ACI 9

Now bring to mind that being who for you is a manifestation of ultimate love, ultimate compassion, ultimate wisdom, and see them there with you just by way of you thinking of them.

They are gazing at you with their unconditional love for you, smiling at you with their holy great compassion, their wisdom radiating from them, a beautiful golden light encompassing you in its warmth.

And then we hear them say,

Bring to mind someone you know who's hurting in some way.

Feel how much you would like to be able to help them.

Recognize that the worldly ways we try fall short.

Maybe they help, maybe they don't.

But either way, they go on to have some other distress.

How wonderful it will be when we can also help them in some deep and ultimate way, a way through which they will go on to stop their distress forever.

Deep down we know this is possible. Learning about emptiness and karma, we glimpse how it's possible.

And so I invite you to grow that wish into a longing, and that longing into an intention.

And with that strong intention, turn your mind back to your precious holy being.

We know that they know what we need to know, what we need to learn yet, what we need to do yet, to become one who can help this other in this deep and ultimate way.

And so we ask them, please, please teach us that.

And they're so happy that we've asked. Of course they agree.

Our gratitude arises. We want to offer them something exquisite.

And so we think of the perfect world they are teaching us how to create.

We imagine we can hold it in our hands and we offer it to them, following it with our promise to practice what they teach us, using our refuge prayer to make our promise.

Here is the great earth,

filled with fragrant incense and covered with a blanket of flowers,

the great mountain, four lands,

wearing the jewel of the sun and the moon.

In my mind, I make them the paradise of a Buddha

and offer it all to you.

By this deed, may every living being experience the pure world.

Idam guru ratnamandalakam niryatayami

I go for refuge until I am enlightened

to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest community.

Through the merit that I do in sharing this class and the rest

May we reach Buddhahood for the sake of every living being.

I go for refuge until I am enlightened

to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest community.

Through the merit that I do in sharing this class and the rest

May we reach Buddhahood to the benefit of every existing being.

I go for refuge until I am enlightened

to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the highest community.

Through the merit that I do in sharing this class and the rest

May all beings reach their total awakening for the benefit of every single other.

(8:15) Okay. So we have one new face here with us. Olesya, welcome. Everybody else knows each other. I hope they will all help you feel welcome. And they'll fill you in on how things go.

Course Introduction

Let's jump right in, please. We are starting Course 9, halfway through the 18 foundational courses. Like, really extraordinary.

Course 9 is the ethical life.

Recognize why we're studying the ethical life at this point.

We just finished learning about the realms of existence. All those beings with all that awful suffering. It was an awful class, I admit.

And then we capped it off with digging into the realization of our own impermanence.

My death is certain.

The time of my death is uncertain.

And when I die, nothing but my Dharma practice can help me.

So, he next question would be, how does my Dharma practice help me?

Our Dharma practice is our study of emptiness and karma.

And as we‘ve learned, there's no point studying emptiness unless we by it understand karma better. And there's really not much point in studying karma if we don't understand it from the principle of no self-nature of things.

When you combine those two, you have that wisdom that can motivate ourselves to choose our behaviors in a way that will plant the seeds in our minds for results that keep us moving along the path to the end of all suffering for everybody.

So we got to Course 8 studying all that suffering because we had studied the Bodhisattva Vows. And the Bodhisattva Vows says, I'm going to make this pledge to avoid these behaviors, do these behaviors in order to become one who can help all beings stop their suffering.

And we got to there because we had studied the Diamond Cutter Sutra.

What's a Bodhisattva to do? A Bodhisattva is to bring every existing being to their freedom from suffering. Total Nirvana, they say.

So we were studying Middle Way where we've made this pledge to help all sentient beings. So we go, well, who are all sentient beings?

Just all humans? No humans and animals.

Yeah, but there's beings beyond that and they're suffering big time.

And then egads, I could become one of them. If I die with karmic seeds, they could be the cause of any of them if that seed ripens me into my next rebirth.

So that's where we are now.

Is like, what do we need to know about behavior in order to close those doors to a lower rebirth, open the doors to a rebirth that will keep us on our path and even prepare us for Diamond Way, where we can make that transformation before our time runs out in this one.

(…) (Some organizing translation in Zoom)

Ethics to Reach Nirvana and End Samsara

(16:00) So the moral to the story is we are studying ethics and ethical life, not just as some random topic, but is the next thing we need to know. Next thing we need to know more about once we have this sense that ‘when I die, nothing but my Dharma practice can help me‘.

So Geshe-la started his class with, what's the purpose of studying ethics?

And the reason to do so, of course, is to reach nirvana or higher.

It's really the only reason we would do a class like this is if we had become aware enough of the stressors of life that we had gotten fed up with them.

Like up until this point, we've experienced the stressors of life, I mean, in past lifetimes, and just were still in the mindset of, well, you can't do anything about it.

And so we didn't make sufficient efforts to learn what we would need to learn, to take up what we would need to take up and to give up what we would need to give up.

And so here we are again. We did enough goodness to get a human life. Hooray for that. Big rejoicing. Whatever we did to get human life, had to do with sharing things, I understand.

So we study ethics in order to reach nirvana.

But if we were to ask people, what is this thing, nirvana? We would get a different answer from everybody unless they've studied the ACI. In which case you'd get this canned answer. And to the extent the person understands what they mean by it would take some digging.

We could just say nirvana is escaping from samsara. And if we just defined it like that, we would then have to ask, so what is this thing samsara?

Is it a place, a physical place? Tucson in mid-June, 105 degrees day after day after day?

No, because I like it. But not everybody does.

Is samsara only a state of mind?

You could say, but it isn't. It is a place. We are in samsara.

To escape from samsara, though, is not like getting just the right tool that you can cut the bars of the jail cell and jump out. It's not like that. In that way, it's not a place.

To escape samsara is to stop this condition of having thoughts, reactions that lead to some kind of distress, gross or subtle. So really, samsara is the state of being not totally peaceful all the time.

And yet, to say it like that, it's like, I don't know that I've ever been totally peaceful at all. So I don't really know what it would be like to be free of samsara. And how can I create something if I don't know what I'm creating?

Although, technically, we don't ever know what we're creating. So it's not going to be a problem to create nirvana without knowing exactly what it's like, because imprints grow. Thank goodness for that.

So the state of samsara is a state of suffering, obvious or subtle.

And suffering is a big word. If we were to use the term suffering out in public, what does Geshe-la say, like waitress talk? People don't go, oh, I'm suffering so much today. They say, I had such an awful day. I'm so upset. They did that to me. You know the story of what we do. We don't use the word suffering except in Buddhist groups.

And we know what we're talking about, suffering. But it sounds so dramatic. When we have our Dharma hat on, suffering, suffering. But while you're going through your day, are you, oh, woe is me, I'm suffering so bad.

No, we're just going through life with our struggles. So maybe struggling is as good a word or stressing out about something. Find a word that you relate to that still motivates you. But if suffering just feels too intellectual to relate to, find some way of holding your mind on. Like the state of mind that I have, it's just a pain in the butt.

I want it to be loving. And it's not right now, like that.

So this state of mind nirvana is this peaceful, undisturbed, quality of existing, no matter what's going on around you, no matter what's happening to you.

Can we even imagine having this peaceful understanding state of mind as the boss is yelling at you again, blaming you for that thing again. And just it doesn't rock your boat.

It's hard to even conceive of that. But nirvana is the state of mind where you cannot have a mental affliction. You can't have an upset reaction to anything.

Not because your willpower is so strong. I am not going to get upset. I don't care.

That's being upset.

It's that there are no more of those seeds to ripen, an anything but peaceful state of mind. Samsara is the state of not being that. So even the most amazing human life is still samsaric when there's anything that can rock our boat in the slightest way.

So samsara has two aspects to it, the physical aspect and the mental aspect, which itself has a couple of different aspects of the aspect.

The physical aspect of our samsara is our physical body, which when we're first studying about physical bodies, we mean this one. But as we're growing our understanding of common emptiness, we're realizing that our physical body extends to other physical things as well.

(Wait, wait, where did that come from? Go away. Bing is taking over my computer. Go, go away. The computer has a demon in it.)

So the samsara of our physical body is the fact that the seeds that have caused our physical body are seeds that are stained with misunderstanding and selfishness. And so the body that we have as a result of those seeds must also be stained, which means it also is a suffering and that body is therefore going to wear out.

So the samsara of our body is that it's going to come to an end.

It may come to an end before it degenerates.

It may degenerate and then come to an end.

It may degenerate and may end and then degenerate.

Either way, it's going to end because it's causes end. Because they were made ignorantly.

Kind of implies that we could make seeds for a physical body that doesn't end, a physical body that's pure. Would it look like this one? Probably not.

This very physical body will kill itself if something else doesn't. We talked about that last course.

Then the aspect of samsara that's mental is our mind, our awareness. Our awareness includes our intellect. It includes our thinking, our thoughts. It includes our awarenesses.

The mental is the mental functions and the awareness is the vehicle within which those mental functions happen.

So in our present condition of samsaric minds, those ripenings in that mind have also all been made ignorantly, mistakenly. So all the ripenings that pop up in that mind are stained, mistaken and so suffering.

It's suffering to have an experience that's stained with ignorance.

Then that ripening that's stained with ignorance impels us to think, do or say something in response that's also stained with ignorance and selfishness.

So our next action is stained again and so it goes.

So this human mind is particularly stained with the inability to be satisfied.

So our constant motivation is to get what we want and we believe that when we get what we want, we'll be happy. But then we get what we want and either it doesn't bring us the happiness that we anticipated it would or it does but then before too long, we're dissatisfied again.

So the thing ends up betraying us in some way.

That's driven by the misunderstanding within which we made the mental seeds that through which we were able to get the thing or not, through which we were able to keep the thing or not and because all of those seeds are still stained with the misunderstanding of what we do to get what we want and to avoid what we don't want, thinking that those things work to get what we want and avoid what we don't want.

That misthinking makes it such that the very thing that we get can't make us happy because it's procured in a stained way.

And yet our very impulse for existence is to be happy. There's nothing wrong with that. That should continue to motivate us

Samsara is the fact that within samsara, that happiness that we want is impossible.

The happiness we want is not impossible. It's impossible within samsara.

But wait, samsara is not a place. So how do we get out of a place that's not a place?

How do we change our mind from a stained mind to a pure mind if everything we do is impure?

It seems like we are stuck in samsara.

Another part of samsara is the fact that we cannot truly rely upon anything.

Geshe-la used the word trust. We can't trust anything. But not in the sense of they're out to get you. You can't trust anybody to not be out to get you. It's not about that.

It's that we can't rely on anything or anybody to bring us the happiness that we want.

There isn't anybody that you can go to and beg enough to make you happy who can finally say, oh, okay.

Because if they could, it would be a Buddha who could do that. A being who is themselves made of ultimate love, ultimate compassion, ultimate wisdom. If they could give us that ultimate happiness that we want, we wouldn't even have to ask for it.

The instant somebody becomes Buddha, boom, they would do it for everybody in their world. All you'd have to do would be be a being in another being's world, and that being reaches Buddhahood. And ta-da, you're done.

It's like either there's no such thing as a Buddha or they can't do that.

Because I'm still suffering. I have joint pain. I get headaches. So I guess it can't work.

So what's the point of becoming Buddha if you can't reach into somebody else's heart and take away their suffering? What's the point?

Your love, your compassion, through your wisdom, you will be what they need. And they will wake themselves up. They will make the changes.

How fast, how long, long story. Doesn't have to be so long, but can be.

Three times,three great eons work, ouch.

So this factor of you can't trust anything, you can't rely on anything, it means we're not in control of anything. We think we are.

I have car keys. I have a car. I can start my car and drive David and I to go have lunch with friends. We did it today. It worked. Got us home. Got us there. Got us home.

It seemed like I was in control of where we went, how long it took to get there. I was in control.

But was I? No, of course not.

Because it was not a given that we would get home. It was not a given that the direction I chose to go would get us home. None of it's a given.

So when things do work in the way that we think, it's actually perpetuating our suffering.

You put the key, you turn it, the car starts. See? Keys start cars. And only once every now and then, every three, four, five years, you put the key in the car, you turn it, it doesn't start. And you go, oh, man, now I'm going to be late.

But all the other times that the key seemed to start the car, it reinforced my misunderstanding that I was under some kind of control and I could start that car anytime I wanted as long as I had the key.

And what's really happening, my karmic seeds for getting people someplace are ripening for all the factors in being able to get somebody someplace were ripening to help me do that. And I used them up, although technically I was taking somebody else with me. So I planted new ones. Thank goodness.

But my point is, every time it works, every time what we do seems to work to get what we want, we are perpetuating samsara because we continue to believe that what I do now brings what comes next. And it doesn't. That's what's so hard. Seeds ripening starts. Seeds ripening makes turning the key start the car, not turning the key.

And it's so difficult to function at that level when we're out in what seems to be such a real world. And that real world then is samsara being perpetuated by the belief that we have some kind of control over things when in fact we don't.

But then as we start to glimpse this uncertainty, it increases our suffering at first. Because if you didn't know, you have an appointment with the doctor at 11 o'clock, you know it's going to take 30 minutes to get there, so you give yourself 45 minutes to get there so you're not late. And what if you were like, I don't really know if I'm going to get my car started? Like the anxiety level would go up, wouldn't it?

Maybe I better go try an hour before, just in case I have to take the bus. Maybe..

The anxiety would get worse if we're living in this uncertainty. If we didn't understand that in that uncertainty is this potentiality to be anything.

And yet until we're at the place where that potentiality is a positive thing versus a scary thing, it's not so helpful to bring it up in our moment-to-moment life.

But imagine if you were at that place with your seed planting, where you had done all the work necessary, the purify and make merit work necessary, that your state of karmic seeds is that none of the ones that are still stained with ignorance and selfishness have enough power to ripen anymore. That everything that does ripen is ripening from wisdom. Then your perception of your you is such that it doesn't matter what happens to you, you don't have the seeds to be upset by it.

You know exactly how to respond. You will respond in this way. Whatever the unpleasantness is, you're very keenly aware that it's going to ripen and pass. And there's no need to be upset. There's no need to protect yourself. There's no need…

You remember the king of Kalinka in Diamond Cutter Sutra? Terrible experience that he's having. And he just loved the king all the more. And then the end of the story, all his cut up parts, right? They jump up and reattach.

So come on, in our real world, that doesn't happen. In our samsaric real world, you're right, it doesn't happen. But that was a nirvana world being. Nirvana doesn't mean bad stuff won't happen. It means your state of mind won't be upset no matter what happens. Do you see the difference?

So nirvana is still a state where seeds are ripening and seeds are being planted. The quality of the ripening and the planting is so different that we can barely even conceive of what it would be like to have a mind that cannot be rocked from its peacefulness, right? Just mellow and chill. Not that you couldn't be having a good time somewhere. Of course you will. But nothing can upset you because you don't have the seeds for being upset anymore.

Does it even seem possible? Hopefully.

Yes, Luisa.

(Luisa 43:23) Lama, two things that are a bit confusing for me on this. So the first one is, since we are in samsara and nothing works in samsara, so it's a mistake to strive for some kind of happiness in this life, at least in this way we are now. But then, what is the sense? I don't know how to say this. Should we always be neutral? For example, if I hug my best friend and then I feel happy because I feel connected to the person and the memories, but I know it's not coming from that hug, so it's kind of...

I don't know how to explain it. It gives a feeling of disconnection or a feeling of, like, what are we doing here?

Then we cannot trust what we are feeling at the moment because it's not coming from the moment.

(Lama Sarahni) Correct. But the feeling is there.

(Luisa) But we cannot strive to happiness because it makes no sense in this samsaric world because nothing is working. So it's a bit depressing.

(Lama Sarahni) Well, it could be. And as you continue to think it through, it also is the doorway to actually being happy regardless because nothing we do works anyway. Now you know it. So we stop expecting anything to make me happy so I can just be happy on my own. And just try to share a little happiness with somebody else, knowing full well that whether they get happy from it or not is totally up to them.

But just my trying is enough to grow the seeds for my own having some happiness response, apparent happiness response to what I'm experiencing.

(Luisa) But that means if I feel happy because, I don't know, I see my daughter doing something, let's say, and then I know it's not coming from that...

(Lama Sarahni) But you share a feeling of happiness anyway because it's come up from something. And so you share it. And that makes more of it.

(Luisa) But then what for to have close friends, and father and mother and husband and wife or whatever when at the end I could go and hug the stranger at the corner if this... I don't know.

(Lama Sarahni) You could.

(Lusa) But you're saying it's wrong to have this expectation or wrong in the sense of it's damaging to have this expectation that in samsara you could strive for happiness because it's not possible. The only way to be happy is when we are Buddhas then. Then we would be happy. But now it's just...

(Lama Sarahni) Nirvana. You'll be peaceful. You'll be happy in nirvana. Yeah, but you have to make it. It's not like you get to nirvana and then you're happy. You clean out the belief that they make me happy with every happiness.

Oh, this happiness is because I helped somebody else be happy at some point. It's ripening as my daughter looking like making me happy. So the appearance is happening. It's just your happiness is not really coming from her. It's coming from you having made somebody else happy. So your effort to help others be happy is the source of your happiness wherever it appears to be coming from.

So there's every reason to try to help others be happy because nothing works.

(Luisa) Thank you Lama.

(Lama Sarahni) Tom, is it a short one? Where are you?

(Tom) I can wait for the break if that's better.

(Lama Sarahni) Okay, thanks. I'd appreciate it. Don't let us forget.

The 3 Baskets: Wisdom, Concentration, and Ethics

(48:29) Okay, so all of that was supposed to help motivate us in our wanting to understand more about our choices of behavior.

Like if turning the key doesn't really start the car, what is it that makes turning the key appear to start the car?

What is it that makes Luisa's daughter doing something appear to make Luisa happy?

And we want to know about how we do that so that Luisa's daughter can make Luisa happy all the time, even though she has nothing to do with it. Really.

Okay, so we need some vocabulary. Okay, so nirvana, samsara, we've talked about. These three: SHERAB, TINGENDZIN and TSULTRIM.

To be able to deeply understand how it's necessary, how certain behavior, I don't know how to say this, how understanding that Luisa's daughter is not the source of that in the moment happiness. She's the apparent reason for the happiness.

To understand how to use that to be able to perpetuate it requires that we grow our wisdom of profound dependence. This thing we call the marriage of karma and emptiness.

SHERAB is the term for wisdom. Wisdom referring to the direct perception of ultimate reality, the direct perception of emptiness.

Once we've had that experience for the first time, your mind's first time, you then have wisdom. You have a truth. You know something from direct experience that previous to that direct experience you intellectually understood, but it wasn't a reality from personal experience yet. That experience of that reality reveals the reality of how our response to things makes the causes and our experiences of things are the results of those causes. And how that process is the process through which we perpetuate existence, whether it's suffering existence or free from suffering existence.

So we need this experience, SHERAB. We need that quality of mind.

To have it once is not enough. We will experience it multiple times in the course of our transformation. But it's the first time that makes this whopping change in our seed planting because of the effect that experience has on all of our seeds that make us up at the time that that happened.

So this experience of the direct perception of emptiness is a portal to the end of all suffering, our own and everyone's.

We can't just wish it to happen. We can't just imagine it to happen, although imagining it helps it to happen. We need to cultivate it.

And that experience can only happen in a state of deep single-pointed concentration, a concentration level where our awareness is beyond our sensory input, even in a way beyond our automatic intellectual reactions.

We can still guide and direct our meditation at this level of meditation necessary to see emptiness directly, but we will be doing so in this single-pointed quality of mind that is free of the dullness that would block the emptiness directly and free of the agitation that blocks that ultimate reality.

So we need to have a quality of mental concentration in meditation that allows us to be at the platform of withdrawal of mind, such that when we turn our meditative mind onto the true nature of our object, it can penetrate to this absence of self-nature.

It takes a real deep quality of concentration to be able to hold the mind still, free of dullness, free of agitation, on an absence, particularly on the absence of one's self, which is a scary thing, if you're not sure about it.

So we need TINGENDZIN, the ability to turn on single-pointed concentration, turn it on and off at will.

These two factors, the ability to turn on our single-pointed concentration in meditation and the ability to grow our understanding of emptiness intellectually into an actual SHERAB, a direct perception that we are now out of. So we have this quality of mind, SHERAB.

Those two factors will be really, really pleasant events, pleasant circumstances. So those pleasant circumstances can only come about as a result of some extraordinary kindnesses that have accumulated and are then ripening as our ability to reach this platform of meditation and this growing intellectual understanding of emptiness that can grow into our direct perception. Those two will be results of extraordinary goodness.

What kind of goodness?

The goodness we grow in our study and practice of TSULTRIM.

TSULTRIM means morality.

So we have wisdom, meditative concentration, and morality. And when these three are worked with, with a motivation to be able to reach our own total enlightenment in order to help everyone stop their suffering forever, that when we study wisdom, work on our meditative concentration, and learn and practice our morality—these three practices become the extraordinary trainings of SHERAB, TINGENDZIN, and TSULTRIM.

So the extraordinary trainings are called the Three Baskets, the Tripitaka.

Tripitaka, it means the Three Baskets. It's Sanskrit. Tripitaka is the Sanskrit. The Three Baskets. The Three Extraordinary Trainings.

We can train in Sherab, Tingenzin, and Tsultrim just to learn them.

We can train in them, probably we can train in them to close the door to lesser rebirth. But when we are training in them with Bodhicitta, that's what makes them extraordinary.

When we're training with them in extraordinary, the seeds we plant as we are doing them are different than doing the same tasks with a mind that's motivated to close the doors to lesser rebirth, or the mind that's motivated to reach our own Nirvana.

The motivation with which we do our deeds influence the seed that's planted. It's the same behavior.

So the Extraordinary Training of Tingendzin is helping us create the seeds through which the mind can become like that still lake that can perfectly reflect our object.

Like the full moon reflecting in the lake.

If the lake is perfectly still, the full moon, like you can see all the details of the moon in the lake.

But if there's the slightest breeze, the slightest ripple on the lake, then the moon gets all distorted. And you can still say, oh, there's the moon shining in the lake. But it's just wobbly, it's not like the one in the sky, which is still.

So in the Tingendzin quality of meditating mind, we have this mind that is single pointed focus on its object, free of the ripply lake of agitation, and free of being too drowsy, too sleepy, to pay attention to the details in the moon.

So the object itself may be doing stuff. We are single pointed on it, no matter what, without these two distractions.

The Tsultrim aspect is in order to get to a mind that is that still, we need a mind that's very clean, very pure. In the analogy of the lake with the moon, if you have debris floating around inside the lake, or you've got fish or turtles swimming around underneath, their movements are going to ripple the effect of the lake.

So anything other than this peaceful lake that's in the lake is going to interfere with the ability for the moon to shine so completely.

The turtle, the fish, the debris, that all represents our misunderstanding and selfishness, and all the negative seeds that we have in our minds as a result.

So if we are a samsaric being, and we're having trouble concentrating, when we want to, don't beat yourself up. Just work with our purification and gathering goodness to change the seeds.

A mind that's worked up about whether I get what I want or I don't, isn't going to meditate. It's not a willpower thing. And it's not really even a training thing.

It's a karmic management thing.

And so Tsultrim, the study and practice of morality, becomes the keystone of growing both other baskets, our ability to get single-pointed concentration enough to get Sherab.

They are all based on Tsultrim: gathering the goodness in our minds, clean, pure goodness that allows the mind to get still, that allows the mind to reveal the empty nature of its meditating object.

(66:54) We could theoretically meditate for years and not make much progress if we didn't get properly trained in the factors that we need to understand in order to ripen the seeds for a good meditation.

And then even if we studied those factors but we did not apply them well, we could still meditate and not make progress.

So we learn the factors and then it's our own personal task to try them on for size, to put them into practice and use them.

That's what this class is about, is helping us dig into morality, the ethical way of life, so that we can have more tools to make our own personal choices about how to respond in our different circumstances of daily life in ways that will burn off the seeds that are preventing our deep meditation and plant seeds that will help cultivate our deep meditation so that we can reach that Sherab before we lose the opportunity.

Okay, let's take a break.

Ethics/Discipline

(69:25) So we understand that the relationship between what we do in the moment and what we get next is so subtle that we can't actually see the real cause and effect relationship that's happening. We fall for it time and time again, that I click the pen, the tip comes out, I put it against my hand and I can write something with it. Did it? Yes.

I think that all that action made this show up on my palm.

But technically, the real cause of all of that was something that I did in the past, that if this was a good thing, what I did in the past was somehow helpful. And if this was a bad thing, an unpleasant thing, then what I did in the past that created this was an unkind thing.

The specifics of what unkindness or kindness only can be perceived by omniscience. We can get the general principle well enough to work with it. But the actual details.

Sarahni, do you remember in like October 3rd, the year 712, you were doing that kind thing for that one person, but you inadvertently stepped on that other person's foot. That's what caused the fact that it hurt your palm a little bit when you were making that drawing to demonstrate. It's like, really?

And I don't know, that doesn't seem so pertinent to life, except that if we were keenly aware of our kindnesses and unkindnesses, with this keen awareness of how it's going to be my experience in the future, we would tiptoe around others in our behavior, in the sense of being so careful not to harm physically, not to cause any distress emotionally or mentally.

And it seems like impossible.

What about me? Says our ignorant mind. What about me?

And there is the rub.

We can't put this concern for protecting other so high on our list with a still ignorant mind, a mind that still believes that my happiness and their happiness are somehow separate things.

So, because those details of karma are deeply hidden reality, only omniscient being can perceive them. Our Buddha, Buddha Shakyamuni, he spent half of his time teaching about ethics, about morality, because morality is about all these obvious and subtle ways to be less harmful and more helpful in ways that we might not even think of as samsaric beings. More and more subtle ways.

There is this topic then.

In Tibetan, it's DULWA. Sanskrit is Vinaya. Vinaya means ethics or discipline.

DULWA is the term that is used in Tibetan to tame a wild horse, like a wild animal of any that could be domesticated. There's a process you would have to go through to get that animal to cooperate with you instead of just go off and do its own thing.

So Tibetans translate Vinaya as DULWA.

And the wild horse to be tamed is called DULJA, which is the student, right? The me, the disciple is DULJA, the wild horse to be tamed.

A wild horse knows its own mind, right? Particularly the head of the herd, right? The stallion. Stallion's got to protect his herd. He's got like three things on his mind: Food, protect the herd, and sex, procreate. And if anybody or anything gets in the way of those three things, watch out.

And our belief in our own self-existence—me independent of other things, in particular me independent of my karmic seeds ripening—that me just wants what it wants. And it wants to avoid what it doesn't want.

And deep, deep down, other things get in the way. They are the source of my happiness and the source of my upset.

And so I blame them for everything.

I blame them for my happiness, in which case I want more of them, and they need to be mine, all mine.

And if I blame them for my unhappiness, then you stay away from me, right?

And all of that leads to all the kinds of behaviors that makes a samsaric being in a samsaric world.

I'm willing to do things to get what I want and avoid what I don't want to satisfy my needs.

And at a really ugly level, it's really gross. And none of us are like that. We all have consideration for others. We all are already kind people.

And yet, when we check in with me and my world, are we relating to ourselves as me and my karma, me and my seeds ripening?

Or are we still relating to our world as me and you?

If you are my seeds ripening, it changes our relationship a bit.

Maybe you're not aware of it, but my own mind is watching. And if it's aware that I am interacting with others with this understanding of they are all manifestations of me, that's where that exchanging self and others helps our practice grow.

Different class, different story.

So our resistance to living with this wholehearted, overwhelming concern for the other at our own expense is blocked by the wild horse of our belief in a me that exists independent of my karmic seeds.

A me that's the one who is a me.

So Dulwa, or the Dulja, is training to tame themselves. The teacher shares with us how to do it, but we need to do it ourselves. I don't think there's any wild horse in the world that's tamed itself. Because why would you?

Unless you have this glimpse that our behavior as a wild horse is a dead end, and it's just going to lead to more and more suffering.

And then at some point, we get a level of renunciation that says, you know, there's got to be an answer here. There has to be somebody who knows.

For this group, our seeds ripened, we heard the pen thing, and our seeds ripened to hear it as something extraordinarily profound. There's nothing in it from it that's extraordinarily profound because other people can hear it and they go, yeah, duh, and it doesn't affect them.

So it's a sign of our own past study, practice, that to hear an explanation of things are unique to the observer and have that crack something open in our heart is extraordinary goodness that we want to ride.

So that goodness was a result of some good seeds planted in the past, and we want to be able to perpetuate that.

So our study of Vinaya is our study of what do I need to do to tame this thing, my wild horse, my selfishness and my ignorance. Those two go together.

We would not be selfish if we didn't misunderstand our true nature. All right.

Definition of Discipline

(81:32) So we'll be studying from someone named Ngulchu Dharma Bhadra.

He's often called Lama Quicksilver. He's a big Lama in our Vajragini tradition, so you'll go on to hear more about him. He's a Tibetan from the 1700s.

We'll have his dates later.

Ngulchu Dharma Bhadra says of Vinaya,

We call Vinaya Vinaya, because the subject matter of the scriptures on discipline, which is the seven rules and all their friends, functions to discipline the mental afflictions and also functions to discipline the sense organs.

So I'm going to say it a couple of times because it's on your homework.

We call discipline, discipline, because the subject matter of the scriptures on discipline, which is the seven rules and all their friends, functions to discipline the mental afflictions and also functions to discipline the sense organs.

He's describing discipline. They don't call it a definition of discipline, thank goodness, because he used the word discipline five times in his explanation of discipline. Like I learned that that's illegal. You can't use the word in your description of the word, but let me say it one more time so you have it.

So what is it we're taming?

We're taming our mental afflictions and our sense organs.

Mental afflictions, NYOMONG in Tibetan, Klesha in Sanskrit.

We hear the word klesha used more frequently, I think.

Buddha taught that we have 84,000 varieties of non-virtuous deeds of body, speech, and mind that we use, that we do as samsaric beings.

To make it easier on us, he boiled them down to 10 main ones.

And out of these 10 main ones, subtleties of them make up all the rest of the 84,990.

So if we know the 10, and we're careful about the 10 in that onion skin theory, if you avoid the outermost, you're never going to get to the innermost.

So we've studied those 10 non-virtues. There are three of body, four of speech, three of mind.

The three of body are

killing any creature,
stealing anything of value,
sexual misconduct, primarily adultery.

The four of speech are

lying,
divisive speech, meaning alienating people from each other with your speech.
Harsh words, something that hurts, and
idle speech, useless, unnecessary.

And the three of mind, which technically the first one is

craving. As we understand it more deeply, it's being unhappy when other people get some kind of success or happiness.
ill will, being happy with someone else's distress of some kind.
wrong view. That has many levels. At the surface level, it's not believing in past and future lives and not believing in Buddhahood, which means karma can't be true. So not believing in karma, not understanding karma. Karma isn't really about belief or not. It's about understanding.

(88:12) So in his description, we call discipline, discipline because the scriptures talk about the seven and their friends.

It's talking about the 10 non-virtues, first seven.

The three of body and three of speech. Sorry, four of speech.

The three of mind are addressed in the bodhisattva vows and above.

We first need to train ourselves in the morality of our physical actions and our speech. And of course, our mental actions we're still working with.

But the topic of Vinaya is addressing our reactions to our physical world and how we react through our speech to that physical world.

So the seven is the seven non-virtues, not the last three.

Their friends are all the subtleties of not so kind behavior that we do as a result of those seven. All of those behaviors are driven by mental afflictions and plant seeds for more mental afflictions. So in these 10 non-virtues, we learned before that the reason they're considered non-virtues is not because of something unique to each of them, in them, from them. They are non-virtues because when they come back to us, they are extraordinarily painful.

To take a life means our life will get taken.
To steal something means we will be stolen from. We won't be able to get our needs met. We'll be a poor person forever.
To sexual misconduct means we and others in our life will be unreliable.
To lie, giving a false impression, a misimpression, means we won't be able to trust what other people say. We won't even trust what we say.
Divisive speech, we won't be able to get the help we need.
Harsh words, sounds will be painful. Experiences will be painful because we spoke harshly.
Useless speech, all kinds of useless stuff going on in our world.

So it's by way of how those behaviors come back to us that establishes them as non-virtues.

We will only react when we have a mental affliction about a situation, the mental affliction colors our choice of behavior according to our habit.

So when somebody is yelling at us, if our habit in this life grew into you just yell back louder. And it seemed to work to get them to stop yelling, then that mental affliction comes up when we're being yelled at and our natural reaction is to yell back.

Maybe somebody else, the reaction was to cry, and that seemed to get a response. Then when you get yelled at, your natural reaction is to cry.

But our natural reaction is colored by the misunderstanding.

So whether it works or doesn't work, ultimately, it's not going to break the cycle until we go outside that particular experience and stop planting the seed for that experience to happen again towards other people.

We've learned that.

So Vinaya is about the specifics of Buddha's teachings about how to train our habitual blaming the others for what's happening to me.

And it starts on the level of being able to tame our sense organs and their attraction to things that seem to be attractive.

We see something, it triggers a response. Our response has the ripening, Oh, I like, I want, I'll grasp, I'll do to get and keep.

It's all on this automatic pilot.

If the sense objects never saw the donut in the window, you would never have gone inside and bought the last donut so that the old lady couldn't get her maple covered donut. I mean, silly example. If we never saw the thing, if we never heard the boss yelling, we wouldn't be upset with the boss.

It's such a baby level. You can't avoid life.

So the tame our sense organs is it does start with reduce your exposure to things that make you want or make you want to avoid. Reduce your exposure while you work on your responses to those mental afflictions that come up.

But in the long run, you can't just keep avoiding, right? They're going to show up again.

And so what we're training ourselves to do is to recognize how the information that we get from the sensory organs triggers this process of recognition. Then I want, and then I act to give us the time to choose how we're going to act.

Maybe you eventually see that donut. You want the donut. You go in, you buy the donut, and you take it out to the nearest homeless person and give it to them.

And they flash this big toothless grin, thanks, I haven't had a donut in 100 years. I'll really enjoy it.

And all right, is that as good as eating the donut yourself? Maybe even better. Maybe not.

But you planted the seed in your mind for some pleasurable thing to come to you sometime in the future. And even if that's a side effect of what you did, it's a pleasure.

And we've added a little more pleasure to the world, the homeless person's pleasure then and yours later.

Whereas ordinarily, we would have gone in and bought the donut and ate it ourselves. A little bit of pleasure that wore out.

So just learning to use our impulses instead of react to them is what this dulwa is about. And to be able to do it in a way that plants seeds to contribute to the end of samsara takes some greater specificity than our own samsaric thinking.

So Buddha teaches us about discipline. He gives us vowed behaviors even to follow so that we ourselves don't have to stop and decide what would be the best thing to do in this situation. We simply need to be keenly aware of the vows that we have. And our job would be to go, well, this situation matches that vow, and that vow says don't do this, do that. Okay. Thank you.

That makes life easier in a lot of ways because we don't have to be like, agonizing over what to do. Just check it according to your vow card.

I didn't find it as easy as that, personally, because the vows aren't as specific as we hoped that they could be. But it is in there.

Okay. So, yikers, I got to get going here.

(99:15) When the young monks join the monastery at seven years old, the first thing that they're given to memorize is this phrase.

DULWA NI TEN DANG TUNPA NGU YIN

NGU YIN = actually is.

TUNPA = the teacher, capital T, meaning the Buddha

TEN DANG = the Buddha's teachings

DULWA NI = discipline is

So what this is saying is that

If the Vinaya is taught, I, the Buddha, am there.

So anywhere that Vinaya is being taught, says Lord Buddha, the Buddha is there.

The Vinaya scriptures themselves represent the entire teaching of Lord Buddha.

And so Buddha is saying to us, if we study Vinaya, we can say that the Buddha is here with us.

When you are studying to do your homework and quizzes, Buddha is there with you.

Ask him. You know, do I understand this? Help me understand this. Help me learn this. Help me use it.

To study and practice Vinaya keeps Buddha in the world.

I don't see him walking around in his red robes, but Buddhism is alive and there's no guarantee that it will stay alive. And what keeps it alive is Vinaya.

It's interesting. We would think it would be, no, studying karma and emptiness.

But we could study karma and emptiness and not have the karmic goodness to understand it at all. And it would all just be words and agitating.

The way we know we're understanding karma and emptiness is that our behavior changes.

So as long as anyone in the world is studying and practicing Vinaya, then the Buddha is still alive in the world. Yay, that's a rejoicable.

So anybody who's keeping their book, you are keeping Buddhism alive. Yay. All right.

The Lineage we are Studying from

(102:28) So we have a lineage that we're studying from. We have a series of textbooks that we're studying from to demonstrate that this is coming from authentic sources. I'm going to go faster here

There are two teachings by Lord Buddha. So the word DO, Sanskrit Sutra, it usually means the teachings of a Buddha, the words of a Buddha.

However, the word DO, Sutra, also means a short book. So we're going to see that later.

Here, these are words of the Buddha. There are two teachings.

GELONG PAY “PA YI” SOTAR GYI DO — Sutra of the freedom vows of a fully ordained monch
GELONG MAY “MA YI” SOTAR GYI DO — Sutra of the freedom vows of a fully ordained nun

I just put these in quotes for the pronunciation. It's not MAY and PAY. It's PA YI and MA YI SOTAR GYI DO

GELONG PAY = a fully ordained monk.

GELONG MAY = fully ordained nun.

SOTAR = their freedom vows.

So this is the sutra of the freedom vows of a fully ordained monk and the sutra of the freedom vows of a fully ordained nun. They have similar vows and they have different vows, of course.

We will be studying from those, not in great depth, but from their principle.

Then there's another text called DULWAY DO. Sanskrit name is Vinaya Sutra.

This is where the term DO or Sutra means a short book, not the Buddha's words.

Because this text, DULWAY DO, it's a short book that reviews something called the four explanatory commentaries, the four explanatory sutras.

So Buddha gave us these two sutras and he gave us another text called the four explanatory sutras about Vinaya.

And then this person, Loppon Yun-Ten U, this is his Sanskrit name in Tibetan.

He's a Sanskrit person because his years is 500 AD.

His Sanskrit name, Acharya, meaning master, Guna Prabha.

Guna Prabha studied those four explanatory sutras and then he wrote a synopsis of them called the Vinaya Sutra, a short book on Vinaya.

In Geshe Michael's book, The Garden, Guna Prabha was that Lama that came to him and taught about Vinaya. I think he had the (kapse?).

We'll study that text in a bit of detail.

Then there are three commentaries that we're going to use as well.

So commentaries are texts that have been written by masters along the path, not Lord Buddha himself, and not the ones that wrote down Lord Buddha's words. But those who have studied and practiced that came along after and they taught and wrote as well. So we have this collection of commentaries by great masters.

This DULWAY DO is one of those commentaries.

Another one is DULWA GYATSOY NYINGPO

NYINGPO = the essence or the heart essence.

DULWA = discipline

GYATSOY = ocean

So The Heart Essence of the Ocean of Discipline.

This is written by our hero Je Tsongkapa (1357-1419). It's a summary of the four explanatory sutras. Short, sweet, concise, and un-understandable without a commentary of its own.

Another text we will study is this one called NYIN JE.

NYIN JE = day maker, to make the day, meaning like sunshine. Sunshine makes the day.

This sunshine is like shedding sunlight on the true meaning of something. And here it's shining sunlight on the true meaning of the DULWA GYATSOY NYINGPO.

So NYIN JE is a commentary to Je Tsongkapa’s text by Ngulchu Dharma Bhadra, who I mentioned earlier, who said, they call Vinaya Vinaya because…

His dates are 1772-1851.

Then the last commentary we will study with is YISHIN NORBU.

YISHIN NORBU = Wish Fulfilling Jewel

And the tradition has it that if you find one of these jewels, and you clean it up, and you honor it, and you bless it in a certain way, you can wish it to be anything that you want. But it's any worldly thing that you want. And the moral to the story is, any worldly thing that you want that this wishing jewel becomes will just perpetuate your suffering so don't bother.

But the idea of a wish-fulfilling jewel, like something that could bring you what you want, it makes it so precious.

So YISHIN NORBU means this wish-fulfilling jewel, written by Choney Lama Drakpa Shedrup. We're familiar with him, aren't we?

He's written many of the textbooks. 1675-1748 are his dates.

This commentary is a commentary on Guna Prabha's Vinaya Sutra.

So we've got Je Tsongkapa's review of the four explanatory sutras.

And Ngulchu Dharma Bhadra's commentary on Je Tsongkapa, so we can understand it.

And then we have Guna Prabha's Vinaya Sutra, which is a summary of the four.

Sorry, I'm having a senior moment.

And then Choney Lama's commentary on the Vinaya Sutra.

Okay?

So last thing, last thing.

Je Tsongkapa had four great disciples. We hear about the main two, Kedrup Je and Gyaltsab Je.

He had two others. One was Gendun Drup, who went on to become the first Dalai Lama.

And then the other one, his name was Ngawang Drakpa. Ngawang Drakpa Tsako Wangpo. This was the disciple who, after they'd finished their training, Je Tsongkapa said, we need somebody to go out and establish monasteries and ordain people. Most of the students looked away, they didn't want to do it. And Ngawang Drakpa, he goes, I'll do it.

But that meant he was away from the Lama for like forever after. And he missed Je Tsongkapa so much. And he would write letters. So finally, he had established a monastery, a place called Gyalrong. And he was ready to ordain the first monks.

He ordained them and then he sent a letter to his holy Lama about it.

And Je Tsongkapa wrote back and wrote this instruction on how to instruct, how to guide these new monks. That became this text that we're studying.

Other correspondents between Ngawang Drakpa and Je Tsongkapa had in it things like the Three Principal Paths and Source of All My Good. So these practices that we use of Je Tsongkapa‘s, they actually came out of this distant relationship between Ngawang Drakpa and Je Tsongkapa because Ngawang Drakpa is out there doing, carrying out the Lama's wishes, building monasteries, ordaining people, keeping the Dharma safe in the world by teaching and practicing Vinaya.

Okay, so that's our class one. We've got our basics.

We'll dig into the Vinaya in our next couple of weeks.

Class Ending

Remember that person we wanted to be able to help.

We've learned a lot that we will use sooner or later to help them in that deep and ultimate way. And that's an extraordinary goodness.

So please be happy with yourself and think of this goodness like a beautiful glowing gemstone that you can hold in your hands.

Recall your own precious holy being.

See how happy they are with you.

Feel your gratitude to them, your reliance upon them.

Ask them to please, please stay close, to continue to guide you, help you, inspire you, and then offer them this gemstone of goodness.

See them accept it and bless it, and they carry it with them right back into your heart.

See them there, feel them there. Their love, their compassion, their wisdom.

It feels so good we want to keep it forever.

And so we know to share it

By the power of the goodness that we've just done

May all beings complete the collection of merit and wisdom

and thus gain the two ultimate bodies that merit and wisdom make.

So use those three long exhales to share this goodness with that one person, to share it with everyone you love, to share it with every existing being everywhere.

See them all filled with happiness, filled with love and kindness.

And may it be so.

Okie doke. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Please do your homework. And I will see you. We're back on schedule.

We are Wednesday and Thursday.I will see you Thursday. Okay. Bye bye.

Class 2: Outline of the Sutra on Discipline

12 June 2025

Link to Eng Audio: ACI 9 - Class 2

Rus RUTube: ACI 9 - Class 2 - RUTube

Vocabulary Class 2

YISHIN NORBU The Wish Fulfilling Jewel by Choney Lama, commentary on Vinaya Sutra

Vinaya Sutra written by Master Guna Prabha

NYUN GYUR obvious reality (reality perceived by samsaric beings by their sense powers)

KOK GYUR hidden or subtle reality (can’t be perceived by sense powers, e.g. emptiness)

SHINTU KOK GYUR deeply hidden reality (karmic correlations)

TSEN GYI DUN the meaning of the title

GYUR GYI CHAK obeisance by the author

GUSOK CHU SHI statement of purpose

DOMPA MATOPPA TOPJE actual commentary to the text

KHENPO abbot

KHENSUR ex-abbot

KHEN RINPOCHE precious abbot

LOPPON master

TOPPA MI NYAMPA how to protect our vows

NE LAMA mentor

SOJONG confession ceremony to clean up vows

YARNE practice of summer retreat

GALYE release of summer retreat

GOKANG DU KORWAY KORLO O

CHA NGAPAR JA O “Put the five part painting of samsara’s wheel in the foyer”

CHA NGA 5 parts of the desire real

BARDOWA beings in between

DUK SUM 3 poisons

YENLAK CHUNYI 12 links of dependent origination

TAMCHE MITAKPA NYI KYI SUNG put the whole thing in the clutches of impermanence

DAWA the moon

TSIKCHE at the 2 verses

All right, for the recording, welcome back. We are ACI course nine, class 2, June 12 2025.

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do. Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Class Opening]

Review Quiz Class 1

Last class we learned about the text that will be the text that forms the basis of the one that we're going to be studying from. And we learned the topic of that text.

In Sanskrit, the topic is Vinaya. In Tibetan, it's dulwa.

And the meaning of the Tibetan word is to tame the wild horse of our minds and sense organs. To bring them under control to make them useful tools.

What is it that needs taming about our minds?

It's those seven wrong deeds and their friends. Remember, the first seven of the 10 non virtues, and all the things that those states of mind like impel us to do because of them.

Then we learn about the relationship between Buddhist discipline, Lord Buddha and his teachings. If you recall, he said that that subject matter of ethical behavior constitutes the highest of his teachings. And it's like, wait, but that's a beginning level.

That's a beginning level teaching Vinaya is lesser capacity.

But he's saying, Well, no, it's the highest. Curious. And he says for two reasons.

One is that those teachings represent the entire instructions that he ever gave. So all the rest actually is explanations of the Vinaya. And it's like, what? No, what?
Then secondly, he said that illuminating these rules of ethical behavior, meaning, right, bringing them forth in our awareness, turning on the light in a dark room, of the power of ethical behavior, that acts as a substitute of Lord Buddha himself. It's like, you turn on the lamp of Vinaya, and who you're gonna see there in front of you is Shakyamuni Buddha, giving teachings. It's kind of a cool. Is that a metaphor or analogy? I'm not sure which but the power of Vinaya.

Third, Je Tsongkapa explained, or clarified the role of the extraordinary training of an ethical life in the development of the other two extraordinary trainings, remember? And he was especially talking to his students, his people, to address that situation where people had the karmic goodness to like, skip grades, and get right into Mahayana teachings, right into Diamond Way teachings, apparently without the foundational stuff.

And that their karmic goodness was being used up faster than it was being remade, which is the opposite of what Diamond Way is supposed to do. And as a result, their Diamond Way practices weren't working. And so they were giving it up, which is worse. It's worse to have Diamond Way and give it up than to never meet it at all in this lifetime. And so he was like, ah, you know, that's happening because people don't get this connection between ethical life, meditative concentration, and the wisdom that's necessary to make this transformation from ordinary suffering me to a being made of love, compassion and wisdom.

So he explained that to reach that wisdom, especially at the level of its direct perception, requires deep meditation. And deep meditation would have to be a good ripening, a pleasant ripening, whether the meditation is pleasant or not, is not what we're talking about.

It's the ability to get to a deep level of meditation, deep enough to see emptiness directly, that will be a ripening of extraordinary goodness. Which means kindness.

So we need to learn how to be kind, just to be able to meditate deeply enough to be able to cultivate the direct perception of emptiness.

If you don't understand those three and how they're related, then you wouldn't know that if you're having trouble with your meditative concentration, really, yes, you work harder on your meditative concentration, but more effective would be work harder on our ethics.

If we can't understand those teachings on emptiness, really, you don't need more teachings. You need more kindness. So he was pointing out that there's a reason Buddha taught three extraordinary trainings because they are all related.

And the foundation of the other two is this ethical life, ethical life being avoiding harming others at its very basic level, in gross ways, and more and more subtle ways. And as we avoid harming others, we are choosing more kind behaviors.

And so we end up helping others as well, which is a second level of ethical training.

The Vinaya is focusing on the avoiding harming. Okay. All right.

Then we learned there's an early Sanskrit commentary that became the basis for the Tibetan monastic training of discipline. And it was called Vinaya Sutra in Tibetan, dulway do. But it's not a sutra in the sense of the words of the Buddha. It is a short book written by that master of discipline, Guna Prabha, about 500 AD in India.

Then the commentaries on that book point out that for our Vinaya practice to work, to discipline our mind, we need to have our discipline practice motivation directed so that our discipline practice will take us where we want to go.

Not that it won't take us to something more pleasant than we otherwise would have experienced. But we want to direct it more specifically.

So our Vinaya practice needs to be motivated out of renunciation, renunciation of our state of habitually perpetuating the samsaric condition of our mind and actions.

So it's circular, right?

I want to avoid perpetuating samsara. So I'm going to do my ethical behavior so that I can quit replanting seeds in my mind that ripen as making me do things that perpetuate samsara. So properly motivated.

Why else would we decide to discipline ourselves?

Like I can't imagine being improperly motivated. But we could, I don't know, decide we want to do Vinaya so that I can get my nasty neighbor to move away. You know, I might do Vinaya so that I can get that beautiful car that I want so badly and it's gonna bring me happiness. Right? It would work.

But you know, big deal. You die, the car crashes. Maybe the car crashes with you in it, the car kills you. Like, come on. Our motivation is to stop this vicious cycle.

At Vinaya level, it's to stop the vicious cycle for me, for each one of us. My guess is we have seeds for Mahayana. And so our me is sort of left behind. That old me is left behind, because we're out to save everybody. But it's, you know, we wish, we want to embrace the recognition that we are a suffering being as well.

If you are, and I don't know, I am. So we really won't be able to do what we need to do to change our own behavior in order to become one who can help everybody do that for themselves. If we don't decide that this one needs to learn how to stop samsara, this one's suffering is as bad as anybody else is.

And I need to change me to stop this suffering. How we're going to do it is by being less harmful and more kind to others.

So we're going to end up in the same place as where we started.

Vinaya is about me changing me to change me. And that's okay. Right?

We need to start there.

Okay. So this class is reviewing Choney Lama's commentary on that Vinaya Sutra, in the sense of looking at the outline of his chapters, and what his chapters contain, so that we can see the big picture of what comes to us from the whole Vinaya Sutra.

If that was what we were studying, right?

It's big, it's long. We don't study that text directly. We're studying Choney Lama's commentary to it. The one called Yishun Norbu that we learned about last week, last class.

Classic Structure of a Commentary

Yishun Norbu, the Wish Fulfilling Jewel, by Choney Lama, which is a commentary on the Vinaya Sutra, which is an overview of those four explanatory sutras, which were Lord Buddha's explanation of Vinaya. His first part, he gives us an overview, a preliminary overview of what Vinaya Sutra holds.

The obeisance

In that overview, he starts out with what we would expect, the obeisance, meaning when the translators were instructed that at the beginning of the text that you are going to translate, you, the translator, offer an I bow down to somebody, right?

It wasn't in the original text, but the translator puts it in there.

And the instruction is who you bow down to tells your reader what the overall subject matter of the text is going to be about. And that system was somehow developed by one of those early Tibetan kings, as the Indian tradition was coming to Tibet. And so, we've been hearing it along the way, if you have a text that bows down to Manjushri, it's gonna be focused on wisdom, mainly emptiness, but emptiness dependent origination. And then if you have a text that bows down to Chenrezig, it's gonna be about love, compassion, right? That kind of thing.

This one, we have the obeisance to Shakyamuni Buddha. And it's like, what does that mean? And fortunately, we have the commentators. They say, that means the subject matter is Vinaya.

Because wherever Vinaya is taught or practiced, their Buddha is meaning

Shakyamuni Buddha. The one who was teaching that for his career, right?

50 years of teaching was at least half was Vinaya.

And not meaning the first half and then no more. But constantly through his career.

In this overview of the book Vinaya Sutra, Choney Lama is showing how Vinaya Sutra is reviewing Lord Buddha's journey from samsaric being to fully enlightened being.

Which doesn't mean just that one lifetime from Prince Siddhartha to Shakyamuni Buddha.

So in that chapter, it talks about how Buddha talked about how in his previous lifetimes. He did this and later realized he got this result.

They come to us as the Jataka tales. They come to us of the stories about kindnesses that he did. And then the result he got from that.

It's really stories that are pointing out karma and its consequences. In a way that when we're in the midst of our lifetime, we can't see how those specific behaviors bring what specific results because they're not happening one after the other.

They're not even probably happening within that lifetime.

So Buddha, once omniscient, is connecting the dots. Oh, man, that time I was that jerk. And I did that caused all of these lifetimes, right? As a monk losing my robes. And it's like, Oh, so I want to teach people what not to do so they don't have to reinvent the wheel.

We learned last course, it took three countless eons for Buddha to become Buddha from having generated his bodhichitta. And we learned how long three countless eons is a countless eon, technically a count, a great eon. Countless is the number for 10 to the 60th power, that many years.

So long time, like, really long time. But it didn't have to take that long. It took that long, because he had to figure it out as he went, for some reason.

So he's wanting to help us cut that time short. Thank you very much.

So apparently he had three stages of his spiritual life, again, not meaning Siddhartha's lifetime. This long time, he did what he had to do to reach the first bodhisattva bhumi, meaning to reach the direct perception of emptiness with bodhichitta in his heart.

Secondly, he then perfected the six perfections. So his path of habituation was using the wisdom to do his giving, moral discipline, oh, not getting angry, having a good time doing all of that. Repeating his meditative concentration, using his wisdom, growing his wisdom, meaning replanting, not replanting, planting karmic seeds with wisdom, until there are no more seeds that don't have wisdom. All been used up or damaged.

Okay, third factor, third level part was reaching that omniscience. So something else has to happen beyond the six perfections for the omniscience to arise.

We've learned that process along the way, most of us.

So Choney Lama's commentary goes through that, apparently in greater detail than the Vinaya Sutra text. He does a literature review, says Geshe Michael, of all the sutras that he had access to, at least. And he goes on to establish in this opening section, that the whole essence of Buddhism is contained within the Vinaya teachings, which is why the Vinaya teachings stand for Lord Buddha himself.

