerful? So all of those things at least occur in my world.

Yeah. And so there is lots of mental affliction, actually, in that process.

[Speaker 1]
Do you have any happiness in your life? No. Yeah.

Let me say, once in a while, I have happiness. Okay? And I gave you an assignment.

I don't know if you remember. That was a long time ago. Like a week ago.

But it was in your meditation, daily meditation, to do what? Just do a scorecard. How many thoughts about me and how many thoughts about others.

I did it today by accident, you know. I was so overwhelmed with my own self and my own issues that I was like saying, come on, Geshe Michael, isn't there anything else you can think about? And then I was like, oh yeah!

I told people a week ago that they should do this very meditation, you know. Let me think about someone else for two minutes. And I forced the mind over to anybody else.

You know, there's a lot of people here. You know. I have a hundred and fifty friends here.

So I said, at least you can think of one of them. And I'm like, wrestling the mind over here. Just think of Jinmei for two minutes, you know.

Just think about something she might want. And I'm like, Jinmei would probably want, make up this thing she could help you with. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I keep trying to drag him over to somebody else. Anybody else. And he keeps slipping back to himself, you know.

And even under those conditions, with one thought in a thousand, to someone else, honestly, it's that bad. We have some happiness. By dumb luck, because of the one in a thousand, we have some happiness.

What I'm saying is, in answer to your question, right, if you struggle in a meditation, just to think about anybody else, it doesn't matter. When I have a headache, I try to think about somebody else. Because that's the best cure for a headache.

Or, you know, when I'm having a sad day, I try to think about somebody else. Because that's a cure for a sad day. So, even if you can fight him over there for thirty seconds, and then he slides back, like a big rubber band, you know, you double your happiness.

And you notice it. Because now you've thought about two thoughts in a thousand words about somebody else. That's double what you used to do.

And now you do twice as happy. And you'll notice. You'll notice it.

That's what I'm saying. It's noticeable. Five minutes struggling in your mind in the morning to have any concern for anybody else's problems is double what you did before.

And you'll notice it. Right away you'll notice it. So that's all.

It's so easy to improve on nothing. I should put that in a book. No, but I don't mean it in a sarcastic way.

I mean it that the results will be that the level of happiness will double with very minimum effort. Because we don't do anything.

[Speaker 2]
Can I make an example?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, you can. Yeah. All right.

One, two, three. Kha, chi, hi, mo, ko, den, ryu, ke, pe, lu, su, che, ne, den, tong, den, ryu, du, du, ba, dang. Whoa.

Hey, I gotta eat this for a minute. Hang on. Kha, chi, hi, mo, ko, den, ryu, du, ba, dang.

Hmm. Hmm. That's really hard.

Kha, chi, hi, is the easy part. What's that mean? Yeah, somebody says.

Literally it means one month. Buy one month. Okay, meaning some guy comes up and says, Hey, mo, ko, den, ryu, ke, pe, lu, su, che, ne.

Let's say, hmm. Let's start with a mo, ko. What's a mo, ko?

It has two meanings. It's baba in Sanskrit, okay? It's a...

Yeah. It can mean a working thing or a thing in general. Okay, a working thing or a thing in general.

Is a car a mo, ko? Why, in Tibetan? Dunje nyupeye chen.

Who said that? Yeah, okay. Dunje nyupeye chen.

Say, dunje nyupeye chen. Dunje means it does something. Nyupe means it can.

Chen means it does. So, why is a thing... Why is a working thing a thing?

Because it can do something. Is a pen a working thing? Yeah, because you can write with it.

Is a car a working thing? Yes. Yeah.

Sometimes the same word is used for all things. Sometimes anything is called mo, ko. Does the lack of a 218 foot purple elephant in this room...

First of all, is there a lack of a 218 foot purple elephant... Is there a 218 foot purple elephant in this room? No.

Is there a lack of a 218 foot purple elephant in this room?

[Speaker 2]
Perfect lack.

[Speaker 1]
Perfect lack, yeah. Does that lack do? No.

Of course not. Could it inspire a consciousness of it? Can you think of it?

[Speaker 2]
The lack or the thing? The lack. Sure.

No. Then you couldn't have answered me when I asked if it were here or not.

[Speaker 1]
In this room, is there a lack of an 18 foot, 200 foot purple elephant? Yes, but it's not performing a function. I'm proving that it does perform a function.

Just listen. Can you think of it?

[Speaker 2]
Sure, I can imagine.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, I mean, it's not here. You look around and you think. Yeah, there is a lack of a 218 foot purple elephant.

You can think of it, right? Yes. Is it an object of your mind?