He spends a lot of time in his book at this level. And Geshe-la wondered, you know, why, why spend so much time, everybody knows those stories.

And Geshe-la's suggestion was, he spent so much time, because Vinaya is really about karma and its consequences. It's not called that, it's called discipline.

And if we didn't have it pointed out to us carefully, that what is meant by discipline is learning how to choose our behavior more accurately, we would think, oh, these are restrictions that Buddha imposed upon his disciples. Because their habit was to misbehave and so let's just be strict about our behavior here, guys so it'll make it easier for everybody to learn what we have to do.

But do you see the point is, the discipline is the behaviors that it's not just restrictions on us so that we are good monks and nuns. It's the karmic correlations that through which we perpetuate suffering, or not.

So what do you want to do? Really? Do you want to just follow the rules because Buddha said so?

Or do you want to understand why the rules are the rules that they are?

And they're not actually rules at all. They are guidelines. They are your triple A triptych to Buddha paradise. For those who know what a triple A triptych is.

I think there's two of us, Todd and me. And it doesn't matter anyway. It's a map, a roadmap with instructions along the way. Because our karma is unique to us.

The principles of karma are universal, because of how they're imprinted and ripened. But each one of us is making our own behavior choices that are imprinting into our mind, which will become some experience that we have when those seeds ripen.

So the better we understand the principle, the more clearly we will recognize from day to day life that we cannot actually see directly how this behavior, what this behavior’s seed will bring to us, because they don't happen from one moment to the next. However, we believe that what I do in the moment, brings what comes next.

It's almost impossible to live not without that belief.

Because, what if you impose it on yourself, as you go to grab the door handle to get into the spoons in the drawer, you would just like, freeze. It's like, I don't know for sure. If pulling this, doing this will make the drawer open.

Like what if it doesn't? What if I pull it and like the whole wall comes down? What it would be scary to actually live in what we're claiming to say, I want to live like that.

It won't be scary when we get there. But until we have the karmic goodness to understand what's going on in the moment, where there's a part of us that resists.

We study so hard, but there's a part that says, don't really want any part of that.

So we kind of need to find that part of us and coax it along the way. Okay. So the implication of deeply understanding the relationship between our behavior, moment to moment, and the circumstances of life in some future moment, the better we understand that, the better we understand that the power for change lies in ourselves, and nowhere else. The better we understand that all our habitual blaming them for that, whether good or bad, is mistaken, and makes us act in ways that perpetuates that factor of blame. They did that to me.

As we become more intellectually aware of, it seems like they did that to me, but my own past behavior is forcing me to have that experience. And I'm done with it.

Let those ripen. I'm going to respond in a different way than my automatic pilot.

How are we going to figure out how to respond if we can't tell what response will bring what result?

We do need to rely on somebody who has an authority on the subject for us.

Which is why we've done those previous eight ACI courses, to be giving ourselves the opportunity to figure out whether or not Shakyamuni Buddha and his sutras are authority for us.

Because they're not authority in them from them. And they're not authority for everybody.

Three Levels of Reality

(40:27) So all of that points out this study of the three levels of reality:

NYUN GYUR, KOK GYUR, SHINTU KOK GYUR

I don't think this is new for any of us.

The NYUN GYUR refers to obvious reality, which generally is meant the reality that we as samsaric beings perceive through our sense powers. The things we see, hear, smell, taste, touch, our obvious reality. Like, obviously.

Unless you're blind, or deaf, or have no sense of smell, like Sumati, have no sense of taste. Then things that are obvious reality for me with those things intact, are not necessarily obvious reality for the next person.

So obvious reality isn't coming from the reality. It's from us.

And so we do have obvious reality.

KOK GYUR is a hidden reality or subtle reality, which is referring to reality that we don't experience through our sense powers, but can still experience in some way.

And this subtle reality, the classical example is emptiness, actually. That emptiness we don't experience through our eyes, or ears, or nose, or tongue, or sensation. But it can be experienced.

It can be experienced, intellectually. And it can be experienced directly.

But in this subtle reality way.

For the person who's in the direct perception of emptiness, that emptiness is now obvious reality.

It's not now being perceived through their sense organs. But it is their direct experience at that moment.

So emptiness is not subtle reality in it. Because when we're perceiving it directly, now it's obvious reality. And when you come out of it, it's back to subtle reality.

You can't just look at it and see it directly.

Then SHINTU KOK GYUR means really hidden reality.

And wouldn't you think that if emptiness is ultimate reality, it would be in the category of most deeply hidden reality? Not in the category of just a little subtle, more subtle than the tree is the emptiness of the tree.

SHINTU KOK GYUR, deeply hidden reality, refers to those specific karmic correlations. Meaning, exactly what I did to make that tree be a pine tree with its first branch coming out 10 feet above the ground versus nine feet above the ground.

With that needle being brown, and that one being green.

All of those details of every moment of experience has specific causes, karmic causes, that my experience of them in that way, have specific behaviors of action, speech, thought, that made the seeds for that specific way I am experiencing whatever I'm experiencing.

And it's like that those specifics are what's deeply hidden reality. We can come to understand the mechanism, the four laws of karma, such that we can make good guesses about what behaviors to avoid and what behaviors to do if we want to create a future experience of this or that.

An omniscient being knows the specifics.

They're so detailed, that they, they really couldn't convey to us exactly.

So exactly what do I have to do to make a pine tree with no brown needles ever? So they never drop. So I never have to clean them up. Right? What would I have to do?

They would have to be whispering in my ear like every moment. Because everything I do has some bearing on everything that's ever going to happen to me.

It's crazy complicated hidden reality for me. But for an omniscient being it's obvious reality. Like the poor omniscient being, looking at me, oh, so Ronnie, Sarahni, why do you keep doing that? And I think I'm being so good, they're going Oh, come on, honey. But they don't, they never lose patience. Thank goodness.

So that's why Buddha spent so much time teaching about karma and its consequences. Because it's so deeply hidden, that we can't get it.

And that's why he ended up just, okay, I'll make it as simple as I can for you.

Avoid these 10. Technically, at Vinaya level, avoid these seven. That's all you have to do.

Well, now, yeah, but you have all these people that are trying to live together.

So this Vinaya is mainly addressing monastics, people who are on their spiritual path. Who are on their spiritual path, because they're broken. And so they have mental afflictions, are all living together. They all they all know the guidelines, we're supposed to be living according to. And then our natural habit is to judge you and your behavior way more strongly than I judge me and my behavior.

And you know what happens? Clashes.

So, as this was developing in Buddha’s time, somebody would do something that caused a big disturbance in the Sangha. And in Buddha's perception, he knew exactly everybody's karmic involvement in all of it. And to help everyone moving forward, he'd make a rule: Okay, no more going out on Friday nights to the bar because when you come back, you disturb everybody. So nobody can go out on Friday nights anymore, so that we stop disturbing each other's minds.

And then everybody agrees.

So some of those vowed behaviors seem that specific.

And, you know, our independent nature is resist.

And Buddha says, resist all you want. It's totally up to you, the extent to which you want to follow the Vinaya. And it also determines how long it's going to take before you stop suffering. So totally up to you with Vinaya.

NYUN GYUR, KOK GYUR, SHINTU KOK GYUR.

The Actual Explanation

(50:15) Next, Choney Lama goes into the actual explanation of the root text.

The root text is the Vinaya Sutra by Guna Prabha, not by Lord Buddha, reviewing everything Lord Buddha had to say about Vinaya, because it was scattered all throughout his sutras. It wasn't in just one.

So in this actual explanation of the text, there's four parts.

Here are the four: TSEN GYI DUN, GYUR GYI CHAK, GUSOK CHU SHI, DOMPA MATOPPA TOPJE

The Meaning of the Title

The first one, TSEN GYI DUN, it means the meaning of the title.

So this is a very short part. It says Vinaya means discipline.

Sutra means short book, not words of the Buddha.

We've done that already.

And Vinaya, he points out, means to learn to control two things.

What two things? Our minds and our sense organs, which seems like a funny thing.

Control your ears. Don't hear that bird singing. What?

Don't taste that banana.

It's not that. It's control our reaction to what we're getting from our sense organs. Okay.

Translator‘s Obeisance

Second section, GYUR GYI CHAK. It's an explanation of that translator's obeisance.

So Choney Lama says, look, Vinaya Sutra is about Vinaya, which is about karma and its consequences. And that's Shakyamuni Buddha's specialty. And so the obeisance is to Shakyamuni Buddha.

Statement of Purpose

Third section is the statement of purpose. The GUSOK CHU SHI. GUSOK means the goal, etc. And CHU SHI means the four of the purpose, etc.

So we've learned that elsewhere, a text should tell you, at the beginning its purpose, and the fact that it's authentic, and the fact that people have used it, and show you that if you use it, it will work as well.

Those four factors that show us that the book is worth our time.

And then, in this system, back early, early, you the practitioner would not own the book, that you'd have access to it, I guess, for a little while. You would memorize it. And then your use of that book would be to review some part that you've memorized, and think about it, and work with it. Like we have the book, we can sit down and read and reread.

So these books were designed to develop a relationship with, like use them as training tools, versus you read it once and put it away.

You find the book that you're going to use for your whole lifetime of spiritual practice. You memorize it, and then you revisit again, and again, and again.

So if we're going to spend that kind of time with a textbook, we want to know it's going to deliver. Right?

What if you spend 20 years on memorizing and using some text, and then in the end, it's like, wait a minute, that's just going to teach me how to water ski better. I wasted all that time.

So GUSOK CHU SHI.

The Actual Commentary

The next section, DOMPA MATOPPA TOPJE, that's the actual commentary to the text. And it has three parts to it. That I don't have the Tibetan for, aren't we relieved?

And in this part of the text, it goes into how to get vows of a pure lineage, how to ask for them properly, who you ask for them from their qualifications, what you do to ask for them, what will happen in the ceremony, how you know whether you got them or not. How you prepare yourself for the ceremony, how you use them afterwards.

So it's very detailed about the process of what it is to get our Vinaya practice going so that we get off on a good start.

We have ceremonies that we do.

In Buddha's time, apparently, when someone was attracted to them as a teacher, and what he was teaching, Buddha might suddenly turn to them and say, Oh, oh, you know, Ross, it's time. And if Ross goes, Yeah, yeah, it's time, Buddha just goes, bing. And suddenly you're shaven. And suddenly you're wearing robes. And suddenly you've left the home life. And it's like, wow, thank you so much.

Nowadays, it doesn't happen like that. Nowadays, if we're inclined to leave the home life, we don't get to learn the actual vows that we'll take. But we can see by other ordained people's behaviors, what it might be like.

We go through a process of preparing ourselves, requesting properly, receiving properly, etc. So this is all outlined in this text.

It includes details of who can and who can not confer those vows on us, our Vinaya vows. And we'll learn many of the specifics.

What Geshe-la pointed out here are these words that we've probably heard and have used, but maybe we weren't so clear on what they meant.

So this term Khenpo, it's a Tibetan word, it means abbot.

The abbot is the person in charge of the monastery, the head, the total head.

And they change persons in the monastery, I don't know how many years.

And then at least in the Sera Mey monastery, the abbot gets requested to be abbot by the Dalai Lama. And you know, you have to have a pretty good argument to say no to the Dalai Lama. And then he has his reasons for choosing you. But it's not a forever thing. But it's a really, really high, important position, you're in charge of everybody.

Khensur means ex-abbot, finished your stint.

Khen Rinpoche means precious abbot.

So we use the term Khen Rinpoche for Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, who was the abbot of that Mongolian monastery in New Jersey, for all those years, 30-40 years.

He was also abbot of Sera Mey for a short period of time.

So he was both Khensur of Sera Mey, but still abbot of the Mongolian temple when he passed. Everybody called him precious abbot, Khen Rinpoche.

But do you see, somebody else's abbot is also going to be Khen Rinpoche to them.

So somebody outside of our tradition talks about Khen Rinpoche, they're talking about somebody else probably, than ours.

Then the last term to be more clear about is this term Loppon. Loppon means master, meaning someone with mastery over whatever it is that they are being used the Loppon term for. So someone who's mastered Qigong would be a Loppon of Qigong.

But maybe they don't play tennis at all. So they're not a Loppon of tennis.

So you'll see this term as well.

In Vinaya, it's the Khenpo that grants the ordination vows, the highest guy.

So like, even if you want to get your ordination vows from this one, it's like, sorry, it has to go up the ladder and come from the highest one.

Why I don't know, I'm going to guess it has something to do with the karmic seeds being planted. As we see ourselves getting the vows from them, you want the highest karmic object.

In this context, the Loppon is the person who's helping the abbot in the vow giving ceremony. So there'll be somebody who makes sure that the altar is set up right, who makes sure that you've got the proper number of other monks and nuns present, who makes sure that the vow taker is in the proper position.

They're more like the manager. And in that situation, they're called the Loppon.

So when you're the second in charge of a ceremony, you are the Loppon. So it has a little different connotation than ordinary.

(63:19) All right. So in this section, the text also goes into the eight different kinds of Pratimoksha vows. So we'll learn those eight. We don't learn the specifics of the vows, particularly for the ordained vows, because you're not allowed to know what those vows are before you take them.

But there's a secret. If you go to an ordination ceremony, they recite them in the ceremony. So you can hear what they are, if you just pay attention. And they're speaking your language. And that's how one might get to thinking, whoa, well, wait a minute. I could live like that. And then we might be inclined to start that path to taking ordination, if that was your inclination. It's not.. What's the word I'm looking for?

It's not the right thing for everybody.

The more vows we have, that we can keep, the more powerful our practice.

But it does not mean that you can't make progress on your path without being ordained. Alright.

This part of the text also goes into a deep and detailed explanation of how to measure time. And we won't study it, because it's complicated. And we now have clocks. So we don't need this detailed way of measuring time. But the reason it comes up here is that it's important to mark exactly the time, day and time that one receives their vows. And mainly it's because part of the vows are about showing respect for your elders. Elders in the context of Vinaya has nothing to do with age. It has to do with how long you've had your vows.

So you could go and get your ordained vows when you're 95 years old. And the 25 year old who got their vows the day before you, they are senior to you. So your interaction with them is included, that factor is included. Do you see? So we need to know. We need to know when we get our vows, so that we can get ourselves in the right pecking order.

It feels weird. And it feels, I don't know, my own judgment is, come on, is that really so necessary? But do you know why I have that judgment?

Because I can't see the subtle workings of karma. Oh, yeah.

Let's take our break.

How to Protect Your Vows

(68:50) The next section in the text is TOPPA MI NYAMAPA. It means how to once you've gotten your vows, TOPPA.

MI NYAMAPA, how do you not break them? So important chapter here.

Once you have your vows, how do you protect them?

And we will study it. It gives lots of different advices to how to keep from damaging our vows once we've got them.

There are four parts to this section.

The first part is about how to rely upon an outer support. An outer support means like a mentor.

We're instructed to take up a relationship with someone who's ahead of us on the path, who we admire, who we trust. And we formally ask them to be our NE LAMA, it's called. NE means crucial point. It means place. Here It means this one. I will go to this one for help. Because the abbot or the one who gave you your vows is the abbot of the monastery. You can't go to them.

So you take this relationship with this specific mentor. Apparently, traditionally, someone who gets their vows newly, I'm not sure at what level, I guess any level, you're expected to take this ne lama relationship for your first 10 years of having your vows. Like it seems like a really long time.

And you go to that ne lama for advice, for instruction, for any situation you're having trouble with. They're the one you go to, you know, what seeds do I have for this? What seeds do I need to make, right? Amongst other stuff.

Second part is relying on inner support. Inner support means the motivation that we had when we took our vows. Whatever that was, our inner support reliance is to keep calling that to mind. Because that's what keeps our motivation strong to do what we have to do to avoid the behaviors that the vows are instructing us to avoid.

It's the motivation that got us started. We revisit it.

Third part of our TOPPA MI NYAMAPA is learning about other factors that work against keeping our vows. It means how we know when our vows are damaged, how we know when they're fully broken, what to do when we've damaged them, what to do if we've broken them, all those details.

Within that section also is what to do if we have vows that seem to conflict with each other. So we'll have individual freedom vows, either a five lifetime lay vows or some level of ordained vows. And then later we go on to Bodhisattva vows. And then maybe later we go on to Diamond Way vows. And we learn how to prioritize those vows. And some of them, it seems like if I keep my Bodhisattva vows, I break my Pratimoksha vow, what do I do?

Of course, there's a way to keep both of them better.

And so we learn this prioritization factor, and we'll learn a little bit about it.

Then the fourth part of this, how I keep from breaking my vows, is the section that describes these three. Well, it describes 17 specific ways of being a monastic. And three of those 17 are specified here. We don't get to go into all 17 because they are monastic. But we hear about Sojong, which is the practice of twice a month, ordained people gathering together to do their confession.

So they're not doing their four powers only twice a month. But they do this specific confession ceremony together to clean up their vows on the full moon and the new moon of every month. It's one of the rituals of being an ordained person.

Then YARNE and GALYE, not Gal-yay, but GALYE. YARNEY is the practice of summer retreat. So in Lord Buddha's time in the summer was monsoons. And during monsoons, there were zillions more bugs than during non monsoon season. In order to protect the monks from killing all those bugs when they walked around, they would all go into summer retreat. So three months of retreat, where they mainly studied, memorized and meditated. And they spent very little time out walking around to protect life.

And then GALYE was the release of summer retreat. After that period of time, you got three weeks to celebrate, three weeks to play. And you get to play games and listen to music, and sing and dance, and go to the movies, and throw flower petals in the air. Like that's the wildest thing you could do back then.

For three weeks, you let loose. And then you go back to school. Right?

So we get it right, spring break, Christmas holiday, like that.

Then we get a section on how to restore our vows once we've damaged them because we're gonna damage them. Because we are broken. We have mental afflictions, we react to our mental afflictions. And then Oh, whoops. We fix up.

Ancillary Points, like The Wheel of Life

Then the fourth section in the text is called ancillary points. And in the ancillary points, are these specifics about how and where to construct a monastery. And within those instructions, include a specific instruction by Lord Buddha that says, ‚and put up a painting of the Wheel of Life at the entrance to your monastery‘.

So every monastery should have this painting of the Wheel of Life.

Typically, it's a Thangka. Diamond Mountain has that big one. And in this section of the Vinaya Sutra, which is a summary of everything of that Buddha taught about the Vinaya. He shares that Lord Buddha said, specifically, you must have that Wheel of Life for your monastery to be a proper monastery.

If we know how to read it, it teaches how all of our suffering is created, and how it can be stopped. Like all of it in that one painting.

Choney Lama also gives us one of the various versions of where the painting of the Wheel of Life originally came from. Like how it was instigated to be created.

One of those stories is that Buddha had a disciple, a man who was inclined to leave the home wife home life. But his wife was exceptionally beautiful. And he had this exceptionally strong attraction to his beautiful wife. And he was waffling spiritual life, beautiful way.

And Buddha said, Ah, let me see if I can help you. And he takes him on a trip to the different realms of the desire realm. He shows him the hell realms, hungry ghost realms, everything that we just studied in Course 8. And when they get back, the guy's going (shaking noise), ‘I'm ready‘. But Buddha says, Look, draw what you just saw. And what comes out of it is the thangka that we call the Wheel of Life tanka thangka.

It has seven components. The Vinaya Sutra lays out these seven components that are supposed to in that painting. He gives us the quote from Buddha's teachings,

GOKANG DU KORWAY KORLO O CHA NGAPAR JA O

This is saying, in the foyer the samsara’s wheel KOWAY KORLO, the wheel of samsara, CHA NGAPAR JA O, make it with five parts.

Put the five part wheel of life painting in the foyer of your temple.

Here are the five parts.

CHA NGA means five parts.

The center of the five part is these five spokes, five spokes section of which in some thangkas there are six. So I have my thangka. I'm going to see if I can show it to you. And you know what, let me just read these Tibetan words, and then I'm going to get rid of my screen share.

CHA NGA is the five parts, but here the five parts is the desire or the five parts of the desire realm.

Then there's a section of Bardowa, the beings in between.

Then there's a section DUK SUM, which is the three poisons.

Then there's a section YENLAK CHUNYI, which is the 12 links, the 12 links of dependent origination.

And then finally, there's the TAMCHE MITAKPA NYI KYI SUNG. Put the whole thing in the clutches of impermanence.

I'll describe what these mean in a minute.

Sixth factor is DAWA, it means the moon.

And then the seventh is TSIKCHE, which means add the two verses.

Alright, so now that you've heard that, I'm going to get rid of my screen share.

(85:50) Okay, so here's the whole thangka. Can we see it?

Here's the verses at the bottom. They're in Tibetan. So it doesn't matter whether you can see them or not. They're in Tibetan script. So it really doesn't matter if I can see them or not.

So let's start from the first thing he said, put the five spokes. These are the five spokes. Do you see one, two, three, four, five, it is five on this one.

Each one of those spokes is a depiction of one of the different samsaric desire realm realms. Hell beings hungry ghosts, animals, humans, pleasure beings, that have pleasure beings and jealous gods, that's this one up here. The beings and their suffering.

Then the hub inside is the bardo beings. They're often called (Sukey?). (Sukey?) if you remember is the term for miraculously born. But in the sense of born complete, not born as a baby who has to grow up. Another term for bardo is born complete.

You end this life, you enter bardo, instant.

So of the bardo beings, some are heads up and some are heads down. Can you see that? So they're intentionally looking like a chain. There are some beings who in bardo are headed up, meaning to higher birth, and some who are headed down, meaning lower birth, technically lower than the one they just left.

But we relate to this mostly as humans. Although it's true of all these different realms.

So the hub in the center, the axle is the three poisons, DUK SUM. Can you see what's in there? It looks like a bird at the top. And it looks like a snake below the bird.

And I don't know, it looks to me like a dog below that, but it's supposed to be the pig.

If you look closely, the tail of the snake and the tail of the bird are coming out of the mouth of the pig.

In some versions, those three animals, they're biting the tail of the one ahead of them, and they're done in a circle. Technically, these three poisons are qualities of our minds at any given moment. The bird represents the pigeon or the rooster, that represents our ignorant liking, our desire, and how our desire for things that have their pleasureness in them drives what we do to get those things that are the cause of our pleasure.

Anything we do to get them is mistaken, as long as we believe that the pleasure they seem to bring to us is coming from them. Ignorant liking, Geshela uses the term.

Because desire feels like, I don't have desire. Like, I'm just an old lady. I don't have that kind of thing anymore. But that's not what we're talking about. I do have desire for another sip of green tea, because that pleasure comes from the green tea, doesn't it?

Then, ignorant dislike is the snake. I guess snakes are angry all the time. I don't know, I've met a baby rattlesnake recently, and I had to call the fire department. I tried to let it go wait for a week, but it wouldn't go anywhere. And when they came to get it, they were saying, man, this is the most docile snake. I think it was so hungry, it was half dead. But it wasn't angry. It didn't rattle. It didn't coil.

But anyway, traditionally, a snake represents ignorant dislike, which, at its full on, is the willingness to harm somebody to avoid them as the cause of something unpleasant for me, ignorant dislike.

But what's common to them is the ignorance, which is the belief that the pleasantness or unpleasantness is their fault.

Not a result of my own past similar behavior done towards somebody else, you know the story. So, the pig represents the misunderstanding, the ignorance, and it's really out of the pig's mouth comes these other two, which means if you transform that pig, the other two will get transformed.

We can't get to the pig until we work with the other two. But technically, it's the pig we're after.

Alright, the hub, this is what spins the wheel, we know.

Then the outer ring, like if this thing was a turning wheel, this is what's hitting the pavement. So, it's really what's turning the thing. This is those 12 links of dependent origination, how it is that our behavior plants the seeds that goes on to force us to the end of this life and the taking on another one.

So, technically, these 12 links are talking about how we came into this life, what we're doing in this life, how it's going to end, and how it's going to turn into another samsaric rebirth.

If we knew how to read these, it would reveal how these different realms are created, and it will reveal how it is that we are either going up or going down at the end of life. And its key is the pig in the middle.

In the Mixed Nuts, Sugen's text was those details of the 12 links of dependent origination in great detail. ACI does not have a course or a practice module of the 12 links of dependent origination, but Geshela has given that weekend teaching that Sumati and I have also given. So, there's a short version explanation that is available. You can find it online for Geshela’s. But it's so much more intricate and involved than what can be conveyed in just those few classes.

So, then all of that, says Lord Buddha, paint it in the clutches of impermanence.

We learned last course that the impermanence that we need to realize is my own impermanence. My death is certain. The time of my death is uncertain. When I die, nothing but my spiritual life can help me, because it tells me what seeds to plant and what seeds not to plant, and what to purify of what I've already planted, and what to rejoice about of what I've already planted.

Those three principles of death meditation and all that they imply are depicted by this creature, the Lord of Death. He's holding this whole system in his clutches.

And if you notice, his feet are not on the ground. He's hanging out in empty space, which means he's vulnerable. We can stop the Lord of Death. If we can jab a hook somewhere in here. We know it needs to be jabbed up here. We can stop the whole process. And he just will let go.

Then Buddha says, show the Buddha outside the wheel of life. Because Buddha is not inside samsara. Even when Shakyamuni was walking amongst us, he was not in samsara. He was not projecting samsara. He was aware of ours. So showing that where we're going, where we're aspiring to go is outside this cycle.

And the Buddha is pointing to the moon over here. There's a beautiful moon. The moon is used a lot metaphorically in our teachings. And it typically stands for the compassion side of our practice versus the sun is the wisdom side.

So there was some other class we were doing, where the the basis of the whole start of our spiritual life is compassion. Here it is.

Then lastly, he says, write this verse on that thangka that everybody can read.

The verse says,

Take it up and give it up. Enter the teachings of the Buddha. Smash the Lord of Death, like an elephant smashes a reed hut.

What it means is take up practice.

What practice?

Avoiding harming others.

And give it up. Give up what? Samsara, perpetuating samsara.

Like if we could just do it by deciding to do it, how much easier it would be. But if we don't decide to do it, we aren't ever going to do it.

So we need to make our decision eventually.

Enter the teachings of the Buddha, which you know, technically, you don't have to become a card carrying Buddhist. The teachings of the Buddha are the teachings of profound dependence. How it is that our behavior is the power through which we create our future. Learning that it doesn't matter whether you call yourself Buddhist or not, is why he's talking about here.

Then smash the Lord of Death, like the result of our practice will be Lord of Death gets smashed as easily as an elephant walking across a reed hut.

It doesn't take the elephant any effort at all for that reed hut to just become a reed mat.

So the reason all of that is in our Vinaya text is because as I say, if we know how to read this, like this is the only tool you need hanging in your little meditation hut to inspire ourselves and to follow the behaviors necessary.

But to read it means much more than what we've just gone through, of course.

The training that we receive from ACI Foundation all the way through is what we understand from reading this thangka. So the better we understand our ACI training, the more information we get out of this thing. If we bother to look at it anymore, you know. It hangs on our living room wall. And I see it every day, multiple times a day. But you know how it goes, right? It's just like, Oh, there it is. And I miss opportunities every single time I do that.

Concluding Remarks

So there's one more part in the Vinaya Sutra that Choney Lama points out. And that is its concluding remarks, which is notes upon the circumstances in which Guna Prabha wrote his Vinaya Sutra.

And then Choney Lama adds to it notes about the circumstances in which he wrote his commentary to the Vinaya Sutra. It's a common ending to a text that helps lend authenticity to it, that we understand how it came about how it came to be.

Alright. That completes our class 2 on Vinaya. So we have a background as to why we are studying it and what we will study. Next class we will go into the individual freedom vows, what they mean, what they are, what we do with them.

[Class Ending]

Class 3: Introduction to the Vows of Individual Freedom

15 June 2025

Link to Eng Audio: ACI 9 - Class 3

Rus RUTube: ACI 9 - Class 3 - RUTube

Vocabulary Class 3

Pratimoksha (sk) individual freedom vows

SOTAR GYI DOMPA (tb)

OM DE LE SU GYUR CHIK May all living beings achieve temporary happiness

and permanent buddhahood

NGYENJUNG SAMPE GYUJENE SHEN NU

SHIDANG CHEPA LE DOKPA refraining from hurting others and from the basis of

hurting others and doing so for the reason of renunciation

NGOWO DANG the basic nature of vows

NI RABJE DANG the categories of vows

SOSOY NGUNDZIN the individual sets

KYEWAY TEN the basis from which the vows come about

TONGWAY GYU DANG how the vows get lost

PEN YUN the benefits of keeping them

Vaibashika Abhidharma Lower School, Detailists, 1st turning of the wheel

Madyamika prasangika Implication/Consequence School

…PONGWAY SAMPA GYUNCHAKPA SABUN DANG

CHE YINNO SHE… some people say, that the individual freedom vows are this mental

intention to give up the physical deed along with the propensity that

is carried along in the continuum of the seed

Sutrists Sautantrika

Chittamatra (Mind Only)

Madymika svatantrika Independent Middle Way

NYEN NE One Day Vows

GE NYEN PA Lifetime lay men’s vows

GE NYEN MA Lifetime lay women’s vows

GE TSUL PA Novice monk vows

GE TSUL MA Novice nun vows

GE LOP MA vows for the 2 year period for a novice nun

before taking full ordination

GE LONG MA Fully ordained nun vows

GE LONG PA Fully ordained monk vows

All right, for the recording, welcome back. We are ACI Course 9, Class 3. It is June 15th, 2025.

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do.

Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Class Opening]

Last class, we reviewed the different chapters in Choney Lama's commentary to the Vinaya Sutra text. In that, it included the instructions about drawing the wheel of life and be sure you put that in your temple foyer. I'm not going to go over the quiz.

The Essence of the Ocean of Discipline

In this class, we are looking at Je Tsongkapa's text called the Dulwa Gyatso Nyingpo, The Essence of the Ocean of Discipline, which is his commentary on not just the Vinaya Sutra, but the whole Vinaya scripture is covered in his big text.

We're going to spend a couple of classes on it. No, not nearly enough to cover it in detail, but we'll get the essence of the essence.

His opening lines, are

OM DE LEK SU GYUR CHIK

There's quite a bit of Tibetan in this class. Not that you need to know it, but for the seed planting to contribute to the language staying in our world, particularly the language of this text.

First thing Je Tsongkapa says is OM DE LEK SU GYUR CHIK.

Om is a Sanskrit word that they don't translate. They just use Om.

Geshe Michael, Lama Christy, every time they use Om, they go, Om means Om, and they go right by.

But Om means body, speech, mind of a Buddha. The sound Om is that vibration of a totally enlightened being. The Om is made up of three different sounds all rolled into one, the AH, U, M.

The important part is that within that vibration is held the pure body of enlightened being, their paradise body and emanation body. I like using the word their paradise being and emanation being. It helps my mind think of it in a less solid way than body.

That pure body is the body as it appears to other Buddhas in paradises and as it appears to beings who are in need.

How it appears to them, it sees itself appearing in a certain way. And the one to whom they are appearing, they see them appearing in the way according to their seeds. And it is the emanation of that enlightened being.

That vibe also holds pure speech, the pure speech of enlightened being. Those emanations can't do anything for us except teach us.

So they teach us, they can teach us in their actions, but it really comes down to teaching verbally. They need speech. It's through their speech that we learn what we need to learn.

And then their pure mind is a Buddha's omniscient mind, directly experiencing all existing things how they appear and how they aren't, meaning their emptiness, directly perceiving both.

And technically, they're perceiving how things appear to them, and they're perceiving how things appear to everybody else as well.

And that mind includes the emptiness of themselves and the emptiness of all aspects of themselves, all rolled into that pure mind. And all of that's rolled into the word OM.

And when we say it, we are essentially calling upon those holy beings, like we're reaching out for their attention. Now, an omniscient being doesn't need us to reach out for their attention. They're aware of us all the time.

But we can think of it as, you know, one face in a sea of zillions, or we can stand out in the crowd. Lord Buddha, Lord Buddha, Lord Buddha, look at me. Hello, hello.

That's what OM does.

So he starts out pointing out these holy good qualities of an enlightened being as the first word in his quintessential book on Vinaya, on how to become one, right, the foundation of becoming one.

Then, OM DE LEK SU GYUR CHIK. Altogether, it says, may all living beings achieve temporary happiness and permanent Buddhahood.

When we break it down, the DE means happiness, and LEK means goodness. And so, the DE meaning happiness can mean the happiness of closing the doors to lesser rebirth.

And the LEK can mean that happiness and the goodness of reaching nirvana. If that's our goal, if that's our belief, that that's the highest that we can achieve.

If our belief is the highest I can achieve is Buddhahood, then the DE refers to reaching nirvana, the happiness of reaching nirvana, which of course includes closing the door to lesser rebirth. And the LEK, the goodness, refers to going beyond nirvana and reaching total Buddhahood.

The difference being the omniscient state of mind that's propelled or created by that great compassion that we cultivate, that shifts the deeds that we do that would have helped us reach nirvana, are now deeds that we're doing to help us reach Buddhahood, reaching nirvana on the way—just not as our goal.

So, OM DE LEK means, Buddhas, may all beings have happiness and goodness. May they all reach all of that, close the door to lesser rebirth, reach their nirvana, reach their Buddhahood.

SU GYUR CHIK means let it be so.

So may all living beings achieve temporary happiness and permanent Buddhahood.

Individual Freedom Vows

And then he goes on to state his subject matter. What he's going to share with all those beings through which they can do that. SOTAR GYI DOMPA.

SOTAR means Pratimoksha.

Pratimoksha is the Sanskrit. SOTAR is the Tibetan.

SO = individual.

TAR = freedom or liberation.

The moksha is liberation.

Prati is individual.

So the individual, the vows of individual freedom.

DOMPA = vows.

Freedom actually is another code word for reaching nirvana.

So nirvana is that state where we are incapable of having an upset state of mind. Incapable of the slightest mental affliction, no matter what experience is happening.

So nirvana does not mean nothing will ever go wrong. There won't be another pain. But it does mean there'll be no more suffering from whatever that situation is. No more automatic, un-upset state of mind in the slightest.

Do you remember the King of Kalinga story? And the yogi's getting his body all cut up and he's just loving the king more and more.

It's like, no, that can't be possible.

But that's a state of mind where because of wisdom, having seen emptiness directly, we've gone on to weed out or damage the seeds of mental affliction so much that they cannot ripen anymore, no matter what.

We can reach nirvana and our bodies will look the same. And our life will probably go on pretty much the same as it had been leading up to that. We can have this state of mind that is free of mental afflictions, no matter what, and still have the karma for this body wearing out and going to end.

There's this phrase, pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

It's that idea. Not by way of just deciding we're not going to suffer, but by weeding out and damaging the seeds of the blame factor that makes us upset when something unpleasant happens.

So the subject of Vinaya is these individual vows of freedom.

Why are they called individual vows of freedom?

Ngulchu Dharma Bhadra, he gives us this explanation. He says, they're called individual freedom vows because those individuals who keep them reach freedom. Those who don't keep them don't reach freedom.

There he goes again, giving a definition and using the words of the thing to be defined in his definition. So it's not really a definition, it's an explanation.

It's a personal journey, a personal effort. The way these vowed behaviors work, only we can apply them. Only we can make them effective. And then we personally benefit.

Just me, not meaning they're somehow lesser, but our personal responsibility and our personal result.

Which means when we have individual freedom vows, our behavior is our responsibility.

Somebody else who may or may not have individual freedom vows, they are not your responsibility. But wait, they are because they're my seeds ripening. Yes, your responsibility is for how you interact with them. Your responsibility isn't to make them react to you in the way you think they should. Do you see?

If they ask you for help, that's a different thing.

But personal, individual freedom vows, it works on us for us to reach nirvana.

Even as a bodhisattva, oh, you know, I'm not even interested in nirvana. I'm going to become total Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings. So everything I'm going to do is for all sentient beings.

We really won't have the staying power at that level if we haven't stepped up the rung of the ladder of recognizing that the personal individual freedom vows are what launch us into our bodhisattva career. Skipping grades is not beneficial.

Now, we can go pretty swiftly through elementary school pratimoksha vows and spend more time in high school with our bodhisattva vows, but we need to really master our pratimoksha vows in order for the behaviors that we do in our bodhisattva vows to be sustainable. To have the power to work in the way they're supposed to work. Right.

(26:10) So Je Tsongkapa gives us another definition of SOTAR GYI DOMPA or pratimoksha, and it's here.

NGENJUNG SAMPE GYEJENE SHEN NU SHIDANG CHEPA LE DOKPA

NGENJUNG = renunciation

SAMPE = motivation

GYUJENE = the reason why, which sounds redundant, but the reason why is referring to something other than our motivation.

SHEN NU = hurting others.

SHIDANG CHEPA = along with the basis, and

LE DOKPA = refraining from.

So these individual freedom vows, they are the refraining from hurting others and from the basis, the GYUJENE SHIDANG CHEPA, the basis of hurting others and doing so for the reason of renunciation.

So renunciation, we remember, is everything just goes wrong. What's wrong with this picture? Right?

Nothing goes right. Things are either outright pain or the pain of change, and even when everything's going great, somebody dies, right? And one of these days, it's gonna be this one.

So when we finally face the fact that nothing can go right, nothing can go the way we want it to in this lifetime. We finally get some level of renunciation, if we have the next thought, there's gotta be an answer, right?

We could come to that conclusion and be desperately hopeless and just do something unfortunate. And hurt ourselves trying to avoid it. Or we can have a little like click in our brain that goes, maybe somebody knows, like maybe somebody knows what's wrong here and can show me or can teach me.

And we've all had the goodness ripen that we heard the pen thing, and we had the goodness to hear it and something clicked in our heart. Oh my gosh, there's something in there that's really important. Because it doesn't happen to everybody. You can hear the pen and it's like, okay, fine. And nothing changes.

So the renunciation is triggered by recognizing nothing can go right. And then what it triggers is a search for answers. And then when we find something, we then explore what we've found. And hopefully we can show ourselves in some way that that's the path for us. And at some point we stopped searching and we found the path for us.

I'll be so bold to say, this is the path we've found.

Not that you're locked into it, of course, but many people have studied ACI and they're on doing other things. No judgment going on.

So once we have a renunciation in this tradition, and we find someone who's teaching about how that, how our existence is so broken and what to do about it, we will quickly meet these teachings on karma and its consequences.

And then we swiftly meet the teachings on vowed morality. Not just morality, but vowed morality.

Morality, regardless of vowed or not, is at the first level, choosing behaviors to avoid harming others in obvious ways and in more and more subtle ways. And we would think that that would be obvious what we need to do to stop harming others. But there are so many ways that we both intentionally and unintentionally do harm to another that it's really helpful to have an instruction manual for what to avoid, and then have a plan for what to do instead.

Because if we're faced with some situation that we're going to avoid yelling back, but I don't know what to do, right? It's like, we'll fall back into the habit because we don't have any other option.

So our guidelines of the Vinaya is what to avoid and ideas about what to do instead. And the beauty of the ‘what to do instead‘ is that we get to be creative in our own understanding and our own planning of what it means to do the opposite behavior.

So this refraining from hurting others and their basis of hurting others…

The hurting others is referring to the vows that will teach us about avoiding actions of body and speech.

And we said last class that Vinaya is really about avoiding those seven and their friends, which is all the other things we do because of them.

But here it points out that there are underlying factors that influence us even doing those actions of body and speech. And those factors are the basis upon which our behavior of harming others happen or like are propelled.

And the basis there then is actually the other three of the ten non-virtues, that coveting, ill will and wrong view, and all the nuances of what those three mean.

So it isn't that our individual freedom vows aren't addressing our mental state at all.

The vowed behaviors are not addressing the mental state. But we'll see clearly that it's the shift in the coveting, ill will and wrong view that will propel our ability to change the habits of the killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, etc.

So we are going to be dealing with all ten of those non-virtues and all the rest that make up the 84,000 mental afflictions that we are creating the causes to stop, to stop perpetuating.

So Vinaya level is motivated by our own personal need? Desire is not strong enough. Our own personal determination to stop our own suffering. We need that foundation, strong foundation and that's renunciation. I'm going to stop this suffering.

When we actually attend a ceremony where vows are being given, this must be our motivation. It must be bright and alert in our state of mind as we're repeating what we need to repeat while we are receiving those vows, is this ‘fed up with worldly life‘, our renunciations strong, and this determination to change ourselves, our own behavior in order to break the cycle, in order to stop replanting the seeds that perpetuate my own suffering at the Vinaya level. Which perpetuates everybody's suffering, of course.

The scripture says that in olden days, people might choose to take ordination in order to escape their worldly life in the sense of, oh, they had a whole bunch of debt. And it didn't look like there was anything that they could do to escape that debt. But if they're accepted into the monastery, they're no longer responsible, right?

You take your monastic vows and that's not yours anymore.

Some want to get out of some difficult family life situation.

Some just want a free place to live. It's not really free in the end, you got to work hard.

But wrongly motivated taking of Vinaya vows makes the vows not actually take. And maybe you think you have your vows, but we're not going to get the same result. Even if that person, you know, is a really, really good monk, until they clear up their motivation for getting their vows, they don't have the vows the way they thought.

So without this motivation of renunciation, these things called vows won't come on. The light switch, right? The Lama will flip the light switch and the light won't come on.

How do you know? Not sure.

Nowadays, when we take our Pratimoksha vows, whether they're especially ordained vows, there isn't a monastery that you move into and you don't get taken care of by the monastery for forever after. So that kind of motivation is sort of off the hook anymore.

But when people take their ordained vows now, I don't know, maybe their motivation was that, you know, they get to look special because they shaved their head and put on those robes.

Or maybe they'll be the special favorite of the Lama if they're in with a group.

Or maybe it's to, I don't know how, get some kind of respect from other people.

It's our own mind, of course, that knows its own motivation, nobody's going to sit you down and check you out.

The abbot might quiz you, but it's really our own state of mind in our choice to take these vows.

The advantage of doing so is bringing ourselves closer to that state of freedom from mental affliction forever than we would otherwise get by just following those avoiding harming others behaviors.

The power of having vows to do so is so much greater. All right.

Without that strong motivation, we'll lose interest, we'll stop trying, then we'll do something that actually breaks them even if we had them. It's still a possibility, even when we do have them, that we get complacent.

6 Categories of Individual Freedom Vows

(42:00) Je Tsongkhapa goes on to list the six categories that explain the individual freedom vows. And, and it will, it will include this section of his book, it's, it's a long section. It's going to include like everything we need to know about vows. And he gives them to us at the beginning in this just one long sentence.

So this is all one long sentence. I separated it so that we could see the different pieces of it.

So he says, the six categories that I will explain to you are

NGOWO DANG, NI RABJE DANG, SOSOY NGUNDZIN, KYEWAY TEN, TONGWAY GYU DANG, PEN YUN.

So there should be six there. One, two, three, four, five, six. Yeah, I did it right.

NGOWO = their basic nature.

So he will describe to us the basic nature of vows.

Second category is the categories of vows, the different kinds that there are.

Not meaning within each category, there are multiple vows, but each category, we'll go through them.

SOSOY NGUNDZIN = the individual sets

So the SOSOY, we get (SOSOKYE WO?), we hear that somebody who's not seen emptiness directly yet, the individual who's not here, this, this means the, the individual sets of vows.

Within the categories, there are different groupings of vows.

KYEWAY TEN = to arise, born,

that like the basis from which the vows are born, the basis upon which they come about.

TONGWAY GYU DANG, how they are lost.
Pen Yin, the benefits of keeping them.

Enlisting these six, there must be something else he says that I don't have the Tibetan for, where he pledges to complete his work, which is characteristic of a Tibetan commentary, is at the beginning, they're, they tell you what they're going to do. They tell you why they're going to do it. And the advantage of us reading it, studying it. And then they say, and I'm gonna finish it or die trying something like that. So he makes this pledge to us.

The Basic Nature of Pratimoksha Vows

(45:48) And he starts with describing the basic nature of Pratimoksha vows.

Like, what is a vow made of? And it's still confusing to me.

Because what is a vow made of? We take a vow, we're making this pledge to avoid doing something. Given a circumstance where we could do it, we're pledging, I will not do that deed.

Is that a physical thing? Is that a mental thing? Is that one of those changing things that is neither physical nor mental? Like, what is it?

The deed we're pledging to avoid, killing, that's a physical thing.

But the pledge to avoid it, is that a physical thing?

Is that just an idea in our mind? In which case, don't we have to be thinking about it for it to be an idea in our mind? In which case, we wouldn't have the vow, except when we were thinking about it. And then it's like, well, I'm not thinking about not killing right now. It well, I kind of am because I'm talking about it. But I'm not thinking about my other vows. Does that mean I don't have my vows? Well, I'm not that way. It's like, it is confusing.

And in the end, even after Je Tsongkapa goes through this explanation of the basic nature of vows, he's gonna say, you know what, this is really confusing. So if Je Tsongkapa says that, I felt good about parking it on one of those shelves, of the, I'll come back to this later sometime, like when I'm omniscient and I understand.

But I can understand well enough to know why to work hard to keep my vows once I have them, because of understanding this basis.

So I didn't write the Tibetan. I'm just gonna read it for you. He says, (48:30 …)

What that means is some believe that vows are physical, which implies that some believe they're not. And that's the important piece here.

Vows are physical, they say, because the vows are about behaviors of body and speech. And those are things that we do with our physical body. So even the vow that we make to avoid those things, that vow has to be a subtle physical thing, because the deed we're vowing about is a physical thing. They have to be similar enough to touch, similar enough to influence each other. I don't know. I don't really understand to be honest with you.

Technically, vows are karma. Technically, everything's karma.

But if we think vows are karma, and I ask you, what's karma?

Is karma a physical thing? Is it a mental thing? Is it aware? Or is it one of those changing things that's not all physical, not all mental, but is an existing changing thing?

Oh, yeah, that's where it fits. It's an idea. It's a concept. And it's got laws, right? It works the same way, no matter what, because it's a concept.

It's so slippery. This whole thing is really slippery.

So, if someone were to try to pin you down, your vows, are they physical or are they mental?

The way you wiggle out of that is you say, depends on what school you're talking about.

And it's really true, because of this differing belief about reality, what's meant by something real.

In the lower schools, substantial physical things have reality. They're not self-existent, because they're real, dependent upon their own causes and conditions. And when they have their causes and conditions, they become real things.

And I honestly admit that I still walk around in a world like that, where these physical things are very real. And in that way, then, we need to kind of work out, is the vow a physical thing, something that has its own causes and conditions? And so, when it does, its appearance then makes it real, whether it's a real physical thing, solid physical, or subtle physical, or mental, it still has this reality. Which we want it to have a reality, so that it can have the impact on our mind that avoiding that behavior is meant to have.

The Position of the 4 Schools

So, we understand that in this, depends on what school thing, there's four basic schools. Just for a quick review:

Lowest School — Abhidharma

The first level school is Vaibhashika, sometimes called Abhidharma, not meaning the text, Abhidharmakosha, but meaning Higher Knowledge. But meaning the detailists who study about all the details about existing things, as Lord Buddha taught in the first turning of the wheel, so that they can better understand suffering and where suffering comes from.

They believe that the vow is something physical, that it consists of shapes and colors moving around. Not meaning out there is my vow of avoiding harming others looking like shapes and colors. But in me, as I'm moving through my day, and I see the line of ants down the sidewalk, I see the ants, my vow helps me move my body such a way that I step over the ants instead of scuffing my foot through the line or coming down right on top of them.

That action is the vow. And it was somehow physically present so that when I was in that situation, it would kick in and protect me from harming those beings.

So, a physical thing can be subtle enough that we can't see it with our eyeball, right? We know that. So, just to say that karma can't be physical because we can't see it, touch it, feel it, is not enough to say, see it can't be physical. It can be subtle physical.

They say, this school says, vows are subtle physical matter like oil permeates a sesame seed. If you cut a sesame seed, you can't pour a drop of oil out of it. But if you crush it on a paper towel, you'll get an oil stain. So, you know that there was oil inside that sesame seed, even though you couldn't see it. So, when we get our vows, if we compressed ourselves onto a paper towel, our vow would make an oil stain, like that. It's in us in that same way.

They also say vows are like a fire in a forest fire. You know, once a forest fire gets ignited, the wind blows and it just whips through the whole forest in an instant. It's called a conflagration. It just covers the whole thing. And in that same way, when our vows come on, they cover all of us. So, the sesame seed doesn't have more oil on this side of the seed than that side of the seed. I don't think, maybe they do. But our vows permeate all of us like a forest fire conflagrates and our vow permeates us like sesame seeds oil.

So, they go on to explain that when someone is there before the Khenpo, on their vow-taking posture with their vow-taking hands, and they are bowing before the Khenpo and repeating the words, somebody watching, who maybe couldn't necessarily hear what was going on, but they're watching that person, what they're doing is communicating to others that they are preparing to receive vows.

So, if we're still watching them all the way through when the Khenpo snaps their fingers, we probably don't see some light come on inside them. But the fact that their karma is communicating to us they are taking vows, we know that they took vows. They say that's part of the argument for how vows are physical. I don't get it. I get how that says vows happen, but not that they're physical necessarily. The karma is communicating is the key piece here.

Now, that person whose karma just communicated to others, I got vows, three days later, you see them, their karma is no longer communicating, I got vows, right?

They're no longer in that position, the Khenpo is not there, right?

So, we don't know whether or not they have vows, because the vows are not physical in the sense that they change your skin color or turn your hair purple or something like that, right? We can't know because their karma is no longer communicating at that point.

So, something about vows is that it's a vow that doesn't communicate, meaning with others. Others won't look at you and know whether you've got vows or not. Even if you wear robes, right? If somebody's wearing robes, we're going to assume they have ordination vows, but we don't know for sure because we can't see them. If you've got an ordinary human mind like mine. Alright.

So, this karma which communicates and karma which doesn't communicate, they call it physical matter which is communicating, because it's through the physical matter that you are communicating, and then three days later, your physical matter is no longer communicating that, right?

So, it's the physical posture and speech. All right.

So, that's Lower School. They believe the vows are physical.

Let's take a break. Good time for a break.

(Break)

(1:01:06) So, lower school says vows are physical matter.

Highest School — Madhyamika Prasangika

Highest School, Madhyamika Prasangika, which means Middle Way, Implication School or Consequence School, they say vows are subtle physical matter.

But they believe it for a different reason.

So, remember, Middle Way refers to the walking the middle way between believing that things exist in the way they seem to exist and believing that if they don't exist in that way, they can't exist at all.

If things don't have any nature, then what can they be?

Middle Way is, things don't have any nature, and so they are what they appear to be, but not in the way they appear to be, which is in them from them. Middle Way.

Things have no nature, but it's not that they don't exist at all. Hmm.

Called Prasangika, Implication or Consequence, because they actually posit that you cannot describe the full meaning of things have no nature, but it's not that they don't exist. That you cannot actually explain that in a way that the person listening to you could understand it accurately.

They have to go on to have the direct perception of that, and then when they're out of that direct perception, they'll try to describe it to somebody, but you can't do it that way. That rather one gives these absurd rejoinders to something someone has said or done that is designed for that person to go, like, what? What do you mean by that? And they start thinking, and they will lead themselves to a conclusion that's more accurate than what you could have described to them. Like, what do you think? Everybody experiences things in exactly the same way? Like, that's all you have to say to someone that would start them thinking, and they'd come to the conclusion of the pen thing—if they bothered to go through it, which you wonder.

So Madhyamika Prasangika, Highest School, things have no nature of their own, and so the way they appear to exist, they do exist according to the one experiencing them in that way, and they don't exist in any other way than that. So that means everything we experience is unique to the experience-er, even when we all think we're experiencing the same thing.

And if we understood that, we would never fight about it, because it would be so clear to us that we're each having our own unique experience of it, and maybe we'd just be more curious. Like, what's this thing like for you? Right? Maybe it's more fun than what it's like for me. Let me in on the secret there.

So Highest School also believes that vows are something physical, but here's why. They say the vows is a conceptualization of the behaviors of the vows, which is a form.

So to take a vow to avoid killing a human or a human fetus, that deed is a physical deed that would need to be done to break the vow. To keep the vow, there's a physical deed that we avoid doing in order to keep the vow. And even as we are conceptualizing, meaning thinking of that idea that given the chance, I will not. What? Shoot that guy.

Given the chance, I will not… It's a conceptualization in our mind.

Not that we have to be visualizing it at the moment, until we get in a situation where we might do that deed. Then this conceptualization of our vow to avoid that deed would get very strong of what it is we're going to avoid doing. That conceptualization of a physical deed, they say, is itself a physical thing.

And to me, it's like, no, it's not. No, it's not. It's the changing thing that's neither all physical nor all mental. But they say, no, it's not.

The conceptualization of a physical deed, it has a physicalness to it. Meaning when we visualize or imagine something, the color, the shape, the smell, the taste, the touch, in our visualization, that's a kind of form. It's not a dream. It's a kind of form, very subtle, physical form. In the visualization.

So in that same way, our conceptualization of having a vow to avoid this or that behavior, those conceptualizations are physical things. Not in the same way that Lower School said they're physical. They're not like oil inside us, like a sesame seed. They're the idea that we have. The idea of physical behaviors, body and speech behaviors. The idea is physical, right? Subtle, physical.

Yes, Luisa.

(Luisa) So here we are referring only about the body and speech deeds, because if we are talking about the mind, then they are, per se, mental. Then this explanation will not work. Correct?

(Lama Sarahni) Correct. Right. Correct. And in Vinaya, all the vows are related to physical and speech behaviors.

(Luisa) But before you say in the definition of Je Tsongkapa Tsongkapa that the basis...

(Lama Sarahni) Right. We will be refraining ourselves from the states of mind that would lead us to doing those body, speech, minds. The vow themselves are related to the action of body or speech, not the mind.

(Luisa) Okay. Thank you, Lama.

The other 2,5 Schools

So just for completeness‘ sake, the other schools, the other two and a half schools, they believe differently about the vows' natures based on their understanding of how things exist ultimately.

Did I write this? I did.

So again, just for the seeds,

…PONGWAY SAMPA GYUNCHAKPA SABUN DANG CHE YINNO SHE…

says, Je Tsongkapa.

YINNO SHE means, some people say.

What they say, what he says, some people say, is that to give up the seven, PONGWAY SAMPA and their intention underneath them. I need to come back to GYUNCHAKPA.

SABUN DANG CHE means a seed in the continuum.

GYUNCHAKP, it's a continued intention in the mental seeds of the continuation of the mindstream.

It seems redundant, but you have to say it like that.

So some people say that the vow, individual freedom vows, are this mental intention to give up the physical deed along with the propensity for that deed that's carried along in the mental continuum.

So they say, so see, it's not a physical thing. It's this seed in the mind that's continued along.

So are mental seeds physical things? No.

Are they mental things? Are they themselves aware? No.

Are they changing things that are neither, but are still changing things? Yes.

They are not physical things, say these people.

So when we get the vow, we get these mental seeds that form for the intention to avoid doing those specific wrong deeds. And those are in the mindstream, even when you're not aware of it. But they're not physical matter, says this school.

You see now, but now within that, there are two different positions where one side still says vow. Well, no, no, wait, let me go back.

So the other two and a half schools say these vows are not physical. They're this mental imprint that's carried along in the mindstream.

Lowest School and Highest School both say they're physical things, but for two different reasons.

So here Geshela said, just to be complete, the Sutras also known as Sautantrika, say vows exist as a continued intention to avoid a certain thing. They act to have us think, oh, I shouldn't do that when we're in a situation that brings up a vowed behavior.

Mind Only School — Chittamatra

Third level school, Mind Only, Chittamatra, they also say vows must exist as a mental seed because they can be broken even in meditation.

And it's like, wait, I thought we learned that when we're in deep meditation, we're making good karma. How can we break vows when we're in deep meditation?

But their example is that suppose that you're the person whose job is to get the mattresses, to take the mattresses out and air them out every Thursday. And then of course, it's your job to bring them back in when they're aired out. And you've taken the mattresses out and you've gone to do your meditation practice and along comes a thunderstorm and all the mattresses get rained on because you weren't paying close enough attention to go get them before it rained because you were in meditation.

They say that, if your job was a vowed job, you broke the vow in meditation because you didn't protect the mattresses somehow.

Seems convoluted, but it must have happened.

So they say, so see? Those vows can be broken mentally. You're just in meditation. Again, Je Tsongkapa says in the end, this stuff is complicated. Thank you, Je Tsongkapa.

Independent Middle Way — Madyamika Svatantrika

Then Independent Middle Way, Madyamika Svatantrika, they muddy the waters a little bit more. They say, the physical restraining of body and speech as you conceive of them in your mind is what vows are made of.

So they're playing both sides.

The physical restraining of body and speech as we conceive of them in our mind is what our vows are.

So once we have the five lifetime lay vows, for instance, and you know that you're going to refuse any alcohol that's offered to you, you know, right? You're going to refuse any alcohol that's offered to you. So you have in your mind this conception of that physical restraining of drinking the alcohol. I mean, technically you could accept the glass, but not drink it. You haven't broken your vow.

That's what the vow is.

Is that a mental thing? Is that a physical thing? Or is that the changing thing that's not quite both?

Because the idea of this is what I'm going to do when I get there. That's an idea, but it's not itself aware. The vow is not itself aware, we are aware of having the vow. So you can't really say it's a mental thing. But it is something that's carried along in the mind.

Basically the seeds, the mental seeds.

And so then what's the difference between a mental seed of saying, Oh, I'll just not kill and taking a vow to not kill? Why is having a vow to not kill more powerful than just saying, I'll avoid it?

Does that need to be on a physical level for it to be strong enough?

Does a mental seed, are we sure that mental seed‘s going to ripen when we need it? When we're in the midst of being tempted to have the alcohol?

There's something about vows that increases the power of the avoidance of the behavior. That's going to come back to our motivation when we took the vow. Because that motivation is included in the seed planting, isn't it?

I'm going to vow to avoid such and such behavior because my world is nothing but pain and I'm determined to stop it.

So the idea is by keeping that vow, we reinforce that renunciation, and by reinforcing the renunciation, we keep the vow. And every time we keep the vow in a situation that we might've been tempted, we strengthen the vow. And of course, every time we don't keep the vow in a situation where we're tempted, we damage the vow. All the way up to turning the light out completely, depending on circumstances.

Geshela explained that Madyamika Svatantrika, and really, Higher School too, they say, you can't say that the vow is simply our intention to avoid those behaviors, because we can have an intention to avoid a certain behavior and not have the vows to avoid the behavior.

If the intention to avoid the behavior was the vow, just having the intention would give us vows and it doesn't.

Geshela said part of the point is, some Buddhists have vows and others don't. And what's the difference between them?

So when we make ourselves a proper card carrying Buddhist, we receive a formal refuge ceremony, and we get refuge advices to follow. They're often called refuge vows, but they're not vows. They're advices.

So even as a proper card carrying Buddhist, we don't have vows.

We intentionally prepare ourselves and ask for vows once we have a certain level of understanding of morality, seed planting, emptiness and karma, to where we see that there's an advantage to making a commitment to avoiding certain behaviors because of the power that that vow has on our mind, has on every seed that's planted after we've received that vow.

Years ago, when we were first at Diamond Mountain, it was a bunch of students at Diamond Mountain and Geshe Michael, Lama Christie were teaching. We hadn't started Diamond Way yet. And we would gather some afternoons and somebody would give a teaching. You know, like the Kadampa's, you teach that I'll teach this. It was kind of fun.

So Earl was teaching something about vows and Venerable Phil, I call him Uncle Phil, he was there. Venerable Phil, he's been a monk for a long time. And we were talking about vows and Phil said, you know, once I recognized that when you have vows to avoid a certain behavior, you are gathering the goodness of keeping the vow. Every moment you are not doing that behavior, not just in the moments that you're confronted with doing that behavior, but every moment you're not doing the behavior, you are gathering the goodness of keeping your vow.

So like, are you killing a human or a human fetus right now? No.

How about now? No. How about now? No.

So if we have this vow to avoid that, that goodness is accumulating. That's the power of vows. He said, once I understood that taking ordained vows was a no brainer. I wanted as many vows as I could get because of this principle.

And it shot a light bulb in my head too, because I hadn't understood it in that way. How powerful it is to have vows, but only if they're vows that you can live by. Okay? Otherwise, we're damaging vows. And maybe that's worse than having vows.

Now, that'd be a good debate. Okay.

The 8 Categories of Freedom Vows

So lastly, for this class, we reach these eight categories of vows.

Je Tsongkapa‘s section where he just tells us the different kinds of freedom vows. So we're not talking about all vows because there's also Bodhisattva and Tantra. But in the individual freedom vows, there are eight different kinds that we can receive vows for.

One Day Vows

One is called NYEN NE. NYEN NE means the one day vows.

The one day vows have eight different components, eight different behaviors that we will avoid doing for one 24 hour period.

The first time that we receive our one day vows, we receive them from a preceptor, someone who has them. And they, we do the ceremony to get those vows. And then they teach us how to live our 24 hours keeping those vows. And the next day, when the sun comes up, and you can see the lines on the palm of your hand, those vows go away by themselves.

So you take the vows in the dark of morning, you live according to them very carefully for 24 hours, and at the end, they're done.

There's Pratimoksha level one day vows, and there are Mahayana level one day vows that we'll talk about later. They are the same vows, the same behaviors, the same ceremony, but a different motivation for taking them.

They're basically living like a monastic for one day. It's really not so hard. For the reason of purification practice as an antidote, and generating merit are the two main reasons we would do a one day vow‘s ceremony.

Once we've received them from a preceptor, we can give them to ourselves. You go in front of your altar, and you do the ceremony, and Shakyamuni Buddha will grant you your one day vows for that day. And you learn how to do that.

Lifetime Laymen‘s vows and
Lifetime Laywomen‘s Vows

So second and third, GE NYEN PA and GE NYEN MA.

GE NYEN means lifetime. So lifetime layman's vows and lifetime laywoman's vows, they're the same vows.

I'm not exactly sure why they give them two different categories, except that the mind is different.

So somehow the vow is going to be a little bit different, the substance of the vow. But they're basically the same, avoiding the same behaviors, avoiding killing a human or a human fetus, stealing anything of value, lying about our spiritual progress, spiritual realization, adultery, sexual adultery, and intoxicating our mind, or contributing to the intoxication of the mind of another.

And then as an additional factor in our five lifetime lay vows, is our refuge commitments. They're added in, we'll learn those more in greater detail.

Novice Monk Vows
Novice Nun Vows

GE TSUL PA and GE TSUL MA.GE TSUL means novice, novice monk and novice nun.

There are 36 vowed behaviors to be avoided at the GE TSUL level, and they're the same for monks and nuns again.

2 year Novice Nun Vows

Then there's a category of vows called GE LOP MA, which is a two year period that a GE TSUL MA, a novice nun goes through before she can qualify for receiving her GE LONG MA. And it's some additional vows that is designed to increase the goodness so that her full ordained vows can be strong.

Why a monk doesn't have those two is anybody's guess.

Fully Ordained Monk Vows and
Fully Ordained Nun Vows

So then GE LONG MA and GE LONG PA are the fully ordained nun's vows, MA, and fully ordained monk's vows, PA.

For fully ordained nuns, there are 364 vows.

For fully ordained monks, there's 253.

And our habit is to say, why do women get more?

The thing is, the more vows, the better. So when we understand it, it's like, yay, we get more because it adds to the power of our practice.

The vows have to do with how to live together in a group and avoid mental afflictions.

So at the time that this class was first taught in the 90s, it was still the case that the lineage for ordaining a full nun in the Tibetan tradition had been broken. That somewhere along the line, there was a nasty king who was very anti-Buddhism. And he set about to kill all the monks and nuns. He wanted to kill the tradition completely.

And he managed to kill off enough nuns, not all of them, but enough such that they could not gather a quorum of nuns to be able to confer the full nun's vows on whatever GE LOP MA or GE TSUL MA were left or that came into it afterwards.

And so it was left like that for many generations, where if a woman wanted to get Mahayana, no, that's not right to say, wanted to get their full ordained vows, they would need to go outside of the Tibetan lineage to receive it.

So there's Chinese lineage of full nun's vows. There's Vietnamese lineage, there's Japanese lineage. There are other ways that you could get your fully ordained nun's vows, but then not within the Tibetan system.

So that's generally what the modern day monks or nuns would do, is find somebody in a different tradition to grant them the full nun's, and then they would go back to their Tibetan tradition.

And then as our lineage was growing and Geshe Michael, Lama Christie were teaching, and there were people asking for ordained vows in Diamond Way. They granted a number of people the GE TSUL MA and GE TSUL PA, and then some of those GE LOP MAs went on to get GE LONG PA after a couple of years. And the GE TSUL MAs were asking Geshe-la, please, please, please give us full ordained nun's vows or help us to get them.

And I don't know how that it actually played out, but Geshela said yes one day to giving full nun's vows to Venerable Gelse, I think was the first one in our line.

And then the year later, or maybe more than a year, Venerable Kading and Utpala received their full vows as well.

So he gathered enough monks and nuns to have a quorum and Geshela determined in his wisdom that the Diamond Mountain quorum under he and Lama Christie's direction could grant these women their full ordained nun's vows within the Tibetan tradition.

And so, everybody is like, great, they're fully ordained.

And outside of our tradition, there's some conflict about who is he to do that when the Holiness the Dalai Lama doesn't do it? Right?

It's like our Lama is bold in his wisdom to do what's highest and best for the beings involved.

So I don't know, I've never met any kind of conflict because I have no contact with any tradition outside of our own. But if I did, there would even be conflict about me having GE TSUL MA vows and still apparently being married. Because some people believe that you can't be married and be a monk or a nun. But there's nothing in the literature that says you have to get unmarried before you can take your ordination. It says you have to keep your vows. And if you can keep your vows and live together, I mean, that's what a spiritual partnership does.

So to be true to the idea of the fastest method is to get vows, get a partner, see the partner as the holy angel. Why would you as an ordained person have to kick yourself out of a relationship in order to get your ordained vows?

Traditionally, you would. You leave the home life. But then as that person who has their ordained vows goes on to their bodhisattva career and goes on to their Diamond Way career, they still have their individual freedom vows to keep as they are keeping their higher vows. And sometimes there's a conflict. And we'll study how to work out that conflict.

One does not need to give up their lower vows in order to take higher vows. We keep our higher vows better by having lower vows.

But it can cause distress in traditions that aren't so well trained in karma and emptiness as Geshela has trained his students right from ACI, from the monastic level training.

So it's really quite extraordinary to see how this system was developed from Lord Buddha up to us and how it's morphing in these modern times according to need.

Okay, so next class, we'll go more specifically through these different kinds of vows. Although we can't go into the details of ordained vows, because we're not supposed to know them before we decide to take them. But we'll learn enough about them that if it sparks an interest, you'll know what questions to ask for later.

Okay, so I'm done early because we didn't do the quiz. And that's fine. Unless there's any burning questions. Everybody okay?

[Class Ending]

Class 4: A General Description of the Vows, Part 1

19 June 2025

Link to Eng Audio: ACI 9 - Class 4

Rus RUTube: ACI 9 - Class 4 - RUTube

Alright, welcome back. We are ACI Course 9, Class 4, on June 19th, 2025. In my world.

So let's gather our minds here, as we usually do. Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Class Opening]

Review Quiz Class 3

(8:02) We're studying the Pratimoksha vows, the individual freedom vows. And we learned that the individual freedom vows are called individual freedom vows, because the individual who gets them, keeps them, reaches their freedom. And those who don't, won't.

As I've studied it, it's like, it also shows us that individual freedom vows are directed towards an individual freedom, meaning the distinction between reaching nirvana versus reaching Buddhahood.

When we reach our nirvana, when that's our goal, it's because our renunciation is our own suffering and it's unacceptability, and we want to reach that place where we become free of mental afflictions. We're aspiring to reach our own nirvana. So the individual freedom, the Pratimoksha level of morality, is the morality with that goal as its result.

Mahayana says, well, you'll reach that along the way to your Buddhahood. So just go for Buddhahood. But it's not that, right?

Here's, you're at a fork in the road. And one fork goes in Hinayana-nirvana. The other one says, Mahayana. And you have to, you have to decide, do I go that way? Or do I go this way? As if, right, as if they're unrelated things. And, and that's the mistake is that you don't reach a fork in the road. You're, you're going along your path, whether your heart has said, I want to reach nirvana, because that's the highest I can do. Or your heart has said, I want to reach Buddhahood, because that's the highest I can do.

Either way, you've got the part of the path where you are working on your own individual freedom vows. So those vows are still part of the path. The individual freedom morality is a foundation for the Mahayana morality to happen.

So we can have the seeds to be attracted straight up to the Mahayana, and even jump right in to working at Mahayana morality, which is the six perfections. And even then, the second perfection is moral discipline. And it's like, Oh, there's the Pratimoksha level practice.

So we can think we skipped grades and go to Mahayana. And then we're going to meet up with the Pratimoksha anyway. Or we can start on Pratimoksha and as our heart opens up, it's like, Oh, wow, I see. This is true for everybody. I want to help everybody. Then our morality training serves us just all that much better. Because we've already habituated to it. By the time we're turning our minds on to our six perfections morality.

It's called a lesser level morality, in the sense that it's a Hinayana level morality. But it's the foundation for everything. It's foundation for all of it Nirvana or Buddhahood. So we take our Pratimoksha vows very seriously. So that because they're going to help us along the way.

Then we learned those six different things about that, those individual freedom vows. And then Je Tsongkapa gave us that general description of what the vows are all about. And it was that verse,

It is a turning away from harming others, and its basis caused by an attitude of renunciation.

The turning away from harming others is referring to learning to avoid the first seven of the 10 non-virtues.

And then the basis, learning how to recognize and transform the basis, is referring to those three mind non-virtues of the coveting, ill will and wrong view. Because those are the states of mind that compel us to do the seven.

So we don't take vows to avoid coveting, ill will, because those mental states are too fleeting and intangible to be able to take and hold vows for. Later, we actually do get vows that are thought vows.

So they call them the basis for the seven that we're really working with. So as we work with avoiding the seven, we have to be addressing these states of mind of jealousy, ill will and wrong view in order to be choosing a different behavior. And so it works out that you're working on all of them anyway. Beautiful system.

Class 4

(15:07) So this class, Je Tsongkapa is going to go into greater specifics about those eight kinds of individual freedom vows. Again, we can't go into the details of ordained person vows, but we can get the gist of it, so that we can understand the different choices that we have available to us along our path for formally committing ourselves to certain kinds of disciplined behavior.

We can do the behaviors, formally committed or not. Like do the behaviors, meaning avoid, the negative behaviors. When we take a vow to avoid them, we've heard those benefits in terms of the impact on our mind for our spiritual path.

So let me get the screen share.

Vocabulary Class 4

KYIMPAY CHOK KYI DOMPA Vows related to those living the family life

RABJUNG CHOK KYI DOMPA Vows for ordained people

NYEN NE One Day Vows

MI TSUNG CHU Sexual activity

MA JIN LEN Stealing

SOK CHU Killing a human or human fetus

DZUN MA Lying

MEL CHE TE Luxurious furniture

CHANG TUNG Drinking alcohol, using intoxicants

GAR SOK TRENG SOK Dancing and Singing, wearing flower garlands, perfumes, jewelry, cosmetics

CHI DRO KASE Eating after noon time

TEKCHEN SO JONG One day Mahayana vow

GE NYEN Lifetime Layperson‘s vows

GE TSUL Novice monk vows

TSAWA CHI four primary

YEN LAK DRUK secondary six

LANG DE SUM three transgressions

Individual Freedom Vows

The individual freedom vows are divided into KYIMPAY CHOK KYI DOMPA and RABJUNG CHOK KYI DOMPA.

KYIMPAY CHOK KYI = householder type vows

DOMPA = vows

CHOK KYI DOMPA = type vows

I don't know if it means type of vows or if it means the type of person taking the vows, but it's just these are the vows of whom? The KYIMPAY.

KYIMPAY = a householder, meaning someone living a human worldly life at home, implying there's other people there, but living by ourselves would be included. It's the person who, normal human life, you go to work, you do something to make a living, right? You have interests, you have likes and dislikes. And I think we all know normal human life, householder life, it's called.

RABJUNG CHOK KYI DOMPA = the vows of the RABJUNG person.

RABJUNG literally means to really come out. What it's trying to convey is to have come out of that home life, come out, left the family life. So it's the term that they use for someone who has taken ordination or joined the monastery. Which in the old days, when you took your ordination, you went and lived in the monastery. Or even before monasteries were there, when you took ordination, you went and lived with the Sangha of monks or nuns who maybe didn't even have a place that they lived. There they were in, you know, Vulture’s Peak in the park there, and they're staying there on somebody's behest. And then Buddha says, yeah, we need to go over there. And they all walk to the new place. And now they're living there. So they didn't even have a home, technically. And then monasteries developed.

But you left home, whether it happened when you were a little kid or anywhere along the way, you've cut your ties with what was your home life. You've given up your ownership. You've given up your relationships. Is your mom still your mom? Yes, of course. But your focus now is your life with your monastic family, I guess I could say.

There are vows that establish us as having fully left the home life. And not everybody is it appropriate to fully leave the home life.

But it doesn't mean that we're doomed to be lesser practitioners in any way, shape or form. We just have fewer vows. So we have this distinction.

Technically, there's a third level, like an in-between level, where someone who wants to definitely leave the home life will go and take a ceremony in which they agree to grow this ability to leave the home life. They actually get robes and they follow a certain preliminary of behavior, discipline, instructions for a certain period of time before they then go and take their formal ceremony of getting their ordained vows.

So it's sweet, you know, somebody might say, I'm really inclined, but I'm just not really sure I can do it. It's like, okay, let's do this middle piece and see how it goes. Right? And you're always free to say, Oh, no, not now. And let that middle level, not really vow, but commitment, then wear out and go back to being a householder.

I don't know, within the modern tradition, how that's being used necessarily. But it's an option.

(22:22) Je Tsongkapa starts with the householder vows to describe them in some detail, because he can. And then we'll go on and hear about the RABJUNG vows and their levels. But without the details, as I said.

Within the KYIMPAY CHOK KYI DOMPA, the vows of a lifeholder, one set of those vows is called the NYEN NE. Looks like NYUN NE, but it's NYEN NE. It means the one day vows.

So it seems to me, when Diamond Mountain was doing the Medicine Buddha practices, then they were then needing to be sure that people had their Bodhisattva vows, because you were getting Medicine Buddha, which is a level of Diamond Way, in which you get your Bodhisattva vows, whether you know it or not. So you've got them knowing them, that then they also gave you these one day vows, where you had to get up in the dark, and there was a preceptor that took us through the ceremony. Do you remember?

Then we live for that 24 hour period of time, really, really, really conscientiously avoiding certain things. And then when the sun comes up the next day, and you can see the lines on your hand, those vows are done.

And after you've received them from a preceptor the first time, you can then go before your image of a Buddha and give yourself the one day vows anytime you want to.

When you learn those during Medicine Buddha, what you learned was the Mahayana one day vows, which I'll get to in a minute.

There's a different motivation for taking your one day vows as a Mahayana one day vows, but the vows are the same as these.

The NYEN NE is the one day vow from the individual freedom vows level of discipline, practice of discipline, the I wanna reach Nirvana motivation of discipline, to take your one day vows as a householder.

You say, this 24 hour period, I'm going to very intentionally live as if I'm a really, really high level ordained person. I'm gonna live even as if I'm an arhat, like free of all these attachments, free of all this interest, free of all these mental afflictions. And we go through this day following these very specific behaviors, just for the 24 hour period of time, as a method of generating the goodness to reach Nirvana. The NYEN NE.

The 4 Primary One Day Vows

They have eight separate commitments for that 24 hour period of time, four primary ones and four secondary ones.

The four primary ones are:

MI TSUN CHU
MA JIN LEN
SOK CHU and
DZUN MY

Avoid Sexual Activity

MI TSUN CHU, literally the words mean not clean activity.

It's the word that's used for sexual activity, not meaning that sexual activity is in itself some kind of unclean behavior. But that particular activity in ignorant beings is so enmeshed in mental afflictions and misunderstandings that it gathers a lot of not clean seeds because of all the baggage, let's say that.

And so from time to time, it's a really useful thing for our mental state to decide, I'm going to avoid that. No matter what, I'm going to avoid that behavior for a certain period of time.

Here, it's only 24 hours. That avoiding any sexual activity has a big impact on our subtle body as well. It's not that we're working with the subtle body at this level of Pratimoksha at all, but the actions that we do are still having an effect so that when we get to practices where we're intentionally working with our subtle body, one of the things that can be very, very helpful to make our subtle body work go more smoothly is to intentionally establish a period of time of celibacy before going into those practices. So later, later, later, right? This is all information for now.

So for one day, one 24-hour period of time, we intentionally forego any sexual activity, anything close to sexual activity.

Our five-lifetime layperson vows surrounding sexual activity is, I'll avoid adultery. We'll get there. We'll talk about that. But for one day, I'll.

Avoid Stealing or Taking Anything Of Value Without Permission

MA JIN LEN means not taken given, meaning to not take what has not been given. So it means avoid stealing. But this is more subtle than stealing, to avoid taking what's not been given.

How do you define that? Anything of value for us to take when the owner of the thing of value hasn't said, help yourself, or here, this is for you, or offered it, freely offered it. So if we know somebody owns something, then we need permission to use it, take it. And to use it or take it without permission is this taking the not given.

We take one pencil home from the office. We don't even think twice. But suppose we take a pencil home from the office two or three times a week and we don't think anything of it. But after we've worked at the office for a year, it's like, oh my gosh, I've taken 100 pens. And we still think, oh, well, whoops.

But what if you were like, decide one day, I'm going to take 100 pencils from the office home. It's like, oh, no, no, that would be stealing. Do you see?

So we're looking at things in these more and more subtle ways, especially for 24 hours. For that 24 hours, you don't even take the pencil home. You're very, very careful. Probably for that 24 hours, you're not going into work anyway. But same thing for whatever other interaction that you're doing. There's nobody watching you, but you in your 24 hour vows. So it's like there's nobody else's criteria for what qualifies as stealing. We could even steal somebody's time, right? If we commandeer their time.

Let me tell you about my one day vows. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's our job for the 24 hours to be living this conscientiously.

Killing

SOK CHU.

SOK = life

CHU = to cut, to cut life.

So killing, taking life, any life, or being the cause for somebody else to do it, or contributing or somehow, somebody else has killed something or had to kill something in order for me to get whatever it was.

So again, for this 24 hour period of time, we're deciding I'm going to be ever so careful to avoid killing or contributing to killing in any way.

And then you decide how what's that going to look like for my day?

You know, maybe you have a lawn out in the front of your yard, and it's got all kinds of bugs in it. It's like, okay, for this day, I'm not even going to go walk on the grass, because I might hurt somebody. But just for the 24 hour period of time.

Lying

TSUN MA = to speak falsely. So lying, giving a false impression.

The worst one we understand is saying we've seen emptiness directly when we haven't. And Geshela always says, you will know it when you do it. So there won't be any question. So if you think, well, I'm not quite sure, then you haven't. So don't talk about having done so.

They also say, you don't speak about spiritual realizations that you haven't had. So lying about our spiritual practice is the worst kind of false speech.

But for our 24 hours, we're trying to be really, really, really pure. So many people decide for my 24 hour vows, I'm just gonna be silent. I can't lie to anybody if I don't say anything. But my prayers and my mantra or whatever you're going to be doing for that day.

Although I know there are some verses in my prayers that it's like, if I say those out loud, wait a minute. I'm not quite sure that wouldn't be on the verge of giving a false impression.

It's not prescribed to do your 24 hour vows in silence. But many people do for that added benefit of making sure that we don't inadvertently say something that gives the false impression like even just casual useless talk will be saying stuff that we're not careful about, somebody could misunderstand.

So we're trying to avoid, we are avoiding these four behaviors in obvious and very subtle ways, as subtle as we can get.

Then the next four, they're called the secondary

The 4 Secondary One Day Vows

MEL CHE TE, CHANG TUNG, GAR SOK TRENG SOK and CHI DRO CASE.

Avoid Using Luxurious Things

MEL CHE TE = seats or beds too costly or high, which seems like an odd one. It means using luxurious expensive furniture or things. For one day, we're trying to live exceptionally simply, unattached to our things in terms of the usual way we relate to our things that belong to us.

That beautiful furniture in our living room, it reflects something about ourselves, that we can afford it, that we can take care of it, that it's beautiful. All of that, we have these attachments to and beliefs that they reflect something special about us. And they inflate our little ignorant egos.

I'm not saying it's bad to have lovely furniture in your room. But for this 124 hour period, when we're wanting to break through those attachments, we decide, I'm just not going to use all that stuff. I don't need to use it.

Well, what am I going to do? Sit on the floor?

Yeah. Why not? Get out a blanket, sit on the floor, get a pillow. Get your meditation cushion and bring it out to the living room.

Well, wait, am I going to eat my meal sitting on the floor?

Why not? Who needs to sit at that beautiful table? Well, what if your furniture isn't beautiful, high lofty, expensive furniture? Can you use it then?

Sure. Of course you can. But you know what, if you decide, what would it be like to be not even attached to my old funky furniture?

Sumati and I, back when we first had some abundance in 1980, we bought a set of furniture. And it was the teakwood furniture. We thought it was so beautiful. We loved it so much. And for us, we spent a lot of money on it. And we took really, really good care of it because we were so proud of it and we wanted it to last a long time. And then, you know, we moved it a couple of times.

Finally, we moved it to Diamond Mountain with us. And then when we went into retreat, it's like, here, this is all yours, Diamond Mountain. And when we came out of retreat and we look at it, and it's like, hmm, clearly, other people weren't as fond as that furniture as we were. Because, you know, it had taken a beating in three years that it hadn't taken in the 20 years that we had it before that, longer than that. And it's like, okay, fine. It's not ours anymore. Good.

Then we moved to Tucson. And the little house that we bought is really, really full of big people furniture. And it was too much. And we thought, maybe Diamond Mountain would swap with us and we can give them all this furniture, they can disperse it around the property. And maybe we can get our precious teakwood furniture back again. They said, great. So it all came back. Right? We tried to give it away. And then we got it back again. And to us, it's still precious and beautiful. But when I look with somebody else's eyes, it's like, why in the world you haven't gotten a new dining room table, you guys for crying out loud, you've had it since 1980. Because to us, it's still our fancy, beautiful.

So in my 24 hour vows, I would say, Okay, I'm not going to use my fancy, beautiful dining room table, even though it's neither fancy nor beautiful anymore. But in my mind, my attachment to it is, it still is. And that's what I'm getting at. Do you see? That's our 24 hour vow level of working with our own mind, and our interaction with our everyday life.

Seats or beds too costly or high to cut our attachments.

Avoid Taking in any Intoxications

CHANG TUNG.

TUNG = to drink and CHANG = beer.

But meaning alcohol, meaning intoxicants. So to avoid taking intoxicants for that 24 hour period of time, to avoid influencing using an outside substance to influence our mind. Let me change that.

Using an outside substance that changes our mind that makes our conscientiousness about our behavior lower.

There's something about alcohol, that when we imbibe our ability to choose our behavior according to a certain criteria slips. And the end result is that we do things that hurt ourselves and hurt others. And we say, No, I can drink two beers. I don't know. I've never been an alcohol drinker. So I don't really know. But suppose I can drink two beers. But when I drink my third one, that's when I get silly. The first two, I just relax and feel so much better. So I can drink two, but not three. Maybe so maybe not. But not for your one day vows day.

One day vows, we are being trying to be so careful in our keeping our mindfulness clean, clear, alert, directed that we're not even willing to take a finger dip of that substance, because that's enough to influence the level of subtlety we're trying to be on.

Am I on that level of subtlety during my 24 hour vows? No, but I'm pretending to be. And so I will avoid, I will avoid that substance. You know, don't even let me see it. Keep it away from me that far, especially if we have an attraction to it.

So avoiding intoxicating, or intoxicating anybody else's mind.

So if your one day vows, you're still around other people that don't have one day vows. And you and your other people typically have a glass of wine for dinner. You're sitting down to dinner, you pick up the bottle, pour them their glass of wine. And it's like, oops, no, right? My 24 hour vows say, I don't even do participate in that.

Technically, you're probably not going to be sitting down at dinner with them either because of what's coming next. But, just as the example of the subtlety we're trying to get at for our 24 hour vows.

Avoid Dancing and Singing

GAR SOK TRANG SOK

GAR = dance, dance, etc.

TRENG = flowers, etc.

So this one says for 24 hour period of time, I will avoid dancing, singing, playing music, wearing flowers, or flower garlands, dressing myself up, using cosmetics, perfumes, that's all the etc. in both of those.

So we are again for 24 hour period of time, living ever so simply, and ever so mindfully so that there's no need, no interest in all of those entertainments, or in the entertainment of needing to dress myself up in a certain way, to help me feel better about myself or to help somebody else feel better about me. Whatever reasons we use to get made up, dressed up, etc.

Just for 24 hour period of time.

The reason being, not that there's anything wrong with all of those behaviors, but that all of those behaviors become distracting factors in our meditative concentration.

So it doesn't mean that during singing and dancing, there's anything wrong. They do tend to lead to a little more wild behavior, which is where they could take us off in the wrong direction. But then in our meditation subsequent, apparently, all of that enjoyment will rattle around in our consciousness and activate these distractions.

Not that you necessarily sit down to meditate and remember the Thursday night dance that you went to. But the agitation of the mind that's going on there affects our meditation practice.

So again, for that 24 hour period of time, we are planting seeds in our minds that we're hoping will go on to help influence our meditative concentration, so that it can come to that same kind of high level, conscientious mindfulness on our cushion, so that we can reach that platform from which we can have the realizations from which we can make this transformation to one with no mental afflictions at all, Nirvana, what we're talking about here, or one who is fully omniscient when we do the same behaviors for this different reason.

Avoid Eating in the Afternoon

CHI DRO KASE.

CHI DRO = the afternoon and KASE is food.

So this one means to take food in the afternoon. So in the olden days, when you had left the home life and you're following Buddha, the monks, the nuns, they would take their begging bowl and go out for a meal. We heard it in Diamond Cutter Sutra, right?

And whatever they're given is what they're given. And when they've got a bowl full, they go back, they sit down to eat. Presumably, if one poor monk comes back with one little tomato and another monk's got a huge bowl full, probably they share. But either way, you sit down and you eat and then you clean up and you put everything away and eating is done for the day. No more going out begging again, no keeping some back for a snack later on.

Just one eating, however long it takes to finish what you were given, you finish it and then done.

If we could imagine maybe not having to go out and beg, but imagine that you get up first thing in the morning and you make and eat your meal for the day and put it all away and the rest of the day no need to think about food preparation, cleanup, nothing, right?

If you're the mom of a family and you're making breakfast, lunch and dinner, it's like that's about all you do with some laundry thrown in and then sweep the floor. Like it's mealtime, mealtime, mealtime. Imagine what it would be like. It's like one time, you're free the rest of the day. Hmm. So we're trying to approximate that kind of freedom on that one day.

So in your planning for that day, have what you need to make your one meal, make your one meal, eat it in one sitting, however long it takes you. And when you're done, be done before noon.

How long before noon? Whatever you want, right? You got up in the dark, you took your vows. You decide when it is you want to do your eat. But have it finished by noon and then put it all away and no more eating after that.

Now it's like, oh, but I have blood sugar problems. Oh, right. Yeah, that's right. You can drink things like clear liquids, ground up vegetables you can drink. You just avoid milk, yogurt, milk product type drinks. Why they just distinguish those exactly, I don't know.

But their intention is water the rest of the day so that you're free. You don't have to think about all that stuff anymore.

CHI DRO KASE.

So then probably you're going to do your 24 hour vows on a day that you don't need to go to work. Because when we're active, we're involved, we need the nourishment of food, middle of that to keep us going. Don't try to do one day vows at your work. It's just too hard. Give yourself one day vows on a day that you can be home.

Even arrange for your family to go have some fun day somewhere and leave you home alone. Or you go someplace where you're home alone. So that keeping the vowed behavior becomes easier, at least until it is easy.

Then if you want to challenge yourself and say to your family, help me do my one day vows. I'm going to do one day vow. So I'm going to go into silence. I'm going to eat only once. I'm going to study and practice and chant and you do all the stuff that you do around me. But this is what I'm doing.

It would be challenging to do that. So don't do it as a beginner.

But you don't have to kick them out to do your one day vows.

(54:22) It's a really special thing to do from time to time. And you decide when or if or how often you're going to do it. And then once you learn it from the preceptor, the first time you learn how to do it, how to do the whole day. Ideally, you and the preceptor would do a whole day together. And then you're launched to do it on your own, which is how I learned them.

I had mentioned that these 24 hour vows are also called TEK CHEN SOKONG.

TEK CHEN = Mahayana

SOJONG = that repair, repair and purify.

So to do a TEK CHEN SOJONG means you get the practice from a preceptor the first time. And then after that, you can get up at night, before the sun has risen when it's still dark out. And you go before your image of the Buddha, and you give yourself your one day vows. And you then do your 24 hours in this same way, the same eight things that we are avoiding. Only now our motivation is, I'm using these vows and this careful avoiding behavior to purify all the behaviors of having done those things that I'm avoiding now, and to gather the goodness of going through one 24 hour period without doing them. So that I can become a being who can help everybody become a being who can help everybody become a being who is free of suffering.

So this one, the motivation is out of bodhicitta, which is why it's called TEK CHEN SOJONG. Technically speaking, the NYEN NE and the TEK CHEN SOJONG, they are different practices, but the practice itself is the same. So you don't interchange. Either you're doing the NYEN NE or you're doing TEK CHEN SOJONG.

Once we have Bodhisattva vows, then we will be doing TEK CHEN SOJONG, because we've already declared ourselves on the path to Buddhahood. And it would be like going backwards to say, oh, I'm going to do a Hinayana level 24 hour vows. This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, to be honest with you.

But once we've declared ourselves on the higher path, to then go back and declare yourself on a lower path, it's like saying to yourself, I either don't believe my higher path or I don't believe I can really do it. It's a little bit damaging to our higher vows. But if that were exactly right, then a householder with Bodhisattva vows, they would not let go back and get ordained vows, but they do. So it's like, hmm, this is when I got on the shelf because they let me get ordained vows after I even had Tantric vows. Because it occurred to me, I'm already living like that. I want vow credit. And Lama said, good idea.

But we get the difference. The process is the same. The impact in our mind is a little different between doing 24 hours in order to reach nirvana, or 24 hours in order to reach Buddhahood. And nirvana comes along the way.

Alright, let's take a break.

(Break)

(1:02:31) So for 24-hour vows that we'll all be taking as TEK CHEN SOJONGs, probably, using in that way. It's typical to do them on those sacred days where the merit multiplies. Like Sagadawa, Day of Miracles. Anytime within that two weeks of miracles, the first turning of the wheel day, those days are days where goodness multiplies by some huge amount. And so to spend 24 hours living in this really, really highly conscious conscientiously, harmlessly way, in order to purify old habits and make merit, to make that merit, that malt that's huger than what it otherwise would. You see, it's just like a trick of the system. But you're welcome to take them any day you wish, and as often as you wish.

I know a woman who was thinking to become a nun, but hadn't yet. And when she would go into retreat, she would give herself one day vows every morning as the first thing she did in retreat. So when she was in a, you know, month, six-week retreat, she was doing 24-hour vows every single day, which is very similar to having nun's vows for a day. It was really smart, actually. And then she did go on to get her ordained status.

Okay, so let's go on. That was all one set of vows that lifetime lay people can take. Sorry, don't mean lifetime lay people, lay people can take. Then another set of vows that lay people can take are called the GE NYEN.

Lifetime Lay Person‘s Vows

GE NYEN, they roll it into one word, GENYEN.

GE NYEN means lifetime lay person's vows.

Many of us probably have those already.

There are five, and they're very specific in what it is that we're pledging to avoid doing. And so when we learn about them, it's like, well, those shouldn't be so hard to keep. So it encourages us to be willing to actually take them somewhere along the way of our renunciation turned on to others, where we're wanting to make a greater impact on our new behaviors.

So this isn't Mahayana, not Mahayana. This is technically from the Vinaya level, a Vinaya ethics. They are the same, whether you are Vinaya ethics motivated, or Mahayana motivated.

These five lay person's vows, they are the same for men and women, but they're called the lifetime lay man's vows and the lifetime lay woman's vows. They aren't just called lifetime lay vows, and it doesn't matter man or woman who takes them. For some reason, they are different categories of vows, but the vows themselves are the same.

Avoid Killing a Human Fetus

The first one is, I will avoid killing a human or a human fetus.

For the 24 hour period of time, I'm going to avoid killing or contributing to killing to the very best of my ability.

For all day, every day, I am going to avoid killing a human and avoid killing a human fetus. Why are those what's pinpointed?

Because a human, any human is closer to reaching enlightenment in that lifetime than any other kind of being. So it doesn't matter whether that human is an ax murderer. They're still human and so they have the capacity to reach enlightenment in that lifetime. It's going to take some work but... It's not that their life is more precious than a mosquito. It's that the impact on our mind for contributing to the end of their life is so much greater that we decide that we ourselves need to avoid like the plague, contributing to some human's death, even if it hasn't quite been born yet, born, come out of the womb yet.

Technically, because technically, when the egg and sperm meet, that's being born in this tradition.

Avoid Stealing Anything of Worth

Second one, I will avoid stealing anything of worth, which also is a little bit slippery, because worth according to whom?

It must be worth something to me or I wouldn't take it. And so it's not so much that criteria, it's the criteria of with the person who owns it that you're taking it from, would they feel like they've been stolen from?

If you have somebody staying in your house, and when they leave, you realize one of your hundred pencils is gone, would you be upset with them? Probably good riddance.

But what if you found, I don't know, your set of your Encyclopedia Britannica is gone? It's like, hey, wait a minute. They took that from me. Right? It's the criteria. But then they would have to have seen it that way, too. Maybe something you had said implied to them that you'd be just as happy to have your Encyclopedia Britannica set disappear. In which case, when they took it, they thought they were doing you a favor. Their imprint on their mind was, I'm going to help out.

Now, probably they should have said, would you like me to take that off your hands? And I could have said yes or no. The doing it without clear communication is how we solve this whole problem.

But the idea is, when we take our lifetime lay vows, we're pledging to be so aware of other people's sense of ownership, that we will not interfere with that to the best of our ability.

Why? Why is that so important?

Because the karmic effect of taking what isn't ours, is that things that are ours, get taken from us. Whether somebody steals from us, or we lose them, or some disaster strikes and the house burns down, right? My things are no longer available to me, because I planted the seeds of making other people's things not available to them.

So it goes beyond just getting stolen from. It's like we just can't get our needs met, if we let ourselves take the not given.

So we're pledging to avoid doing that.

But something that would make somebody else feel I've been stolen from, would break this vow. Not the occasional pencil from work. But then if we have a situation where we do tend to do that, we would want to go to our boss and say from time to time, I end up taking a pencil from work. Do you need me to bring them all back? Or you need to lay it out so that the boss has the opportunity to say not to worry, just make sure it's not a regular thing.

Or the boss says, no, absolutely not. Then we need to stop doing it. Okay, clarify it with your place of work. So that we're not just assuming it's okay. Like everybody does it, so it must be okay. We're not into everybody else's what's right and what's wrong on this path. Because society's right and wrong is mistakenly directed.

We're swimming upstream here.

(Tom) I'm wondering, like, do you need to tell the other person about it? Meaning if you think that what you're doing, how you say, like, not reflecting well with your vows, why don't you just bring the pens back? Or, or just, does that make sense?

(Lama Sarahni) Right, right. Yeah, when you decide, oh, my gosh, all of that was subtly wrong behavior, I'm going to fix it. Fix it. You don't necessarily have to see him.

(Tom) Okay, I thought this like, there is a something special about letting know the other side about it.

(Lama Sarahni) No, what I meant was, if we're in the position of, we realize, oh, my gosh, I really am taking things from work or whatever. I would want to check with my boss to see if that's expected. If the business expects people to take pencils home from time to time, then it's not wrong. You might still want to stop doing it. But you've gotten the business to clarify what's acceptable. And, and then what's not so that you can be more clear about right the line for yourself. Don't have to, just just a suggestion for clarity.

(Tom) Thank you.

Avoid Lying on my Spiritual Life

Third one is, I will avoid lying about my spiritual life. We're not saying I will avoid lying at all. For the five lifetime laybouts vows.

I will avoid giving the wrong impression about my spiritual level or spiritual realizations or etc. I especially avoid saying or implying that we've seen emptiness when we haven't, that we're no giving the intentionally wrong impression of our level of realizations. Because our own mind is listening. It knows why we're saying what we're saying and whether what we're saying is true or not. And if it's not true, right, the seeds that we're planting in our mind is to hear other people and not able to believe them about their realizations, whether they're saying it or not. So it would influence our mind to where everybody sees so and so is this really high realized being. It's like, I just see him as a jerk. Because the seeds in my mind can't, don't trust or don't see the goodness because I was giving the wrong impression about my own for instance.

So again, it's not it's it's not whether the other person hears you and knows that you're, it's not true. It's not about so much that it is about the impact on the other person, but it's about your own mind hearing you saying stuff about your realizations that's not true.

But what if somebody asks you straight out, have you seen emptiness directly? And you have and you say, no. Isn't that also lying about your spiritual practice? So you wouldn't do that either. I know Geshela always says, beings with realizations are really good at changing the subject.

But then isn't that not answering the question, which we have Bodhisattva vows about avoiding not answering questions, right?

It's like, man, this is all slippery business.

Right. Because our ignorance is so cagey that it sneaks itself into everything and makes us think it's the right thing to do. Whatever our ignorance thinks is right. So our efforts to keep our five lifetime lay vows, we get it. It's like, just don't speak about your spiritual realizations, live according to them. And you're not lying to anybody.

Avoid admitting adultery

Fourth one, I will avoid committing adultery. So again, in the 24 hour vows, I will avoid all sexual activity. And then this one is no, I will commit myself to avoiding adultery. Adultery means having relations with someone else's committed partner.

So if you are committed to somebody and you're interacting with someone else, whether they are in a committed relationship or not, you are cheating on your partner. So that's adultery.

If you're not in a committed relationship, but you go with someone who is in a committed relationship, that's adultery.

If you are uncommitted and they are uncommitted, that is not breaking this vow.

And then there are the fine lines. Yeah, I'm still committed, but we're getting separated. Yeah. But are you still committed?

Well, no, I'm not emotionally committed.

Are you still legally committed? Well, yes. Okay. Right. You are off limits to, to me from my side. Okay.

So it's our own criteria and it's just this very specific commitment that's getting broken.

It's not the sexual activity. It's the interfering with the commitment because that creates the seeds for having not trustworthy people in our lives. Not just partners not trustworthy, but nobody trustworthy. Ourselves not even trustworthy.

And that makes for unpleasant living experiences, unpleasant work experiences. Nobody's trusting anybody. Because we broke through somebody's commitment, either our own or somebody else's.

Avoid Taking Intoxicants

Then the fifth one, probably the most difficult of the five is, I will avoid taking intoxicants. And technically it says I will avoid taking intoxicants or contributing to the intoxication of someone else's mind. And in the Vinaya, Abhidharmakosha, actually, I think it was in there that Buddha is quoted as having said that anyone who partakes of the amount of alcohol as a drop of dew on a blade of grass is not a student of mine. Like he is really strict about that.

Because of the effect that intoxicating our mind has on our ability to hold our behavior choices in check. A mind that's not bright and clear and uninfluenced can't make the decision, I'm close to harming a human or a human fetus. I'm close to telling a lie. I'm close to interfering, right? We can't tell, we can't discriminate clearly. So the intoxicating our mind would, would allow any of those others to happen that without the intoxication, we would never even get close to.

And we say, yeah, but I would have to be really drunk. Well, how do you get really drunk from having been partly drunk?

And how do you get partly drunk from having been a little bit drunk?

And how do you get a little bit drunk from having the first sip?

And how do you get that from even letting somebody pour you a glass?

And how do you get that?

So we just keep backing off, backing off, backing off and deciding where our line is that we need to draw.

And it's difficult because our society embraces the use of intoxicants so much that we're expected to participate. And then they're all offended when we say no, because they think we're judging them as well, which we probably are. But the whole reason of avoiding is to protect our own mind and hopefully set an example for others in a longer term way. But this one is probably where we'll have the most pushback from people around us. Because of their reaction to your changing your mind.

So it's delicate how you go about handling that with people. Hopefully you can do it gently.

Some of the traditions that take these vows, the teachers will say, look, take any, any one of the five or any combination of the five and build up according to your capacity. Our particular lineage, through us to Geshe Michael, Ken Rinpoche, Trijung Rinpoche, Pabongka Rinpoche, they say all five or none at all. Right?

We've horsed around with the one, two, three, five, some combination in the past. Just come on, if you're going to take them, take all five. And so that's how we were instructed to give them when we give them. It's like all five.

You can choose to avoid these behaviors without taking vows to avoid these behaviors. So you can certainly try them on for size first. And once you have the confidence that you could keep them, that would be when you would say, you know, to your preceptor or whomever, Will you grant me these five vows?

Now, interestingly, when we receive our Bodhisattva vows, these five are included. So technically, if you have Bodhisattva vows, you have these five vows, whether you knew it or not.

If you were paying attention in the ceremony, you took them, at least in our lineage.

Now there's an additional part to the five lifetime layman, laywomen vows, and that is the pledge to keep our refuge advices. So when we take our refuge, we hear about these 12 advices for how to live by way of our refuge. And they're often called refuge vows, but they're not vows, they're advices. Because they are things that we can actually do so well that we would be able to be benefiting from keeping them. But as advices, yes, they will guide us to avoid taking refuge in anything but Buddha once we have refuge in Buddha. But what that means is way beyond just the words.

So in taking our five lifetime lay vows, we are also pledging to hold our refuge advices as supreme, they call it. All right. But to break refuge advices really means something happens and we just like, stop, stop trying to avoid harming others. Stop trying. Like even when we're trying to avoid harming others, we will harm others. It happens.

But we're trying. To break our refuge means I quit trying. I don't care. Hopefully we'll never, any of us get to that point.

Someone almost always asks, what about being vegetarian then? No, if all of this is about giving up harming others, one of the very obvious ways we're contributing to harming others is how we eat and what we choose to eat. And we are either directly harming others in our procuring of that food and eating it, or we are contributing to someone else harming someone else so that we can get the thing that we're needing to eat, right?

Poor field workers, when they're picking all that lettuce, there's all kinds of creatures that are being fear, they're having fear and danger and harm and even dead. And the poor field worker themselves are out there in the sun suffering miserably. And we get this beautiful head of lettuce in the grocery store that we partake of, right? So effortlessly. And yet, haven't we contributed to all of that killing? And it's, yeah, but what do we do? We have to eat.

So how do we minimize it, right? Who's getting harmed the biggest or the most? And how can I minimize that and still feed my body the way my body needs to be fed?

Buddha didn't say you have to be vegan. He never said that. He said, you want to stop your suffering? Reduce the amount of harmfulness that you personally do or that you contribute to. So you decide what your criteria is, what your level is.

What happens over time as we apply this increasing level of conscientiousness of our own behavior is that our actual sensitivity to the Dharma will increase. Our ability to have these insights as to what does it really mean to avoid killing a human and human fetus? What are all the nuances of how that would play out in my personal life? Different for each of us, of course.

And those deepening awarenesses of the subtleties of these instructions will push our spiritual capacity. Our willingness, like this criteria, to what extent do I need to accept I'm harming others so that I can feed this body what it needs?

At first, we may still say, well, it's okay. It's okay to eat these kinds of foods. And then as our sensitivity grows, we may decide, no, actually, for me now, here's this level of foods that I'm not comfortable contributing to that happening. Like making the shift from being vegetarian to being vegan. At first it's like, okay, you know, cows give milk, they have extra. I'm willing to drink their milk. Then our Dharma sensitivity increases. And at some point we decide, no, actually, if I'm going to drink milk, it has to be from a happy cow, who lives in the field and her baby doesn't need so much anymore. And she's happy to give me her extra. It's like, well, then I'll drink milk.But otherwise, no. It's our own decision.

Nobody's saying that's a better diet than to just drink milk, because maybe your body needs milk.

Our own criteria, but our sensitivity will increase. Because having vows and keeping vows is planting so many increased level of kindness seeds, that those kindnesses are influencing our awarenesses in a positive way. And so increasing our ability to be aware of the impact of our behavior in a more clear way, a more subtle way. So it's this upward cycle.

Novice Monk Vows

(1:33:08) Je Tsongkapa‘s text brings up the first level of the definitely left the home life vows.

The first level is called the GETSUL. It means the novice monk vows. It refers to the novice nun vows as well. The novice vows are the same for monks and nuns. But just like the lifetime lay man and woman, the vow is a different section, still both under the category of GETSUL.

There are 13 vows, and then additional, like there's primary vows, there's secondary vows, and then there are transgressions.

Then they all make up 13 basic vows. But when those 13 basic vows are unpacked, you end up with 36 novice monk or novice nun vowed behaviors that make up that level.

The 13 basic vows are divided into three:

TSAWA SHI
YEN LAK DRUK and
LANG DE SUM

The 4 Root Vows of a Novice Monk or Nun

TSAWA SHI means the four root vows. So the four root vows of a novice monk or nun. They are the same four as the first four of the one day vows. No sex, no stealing, no killing, no lying.

So they are also the first four of the lifetime lay vows, but the lay vows are narrowed down and more specific, right?

The ordained vows is the big category.

6 Secondary Vows

YEN LAK DRUK is the six secondary vows within these 13 basic vows. Four are primary, six are secondary.

Those secondary vows include things like avoiding dancing, wearing flowers, wearing flower garlands, using luxurious furniture, sound familiar? Avoiding eating afternoon, handling money, and using intoxicants.

Those six secondary vows are these six things that a monk or nun will avoid doing because they would cause them to lose their heightened awareness of their discipline.

They'd go dancing, get a little wild, somebody would hand them a beer, oops. Because they just lost their mindfulness.

Not that for lay people, going dancing is any problem whatsoever.

You don't have that in your lay vows, unless you're doing your 24-hour vows. Got it?

The 3 Transgressions

So last one, LANG DE SUM is called the three transgressions. So we have it. I don't remember where we are in studying vows. There's the primary vows versus secondary vows versus transgressions.

The difference is the strength of the impact on our mind by damaging those vows. It's a bigger negativity to damage a primary vow than to damage a secondary vow, which is a bigger negativity than to damage a transgression.

All of them are damages, but how we repair them is different, because the impact is different. So when we have our ordained vows, we learn about those differences and how to deal with them, theoretically at least.

So these three transgressions:

I will avoid disrespecting my vow master.
I will avoid keeping my lay appearance.
I will avoid failing to take up an ordained person's appearance.

Then there are exceptions to some of these as well, which must be the case because we see our ordained people not in their robes.

Nowadays, more than we see them in their robes.

But that doesn't mean that from their side they have failed to give up their lay appearance. It means they're dressing themselves in some way through which they are telling themselves, I am not a lay person, even if they're not putting on their robes to do so.

I understand that. Partly the reason that they don't teach everybody what the monastic vows are is because it would be harmful to the supporters to know the monk's vows and to be judging those monks as to whether the supporter is seeing the monk behave according to the vows.

Because the supporter would be thinking, their judgment is right about what they're seeing that monk or nun do. And then they would either want to support them more or decide they're not worthy of my support. But they would be not understanding the whole situation, of course, they couldn't. And so it would be harmful to themselves to know the vows and then judge the monk or nun.

On the other hand, it also becomes a system where you're not letting the supporters have enough information for them to actually decide, is this monastic community behaving worthy of my support?