Sure. It's a lack. Yeah, okay.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
So is that lack supporting a consciousness of that lack? Sure. Sure.

It's functioning. No, it's not. It's supporting.

Then emptiness is a produced thing. Hm? Yeah.

Then emptiness is a produced thing. Of course. Then emptiness is.

It's performing a function.

[Speaker 2]
Emptiness is not produced.

[Speaker 1]
Has this changed over the course of Bruce's philosophy?

[Speaker 2]
Anyway. Before Bruce, it would change.

[Speaker 1]
Does it change?

[Speaker 2]
No. There's never going to be a two-headed purple elephant in this room. Ever.

Generally, it doesn't change.

[Speaker 1]
I think I can say that. The produced thing is true.

[Speaker 2]
So it does sometimes. Because it's only generally true.

[Speaker 1]
It could. We'll talk about that.

[Speaker 2]
What?

[Speaker 1]
Do I believe what? I just explained why it was. But the book doesn't say so, so we shouldn't believe it.

Right? No, it's not a Ngopo. It's not a Ngopo.

Well, if you want to prove it's not a Ngopo, you could discuss whether it ever changes. Because if it doesn't change, you can't produce an effect. Okay, but that's another story.

I didn't want to go there. Some people are using it as a means of disproving that a thing could exist, could really exist in reality, claim that the lack of reality that things exist in reality. They say...

Okay, we'll do this the last thing, because I think we're supposed to start this thing. Is Geshe Michael's problem real? The problem he had today.

The plan he had, he had a person come from another country, he had this color presentation ready for them, and somebody's Xeroxed it in black and white. He spent a week trying to find these beautiful pictures of Sedona, and then somebody did it in grays, and, you know, so, he was upset. Because the person finally came to him and picked it.

And he spent like three hours online trying to find a really beautiful picture of Sedona. So, was was the problem real? Was it real?

Was the problem real? Was the black and white ugly picture real?

[Speaker 2]
Was it real? You have to ask me what do you mean by real.

[Speaker 1]
I'll tell you what I mean by real. It wasn't mine. I mean, it really was a mistake.

It really wasn't. Somebody really messed up. Somebody else really messed up.

Then it's not real. Okay, good. Got it?

Got it, what he said? If you define real as out there real, then yeah, it's not real. Got it?

Is the fact that it's not real real? No. That should be in itself.

You see? That should be in itself. That should be the one thing that is real.

No, that should be the one thing that is for real. Got it? The fact that the thing is not coming from anybody else, the picture, the black and white picture, is nobody else's fault.

That fact should be real. That fact should be true from its own side. Whether or not Desi like us or not.

You know? Whether or not philosophy, whether or not anybody proves it. That should be...

I mean, that's the only thing we have to aim on here. That has to be real. Right?

That has to be true. Or else life is hopeless. Or else all our pain...

You cannot stop war. You cannot stop pain. If the non-reality of the black and white picture is not real or true, then everything is hopeless.

Then I'll just go through life being disappointed. Even when the black and white picture is everything. That has to be something I can hang on to.

That has to be real. The fact that it's not real has to be real. Got it?

[Speaker 2]
Well, it's a fact. It's a fact. So, yes, it could withstand analysis.

Did the opponent say that?

[Speaker 1]
Well, that's a lazy way. Because the opponent said it is wrong. Now, prove to me that the fact that the black and white picture is not real is not real.

[Speaker 2]
If it was real, everybody would see that.

[Speaker 1]
If his lack of reality were real, everyone could see that. That's OK. He wouldn't get angry or upset or feel disappointed.

But what does he think?

[Speaker 2]
I think it still depends on being perceived that that fact does exist.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, it's still like a Neil Young song. The fact that the black and white picture is not coming from anybody else but me, is still something like a Neil Young song. Meaning what?

Some people will think that's important. And some people will think that's not important. I mean, just for example, some people will say he's a screaming unit.

Some people will say he's the best rock and roll musician ever. You know what I mean? And the same is true of what?

The fact that the black and white picture is not real. So that means the fact that it's not real is also not real. Hey, you blew the last one.

That's all right. You did everything else perfectly. I'm human, believe it or not.

If the fact that the black and white were not real were real, yeah, everyone would perceive it. And no one would ever get upset about it. Got it?

Because they would say, oh, I just have to serve other people better. Maybe somebody wants me to design a color poster for them. And I should do some cheat.

You know, I bring some color to people's walk. Something like that. Okay, got it?

[Speaker 2]
Could you just simply say that the fact that it's not real is also something that's simply depending upon your mind then?

[Speaker 1]
You could say it that way. You could say it that way.