We should be able to choose whether the way they're using our resources is admirable or not. And we would need to know a certain amount about what their behavior is supposed to be.

So it gets very, very slippery. This whole, whether Vinaya is open or secret.

Then true to form, Geshe Michael just puts it out there. He and Alison have been translating the text on Vinaya and it is an open text. It's right there for all to find. And now he's got it in multiple languages available for everyone to see.

So he's not breaking rules. He's translating a text that's available. It's always been available. Back in the olden days, people couldn't read. So although it was available, it wasn't useful.

Now situations have changed. But then we would want to be careful that if we do know what an ordained vow should be, that we use that information to say, well, that can be guidelines for my life too, even if I don't have those ordained vows. It's still, it's like, maybe there's information that would help me there.

And not then go and say, oh, these ordained people that I know, are they living like that? Right? That's not the point of learning the details of ordained vows.

It would be for our own behavior. Okay. All righty.

We will go on next class into the following this outline of the different vows that are available. So we'll go a little bit more into the layers of the monks and nuns vows, again, not the vows, even as much as we've done in this class, in next class. So we're not quite done with specific vows yet. Halfway, but this is class four.

[Class Ending]

Thank you so much.

Class 5: A General Description of the Vows, Part 2

22 June 2025

Link to Eng Audio: ACI 9 - Class 5

Rus RUTube: ACI 9 - Class 5 - RUTube

Vocabulary Class 5

NYE ME PUNTSOK

GYENYEN MA 5 Lifetime Laywoman Vows

PARMA RABJUNG Commitment to leave home life for a certain time

GETSUL MA Novice nun vows (13 vows)

GE LOB MA Intermediate nun vows (12 commitments)

TSAWAY CHU DRUK the primary 6 things

JE TUN CHU DRUK the secondary 6 things

TSANG CHU NERNE KYI TSULTRIM Keeping morality/pure activity purely

GELONG MA Fully ordained nun vows

PAMPA defeats (to lose) (8 nuns/ 4 monks)

HLAKMA remainders/ leftovers (nuns/ monks)

TUNG JE downfalls (20 nuns/ 13 monks)

PANG TUNG give up downfall (33 nuns/ 34 monks)

TUNGJE BASHIK simple downfall (180 nuns/ 90 monks)

SOR SHAK (11 nuns/ 4 monks)

NYE JE did bad/misdeed (112 for nuns and monks)

SOJONG purify repair confession ceremony

Welcome back. We are ACI Course 9 Class 5 on June 22nd, 2025.

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do. Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Class Opening]

Review Class 4

(7:20) All right, last class we learned about the lay person's vows, mostly. And we learned that one version of the lay person's vows is the one day freedom vows.

In the one day freedom vows, there were four primary vows that we pledged to keep for one 24 hour period of time, and four secondary vows that we pledged to keep, meaning avoid doing those behaviors for one 24 hour period of time.

So those four primary behaviors that we will avoid is sexual activity.

The vow says no sexual activity, but it means I will have no sexual activity. I will avoid sexual activity. The wording is kind of funny, right? Because if we said I vow to have no sexual activity, that would mean something completely different for your 24 hour period of time. So you get it, I think. But be careful with your wording, even when you're the only one listening.

So I will avoid sexual activity.
I will avoid stealing anything of value.
I will avoid killing and
I will avoid lying.

In my version of the answer key, which is from the 1990s, like ancient history, it said no killing a human or a human fetus and no lying about our spiritual practice. So hopefully the more modern ones have been corrected. Because for the 24 hour vows, they don't have those two caveats. I will avoid killing to the very best of my ability for 24 hours. And I will avoid lying about anything for 24 hours, just 24 hours. Come on, we can do it.

Then the secondary vows:

I will avoid using a seat which is high and expensive, whatever that means.
I will avoid using any intoxicants.
I will avoid singing, dancing, playing music, using flower garden garlands, jewelry, perfumes, cosmetics, all the things that we ordinarily do to beautify ourselves and to entertain ourselves for one 24 hour period of time I will avoid that stuff. Not that it's bad. But for 24 hours, we want to plant different seeds to not need that stuff.

Last one, not eating afternoon.

Then we learned the five lifetime layperson's vows with the one additional part.

I will avoid killing a human or a human fetus. So much more specific, because these we are pledging to avoid for this whole lifetime.
I will avoid stealing anything of value.
I will avoid lying about my spiritual life.
I will avoid committing adultery.
And I will avoid taking intoxicants.

So it doesn't mean I only have lifetime layperson's vows so I can lie about anything but my spiritual practice. It doesn't mean that.

But when we tell a little white lie, we don't break our five lifetime lay vows. Only when we're lying about our spiritual realizations.

So they really set us up to succeed with these vows.

The additional piece of our five lifetime lay vows, we learned, is about keeping the refuge advices. Not failing to follow the refuge advices. Which maybe that's a little harder than it sounds.

Ordained Vows

(12:30) So then for this class, Geshela wanted to talk about the ordained vows. But in the context of a lay community, in which traditionally, you don't talk about ordained vows in the context of a lay community.

So he thought, well, you know, if one were to ask the question, like if a person were a woman, and he used woman because she's got more steps, so that he has more he can share with us.

If one were a woman who wanted to reach nirvana, what would be the steps that you would go through to commit yourself to reaching that goal?

And when we asked that question, it starts this series of information that allows him to share with us about the different levels of ordained vows one can take.

He did not share any of the actual vows until much later. And then it came out. And then recently, he and Alison have been working on the Vinaya text, and they're all in there. So it's out in public now.

It always has been if you read Tibetan, you just get that book, you can read it, it's not in the secret stack.

Anyway, so if you are a woman, and you decided I'm going to reach nirvana, what might you do?

So it does not mean that the only way you can reach nirvana is that you have to get ordination vows. That is not true.

But the premise is to reach nirvana, we need to gather goodness.

And a way to gather goodness, bigger, faster, I don't know what I say easier, is to take vows that we can keep. Because then our goodness grows faster.

So what would we do?

This term NYE ME PUNTSOK.

PUNTSOK means = perfect.

NYE ME = no problem

Like perfect, no problem. The answer to what would she do? She would do this perfect no problem thing. Meaning faultless, meaning the phrase for the ideal way of progressing through one's vow taking career.

It ends up being the progression through to full ordination if we were to follow it all the way through to that. So for women, it has six steps.

So this term means: there's a right way to do those six steps so that each one becomes the foundation for the next, for the next, for the next. So that you step up that staircase of those six vows pretty easily. Because you've prepared yourself for the next level by way of working with the earlier level.

Basis: Renunciation

So the first thing she would do, though, is to gain her renunciation.

Like surely if she's got her goal set on nirvana, she's already got renunciation. Because why else would you shoot for nirvana instead of whatever one's highest worldly thing that we might think that we could achieve whatever it would be for that individual.

So renunciation starts all of it, of course. And renunciation is this realization that there's nothing in worldly life that can work out right. We aspire to happiness, and it always eludes us. We think we can do this and that to get that and this. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. We expect to be satisfied when we reach some goal. And then what's the matter with me? Or what's the matter with the world that that satisfaction doesn't stay satisfied?

At some point, something catches our attention. And it's like, right. I've had it. There must be another way. We go searching.

Finally, we find what is the other way for us, which isn't necessarily the perfect fit for everybody.

1st Step: Five Lifetime Laywoman Vows

Once she has developed this longing for a state of mind that is free of mental afflictions, forever free, then she would seek out the first step in the process of growing herself into that. And that first step would be to take her GYENYEN MA vows, which is the five lifetime vows for a lay woman, plus the keeping of the refuge advices.

She starts living according to this new code of ethics. Basically, she's saying to her own mind, and so to the people around her, I'm making ethics my criteria for choice making. I'm changing my criteria to ethics.

Now, probably it always was ethical on some level. But even ethics can be misunderstood. Ethics can be mischosen.

Ethics according to whom? We're not saying ethics according to Buddhism, because Buddhism is right. But ethics according to what will that be like when I experience it in the future?

Ethics according to the result of the seed we just planted.

So she starts out with these five simple ways to intentionally avoid certain things that she was probably already avoiding. But now she has vows to avoid them. So her goodness in avoiding those is bigger, is growing bigger.

She commits herself to living in a way, choosing behavior in a way that will lead her towards this freedom from mental afflictions. That along the way to that is the necessary step of experiencing emptiness directly. So we can make the goal closer to home and say that by taking her five lifetime vows, and pledging to live according to refuge, she's increasing her ability to have the experience of emptiness directly, which is the necessary ingredient for finally reaching that place of freedom from mental afflictions by way of choosing her own behavior very carefully.

The point of our lifetime lay vows is refuge and avoiding those five specific behaviors.

2nd Step: Temporary Commitment to Leave Home Life

Once she's gained her confidence in keeping those vows, following refuge, the next level is called PARMA RABJUNG.

It's not an actual vow, PARMA RABJUNG, but it's a commitment to leave the home life for a certain period of time so that she's building her foundation for actually taking ordination. In that period of time, she actually does leave the home life. She moves out, she moves into the monastery, but she's not yet taken any of the ordained level. She's getting a glimpse of what it is to live in a monastic community.

It's sweet, really, because what if she gets in there and then he gads, I can't do this. She doesn't break any vow in order to say, I think I made a mistake. I think I'll stay as a householder with lifetime lay vows for longer. It's like giving us an opportunity to try it on for size.

In the men's version of all of this, which we don't go through, we heard that when a child is brought to the monastery by the family, they usually go when they're about seven years old. This is the level of vow taking that's not vow that they get. They get robes. They live according to the schedule. They're in and amongst ordained monks, but they pretend, because they can't actually take their vows until they're 20 years old. So really for 14 years, they're living as monks but not having the vows. They have this PARMA RABJUNG level.

3rd Step: Novice Nuns Vows

So we're back to the lady who's been PARMA RABJUNG-ing for a while now. How long that takes wasn't stated and so my guess it's something that between she and her mentor are going to decide.

Then at some point, she decides she's ready for her novice nuns vows. They're called GETSUL MA. If she's been living in amongst nuns, she knows these vows by now. At the time she didn't know them was back here when she was first getting her renunciation and taking her five lifetime vows.

But now she's been living with other women who have those vows. She's got a pretty good idea. So in the GETSUL MA, there are four primary vows, six secondary vows, and three transgressions. We learned that in a previous class.

These are the most basic form of the novice nun vows.

The first, the four primary vows are the same as the four primary vows of the one day vows, the 24 hour vows.

No sexual activity,
no killing,
no stealing,
no lying.

The six secondary vows are like the secondary vows of the one day vows with an additional factor about not handling money. There is another piece in there.

But so although they say, you're not supposed to know what your ordained vows are going to be. If you took 24 hour vows, you know what those vows are. They just don't tell you, hey, these are the same as what the monks and nuns do. Until you get into your monk and nun ceremony or you live in the monastery for some period of time. You connect the dot.

4th Step: Intermediate Nuns Vows

So she lives with her GETSUL MA level vows for some period of time. And then when she feels ready, she asks her preceptor, may I get my GE LOB MA vows?

GE LOB means intermediate nuns vows.

This is a level that the men's vows don't have. They don't have this intermediate stage.

In the intermediate stage to the 13 novice vows are added 12 more commitments for two years. So they're not actually new vows.

There's something different between a vow and a commitment.

Damaging a commitment has less impact than damaging a vow. So I don't know what those commitments are, but they must be a little bit difficult to learn to live by if they give you this two year period of time to work on them before you turn them into a vow.

If your understanding about seed planting is strong, we would understand the benefit of this intermediate level is to build our success rate. You know, and then it's surprising that they don't do it for the men to help build their success rate too. So it's not some kind of punishment for women that we get these extra stages.

In the intermediate nuns vows, these 12 additional commitments for two years, there's a level called the TSAWAY CHU DRUK, which is the six things, CHU DRUK.

TSAWAY, the primary six things.

And the JE TUN CHU DRUK, which means the secondary six things.

In the primary six things, well, both of these, Geshela didn't go into the details. Both of them have to do with how to behave in certain situations that are likely to come up. Mostly the primary ones are mostly have to do with how to interact with the person of the opposite sex, if and when you ever have need to come across them.

Theoretically, you're living in a nunnery where there are no men. So it shouldn't be a problem. But what if you're the nun who's assigned to go to the market? E-gads, I'm going to see men, right? E-gads, right?

So there's guidelines for how to behave such that we don't disturb their mind or our mind by our behavior. And it's these intermediate vow commitments, not vows, where we receive those guidelines.

The secondary intermediate guidelines are about less, they call them less serious inappropriate behaviors, which has to do, they say, with how to store food properly, how to eat properly, things like that, personal, that kind of behavior.

5th Step:

So then when she's ready, so assuming she makes it past her two years of intermediate nun, she moves on to the fifth level, TSANG CHU NERNE KYI TSULTRIM.

NERNE KYI TSULTRIM = morality, keeping it purely.

TSANG CHU = pure activity.

So there's something that's pure activity that we're keeping purely. This is a special vow category that has to do with proper observance of celibacy.

So it's like, wait, when we first took our novice vows, those vows include no sexual activity. It seems redundant to later on get vows of celibacy that we already got it. So there's more to it than just those words, but we can't go into it.

So there's a period of time when she adds these, keep the pure activity pure.

When we were learning about avoiding sexual activity in our one day vows, they called it impure activity. So anyway.

6th Step: Fully Ordained Nuns Vows

Then the sixth level is finally the GELONG MA, fully ordained nun's vows. So I'll come back to those in a moment.

The tradition says that once there's a Sangha performing confession ceremony regularly, regularly meaning twice a month, then that establishes that country as a Buddhist country. Like even if the country doesn't consider itself Buddhist, it is amongst Buddhist countries as long as there's a Sangha doing Sojong.

A Sangha is said to be four or five fully ordained people getting together on new moon and full moon to do their confession ceremony regularly makes a Buddhist country Buddhist.

Now, in order to fully ordain a nun that's gone through this system, we need 12 fully ordained nuns in a Buddhist country in order to make even an intermediate nun.

So once a country is a Buddhist country, you can't even make an intermediate nun until you've got 12 nuns to do it. Plus the abbot lady, abbotess, with the proper qualifications, which the qualifications to give ordained vows are stricter than qualifications to give five lifetime lay vows, for instance, or others.

In an outlying land, meaning a land that's not yet Buddhist, you need six fully ordained nuns to gather with a properly qualified abbotess in order to grant intermediate nun status and above.

So we've heard the story about that time in Tibet when the king in charge really didn't like Buddhism and he set about to kill it out of his country. The way he did that is that he managed to kill monks and nuns. Somebody stopped him before he managed to kill enough monks that they couldn't ordain new monks. But they did not manage to stop him before he had killed all of the nuns, like fewer than 12 were left.

So technically, according to the guidelines set by Lord Buddha, they could not make another intermediate nun and they could not make fully ordained nuns. If there were any intermediates left out of the 12, I don't know, or less than 12, they couldn't make new intermediate and fully ordained nuns anymore.

So then as Buddhism grew back again, if you were a woman and you wanted fully ordained Buddhist vows, you had to go out of the country and find a preceptor out of the country who would accept you as a student. And then, you'd probably be inclined to stay and live there with the person who gave you your vows versus go back and live where you have hardly any community. Hopefully, some went back. They must have, because we have ordained women in Tibet. But even until recently, those ordained women in Tibet received their full ordination from a different lineage than a Tibetan lineage, because it had gotten broken. Do you see?

Once you have your ordained vows, whether you got them from a Chinese lineage or a Vietnamese lineage, it doesn't matter, you have your vows. But the point is the Tibetan lineage of nuns got broken, which I think is partly why Geshe Michael used this instruction about how does a woman get her vows is so that he had reason to bring this up.

So when he first brought it up in the 90s, it was still like that. And from the Tibetan perspective, I don't know whether that has shifted by now or not. But in our Diamond Mountain tradition, Geshe Michael has made fully ordained nuns out of novice nuns. And whether or not he gave them the intermediate nuns intermediate, I have no way of knowing. But I know that we have fully ordained nuns in the Diamond Mountain tradition through Geshe Michael, Lama Christy also for some of them and then not for others.

It does raise questions. Like, wait a minute, how can a monk give nuns vows?

We had a quorum of sangha at those ceremonies, but they weren't all women. In order to meet the quorum, we had to have both monks and nuns there at the quorum. And so we have fully ordained nuns in our tradition that are unique, unique to the Diamond Mountain lineage.

I've never had any contact with anybody outside the lineage who worried about that. But I could see that it could happen that there would be this argument about somebody with vows. People would argue about me having vows.

None of that is pertinent, of course, except to avoid disturbing others' minds.

So there is these certain circumstances where a practitioner working very diligently and accurately with their practice may very well experience a shift in their subtle body, the energies of their subtle body. They could manifest as the opposite sexual organ appearing on their body. It sounds like mystical and impossible in this day and age, but apparently it happens. And the scripture from Buddha‘s time, the scripture says, if it happens once, that's great. If it happens a second time, meaning you flip and then you flip back, that's okay too. But if it happens a third time, so sorry, you break your vows. Your vows are broken by that happening.

And again, I have no idea the specifics of that. But it tells us it's like, oh, you know, these physical bodies that seem so solid and the one thing that doesn't change is that sexuality we're born with, or does it, right? Our reality has shifted a lot in that regard.

So if a monk changes their sex and you have 12 of those gathered from the Tibetan tradition, those 12 could ordain a new nun, Tibetan nun in the Tibetan tradition as an intermediate or fully ordained.

And I don't know, do they still look like monk on the outside? Unless you ask, you would have no reason to know what they look like in the private parts. So our minds may go, wow, there's a whole bunch of guys giving nuns vows. How can that work? Now we have a little bit of an insight of how that might work if that were to happen somewhere. And then looking back at Diamond Mountain, it's like, wow. Right.

Anyway, so the Tibetan tradition for women getting intermediate nun, the extra celibacy vows and fully ordained vows has been broken. They get their vows, those vows from a different tradition, which makes them nuns, so fine.

But hopefully the tradition will allow a reinterpretation of the original scripture to allow the Tibetan tradition to again grant ordination to its own nuns. And I don't know if they're doing that now, if it's already happened. But we have seen that the original monastic tradition was that nuns would not be granted the monastic education that monks got. I don't think that was a decree by Lord Buddha, but something that developed as the monastic education system developed, Nalanda University and on. Just recently, a couple of years ago, His Holiness conferred the Geshe degree on a group of nuns, which means they did the 20 year training, which means the previous 20 years, somebody was teaching those nuns in the same way that they were teaching monks.

So even over the last 20 years, we've seen these great strides for women in the ordained life, like hooray. Alright.

Why did I tell you all of that? Here we are at GELONG MA. So finally, she goes to her preceptor. Yes, Luisa.

(Luisa) Lama, some clarification question. So to become a Geshe is not a prerequisite to be a nun? Or is it? Like you could do the 20 years monastic studies. No, you have to be an ordained nun to be able to do the monastic studies?

(Lama Sarahni) Right. You have to be an ordained person to be the monastic study in the monastery, because that's where it's done. And so to live in the monastery and receive that training, you take your vows as an ordained person.

(Luisa) Okay. Thank you.

The 5 Groups of Downfalls

GELOMG MA, fully ordained nun's vows. I‘m missing a piece here. TUNG JE DE NGA.

(49:34) Both the fully ordained nun's vows and fully ordained monk's vows all come to us in a category called the five groups of downfalls. TUNG JE DE NGA.

DE NGA = the five groups.

TUNG JE = to fall down.

The five groups of downfalls.

Within these five groups, some of the downfalling behavior are more serious than others in the sense of they have greater negative impact on our mind stream than others. So they're categorized in this hierarchical way.

Defeats (8 for nuns/4 for monks)

The highest meaning, the strongest meaning the worst to break is the first category called the PAMPA.

PAMPA = to lose, to be defeated. Like you lose the ballgame. The other guy won, we were defeated. That kind of lose versus I lost my keys. Not like that.

These are the most serious. They're called defeats because to commit one means that some mental affliction or more than one has defeated us. Meaning the mental affliction won in our choice of behavior.

Angry yelling person. I'm not going to yell back. I want to yell back. I'm not going to yell back. I want to yell back. Yell.

I got defeated by my mental affliction.

The behaviors related to these particular mental afflictions that make up the PAMPA level or vows are behaviors that the mental affliction make us do that are the most serious to avoid doing as an ordained person. Technically as any person. But as not ordained people, we don't take vows to avoid these behaviors, except in little baby ways like the five lifetime vows.

Some monastery traditions say, if you break one, any one of these PAMPA vows, you break them all. You break all your vows.

Our tradition, meaning Gelugpa, says, no, to break one means you've seriously damaged your ability to keep all the rest, but you haven't damaged all of them. You've just broken that one and you fix that one and all the rest get better too, apparently.

But either way, they're very, very serious negative behaviors.

There are eight of them for nuns and four of them for monks.

Mostly they have to do with the same four root vows of a lay person, the same four primary vows of our 24 hour vows.

So sexual activity, lying, killing, stealing, but more specific.

Remainders (20 for nuns/ 13 for monks)

Then the second level of vows is called HLAKMA.

HLAKMA = remainders, like leftovers.

You make a big pot of soup, you and your company eat most of it, but there's like three bowls left. It's the leftovers. HLAKMA, remainders.

It means that if we were to commit one of these deeds that we're vowing to not commit, there's still some leftover that can be repaired. You break the HLAKMA fully, but there's still something leftover. It's less serious than a PAMPA and more serious than the ones that come next.

We're having this hierarchy of seriousness of doing the deeds that we vowed we wouldn't do, which also means a hierarchy of the level of goodness that we're keeping when we don't do those deeds. Like now, and now, and now, and now.

Downfalls (33 for nuns/ 30 for monks)

So the next one is TUNG JE.

TUNG JE = makes you fall down. So downfall.

So we've had defeats. We have remainders and we have downfalls. These three categories so far.

They mean by downfall is that these behaviors will make you fall to the lower realms. But it's like all of them will do that. But somehow these are more specifically related to the kind of behaviors that we would plant that could be the projecting karma that sends us to a hell realm, a ghost realm, an animal realm.

Remember, we studied those.

There are two kinds of TUNG JEs.

A PANG TUNG and a TUNGJE BASHIK.

The PUNG TUNG, the word means a give up downfall. What it means is that these are downfalls where to fix it, to make up for it, you give up something.

So to give up something downfall, meaning that's how I repair it is to give up something.

Oh, I can't think of an example. I've been granted a time to go visit my family next week. And then, oh my gosh, I did this downfall and I'm confessing my downfall.

Well, what will you give up to make up for it? I'll give up my trip home. Then that restores the quality of the vow to avoid the downfall.

TUNGJE BASHIK means simple downfall and a simple downfall is a downfall that you can fix without giving something up.

I guess you just confess it and say you won't do it again and that's enough. So in this category of PANG TAUNG, downfalls that I would need to give something up to repair it. There are 33 such vows for nuns and 30 for monks.

I realize I haven't been telling you the numbers of those others. I'll go back and do it.

For the TUNGJE BASHIK, the downfalls where you don't have to give anything up to repair them, there's 180 for the nuns and 90 for the monks.

So it's like, wow, all those behaviors that we avoid and get good credit for that they have to avoid it too, but they don't get credit for it.

Yeah. Right? It's not punishment for women to have more vows.

Let's take our break.

We're almost done with class, but we will stop sharing.

(Question in the breaktime - not on the recording)

(Luisa) Lama, can I ask an unrelated, maybe related question?

I am a bit concerned with the current global situation. Since we are studying ethics, then I have been thinking, okay, this war outside is a reflection of my war inside. Is there anything special, different you would recommend us to do to relax a bit the politics?

(Lama Sarahni) Yeah. Hard question. For each of us, the understanding, the perspective, the impact on us is unique to each of us. The whole unfolding of the whole story is unique to each of us. We all agree there's this terrible mess going on. How it affects us personally is the hallway to go into to figure out what I personally need to do to shift myself in my attempt to shift what I'm seeing in my outer world.

So maybe for one person, it's imposing my will on another.

Maybe for another one, it's the coming out fighting because somebody has imposed their will on me. The belief that I need to be violent against it.

For somebody else, it's a different impact.

For each of us, equally valid. But to try to approach the whole picture from the perspective of our own seeds, it's just too big. There's too many aspects.

So find a specific one that you can wrap your mind and your behavior around and work on that one very specifically for a short period of time so that you can have it really, really high in your awareness. And then set it aside.

Check the news. Check your reaction. Go into that hallway again and see, what am I finding in there now?

There'll be some nuances to the situation or maybe a whole new kind of mental affliction comes up. And it's like, okay, let me see where I'm behaving like that towards another and stop it. Where I have in the past. Oh, too bad.

Where in the past have I done similar behavior?
Do my four powers and some really strong antidote power?
What's the opposite of that behavior?
Where have I already done that opposite behavior for others to others and rejoice like crazy?
Where can I do more of that opposite behavior to others and do it as much as you can for some period of time?

Then go back in and check again.

That's the tools that we have, but break it down into little pieces that we can actually work with. And it might be helpful to get together as a group and say, my little pieces like this and hear about everybody's little pieces and how each person's working with it.

It may give us more insight into our own little pieces that we weren't actually able to see clearly until somebody verbalized theirs. And it's like, oh my gosh, I have that one too.

The difficulty with a conversation like that is so quickly we devolve into the horrible things we see happening in our world. And let me tell you how bad it is from my perspective and we won't accomplish anything.

But if we can stay on track with that, identify four powers, rejoicing, etc. it might be helpful.

(Returning to class 1:00:30) Let me finish with all the vows and then I'll go back and clarify the numbers.

Where were we? We were in the downfalls.

The downfalls that you need to give up something to make up for it and the downfalls that you don't need to give up anything to make up for it.

Individual Confession (11 for nuns/ 4 for monks)

The next grouping is called SOR SHAK.

SOR SHAK = individual confession.

SOR = individually

SHAK = to confess.

So these are vows that in order to fix them, we individually confess them. Which seems to imply you don't individually confess the other ones, but that doesn't make sense because in order to fix them, you have to admit we did them. So it's more about this category or groups of vows that the very confessing of them helps to fix them. That's true of all the others as well, but all the others takes more than just confessing them.

These are less serious than the one before, which is less serious than the one before it, which is less serious than the PAMPA.

There are 11 nuns SOR SHAK and four monks SOR SHAK.

Misdeed (112 for nuns/ 112 for monks)

Then the fifth level of wrong deeds is called NYE JA.

NYE = bad and JE = did it.

So it just means a did bad. Oh, I did bad.

Pretty minor kind of misdeed. A misdeed being anything that will come out to be unpleasant for us. NYE JE.

These are specific.

For nuns, there's 112 and for monks, there's 112. And I don't know if they're the same 112 or not.

Just an action that was not good.

So let's go backwards.

The NYE JE 112 versions of them for monks and nuns.
The individual confess vows, SOR SHAK 11 for nuns and four for monks.
The downfalls that you don't have to give up something to fix them, 180 for nuns and 90 for monks.
The downfalls where you have to give something up to fix them, 33 for nuns and 30 for monks.
The remainders downfalls that still have some remainder. There are 20 for nuns and 13 for monks.
And for the defeated, I got defeated by my mental affliction vows, there are eight for nuns and four for monks.

So if you are a math whiz, you come up with 253 vows for monks and 364 vows for nuns for the fully ordained person.

Sojong Ceremony to Confess & Repair Vows

How do we repair vows that have been damaged?

And it is through the ceremony called SOJONG.

SO = to repair

JONG = to purify

Like purify, repair, confession ceremony.

Traditionally, it happens twice a month where the ordained Sangha gets together on the moon cycle, new moon and full moon, typically, apparently not always.

There is a ceremony that's recited.

The wording of the ceremony implies that each monk or nun confesses each thing individually from the last two weeks. And then in the end of the ceremony, it says, has everyone confessed everything?

Because to have a damaged vow and not confess it is an additional negativity above the negativity of the behavior planted by the behavior we did that damaged the vow.

So it's huge to do a wrong and not confess it to somebody.

So Geshela said a serious practitioner could be in a group Sojong, doing it traditionally, according to just reading the prayer, which is how it apparently happens now. But in their mind, they'd be going through each one of their vows and thinking, in the last two weeks, did I keep that? Did I damage it? Did I break it full on? Which?

Well, as you're reading this ceremony, I don't know how you could be thinking that through for your 253 or 364 different vows, if you didn't already have them somehow annotated. It's like I need to confess this one, this one, this one, like keeping track somehow during our two weeks.

Two weeks is a long time to go without confessing. And I mean, technically, you don't have to wait two weeks.

We do our four powers once a day at least, multiple times a day is fine.

So it's not like you're not allowed to fix your vows as you do them.

We should, we would.

But at confession time, then we do this overall repair ceremony amongst other vow holders.

Geshela said, some monks would do this ceremony with everybody. And then they would go off in groups and do this individual confession together.

It's really powerful to be able to verbalize our own mistakes to someone else. Someone else who will understand what we're doing, why we're confessing, who won't judge us about it, who won't try to fix us about it.

They'll just be the, mirror isn't the quite image, be the sponge to absorb it. Then they wring it out and use the sponge again later.

So it would be someone that we admire enough that we would care about telling them about our downfalls.

If there was somebody that we didn't really care whether they thought I was doing a good job or not, it'd be easy to just not care what I do because I tell them and they don't care.

So we do want somebody who cares enough about us that they want us to be successful, but not somebody who's going to judge us for it.

It's delicate, right?

If you are somebody's confessor, the one that they are telling you about, it's a really amazingly powerful position to serve for someone and requires skillful understanding and acceptance. And then the ability to just forget it after you've heard their confession so that you don't come across them in the grocery store and have it pop up into your mind.

Oh, they did this thing, right?

You just don't want to even remember it later because human nature is to hold it against them in some way.

So when you choose someone to be the person you're going to tell, you can lay this out here. Let's make an agreement, right?

No judgment, no holding it against us, no memory. Just be the sponge and then visually throw the sponge in the fire and let it all burn up in the end.

It's a great way to serve another, is to be the one they confess to. And it's a great way to serve another to be willing to confess to them. So both ways, both parties are benefiting.

There's nothing in the scripture that says you have to do that, right?

Get paired up with somebody when you are an ordained person, because your commitment is to go to the group Sojong.

Geshela was pointing out that if we are the most powerful, the most bang for our buck in our Sojong ceremony, we would do this individual thing also, right?

Nothing says we can't do more than what the monastic tradition says we need to do.

And then of course, where we're applying our four powers, practice regularly, often. So not saving stuff up for two weeks, because karmic seeds multiply. They grow fast. So we don't want to say, well, I'll confess to that one two weeks from now, because by then those seeds have grown.

It also does not mean you're calling your confessor on the phone, sorry, it's three in the morning, but I just had this bad dream. And I woke up and I had this really bad thought. And you need to hear it now.

No. Your confessor is on schedule. Your four powers.

Talk to Buddha, talk to your lama. You don't need to call him on the phone, but confess.

(1:13:15) So the bottom line is that our ethical way of life is what powers the success in our practice. Our ethical way of life powers our ability to understand emptiness deeper and deeper intellectually and deeper and deeper practically, so that we can ripen experiencing it directly, so that we can increase the power of our ethical living by adding the wisdom to it.

By the time we get there, our ethical living has reached a pretty powerful level.

When we add wisdom to that ethical living, it goes deeper, more subtle, and increases the power of it even more.

So the ethical way of life means avoiding harming others.

Avoiding them in what ways?

Ah, the 84,000 ways that we get mentally afflicted about things.

Avoid all those, but that's too big.

Okay, the 10 main ones out of which the 84,000 come are

killing, stealing, sexual misconduct,

lying, harsh speech, divisive speech, useless speech,

jealousy, ill will, wrong view.

Those 10, to think deeply about where I am doing those 10, and to look carefully to see where I can avoid doing those 10, and to flip them around to

protecting other’s life, protecting others' property, protecting others' relationships,

speaking truthfully or not at all, speaking to bring people together, speaking kindly, speaking purposefully or not at all,

being happy when people get what they want, even if it's something I want and I think I deserve it more than they, caring when people get things they don't want or don't get what they do want, caring about them, willing to help them get what they want, even if I don't like them, and then correct worldview.

My behavior creates the circumstances of my future. That's gone on since forever. This me will end. This mind stream will not, and Buddhahood is possible.

Okay, correct worldview, karma and emptiness and Buddhahood, and so past and future lives.

So then where am I already doing those things?

Where can I do more of them?

With just those 10 behaviors to avoid and to cultivate their opposites, we have everything we need because all of them devolve into the vows of a layperson, a vow of a monk or nun.

They're all based on those 10. Just variations on the theme of specific ways that we do those 10 when we're living in a group of other people, for the monastic, for the ordained people.

So to take a vow to avoid a behavior and then to actually avoid it is a more deliberate and powerful way of planting our seeds surrounding that behavior.

Otherwise, we only plant the seed of avoiding the behavior when we are faced with that behavior that we could choose. In a situation where we could choose that behavior and we don't, would be the only time we would get the benefit of that. But when we have the vow to avoid that behavior, we are keeping the vow every moment. We're not doing the behavior.

We're keeping the vow. That's different than not doing the behavior. It's keeping the vow. And the more we keep our vows, the more we'll be able to keep our vows.

And the vows are about avoiding harming others.

Do you see? It's this beautiful spiral.

So they want us to take vows.

They, those beings who are coaxing us along, whatever they look like. They want us to take vows and they want us to take vows that are a level that it'll be some effort for us to keep them, but not impossible. And so they give us these levels that we can work at.

Does it mean everybody needs to take ordained vows eventually?

No.

It's a beautiful system if we are inclined to it.

But times have changed, right? There isn't the monastic communities that we can be admitted to and then live amongst other ordained people.

There are still some in India. There are still some in Tibet. There are still some in other countries. There are a few in the United States. There are a few in Europe. But they're not like every province has one.

Not like your Catholic church, right? Every neighborhood has one.

In our country, more Protestant. You've got a church on... So you don't have to go so far to get to church, although people still do.

Pass 17 of them to get to the one of their choice, but at least they found one.

So it's not necessary. Beneficial from the point of view of the more vows I have that I can keep the better. The more vows I have that I can't keep, not the better. That'll make us crazy.

So we don't step into ordained vows until our renunciation is strong enough that we're at this level of, I don't care what it takes.

I need every advantage in my toolkit. And then hopefully having ordained vows will be this huge advantage so that I can be one who can help stop the suffering of others eventually.

But now I just skipped schools, didn't I?

That Vinaya is from so that I can reach my nirvana. And I don't know about you, but for me reaching my own nirvana doesn't empower me the way becoming what all beings need and want empowers me.

If I had just originally been offered Buddhism promises you nirvana, I'm not sure I would have been attracted. I was fortunate to first meet the Mahayana. I met Tonglen as my very first practice. And it's like, wow, wait, who teaches this? I want to know more.

And then I learned about nirvana and oh, that'll be cool along the way. But really that ultimate love, ultimate compassion is what keeps me driving forward.

But to get there, we need to go through that goodness doorway of seeing emptiness directly.

And to get there, we need to go through the goodness doorway of keeping the vows of the Hinayana.

So they are not lesser by any means. They are the foundation of the Mahayana. They are the foundation of the Diamond Way.

If we don't have them strong in our repertoire, no amount of Diamond Way initiations or Sadhana prayers or mantra is gonna change us or change our world.

With strong vinaya, the shifts will happen to us regardless of Diamond Way.

One of the shifts that will happen is bringing the Diamond Way.

But the changes in our perceptions of our world don't require the Diamond Way. And Diamond Way without a strong foundation in the vinaya won't work anyway. Then we just get disappointed and think there's something wrong with Diamond Way. When what was wrong is we didn't have the strong enough foundation in avoiding those 10 non-virtues and doing the 10 positive in place.

So yes, we can reach our highest goals without ever becoming monk or nun in this lifetime. If we're inclined to it, it's not out of reach. Even if there's no monasteries to go live in, we can still ordain and have a community of ordained people, especially now that we've got Zoom available.

So the very last thing is that when we take our ordained vows, our intention is for a lifetime. We understand that those level vows disappear when the body disappears. We haven't quite talked about it yet, but it's coming.

But our pledge is, I'm going to keep these vows until I die. And the words say it in there.

But should circumstances change, you can give your ordained vows back. And that has its own karmic result, of course. But better to give them back than just to quit following them.

So we have heard of people who even had full ordained vows for maybe a long time even. And then next thing we hear, they've given their vows back. They're a lay person again.

And it's hard for our minds not to judge. Oh, you know, did they break a bad vow and get kicked out? Or what would happen to somebody's mind who was a really good monk or nun, and then they decide they want household? Like what, they were free of all that, and now they want to worry about paying for insurance? What are they nuts?

The important thing is we can't know their mind. We don't know what their motivation was in giving back their vow. Best is to judge them positively. Wow. They must see that there's a higher way they can help others. That there's a higher way that they can reach their goal by being out in the world than being withdrawn.

And we see Geshe Michael dancing that dance, that you can do both. And that's what he teaches his monks and nuns, how to do both.

Okay, that's our class five. I will put these extra minutes in the bank for later. Another course, I will need them.

[Class Ending]

Class 6: Taking and Keeping the Vows

26 June 2025

Link to Eng Audio: ACI 9 - Class 6

Rus RUTube: ACI 9 - Class 6 - RUTube

Vocabulary Class 6

TEN foundation

TONG WAY GYU How to lose your vows

LAPPA PUL to offer your vows/to give your vows back

SHI PU to die and move on

TSEN NYI JUNG if the opposite sex organ emerges

LEN SUM GYUR if you change gender three times or more

GETSA CHE if you destroy the root of your accumulated virtue

NYI SHU MALUN DERSHE if you were younger than 20 yrs when you took the vows and

still are younger than 20

TEN CHIR KE LANG to agree to have sex (nun with intermediate vows)

NYIN SHAK DE 24 hrs period passes (one day vow)

TSA TUNG JUNGWA breaking the defeats

DAMCHU NUPPA if the holy Dharma disappears in the land

BULUN NORNDEN SHIN to have a big debt but still be rich (referring to break a defeat)

NEKAP DREBU HLA MI closing the doors to lower rebirth

TARTUK DREBU JANGCHUB SUM to reach the three enlightenments

Je Tsongkapa the guy from Tsongka (the area he grew up)

Welcome back. We are ACI Course 9, Class 6. It's June 26, 2025.

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do. Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Class Opening]

The Foundation for Growing the Individual Freedom Vows

(8:05) Last class were all those numbers and lists pretty straightforward. I'm not going to go over it again.

This class is about what's involved in taking and keeping these vows so that we can understand how to get them, whether we've got them, how to keep them. We'll learn more about what to do about renewing them a little bit later.

So the first question that comes up in the commentary, that we're studying, Je Tsongkapa’s, is, who can grow individual freedom vows? Meaning, who can have the circumstances to get the vows, even if they do go through what you have to do to go through a ceremony to receive the vows? How do I make sure that they're going to turn on when the abbot turns them on, grants them?

It's called, or whatever we're talking about, this quality is called TEN, the TEN, we need to be the TEN. Ordinarily, we would say we have to have the proper foundation.

Foundation is this word TEN. Sounds like a D. But whatever that Tibetan letter is, it's the T, not the D. They're different. But it does, the word isn't DEN. It's TEN. It means foundation, as in that ground that something sits upon. You have the concrete foundation of the building, that kind of foundation.

We must be a proper foundation.

It's not that we have the proper foundation, we need to be it. It's just a subtle nuance in what we're talking about.

In Vinaya, this being the proper foundation is referring to having an appropriate

body and an appropriate mind with which to take and keep these vows.

What they mean by appropriate mind and body then shows us that only humans have the appropriate body and mind to be able to be the foundation for vows.

It doesn't mean just by being human, you are automatically the TEN. But only human body, human mind has the capacity to become the den that can support vows.

Pleasure beings can't get individual freedom vows.

Lower realm beings, animals and below can't get freedom vows, even if they're in the room at the ceremony. Lama snaps their fingers, your cat's in your lap. They can't get those vows.

It's not because Buddha decreed ‘only humans‘. It's that this foundation is our renunciation. What makes us the TEN is our renunciation. Our renunciation is this realization that there's absolutely nothing in worldly life that can bring us the happiness that we're meant to have. The happiness that we want is how we usually say it, but it goes beyond want. It's the happiness we're meant to be.

Lower realm beings are too much in survival mode to get to thinking, this is terrible. I want it to stop. That's just too bad. Things are too awful. It won't ever occur to them to get renunciation.

And then the higher realm beings, things are never bad enough. I mean, technically they do finally get bad enough at the end of that lifetime, but by then it's too late. So even for humans, all human has the capacity to bring on renunciation.

Not everybody does, of course. So it's that to be the foundation for holding vows, that foundation is a human body, human mind that is renunciated to ordinary human world. We know clearly that there's nothing that can bring that ultimate happiness because of our misunderstanding.

7 Characteristics

(15:10) So there are seven characteristics that make a person ineligible for taking vows, even if you are a human and you have some amount of renunciation, apparently.

There are still circumstances that will be such that your renunciation won't actually be the renunciation that makes you the foundation.

Beings who live on the Northern Continent

The first one, so here come the seven, they say beings who live on the Northern continent, it's called the Northern continent of unpleasant sounds.

They can't get vows because they can't get renunciation.

If you remember the long mandala, here's the great earth, the ground of gold, the four continents. And in that we learned what they were and what they look like and the beings that are there, this Northern continent, what's unique to it is that their lifespans are a set period of time, 500 years, whatever their years are.

But apparently they know it, they have these 500 years. And so because their lifetimes are so secure, they don't have this uncertainty that we have when our lifespans are not set. There's something about that state of mind that we have that makes our lifetimes not set. And that arises because we know we're going to die. We don't know when. And when we die, nothing but the Dharma helps us.

That leads to, oh my gosh, I need to change my behavior as guided by the Dharma, because I can't figure it out myself so that I plant as many seeds in my mind in this life as I can to increase the likelihood that the seed that projects at the end of this life will project me into another human life. I don't even want a higher realm life. I want human. If I'm not going to reach Buddhahood, it's got to be human.

So if you know when you're going to die, apparently this sequence of ‘don't know when‘, it doesn't happen. It doesn't really make sense to me. It seems like if you knew you had 500 years and you understood the process, it's like, man, you'd be on making those seeds for 500 years. But I guess it doesn't quite work like that.

So because their lifespans are certain, they don't grow the renunciation that is necessary for their body and mind to be proper foundations for getting vows.

So even if they wanted the vows, it wouldn't, they wouldn't come on. Apparently.

Those who are impotent

Second characteristic that would make someone ineligible for vows are they say those who are impotent, can't get the vows turned on in their mind. And what they mean by that is someone who's incapable of sexual relations.

That doesn't have anything to do with the renunciation part. It has to do with the kind of subtle body energy that maleness and femaleness drive within our body and our mind, that they described that that energy, the sexual energy meaning of our gender, that drives the urges towards sexuality. Those are powerful energies that are a necessary and useful piece in our transformation from suffering human to fully enlightened being.

In Sutra, we don't talk about it. In Vinaya, we don't talk about it so much. And in fact, at first blush, it sounds like you take vows of no sexual activity at all. And we're thinking, well, because you're trying to avoid all those things that are tempting, that'll make you do a wrong deed in order to get it or keep it. And so our sexuality must be one of those things that just makes us do all kinds of negative karmas to get it.

And that's true. But there's also a component to intentionally not using those energies in the usual human way. Because when we use them in that way, we're essentially using them up. And it's a force that we want to have access to later.

When we get there, we want plenty of it.

So when they say that the Pratimoksha vows are avoiding using those energies in the ordinary way to reduce our mental afflictions, that's true. But there's this underlying like, why skillful means that we don't even know about that's growing the better ability to use those energies when it comes time to learn that piece. Because we've got so much of it. So we have to have it to have so much of it. We have to have it to not use it.

And if for whatever reason, someone's incapable of performing that act, then that means they already are missing some enough power in that energy that their vows won't take somehow. Again, it's like I don't exactly understand.

Neutered persons who lack sexual energy

So along that same line, the third disqualifying characteristic would be a person who is a neuter. So if you lack either sexual energy, a neuter would mean you'd lack both. Because whichever one you had, has been removed, or born that way, right? You could technically be born with no functional sexual organ, which here would mean the hormone producing organ, so ovaries and testes not functioning and you would never grow the adult sexual energy that would be necessary to conserve it in order to use it later.

Hermaphrodite

Fourth circumstance is someone who is hermaphrodite. So hermaphrodite has both sexual organs present. And you would think that would make them super qualified. But because they have both, neither one is predominant. And there's something about the predominance factor that plays a role in this appropriate body appropriate mind for receiving these freedom vows based on our the power of our renunciation.

Having committed one of the 5 immediate misdeeds

The fifth disqualifier is someone who has committed any one of the five immediate misdeeds. So those five immediate misdeeds, we've learned about: killing one's father, killing one's mother, killing an Arhat, trying to hurt a Buddha with evil intent, bad intent, and creating a schism in the Buddha Sangha.

Technically speaking, nowadays, we can't do those other two because they do mean specifically towards Shakyamuni Buddha's Sangha and Shakyamuni Buddha himself.

And we understand that they're called immediate misdeeds, because having planted those seeds, their strength, their power is such that they will be the projecting karma at the end of this life, whether you live three days later, or 100 years later after your misdeed, that deed is going to be the one that colors your projecting karma, and you will go into the bardo and straight to that lowest hell realm. No diversion, no ,well, maybe it'll be another life‘, right? That seed could ripen this life, next life, or any life after that, with immediate misdeeds, it is like next life. No questions about it.

Then that factor, that negative factor is so strong that you would think if you had done one of those deeds, and after that you realize what happened, and then your renunciation gets like overwhelming, that you would be able to get your vows.

It's not clear to me that if you have done one of those, and you purify like crazy, can you change this story about immediate misdeed, next life, hell realm, no doubt about it? I don't know. But the same question would be, well, you know, if, if I did do, and I tried to purify, and it made my renunciation like so strong, would it still block me from getting vows? And I don't know the answer to that.

For sure, somebody who's done one of those five deeds, at least one of the three that we could still do, who would then waltz in and say, I'd like Pratimoksha vows, maybe thinking that would protect them. If the Abbot knows about it, they're gonna set the person straight. But say you don't tell the Abbot, right, I'm ready, my renunciation is strong, can I get vows? Abbot may put you through the ceremony, and you think you have vows, but they didn't actually take.

So it's, it's not completely clear. If we take it just literally, if you have the seeds for the five immediate misdeeds, any one of them, vows are not going to form in our minds, we are not a proper foundation.

Imposter

Sixth factor is an imposter. An imposter in the ceremony means someone who pretends to take vows, pretends to have their renunciation, but really, they're just curious, or their reason is insincere, or whatever that other motivation might be, it's not really being driven by true renunciation. This determination to change ourselves because there's nothing in life that's going right, even when it seems like it's going right.

Not believing in Karma, past & future lives or the Three Jewels

Seventh one is someone who really does not believe in karma or past and future lives. So that 10 non-virtues, 10th is the wrong view, that would disqualify us from growing the renunciation necessary to have vows. Because why would you have renunciation if you believe that if you already don't believe that your behavior has any play in what happens to us. There's no connecting the dot.

So even if we pretended to go and get vows, want vows, there would be no basis upon which the vows to grow, because there's no belief that my behavior is going to have a consequence.

All right, so a mind with any of those seven characteristics won't support vows.

How to lose the Individual Freedom Vows

(30:49) So then next, assuming we have the mind and body that support vows, and we get our vows, how do we lose them? And this topic is called TONGWAY GYU.

Geshala gave us a whole lot of Tibetan in this class.

TONGWAY GYU.

TONGWAY = lose vows

GYU = what makes you lose vows

Usually GYU means cause. The cause of losing vows. How we lose our vows.

There's two types of ways to lose our vows.

There are five general ways of losing any individual freedom vow, and there are three specific ways for losing specific vows.

5 General Ways to Lose Our Vows

So in the five general ways of losing any individual freedom vow, the first one is called LAPPA PUL.

To give our vows back

LAPPA = the precepts, so meaning the vows

PUL means to offer.

LAPPA PUL, to offer your vows, meaning to give them back.

It's a very kind way of saying give your vows back. You offer them back. So it's not such a terrible state of mind to see ourselves offer our vows back.

Give them back has a different connotation. I just give this back to you.

Offer them back takes a little bit of respect and honor and maybe a more clear motivation as to why for our offering them back again.

It is done formally, ideally in a specific ceremony towards the one who granted you those vows in the first place. And then if they are really not available, then you can go before the image of a Buddha and offer your vows back to the Buddha in that image.

Remember that we took our Pradimoksha vows out of a strong renunciation. And in that renunciation, we are very solemnly declaring, I will avoid these behaviors for the rest of my life, because they are behaviors that create suffering in my mind.

Individual freedom vows are about our own personal suffering and bringing it to cessation. We're making this vow before the Abbot and before all the enlightened beings, because the Abbot calls them all forth for the ceremony.

So it seems like once we have that renunciation strong enough to convince us that taking Pradimoksha vows is the answer, like a part of the answer, what could ever happen that would make our renunciation get less enough to where, oh, no advantage to having those vows anymore?

It doesn't really make sense that our renunciation would ever go away. Like, could life get so good because of our practice that we decide, oh, you know, this isn't so bad?

Maybe. It's not particularly logical. You would think our renunciation would get stronger, the more effective our practice became. Not meaning, the renunciation means, man, I don't want any more of this life. I want out of here. But rather, worldly life really doesn't work. Pradimoksha vow life really does. I'm going to stay with that. But to decide to give our vows back would have something to do with the level of our renunciation sliding. It would weaken the quality of our vows. And that would open the doorway to doubts or mental afflictions that would make us think maybe we wouldn't need them anymore, whatever it might be.

That said, there are people who highly renunciated, take their vows, keep their vows, and then someone along the way, for whatever reason, we can't know unless we're omniscient, have come to the conclusion that it would be better to formally offer their vows back.

Mostly, we would see that in someone with ordained vows. They're going to give their ordained vows back. Somehow, living in that way became not the highest way that they could transform themselves.

So we really can't know and mustn't judge. And when we think about our lay vows, like what kind of circumstance could lead us to deciding that I just don't want to have these as my guidelines for behavior. It would have to be some kind of like neutron event in our mind that wiped out all our understanding of karmic seeds and our ability to plant good for the future. But it could happen. And the system allows for your change of mind, rather than just giving it all up and walking away.

They advise, formally give them back, and then walk away. If that's what's coming.

It's a relief in a way to know that we're in a system that at any time, it's totally up to us to say, ah, you know, no more. And you don't get cut off, sent to hell. Right?

It's just, that's your decision to do. There's the availability of that. Okay.

To die and move on

Second factor, second situation in which we lose the vow and the general general way of losing any of the individual vows. SHI PU, it's called.

SHI = to die

PU = to move on

So to die and move on, which is what happens when you die as you move on. Moving on to the next life, of course, is what it means. Our individual freedom vows automatically are lost when we die and move on, they do not go with us.

The five lifetime lay vows, the one day vows, and the ordination vows end at death.

The opposite sex organ emerges

Third general way is TSEN NYI JUNG.

TSEN = name or mark. And here it's the term for one's physical sexual organ, which would, I believe would include that the hormone producing organs that go along with the actual structure.

TSEN NYI JUNG

NYI = the number two.

So TSEN NYI JUNG means if the two organs appear on your body.

So you have one. And then, oh my gosh, there's the other one also. Like it wasn't there and then it shows up. I don't think it happens overnight, but it apparently does happen. It's in the literature. From Buddha‘s time.

So you can have one or the other, and we're going to see in a minute, you can switch, a couple of times even. But to have both does this thing to the energies that makes, let's call it confusion in the subtle body, that makes it such that the vows that we had based on the energy imprint when we took them, it makes them be lost.

If it happens to you, know that we need to do something else for our Pratimoksha level behavior, I guess.

To change gender 3x or more

Fourth factor of the five, LEN SUM GYUR.

SUM = the number three

GYUR = change

LEN = time.

So changing three times is this fourth factor. If you change gender three times or more, you lose your vows.

Which implies you can change once and you can change back again. But if you change a third time, it does something to the energy such that the vows get broken.

Apparently when His Holiness the Dalai Lama is asked about that, he says, you know, I'll let you know when it happens.

But it is in the literature that people's physical gender would shift as a result of their practices. And again, if you will grow a second, then the energies are to, you would think they would be so balanced, that would be perfect. So I'm not so sure it's a bad thing, but for our individual freedom vows, it negates the vows.

But if you switch from one to the other, it's all right to do two times. I don't know why a third time is not allowed.

Again, it's not allowed because Buddha said so. It has some effect on the energies of the body that make it such that it can't sustain those vows anymore, and the vows just disappear. Yes, Tom?

(Tom) I mean, if this happens, I guess, to someone, like without them knowing, are they breaking the vow? Or this is a list of people doing those things actively, like playing with their energetical male, female energy, shifting on purpose? Like, I'm trying to understand if this is like, someone was going through something energetically shifted. And now, like twice or three times, or I don't know if that makes sense how I'm asking it. But…

(Lama Sarahni) I think so. Because, you know, I think the same kinds of questions, like what circumstances is going on here? So if we're hearing this teaching from a Sutra perspective, which we are, I guess, knowing what I know, I would have to say I can't really answer that.

It could be, like back in Buddha's time, people's purity was greater than ours now. And so, even doing their practices at the Sutra level, was already having more major effects on their subtle body, even without them trying to do so. So I could imagine somebody's Sutra practice being so powerful, that it was bringing about the results that nowadays we have to go to the highest Diamond Way practices to be able to cultivate. If we do our Sutra practice well enough, all those same things, results can come about. So my guess, it's something like that. And that in the times when we don't have that kind of purity, we have to cultivate it, cultivate it, cultivate it, cultivate it.

We go through actual practices to cultivate this balance of energy using our maleness energy, using our femaleness energy, which we all have some of both, right? And as we're working with our subtle bodies, the relative balance, the predominance of one over the other, that is going to come to balance. And that sounds like a good thing, and it should be able to sustain our vows better. So then it's like, maybe when we're getting to that place, our higher vows so supersede our Pratimoksha vows. And our Pratimoksha vow behavior has become so ingrained that we don't actually need a thing called a vow to increase the power of the goodness. It's that goodness is growing without the vow. It would be my guess, but I don't know for sure. It's not something you set about to do, even at the highest practices. It would be like a side effect of one's practice. And then you're going to know this aspect. So if it starts to happen, you'd run to your lama and go, what do I do? And they would give us instruction.

To destroy the root of our accumulated virtue

Fifth one, GE TSA CHE.

GE TSA = our root virtue, which is a little hard to understand. What exactly is that?

And CHE = to cut

So we have heard about cutting our root of virtue.

What does it? One moment of anger directed at a Bodhisattva cuts our root of virtue, like scary. Well, not just getting a little upset, but strong blaming them factor that sustained blaming them that were really angry. But the first moment of that strong anger is enough to cut our root of virtue. Meaning freeze it so we can't add to it until we have regret for that strong moment of anger. And then somehow the whole thing shifts. Another piece I don't quite understand.

So here, if we do whatever we do that destroys our root of virtue, it also destroys our Pratimoksha vows. And that makes sense because they are a part of our root of virtue. Taking vows is a good thing. It's a virtue. And so it becomes part of this bank account of virtue that we are accumulating. And so to break that, you're also going to break your vows.

3 Specific Ways to Lose Our Vows

(50:45) So moving on, the specific causes for losing specific individual freedom vows.

There are three such specific causes.

Being under 20 years when getting the vows

The first one is NI SHU MALUN DERSHE.

NI SHUN = to be 20 years old. It's the age 20.

MALUN DERSHE

DERSHE = find found out

MALUN = you didn't reach

So if it is found out that you were not 20 years old when you took your vows, and you're still not 20 years old, then you don't have the vows you thought you have.

So there's very specific thing that can happen that makes us lose specific individual freedom vows, meaning the ones you took when you thought you were qualified, but weren't because you weren't 20 years old.

It's just weird, like, what circumstance could that be? I mean, I don't remember anybody asking me before I asked for my Pratimoksha vows, are you sure you're 20 years old or older? It's like, I guess it was obvious. You know, like they don't card me anymore when I go, well, I don't drink alcohol, but you know what I mean?

But like, if we were a young person, it's the abbot's job to say, how old are you?

And then are you going to fib about your age in order to get vows because of your renunciation? Come on.

But apparently in the olden days, people didn't get birth certificates, right? They didn't have calendars. Mom gives birth, it's her 13th one, and somebody's supposed to remember when it was, what year it was. What if nobody remembers? You're not going to remember. Like you could really not know how old you are, right? You could, because there's nothing like self-existent knowledge of knowing I was born April 2nd, 1954. I only know it because they told me that. Could be a whole fib.

Maybe I was born in 1944 and that would explain why my body feels so much older than it's supposed to be. Ha, wait, they've been fibbing to me all along. We don't really know. But then if all of a sudden, I don't know, your mother's letter shows up, my dear baby Sarahni was born in 1944, not 1954. Ah yeah, right? Now all of a sudden, it becomes real.

So this circumstance is talking about that. Apparently it would happen that somebody thought they had their vows, thought they were 20, and then something happens, they learn that, oh my gosh, I'm not 20 and I wasn't when I got them. Oh shoot, I just lost my vows. I'm going to be 20 soon. Can I get them back again? Yes, of course.

So kind of not to worry if we're past 20 and we get our vows. This one's not going to happen to you.

Lose Intermediate nun vows when agreeing to have sex

Second of these three is TEN CHIR KE LANG.

KE LANG = to agree to do something

TEN CHIR = to have

So that wasn't the same word we heard before. When we were talking about sexual activity before, it was something like the dirty deed or something. And now it's like denjir, just to have sex.

So one of these specific ways to lose specific vows of the Pratimoksha is if that nun who has intermediate vows agrees to have sex with a man, she loses her… well, it isn't clear if she loses all her nun's vows or just her intermediate nun's commitments, but it just says agree. So it's not clear whether the activity actually has to happen or not for the vows to be broken, just to agree.

But now why would she agree? You know, we think, ah, that'd be nuts because what it is to be a nun is you've at the very get-go pledged to avoid sexual activity, not just avoid adultery, but sexual activity, right? They're different than lifetime lay vows.

And then here when she's working her way up to being full nun, she agrees to have sex with someone? But, you know, we can think of all kinds of different scenarios.

Maybe it's at knife point. Maybe the pledge from the supporter is, all the food you need for your nunnery for the next year for everybody. We can think of circumstances where a nun might decide, okay, I'll agree.

So we would think, oh, motivation would protect. And there are certainly ways in which circumstance and motivation does affect the result, the outcome. But nonetheless, this instruction says to just agree means you've broken those vows.

One day vows end after 24hrs

Then the third factor is NYIN SHAK DE.

NYIN SHAK = the 24-hour period

DE = it passes

The 24-hour period passes. So this one is specific to the Pratimoksha vow called our one-day vows. So not ordained, one-day vow.

When we do our one-day vow, when the 24 hours is passed, those vows go away.

Don't have to do anything specific, nothing different. Whether we've kept the vows well or not, they're done at the end of 24 hours.

So if you have other vows, your five-time lifetime lay vows, those don't go away because they're lifetime vows. And so this is specific to the one-day vows, after 24 hours, done.

Okay, let's take our break.

(59:37) Lama may ask another question about the... So I think I heard Geshela's old recording regarding like yoga asana, Lady Nirmala, talking about when we move, like we move the energy right, left, left, right, trying to cancel those energies so we can bring the energy up through the Sushumna. So then what would be the Sushumna's energy if we need the male and female energy by these vows, right, that we just learned? What would be the left, if that makes sense?

(Lama Sarahni) Yeah, I do. I think I understand what you're asking. I don't know. Because you're right, to have all our energies in the central channel, we now have neither both, either, and none, all at the same time. And then how come all of our, you know, our Pratimoksha vows don't disappear then? I don't know.

(Tom) Okay.

(Lama Sarahni) Did that answer? Did that not answer?

(Tom) I don't know. I kind of thought of it as like, which maybe I'm wrong, but because like, I was like, I don't know what is that left of it. But I think energetically, I was associating it to kind of like, the ultimate nature, you know, like that energy, however, and whatever that might be. But now we just learned that we're not, I don't know we're not supposed to like, cancel it right and left. But that's kind of what happens from it. Or we're depressing it in initially, maybe that's a better way. I don't know. But so now I'm like, what am I left with? And if then, am I breaking a vow?

(Lama Sarahni) Yeah, I don't know.

(Tom) This is a very tricky business.

(Lama Sarahni) Buddhas are both and neither. Male, female, both and neither. All at the same time.

(Tom) That's kind of what I thought of it as but, you know, never like put words to it. And now I was like, thinking of your explaining, I was like, what am I? How am I putting this information to words? Right?

(Lama Sarahni) Right. You don't have enough information yet.

(Tom) Yeah, it's very, I try to always take from every class, like something that I can try to, like put into action, it's just like thinking about it, like what also like physical action I can like start doing. I don't want to finish all those courses and then like, be like, Oh, I remember one time we talked about let me try it now. I'm trying to learn and how to apply it. And it's not always that…

(Lama Sarhni) Don't mess with this one. Don't mess with this one. You don't have enough information.

(Tom) I don't know. Like, I like, in my mind, I'm like, isn't this is the practice that I'm supposed to be striving for? You know.

(Lama Sarahni) Striving for ripening? Yes, but not trying to do it now.

(Tom) No, I understand. But yeah, I thought this is like, where I'm supposed to go in my practice. Does that make sense?

(Lama Sarahni) Yeah, not now.

(Tom) Okay.

2 Additional Ways to Lose Vows

(65:45) We're back. Now, there are two additional ways we can lose vows according to two specific schools of Buddhism—the Sutra school, and a group called Under the Sun faction of the Detaillist schools.

Committing any of the defeats

These two lower schools, they say that if you commit any one of the defeats, then you lose all your vows. So the defeats were the four main ones for the monks and eight main ones for the nuns.

(Tibetan: TSA TUNG JUNGWA)

The first set, the worst offenders, if you totally break any one of those, you break all the vows. That's one way they say that you lose vows.

The Dharma disappears in the land

The second way they say that we could lose our vows is if DAMCHU NUPPA.

Well, I didn't tell you the Tibetan for if you break a defeat is TSA TUNG JUNGWA.

JUNGWA = breaking

TSA TUNG = break the defeats

If you break a defeat, meaning if you do any one of the deeds called a defeat, you've been defeated by your mental afflictions.

Remember it was from last class.

So second one, DAMCHU NUPPA.

DAMCHU is that contraction for the Buddha dharma.

NUPPA = if it declines

So it doesn't mean just decline, it means declines all the way.

If the holy dharma disappears in the land, you would lose your vows.

But other schools, they say, no way, because anybody having Pratimoksha vows is the holy dharma. We heard that someone who has vows living by vows, I, the Buddha am there. Anyone studying, practicing Vinaya, that's what keeps Buddha and the dharma alive in the world.

So how can you say the dharma could disappear as long as there's one person. It can't cause you to lose your vows.

Apparently in the Detailist school, which is a lower school, there's a faction of it called the Kashmiri Detailists. And they say, if someone who commits one of the defeats, they are BULUN NORNDEN SHIN.

BULUN to have a big debt

NORNDEN = to be rich, wealthy

SHIN = metaphor

Someone who commits one of the defeats, they are like a really wealthy person who has a big debt. The defeat is owing the debt which is huge, but it's smaller than the riches that the person has.

So, you can have your big bank account and you can owe the equivalent of half of it.

And if you pay off your debt, you still have the other half of your wealth.

The higher schools say about the Pratimoksha vows, which they take, they have, they follow, that if you commit one of the defeats, yes, it's a serious negativity, but you still have the wealth of all your other vows. And you use the goodness of all your other vows to fix, to repair, to purify and clean the mistake of the defeat.

They say, the strength of all your other vows, the goodness that we have from other vows, damaging one defeat is not enough to wipe out all your wealth of all your other vows. Alright? Encouraging.

If we do commit a defeat, hopefully very rapidly, we would recognize it, have our regret, re-establish our refuge, establish an antidote, right? Give ourselves a strong power of restraint and fix it as quickly as possible.

It would need to be confessed as well to an abbot and you would want to request renewal of your vows and you would renew all the vows in order to get that one back again. But it's not that all the others got broken. Okay.

The Benefits of Taking and Keeping the Individual Freedom Vows

(72:40) So next, Je Tsongkapa explains the benefits of taking and keeping our individual freedom vows.

He gives us two.

Avoiding rebirth in lower realm

The NEKAP DREBU HLA MI.

HLA = deva

MI = human

So deva human.

DREBU = result

NEKAP = the short term, short term result of keeping our individual freedom vows is either a pleasure being rebirth or human rebirth.

Technically we're not so thrilled with a pleasure being rebirth. That's not our goal. But human for sure.

So it really is saying the benefit of having and keeping Pratimoksha vows is closing those doors to a lower rebirth. That for sure we want to do.

How does it do it?

Because it's planting so many seeds for human or higher rebirth that the likelihood of one of those being what is projected at the end of life is so much greater than if we lived our life without having those Pratimoksha vows. Even if we had avoided those behaviors anytime we had the opportunity to do them, we avoided them but we didn't have the vows to do that.

Oh come on, I'm on delay all of a sudden. There I'm better. Got out of my body there.

Reaching the 3 enlightenments

Second benefit, TARTUK DREBU JANGCHUB SUM.

We know the word TARTUK, don't we?

Like to complete or finish. Geshela calls it ultimate here. But like the complete result, TARTUK DREBU is JANGCHUB SUM

JANGCHUB is the word for enlightenment, but SUM is the number three.

So the ultimate result of our Pratimoksha vows is the three enlightenments.

And it's like three? I thought there was only one. But do you remember, I don't know, it's been a long time ago, when we were talking about the difference between enlightenment and total enlightenment?

The lower schools talk about reaching enlightenment, but what they mean by enlightenment is nirvana, their nirvana. Believing that that's the highest state that they can achieve, that is achievable, is nirvana, complete freedom from mental afflictions forever, due to our individual analysis. Remember that?

And that when your renunciation gets turned on to others, and you step into the Mahayana, then we realize that, oh my gosh, that state of personal nirvana is not the highest achievable thing for our mind. That in fact, to have that wish to reach being a being who knows directly what it takes to end, what we need to take up and give up in order to end all suffering forever, we grow this wish to become that for other beings. And we learn that in order to grow the merit necessary to see ourselves as omniscient, we have to have those two aspirations that are so big. The aspiration to reach total enlightenment and the aspiration to do so for the sake of all sentient beings, all, not leaving a single one out. Because of those two vastnesses state of mind is what plant seeds of vastness wish they can grow into the vastness of what it is to be omniscient, a being who's perceiving ultimate reality and appearing reality simultaneously in all times.

Why did I go into all that? Because that's only one of the JANGCHUB SUMs.

The other two are nirvana. So keeping our Pratimoksa vows, their final result, if you're keeping them in order to reach nirvana will be nirvana.

And if you're keeping them as part of your practice to reach Buddhahood, then their final result will be your Buddhahood in addition to the other things that you're doing.

But even though they are still the vows from the lower schools, they will serve us in this highest way.

The benefit of having and keeping them. Kind of an important piece to understand as we're growing our interest in getting our Pratimoksa vows, one day vows, lifetime vows, or ordained vows, any of them.

(80:26) So then last week we talked a little bit about the Sojong ritual, the purification ritual, as the process for vow restoration, which the ordained are committed to doing twice a month. With our five lifetime lay vows, we don't have any such commitment, but you're certainly welcome to say, I'm going to commit myself to doing that twice a month and bless.

And, you know, align yourself with somebody else who has those vows. And you can essentially use the general purpose confession prayer to hold your own ceremony in that way.

Again, it doesn't mean wait until two weeks for any damage to vows that we've done.

Apply our four powers as soon as possible is our best vow management, as we know.

We repeatedly hear the story of Lord Atisha, who would travel with his little stupa. And anytime he had a wrong thought, a thought that he didn't accept, like, wait, time out, stop the horses. I need to purify. And he'd get off, he'd set up his little teeny altar, and he'd do his four powers in his confession prayer and fix it. And then say, okay, let's go on.

Geshe-la used to tease and say it probably took a really long time to travel with Lord Atisha. But I don't know, maybe not, right? It would take a long time to travel with me, that's for sure.

Alright.

Geshela said again, that if you're getting to feel like your practices are getting boring, or your spiritual progress just isn't going anywhere, you feel like you're on automatic pilot, then go back and work with your freedom vows, whichever you have—more detailed, more intentionally, more moment to moment. And a shift will come on.

How soon? It will come on. Be on alert. Don't have a shift in mind. Because that one may or may not come on. But a shift will happen when we make this intentional shift in our practice. It makes an imprint.

Again, we can live according to the Pratimoksha vows, whether we have them as vows or not. And then if we don't, when we feel ready, we ask for them to receive them as vows.

The Meaning of the Name of the Text and Author

(84:10) So the very last thing for this class is you have a question about the meaning of the name of the text and the meaning of the name of the author.

The text we're studying is The Essence of the Ocean of Discipline by our hero Je Tsongkapa Lobsang Drakpa.

Lobsang Drakpa we know is pure mind.

Drakpa = famed guy, famous guy

Famous guy with the pure mind or pure mind that makes him famous.

But Je Tsongkapa is like his nickname somehow.

Je means Lord. So it's the honorific.

And Tsongkapa means the PA, the guy from Tsongka.

So Tsongka is an area of Tibet. It's like where he was born and grew up.

So our Lord, the guy from Tsongka.

And apparently Tsongka means onion fields.

So I guess it means that in that place where he grew up, they grew onions or maybe onions grew naturally and there were onion fields everywhere. I don't exactly know.

But Je Tsongka just means our Lord, that guy from Tsongka. You know, like that guy from Dresden.

It's kind of disrespectful. It seems it's so nonspecific, right? There are a lot of guys from that place. But Je Tsongkapa.

Then the meaning of his text, The Essence of the Ocean of Discipline.

The Essence refers to how it is that the Pratimoksha vows are the essential core of the Vinaya, the essential core of our disciplined behavior that we choose to use in order to tame this wild horse of our mind, our ignorant mind.

It's extraordinarily valuable, this essence.

Then they call it the ocean because of the ocean's quality of being so vast and so deep, deep and wide. And that within it are these extraordinary riches.

So apparently there on the floor of the ocean is all kinds of extraordinary, wonderful things. The ocean is full of jewels. It's full of minerals. It's full of the organisms that contribute to the oxygen that makes it such that we can breathe.

Like it's so valuable, our oceans. They say all precious jewels come out of the ocean.

And, you know, science would say, oh, you know, some come out of volcanoes. Some are deep down in the earth, but they would say, yeah, but before it was earth, it was ocean. So still they came out of the ocean.

Then discipline, DULWA, means that taming of our mental afflictions and our sense organs. Our sense organs do that thing so automatically: sound, color, shape.

Just for something to be there, to be seen, our eyeballs will see it.

It sounds as if we can even decide to not let them do that. And technically we can. We don't want to do that when we're out walking around the world. It's important to see that there's a car coming.

But when we want to sit in meditation, we want to be able to turn our mind away from that automatic thing that the sense organs do. And they call that turning the sense organs off, like taming them. It's more we're taming our mind's response to them.

So this book is providing us with the very core of the riches of the guidance of how to tame our mind and sense powers so that we can stop causing the seeds that perpetuate samsara.

What could be more valuable than that?

Class, I get 30 more minutes put in the bank, because probably I'm going to need some of them in next week's class on Sunday's class. And then probably also next Thursday's class. So hopefully your schedules will allow me to go a little bit long.

And if they can't, right, it'll be on the recording. But I'm going to break my usual rule of stopping on time and do what we need to do to finish next class, because it goes into the karmic ramifications of the 10 non-virtues. It's a lot of material, but it's so it's so rich that we don't want to rush it. But I want to complete it so we don't get delayed in finishing this course.

[Class Ending]

Thank you very much. Good job everyone. Please stay close. We will finish this course before Wisdom in the Times of Chaos. Wouldn't that be great? All right.

Class 7: The 10 Non-Virtues, and Their Karmic Results

29 June 2025

Link to Eng Audio: ACI 9 - Class 7

Rus RUTube: ACI 9 - Class 7 - RUTube

All right, welcome back. We are ACI course 9 class 7 already June 29th already 2025 and I'd like to first announce that our friend Tom in Florida—wave to us Tom, so everybody knows you. She has offered yoga sessions online she has a really wide range of yoga expertise and she's put together a flyer that says what she offers and so I want to refer you to Tom if you're just interested in what she has to offer To ask her to send you her flyer.

So her email, if you don't have it already, is Tom, as in boy, K 1991 @gmail.com and she'll send you the information she's offering by donation, so kind of her.

Okay, so let's gather our minds here as we usually do, please.

Bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Class Opening]

Review Class 6

(9:26) Last class we learn more about the individual freedom vows and we learn that there are five things that can cause us to break them. One of them is to just give them back formally. Doesn't mean we break them, but it means we don't have them anymore.

Second one, when we die and transmigrate, we don't have those vows anymore.

Third one when both sexual organs appear on your body, so don't do that.

Fourth one if you change your sex three times or more you lose your vows.

And last one losing our store of virtue. That one's probably the one we could get the closest to in an inadvertent moment of serious upset from which we stayed seriously upset without regret.

But then we also learned that there are two results of keeping our vows. In the short term we get human or pleasure being result. Which is interesting that's in the short term, right? Which isn't so short. But in the ultimate term we reached one of the three enlightenments and we talked about what that meant Nirvana or better.

Introduction to the 10 Non-Virtues

That said, hopefully we want to know as much as we can about what it means to keep our vowed morality if that's going to be the tool through which we close the door to lesser rebirth and better, or get on the conveyor belt to nirvana and Buddhahood.

The basis of our individual freedom vows is the ethical living in which we avoid those ten non virtues.

We learned that Lord Buddha knows our 84,000 mental afflictions that drive us in our behavior choices. He says that's too much to work with. Let's boil them down to the top ten out of which all the rest of those evolve, out of which they come.

If we can work on avoiding these ten at obvious levels, gross levels all the way down to the most subtle level, ee don't have to worry so much about the other 883,989 mental afflictions, right? We'll take care of those two by working on these ten. Thank You Buddha, you just made this task a little more doable.

(13:08) Lama Tsongkapa goes into detail about these ten non virtues in his big text The Lam Rim Chenmo. He's drawing from multiple sources, of course. Two primary ones are Buddha‘s Sutras, one of them called The Chapter on the True and the other one called the Sutra on the Ten Levels. We're studying Je Tsongkapa. He goes into a deeper explanation of the karmic results of those ten behaviors. When we understand these karmic results on these different levels he's going to show us, we can better understand the experiences that we have in daily life. Not just the great big ones, why did I get in that nasty car accident? Why did my parents plane crash? Why… But the day-to-day struggles and unhappinesses that we have. They all have specific causes of specific behaviors that we did at some point in the past this life or before that are now ripening into our current experience on all these different levels of that experience.

It takes an omniscient being to see exactly as we understand. But we can understand the correlations well enough that even without omniscience we can do a pretty good job figuring out what behaviors cause these experiences and so what behaviors to avoid doing if I don't like that experience. What behaviors to do more of if I like the experience. What to do the opposite of if I don't like the experience. I already said what to do more of if we do like the experience. The more we understand these correlations between our experiences, our behaviors in response to the experiences and what experiences we get next, the better we understand the correlations within that cycle the better we can design our own future by way of choosing our behaviors. Then we see that the vows that we take to avoid certain behaviors we would have come to that conclusion on our own. But it might have taken three countless great eons to do it. And Buddha said, let's give them a break. Let's let's give them the guidelines so they don't have to reinvent the wheel. Thank you so much.

Then to increase the power of our new choices of behavior let's have this system be they vow to avoid the behavior that they already see they can avoid, and now they get the added bonus of the goodness of keeping the vow as they're not doing that behavior and we can we can help them go through this process a whole lot faster than I did, says Buddha. So, thank you.

That's what we're studying is to learn the correlations so that we can see how our choices of interactions with others is either perpetuating our Samsara, or finally starting to slow it down even sooner or later stop it.

We've all probably already learned, something unpleasant is happening and we have learned to think, wow, what did I do to cause this? If you leave it there, in my experience, if you just answer that question, oh, I was like that to somebody else, and leave it there. It I didn't find that particularly helpful.

I need to know what to do about it. So I would need to identify clearly what is this event? What about it is unpleasant to me?

And then okay, I did it. What do I need to do now to not make more of it in the future for anybody?

So to me the more important question in the face of something that we don't like so much isn't, what did I do to make this? It's okay. I made it, done.

What's the opposite? What do I want to plant instead?

My automatic reaction wants to yell back. Not gonna do that.

What's the opposite?

But you know, we might find ourselves in a situation where there's the boss yelling at me again. You know, okay, I yelled at somebody.

But you know what, in this lifetime I've never been a yeller. When I got upset with somebody I cried. I couldn't help it, I'd start to cry. So it wouldn't help me to say well, I just have to stop yelling because I don't yell. So it isn't really helpful. But when I look deeper their yell as they're yelling at me, they're really blaming me for something I didn't do, or maybe I did and I don't want to admit. And it's the blaming factor. That's got me upset. Not the being yelled at so much. And if I then look and go well, do I blame others? Oh whoops. Now I see where this is coming from. Now I see what I want to do the opposite of. In the immediate moment it doesn't address them yelling at me. But it addresses why I'm upset with them yelling at me because of the blame factor.

So alright, whatever happens this gets finished. I need to go and see where it is I'm blaming others in an unpleasant way and stop doing it.

Can you point out that somebody needs to do their job better without blaming them in a way that upsets them? Absolutely.

Does it take some effort? Absolutely.

Will we make mistakes? Probably.

But once we understand these correlations better our motivation to try will be stronger because we'll see that this is what I'm meant to work on and the universe was just showing me. My life was showing me what habitual mental afflictions are needing me to learn to respond in a different way to them.

So that's why we're studying this in detail and it goes by in one class pretty quickly. We revisited a little bit in the Lojong.

But I found that answer key from this class became my like go-to encyclopedia about understanding the karmic correlations as I was trying to work with my keeping my book, etc.

So to have this system worked out, it's way more fun than to just be thinking, Oh Traffic jam. I caused traffic jams for other beings, you know. Big deal. I got in people's way. I obstructed people. Okay.

How do I stop doing that? Where do I do it now?

Plan out how I'm gonna not do that. I'm gonna get into the long line at the grocery store. I did that for a long time, years probably. And knock on wood now, no long lines at grocery stores. Even on a day when there's no cart. So many people in the store, all the carts are taken but by the time I get to a checkout, walk right through practically. And if there is a long line, guess who will be the one that the new checker that opens up points to. You come. (pointing at herself) Right? It happens all the time now and I'm not bragging. I'm just saying, it took five, eight, ten years for that shift to happen. But it did happen.

Just like the Lamas say, so be patient, diligent. Be diligent.

The 10 Non-Virtues

(24:20) All right, so the ten non-virtues from the sutras we know them:

killing
stealing
sexual misconduct

= three of physical action.

Four of speech:

lying
divisive speech
harsh speech, sometimes those two are, the order is changed. The order is not so important.
useless speech, the fourth one.

And then three of mind:

coveting, sometimes called jealousy
ill will and
Wrong view.

So we're gonna go into those in a little bit more detail.

For any of them the ripening result from them is, like the specific way the result ripens, is influenced by four factors when we're doing those deeds.

So the four factors.

The extent to which the deed was premeditated

So let's use killing as an example. A premeditated act of killing plants a seed in our mind for different result than an accidental killing. It's still the result will be from having killed but you can imagine the difference a premeditated one versus accidental. So the first factor in what's called a full path of karma is it is premeditated.

Accurate Identification

The second factor is that we need accurate identification of the object involved in the case of killing specifically we must see that the object that we are premeditated about killing is a living being. It is alive. It is the one we intend to kill like we're doing worst-case scenario here.

The extent to which we are influenced by a mental affliction

is then included in the seed that's planted and so it will play a role in the circumstance of that series of seeds ripening.

We are always under a mental affliction of some kind. But the one that's the strongly motivating our response influences the seed.

We actually undertake the deed and complete it.

So in the case of killing for instance, we could premeditated, know our object clearly, have a mental affliction about it, but never do it. These seed plantings will bring results. But if you never kill the being, these seed plantings will not bring the result of you dying prematurely.

If you complete the deed now the circumstances ripening result is that your life ends sooner than it would have. And that starts this whole debate about how can you die sooner than you would have. But let's just leave that on the shelf for now.

If we kill somebody, when those seeds ripen, somebody's gonna kill us, period. And that's what makes killing a wrong deed. There's nothing in killing per se that's either good or bad. That's hard, right?

It's like yes, it is. Killing is just plain bad. It's just plain bad because as a result of killing someone, something, we will be killed.

Yeah, but we live in a world where this body's gonna die. Yeah. Why do you think? Because we kill to keep it alive. Animals do it. I don't know. I might go so far as to say probably plants do it too to some extent. We can't live without killing something, unfortunately. Because of our ignorance.

Which means we could. If we weren't ignorant it wouldn't be the case. Buddhas don't kill things in order to stay alive. So these four factors.

It does not mean if you don't have all four intact you don't make a karmic seed. It's that you make the worst outcome by having all four of those factors at the strongest level. And all the nuances within those four are nuances that are revealed by how the result ripens upon us.

1. Killing

So, for killing. Killing means taking the life of another being or contributing to it. Somehow encouraging or setting somebody else to do it. Any way in which we're supportive of other beings being killed means we're making karmic seeds for being killed.

They say, even if you're in the military and you're the cook, you're feeding all those soldiers. You're still contributing to the karma for the killing that's happening. Then they go on to say, and you know what? Anybody whose taxes get used to support that is getting some seeds from killing. Again, it's like, we're kind of stuck.

We've heard Geshela say, write a letter to your administration and say, I understand I need to pay my taxes, but I'm morally opposed to war and killing for any reason, and I'm just stating my case. And it does something right to our seeds to help protect us a little bit.

I have to admit I haven't done that yet with this administration, but I have with previous ones.

Killing.

2. Stealing

The second one is stealing. Taking that which has not been given. Which includes cheating on an obligation, or underpaying what's due, or any kind of sneaky or shady business deals. Any any place where we are trying to get the advantage for ourselves in when it has to do with an exchange of something that we're obligated to, not just money.

3. Sexual misconduct

Here it mainly is talking about adultery, interfering with committed relationships. But the scriptures include other factors in sexual relationships that according to our cultures, they're perfectly acceptable behaviors. The scripture isn't saying, no, those are bad behaviors. The scripture is about behaviors that we think are pleasurable that in fact hurt us in the long run.

So that's not about having sexual activity or sexual relationships, it's how are that those relationships influence us in a way that we get our attachments, we get our needs met, we expect somebody else to do for us. All of those mental afflictions that go along with.

The sexual activity part of a relationship is what Buddha is pointing out, it will our arenas in which we perpetuate our samsara, thinking everything's perfectly fine. So the scripture points out stuff that nowadays it's like no, there is nothing wrong with that stuff. And Buddha agrees, nothing wrong with it, except that it just perpetuates our want for more. They don't say in the long run just become celibate. Although they do say there's a big advantage to being celibate on purpose for a certain period of time at a certain level of your practice. Because of how it engages with that energy that we call sexual activity energy, and helps us get some distance from the automaticity of those events so that we can learn to use them in a different way. For later.

Meanwhile, in order for that for later to ever come, we need to have the karmic goodness planted surrounding our relationship with others in a sexual context. So they give us these guidelines for sexual activity that is the least likely to increase our mental afflictions surrounding relationships.

They have rules:

You don't have intercourse in the orifice of the body that wasn't meant for it.
You don't masturbate.

You don't have relations with

someone too young, meaning not yet an adult in that society.
Someone who's related to you with a certain closeness. I don't remember exactly what it was.
With a woman who's on her menses or
a woman who's pregnant with a child more than a month. Which you know, you barely even know by then.
With a woman who's caring for a very young infant.
with someone to whom it would hurt
With someone who has a sexually transmitted disease and
excessive. Which you know, who knows what that means?

So there are others, you'll see in the reading. There's a list of stuff.

Again, it's pointing out those aspects of our relationships that increase worldly desire. Okay.

Geshela said, very likely there are parts of this teaching, all of it, but this in particular that our minds going to reject. Fine. Put it on the shelf for now, rather than try to sort it out. We have lost students because of this literature and it's unfortunate. Because it's not necessary if we can stay open for the deeper message.

Let's go on to speech speech. The first of the Non-virtue of speech is

4. Lying

Here meaning giving someone else a misimpression. You know, it's one thing to intentionally lie for whatever reason we would do. It's another to be so clear and precise in our speech that we're really trying hard not to give the wrong impression. We can't always do it.

There will be situations where we need to make this call and we maybe need to be willing to give up false impression on purpose because of the situation. My own example was, in medical care rarely somebody would have something that if I could have let myself respond I would have been going, egads. I would have been freaking out. But I was the professional in the room. I was there to take care of it. I needed to keep my professional face on and not go, egads, how in the world, right? But deal with it instead. Intentionally giving a misimpression because that was my job. But if I was intentionally giving the misimpression so that I didn't show that I wasn't capable, that would be a different misimpression than I am showing that I can deal with what you've got going on, because I could. It was just flipping me out to do so and I didn't show that part. Right? If they had asked, I would have told. But do you see?

So these are not so cut and dried as we think. I still planted seeds for being in a situation where somebody's flipping out but not responding to the flip out and instead dealing with whatever is going on. So I would say I did a wrong that I hope is gonna come back in a positive way. But a positive way that is still samsaric. So maybe I could have done better.

So none of these are like hundred percent black and white, ever. It's our effort to be really precise to to give an impression we mean to give.

When we flat-out lie about stuff, we do it either to get something or we do it to avoid getting in trouble. And either way the result of lying, we will learn, is to be lied to and not believed. And so if we lie and we get what seems to be the result of the advantage of the business deal, those two cannot be related. The advantage of the business deal is getting some kind of wealth. The disadvantage of lying is somebody's gonna lie to us. Once we see these correlations it becomes more clear how things that we think are related as cause and effect because they happen one after the other are not in fact cause and effect. They do happen one after the other but they're not related. Technically nothing we do is related to what comes next. That's really hard, debatable.

It's like, look. I lift up my cup, the next thing that happens I take a sip of tea. Aren't those two related? Technically not. Weird. Not to worry.

So lying.

5. Divisive Speech

(43:00) Divisive speech means saying something to someone that will make them dislike somebody else more. Divisive, speaking in ways that split people apart.

We tend to do it. Usually there's some context where there's somebody we don't like and we know the person we're talking to doesn't particularly like them either. And so we're willing to point out that person's negative qualities because we agree. And them agreeing with me verifies that I'm right when of course I'm not.

But verifies that I am and I get that feedback and as a result both them and I dislike that other person more. We believe that our judgment about them must be more correct because we both agree. We do it so ubiquitously in just casual conversations. Not with any intention I want you to like them less so I'm gonna say this. Not at all with that kind of intention. But the end result is, we've split people apart.

What we say about the other person doesn't even need to be true. Most of the time it's not anyway. Which means we're also lying, whether we know it or not. Then, it's just the fact that we're saying something negative about somebody to somebody else.

6. Harsh Speech

Harsh speech means we're using our speech with an unkind intention. We want the effect of what we've said to be unpleasant for someone, hurtful. Or we inadvertently use speech that the other person finds as hurtful. But technically it's using speech that if somebody used it with us we would find it hurtful—as our criteria for whether it's harsh or not.

It's not just the words, although cursing, harsh sounds, overly loud music—it isn't technically speech, but it brings a similar result. It's it's the intention behind it, is this harsh unpleasantness. Somehow we're wanting to bring some unpleasantness. When we think of it that way, it's quite ugly.

7. Idle Speech

(46:46) Then the fourth one for speech is idle speech or useless speech, meaning this meaningless chatter. They say even if we're just chattering to ourself or to inanimate objects, but more importantly, arguments, criticisms, disputes that aren't like going through a reasoning to try to come to a solution that will benefit everybody, just bouncing off each other, our differing opinions and blame factor. Even reciting non-Buddhist texts, they say, is considered idle speech. That's a little bit unfair, but we would add to that reciting Buddhist speech, Buddhist texts while we're thinking about something else. Anybody do that? Yay. Yes. My mind wanders as I get into that Diamond Cutter Sutra, I have to admit it wanders.

So these are things that we do do. That's why they're the top 10 out of the 84,000. They say that the worst is probably Dharma gossip, where we're gossiping about things that happened in our Dharma center or in our Sangha. Or we're just casually talking about karma and emptiness, sort of flippantly using karma and emptiness as our topic of conversation, not sincerely digging into something.

So that can get a little bit more delicate to stay mindful enough of our Dharma speech to make sure that our Dharma speech doesn't fall into the idle talk category. Now certainly, Dharma idle speech is planting different seeds for TV sex scandal speech. It's going to bring back a different kind of useless speech result. But it's the not being mindful factor that we're trying to train ourselves to overcome.

Geshela shared, an aspiring bodhisattva will find themselves in circumstances where we need to discuss mundane things in order to fit in. And that aspiring bodhisattva is always on alert for an opportunity to turn the conversation to something meaningful, or to drop a one liner that somebody will maybe think about, instead of just stepping into the ordinary conversation and staying there. Just always on alert. Maybe you never get a chance to drop your one liner. The fact that you are on alert to be able to do so is what means your idle speech was less than it could have been. Do you see?

8. Coveting

(50:50) Next one is coveting or craving, being unhappy when you see someone else's success. Most commonly there's something we want, even something we have already, but want to be sure we can keep or have more of. And then we see somebody who has that, or maybe has more of it than we do. And there's some mental affliction that immediately compares and thinks not rationally, but has this gut reaction to ‘there's really not enough to go around if they have more than me‘, right? That makes me unhappy, that they have more than me, because that's the source of my happiness.

We don't think it through like that. We have the feeling and we act from it. And our action from it is, I deserve that more than they do. And we probably don't go and take it from them. But our interaction with that other is gonna be different. Our willingness to obstruct their happiness in some way is there because of this sense of they have more than me, or they have what I want. I don't. Our reaction is to get in their way in some way. We don't even realize we're doing it mostly now until it's pointed out, till we pointed out to ourselves. And then it's like, oh my gosh, yuck. Right? When we understand about karma and emptiness, it's the opposite of finding the happiness that we want is to be unhappy when we see somebody have some.

So there are these five conditions apparently, which I didn't really relate to these so much. But it's helpful to think them through. The five conditions that makes our state of mind one of coveting.

We are attached to our own possessions, which includes our characteristics. So not just material possessions, but possessions, who we are, our good qualities.
We desire to accumulate more.
We learn about what the other person has.
It occurs to us that we would like to have those two. We don't necessarily think I, I want to take them from them. I just want them also.
Our desire becomes overwhelming and we act in some way, scripture says that is shameless. We act in some way to get that thing that the other has that we want. Because we desire to accumulate it. Because we're attached to our accumulation of things or of qualities of character, whatever it is, that triggers this.

The end result, of course, is the action that we do. All of these, it's about the action that we end up doing, that's propelled by the state of mind, state of heart, that are brought about by previous circumstances of what brought up the killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, all of it.

9. Ill Will

So the ninth one is ill will, wishing something bad on somebody else. It's like when we are pleased that someone else has failed in something or had problems. If there's someone we don't like, and they're actuall,having something good happen, our ill will will/ could kick in such that we do something to interfere with them having a good day. Just because we don't like them. They shouldn't have a good day, right? It's subtle. But it colors this kind of ill will, colors our willingness to shove onto the elevator ahead of them. Just little things like that.

Competitiveness is included in ill will. It's like, come on, it's healthy to be competitive. Yeah, there's a healthy competitive. And there's a ill will competitive. There's a wrong view competitive too.

In ill will is also the mental factor of just not caring when we see or hear of someone having problem. There are people that we love, and their slightest problem we care about. And then there are others that have a similar slightest problem and it's like, ah, that's their problem. All the way up to the great big ones, to where it's like, well, they deserve that their behavior is making that happen, right? Can't they see how karma works? Just turning our Dharma wisdom, our karma wisdom on to them and then blaming them. I don't need to help you. Right? We don't do that with the ones we love. But we do it with the ones we don't like. There's something somehow grossly satisfying when something bad happens to somebody we don't like. We must have it, or it wouldn't be in the top 10. Ugly.

10. Wrong Worldview

Classically, it's not believing in karma and past and future lives. Because if we don't have the belief that our behavior has consequences, and that those consequences can carry beyond this lifetime, then none of the other 10 wrong deeds will be considered right or wrong. If all we've got is this lifetime and in this lifetime, we can't see the results of our deeds done earlier in this life, ripen within this life. You can find all kinds of circumstances where there was a person who all through their kid, teen to young adult years, were wonderful angel child. They were fabulous in any way, every way. And then something happens as an adult and everybody lies to them. Everything goes wrong. Everything. And we would think, well, look, they've been so kind, so good as a little kid. And now everything's just gone to hell. You can't tell me that this is cause and effect. And we would say, right, it's not cause and effect. And they'd say, so see, forget all this virtue stuff. It didn't matter for that poor kid. The argument would be hard to defend if it didn't include, it can take past this lifetime for those seeds to ripen.

But most of us, if we're still here in an ACI class 9, we either already had the belief in past and future lives, or we really worked on that logic of if I have a mind now, there had to have been one before this life's one to prove it to ourselves. Or we just believe.

If we just believe, oh, we're in a little bit tenuous territory because we could lose that belief. If we haven't verified it with logic, which will make it less likely for us to lose the belief.

But the important piece is to understand that our behavior does have consequences. And if we can't show it to ourselves directly, what are we doing here? Again, we have the seeds to hear it said, whoa, that feels right. And so we're still here. But if we either don't use it to replant that belief or work on the logic of it to replant that belief, we could lose it. Yeah. Things could go wrong, go wrong, go wrong. I've had people that went through the first six or so ACI and they applied themselves to their purification practices so well that like in Diamond Cutters Sutra, you study Diamond Cutter, your car's going to catch on fire, right? Your house is going to get broken into, you're going to lose your job. And right. It happened to this poor young man, like one awful thing after another. And he finally came to me and he said, I'm so sorry, I can't continue. Like my life is just in a shambles here. And what could I say? It's like you're doing a great job purifying, but he had to quit. I don‘t blame him, it was too hard. He was really turning it on. So meanwhile, regrouped. He's doing, he's great. He's wonderful. But he didn't come back to study, I wouldn't either. Why did I go there?

Consequences of our actions. When we're convincing ourselves that my action now does not bring the consequence that comes next. Is that crazy? What you do in the moment doesn't bring what's next. But what you do in the moment creates your future. Well, if it doesn't bring the future in the next moment, what the heck does it matter? Yeah. It's a great debate.

That's why we're studying all of this, so that we can see how the correlations do work so that we can show it to ourselves that my behavior now does in fact matter for what happens in the future. And it matters for what happens now too.

Let's take our break.

(1:04:28) If it were easy, we would all be enlightened right now. And maybe you are, and you're just faking it.

(Tom) Faking it super hard.

(Lama Sarahni) You can quit faking it anytime you want. I think that'll put me out of business. So don't do that after all. Keep faking it so I still have somebody to share with. Otherwise I'm going back into retreat and not coming out. Okay.

So why are we talking about all of this? Because karma is the direct cause of every millisecond of our experience. Always has been, always will be, except that at some level, we don't call it karma anymore. We call it merit. But the process of what we think, do and say towards other imprints this mind in a way that becomes the experience of me, other, and whatever's going on between us happening.

It's happening constantly because the only witness that matters in our moment by moment interaction with others is our own mind. And our own mind is always there and it's always on, right? Even deep sleep, even knocked out, even anesthetized. Our mind is recording what's happening.

That recording goes in this loop, being influenced by everything that's ripening and everything else that's being recorded. Every moment of every recording is influenced by every other one. And when a given part of the recording gets over some threshold, whatever that threshold is, I don't understand yet, it manifests. It's like at a vibration that doesn't get over the threshold and then it's a vibration that does and ta-da, there it is. And it lasts a little while and then it loses its vibration over the threshold and it's gone. Whatever I did with the thing while it was there, I'm planting new.

And this process happening is existence.

Karma and emptiness, dependent origination and ultimate reality, profound dependence, all these different words trying to describe it where the words themselves don't quite get it until we understand the process. And then we say, oh, that's what those words are referring to.

Karma is collected. You know that term, karma that's collected, fresh karma, is made by being there when we experience something. Just the mind witness thinking, saying, doing is when the imprint gets made.

Stuff has to happen to that imprint for it to be a strong enough imprint to carry on and for it to get over the threshold into manifestation. And it takes time according to different factors having to do with how it was imprinted and different factors having to do with other similar things that you did that fed it and other opposite things that we did that detracted from it.

And so that process is what's growing it or holding it back, growing it and holding it back is our behaviors, this moment, this moment, this moment. They're influencing everything, always.

So these deeds that we are thinking, saying, doing, our interactions with other, are constantly either adding to our progress or blocking our progress towards the end of suffering, whether our goal is nirvana or Buddhahood. Even before we know those things, what we're thinking, saying and doing is adding to our suffering or detracting a little bit.

We don't stop recreating samsara until after we've seen emptiness directly for the first time. That's when we're not replanting seeds in our mind with the full on belief in the things and self and interactions having their identities in them, what we're calling self-existence. Until then, we are replanting our belief in self-existence, less and less and less, because you believe less and less and less. But until we've experienced directly the fact that self-existent things are impossible, like never been there, we can't stop replanting the seed.

So the less we believe, the closer we get to that experience. And the more consciously we avoid certain behaviors and do other behaviors based on our growing belief, the stronger our ability to reach the end of that belief grows. So we use our understanding to choose our behaviors to plant our seeds, such that we move ourselves towards the actual experience in which we no longer believe in the things having their own natures the way they still seem they do. But if we don't believe in that anymore, we don't replant the ‘in it from it‘ anymore. And that's the beauty, that's the being on the conveyor belt to Nirvana or Buddhahood, depending on our state of mind when the experience happens.

So really, the whole point in working with avoiding our ten non virtues is to grow this goodness such that our belief in things having their own nature is decreasing. So our ability to experience them not having their own nature directly is growing so that we can get through that portal onto the conveyor belt to the end of perpetuating suffering for everybody.

(1:12:43) So yes, we're working on avoiding the ten non virtues so that we ourselves can have a more pleasant life, so that we ourselves can grow our spiritual qualities. But technically it's all directed towards the seeds necessary for this one experience. And it can get a little frustrating because it's like that's our goal and it still seems so far away, maybe. And you know it's something that we work with is that's just a belief as well. And so we train in our progress, we plant the seeds and we struggle with our mental afflictions regarding it and carry on.

Because we can't see directly how this behavior causes that result, we use an omniscient being‘s instruction, guideline and then check it out to see if we can confirm, not from direct experience yet, but from logical deduction and personal experience in another way, to be able to prove to ourselves that yes, these ten particular behaviors and their opposites are within my capacity to change myself. In doing so, I will create the ball rolling towards this transformation of me and my world that the very teachings offer is possible.

The 4 Results From Any of Our Deeds

(1:14:54) There are four different karmic results from doing any deed, but we're going to talk about them in terms of their relationship with these ten non-virtues in particular.

Four aspects that were involved in when we planted the seed that ripen and influences in a different way.

The first is called the ripened result, the second is called the consistent result, the third is called the consistent consequence, so it's a little bit confusing, and the fourth is the environmental result.

Geshela in his four by four teachings, these are the four flowers, and he's softened the terminology a little bit. He has made it more understandable. Scripturally, they use these odd terms: ripened, consistent, consistent consequence, which is different than the consistent, and the environmental.

1. Ripened Result

The ripened result of any of those ten non-virtues is its influence in the projecting karma that sends us to the next rebirth.

Any of the ten non-virtues done as an extreme instance that is then the projecting karma at the end of the lifetime, that karma will send us into a hell realm.

An extreme instance for killing, for example, would be one that's totally premeditated, accurately recognized the object, and that they're alive, under this mental affliction of ‘my killing this person is going to make me happy‘. And then four, you go and do the deed, and they die within your lifetime. So it's like, yes, I did it. I completed it. That's a big bad deed. If that seed ripens at the end of this life, you're on your way to a hell realm.

If you do a lie with those big four, the lie can send you to a hell realm. Do you see? So it's a little bit weirder. A big bad ill will, if it's the seed that ripens, sends you to a hell realm.

It's the all four of the factors present that makes the non-virtue be a seed that if it's projecting karma, causes the hell realm.

A medium instant of any of the 10 non-virtues will send us to the craving spirit realm.

Before we learned, oh, you know, being stingy will make you a craving spirit. But here, killing without all four of those, if it's the projecting karma, hungry ghost.

A lesser instance of any of the 10 non-deeds, if that's the projecting karma, we're headed to animal realm.

So that's the first factor in any of these 10 non-deeds, what rebirth we would get. It's called the ripening result.

2. Consistent Result

The second kind of result we get is the consistent result. And that's expressed as even if you do manage to get a birth as a human, then in that human life, you will have a habit of doing that non-virtue again and again and again.

So the killing wasn't a projecting karma to send you to hell realm. Some other projecting karma sent you to another human realm. Hooray, right? Miracle.

But then the filling in the details karmas for that life, because of a killing karma, make you one of those little kids that loves to stomp on bugs and throw rocks at birds. There are little kids that are like that. And then there are little kids that aren't like that.

There are people that have a tendency to lie. And there are people that just don't have to teach them about it. They're just truthful. Maybe even truthful to a fault, some of us would say, because they have this filling in karma from one of the 10 non-deeds or their opposite can also fill in.

So it's called the consistent result, meaning we consistently live according to that seed that we're bringing forward from past life.

And then the question is, well, just one instant of lying make you somebody who likes to lie? Probably not. Probably there would have had to have been a habit of lying in this life that isn't the projecting karma, but it's the filling in karma that makes me the person that would have a tendency to lying. That's just what you do to be successful in your world from a little kid onward, right?

How exactly it works, omniscient being.

But he's saying, look, that if we get a human life and we see that we have these certain tendencies, habitual tendencies, we can look at them and see, oh yeah, I can see how that's related to this non-virtue. Maybe it's not lying per se, but maybe it's like exaggerating. And exaggerating is a kind of giving a misimpression and I see where that comes from. I see how that's connected and so I'm going to be really careful to stop that habit.

3. Consistent Consequence

Third is called the consistent consequence. And this refers to things that we will personally experience others doing towards us as a result of those seeds planted previously.

So this is the one where we get a personal result that we can start looking at the correlations to see where did that come from? And then how do I want to react to it? And is that reaction a reaction that I want to plant or is it a reaction that's just going to perpetuate this whole thing?

When the person's yelling at me, if I want to yell back, is that really what's going to be most effective for stopping suffering in my world?

You know, if your answer is yes, yell. If your answer is, well, I don't think so. Then I'm not going to let myself yell. I hope I'm going to choose something else.

And then I'm going to go and see where is it that I'm forcefully imposing my will on somebody else, whether I'm yelling at them or not.

Whatever I find unpleasant about that circumstance, I want to see where I'm doing it to somebody else and stop.

And I want to determine what the opposite would be and do more of that. That's how I get to use this karmic correlations.

So each of the ten non-virtues has two consistent consequences, two ways that we can recognize, two things that will happen to us.

Consistent Consequences for Killing

For killing, for instance, our life will be short. And it's like, well, we sort of won't know that till it happens. So that's not so terribly helpful.

The second one, though, is we'll get easily sick or easily tired. We think, oh, I was just a sickly kid. So now I'm a sickly adult. And it's like, yeah, but there's a reason for that. You know, and it's not that you got your vaccinations too young, right? It's from past killing.

Yeah, but everybody's killed. So why isn't everybody sick and tired all the time? You know, they will be. When it ripens on them, they will be. We're just getting it when we're getting it.

So if we do have health problems, we can take Geritol, we can exercise, we can go take the medicine. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. We can protect life, which we already do. So we can do a lot of rejoicing about the protecting life we've already done. And we can find ways to protect life more.

Yeah, but I'm so sick. Yeah, but wear your seatbelt. That's protecting life, yours and like whoever else gets in the car accident. Your body doesn't go flying around if you're strapped in, you're protecting not just your life, but others. Stop at the stop sign for crying out loud. You're protecting others' life. I mean, little things like that that we do all the time. But if we need a reason to get to protect life, there's one. And you don't have to go buy fish and liberate, right? Just stop behind the limit line on purpose. Don't run the red light. Don't run the yellow light. If you can go donate blood, donate blood, right?

You get it. There are all kinds of ways that we already protect life that we can do more of and rejoice that we have. And then send it right to our improved health.

Will it happen tomorrow that we feel better?

My personal experience is, it took a long time. But does work. And there's nothing else to do anyway.

Okay, I'm sick all the time. So I won't wear my seatbelt. Right?

I'm sick all the time. So I'll run the stop sign.

Like, come on. That's that's not the logical conclusion of it doesn't work. Okay. Protect life.

Consistent Consequences for Stealing

For stealing. One of the consistent consequences is we never have enough to live on. Second one, whatever we do have, we have to share with others.

And it's a little interesting because, you know, if we have families, you know, parents with kids, you have to share everything with your kid. Is that a bad thing? No.

But is it a result of having stolen? I don't know. You'd have to think that one through.

So in the circumstance where it is an unpleasant result that you have to share everything with others, we wouldn't connect the dot to say, well, it's because I stole stuff from others. But we could see how in a circumstance, say we live with other adults and you've got your toothpaste and they've got their toothpaste and you keep finding your toothpaste is disappearing faster than you use it. It's like who's using my toothpaste? And turns out one of your bathroom buddies just grabs the tube and uses it. They don't care who it is. And you perceive them as stealing your toothpaste. You wouldn't think to use theirs. And so you feel put upon somehow from having to share your toothpaste.

If you didn't care, you wouldn't care. It's a different carmine ripening. But if it bothers you. Then think, oh, I stole from others to be even in this situation where somebody would help themselves to my toothpaste. Our circumstances are often just as absurd as them.

When we can't get enough, can't get the things we need, we don't automatically think, oh, man, result of stealing from others. Do we?

So often I go to those grocery stores that have got like massive merchandise and I can't find what I want. And I go all these dumb grocery stores instead of ‘result of stealing sometime in some lifetime‘.

But just to have that thought is purifying. Do you see?

Instead of blaming the grocery store, I take responsibility for my own past stealing, which is why I can't find the peanut butter with no sugar in it. Today. And next week, I get there and there's plenty.

To apply the right thinking takes a unpleasant circumstance and uses it to burn off a negativity instead of planting a new negativity, which is I can't think of actually still having a peanut butter. Yeah. Who wants that one? Stealing.

Consistent Consequences for Sexual Misconduct

Next one, sexual misconduct. The first way that it can ripen is that the people around us are unreliable. Regardless of relationship issues, just you're the gardener, you have a team of co-gardeners, they just don't show up. And you're left taking care of the whole yard yourself. And what is our mind do? Oh, gardener pals, they are not reliable. They never show up. I have to do it myself. Right? And we grumble and we're mad and we criticize. And then any chance we get for pointing out that they do a lousy.., they're not reliable. My mind's gonna bring it up. Instead of, oh, man, sexual misconduct ripening here. Who would connect that dot? Until now. Now we know. Sorry.