[Speaker 2]
I was reading some sutra and the Lord Buddha was talking about the four truths and he says these things are true whether a Tathagata appears or not.

[Speaker 1]
Later.

[Speaker 2]
Next term.

[Speaker 1]
Okay?

[Speaker 2]
That's kind of where I was going.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. So, here's... Here's...

Yeah, it's good. It's good. Here's where we leave it.

Okay? I call it the barometer. Okay?

I call it the barometer. How do you judge? People always ask me, Geshe-la, you know, I went home, I saw a white light, I felt like I was walking on clouds all day, nothing bothered me for three hours.

Did I see emptiness? And then I say, well, you know, how did you feel like the last time someone criticized you? You know, how did you feel the last time something didn't work out?

How did you feel when someone called you stupid or something you really hoped for to happen didn't happen? How did you feel? And they say, well, I was pretty upset.

You know? That's a barometer that you're not having much understanding of emptiness. Okay?

So, if you want to know if your understanding of emptiness is getting good or if you're getting close to the direct perception of emptiness, you can judge it from your reactions to other people. If you get very upset or if you get thrown off easily by things or easily upset by things or, you know, if you feel sad because things didn't work out for you or something, that's a, that's a, what do you call it when he goes to the natural forest and there's a smoky and he has his finger on the red? What do you call it?

That's a high, high danger. Yeah. High fire danger.

Smokey's there and he's pointing to the grass. So, if you feel, the more you feel sad or disturbed or down or anxious or nervous or upset or all of that, then smoky is pointing to the grass. I mean, that's your indicator of how your understanding of emptiness is going.

And the more you understand emptiness, the more unshakable you would be in the inevitable ups and downs of life. I mean, so far and over. What would be a sign that your yoga practice was going well?

[Speaker 2]
Yes.

[Speaker 1]
Similar, but I think also, more specifically, you would feel, you would feel consistently joyful. If your asana practice was good, if your, so, so it wouldn't be so much whether or not you can do a certain kind of pose. You see what I mean?

That wouldn't be the, the measure of how your asana practice is going. You know, can you touch your toes? Or can you lock your hands around your toes?

That wouldn't be the measure, right, of how well your asana practice was doing. Since the goal of yoga asana is to open the side channels and bring wind into the central channel, then the indicator of how your asana practice is going would be, I mean, how much do you like Dharmamitra out here? If you meet Dharmamitra, he's just consistently kind, happy, modest, you know, humble, thoughtful, soft-spoken.

You know, he's obviously happy. I think the reason he's the only guy in the world who can do this hand-on-headstand is because of his state of mind. He's happy.

And so he's balanced in a way. And I don't think it's so hard for him to get up on his head like that. So, so for your asana practice, the more whole, the more sunshiny, the more kind, the more joyful, the more magical your life is, then your asana is, you're doing your asana right.

Okay? And the measure of your emptiness, these are deto, right? This is bliss and emptiness.

So the measure of your emptiness understanding is, is a direct reception of how, of what it takes to upset you. And the more it takes you to upset you, the better your emptiness understanding. So you can judge for yourself your own asana practice, and you can judge for yourself your own emptiness understanding.

You don't have to ask me, right? If you are pretty much imperturbable. I wouldn't even say that.

I'd say if you feel joyful all the time. Because you know what to do. Right?

The worst thing is when you don't know what to do with your life, right? People are bothering you or you're having some situation. It's not so much the situation that bothers you, it's the fact that you don't know what to do.

If, if you know emptiness, then you don't have that anxious feeling. You don't have that anymore. You just say, okay, well I'll be nicer tomorrow.

Oh gee, that's so hard. Or that's so, you know, everybody likes you when you're nice. So, for emptiness, it's how, what do you call it?

Unshakable, I mean. It's your joy. And then for asana, the bliss side, it's how just sunshiny are you?

You know? Your life. How, how like sunshine is your life?

Okay? Like a clear day with blue sky and sunshine and roses growing. You know?

I mean, how much of your life is like that? And that would mean your asana is going well. Okay?

If you don't do asana, then you don't have to worry about it. Okay. All right.

[Speaker 2]
So, so, so, so, Okay.

[Speaker 1]
So let me just check one thing. mm. Oh, so we're on page 35A.

And the text has 162 pages. We are one-fifth of the way through Umachitin after seven years. So, thirty more years.

Twenty-eight and a half more years. I'm up for it. We'll keep going, okay?

Probably in two weeks somehow. In a schedule that will fit you, okay? You can fly in from Nashville.

Or from... Yeah, well, then we have to start the route test. Which is longer.

Or from Melbourne or wherever you are. But we'll keep going, okay? And we have to.

Yeah. Okay. Good night.