Second one, you have competition for your partner. So competition for any kind of partner. But in particular, they say, you have a partner. You are two reliable partners. And your partner is getting hit on all the time. Because ripening result of our past interfering with relationships, not only that partner, past lifetimes, is making it such that the circumstances are interfering with our partnership. Whether the partner pays any attention or not. If it bothers you that people are hitting on your partner all the time, then it's a ripening result of this sexual misconduct from before.

More important, though, is this unreliability of people. And difficulty in maintaining partnerships. We need all kinds of partnerships. And we need them to be reliable. And so we need to be a reliable partner. Not just in sexual relationships, but other places as well.

Consistent Consequences for Lying

Next one, lying. Lying, consistent consequence of lying is that nobody believes what we say in this life. Even when we're speaking the truth, nobody believes what we say.

It's like some people who lie all the time, they get believed. Some people who never lie, don't get believed. And vice versa.

It happens in all four ways. Some who never lie, but lie once, still get believed. Some who lie all the time and now are telling the truth, don't get believed. Some who lie all the time still get believed, whether they're lying or not. What's the fourth one? I lost track.

But in life, any of those circumstances happen, and we can either be on the receiving end or witnessing, and we see it happening.

Kind of a big one going on in our political arena right now.

So that's the first factor, is we're not believed even when we're speaking truthfully.

Second factor is that we perceive that others are always trying to deceive us, cheat us, lie to us. Our perception is they are deceiving us because of the seeds from past having deceived others.

Probably that one would come from deceiving others and looking like we got a good result from it. And then we bring that with us into a current life, and it's like, whoa, everybody's deceiving me. Everybody's out to cheat me.

Consistent Consequences of Divisive Speech

Divisive speech.The first way it can ripen is the people around us are always fighting against one another. Assuming that other people fighting is unpleasant for you, It would be for me. But I know that there are cultures where it sure seems to me like the families are fighting. But if you ask them about it, they go, fighting? This isn't fighting. But it's like so unpleasant for me to hear it going on. It's like, yuck, right? So for me, it's ripening of divisive speech. For them, it's not. It's going to be something else.

Second factor in divisive speech is the people around us have undesirable characters. Like the good kid that falls in with gang members and then becomes influenced by gang members. And mom goes, my boy, my boy is such a wonderful boy. He couldn't be in a gang. But he just fell in with the wrong crowd for whatever reason.

From past divisive speech. Whose? The kids or the moms?

Consistent Consequences of Harsh Speech

Next one, harsh speech. Result of harsh speech is the sounds of our world are unpleasant. Sirens, jackhammers, squeaky bus brakes. You're on the garbage truck route and you hear it rattling around. Barking dogs, crying babies. Whatever sounds it is that are annoying to you, they come from harsh speech.

Geshela said, you have a neighbor with a barking dog. You can go talk to them. You can take biscuits to the dog. You can do all kinds of stuff, and it may or may not work. And you can be really, really careful with your harsh speech. Everywhere else, especially not yelling at the dog, right? Which is, what do we do at a dog that's barking? Just perpetuated it. And just wait and see what happens. Geshela says, they'll move away, you know.

But either way, the dog barking, irritating you will stop. Even if the dog keeps barking, it won't irritate you anymore.

When we change our seeds, how long will it take? As long as it takes for the dog to stop barking.

Dog to stop barking, irritating you. That's when you can stop. And then by then, if you want to go back to harsh speech, then have at it. But hopefully you've figured out that I don't need to live with harsh speech. It's just as easy, right, to get my point across without it.

Where's the second one? Harsh speech. Sounds are unpleasant.

Second one. When people talk to us, it sounds to us like they're picking a fight. They probably aren't from their side, but it seems that way.

Consistent Consequences of Idle Speech

Because of our past useless speech, no one respects what we have to say in this life. So it doesn't necessarily mean for our whole life nobody respects us. But maybe we're in a certain situation where, you know, in that situation it doesn't matter what I say. Nobody pays any attention. Other places they pay attention, but that one not. Because it all is variable according to who you're with, what circumstance you're with, because of the variability with which the seeds were planted.

But if we can see this overall pattern, man, I'm just disrespected again and again in all these different ways. Here, who would figure out, oh, it's because I gossiped before.

Like, what? But when you think of the correlation, gossip means we're blah, blah, blahing about stuff that doesn't matter. Then, yeah, out of my mouth comes stuff that doesn't matter.

So I'm going to see other people thinking stuff out of my mouth doesn't matter. It's my seeds making them disrespect me. If I ask them, you're disrespecting me. What's the matter with you? They'll go, I don't know. They'll defend themselves because they probably aren't seeing themselves disrespect you. I'm seeing them disrespect me. And then I'm going to blame them and come up with some way to make their life a little bit unpleasant because that's what stupid humans do. Instead of going, oh, man, useless talk-at it again. And if I can do that, then, all right, I won't blame you. I'll blame my useless talk. And now I got some out of the way.

And let's see what happens. Especially I need to zip my lip in current useless speech if I'm doing it somewhere. And probably will find that we are if it's a situation that we're seeing as a recurring theme.

Second factor in useless speech, karma ripening is that we are afflicted with lack of self-confidence.

So lack of self-esteem, amazingly, is a karmic result of useless speech. But when we think of it that way, it's like, oh, yeah, duh. Right? If I'm blah, blahing about useless speech, well, then I don't not even going to respect myself when those seeds are ripening.

And if our counselor right knew, oh, I have such lousy self-esteem, what should I do? They said, go and speak purposefully or not at all. Like go do silent retreat for three months and then come out and track your purposefulness of your speech for another three months and check your level of self-confidence after six months. We'd say, and I'm paying you for that? But it's a more direct treatment management than other things that we would do to show that we have the self-confidence, to grow our self-confidence.

So we could go to the counselor and we can work on our useless speech. And then what the counselor has us do will be more likely to work because we've shifted our seeds and followed somebody's advice. And son of a gun, the counselor's advice worked. Right. Fine. As long as your self-confidence is stronger.

Consistent Consequences of Coveting

Coveting is the next one. The result of coveting is that we have a personality that's dominated by desire.

Our life is run by desires for things.

Second factor is, and we're never satisfied with what we have. Like that's one of the six human sufferings, never contented, never satisfied.

So, I don't know, this coveting thing must be really strong in our minds if it makes one of the six human sufferings—but in gross and subtle ways, clearly.

It's like we live in such a material culture. I don't think any of you guys are succumbed to that, but… And I don't really know anybody who really is. But, you know, you see on the TV commercials, I'm supposed to be obsessed with how I treat my skin, right? Obsessed with how I dress, obsessed with the latest jewelry, obsessed with the latest iPhone. And it's like, it's this karma of past coveting, jealousy, like a little unhappy with other people's happiness makes for a lifetime of, I want, I want, I want, I want. And the more I have indicates my value or my where I land in society—all these comparisons that we do. It comes out of this jealousy.

It's easier to relate. For me, it's easier to relate to the jealousy than coveting. Jealousy, just they have something I should have. And then it's like, argh. Like I had never thought I had jealousy until I recognized the state of mind that would criticize. Why would they paint their house trim that color? It's a kind of, I couldn't just be happy for the color that they chose. And I had to think something. I never, I was smart enough to never say it out loud. I'm saying it now, but it was always in my mind, you know. Why would you want to drive a car that costs $50,000, right? Back in my day, cars cost 8,000. So 50,000 was nuts. You know, guess what our last used car cost, 30 something. And it's oh my gosh, this is nuts. Who would ever drive a used car that costs that much money?

Now, but you see, my mind just criticized, criticized, criticized. And I realized finally, it was out of some perverted kind of jealousy. Not the obvious, I want to get in your way because you have the boy I want. Not like that at all. But this, I couldn't just be happy for their $50,000 sports car for them. Now it's so fun, much more fun to be in this mind than it used to be.

Jealousy karma.

Did I say the second one? Yeah. Dominated by desire and never satisfied.

Consistent Consequences of Ill Will

Next one, ill will. Ill will is: you're always finding yourself without the help that you need.

So it's a little bit different than the divisiveness. And a little bit different than the sexual misconduct.

Both of which make unreliable people or people that aren't there.

This one's a little bit different.

You need help and everywhere you go, they can't help you. Just can't get the help we need.

Of course, then we blame them for not helping and get mad about them, which is the ill will that perpetuates it.

Second one, you find yourself always hurting others or being hurt by others. So the ill will may have only been a mental ill will. We didn't actually go and hurt people. But when those seeds ripen back on us, they've grown into even inadvertently hurting people or people willingly or inadvertently hurting you.

There are so many times that in my effort to protect a life, like, catch a little mouse and take it to relocate it. And it gets its little nose stuck in the wires of the have a heart trap that it's not supposed to get hurt. And, you know, it got hurt in my effort to protect it. Like that happens to me a lot. I catch the little bug, I take it out. And when I let it go, it smashes into something and drops dead. And it's like, oh, man, it just happens. And it's this kind of result of past ill will.

It happens to me too. I go for something. It's supposed to help me and it hurts me instead. It happens.

Consistent Consequences of Wrong View

Last one, wrong view. It ripens as being a person who keeps harmful views. I just have to read this to you. It says, such as believing that if something happens, that another country does something to hurt people of our country, that we should go and hurt their people of their country.

That's like, that's what you're supposed to do.

You know, this is from back in the 1990s, when these, Geshela gave this discussion first. Same thing happening. How long is it later? 30 years later, we're still seeing this belief that tit for tat is the way we're supposed to behave.

And if we don't behave like that, there's something wrong with us.

We are weak and they will take us over. And oh my gosh, it's this result of wrong view that perpetuates wrong view.

Now, wrong view doesn't mean believing in self-existence of things.

It means not believing that my actions are the cause of anything that I can experience. Past actions, the cause of current experiences, current interactions are the cause of future.

If we believed that and you saw somebody crush a cockroach and their ribs immediately broke, how many cockroaches would you crush?

Zero. Right?

If we really could connect the dot, there would be no misunderstanding of what to do when some other country hurts the people of our country. We don't just lay over and die. But we don't go hurt them before they can do it again, or go hurt them before they can hurt us because we think they're going to hurt us.

We just wouldn't do it because of our understanding, our direct understanding.

So the fact that we're living in a world where, oh my gosh, it is happening still, is a result of our own past wrong view. And if that was all it took to say, oh, this is all about wrong view, I don't have that wrong view anymore. If that were enough, we would all just change the channel, right? And it would be gone.

So it's because it's moment by moment by moment, those wrong view seeds that even as we are aware that it's not like that, it's not like that, it's not like that, they're still ripening from when we did believe that. So there's a lot in there, and it doesn't mean we just give up, but carefully, carefully recognize, man, this is ripening. How much more is in there? It's got to be less because I'm not willing to perpetuate it.

I'm going to take personal responsibility for my behavior, moment by moment the best that I can do and burn all the rest of this stuff off as it's happening to the best of my ability. Okay.

So first wrong view, we're a person with harmful views.

Second, we are a deceitful person. So this one, the wrong view really comes back as our own personal qualities.

The others were how people were reacting to us, but this one is like our own personal qualities. We'll be the one who's lying, cheating, stealing, and seeming like that's the way, that's how you get ahead in your world from wrong view.

So we're not those people, are we? That's a big rejoicable.

It means we had some right view in the past, or we wouldn't be taking classes like this. We probably were already people that didn't lie, cheat and steal even before you met these classes. So we've got a lot of not wrong view seeds, and that's a big rejoicable.

So truly add it to your list. Before you go to bed, I have some correct view seeds, right? Because I am a decent person. And I always have been and I'm happy with myself. And I'll do more of it. Yay.

And all this other crap, it's burning off. Okay, good.

4. Environmental Results

(1:56:35) So there's still the environmental results. This is why I asked you for the extra time. Because I want to finish this off so that you have the whole encyclopedia.

You have the ripening result, lower rebirth.

If you happen to get a human rebirth, you all have the habit of being like the 10 non-virtues that we did before.

Third, our experiences will ripen in these ways to two possible ones, not necessarily you get both for each of those 10 non-virtues.

In any way that we did any of the 10, this is how that will ripen.

Now we go to the environmental result. What it's going to look like in our outer world. And when these were first written down, people were living in an agrarian economy, right? So we relied upon the crops for our needs to be met.

We still rely upon crops, but not so immediately, right? Now we rely on the grocery store or the Amazon man, except that I'm boycotting Amazon. So we rely upon what the shops have for us. So it kind of, we need to morph it a little bit. I'm still going to give it the traditional way from the crops version, but we'll look at it from this other, more modern way too.

So this is called the environmental consequence of the 10 non-virtues.

Environmental Results for Killing

For killing, the consequence of killing, it expresses itself in our outer world in the form of foods and drink and medicine and crops, things that are supposed to have the power to nourish and sustain us are losing that power.

They are inferior to what they used to be, or I guess to what they could be. They have little nutrition, little potency. They're hard to digest. Things cause disease. And because of this, the majority of living beings die before reaching a full life.

And it's like, well, what would a full life be? How can you really say that? But if as a general rule, the population lives to 90, somebody who dies much younger than that, we would say they could have lived to their 90s if they hadn't had these circumstances. Accidents, illnesses, various things seem to get in the way of what could be a nice long life.

It's a result of past killing influencing the environment that makes it such that for that person, the environment doesn't sustain them. Medicines don't work. Food doesn't. You get it.

Environmental Results for Stealing

For stealing, because we have stolen, the crops are few and far between. They're supposed to be on their rotation. You're supposed to get this many bushels of wheat out of this field at this time, but it doesn't happen. It's not happening regularly the way it should. There isn't enough. The crops that you do get have no power to overcome your hunger. They spoil easily. You plant the seeds, but they never sprout, or they sprout and then the rains don't come, or too much rain comes and it damps them off.

It's just, they won't come to fruition. Because of having stolen, we can't get our needs met. So the environment plays out its role in that as well. We say, oh, it's climate change, but climate change for the real reason versus the worldly reason is our karmas ripening such that you can't get rain on time. Too much or not enough.

Environmental Results for Sexual Misconduct

Sexual misconduct, the environmental result is the places where we live, the places where we go, there's urine and feces all around. The place is stinky and unpleasant, filthy. Everything seems unpleasant and distasteful. It's like it doesn't mean everything all the time. Where you live is fine, but I have to drive through this one part of town to get to the office. In that one part of town they just don't care about the garbage. It just smells bad, and we blame that part of town. When really we're driving in and out of ripening of our past sexual misconduct seeds. It's curious.

I always thought that was a weird correlation, and then I thought back in my professional training early on, I had the opportunity to volunteer at a venereal disease clinic. And it's like, oh, I get the stinky part, right? Because it's just a lot of those conditions that have particular odors to them, and then you're dealing with that constantly, and the whole clinic takes this odor, right? Or like in the olden days, the nursing homes would have that awful old urine smell. They don't anymore. But it's like, of course you would blame the circumstances for that foul odor. But who would think to blame one's own past sexual misconduct for that?

Now that we know, it's like, all right. Every time I pass something stinky, one set of seeds burnt off, yay. Easy to do. Easier than getting upset about a smelly, unpleasant environment.

Environmental Results for Lying

Fourth one, because we have lied, we live in a world where when we undertake some kind of work in cooperation with other people, in the end, the work fails to prosper. Because we've lied, cooperative effort fails. You got to think about that one.

Also, all of these are pretty subtle. Those people can't work well together. They don't trust each other. From your side, they don't trust each other because of our own past being untrustworthy because we lied.

People are cheating each other. Everybody's afraid, and there are things to be afraid of. We're going to hear that a lot.

Environmental Results for Divisive Speech

Fifth one, from divisive speech, because we've split people up, the environment is a place that's uneven, like lots of crags and gullies, highs and lows. It's very difficult to travel through, and where there are many things to be afraid of, and you are always afraid.

From having been divisive with other people, your environment is divisive to you, keeping you separate from where you want to go.

So travel, that's difficult. It could be, I don't know, you're traveling, and you get to the airport, your flight's been delayed. It finally goes, and you've missed your flight at the next place. You finally get on a flight, you get to the next place, and I know they're having bad weather, and they can't land in your airport. Have you ever had a trip like that?

It's like, what's the matter with these airlines? Why can't they run on time? Right? Point that finger to what's really going on here.

It's either divisive speech, or you could say, well, it's because I lied, you know? Everybody is working together, it's just not working out.

Or it could be because I've stolen. I can't get my needs met.

Maybe some combination of all of them.

All right, harsh speech.

Environmental Results for Harsh Speech

Because we've spoken harsh words, the ground is covered with obstacles. So that's different than divisive.

The ground covered with obstacles, fallen trees, thorns, stones, rocks, clods of dirt, shards of glass. Everything is rough and dreary. There's no streams or lakes. It's just hot and threatening. And there are many things to fear. It's like, this is describing the Arizona desert.

Arizona, every bush you come across is out to get you, right? It's got stickers or thorns or bees or something that you get close to it and bing, it's after you, right? Then the rocks are just sharp. Everything's sharp in the desert. I love it. It's so beautiful.

But it's not because it's the desert. It's a result of harsh speech.

Everything's harsh, right?

So if we live in a world that is harsh, it's harsh speech ripening. And then the way we would want to respond would be not, damn, this desert is so harsh and awful, right? All the harsh speech that we would use to describe the harsh place. Zip your lip and speak kindly, sweetly about anything, everything to everybody. And see what happens to the desert. Is it going to stop being a desert?

Those little ground squirrels, they can run all over the cacti that I can't get within two inches of without getting poked. They can run all over it and they don't get pokered. It has stickers, but they don't get stuck. I get stuck until I've worked on my harsh speech enough. And then I don't get stuck either, which actually don't get stuck anymore. And I used to. So it's not that we're going to change the desert. We're going to change whether it's threatening and harsh. I find the Arizona desert absolutely extraordinary and beautiful.

So it's our seeds that we work with.

Environmental Results for Meaningless/Idle Speech

Because we've spoken meaninglessly, crops and fruits refuse to grow or they grow at the wrong time. They seem ripe, but they're not ripe. Their roots are frail. They don't live long the way they're supposed to. And there's no place to take our leisure. No parks, no pools of water, and many things around that make us afraid. So meaninglessness makes for the things that we're going to for our environmental comfort are meaningless. For our environmental support are meaningless. They don't have the capacity to do that.

We go to the grocery store and any time of the year you can get watermelon. Just about any time of the year you can get mangoes and avocado, maybe not quite peaches, but any time of the year. Whereas it used to be strawberries were in season. In California, they were in season in February and March. And then you couldn't get strawberries, fresh strawberries after that. Then July, August, watermelon. You could only get stuff when it was in season.

Then now, anytime, anywhere, practically, that's really great karma. Hey, we've cleaned out our stealing karma, our meaningless karma. We've cleaned out a lot of stuff. We as a humanity, if everybody finds that to be the case. But then we would have to say, wait, that's probably not true for everywhere. There are probably plenty of places in the world that can still only get watermelon when their own family garden grows one.

So a lot of like this, we hear all of this, that's all bad stuff. But when you flip it around and say, yeah, but we don't have that. It's because we've done the opposite. Do you see? And those are all rejoicables and stuff that we want to do more of if we want to be able to sustain the ability to have access to watermelons all year round, if that's important to you.

Whatever it is, that's important to you. We work on those seeds according to what to avoid and do the opposite of based on this like little encyclopedia of information about the 10 non virtues.

Environmental Results for Coveting

Eight, we have three more to go. Number eight, because we've coveted, we've had jealousy about what others have. Each and every good thing that we manage to get or even start to get gets worse and worse.

So typically you get something that you want. You're happy with it for a little while, maybe a long while, and then eventually, it's going to decline. But come on for a while. It did its job. As a result of jealousy, coveting, the instant you get it, it's already causing you trouble.

You finally get that new car. You've never had a brand new car. And on your way home, the truck in front throws a rock and your windshield cracks. My brand new car. That kind of thing is the result of this jealousy of others.

Environmental Results for Ill Will

(2:14:23) Number nine from ill will. Because we've wished bad things on others, we live in a world of chaos where diseases spread and evil is everywhere, and there's plague and conflicts and fear of armies from other nations. Where everywhere there's venomous snakes and scorpions and poison things. We're surrounded by harmful spirits and thieves or muggers and the like. Egads.

Because of ill will.

Then, what do we do as a result of all those bad guys? We point out to anyone who will listen how awful they are. And how those bad leaders are causing the problem. And if we don't point it out, then we're complicit. It's such a stalemate I find myself in right now.

And yet, the ill the ill will from the past is ripening, what's going on and ill willing to try to get it to stop is not going to stop it. It's not technically perpetuating it in the moment, but it's adding to the seeds from before and that's what's perpetuating it.

So to be honest with you, I just deleted my sub stack, which is where I was seeing what was going on and deciding, I want people to know this one and that one I'm not interested in. I thought I was doing it very conscientiously to show my resistance. And when I read these notes for class, it's like, oh, my gosh, I'm perpetuating the ill will that's going on.

So few are having suggestions of what to do that I finally cut it. And I just deleted it just today. Yay.

Environmental Results for Wrong View

Tenth one wrong view. Because of wrong view we live in a world where the single highest source of happiness is steadily disappearing from the earth.

So we would say the single highest thing is the Dharma. But somebody else might say, the single highest thing is their Christianity or the single highest thing is their opportunity to get good health care, right? Whatever it is that you personally feel is the single highest good thing. When it's getting harder to have access to that, it's this result of past wrong view, misunderstanding that our actions create our future, but not the immediate next moment. No wonder.

So instead, people believe that things that are unclean and suffering are actually nice and happy. A world where there is no place to go and no one to help and no one and nothing to protect us.

That touches into our recognition of emptiness in the sense that the things we go to for happiness, we're expecting that our happiness comes from those things. When of course it doesn't.

If our happiness was in the things and having the things, then every time you had the thing, you would have that happiness. And we know that the thing might bring happiness and it might not. And it might continue and it might not. And if the happiness was from the thing, anybody who has the thing should have the happiness. And of course that doesn't happen.

So just simple logic shows us that our happiness with the thing can't be coming from the thing, right? Whether it's an object or another person or a relationship, it doesn't matter what I mean by the thing. It's our misunderstanding of where happiness comes from is that deep, deep mistaken view that propels all of this, right?

So wrong view within wrong view is the belief that things, identities and qualities are in them. And so they are the source of my happiness or unhappiness.

When they cannot be, something else must be going on here. Because otherwise it would work the same for everybody.

We go to crazy things for our entertainment. You know, here you are in a class, you are unique, rare and special. You could be on TV watching some baseball game, or I don't know what even the season is right now, but some sports, something going on, right?

Or out at the bar or whatever the thing that people do to pass their time. It's human, it's human nature. It's samsaric.

However, we can do those things for some rest and relaxation. When we recognize that they are not in fact the source of our rest and relaxation and enjoyment, the source of our enjoyment is helping somebody else enjoy it.

So if you're going to go to a football game, take somebody with you. At the very least, take somebody with you or give them your ticket or whatever so that we're doing our entertainment for the right reason.

Not avoid all entertainment, but do it very conscientiously.

So we get these ten number twos explained to us and they're in the context of our Pratimoksha vows, but they are not vows. You can see why.

We couldn't vow to not kill and to actually keep that vow because we inadvertently have to be part of killing if we're going to eat, if we're going to drive. So we don't take it as vows, but we commit ourselves to using those non-virtues/ virtues as guidelines for our day-to-day behavior in which we have aspects of them that we are willing to commit ourselves to avoid at the level that we actually can avoid. I will avoid killing a human or a human fetus. We can do that.

We can't change our external world in an external way. We can only change it karmically. Call it an internal way, through our own understanding and choice of behavior, by working out the details.

So choosing an ethical way of life that's more conscientious than it was before is the way that we go about stopping perpetuating our own unhappiness, because the unhappiness was a result of this subconscious understanding that nothing that we do in the moment actually brings what comes next. And that's so frustrating and it's scary if we don't then know what to do, right? We'd get frozen if we didn't understand what I do in the moment is how I create my future experiences.

Now it's like, wow, my current moment behavior is where I create. It's always been that. We just didn't know it.

Now that we know it, we can use it.

When we didn't know it, we stayed on automatic pilot. This happens. I react like that. That's normal human adult. I expect this, whether it happens or not, something else went wrong.

Now it's like, no, no off automatic pilot. Choose, choose, choose.

Your behavior may end up being the same, but because you've done it by choice, because of creating your future, it's a different seed planted. Different seed and hugely more powerful than automatic pilot.

So Geshela said, at this place, forget shamatha, forget vipashyana, purify yourself first, clean yourself out, remove the things you don't like happening in your world by changing your own behavior.

How? By using these 10 guidelines to look at what's happening in my world. So here's how you go about doing it.

Here's how you do it.

So think of three things that you like about yourself and your world.

Three pleasant things:

One thing that's about yourself, about your body or yourself,
one thing about others around you, and
one thing about your environment that you find pleasant, that you like.

Then second list, three things that you don't like:

One about yourself,
one about others around you, and
one about the environment.

Be specific, write them down. So you've got these six different things to look at.

For the pleasant ones, think through these karmic correlations.

We voice them in the negative, flip them around to think of the positive, and think of these three different pleasant aspects that you want to perpetuate and write down what kind of behaviors can I do to perpetuate that thing that I like about myself.

Look at the 10 non-virtues/ virtues, decide how they correlate and choose one of the virtues that you may say, Oh, I like such and such about myself. It's because I've spoken truthfully in the past. I'm going to be really careful to speak really conscientiously, truthfully.

Give yourself that little task to do, about yourself, about something good about others, something good about your environment.

Maybe you'll find they all come from the same virtue, non-virtue. Maybe you'll find there are three different ones, probably more likely three different ones, but for each one, think, Oh, how can I perpetuate this? How can I be more of this?

And write down how you might do it.

Then for the three that you don't like, you do the same thing.

Look at the correlations and see what it might be a ripening of. Just decide the one that comes to you seems the closest fit. And then think of what the opposite behavior would be, right? So come up with an antidote.

If what we're looking at was the result of lying, Oh, okay. I want to speak really truthfully today, or not at all. And give yourself some kind of plan to actually carry it out at least once for each of the three things about oneself, about the people around you, a specific one, or as a group, if you see a pattern and then for your environment.

So you end up with three doing the opposites and three doing the same to work with on that given day.

They'll come together. They'll weave together. You can make this little like image of yourself.

What will I be like if I go through my day acting in these ways to perpetuate that and acting in these beautiful positive ways to antidote that what. What will I be like today?

Imagine it and then go out and try it on for size.

Then at the end of the day, just look at your list and enjoy your effort. You don't, if you want to write something down fine, but mostly just look at it. It's like, wow, cool. I worked on that.

You can stay with those same six for a while, or you can do a new one, right? Totally up to you. But it gives us this tool to really work with what our experience is. And very quickly I found that, like I had these karmic correlations rattling around in my mind enough that when something would come up, it was like, oh, okay. And it would very swiftly shift my reaction into some other choice of behavior because the patterns had become so clear in my mind from working with them in this way—three positives, three negatives

All because we understand the marriage of karma and emptiness, which is where we started at the beginning of class.

That person who's hurting, nothing in our worldly efforts is gonna help them except temporarily. So it's worth trying, of course, but we want to be able to help them in that deep and ultimate way, the way through which they go on to stop their distress forever. And that can only happen through our effort to change us by way of our understanding the marriage of karma and emptiness.

And with that understanding guided by our guidelines of the karmic correlations, we have the tools to make the changes in ourselves through which that person will go on to stop their suffering forever someday.

And that's such an extraordinary goodness you have no idea.

So be happy with yourself, especially with the extra 41 minutes. My bank account is now zero.

Think of this goodness like a beautiful glowing gemstone you can hold in your hands.

Offer it to that precious holy being your own precious guide.

Ask them to please, please stay close to continue to guide you, help you, inspire you, show you the way, and then offer them this gemstone of goodness.

See them accept it and bless it. And they carry it with them right back into your heart.

See them there, feel them there. Their love, their compassion, their wisdom. It feels so good. We want to keep it forever.

And so we know to share it by the power of the goodness that we've just done.

May all beings complete the collection of merit and wisdom and thus gain the two ultimate bodies that merit and wisdom make.

So use those three long exhales to share this goodness with that one person, to share it with everyone you love, to share it with every existing being everywhere.

See them all filled with loving kindness, filled with happiness, filled with the wisdom from which it comes. And may it be so.

All right. Thank you so much.

Class 8: Introduction to the Steps of the Path

3 July 2025

Link to Eng Audio: ACI 9 - Class 8

Rus RUTube: ACI 9 - Class 8 - RUTube

Vocabulary Class 8

LAM RIM Steps on the Path

LAM RIM DUDUN Short Book on the Steps of the Path

Je Tsongkapa Lobsang Drakpa (1357-1419)

LAM RIM CHENMO

JEY NYAM GUR Song of my Spiritual Life

SHAKYA TUPPA Gautama Buddha Shakyamuni Buddha „capable one of the Shakya Clan“

SAKYA Area of Tibet, also a Tibetan lineage called after that area

KADAMPA

JETSUN JAMPA Lord Maitreya

JAMPEL JANG Lord Manjushri

SHING TAY SOLIE inventor of the wagon

Arya Nagarjuna (200 AD)

Arya Asanga (350 AD)

Master Serlingpa … from Lord Maitreya

Vidyakokila … from Arya Nagarjuna

Lord Atisha (932-1052)

Choney Lama Drakpa Shedrup (1675-1748)

NYINPO DORDU SELWA Illumination of the Essence

Our lineage (in reverse order):

Geshe Michael - Khen Rinpoche Lobsang Tarchen - Trijang Rinpoche - Pabongka Rinpoche - … - 2nd Panchen Lama Lobsang Yeshe - Great 5th Lobsang Gyatso - 1st Panchen Lama Lobsang Chukyi Gyeltsen - 3rd Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso - Gyaltsab Je/Kedrup Je - Je Tsongkapa - Geshe Drolungpa - Lord Atisha - Serlingpa - Haribhadra - Arya Asanga - Lord Maitreya

And:

… - Lord Atisha - Vidyakokila - Chandrakirti - … - Arya Nagarjuna - Manjushri

Welcome back, we are ACI course 9 class 8. This is July 3rd, 2025. Let's gather our minds here as we usually do. Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Class Opening]

(7:33) So, your quiz is a review of those consistent consequences and environmental consequences. And for us to review it will take us all class time. So, we're not going to review it.

But I would like to share that when I first learned those, I knew enough to learn them really well. Like, I really tried to understand their details. And then I played with recognizing them happening in my day-to-day life. You know, they had to be modernized because I'm not going to come across crops that don't show up on time because I have no crops except a little basil in a pot, which doesn't show up on time. But to really explore that and work with that, it was fun, first of all. And then it was really, really helpful to help me connect the dot between what I'm seeing in my outer world and what I need, what I want to change in my behavior. When I understood these correlations better than just hearing stop killing, stop stealing, stop sexual misconduct, that was just too broad. But when we had these specifics, wow. Like, every time I drive down that street, old sexual misconduct seeds are ripening. And it's just a different way to think. All right.

(9:16) So, in this class, class 8, 9, 10, the next three, Geshe Michael switched gears to teach us the Lam Rim. It's like he taught us as much from the Vinaya as he felt comfortable teaching us. We learned what we needed to learn for the lay people vows. And we got glimpses into ordained people vows. It's probably more than usual. And then he didn't have enough material to fill in three more classes. So, he shifted to the Lam Rim.

And there still is a connection in that we learned that what motivates us to practice our ethical discipline is renunciation. That level of recognition that nothing goes right in our life in this world. Even when it does seem like things go right, they're not going right. They end up ending or something wrong.

So, somewhere along the linE, if you're here in this class, even if it were your very first one and you were still here at class 8, there's something inside that you know, right? And that we resonated with this thing called renunciation. Maybe not sufficiently to go and say, oh, I'm going to go become a monk. I'm going to go become a nun. But enough to recognize there's something important here that I've missed so far.

Geshela always says renunciation is getting sick of constantly recreating the broken cycle. Where we try worldly things to get what we want, avoid what we don't want. Maybe they work and maybe they don't. And we just go on to have problems in some other way if they do seem to work. And when we finally just say enough of this, it's our opening to some other way of understanding our world, some other way of being.

Then that leads to wanting to learn about the behaviors that through which we do perpetuate that cycle, so that we can train ourselves in the behaviors that will stop perpetuating the cycle. We need to understand what's wrong before we can know how to fix it.

So, the Vinaya level is really more than just refraining from harming others. That's the first level of Vinaya. But as we've seen, we grow that renunciation by way of noticing that other beings in my world seem to have the same problem as me. And not just humans, but other kinds as well. And as we turn our renunciation on to others, we've heard that term, that's our growing bodhicitta. That's making this shift from being motivated to practice for our own benefit, to being motivated to practice for also the benefit of others, all others, once that process has filled in.

Geshela often says it's good to revisit the Lamrim from time to time. And most of us, when we started these ACI courses in sequence, the way we've been doing for the last, how long has it been? Two years? We started with learning the Source of All My Good practice module so that we could see the big picture right from the beginning. So that my idea with that, like Geshela didn't do it that way. My idea with that is if you got through that practice module and you realized, this just doesn't resonate with me. Then, you know, I wouldn't want you staying with the ACI courses for some reason other than, oh my gosh, I really see how these hold the key to something, right? And they're worth the effort, so I'll stick with it.

If we didn't see the big picture from the beginning or if people didn't, I found that people would hit a wall at certain places and not see that hitting the wall was part of their progress. And then it was like, no, work life, family life, things got in the way. And not by any big decision, I'm not going to finish up. It just lost its priority and then they're gone from the system. Not, you know, I'm not judging. I'm just saying, if we see the big picture from the beginning and we resonate with that, it will help us stay put when things get hard.

So here we're at the having heard about how helpful it is to have vows. The more vows, the better. Then ordained vows for men can be as many as 253, I think the number. And for women, 364. And, I still hear that and it's like, whoa, too much. You know, it just feels too big. And when we understand the process, we understand Buddha isn't saying you're not going to make progress if you don't take ordained vows. Lay vows, it's enough. Provided we work with them really hard.

But that's the same for ordained vows. If we do sloppy ordained vows, we're not going to get anywhere either. OK.

An Introduction to Lam Rim

Our last three classes of this course will be this review of the Lam Rim.

LAM = path

RIM = steps

LAM RIM = Steps of the path, Implied steps of the path to total enlightenment. It's a Mahayana teaching.

It sounds like it means rungs of the ladder. You know, get on this rung and then get on the next one and then get on the next one. And it does mean that. Because each one builds from the ones before.

But that movement from one rung to the next is a realization that we have. Something that we understood or believe or thought was true, we have some experience where now you know it's true. And there's a difference between working at the level of a particular Lam Rim until we understand it really intellectually and having some kind of direct experience of it.

The difference is in the impact of the seeds of that experience. We go from something that we are convinced is true through logic or through scripture, through authority, to something we know is true from direct personal experience. And there really is a difference in the seeds and a different impact that it has on our thing we call me.

Like, you want to learn to ride a bicycle and you watch every video, you read every book. You become an expert in riding bicycles, but you've never actually gotten on one.

Then you go and get on one and it's like argh and then boom, finally, you can actually ride it. Then if you never get on another bicycle, doesn't matter. You know what it is to ride a bicycle.

That, these Lams, the Lam of renunciation, hearing about it, understanding about it versus having some experience in life. That's like no more of this. A direct experience, each one direct experience of what ends up being your renunciation is unique to you.

My guess is you've already had it. And we didn't think, well, but it didn't happen in meditation. But you have this visceral sense that just everything is wrong with this picture. So we have the first Lam.

So the term Lam Rim, steps on the path, it does refer to any teaching that includes all the different realizations, teaching about all the different realizations that we will go through on our path from suffering being to totally enlightened being a complete.

Any text that teaches all of that, even if it's just superficially about it, but no detail. As long as A to Z is complete, that teachings called a Lam Rim.

Technically, they say they don't call a Lam Rim. They call it that teaching is Lam Rim. Because you say teaching a Lam Rim, those rungs of the ladder, is a Lam Rim. So it gets confusing in the reading. It gets confusing in our speaking terms with, if you're involved in any group that doesn't have the vocabulary specificity that we've been brought up with, that Lam Rim will be used. The term will be thrown around and we're supposed to know. But technically, we would need to know. Are you talking about the whole thing? Are you talking about any given Lam?

(21:51) Buddha's teachings that are now called Buddhism, Geshela says they're like a car engine. A car engine has lots and lots and lots of parts. Some are more essential than others, but for the car to run reliably, you have to have all the parts and they have to be functioning to have this reliable vehicle, a car.

So our practices for transforming from suffering being to fully enlightened being for the benefit of everybody, need to have all the parts. The major ones and the minor ones, and they need to be functioning well. So we study the whole thing and then go back and go into the details of each one. And then as we move through our career of study and practice, from time to time it's good to take your car to the mechanic and say, check all the parts, make sure they're all still functioning well. Because maybe it needs a new oil filter or something.

When we revisit the Lam Rim teachings, this is the purpose, is we're not starting all over again, but we're checking what level does my understanding or realization of a given Lam Rim show up in my behavior choices? And we'll get to a certain place in our practice, and it'll be like, yeah, everything's going pretty smoothly. And then it seems like, yeah, but nothing's changing much further.

And then what we do then is we go back as if we're starting over, but we're not starting over. We're going along this spiral and we revisit a teaching on renunciation. And it's like, whoa, I never heard it like that before. Then that spurs the next Lam.

Ah, I understand that deeper, too. And we can go around and around on that Lam Rim and learn something new every time we meet it.

The teachings called Lam Rim are teachings that Lord Buddha gave through the course of his Perfection of Wisdom Sutras.

He didn't line it all up like these are all the different rungs of the ladder. He talked about these in that sutra, and then he's talking about these over here and like according to the needs of the disciples at the moment. And then Buddha goes away. They get all those sutras written down. Still, there's no one that outlines the recipe A to Z. It's up to people to sort through.

So we'll learn the process of the lineage shortly.

Master Atisha, who is the Indian man that was amongst those first, not first, but amongst the early Indians going to Tibet. He was around 1000 AD. We'll see his dates soon.

He's the one who's credited with the first Lam Rim, the first teaching or writing that is this complete path all rolled into one teaching.

He didn't make it up. He's drawing from all those different Buddhist sutras in the Perfection of Wisdom from what he learned from his Lamas and the lineage of Lamas. But he was the one that said, gosh, wouldn't it be nice to have this all laid out so we could see the big picture? And so he was the first to do that.

But it was short and cryptic. As so many of those texts are. And so over the generations, it has received commentaries and commentaries on commentaries. And it's like with every commentary, things get a little bit… They get interpreted and then a commentary on a commentary gets interpreted a little bit more. And so it's common that the further we get from the original teaching, the sloppier the understanding has become. And every now and then some practitioner comes along and says, let's check and see if these have gotten sloppy or if they're true to the original.

Je Tsongkapa was one of those who made it his purpose to check and clean stuff up, correct stuff, get it back on track as guided by his Lama Manjushri. We'll talk about that. Kind of a reliable one to help Je Tsongkapa to clean stuff up.

They say, look, Je Tsongkapa was Manjushri manifesting and he goes, no, I'm not. No, I'm not right. I'm in contact with Manjushri. And who are you going to believe?

He wrote Several different Lam rims. His big famous one is called Lam Rim Chenmo. Thousand pages, according to Geshe Michael, great detail, beautiful text. If we sit down to read it, even if we could read it in Tibetan, it's one of those things that you have to be in the right frame of mind to be able to understand what he's saying.

It's difficult. It's a great resource material. But a little difficult to use as a guidance on our path, apparently.

He wrote a medium length Lam Rim. He wrote a really short one, The Source of All My Good, being taught soon in Romania and then Armenia.

Then he had reason to write another one. So all but one of his Lam Rims are from the perspective of ‘this is what Buddha taught and this is how we're supposed to use it‘. But one of his Lam Rims, because of the circumstance in which it got written, is a more personal experience account of the Lam Rim. It's called the JEY NYAM GUR. Does that ring a bell for anybody from April at Diamond Mountain? The Song of My Spiritual Life, which we learned in April, that it is unique in that it has those verses put in there. This is the way I myself have practiced and if you want to make progress, you might do the same, is that recurring verse. According to Geshe Michael, that's really rare for Je Tsongkapa to say, this is what I did. He doesn't get personal like that. It's a really special text that's giving us some insight into his actual practices, like how he became a being who could take dictation from Manjushri and clean up the lineage, the practices.

This text is also called the Lam Rim DUNDUN. It's more commonly called Lam Rim DUNDUN than JEY NYAM GUR.

Sorry, I lost my place. Oh, you know what? I was supposed to have those verses. Time out. One moment.

Hooray for Gibson's little book. He has done a fabulous job becoming a translator. Sumati and I met Gibson and Emily, I want to say 2014 or 2015, the first time they came to Diamond Mountain. And they were just so brand new and fresh and just babies back then. Now they're all grown up. Very sweet to see that progress. All right.

Bowing Down to Manjushri, the Gentle Voice

(33:49) He starts his text off with Namo Sumatikirtaye, I bow down to Sumatikirtaye. He's bowing down to his own personal in life teacher. Then he includes verses that say, and my in life teacher is a Buddha and so I bow down to you. I rely upon you. And I know that you are the lord of the able. I bow down to the lord of the able, son among all teachers.

And then, I'm sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I'm reading the commentators opening.

Let's go to Je Tsongkapa‘s opening. He bows down to whom? Manjushri. Namo Guru Manjushogaya. I bow down to my teacher Gentle Voice.

And he says,

Your holy body was birthed by billions of perfect good deeds.

Your holy words fulfill the hopes of infinite living beings.

Your holy mind sees all things in the universe exactly as they are.

I touch my head to the feet of that leader of the Shakya clan.

And it's like, wait, he bows down to Manjushri. But now he's talking to Shakyamuni Buddha, right? And he reminds us here, he points out here, that Shakyamuni Buddha became Shakyamuni Buddha as a result of billions of virtues. Billions of seeds of wisdom, kindness planted over, how long? Three times ten to the 60th countless eons, long, long, long time.

That his holy body is a result of that goodness.

His speech is a result of that goodness.

His mind that sees all things exactly as they are.

Meaning, as appearances coming out of karmic results, and their empty nature that makes that true. That makes it possible seeing all that simultaneously.

He bows his head, Je Tsongkapa bows his head to that holy being.

He then goes on to bow down to the Undefeatable one, and to Gentle Voice. And those two are Lord Maitreya and Manjushri, called the two highest children of the matchless teacher, who took upon themselves the heavy load of all the victor's deeds, engaging in the divine play with emanations sent to countless different realms.

He's pointing out the fact that enlightenment is a result of mental seeds planted, and how our mental seeds planted, by way of what we are aware of ourselves thinking, saying, doing towards other. And if we are thinking that Buddha became Buddha in some other way than that, then we don't understand Buddha. And if we're thinking that once Buddha is Buddha, then like everything's done, and he's just Buddha forever, we don't understand Buddha.

Buddhas perpetuate their Buddha being, because they're still, their appearance is seeds ripening, seed planting. It's still happening.

The one we call Shakyamuni Buddha, he's also called Shakya Tuppa, which is what Shakyamuni means. The able one of the Shakya clan, Shakyamuni.

Don't confuse Shakya with Sakya.

Sakya is a Tibetan word. It's a place where the dirt is whitish in Tibet. And there were people living in this area that was mostly whitish dirt, that met Buddhism and developed a lineage of practice that did not embrace ordained vows, but rather are a lay lineage that has become quite a strong and powerful and successfully practiced lineage, the Sakya of Tibet.

Shakya was a people in India in Buddha's time. He was of the Shakya people. Then he's the Shakya person who got his renunciation, gave up his worldly life, despite his parents' effort to prevent him from doing so. Tried the asceticism of the day on for size and came to realize, this isn't the answer. It's got to be something else. Then went on to figure out, in that lifetime, this necessary piece about the marriage of karma and emptiness.

He already knew about karma, but karma in the sense of duty, fate, the way that the term karma is described in other traditions—not wrong, but not the understanding through which we can make this transformation, but rather an understanding of a thing called karma that might guide us to be not so upset when things go wrong, but not able to use it to actually plant the seeds through which our transformation will happen.

Buddha Shakyamuni, also known as Shakya Tuppa, is the one we mean, the Gautama Buddha of 500 BC. All different ways of describing that being.

Je Tsongkapa is pointing out that Buddha Shakyamuni, that body, that sure looked like it was flesh and bone and blood, it wasn't made of that stuff. It was made of virtue. And so it was flesh and blood and bone. But because the virtue made it be that for the benefit of the people that he's there to teach. It would be probably a little hard to relate to somebody who looked like a rainbow and aspire to become one too when I know so for sure I've got a liver and kidneys and hearts. Like I'm not ever going to be able to become like that.

We can relate to somebody who seems like us who then says, you know what? I used to really be like you, misunderstanding where things come from. And then I woke up to what I misunderstood. Then I changed my behavior over a really, really, really long time and finally had enough goodness ripening that I could make this transformation finally in this lifetime. Then in the end, we learn later, who took Uttaratantra? In fact, he finished off his enlightenment long, long time before. He was just showing us how to do it in this life as Siddhartha transforming into Buddha Shakyamuni. But that works too.

If we have a human body, it's because in previous lifetimes, we did some amazing ethical behaviors. We gathered a lot of extraordinary goodness because it takes extraordinary goodness to project and sustain a human life.

To have a human life in the Dharma, even more extraordinary goodness was made by this mindstream in order to have those two factors happening together.

Then, to have a human body with access to the Dharma that then is like, wow, right? The Dharma, that's even greater extraordinariness.

And some of us, wow, the Dharma, others, wow, the Dharma, we just cry when we think about it. Just all of it, these different levels of virtue that has been accumulated since before.

Earlier in this life, maybe. Life before this life, some of it. And all the lives before, right? Remember, what are the times when karma can ripen? This life, next life, all the rest.

Everything we are experiencing is karma's ripening from this life, previous life, all the ones before. It doesn't really matter so much whether we know which is which, because really what matters is what we do with it. How do we respond? Because once those seeds are ripened, they are done. They are set in concrete. Nothing we do will unripen seeds that have ripened.

Once they've ripened, though, they're done. Their power is finished. So, ripen. How we respond plants new ones, and those old ones are gone. If they're good ones, they're gone. Sorry. If they're bad ones, they're gone. Yay!

Each moment is an opportunity to plant, implant, influences that will be unexperienced. When? It depends on all those factors that we're going to learn about in our Lam Rim career so that we can design, intentionally design what we want to create for our future. And it'll work for a worldly life future. Then we'll end up ending and dying and losing it. And it will work for creating your Buddhahood future that will be spontaneously, effortlessly perpetuated once we reach it. But the same process happens

Now, there's a technical detail that when we are working with karma and replanting karma, that implies that there is still ignorance involved.

We can ignorantly create really, really, really good karma. And still it's going to be karma to create the extraordinary goodness of what it is to be Nirvana and Buddha, we need to be planting and ripening merit.

The difference between karma and merit is the ignorance factor. The less our ignorance is to play, the karmic seed is losing karma and becoming merit. When we finally see emptiness directly and we're not replanting with any belief in self-existence, we can finally make merit. Before then, the lamas say, do your goodness with the the clearest understanding of emptiness as you can. And it's as if you're making merit. So we'll call it making merit.

Technically, it isn't merit, but it's going to grow. And it will grow and grow and grow until, oh, my gosh, I really am making merit and then you don't talk about karma anymore. You talk about merit, but it still means kindness, kindness, kindness, kindness, no matter what. because unpleasant things will still happen to us once we're Arya. So it's not like just all of a sudden everything is good.

Technically, it is like that, but it can still be experienced as unpleasant. All right, where are we going there?

Geshela is wanting to reinforce our understanding that everything about ourselves and our experiences moment to moment are nothing but reflections of past behaviors.

Anything pleasant is a reflection of some kindness, some virtue.

Any unpleasantness is a reflection of some non-virtue, some harmfulness, some situation where our choice of behavior was driven by selfishness.

What I want and what I want to avoid for all the various reasons that we do it. Oh, I have to do it because so and so, right? We fool ourselves.

If there's anything unpleasant about yourself, about your world, about your day, it's a result of some past selfishness. We need to be brutally honest. I was just a selfish jerk and I behaved in some way that's making it such that my elbow hurts.

Once I can admit that, it's like, all right, well then the way I get my elbow to stop hurting is to be nicer, right? To be kind.

And we can do it in that specific way. Find somebody who has elbow pain, go and help them, right? I mean, I'm not being facetious. We can actually do that and take care of our elbow pain.

And we can say, okay, every instant of elbow pain is burning off that crappy behavior. And so maybe I don't want to be in such a hurry to get rid of my elbow pain because it's more tolerable to burn off selfishness with elbow pain than it is with a car crash or some other disaster. Elbow pain, elbow pain, elbow pain versus save it all up for one big blowout. I'll do the elbow pain. Thank you very much.

It just changes our mindset towards unpleasant things from, oh, I have to avoid it at all costs to, all right, I can put up with this one. I can put up with that one.

We'll meet one that it's like, no, I can't put up with that one. I got to do something different here. But that's up to you to judge.

Our response to pleasant or unpleasant is where our power lies. Yeah? All right.

(53:59) The only way we will perceive our body and mind as the body and mind of an enlightened being is to ripen the mental seeds for that. It's not going to come from anything else.

And those mental seeds are created by our behaviors. What behaviors? Avoiding harming others, gather the goodness of taking care of others. Do both compelled by Bodhicitta so that I can reach Buddhahood so I can bring everybody to Buddhahood. Right?

Three levels of morality that we grow through in our ladder ascent to Buddhahood. All of it is projections and nothing but.

If it weren't, we couldn't transform.

Apparently this wisdom of the no-self nature of things and so their potential to be anything at any moment all the way to Buddhahood is not an idea that will pop into an ignorant person's mind randomly.

It could, but apparently it doesn't.

That we need the goodness to hear someone tell us that.

And then we need the goodness to when somebody tells us that, to go, Oh, maybe so. Oh, that's interesting. Oh, tell me again.

Those seeds to hear somebody tell us about the pen and be interested enough to think about it, those are all good seeds. It doesn't really have anything to do with the person telling you about it. But if we have the good seeds to hear about the pen and know it's something significant, in those seeds is also that whoever is telling me that we will perceive as somebody special.

They know something I don't know. I didn't know. Maybe they know more than just this thing about the pen. And we have these seeds ripening to be attracted to what that person must know that we've just gotten a glimpse of by way of their explanation of the pen in a way that we understood and caught a glimpse of the significance of it. Even if we don't know what that significance is yet something caught our hearts.

How do I know? Because here you are. Right? If it didn't catch your heart, you would not be studying this stuff. You have that goodness. So hooray.

So that one who teaches the wisdoms, their speech is the goodness through which they can influence others.

So when we say, oh, I want to be a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings we will be this Buddha with this rainbow body and those signs, marks and signs. But more important than that, we will speak. We will say in a language whoever can hear it, we will speak the wisdom. Which is really more important because that blissed out body just like any other body can't really make an effect on another body in the moment. Even Buddhas, all they can do for us is teach us because we need to change our karmic seeds from karma to merit, and nobody can make you do that. You do that.

That has to be our own individual choice, because you are your subject side, nobody else ever is or will be.

So the Buddhas power lies in their speech ability, what they teach. And so they say that once Buddha, we have achieved all our goals and the goals of others, because of the compassion with which we gained our omniscience. That compassion compels us to do and say exactly what any being needs to hear.

They spontaneously, effortlessly are being what every being needs.

But does every being see that happening?

No, because it's not up to the Buddha to make us see them. They're just doing it. That's the emanation quality of Buddha, being everything for anybody.

Then they clarify it a little bit, they say, yeah, they'll show up for anybody who has the goodness to get shown up to. But really, it would be anybody who has the goodness to be aware of something or somebody being the emanation of a Buddha. It's not that the emanation chooses, oh, I'll go to Todd today, but not yesterday, because he wasn't ready yesterday, but he is today. It's not like that. The Buddhas are doing that spontaneously, effortlessly.

We get a glimpse as Geshe Michael is taking us all into Diamond Way. He says, look, any other being, they're not normal, they're not not normal. They're not Buddha, they're not not Buddha, you can't really confirm. Because all we have is our own seeds ripening. And those seeds say, definitely not Buddha. But it's my seed, not theirs. So they could be, couldn't they?

No, not them. They're so mean, it couldn't be them.

So those enlightened being minds are omniscient. Meaning they are perceiving emptiness of the three spheres of what's ripening at every moment, and the appearing nature meaning coming out of mental seeds that had previously been planted nature of the three spheres in every moment.

They're perceiving how their merit is ripening and they're perceiving how our karmas are ripening—all simultaneously, all at the same time. We can't hold on to that. But it's what it means to be omniscient.

They boil it down and they say, Buddhas see directly what we need to give up and take up. Because they see how our karmas are ripening our experience, and they see how their karma is ripening, how our experience could be, if we were enlightened beings too.

Their compassion reaches out to help us fully knowing we may benefit or not benefit from our side. They are seeing directly how unnecessary our suffering is. It's just all this big mistake.

They want to take us and rattle us. Will you just wake up? Come on, get the picture. I've been teaching you the pen thing for a year. Get it.

But they don't do that because they understand perfectly why we can't just hear it and change.

We could if we had the goodness to do that.

Anything and everything is possible in the next moment because of this empty nature of subject-object-interaction between.

We have the karmic goodness to see ourselves as human, if you do, and frankly, I don't know what you see yourself as, in a world that has the dharma, with a heart-mind that's interested in the dharma, and in a version of the world where the Diamond Way is also available.

They point it out specifically because the implication is not all human worlds or generations of humans have the karmic ripening, the goodness ripening, that to be in a world where the Diamond Way is still present, still active.

They say that Shakyamuni Buddha taught Tantra, but that Lord Maitreya, when he's the wheel-turning Buddha for this earth, he will not teach Tantra.

Not like, oh please. No.

But because the situation for those beings with enough goodness to see Lord Maitreya walking the earth don't have whatever it is that we have that makes Diamond Way be available.

Diamond Way being that additional factors through which we plant our seeds with such extraordinary power when we do it correctly, that those seeds planted will ripen in this lifetime, before this body's seeds are worn out because of the strength of the seed planting through that training. And that's not always available.

Je Tsonglapa is saying, man, I bow down to you, Shakyamuni Buddha. And his text, The Song of My Spiritual Life, Geshe Michael says, it's like a love letter to Shakyamuni Buddha.

And saying, I did what you said. This is how I practiced. And those who want to do the same, they can try it on for size too.

All right, let's take our break. I'm going to stop the share and pause recording.

Our Lineage

(1:07:15) There we are.

Okay, so the second verse of Je Tsongkapa‘s Song of My Spiritual Life is,

I bow down to the undefeatable and to Gentle Voice,

the two highest children of the matchless teacher,

who took upon themselves the heavy load of all the victor's deeds,

engaging in the divine play with emanations sent to countless different realms.

So Buddha taught many people and some had the goodness to put what they learned into practice and make progress, and others, presumably, maybe not so much.

So some then become those that pass the lineage on. And I don't know that it would be right to say others didn't pass the lineage on, but there are some that passed the lineage on in a way that got passed on again and again and again. And then we have the ability to track back and say, this one received their teaching from that one and that one received it from this one and that one going all the way back to Shakyamuni Buddha.

That's what makes and keeps for a powerful lineage. If we can say this one learned from that one, and that one learned from this one.

Then if we have texts that we can show that confirms that claim that this one learned from that one, like we have tangible evidence and then our mind goes, oh, see, so it's real because I have tangible evidence. Technically that's not evidence, but it does help us stay engaged when we have some kind of apparent proof like that.

Buddha’s Two Extraordinary Disciples: Lord Maitreya, the Undefeatable (Love) and Manjushri, Gentle Voice (Wisdom)

So Buddha taught many disciples. Two in particular were exceptional. One of them gets the nickname, the Undefeatable, that's Lord Maitreya. And the other one is called by the name Gentle Voice, Manjushri, JAMPEL JANG in Tibetan.

Maitreya does not mean the Undefeatable specifically, but Maitreya means JAMPA, Lord JAMPA. JAMPA means love.

Love is, I want your happiness, not meaning I want to take it from you and have it, but meaning my happiness comes from helping you be happy. Love. Not what we call ordinary human love. Which ends up being some kind of attachment and expectation. It's a wonderful thing to have human love, but it's loaded with our ignorance.

Whereas JAMPA love is this outpouring of being what beings need in order to help them give up and take up what will help them stop their suffering forever, at whatever level they want to stop their suffering.

So love, we could make this case that what they mean by the Undefeatable one, is like love never fails. The only thing that solves any problem is love. And when we are still thinking in human terms, it's like, no, that doesn't really work. It feels good. It feels right, but come on, when somebody's ready to beat me up, go, I just stand there and go, oh, I love you and make, and they'll stop beating me up. Maybe, maybe not.

But ultimately the impulse that drives all existence is this thing that we're using the word love to identify. It's the impulse that brings us out of the clear light.

The impulse that brings us out of emptiness directly is this, I want everybody to know this. Like, this is true for everybody. I want to give it away, right?

Instead of, wow, that was cool. I want to stay there forever.

It's like, no. And out you come from this blissful state, because there's no point staying there all by yourself.

I mean, you're not even yourself. There's no point staying in that love, lobsters. So really love is undefeatable.

And here's this being whose name is that, whose name is love.

Then this other one, whose name is Gentle Voice, which is a little bit harder. Why is somebody whose specialty is wisdom (is) called Gentle Voice? Like, wouldn't he stand on the mountaintop and scream it at the top of his lungs, emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, that wouldn't be so gentle. But apparently if he did that, it would just sound like thunder and lightning to us. It wouldn't be whispered advices, right?

Somebody who's gentle in their speech and it's like, oh, I want to hear more. I can hardly hear what you're saying. What did you say? Right? Maybe like that, Gentle Voice.

Each being, of course, had mastered the other subject.

Mr. Love has also mastered wisdom. And Mr. Wisdom has also mastered love, both of them driven by compassion. But they have this specialty.

Apparently, as you're becoming Buddha, you'll say something like, well, you'll get your prediction, and either as part of the prediction or your own self prediction will be, when I'm a Buddha, I'm going to specialize in... And so these two specialized in love and wisdom.

Buddha Vajrasattva, I'm going to specialize in helping people purify.

Goddess Tara, I'm going to help people specialize in living long enough to achieve their goals, or making the karma, making merit instead of karma, right? Depending on which Tara you're working with.

So they all have their specialty, but they're all masters of it all, of course.

The sutras describe these two beings as two Bodhisattvas, high level Bodhisattvas, who show up at Buddha's teachings and ask the question that starts the sutra. Or they impel somebody in the audience to ask that question.

Buddha's not going to teach until we crack our minds open to receive. The way we do that is by asking. We don't know enough to ask the right question to get a teaching that is the answer of what we want to hear. Right?

So Buddha's not going to teach us something. We can't just say, teach me everything I need to know and out of Buddha's mouth comes everything we need to know. It doesn't work like that.

It needs to be specific and then open up to receive whatever's coming. So if we ask a question thinking, okay, I already know the answer. Let's just see if it confirms it. It's like you're blocking receiving an answer that will help you go higher. You'll probably get confirmation. Yes, you understand. But then you didn't get the clue as to how to take your understanding higher.

It's the quality of our own mind that's receiving the teaching at the level we're receiving it.

Why am I going into that?

Buddha's pouring his teachings into his disciples. Some of them are more open to receive at higher, deeper levels than others—based on past behavior. Then they understand that to continue to receive, they pour from them into someone else. So we get this turning of the wheel of the Dharma. Not because Buddha said, oh, be sure you turn the wheel so I can stay in the world for a long, long time. It's because what we share, plant seeds to receive. So we would want to share what we're learning.

And then we go, yeah, but I don't know it well enough to share it. How can I share it if I don't understand it? And that's valid.

But this tradition says, share it as you received it to the best of your ability.

Not thinking I know it and I'm sharing it, but thinking I'm sharing it so that I can understand it better. And surprisingly, you do come to understand it better as you hear yourself saying, just parotting what we heard. We understand it in a way that we didn't before.

So students pass it on to other students, and then they pass it on. And each one's job is to pass it on as purely as possible, as clearly, knowing full well that we probably didn't get it right. And being careful to, if we add our own personal experience, say this is personal experience so that the one hearing it has this distinction.

So these two beings know what to ask to get Buddha to give a teaching, to allow the audience to hear at the highest level that their seeds could sustain. Maybe not so high for some of us, maybe very high for others of us. But the right question is asked because these high level bodhisattvas know what to ask, how to ask it.

It's really, it's pretty interesting when you think about that deeply.

However, these two, Lord Maitreya and Lord Manjushri, in the Diamond Way, they are said to already be fully enlightened beings and they're pretending to be bodhisattvas in the Shakyamuni world, but for the same reason, in order to ask the right questions for the people that are there.

So either way, whether they're high level bodhisattvas or Buddhas in their own right, the theory is they're reliable sources.

They demonstrate that all of Buddhism boils down to two things, two main practices. They call them the two wings of the bird. We've heard this.

One is the bodhisattva ideal: I'll spend every moment of my forever trying to make others happy, totally forgetting about myself. Only others' happiness is my concern. Caring for others in that way automatically brings one’s own happiness. But technically you're at this level where you don't really care about your own happiness, but it's happening so spontaneously and effortlessly that you have it.

So the Undefeatable one, that being who love is the specialty, this is the wing of the bird that is his specialty.

It's unnatural to a being whose mind is still colored with the belief that things are in them from them, and me is in me from me. It's unnatural to act for others' happiness, regardless of my own circumstance, totally regardless.

Geshela said, imagine being like Santa Claus every moment of every day. He equates this state of love, happiness for everybody in everything we do.

Then Manjushri, the other wing of the bird, is the vision of wisdom, specifically the direct perception of emptiness that happens for the first time, changes us forever. Then we go sometime without doing it again, but then we have it again and then again, and then again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, until you don't ever come out of it. And you are direct perception of emptiness and appearances happening simultaneously.

It's called the union of the two. It's Buddhahood, perceiving emptiness directly and dependent origination directly simultaneously. It happens from having gone in and back out, and in and back out, and in and back out.

To get the first one to happen, we start with intellectually understanding why things appear the way they do, why things happen in the way that they do. To get there, we had to question how come things happen the way they do, because it doesn't seem to work right. Our renunciation started the process. Questioning opened us up to receiving a suggestion that maybe there's a different way.

The Bodhisattva ideal alone will bring great pleasure result, but it won't bring Buddhahood. And that emptiness wisdom alone also won't bring total Buddhahood. It can bring nirvana, so it can bring happiness, but not that ultimate state.

So eventually that nirvana is going to end.

You could do a debate: Nirvana is actually suffering because it's going to end someday. And then, no, it's not going to end because Buddhas still are nirvana. There's just going to be more to do.

So we need both wings of the bird for our practice.

Then, when we reach our Buddhahood, we'll have a specialty. We will have mastered both wings, but we'll have a specialty that we'll use to help people who relate to that specialty to help them as well.

There are many, many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas masquerading in our world, the scripture says, and they know who they are, but it can be hard for us to know who they are.

It's helpful to be a little suspicious because then maybe we can catch some glimpses of some of them someday. And that helps to verify our efforts on our path when we catch those little glimpses. We can meet these beings directly, not just in glimpses, but eventually in sustained periods of time, as we learned.

Je Tsongkapa, first he had the karmic goodness that he heard of a guy who could talk to Manjushri. So he goes and asks the guy to ask questions of Manjushri. Then he builds enough goodness to ask his questions of Manjushri directly, but he can't see him. He just gets the answers.

Then that goes on to seeing him, able to hang out with Manjushri, take the dictation and check with Manjushri, if I got this right, you know, and Manjushri, you know, no, no, not yet, so that he can keep working on it.

The Two Great Innovators: Arya Nagarjuna (Wisdom) and Arya Asanga (Love/Compassion)

(1:28:38) So there are beings who are within our lineage, who are not yet Buddhas, and whose job it is or was to explain what the enlightened beings meant when they said what they said. So that the dumbcuffs like me could understand it enough to start to try it on for size.

There are two in particular, and together they're called the SHING TAY SOLJE. This is Tibetan.

SHING TAY is the word for a wooden horse, meaning a wagon or a carriage.

SOLJE means inventor.

So technically this term SHING TAY SOLJE means the inventor of the wagon.

When the wagon was invented, it made such a huge positive impact on society that the one who invented it, whoever it was, was like, wow, thought to be extraordinary, beyond extraordinary. I don't know who it was. But this idea of how much easier life got when you had a wagon that you could put your stuff in and have your ox or horse pull for you, or even you pull it, made it so much faster to carry your field of wheat to market. You weren't limited by what you could carry and need to make 50 trips. You just piled it all in the wagon and dragged it there.

There are two beings in our lineage whose teachings are like the wagon. The impact of their teachings is like the impact of the wagon on life before the wagon. Those two are Arya Nagarjuna and Arya Asanga.

They lived 150 years apart. So we got one, and then later the second, they're called the two great innovators. We've heard that term.

Although the literal SHING TAY SOLJE is the inventor of the wagon, they use it as the term for innovation, innovator, the one who innovates. And these two guys are the two great innovators.

It's not Maitreya and Manjushri because technically they're already Buddha.

These two, Nagarjuna and Asanga, they are not Buddhas yet.

So they're the innovators. They're the ones who made the practices for the rest of us so much easier, like the wagon made life easier.

Arya Nagarjuna's teachings were emphasizing Manjushri's lineage, emphasizing wisdom, emphasizing the accurate intellectual understanding of emptiness and how to get to its direct perception.

Then Arya Asanga, his specialty is the teachings on love. We hear it, compassion for the dog that made him, that shifted his karmic seed such that he could see Maitreya directly. But what he went on to learn is this power of love.

So we have Arya Asanga coming down to us through Lord Maitreya's influence. And we have Arya Nagarjuna coming down to us through Manjushri's influence. Both are working on both, of course.

If we were to read from Nagarjuna directly, it probably wouldn't make much sense to us. Has anybody read those cryptic verses of the root text wisdom? There are some of us that have been digging into it for a couple of years and we still read them and go, what?

They're so deep. They taught students, those students tried to write down what they meant by those cryptic verses. Then those are pretty cryptic too. And then they teach, commentaries upon commentaries upon commentaries get written. And then each commentary is from the perspective of that student. So we have to recognize, okay, I'm not absolutely sure that that commentary is exactly what Nagarjuna meant in that verse. But on the other hand, the verse was written in this not vague, but open way to allow for interpretation by the reader, by the practitioner, so that you could work at it at one level, go back and go into it again.

And it's like, oh my gosh, I see that differently now.

The texts function in this magical way that technically we would only need one. The one we really relate to, one text, and it would have in it absolutely everything that we need if we just keep at it.

Nowadays, we go from one to the next, to the next, and I'm guilty of making you do that. ACI 10 will come hot on the heels of this one in September.

Master Serlingpa (Love)

(1:36:20) So from Nagarjuna and Asanga come their lineage. And from their lineage, I'm going to show you in a minute, we come down to someone named Master Serlingpa through the lineage of love.

Master Serlingpa was that great Lama in Indonesia who was teaching the Bodhisattva ideal.

Lord Atisha, this famous guy from India, he hears about somebody teaching the Bodhisattva ideal and it's like, wow, what is that? I want that. And we heard this story. He checks the guy out, like he makes this dangerous trip on the boat from India to Indonesia. And when he gets off the boat, he goes and checks on Serlingpa's students. He doesn't go running to Serlingpa, teach me, teach me.

He checks that teacher out. They say for 12 years. I'm not so sure that's literal, but be a long time to check out a teacher before going to a teaching. But eventually Lord Atisha goes to Master Serlingpa, teach me please about the Bodhisattva ideal.

And so Lord Atisha gets this lineage.

Vidyakokila (Wisdom)

Then Arya Nagarjuna's lineage comes down, comes down into someone named Vidyakokila. Vidyalokila is also one of Lord Atisha's teachers, teaching about emptiness, emptiness and dependent origination, profound dependence.

So Lord Atisha becomes holder of these two lineages, the Bodhisattva ideal and the wisdom.

He has this epiphany. He goes, oh my gosh, I see how those two come together. I see how there are two wings of a bird and one without the other won't get us there. I see how Lord Buddha taught it all, just not in one teaching, here and here and here and here.

He was inspired to write the whole process out. It came to be known as the first Lam Rim, the first place where the soup to nuts process of transforming from suffering being to fully enlightened being was all put in one place. Lord Atisha's work.

Then, that gets carried down from teacher to disciple, who becomes teacher to disciple, all the way down to Geshe Michael, to me, to you. Or Geshe Michael to you directly, depending.

So we have this turning of the wheel from one to the next, literally happening through the ages. We can track it specifically.

I'm going to show you in a minute if I get there. As that all comes down to us, it's coming in through Je Tsongkapa, through his students, down through the monastic tradition with all of the students, not all, but some students writing commentaries, like writing out their notes from what they learned. And then those getting commented upon and those getting commented upon.

Choney Lama Drakpa Shedrup

We get down to Choney Lama Drakpa Shedrup, who I think we're pretty familiar with as the monastic textbook writer and the commentator of Diamond Cutter Sutra and Heart Sutra and other things.

His dates are 1675 to 1748. So we still think of him as long time ago. But when we're comparing him to Lord Atisha from the 1000s, and we're comparing him to Asanga 350 A.D. and Nagarjuna 200 A.D., and we're comparing them to Buddha Shakyamuni 550 B.C., we've got a lot of generations going on through which this has been passed and passed and passed all the way down to us.

So Choney Lama, he wrote a text called NYINGPO DORDU SELWA.

NYINGPO = heart or essence

DORDU SELWA = a brief illumination

So A Brief Illumination of the Essence by Choney Lama Drakpa Shedrup is a Lam Rim with some explanation here and some explanation there that's quite readable and relatable to people of the West, meaning outside of Tibet. We can read Choney Lama and actually understand what he's saying. He's unique in that way.

I think we remember his story.

That particular text was amongst the texts that had been lost from Tibet, and it had just recently been found in the St. Petersburg Library. And the ACIP group was able to get it, get a copy of it, and get it scanned. Geshe Michael translated it for his use for his Lam Rim teachings, these classes and others as well.

It's a commentary on Je Tsongkapa's writings, not just his Lam Rims, but other things as well that allow us insights into Je Tsongkapa's work that otherwise is really difficult to understand.

Even if we could read the Tibetan, it would be difficult to understand.

Je Tsongkapa's Song of My Spiritual Life, he spends a number of verses bowing down to these lineage teachers, first to Shakyamuni, then to Maitreya and JAMPEL JANG, then to the two innovators, and then to Lord Atisha, also known as Dipamkara, and then to his spiritual friends, meaning those who are also on the path, that he's been trying to help.

He's recognizing that teaching others is the way we gain insight, that we can be taught something and take it into meditation and work on it, work on it, work on it, work on it, and we may or may not get anywhere. But when we learn something, just try to share it with somebody else and then work on it, work on it, work on it, right? It's different. The result is different.

In the verse six that you'll see in your reading, it says

The steps on the path to enlightenment passed down with such excellence in their own stages through the two of Nagarjuna and Asanga are a jewel on the top nut of each and every master upon this planet, a victory banner of great renown, glorious here among beings.

Geshela wants us to see our lineage. So this format is confusing. I know I'm admitting my techno-impaired me, but it's going backwards. Our lineage goes like this.

Geshe Michael, I received from Geshe Michael.

Geshe Michael received from Ken Rinpoche, Lobsang Tharchin.

He received from Trijang Rinpoche.

He received from Pabongka Rinpoche.

There's a couple in here that we don't have listed, but we know who they are.

The one at the end of that received from the second Panchen Lama, Lobsang Yeshe. Who received from the Great 5th, Lobsang Gyatso.

Who received from my personal hero, the 1st Panchen Lama, Lobsang Tharchin Gyatso.

Who received from the 3rd Dalai Lama, who is Sunam Gyatso.

Who received from Gyaltsab Je/Kedrup Je.

Who received from Je Tsongkapa.

Who received from Geshe Drolungpa.

Who received from Lord Atisha.

Who received from Serlingpa.

Who received from Haribhadra

Then there's a more who received from Arya Asanga.

Who received from Lord Maitreya.

Who received from… whoever their Buddha teacher was.

So here's our Lord Atisha.

But Lord Atisha has another branch where all of this came down to Lord Atisha. And he learned from Vidyakokila.

Who learned from Chandrakirti. We're familiar with that name.

Who learned from, not sure how many there were between Chandrakirti and Arya Nagarjuna.

Who learned from Manjushri.

So we have Maitreya's, we have Manjushri's coming through. They all meet at Lord Atisha. And he's in our direct lineage, Lord Atisha.

He's in lots of people's lineage. But we can claim him too.

Chord, chord, right? From one to the next, to the next, to the next. Just like we do our water bowls. That's what the water bowl symbolized. All right.

The 4 Special Qualities of a Lam Rim

(1:50:20) So lastly, coming up in four minutes. No more on the board there, is, there are four special qualities of the Lam Rim teachings.

Like there are four special qualities of which there are five. So true to the Tibetan list.

Overall, the benefit of Lamrim is that it covers the entire teaching of the Buddha.

It may be in a synopsis, it may be an outline form, or it may be long and involved, but it's complete. Soup to nuts.

But there are four more specific ways that the Lam Rim is special.

By studying the Lamrim, we will come to realize, direct experience, that all the teachings of the Buddha are free of any inconsistency. So it seems like there's lots of inconsistencies in Buddha's teachings when we first meet them. Wait, you said this over here, and now you're saying this over here, right? It happens in the ACIs, those first six, a lot. But when we have the whole big picture, we'll see, oh, free of any inconsistency. We see that it's all an ingenious plot to carry us along. Like almost kicking and screaming, if we just stick with it.
Every teaching strikes you as personal advices. I've heard people saying, I have this question in my mind, and the next class, you're talking about it. It's like (whoah), but that happened to me too, in my training. I was always embarrassed to raise my hand and ask a question. But I learned, just keep it clearly in mind, and it's going to get answered. And it does. It does. But even beyond that, even what we read, oh, that's specific for me. Like our mind starts to ripen things as, man, even Je Tsongkapa is talking to me in Song of His Spiritual Life, like that.
It's easy for us to grasp the true intent of the Buddha's teachings. So all of their teachings, we culminate our ACI 15 courses with that class called ’What the Buddha Really Meant‘. And when we get there, we think, oh, finally, they're going to say exactly what he meant. And by the end of that course, it's like, it's still just as gray. So to have this clarity about what he really meant, in this space of you can't ever declare what he really meant, because what he meant was whatever was highest and best for the ones that were listening. Well, no wonder it seems like there's inconsistencies. And no wonder it's that he's talking to me. Because it's coming out of me. It has to be unique to me. Most important in this piece is that the deepest intent of Buddha's teachings is for us to prove to ourselves that we can't know another person's mind. A non-omniscient being. We think we know what somebody's motivation was. We think we know what they meant when they said that thing. But the true intent of Buddha is to show us that we can't know accurately. We can't experience anything but our own seeds ripening. And that's not the other person's seeds ripening. So we don't know what they meant by what they said. Because we just heard them say what they said. Maybe they were talking about the weather. And we heard them talking about you set a bad example for this community, Sarahni. Nobody's ever said that, but I'm just using an example. When, if I asked them about it, they'd say, I was just pointing out the clouds in the sky. It's like, no, you weren't. It's it would be like this (showing different levels of communication) if we understood what's going on. True intent of the Buddha is come to know that you don't know: what the other person's intent was, what they were trying to say. We don't even know who and what they are. Not to leave us like, ee, gads, I can't be sure about anything. But rather to go, whoa, then maybe they could be a Buddha. Maybe I should ask them, what did you really mean by that? And maybe they'd actually give me a teaching instead of, I just meant it looked like it was going to rain. Who knows?
The Lam Rim saves us from the great abyss. The great abyss is in this context, making the mistake of outrightly rejecting a teaching that we receive. We're hearing something and we're going, no, can't be. Particularly having to do with a Dharma teaching. But this would be extended all the way into life in general learning things. To reject something, to flat out reject something, plant seeds in our minds to reject things more and to be rejected. So if we reject and we're trying to share something with somebody, we're going to get rejected. And if we can't share wisdom with anybody, those seeds block our own growing wisdom. Even as we're trying to share, our own past rejection of teachings blocks our ability to receive on all kinds of gross and subtle levels. So to see the big picture means when we meet up with a teaching that it's like, oh, I don't really want to accept that one. We will know to do the put it on the shelf thing. I just can't understand it right now. It feels like I should reject it. I'm not going to reject it. I'm just going to say, I'll wait until I'm ready to hear more and then be ready to hear more. It may be 20 years before you hear more. But that intention, I'm not going to act on that just yet, is protective. And we get there by seeing the big picture, studying the Lam Rim.

Geshela said, I'm almost done. Geshela said, someday on the path of preparation, we'll reach this point where we will actually remember every teaching we've ever received.

I don't know if it means just Dharma teaching or like every teaching we learned from everybody in every moment. If it's that, that's getting kind of close to being omniscient, right? But even if we say, okay, they met every Dharma teaching I've ever heard, ever, not just in this life, but ever, you'd be like a walking encyclopedia for yourself. Right? When you need an answer to a question, you just go through the file cabinet and find, okay, that teaching, back when I was living in Egypt as a, I don't know what. We'd have access to all of it instead of this limited way that we are now.

So all of these benefits come from studying the Lam Rim. So we are studying the Lam Rim.

And now I'm done. Thank you for the extra six minutes. I am now in debt. Six minute debt. I promise to make it up to you.

[Class Ending]

Thank you so much, everybody, for the opportunity. Thank you for all your homeworks. I love seeing them. You'll love being done when you get there. Thank you.

Class 9: Description of the Lesser Capacity

6 July 2025

Link to Eng Audio: ACI 9 - Class 9

Rus RUTube: ACI 9 - Class 9 - RUTube

Vocabulary Class 9

DE NE DI CHIY LEKTSOK JINYEPAY

TENDREL LEKPAR DRIKPAY TSAWA NI

LAM TUN SHE NYEN…

In this and all other lives how ever many good things

Get off to a good start

The holy spiritual guide

SHE NYEN TENSUL Kalianamitra (sk) spiritual friend

SHE NYEN TENSUL how to use your spiritual guide

DULWA discipline

SHIWA peace

NYER SHIWA really peaceful

YUNTEN HLAKPA higher spiritual qualities than us

TSUNCHE has effort (focussed on the two goals, love & compassion)

LUNG GI CHUK rich in scripture (mastery)

DE NYI RABTOK realization of emptiness

MA KE DEN master teacher

TSEWAY DAKNYI embodiment of love

KYOWA PANG never get tired of distaste (never give up their students)

TEN GYI TOB basis force (refuge & bodhichitta)

NAMPAR SUN JINPAY TOB totally wipe out force (regret)

NYEPAR LE LAR NDOKPAY TOB restraint force

NYENPO KUNTU CHUPAY TOB antidote force

All right, welcome back. We are ACI course 9, class 9, on July 6 2025.

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do. Please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Class Opening]

(7:18) I'd like to remind us all that next class is class 10. And class after that is class 11, our review class, that if you would like, you get to teach me the review class. Those of you who have studied with me, which is everybody here, I think, know that you get assigned a final exam question, and you deliver it to the class to be sure that the class will get the review of the material so they can take their final. You can either just read the answer key, or you can prepare something, as you wish. If you want to play, you show up in class 10 and I assign the questions at the beginning of class 10. So be at class 10 and on time if you want to teach the review class, help teach the review class on the last day.

And I think those who have done it before I hope you would say it's so fun. Let's do it again. Okay.

Meanwhile, back in class nine. We are reminded that our class 8 was the start of a very quick study of Lam Rim steps on the path to enlightenment. Which by definition means all of the steps on the path, either really short version, or in great detail, each Lam is revealed so that we can know, know where we are and where we have to go and so that we can see the whole picture.

So rather than review the quiz, I'd like to read to you the verses from the song of my spiritual life. And having done your quiz, you will likely hear the review of the questions on the quiz. Because it's about the lineage, it's about the benefit of studying Lam Rim, and it's all in the verses. So you just listen until I get to the one that starts class 9. Okay.

Je Tsongkapa's Song of My Spiritual Life

Your holy body was birthed by billions of perfect good deeds.

Your holy words fulfill the hopes of infinite living beings.

Your holy mind sees all things in the universe exactly as they are.

I touch my head to the feet of that leader of the Shakya clan.

I bow down to the Undefeatable and to Gentle Voice,

The two highest children of the matchless teacher,

Who took upon themselves the heavy load

Of all the victors deeds,

Engaging in the divine play with emanations sent

To countless different realms.

I prostrate at the holy feet of those known

As Nagarjuna and Asanga,

So widely famed through the three realms.

You are true jewels of our world,

Who undertook to comment

In a perfectly accurate way

Upon the true thought of the mother sutras of the victors,

So extremely difficult to fathom.

I bow down to Dipankara, maker of lamps,

Who holds a great treasure of advices,

Which incorporate unerringly, each and every one

Of the essential points of the paths of

The profound view and widespread activities,

Descended so perfectly from the two great innovators.

I bow down to all those spiritual friends

Who utilize a variety of skillful means

To clarify these teachings moved by their love.

They are eyes to view all of the myriad forms of high teachings,

The very highest point of entry

For those of sufficient goodness

To make the journey to freedom.

The steps on the path to enlightenment,

Passed down with such excellence,

In their own stages through the two

Of Nagarjuna and Asanga,

Are a jewel on the top knot

Of each and every master upon this planet.

A victory banner of great renown,

Glorious here among beings.

These are an instruction,

Which is the very king among the lords of all jewels,

For they fulfill each and every one

Of the aspirations of beings.

They combine the rivers of 1000 beautiful classics

As such, they are a glorious ocean of fine explanation.

The steps also allow us to grasp

That each one of the teachings

Is completely compatible with all the others.

They also make it possible

For all the classic teachings of the Buddha

To strike us as advice meant for each of us personally.

They permit us to locate with perfect ease,

The true intent of the victors.

And we are also protected from falling off

The high cliff of the great mistake.

As such, the steps are a supreme form of instruction,

Relied upon by a great many people of sufficient goodness,

By great masters in both India and Tibet.

Where could we find a person with intelligence,

Whose heart wasn't completely stolen away

By these steps of the path designed

For persons of three types of capacity.

This then is a system which embodies

The deepest heart of all the high speech

Of the enlightened ones.

When we teach or listen to the steps

Even just a single time,

We are able thus to obtain with perfect certainty,

And with powerful efficiency,

All the benefits of explaining and listening

To all the holy Dharma.

Contemplate then this point well.

The specific root cause then,

For getting off to a good start

In the entire collection of the good things

That could ever happen in this life,

Or in our future lives,

Is our holy spiritual friend,

The one who shows us the path.

And then with great efforts,

We need to rely upon that Lama in our thoughts,

An ind our actual actions.

Seeing this, we see that we must please them

With the offering of accomplishing everything

They have commanded us to do,

Without ever giving it up,

Even at the cost of our life.

I, the deep practitioner,

Have accomplished my practice this way.

And you who hope for freedom

Should do your practice the same.

The Importance of Finding a Teacher

(16:20) So verse 11 is this one that says the specific root cause then for getting off to a good start.

Geshela said, that one's so important. We need to see it in Tibetan. And then he only gave us half of it in Tibetan.

So I'll give you what half I got. And then if you have the little book Song of My Spiritual Life, you get all of it. But in that translation that has all the consonants, I can't cope with that.

Most of verse 11 in Tibetan goes like this:

DE NE DI CHIY LEKTSOK JINYEPAY

TENDREL LEKPAR DRIKPAY TSAWA NI

LAM TUN SHE NYEN…

and then there's other stuff, and he just dropped it there for this class. It goes on to say,

(taken from the book ‚A Song of My Spiritual Life‘)

DAM PA ´BAD PA YIS BSAM DANG SBYOR BAS TSUL BZHIN BSTEM PA RU

or something like that.

But we have the important piece here, because the important piece is this word SHE NYEN. And the important concept is SHE NYEN TENSUL. Which SHE NYEN in Sanskrit is Kalyanamitra.

What this verse is talking about, is this relationship with this being who's being called our SHE NYEN.

The Tibetan breaks down SHE NYEN as the SHE means blood and NYEN means relation, blood relation. Which ordinarily we would say, oh, that means my relative, somebody with whom I share my DNA and ancestry. But here, at least in English, we use the term blood brother, blood sister. And we don't use that to mean my sister or my brother. We mean it to say, I have a friend who I'm closer to than my own sister or brother. We say, oh, she's my blood sister.

They say, you know, when we meet that person, and we have this like sense of being so so close, there was this goofy little ritual that you do as kids and you say, okay, let's become blood sister, and you prick your fingers and you touch the blood. It's like, I don't imagine kids do that anymore. I don't ever remember doing it, although I had some really close girlfriends when I was little. But it was this odd ritual that I guess was done.

The purpose was, you make this bond. And because you made that bond together, it's like you're going to go through anything together and you have each other's back and rewrite. It's like this commitment to your special relationship.

So that's really the meaning of SHE NYEN, is this beyond special connection that we feel with someone. Like we've been tied together in a good way for a really long time and now we recognize it in this life. Only here, it has an additional connotation of just not friendship. But this SHE NYEN is meant to refer to one spiritual guide.

When we meet that being who the connection isn't simply friendship. It's like, wow, they're the one I want to become like.

They know.

They know me.

They know me better than I know me.

They love me more than I love me.

Like this one, this one has the answers for me.

So the SHE NYEN special connection that's heartfelt goes at this different level, a spiritual level. And that this special teacher, that our relationship with that special teacher is the critical piece of all the steps on the path.

The term TENSUL, SHE NYEN TENSUL, tensile is the word for what you do with the medicine that the doctor gives you. So the doctor takes your pulse, listens to your, you know, they give you your diagnosis, they write out their prescription, because they know that this is, they're supposed to know this is what's going to work for your difficulty, and you take the prescription and you get the medicine. And TENSUL is what you do with that medicine.

Like you have belief because the doctor gave it to you, you're gonna take it, you're gonna follow the instructions. And as a result, you're gonna get better theoretically. But TENSUL is this sense that I'm going to follow those directions, and I can rely upon them.

That this is like the crux of the relationship. There's this being, who knows. I'm not talking about the doctor now, I'm talking about this SHE NYEN. We've, we've gained our renunciation, we've gone searching, searching, searching, searching, something happens, finally, we meet a teaching, it's like, whoa, that one makes the most sense of any. And we start studying. And in this tradition, one of the very earliest things you hear is, you got to find a teacher, that special teacher, who for you, like can see, can see you can see what you need, knows and loves you so much that they want nothing but your ultimate happiness. And we somehow know that they're willing to do whatever is necessary to get you to that ultimate happiness, like an ultimate happiness that we can't even understand.

So when we have this sense of we've met somebody, and that seems to be who or what they are, we're supposed to TENSUL them, we're supposed to use them, we're supposed to take the medicine, follow their instructions.

It really is, like you're supposed to use them according to the prescription. And to use somebody in English that has a bad connotation. But here, it's they are this powerful karmic object, we learn. And so what we think, say and do towards them, makes the strongest mental imprints of any that we can make. And so their role is to be the one towards whom we make our karmic seeds.

They don't actually have any power to make us do it well, or do it poorly. And they're not gonna dodge our mistakes. They're gonna stand right there and take it. And they're not gonna water down so much their response, except by way of their compassion and love.

They will use their skillful means to to keep you going on your path, even if you get mad and leave, or leave for whatever reason. It doesn't change them at all.

So SHE NYEN TENSUL means how to use your spiritual guide. And it just sounds weird. But it really is what's meant by this relationship with your spiritual guide.

The entire entry into Lam Rim, the first Lam of the Lam Rim is about how to meet your Lama, how to take yourself to them—meaning how to make your formal request, declare yourself to them—, and how to serve them. How to use use them as a powerful karmic object. And it's all expressed in this term SHE NYEN TENSUL.

Geshela said, even if on the Lam Rim, we'd never get past this first Lam, but we're practicing it really well, we would be making incredible progress in our seed planting, that would ripen as future progress, even if we never went to anything else.

But serve my Lama, serve my Lama, serve my Lama. That's how powerful this relationship is with this being called our SHE NYEN.

So the verse, DE NE, and then, meaning after understanding about the lineage, and the authoritative-ness of the teachings, and the benefits of knowing the whole Lam Rim.

And then, DI CHIY LEKTSOK JINYEPAY.

DI means this life, and CHIY means later lives.

So DI CHIY = this and all other lives, meaning our own life.

LEKTSOK means all the good things, and JINYEPAY, however many will ever happen to you.

All the good things that could ever, ever happen.

DI CHIY - in this life, or in all the lives to come.

Like what about it? We're getting there.

How many lifetimes do we have to come? Technically, we have to say infinite. So whatever's coming next, about this SHE NYEN, is going to apply for infinite lifetimes.

But then what happens once we have our first direct perception of emptiness, and when we come out of it, we actually realize that we just saw, right? We now know how many lifetimes it's going to take us to reach that as our permanent address, to reach the Dharmakaya. And they say typically, it's seven more lifetimes, instead of countless. I mean, not countless as the number, but infinite, only seven. Which would be around 500 years, we say, if each seven was mostly full adult life.

So until the direct perception, we don't know how many lifetimes. And technically, we don't even know for sure there are future lifetimes, except by way of logic, and belief. Whereas after direct perception of emptiness, you now know for sure something happens in that experience going into having it and coming out of it, that is like, now you know what riding a bike is like, in that analogy. Now, you know what past and future lives are, that they are true.

So the next line,

TENDREL LEKPAR DRIKPAY TSAWA NI

TENDREL usually means dependent origination. But that's not how it's being used here. Here, the TENDREL means to get off to a good start. Like to have an auspicious start to something. Like, you plan a day having a picnic in the park with your family. And you have everything already pre arranged, and it's all packed in the picnic basket. And everybody's on time. And that traffic goes easily. And you get to the park. You're like off to this good start.

As opposed to you plan a picnic, and you get up in the morning, and oh my gosh, the sandwiches are all covered with ants.So you need to remake the sandwiches. And it's like, it's all cloudy outside, maybe it's gonna rain, and do we go or don't we go do it. Right? You're not off to an auspicious start on a day like that.

So here, the idea of TENDREL is to get off to an auspicious start with our SHE NYEN, makes it such that they are the source of every good thing that could ever come to you in any lifetime, that one or forever after.

What's the implication?

If you don't get off to a good start? Hmm. Maybe it's not gonna be just everything is good. And that is, that is the implication. That if we get it right from the start, then that relationship with the Lama goes really, really well. And things are a little easy.

Does it mean things never go wrong? No. Right. But we have this platform that's strong and powerful and keeps us going. Whereas if we get off to a bad start, then the whole relationship is just rocky and difficult, they say.

But like, what is it to get off to a bad start? Like, how do we know?

How do we know really what to do?

It's a little disconcerting because they tell this story that there was this guy and he meets his SHE NYEN, and he makes this offering of this beautiful vase, but he didn't put anything inside the vase. And in the SHE NYEN's culture, to offer someone an empty vase or an empty bowl or an empty, hollow anything, is inauspicious. And then ever after that, you know, this guy's devoted to his teacher, but everything that he tries to do for the teacher just goes wrong. It's just everything is a struggle.

It's like, what, because the teacher was insulted that the vase was empty?

No, the teacher didn't care one wig, whether their vase was full or empty.

It was a karmic, both ripening and planting in the mind of the guy that carelessly made offering to the lama in asking him to be his lama in such a way that left the guy's karmic connection with this lama to be one that was a rocky boat.

The moral to the story, should the guy have checked out the culture of that area to find out what kind of thing he should have offered to the lama? I don't know. They don't finish the story. They just say, to get off to a rocky start with this being the SHE NYEN means you're gonna have a rocky relationship with the SHE NYEN from the get go. Whereas to get off on the good foot, it'll go a little bit easier.

But as you think deeper about it, if both you and the lama are hell bent on getting you enlightened, maybe the rocky road would be faster. It wouldn't be more pleasant. It wouldn't be fun. But it might be faster. Not that you'd want to set it up intentionally. But if we find ourselves having a hard time with the one that we were so sure they're the one, and then we get our connection with them. And it's like, Oh, man. Did I make a mistake?

Whoa, right? Stop right there. It's a purpose of learning about the response, the relationship with our SHE NYEN is how dangerous it is to make a relationship and then change our mind.

Not that you can't. You can.

And also not that the one you declared as your SHE NYEN might not leave you. Right? They could die. They could move away. They could withdraw you themselves from your lives, right? It's happened to me. It does not necessarily mean that your connection, that you're disconnected from them. We'll talk about that a little bit later.

So, TENDREL LEKPAR DRIKPAY TSAWA NI means to get off to the good start, TENDREL.

LEKPAR DRIKPAY = to get it exactly right

TSAWA NI = a pivotal moment, a pivotal moment in the student's life, the disciples life. It's this beginning of your beginning of the ending of your samsara.

They call it the year the beginning of your escape from samsara.

But to me, that means we're still believing that samsara is a place and a thing that we can break free of and walk away from and leave it behind. And that just to me that leaves the wrong understanding of what samsara is.

So we are at the beginning of the end of our perpetuation of samsara when we get off on the right foot with our spiritual guide.

(39:03) If we get it right, LEKTSOK JINYEPAY, it's a source of limitless power. If we mess it up, it's a source of incredible destruction. But destroying all this stuff we need to get out of ourselves anyway. But it's such a struggle that the likelihood is is we won't stay for it.

I have a note in my notes here. It says I had a realization of a past life of having screwed up my relationship with my Lama. And then as a result, like paying for it, you know, what came back was eons of lifetimes with no spiritual teacher.

And to be honest with you, I don't remember the context of that something that came real, right? I don't remember it now. But the fact that I wrote it down says that I had recognized that my current situation, which is that the SHE NYEN is not in the flesh with me. But does that mean I have no SHE NYEN?

Correct. No.

Okay. So, LAM TUN SHE NYEN is the one who shows us the path.

LAM is the path, TUN means the one who shows us, like teaches or reveals. And then SHE NYEN.

So this special blood brother, sister is the one that shows us the path.

If we get off on the right foot, it will be the source of all our good.

If we get off on the wrong foot, ouch.

So Geshela translated it back then, as,

after having done this, the lineage and authoritative source,

see that the very foundation of an excellent start for all the good and in your this and your future lives is the Holy Spiritual Guide who teaches you the path.

Like our relationship with them.

So the first step in the Lam Rim is to find this teacher and to relate to them properly, which the scripture says, which means to serve them.

Which again, if we just take that English, it sounds like once you find your spiritual teacher you give up everything, and you sweep their floor and you do their laundry and you cook for them and you study from them. And you just say, Lama, what do I need to do next? And they say, go to the grocery store, or they say, go chop the wood, like you're just their slave.

And that's not what it means to serve them.

If we had the opportunity to be that close, and to serve them, it would be an extraordinary merit making opportunity. And then the struggle would be to keep our mind from resenting being their slave and feeling taken advantage of, and instead hold our mind in like, wow, this is so extraordinary.

And we hear stories about teacher-student relationships from before, where the one telling the story is a really high Lama telling about when they were the student and they had their Lama and the kinds of things that they found themselves in with the Lama. And, and their responses to really unpleasant circumstances are astounding. Then we see where it took them, even in that lifetime. So it's supposed to be inspiring to hear those stories.

So our first job in seeking our own nirvana or enlightenment, whichever is our path, is to find the teacher who fits.

Geshela says, like the pair of blue jeans, you need a teacher who fits you. We will have many teachers, sutra teachers, logic teachers, right Lam Rim teachers. We all have had many teachers of all kinds, Tantra teachers. But this one, your SHE NYEN, is this special one, who may not teach you any of those formal classes, but is the one who teaches you by way of daily life experiences. So it's a little bit hard, because when we first hear about Lama, spiritual guide, we're thinking, oh, they're the one who teaches me all the intellectual stuff. But then it may or may not be them who is your SHE NYEN.

But we learn about how to the advantage of having a SHE NYEN. And we interact with the sutra teacher, etc, in ways to help build the seeds for our ability to pull to us, the one who becomes this SHE NYEN relationship. Which may end up being somebody you've known for a long time. And you just didn't recognize in that capacity as being an admirable, ethical, wise person. And all of a sudden, it's like, oh, my gosh, it's my Aunt Mary, you know, or oh, my gosh, it's my neighbor from when I was a kid. Oh, my gosh. Because of the goodness that we've created through our interaction with these other teachers, or maybe it turns out to be one of those teachers. We keep our mind open.

Most people say, I knew them when I saw them. And that was all they needed.

Our tradition says, okay, you had that feeling in your heart. But maybe that's just some kind of seeds from previous life or some kind of relationship. One should still check them out. Because we are setting up this relationship for seeing them as our doorway. Or maybe better mirror to our own highest spiritual goal—whether it's nirvana or total Buddhahood, let's just call it total Buddhahood.

They are our doorway to total Buddhahood. So it's pretty important that we see them with qualities that correlate with what it is to help somebody else reach that state.

Surely they either need to be close, or that for them to be able to guide me on that path.

The 10 Good Qualities of a Teacher

(47:42) So we're taught a list from scripture of the qualities that this SHE NYEN should have. And then it seems like it should be so black and white. Okay, I have this list, I'll just spy on them and check off the list. But then when we actually get down to do it, it's like, wait a minute. Maybe they've never heard the term emptiness. But in every other way, they live according to it. But I'm actually going to teach them the pen. But wait, no, no, they're the one I'm going to. It gets confusing.

Regardless, we need to know these 10. They come up again and again. I think we've heard them already. The 10 qualities of a Lama.

I teach the Diamond Way and they come up there too. More than once. They are important things to think about.

So here's the 10

DULWA
SHIWA
NYER SHIWA
YUNTEN HLAKPA
TSUNCHE
LUNG GI CHUK
DE NYI RABTOK
MAKE DEN
TSEWAY DAKNYI
KYOWA PANG

1. Ethical

DULWA means tamed, controlled, ethical. We studied it last course, right? No, this course, earlier this course, we're studying DULWA.

DULWA, tamed, controlled.

It means this person is living a very ethical life. That's something we can observe.

Tradition says, they're a person who's living according to the three kinds of vows:

Avoiding the 10 non-virtues. Having the five lifetime lay vows or ordination vows at some level. That's one level vow.
Bodhisattva vows and
Diamond Way vows.

So first level vows is about carefully avoiding harming others.

Second level vow is about helping, serving, sharing, ethically, without getting angry, having a good time doing it, in order to increase our concentration, in order to increase our wisdom, in order to improve our giving, right? The six perfections.

And then Diamond Way is doing both of those in order to get enlightened as quickly as possible, so that you can help them get enlightened as quickly as possible, so they can help others in their world get enlightened as quickly as possible. And I can never stop saying it.

So, they have this controlled ethical way of living and we can observe that.

2. Peaceful (Meditation)

Second quality is SHIWA.

SHIWA means peace. So peace or being peaceful here, it is referring to the second of the three trainings.

So the first one, ethical is the first of the three trainings, training in the ethical life, extraordinary training of ethical life.

This one is that extraordinary training of concentration, meditation, the ability to concentrate deeply, this SHE NYEN, to qualify as our SHE NYEN, we would want them to be a good deep meditator.

How are we going to know that?

3. Really Peaceful (Wisdom)

Third one is NYER SHIWA. They are really peaceful. That's code for the third extraordinary training, which is the training of wisdom, which technically does mean the direct perception of emptiness. But here means not necessarily having had the direct perception, but has a deep understanding of emptiness and lives according to it.

So again, we would need to be spying on them, we would need to be around them, when things are going well, to see what they do with those pleasant circumstances, and to be around them when things are going not so well, to see how they respond to the not so well experiences for us to be able to have this confidence that, Wow, how they respond in both of those situations is something I want to learn how to be like.

4. Higher Spiritual Qualities Than Us

Fourth one is YUNTEN HLAKPA. HLAKPA means spiritual qualities. YUNTEN means good, higher, higher than us.

We of course would want to see them as having higher spiritual qualities than us. Hey, if we're going to them for guidance, and help and direction, they need to be someone we aspire, at least admire, and better admire and aspire to be like.

What spiritual qualities?

Compassion, love, wisdom, confidence, giving, moral discipline, not getting angry,.. all those different qualities that we're working on developing in ourselves. The opposite of the three poisons, the opposite of the five main mental afflictions, the opposite of the 10 main mental afflictions, all this stuff we learn about.

5. Effort

Next one, TSUNCHE. TSUNCHE means, has effort.

Here it means they are clearly dedicated to the two goals. The two goals being that ultimate benefit for themselves and the ultimate benefit for all others.

So this then tells us that these 10 qualities are coming to us from a Mahayana perspective. Because otherwise it would just be focused on their own goals. And then it's like, wait a minute, how am I going to fit in the picture, if they're just focused on their own goals?

So even if we are a Hinayana practitioner, I don't know, we might still be wanting a Mahayana teacher who understands that my capacity is only to reach nirvana, but please care for me, as much as you care for your own Buddhahood, so that I can reach my goal.

Like, you can see that all their energy is focused on that.

Their own spiritual path so that they can help others. Their own spiritual path grows by way of how they help others. So those two are really not separate things.They're really tied together.

6. Rich in Scripture

LUNG GI CHUK.

LUNG here means scripture. CHUK means wealth or rich.

So rich in scripture.

We would want them to have mastery of the three baskets, it's called.

The three baskets are

the Vinaya, the scriptures about ethical life,
the scriptures of Sutra, not meaning the Buddha’s teachings, but meaning the teachings on concentration, deep meditation, and then
the collection of the Abhidharma, not meaning Abhidharmakosha, but the collection of scriptures on wisdom, both Hinayana and Mahayana, lesser capacity, medium capacity, greater capacity, the five schools.

So we want them to be knowledgeable, is what that says.

7. Seen Emptiness Directly

Then DE NYI RABTOK.

DE NYI is emptiness, RABTOK means great realization.

So this one says one of those 10 qualities we hope for is that they have experienced emptiness directly. Now traditionally, that teacher won't tell you. Even if you ask them directly, they will change the subject, they will wiggle out of some direct answer, because of a lot of reasons.

We have the extraordinary goodness to hear Geshe Michael very openly say he's seen emptiness directly. When he first came out with that, it was quite controversial. That's his path to walk, is controversy. And he's done it many times. And this was another big one. And the circumstances with which that came out, really, a number of people left that were at Diamond Mountain preparing to receive the higher teachings, like had really dedicated themselves to developing Diamond Mountain, and then this thing happened, and it's like, oh, and they left. So, right, it's like, it's an extraordinary goodness on our part, that we hear someone openly tell about that wisdom and that experience, and that we admire that, and understand to some extent the power of hearing it, and the risk, actually, that he takes every time he says that, in the way that he does. But it has inspired so many people.

So, in hopes, our spiritual guide has that same realization, but we won't really know. So, they say, all right, well, at least they need to have a really, really high intellectual experience of emptiness, that comes in meditation. It comes through study, but it's deepened in meditation. So, even if they weren't able to sustain all the way through into the absence, but have gotten close enough to glimpse the reality, that will show in their behavior, and in their teaching of emptiness. The main way that it shows in their teaching of emptiness, is that they teach it consistently. There will always be mention of dependent origination of karma. They won't be able to talk about emptiness without then talking about appearances, or the illusion, or dependent origination, or mental seeds. It just, you can't leave one without the other. It's a way that we can get an insight into the level of understanding of emptiness of a teacher that we're listening to who's teaching about the spiritual path, and emptiness—whether they're calling it emptiness or something else. If our behavior choices isn't tied to the explanation of emptiness, their understanding is missing something.

Geshela said, and obviously, if they're teaching emptiness as a big black hole, they are misunderstanding. If they're teaching it as non existence, they are misunderstanding. Like we are so well trained to the ACI, the DCI, etc, that we're not going to make a mistake at thinking somebody knows what they're talking about when it comes to emptiness, at least. Because our own intellectual understanding is pretty high. Hooray for that, our goodness coming up.

So the main way we're going to know about their DE NYI RABTOK, is by watching their behavior, their reactions, and listening to their teachings.

8. Master Teacher

MA KE DEN is the next one. MA KE means, KE is master. So MA KE means a master teacher. And it says, they possess these qualities of being a master teacher.

What it means that they have this ability to teach to the level of the student. And really, this means when you have a one on one relationship with multiple students, you may be teaching them all the same thing in one group teaching, you'll delicately not go too far for the beginners, but try to go a little bit farther for those that have been with, but in terms of individual. When you're one on one with those students, that teacher has this ability to know when to push you and when to be more gentle. And they're willing to do that. Willing to push when push is necessary, even if the student gives pushback, which sometimes happens. And it doesn't affect the teacher's love for the student, no matter what the student's reaction is. They their role, they're doing what the student's karma is making them do, they don't really have a choice about it.

And so this master teacher is knows, or is able to adjust their teachings to their individual students according to what the student needs.

How are we going to judge that? Without having already first put ourselves into their care?

This seems like it should be so cut and dry, just have my list. But when it gets down to really using them, it's like, wait a minute, how am I really going to make these judgments about people?

9. Embodiment of Love

Next one, TSEWAY DAKNYI.

TSEWAY DANKYI means they are the embodiment of love. Like they teach out of love, they interact with you out of love, love, meaning their sole concern is with your ultimate happiness, whatever it's going to take to get you there. That kind of love.

They have no interest in material gain.

They have no interest in fame.

They really don't even have any interest in the students' respect for them. Except that the students' respect for them is right, the way the student plants good seeds. So they do care about the student respecting them, but not from their side. From the student side.

All they want is our freedom from suffering. TSEWAY DAKNYI.

10. Never Get Tired of Distaste

KYOWA PANG. KYOWA means distaste, PANG is having gotten rid of. So KYOWA PANG is they've gotten rid of all distaste. It's their phrase for meaning they will never get discouraged. They will teach the same thing over and over if that's what the students need. They will explain the same thing over and over and over in order to benefit the student. They don't like (rolling eyes), all right, let me tell you this again. Right? It's like, okay, let's go this way. Okay, let's go from this direction. Okay. Just not ever any discouragement, exasperation, disappointment, tire.

They say they never tire. I don't know, excuse me, they get tired. But not not of teaching. They need to catch it.

Geshe Michael says, a mother never gives up on her child, no matter how difficult the child is. You know, mothers don't get to divorce their children. I don't think that's a thing. They love them no matter what. Even if it gets hard sometimes, and you need to do the tough love thing. But your love is your love and it doesn't ever stop. So this SHEN NYEN has that kind of love for us.

This relationship, it goes beyond this life. It definitely goes beyond childhood, it goes beyond this life. It goes beyond even our Buddhahood. We reach Buddhahood, Hey, that was you all along? Yes. Wow, great. They still love us. And we love them.

All right.

People ask, well, what if I had my SHE NYEN, and then now they've died, and I don't have access to them anymore?

Or what if they've just shifted, and they don't answer my emails anymore? I don't even know where they live.

Have we lost our relationship with them?

Physically, we have, but we haven't lost their connection. Because the connection is beyond, it's beyond worldly, it's beyond lifetimes. It's kind of similar to our bodhisattva vows, and tantric vows. They go on, beyond this body. That SHE NYEN relationship with us was not a relationship between this body and that body, or even this personality and them. It's between this thing, my subject side, that goes on and on and on and on, and them. That connection, once it's made, it's been. Like this wasn't in class. But once it's made, we realize it's always been. It's not like we were ever not connected.

We just didn't know it. And then we are. All right.

What happens when we had them close and then all of a sudden, we can't get them? Like, did they get upset? Did I choose the wrong one? Did I do something wrong? What happened?

And we know the answer: Seeds shifted. Karma shifted.

I had the goodness, you would need to call it merit, I had the goodness to be close, to have them physically close. That's really expensive goodness. And yeah, I made a lot of goodness in my relationship to them, but not enough to… how does how does that go? Past poor relationship with Lama ripens, planting good relationship with Lama happening, but not enough of this to clean out the bad relationship with Lama, and then the seeds shift and they're gone. Either dead, gone, or moved away gone, or I moved someplace else gone. Right? It's just distance has come. It happens. And it happens a lot. And it doesn't mean, Oh, I failed in my practice. I it means to just didn't do well enough when I had the opportunity.

Why? Lots of reasons: got complacent, thought it was gonna last forever, right? Thought I was doing well enough, but missing…, right?

It's not about beating ourselves up. It's like, what do I do with that?

I'm still planting seeds in relationship with my Lama, even if they're not around. It might get easier. It might get harder. But it's not that you don't have that relationship anymore. All right.

I yacked right through our break time, didn't I? I was watching and all of a sudden, we're 12 minutes past. Okay, we'll stop. We'll pause the recording.

(1:12:31) I need to go on because I have a lot yet to cover.

Those good qualities of this spiritual guide, are they in them from them? No.

What qualities do they have? They are empty of any qualities.

So why couldn't any old being be our special SHE NYEN?

They could be. But if we don't have the seeds to see them in that way, then they aren't.

So if we found our SHE NYEN, and they look like this, that's our seeds. Suppose our seeds for them looking like that, wear out. It doesn't necessarily mean our seeds for our relationship with them have worn out. It means our seeds for them looking like that has worn out.

It would be a shift, of course. But it doesn't mean we can't then go looking for them. They just may show up looking like this, instead of that. If we're stuck in saying, No, they have to look like that. And they show up over here, we won't notice, we won't recognize.

Even though if we did recognize, or give the ability to recognize their emptiness, our seeds would ripen, Oh my gosh, there's my Lama. But now they look like Aunt Mary. Whereas before, they looked like Lama Christie. What's going on here?

It's all right, just leave it for right now.

Where does the teacher with those good qualities come from?

Our goodness, our seeds.

So we could see a being with these 10 qualities, for instance, in somebody who they themselves swears up and down, they don't know what you're talking about. But everything out of their mouth is this wisdom of love and compassion. Things aren't what what we think, and how to live ethically. And all the while, they're going, I don't know what you're talking about.

On the other hand, we could be relating to somebody that our seeds make us see them as just ordinary, nice person.

And from their side, their seeds could very well be, them omniscient being. Like blasting you with love, and wisdom. And we're just going, my neighbor with the barking dog. Totally valid and similarly.

They can see themselves as ordinary, we can see them as holy.

They can see themselves as holy, we can see them as ordinary.

They can see themselves as Holy Week and see them as holy.

They can see themselves as ordinary, we can see them as ordinary. Our seeds are our seeds for what we experience.

Their seeds are their seeds for how they see themselves.

If they see themselves as a holy Lama, where did that come from?

What seeds did they plant that are now ripening to see themselves with these high good qualities that makes them want to pour it out into somebody else?

Their relationship with their Lama. They serve their spiritual guides well. And those seeds ripen as being seen as having those high qualities.

They don't make the high qualities themselves.

Yes, they did. They studied, they debated, they keep their vows, they do all that stuff.

Right. Us to see that comes from our past, trying to serve people in order to gather the goodness to see a Lama.

Then they're being seen as a Lama comes from their past seeing someone as a Lama and serving them in that way.

So do you see how it works that for us to see someone as a Lama, amd to serve them as a Lama, makes the seeds for ourself to have those high qualities.

And we may say, well, I don't care. I don't really want to be anybody's Lama. That's a big responsibility.

But do we want the seeds of peace? What are those? DULWA, SHIWA, NYER SHIWA…

Do we want those seeds? Just to see ourselves as having those qualities means we interact with others in this kind of set the example way. And if you end up being somebody's spiritual guide, all the better. But it's like, the way we see those goodnesses in others, is to try to show them to others from ourselves. And in doing so, we grow the seeds to see others with those goodnesses, and to be seen with them.

So the system is designed to be like, foolproof, really. Because all we need to do is see somebody as with some higher spiritual qualities than we, and have the humility to go to them and say, would you teach me how to be like you? And whatever their answer is, it's coming from us.

And then how we interact with them and their response to us is coming from us.

All they do is serve as the mirror of our own seed ripening, and service the fertile soil for our own seed planting.

And they are in that position with their teacher, who is in that position with their teacher, who's in that position with their teacher, all the way back, that's the power of the lineage. All right.

So with that then we understand that two students can be focused on one being. And one can see them as extraordinary, ordinary person. And the other one can say, No, are you nuts? That's a Buddha standing before me.

No contradiction when we understand emptiness and karma.

When we don't, we fight about it. Okay.

So the whole first step in the Lam Rim, Geshela says the whole first half of the Lam Rim is this first step. Work this thing out about the power of a teacher and start creating your own karmic goodness, directed towards having them show up in your life.

Then, once you know, then gather your wits about you, gather some meaningful offering to them, and go and declare yourself to them, give yourself to them.

It's scary, because in our modern society, you don't do that. We're grown up to be independent, functioning human beings, personally responsible, but we don't believe it. And we're meeting up with a tradition that says, Yeah, actually, truly personally responsible, but surrender yourself completely to this higher being.

Well, it's like, where'd my personal responsibility go if I just surrendered myself? Right? It's like, we want to work all these struggles out. Because we're going to work with them eventually anyway.

But once we devote ourselves to this SHE NYEN, the more we surrender everything to them, the more powerful a karmic object they become. And of course, it's dangerous, because they could very well take advantage of us. Hopefully, we don't have those seeds. But then how we respond is planting future relationships, it can be very tricky.

Geshela has always explained that when you find your spiritual teacher, and you're ready to devote yourself to them, we really need to understand that it's—I feel funny about saying it—but it really is a pain in the butt to have students. So and that's words from Geshela.

It's hard. And, but you love them so much, that you're willing to do that. And there's like, no bone in your body, through which you would take advantage of them. But you are being exactly what they need to give up and what they need to take up. And if their seeds ripen a circumstance where it appears that you're taking advantage of them, then you don't kick them out before it happens. You don't make it happen. You are the mirror for their seeds ripening. It's difficult, it can be very difficult and challenging relationship.

However, the more we give to them, the more we get back, because karmically, it has to be. The more we surrender, I know what's best for me and just let them guide us, the faster our transformation happens. Because what's blocking our transformation is that me, and I know, our self existent me, thinks it knows what's best for me. Of course, it's all mistaken. So, difficult relationship, but powerful beyond belief.

Get The Essence of Your Life

So what suppose we've made that connection. And then we go to them and say, okay, Holy Lama, please. What am I supposed to do? Teach me. And they say, get the essence of your life. And they won't say any more. Unless we ask, what do you mean by that?

And then, in Je Tsonglapa‘s review of the Lam Rim, he shows that what Lama means by ‘get the essence of your life‘, is to recognize your leisures and fortunes. So I'm going to go through these really quickly. We've had them before.

There are eight leisures and 10 fortunes.

The eight leisures mean they're these eight circumstances that we don't have. That if we did have would mean we couldn't be on our path.

Then the 10 fortunes are the circumstances that we do have, through which we can take advantage of these seeds ripening for being on the path, five that have to do with our personal circumstances, and five that have to do with our worldly circumstances.

The eight leisures are eight things that are not, that we don't have.

We don't hold to wrong views. We do believe that what I do will come back to me on some level or else you wouldn't be here.
We are not born as an animal.
We are not born as a craving spirit, insatiable appetite for anything.
We are not born in a hell realm, nothing but obvious pain.
We are not born in a land where the Buddhist teachings are not available.
We are not born in an uncivilized land, which is code for nobody practicing morality.
We are not born as a human who's disabled, either mentally or physically such that we would not be able to practice the teachings.
We are not born as a pleasure being who's too pleasured out to care.

Those are the eight, they're called the eight leisures, eight things we are free of.

The 10 fortunes

The five that relate to oneself is

We are born as humans.
We are born in a central land, which means a land where the Buddhist teachings are still available.
We have our faculties intact.
We are not lost to the laws of karma. We have some understanding belief in the laws of karma.
We are born with some feeling of faith for the place. The scripture says, faith for the place, meaning faith for the place where the Buddhist teachings are still available. Some belief there.

The five related to our outer world is

We are born in a place where the Buddha has come and taught the holy Dharma.
We were in a place where the teachings still remain. They're still available.
We are in a place where there are people who still follow those teachings.
We are born in a place where there is compassion. So the teachings are being done on behalf of other people, implying that there could be places where there's Buddhism, but not the Mahayana.

So the reason the first thing the Lama teaches us is ‘take the essence of your life‘. What do you mean by the essence? These eight and these 10, recognize where you are.

What's important about that?

Where are those 10 knots or eight knots and 10 have come from?

We don't know it yet. But the Lama knows it's coming from our past goodness. And the Lama's job is to instill in us this understanding that we can use those up and not necessarily get them again in the next life. We could end up with any one of those eight, not having the eight leisures.

Take Refuge in the Three Jewels

Lamas want us to recognize ourselves. It's like, Oh, my gosh, I have these circumstances now. I don't know how long they're gonna last.

We will come to ourselves our own conclusion of, Oh, my gosh, I could die at any moment, and if I do what's going to happen next?

Then, if we have enough information, we could think it through ourselves, we would come to our own Lama level of realizations. And all the Lama had to do was trigger it. And and the wheel starts turning.

But typically, like we don't quite get it. It's like, Okay, okay, I see I'm in a really great position. Now what do I do?

And the Lama goes, you could lose it at any moment and teaches us about impermanence. Which at first it can be, okay, everything's impermanent. Your computer is going to break someday. Don't worry about it. When it does, it will you just get another one. Right? No need to be so upset. Everything's going to end. Expect it. So it won't take you by surprise.

That's not the impermanence that's helpful.

The impermanence that's helpful is, I'm gonna die. I don't know when. When I die. Oh my gosh. Like, there's all kinds of crappy seeds in here and any one of them could be the one that sends me on to my next life. Oh my gosh, am I in trouble? Like, what do I do?

And then the Lama says, Yeah, you worried? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Take refuge.

What can give me refuge? The Three Jewels can give you refuge.

And then it's like what? Buddha jewel, Dharma jewel, Sangha jewel.

So the Buddha statue is going to protect me. The books are going to protect me? That somebody wearing robes is going to protect me? But those are the Three Jewels. No, they're not. Yes, they are.

No, they're the nominal Three Jewels. They represent the real Three Jewels.

The real Three Jewels is the Buddha's mind, the emptiness of the Buddha's mind, the emptiness of the subject side of Buddha, the Dharmakaya, which is technically the emptiness of all existing things.

Which I'm an existing thing. I have a mind. It'll be the same mind. Nah, well, never the same two moments in a row, but never somebody else's mind. And that mind has the nature of being empty, always available for the next thing that's ripening.

Where am I going with that? And so my own mind's true nature is identically empty, as the Buddha's mind. The difference is, as Buddha, one is experiencing their emptiness and their appearing reality simultaneously. And this one (pointing at herself) can't even experience the emptiness of its own mind directly yet.

But it doesn't mean I don't have it.

I have to have it because I have a my mind and my mind is empty, and that's the same emptiness as it will be when the my mind is empty as Buddha mind. Hooray.

So the empty nature of mind, subject-side object interaction between gives us refuge.

How? Just to know the angry yelling boss is blank from their own side. That doesn't make me not be hurt and not be angry.

So we really need to understand not just emptiness, but emptiness and dependent origination. Because our mind is empty, from its own side blank. My karmic seeds from my past behavior ripened my experience in the way that they do.

How I respond. I'm aware of how I respond. And that makes the new imprint that's going to someday be an experience. And so, in fact, I am totally responsible for everything that happens to myself, and anything I can know about, which someday will be everything.

So to take refuge in the Buddha jewel is to take refuge, not just in the empty nature of me, but that emptiness and dependent origination together.

The fact that I'm blank means my behavior creates my future. So I can keep creating it as Samsara, or I can stop creating it as Samsara, and create something nicer. Even just a nicer Samsara would be nice.

Refuge in Buddha is refuge in emptiness.

Refuge in Dharma is refuge in the realization that we then have that happens on the direct perception of emptiness. The realization that our belief in things having their own nature was a mistake. And it was just a belief, a mistaken belief. And now it's gone.

That's refuge. Because although we still see things as looking like they have their identities in them, the belief is gone. It's like, man, this is wild. I know it's not self existent. Right? I know it's coming from my own mind, but shoot. It still looks and feels like it's coming at me. It must be frustrating.

But it's refuge, because of no belief in anything's nature as anything other than results of my own past behavior. You're going to automatically be trying so hard to plant your seeds in ways that will be pleasant for everybody in the future.

Will you always be successful?

I'm going to vote no. But even in failed attempts, you're still planting seeds without the ignorance, because your belief is gone.

So we can take refuge in that. Because it tells us behavior, behavior, behavior, behavior. Anything is possible through our ethical behavior.

Then the third jewel Sangha jewel is those ahead of us on the path, ordained or not. If there's anybody that we see are able to not yell back at the angry boss, and instead say, Oh, gee, boss, I'm so sorry, you're upset with me again. How can I help you?

We witness that and go, Wow, like, wow, how did you do that?

And they say, Well, you got 20 years, I'll teach you.

That what they're going to teach us is, you know, that boss, they're coming from you.

So our refuge is in emptiness and karma. And those things that remind us, teach us that and remind us of that.

Does it stop the speeding bullet? No.

But it stops the reaction to the speeding bullet. Egads, I'm going to die. Or, Oh, my gosh, how dare they shoot me or whatever it's going to be in response to an unpleasant situation. Our keen karma and emptiness refuge will be, all right, ripening seeds, what do I do with this one? I can change the whole outcome.

Technically, in the moment like in that movie Matrix, the guy reaches into the speeding bullet and plucks it out of the sky. Not at first, at least in my experience, but eventually. Your reality is at our fingertips.

The 4 Powers

(1:40:22) Okay, so once we've recognized our perfect opportunity that we have, and we could lose it at any minute, and that leaves us feeling fearful, we turn our fear and faith and turn on our refuge. But still, we recognize, Yeah, but that tells me how to behave from here on out. But I know that I have lifetimes of stupid, selfish behavior. What do I do with all that? Like, am I just stuck? I have to experience it, in which case is going to take a really long time. Because that's the only way to get rid of those seeds is to let them ripen and not respond badly. It's like, phew, man, this is going to take a long time.

And then, you know, what does Lama say?

We have this tool called the four powers.

And we go, well, where did that come from?

Buddha taught it.

Diamond Cutter Sutra teaches that you read and study that Diamond Cutter Sutra, and you know what, you're going to suffer. And it's like, well, then why would I want to read that? Why would I want to do that?

And they say, well, because the goodness of doing that stirs up the pot of selfishness. And some of that yuck karma bubbles to the top sooner than it would have if you hadn't stirred it with your goodness. And that means seeds that would send you to lifetimes of hell realms just ripens as a nasty headache. Then the headache passes and those hell realm seeds are burnt up. Because they didn't get to stay long enough to get big enough to be a hell realm. We burnt them off as headache pain.

Which gives us a clue like any discomfort we have, where we like any discomfort we have. It really would not be fooling ourselves to say, well, wow, this is really unpleasant. But you know what, it's not as unpleasant as a lifetime in a hell realm.

And it would be true. Because any unpleasant seed if left to grow, is gonna grow into hell realm, hungry ghost, animal. So the worst case, if it goes long enough is hell realm.

So it sounds silly, it sounds like fantasy talking. But you know, in the midst of those migraines that I had, to really be able to hold the thought, this is terrible. If I had a gun, I could shoot my hole in my head. But to recognize hell realm is way worse. And this is burning off those seeds. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Like, thank you to my own karmic seeds, my own goodness, that brings up that serious pain. And you know, my elbow hurts, I forget to say, thank you elbow for burning off what could be a whole lot worse karma, if I let it go.

It's a different relationship to negative seeds ripening. Now, they're not such a bad thing. It helps us with our perfection of patience.

Because our perfection of patience is the willingness to use unpleasant circumstances as our path. And that grows us into the perfection of joyous effort, which means we're having fun on our path, whether good things are happening or bad things are happening, because we're just using it all.

So what do we do with our four with our old yuck seeds besides read the Diamond Cutter Sutra and get them to ripen as a headache?

We do the four powers. We apply the four forces.

Let's go back here. Really, fast. Do the four forces in 10 minutes. Fortunately, we know them already.

But have we seen them in Tibetan?

Here are the four powers in Tibetan:

1. Basis Force (Recognizing)

TEN GYI TOB, which is the basis force, the foundation from which we push ourselves up, when we realize we've done something that's planted a seed that will come back to us as an unpleasant ugly situation. We need to recall our refuge in karmic emptiness.

I lapsed there for a moment, I yelled back at the boss so sure that that would solve the problem and help me feel better.

And you know what? I did feel better after I yelled at her. And oh, darn. Because that fed my mistake to thinking I got a good result from yelling at her. When, if I feel better about yelling at somebody, and when somebody yells at me, it doesn't make me feel good, then those two cannot be related. And oh, darn. Even though it felt good to yell back, I just messed up. I didn't behave according to my own saying, I have karma, I believe in karma. But we remember it. You go, Okay, seeds planted, I can do something about it. And that leads to that second power.

2. Totally Wipe Out Force (Regret)

NAMPAR SUN JIMPAY TOB is the totally wipe out force, which means the power of regret, intelligent regret of an educated Buddhist.

Not, Oh, I'm so bad. I yelled at the boss.

It's, Darn. Like regret, just regret, healthy. I wish I hadn't done that regret. Remember the three guys in the bar? I'm not going to use the time, just regret.

To have that regret comes about, because some part of us knows that we've planted a seed that's going to make it come back again. Our recalling our refuge, karma and emptiness, karma and emptiness, that's what grows the regret, we're already regretting because we're applying our four powers. But now our regret takes hold in terms of, I just reimprinted my mind with the very thing I've been saying I wouldn't do. I really, really wish I hadn't done that.

Regret, not guilt.

The faster our regret is the better. Because it takes a little time for the seed to get hard enough to travel through time. That's not really accurate, but conceptually it's helpful.

If we put regret into the seed before it's hardened, it changes the seed. It makes it not powerful enough to ever get over the threshold. So a healthy sense of regret is a really valuable thing to have at our discretion.

Anytime we catch ourselves thinking, saying doing something that we recognize was motivated by selfish me, what about me? I need my needs met. Oh, darn.

That's enough that those constant ones don't keep getting replanted. But we're talking about the ones I've planted from before I knew any better. Old, old seeds. We still do the same thing.

We identify them.

We establish our refuge.

We establish our regret.

And then we go to the next two. These are in different order and different teachings.

3. The Power of Restraint

This one, NYEPAR LE LAR NDOKPAY TOB. It means the power of restraint.

So this one says, you get your regret, you do your refuge, you tune up your regret, and then you declare, I'm not going to do that again.

It doesn't make a nice flow. But I'm not going to do that again—in a given timeframe, in a given circumstance, one that we know we can complete. So even if what we're trying to purify is, I'm justified to yell back at the boss feeling that's underneath our reason for why we would yell back in the first place, like the next time it happens, that's so ubiquitous that I feel justified. In order to purify that our power of restraint would need to be for the next five seconds.

As I'm sitting here in my doing my four powers, I'm going to convince myself that I'm not justified. It's not ever justified to yell back. And I'm just going to sit here. And it's like, no, not justified to yell back. No, not justified to yell back. So that you can actually say I really, really didn't be justified to yell back in the five seconds that I said I would. I did my power of restraint. Right?

And slowly you build it up. You can say, I won't yell back at the boss next time she yells. But then what if it's not for three months? Are you going to remember?

Maybe it needs to be I won't yell at the dog next time it's aggravating me today. Then that's the antidote to yelling at the boss. You establish the antidote, but establish one that we can do.

It really is a skill.

4. Antidote Force

NYENPO KUNTU CHUPAY TOB. Which is the NYENPO, the antidote, make some antidote force, some makeup activity.

We had that list of the classical ones. The most important being meditate on emptiness. Sit down and do an emptiness meditation on the three spheres of the situation that you are purifying. If it's a specific one.

If we're doing this general purpose, working with a certain mental affliction, set up a scenario and do an emptiness meditation specific on the three, the subject side emptiness, the object side emptiness in the interaction between emptiness meditation as your antidote.

We can also assign ourselves a do the opposite antidote.

Oh, the the boss makes me not like her very much when she yells at me so I will take her flowers. Right?

Something, do an antidote on purpose.

Dedicating all of that to the end of all mental afflictions in the minds of every being forever.

The better we understand emptiness, the more effective our four powers and the fewer the fewer negative seeds we will plant going forward that will need extra four powers.

But we have lifetimeses of negative seeds that one four powers won't do the job to clear out all of our habitual negative seeds. So we are counseled to do our four powers regularly, at least with our meditation preliminaries. And then anytime you feel the need.

So you don't need to be in meditation to do your four powers. You all know that. Just sit down somewhere. Think it all through. Do a 30 second emptiness meditation if that's all the time you have.

Establish your restraint and carry on.

The sooner we do our regret and four powers, the sooner we see effective shifts in our circumstances. Okay.

So we've gone through several of the Lams. We're at the place of purifying, purifying, purifying, purifying.

And then that does, I mean, that does go on forever. We keep purifying till there's nothing more to purify.

But we go on with our practice.

So we have one more class worth of Lam Rim. We're not going to finish the whole thing, of course, in one class. But there's a reason we got to purification practice in this class, telling all of us, including myself, that maybe we've gotten sloppy with our purification practices, and we can revisit those.

[Class Ending]

All right, thank you for the extra three minutes I owe you. This is Sunday, I will see you Thursday. Thank you everybody for your homeworks. I appreciate your efforts. Have a great week.

Class 10: Description of the Medium and Greater Capacity

10 July 2025

Link to Eng Audio: ACI 9 - Class 10

Rus RUTube: ACI 9 - Class 10 - RUTube

Teaching Questions for Review Class

Ras HW 1/1, 2/4, 6/4, 8/3, 10/1 truth of suffering

Darya HW 1/2, 3/2, 7/3 3 for body, 8/5, 10/1 truth of source of suffering

Olga HW 1/3, 3/3, 7/3 4 for speech, 9/1 first 3 qualities, 10/1 truth of end of suffering

Katya 1/5, 3/4, 7/3 3 for mind, 9/1 qualities 4-6, 10/1 truth of path to end of suffering

Joana HW 1/7, 4/2, 7/5 body, 9/1 qualities 7-10

Sheila HW 2/1, 4/5, 7/5 speech, 9/3, 10/2

Liang-Sang HW 5/3, 6/2, 7/5 mind, 9/6

Vocabulary Class 10

PAKPAY DENPA SHI The four Arya Truths

DUKNEL DENPA truth of suffering

LE actions

NYONGMONG PA mentally afflicted things

KUNJUNG DENPA truth of source of suffering

GOK DEN truth of end of suffering

GAKJA The thing that is empty of emptiness

LAM DEN truth of path to end suffering

SHINE Shamata meditative concentration

HLAKTONG Vipashyana vision of emptiness

Let's gather our minds here as we usually do, please bring your attention to your breath until you hear from me again.

[Class Opening]

(6:27) Last class, we learned about the importance of having a teacher. We call that teacher Lama. It means high one, meaning right above us. What we aspire to become or even like the doorway to those ultimately high or a manifestation of those ultimately high.

And we learned that there are certain qualities that for this tradition we look for in that being who we are going to call the Lama.

Those qualities do not require them to be Tibetan.

Those qualities do not require them to wear robes.

Those qualities are beyond those two characteristics.

We learned that to be able to see those qualities in another, even though we think those qualities are in the other from the other, so that we can see them, you know where it's really coming from:

Our own seeds reflecting our own past goodness behavior, grown bigger so that we can see someone that we aspire to become like.

How they see themselves? We don't know particularly.

And if they see themselves as a Lama, that's their own seeds.

If they don't see themselves as a Lama, that's their own seeds.

And neither one needs to impact the truth of our seeds.

Then we would say, so what kind of seeds did I make in order to see someone with those high qualities?

What kind of karmas did they make to see themselves with those high qualities if they see those high qualities?

The point of your meditation practice was just to think about that.

Because we're so sure that you go looking for a Lama because there's somebody out there with those qualities. And when I go looking for them, I'm going to find them.

Technically, if you're looking for a Lama means, you're just waiting for your seeds to ripen. You don't have to go anywhere, right? You do what you need to do to get your seeds to ripen and they'll show up.

Maybe they show up as a plane ticket to India, I don't know. But you don't really have to go anywhere.

How we've treated others in the past, how we've treated others in respect to when we saw them as our teachers, how we saw ourselves respond when someone asked us for something.

All of those are pieces of the puzzle that help us understand how to plant and cultivate the seeds to be able to create and then sustain, having such a being as a personal guide in our lives. It comes from us and our own seeds planted in the past, and our seeds that we're continuing to plant—especially now that we know about it.

1st Level Practitioner

(10:20) Why did we need to know about the teacher?

Because we went on to say, you know, they're going to teach you, get them, take the essence of your life. Oh, what do you mean by that? And we ended up with studying the four powers because from what they taught us about getting the essence of our life, we realized, oh, my gosh, I could still have the kind of mental imprints latent in me that any one of which could push me to one of those lower realms. And that would be disastrous in terms of my continued ability to learn and practice the path.

And so we had had the thought, how do I clean those out?

How do I reduce that possibility of having a lower rebirth, now that I know and that I know better the really icky karmas that I've made, even just from this past life that's been reasonably good.

Still, once I understand the details of karma, it's like, oh, yeah.

Then, when I look around my world and see what's ripening in the world around us, any unpleasantness is a result of my own past selfishness. Anybody willing to hurt anybody else for their own gain is my own past doing so. If I see a samsaric world around me, I made that, and I have the seeds that could push this mind into a realm where there was nothing but that kind of behavior coming at me.

So we really don't apply ourselves so well to our purification until we have a really, really strong component of refuge. So we're like going backwards. We got to the four powers having gathered our refuge. And then it's like, oh, my gosh, I go back and I look at my refuge again. And we do that. We're supposed to be looking at our refuge six times a day, in fact, three during the day and three at night, to see if we really are choosing our behavior according to what we now know and what we aspire or say we aspire to become.

So we took refuge because we had found those two components, the fear and faith, the fear of a lesser realm rebirth that was strong enough for us to go, oh, man. Like it was our belief that it could happen got strong enough that it was like, who and what can help me?

And we found something that made logical sense and made heartfelt sense that, Oh, OK, when I learned about what these three jewels are, really, I yeah, yeah, that right... I can relate to that. I can believe in that.

So these two components of fear and faith that we learned long, long, long time ago, we're learning deeper, understanding it deeper.

They say that if we really aren't afraid of the lower rebirth, then our refuge really isn't refuge, right? It's refuge in words. It's refuge in prayer. But it isn't really, pardon my French, holy shit, I've got to do something. Right?

If our belief in the lower realms was that, and I have to admit. It's like it's the fear of the lower realms is not lit under my fanny somehow.

We learn later, once our understanding of karmic emptiness reaches a certain level, even before direct perception, our behavior change that will go along with that. We'll make it such that we will close the door to lesser rebirth.

Maybe there have been lifetimes before in this one where I had always already reached that. And now my complacency about it is getting in the way of practice. It happens commonly that we think, oh, I've reached that. I've passed that rung in the ladder, so I leave it behind. When really we're wanting to take each rung with us and still use it because they will deepen at each next level.

So what are we afraid of, the scriptures say, birth in a lower realm.

Technically, we're not even first level capacity Buddhists if we don't have this honest egads. If my death is only four minutes away. Then so is a hell realm or a hungry ghost realm or an animal realm for me. On a higher level, so could be a form realm or formless realm if my meditations were that good. None of which I want.

So we should from time to time revisit our belief. Do I really believe that I have any seed in my mind that if it's the projecting karma at the moment of death could send me into a perception of a being where there's nothing but cruelty and hatred coming at me? Like, do I have seeds in my mind from having responded with hatred, anger, cruelty, thinking I'd get something out of harming somebody else?

When we compare it to a whole realm, it's like, oh, my gosh, no, I don't have any seeds like that. But seeds grow, remember?

Do we see cruelty around in our world? Gosh, I see a lot of it just in the advertisements for the movies that are available, right? I don't see the movies, but right in my world, I ripen a world where people go for entertainment in movies that people are being cruel to each other, emotionally cruel, physically cruel. It's just like, well, then I do have those seeds. And at the moment of death, well, let me get there.

(18:08) So any seeds of hatred, cruelty, anger, willingness to do this harsh, rough harming of another to prevent being harmed or to get what we want. If any one of those seeds ripens at the moment of death, there'll be seeds similar to it that fill it in as to experiencing all those things coming at me constantly with no break. Hell realm.

Hungry ghost realm. What do I have any seeds in my mind from where the things I needed, the things I wanted were more important to get than the things other people wanted?

Yes, I know other people need things, want things. I'll help them do it.

But admittedly, my need is first on my mind. Because I directly experience it I only see what the other needs like secondhand. And if any of those seeds is the projecting karma at the end of this life, that karma with the fill it in karma is following hot on its heels will ripen this one as one who, no matter where they look, wherever they try, can‘t get anything that satisfies them. A world where nothing's available. Nothing can satisfy hungry ghost realm.

One small seed, if it's the one that pops, will color our whole world like that.

Then animal realm world, we see the animal quality of mind is one of a constant alert—eat or be eaten. So a constant state of, we would interpret it as fear, but it's like this constant alert to not get eaten. The constant alert to eat, find something to eat.

That state of mind is the automatic pilot. They don't have the capacity to think outside the box. They don't have the capacity to consider, is the way I'm going about getting my food the right way to do it?

It's really, really rare for an animal mind to have this different idea.

We can teach an animal how to behave differently. And that's probably really, really great animal seeds to be an animal that gets taught.

But have you ever had a pet that you tried to teach?

We had a really, really smart little Labrador puppy. She was so smart. She would learn things like this. But as soon as we left her alone with our other dog. Oh, man, she just reversed. She was a terror on wheels when she was alone with the other dog. Who knows what she would have been alone by herself? Probably worse.

And as soon as we got home, she was on her best behavior. But you couldn't trust her. See? Because she really wasn't being retrained. All she was trained to do was behave when we were around. Didn't have the capacity to go, Well, I'll be a good dog all the time, which our other dog did. She was good all the time.

So if we have those kinds of seats of automatic pilot or causing somebody else dull, dumb state of mind—I'm sorry all the times I bored you with the Dharma—and one of those seeds pops, it fills in as this quality of mind that's on automatic pilot. And the automatic pilot is eat or get eaten and suffer all the cruelty that goes with animal world that comes from other seeds as well.

It's not like there's a animal body waiting for your mind to get stuffed into it.

It's not like there's a craving spirit costume that you're pushed into.

The mind as we know it, like me Sarahni personality mind, even when I say, I know my mind goes on to the next life. I'm thinking of my mind as this mind as the intellect, the thinker thinking. And that intellect actually is dependent upon the physical body, what we call the brain function. Health is part of the karmic seeds that allows us to organize information and think things through.

When the body dies, that brain function ceases. So the way I've used it to relate to myself is going to break down. Even before I'm technically dead, it's breaking down such that I can't have a thought all the way through. Let alone be saying, oh, you know, I hope to go to hell realm to help every living being.

When the brain can't do that, can't sustain that, we can't sustain it either.

Can we sustain the feeling, the idea, the premise?

Yes. If we're well-trained enough.

But are we having that feeling, bodhichitta feeling in our heart when somebody's yelling at us? When we're miserable and too hot and feeling like we're going to pass out. Are we thinking, oh, bodhichitta, bodhichitta?

I don't know about you, but I'm not. I'm like worried. Am I going to pass out in front of everybody or can I get home before I do it? We're on such automatic pilot, even as humans, that the likelihood of being able to hold, oh, bodhichitta in my mind, when we're going through the breakdown that's called dying, that the likelihood of being able to have any kind of control over what seed is projecting karma is really remote.

Is it possible?

Yes. With training, with high level mindfulness, with a lot of purification practice so that we lessen, lessen, lessen the number of negative seeds that could ripen as a projecting karma to a lower realm and increase the number of seeds of growing wisdom, even if before direct perception such that whatever seed does become the projecting karma. It's like, all right, we're going to be cool because it's going to be human life. Probably even human life that's going to meet the Dharma reasonably soon because we've used this life to set that up. Done our fear purification practices, gathering our goodness.

So even the very first capacity Buddhist practitioner, they have this strong refuge, fear and faith. Which means they had to have renunciation at some level.

Then they meet a teacher.

Then they meet what it is to have refuge.

And within that, they meet their own impermanence and it occurs to them, what do I do with all these ugly seeds?

And they learn the powers of purification so that they can set themselves up for being assured that at the end of that life, no lower rebirth will happen.

Then they say, the way they word it, it sounds like no lower rebirth forever after that.

I'm not so sure of that. But if at least you get another human life next life, hopefully you're going to meet the Dharma again and then you work on it again.And in that way, you can say, well, yes, I've closed the door forever because I'm going to keep reclosing the door every lifetime.

But that's their capacity, meaning like that's their focus. It's so strong, their fear of going to a lesser rebirth that it's like, this is my whole path, is get to that place where I close that door.

2nd Level Practitioner

Now, my guess is when you get to that place, you're not going to stop there and go, okay, fine. I'll just live out the rest of my 97 years because I've closed the lesser door.

It's like, whoah, if you can do that in your first three years, see what else we can do. Yeah.

But the point is, we're not a second level Buddhist until we're a first level Buddhist.

We really, really do believe that we're in a race against time to clean out our karmas and gather enough goodness, kindness to make the seed pot be enough kindness seeds, avoiding harming other seeds that we don't have anything to worry about.

So what those practitioners do is work really, really, really hard at avoiding harming others. In gross and subtle ways, and they do their purification practices right to clean up.

If we're using our understanding of karma and emptiness to make a better this life, then technically we're not even at the first capacity Buddhist level.

We can use ancient wisdom to get a better samsaric life, but then we lose it, and who knows what we get later.

So we're studying ACI presumably because we already have that wisdom.

Yes, we could all be studying the wisdom so that our business is more successful and how wonderful that would be when it works. But we're taking it deeper.

We're looking at living now to affect that moment when the awareness, not the intellect, but the awareness is making this shift from this one to the next one and how we want to set ourselves up for that to be a next human life. Thank you very much.

Then at some point, the goodness that we create by the harmlessness we're doing in order to close that door grows in us and our capacity grows and we come to recognize or we reach the level where the teacher points out, look, you can take your understanding and use it such that you can stop all of your suffering forever, like all of your mental afflictions forever, which is a little tricky because it's like, is suffering synonymous with mental affliction? I would argue yes.

But is pain synonymous with mental affliction? I would argue no.

Can you experience something that we would call unpleasant and not misunderstand it so that in fact you don't get mentally afflicted about it? Can you imagine doing that?

Hopefully we can imagine it because technically reaching nirvana is like that, a level of nirvana where although you have affected your mental pool of seeds such that a mental affliction cannot arise, those seeds still have in them the ripening of things that are unpleasant.

(32:58) Do you remember King of Kalinka's story?

That poor guy, he's getting all caught up, it hurt, but he didn't get mentally afflicted about it.

Did he feel the pain? Yes, of course.

Did he suffer from it? That's the question.

At nirvana level, because of your careful, careful practice of karma and its correlations, our behavior choices get even more carefully avoiding harming others grossly and subtly, even more than what we did at our first capacity level.

Now we're doing it in order to burn off and not replant the seeds of misunderstanding that force us to suffer from unpleasant things, that force us to suffer from things that pleasure things that wear out, and force us to suffer from the pervasive suffering, which is that body's going to wear out someday.

So even as we reach nirvana, the end of all mental afflictions forever due to our individual analysis, meaning seeing emptiness directly, coming to know the four arya truths, and then applying ourselves to live according to it, we can still have unpleasant things happen.

But when we've reached that state, our awareness will not get afflicted.

Not just by willpower, but incapable of getting afflicted.

Second level Buddhist then takes this deep fear and fey, finds their refuge—Buddha Jewel, Dharma Jewel, Sangha Jewel, meaning emptiness and karma, and those who have taught it and those who demonstrate it—and we learn to live by it, and we close the door to lesser rebirth, and we set ourselves on the path to the end of all mental afflictions, nirvana.

Second capacity practitioner, ‘I want to end all my mental afflictions forever, not just close the door‘. Yes, close the door, but not only that.

It's called the path shared, step shared.

Great Capacity Practitioner

(36:03) Then we get the great capacity, which the great capacity practitioner, as we know, has recognized these two possibilities, closing the door, reaching nirvana.

And we aspire to them, and we're working on reaching them, and anywhere along the way, it occurs to us, oh my gosh, everybody's in the same boat.

When we turn our renunciation on others and determine, wow, I'm going to do this for myself so that I can help others do it too, and I see that really the way I reach my own nirvana, at least, is still by way of how I help others reach it, let alone Buddhahood.

So our renunciation turned on others becomes our bodhicitta and makes us the third level capacity who practices the steps shared with the first level capacity, second level capacity.

That's what makes them third level capacity is because they're still doing those same practices, avoiding harming, really carefully living according to karma and emptiness, avoiding the ten non-virtues, training in the ten virtues, and now we're doing it with this huger capacity, which is, I'm doing this so that I really can help others, so that I really can stop harming, and I really can help in that ultimate way. Because all those worldly ways I try, they just fall short. Not that I don't do them. Of course I try.

But we can try to help somebody, and maybe it works, and maybe it doesn't. And even when it does work, they just go on to get upset by something else. Then we do it again, and that's fine. We'll do it until there's no more upset anywhere in the world. Because that's how we transform ourselves is by way of what we see ourselves thinking, saying, and doing to others.

At any of these capacities, those practitioners are already practicing the ethical way of life. They are practicing concentration, and they are practicing wisdom, learning about one's own nature, and how we don't exist in the way we think, and how we do actually exist in a way different than what we thought.

Each of those level of practitioners are learning that at a certain level.

It takes all three capacities, practices of all three capacities, in order to even reach the first of the five paths for any capacity practitioner.

It's like there's the five paths for the one whose fifth path goal is closing the door to lesser rebirth.

They have a path of accumulation, they have a path of preparation, they have a path of seeing, they have a path of habituation, they have an attainment.

It's different than the one who's going to Nirvana. They have those five also. Different things are happening.

Then highest capacity practitioner, we have the five paths as we know them.

It's like our mind goes, Oh, those are the real paths. But wait, you know, if you were the first level practitioner, and that's like what you believe was the highest capacity for any human, you'd be thinking all those other guy, I don't know what they're thinking, but they're going overboard. All we need to do is this.

Then we reach a point where it's like, we get in the middle. It's like, come on, you lower capacities come up with us.

You see? All of it. It's, it's by way of what seeds are ripening from us at any given time, for the one for where we are, our capacity, and where we see others are.

And I don't know about you. But mostly what I see in my world is people on no capacity at all. Humans in a human life, trying to get happiness, and doing all the wrong things to get the very happiness that they want, and so, frustrated.

So we know the five paths.

1. Path of Accumulation

How do we get on the path of accumulation? Our renunciation turns on. On some level, we've just gotten sick of all the effort to get happy and it just doesn't work. If we get a little happy, it doesn't last. If it does, we still die and lose it. Mostly, we're disappointed in some way.

So path of accumulation is accumulating enough disgust with the best samsara is got, which is human life That we're willing to hear how to stop it. And we're willing to say, okay, I'm willing to change something about me to stop this. Right?

Our renunciation really isn't strong until we're able to say, yeah, okay, I need to change in order to change this. I'm willing. We resist. We are really changing ourselves.

So renunciation is this strong ‚Nothing‘, there's no happiness here.

2. Path of Preparation

Path of preparation comes next.

Preparing to see emptiness directly, which we know this is studying class time, contemplating, meditating, learning about karma, learning about emptiness, learning how the two of them married, create and destroy how dependent origination works, what's meant by profound dependence.

Like all of that intellectual learning, many, many, many hours of intellectual cogitation, and then efforts to meditate on it, where you use the intellectual, clear thinking reasoning to come to a conclusion and then park on that conclusion. Like let the conclusion percolate. And then the mind kicks out and you do it again. And again, and again, and again.

All of that increases our ability to be more mindful, such that we can be choosing our behavioral interactions with others more conscientiously, more guided by what to avoid and what to take up instructions, so that we can plant seeds of seeds for Buddhahood, Nirvana, or at least another human life and fewer, fewer, fewer seeds for hell realm, hungry ghost, animal realm. Yeah, and hopefully, avoiding planting seeds for form or formless realm, or even pleasure being realm, so that we're really zeroing in on choosing our behaviors very carefully. Takes mindfulness, and it takes knowledge. The knowledge of the karmic correlations.

So all of that, purifying and doing goodness, all of it is about growing the goodness to get the direct perception of emptiness to ripen in one of those meditation sessions.

Like the first goal is to gather the goodness for that.

3. Path of Seeing

Each of the three capacities have the experience, the path of seeing, they have a direct experience of emptiness. Later courses we go through it. It's like, do they see the same emptiness? Emptiness is emptiness, there isn't partial emptiness.

But the emptiness experience that they have doesn't affect their mind in the same way, as it affects the mind of someone who's on greater capacity.

You have to think, well, why would that be? Until we're understanding that that experience is also projections happening and nothing but. There isn't anything self existent about this experience, direct perception of emptiness, that changes your mind in a certain way.

It does change your mind. Absolutely. But how it changes your mind is influenced by how you expected it to change your mind going into it.

We'll learn, lower capacity believes that their sole job is to close that door to lesser rebirth. And so they're understanding that no self nature of their own being in a certain way, that when they come out of the direct perception of emptiness, they go on now I see exactly how that all works. Now I know my door is closed.

Second level comes out of the experience. How they process the experience: Oh, now I know what I need to do to reach nirvana.

Mahayana comes out of it: Oh, now I know what I need to do to reach Buddhahood.

Because we went into it with those goals.

Why am I talking about that?

Path of seeing is prepared for in our path of preparation, which we're on the path of preparation for a Mahayana. So we're being trained for a Mahayana path of seeing but it's not a different path of seeing, it's a different outcome after the path of seeing, because of what we brought with us into it. Our seeds.

So path of seeing is perceiving emptiness directly 20 minutes, 30 minutes. And then coming out and having those experiences throughout the next 18 to 24 hours from which you know things that you knew about, knew of, maybe even were pretty expert in intellectually, but hadn't actually experienced directly. Like the getting on the bike and finally riding.

4. Path of Habituation

And we're on our path of habituation, meaning getting used to living according to what we now is true. That we believed was true. And so we were already trying to live according to it. Now that we see the truth of what we believe that was true, meaning we understand it differently. Now, that state of mind, we're doing the same deeds but with this more direct understanding state of mind to plant the seeds to take us closed door to lesser rebirth, to the place of no mental afflictions ever again, and to the place of clearing out all the obstacles to omniscience, so Buddhahood.

5. Path of No More Learning

For each of those practitioner levels, their path of habituation is about getting used to living according to what they now know is true.

First level, avoid harming others like the plague.

Second, avoid harming others and intentionally burn off your mental afflictions. Plant the opposite.

Highest practitioner, Whoa, do all of that with the intention to reach total Buddhahood for the sake of everybody's total Buddhahood.

Okay, let's take our break.

Bodhichitta: The Alchemical Elixir to Transform Ourself

(52:12) So what determines the shift from first and second level to third level practitioner is our bodhicitta. That recognition of the power of the process of understanding karma and how to purify what's there already and how to create new by way of avoiding harming others and helping others.

We recognize that, oh my gosh, there's nothing I can't create. That not only can I stop recreating a suffering world for myself, but I can stop recreating a suffering world for everybody.

To do that, I need to want to stop the suffering world for everybody.

To do that, I will need to help them stop their own suffering.

I can reach a place where I can see beings not as suffering beings. But when I reach that place, I will also see that they see themselves as suffering being. And because we know their emptiness and their karma, we'll know what they need to give up and what they need to take up in order for them to stop seeing themselves as suffering beings.

So, to become one who can help the others, we need to try to help the others. But we can't actually help the others until we have that omniscience that's born of the compassion that we use to motivate ourselves to try to help them.

You see this upward spiral developing.

They call bodhicitta the alchemical elixir through which we transform.

Alchemy is that you can mix certain ordinary substances in such a way that you can then use those substances onto another substance and transform that substance from something ordinary to something totally valuable.

They say that Nagarjuna got really good at that. That he could transform something that was made of steel into gold. Then he went and bought food and supplies in a time when the monastics were starving, and he sustained them with his alchemy.

Then he got in big trouble because it's like, wait, you're cheating, cheating people.

He said, no, I really made it into gold. And they said, no, you didn't. It's really steel.

What was it really?

Anyway, he gets in trouble, he gets kicked out. It's a long story after that.

But our bodhicitta is this alchemy, alchemical elixir.

What is the ordinary stuff that we are going to use the alchemical elixir to transform into something beyond valuable? Our Me, our belief in self existence, which is our worst quality. We will use the alchemical elixir of bodhicitta to transform that ignorance into wisdom, by way of our loving compassion, coloring, guiding, directing our choice of behaviors, so that we further avoid harming others, avoid harming others and try to be kind. Then we do both of those, but motivated from this higher capacity.

But like, how does it do that?

It's just a thought in our mind. ‘I want to be a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings‘.

How can that be so powerful an elixir that it can transform everything from samsaric to paradise for everybody?

Geshela said, I'll give you a clue.

So the clue is, if you think of doing some deed in order to get some happiness for yourself, you're even doing a goodness deed to get happiness for yourself. You are doing those deeds motivated for the benefit of one person, you. But now, think of all the people that live in your city, however many there are. Tucson, there's like a million people in our valley now. Really make it personal. There are a whole bunch that are in their cars right now. There are a whole bunch that are at restaurants. There are some that work nights, and they've just gone on the 7pm shift. There are some… Like all the different things that we know just humans are doing right now in your town.

How many? How many things are there doing? How many beings are there? And we know that everything that they are doing for their own and their loved one's happiness is things that in fact are leading to their own suffering and making the causes for more suffering.

No matter how good a time they're having, no matter how kind they're being, if we're still seeing them as human, ordinary human, they're just perpetuating the cycle.

So now, when we think of all those beings, and we think of how they're mistaking thinking they can get happiness by way of doing something worldly, our heart goes, oh, it's just so broken. I wish that I could say something or do something that could just get them to wake up. That feeling in our heart. It's like, I came to know something different. If I could do it, like, I'm just thick as a brick. Then all you others who are smarter than me, what can I say? What can I do?

And there's only one me. There's a million others in Tucson area. I can't get to all of them. But I can think of them. And I can care about them. I can care that there are somesarically trying to get happy and just hurting themselves.

And so, as I do anything that I do, I can have that care about them and their ultimate happiness in mind as I do anything. As I brush my teeth, as I do whatever I do, for my own efforts on my path.

I think I'm doing it for their benefit, because they don't seem to have the capacity, even for first capacity person, from my view. I don't really know. But it looks that way.

To have that thought, in my mind, like everything I'm doing, I know I'm still doing on behalf of myself. But I'm adding the intellectual and heartfelt sense that really, I'm doing it on behalf of all those others that I don't yet have the capacity to reach out to.

In that way, I will sooner or later reach my own state of heart, where I can reach out to them, I can know exactly what they need to take up and give up. By caring about them now, in this ultimate way, I influence… how many seeds do I plant, when I'm thinking about what I'm doing is to benefit a million people, versus to benefit just one. Same seed but now on behalf of a million. Do you see?

The seed is stronger, just by thinking about them, when I do it.

Well, then what about all the animals? And then what about those unseen beings? Hell beings, hungry ghosts, jealous gods?

When we add all of those, how many beings are we doing our kindness deed for?

It grows, it becomes infinite.

‘All’, we use the word ‘all‘, all sentient beings, not leaving a single one out, not even that jerk, Uncle Joe, that everybody dislikes. Like, especially that jerk, Uncle Joe, that everybody dislikes. I'm doing it for him and everybody who dislikes them.

The number is so big. We've heard it about it before.

Then the goal for ourselves is equally big: Omniscience, ultimate love, ultimate compassion, we really can't wrap our puny intellects around what we're wishing for.

But when we get those two bigs happening in our mind as we feed a little bird a piece of seed, that series of seeds from those series of moments includes the power of that high intention and a huge number of beings.

Same deed, alchemically elixired into the cause for Buddhahood, the power of bodhichitta.

How on our mind does it need to be for it to plant that seed as a seed for my Buddhahood? Like, 50% of the time? 95% of the time? 2%? How much?

And you know what the answer is going to be: The more the better. As much as it takes to see yourself transformed, that's how much it takes.

More is better.

But don't then go, well, I never do it even 50% of the time. I do it after the fact. Like, half an hour later, Oh, I did my dishes with bodhichitta. But during doing the dishes, just getting the dishes done—automatic pilot. Remembering, oh, bodhichitta.

That's still better than it not occurring to us at all.

So, we're trying to train ourselves to have bodhichitta in mind as we're doing our deed. And then even as we're choosing the deed we're going to do.

Boss yelling at you. I want to yell back. I'm not going to yell back. While I'm waiting to not yell back, I'm trying to remember what did I mean by bodhichitta? And then choose.

Maybe you choose to yell back. Maybe that really is the right thing to do. But you'll be doing it from bodhichitta, not from anger, not from self-defense. It'll be different.

I'm not saying give yourself permission to yell back. I'm saying give yourself bodhichitta, and bodhichitta will help you to know what's the highest thing you can do in the moment. It's still going to be how to help them best. Bodhichitta. All right.

When we're training our minds in bodhichitta, then we carry that bodhichitta mind with us into our meditation practice.

That goodness, for the benefit of all sentient beings, makes our seed planting in our meditation practice be causes for our buddhahood.

All of that alchemically increased power of goodness moves us closer and closer to our path of seeing, reaching that direct perception of emptiness someday. Because that will be a ripening of powerful good karma. It takes goodness to ripen that experience. It takes goodness to get into a deep enough state of meditation, regularly enough that we can sustain the level necessary to see emptiness directly.

All of that will ripen out of our seeds of goodness. It's a good result. It can only come out of kindness seeds. Kindness colored with bodhichitta increases the power of those kindness seeds.

We all do kindness seeds. Add the bodhichitta component, and those easy automatic kindness seeds become causes for buddhahood instead of just perpetuating niceness of samsara that wears out.

Give yourself credit. Use those already developed kindnesses to grow them and multiply them.

I remember getting so focused on my mental afflictions that I forgot that I am polite. I am helpful. I do care about people. I watch carefully to see that I can set an inspiring example. Instead of deciding, oh, that's just automatic pilot, I can use that intentionally with bodhichitta to grow it bigger. Otherwise, we're using it up, using up our kindness. Then you get old and cranky, and it happens.

We're using this understanding in both directions to burn off our mental afflictions and not plant them, and to gather greater goodness, adding to what we already have.

So, bodhichitta has those two factors.

1st Factor of Bodhichitta

I am focusing on another being's needs. The one that I'm focused on represents all beings, and I'm doing what I'm doing for them worldly in order for them to someday get an ultimate benefit.

So when we say all those worldly things we try fall short, it's not the things we do, it's our expectation and belief about them that makes them be what falls short.

They can be the seeds planted that when those seeds ripen, ripen as that person's end of suffering.

Is it going to happen in the next moment after you give them the flowers?

Not likely, unless you're already Buddha.

But have you planted the seeds such that that will be the result when that seed ripens? Yes.

So once you get those seeds in there, then we grow them with rejoicing.

We add to them with more kindnesses done with bodhichitta in mind.

And pretty quickly we get on the upward cycle part of our path where we really are more swiftly burning off negativities, planting goodness, and doing both with this alchemical elixir of doing it for the benefit of the other that we're interacting with, with them representing all. First factor in bodhichitta.

2nd Factor of Bodhichitta

(72:00) Second factor is, ‘And I'm doing that like that so that I can plant the seeds in my mind for me to see myself as fully enlightened’—meaning a being made of love, compassion, wisdom, omniscient, emanating, exactly what other beings need at any given moment.

No, but I'm just giving my friend some flowers.

Right. In order to bring them to ultimate freedom and they represent everybody, and in order for me to become a being who can give them ultimate happiness as I give them flowers someday.

Do you see? It takes both sides of that. Their benefit and my benefit.

And I know for a long time I resistet my benefit side. It's like, wait a minute, aren't I supposed to get rid of my selfishness? It's really not that we're getting rid of selfishness. It's that we're going to use it to transform.

If we get rid of it, like there's nothing there to transform.

So at this highest level, we're taking our selfishness, self-existent me and what I want, my own happiness, and using it to become a being that becomes the happiness for everybody.

How else are we going to do that if we don't have a self to transform?

So two parts.

So in order to grow the goodness that ripened as our interest, our arising of the third capacity practitioner—Mahayana—, we had figured out how to avoid harming others and then in powerful ways to be kind, to be helpful. And whether we learned it from the Lama or not, whether we learned it as Mahayanists or not, we would eventually even figure out for ourselves that, I'd be sharing things that I have with others. And I'd be really carefully living an ethical life. And somehow we even get to the point where it's like all those unpleasant situations that I would have reacted harshly, badly, to avoid for myself, I realize I don't need to react badly in those unpleasant circumstances. In fact, I can use them to burn off tremendous number of seeds of selfishness if I can sit there without harming me or the other, and burn it off and act with kindness.

What I'm trying to describe as patience practice.

Then we'll even get to a point where we recognize that whether we're having a pleasant experience or an unpleasant experience, it's all simply an opportunity to burn off past some samsarically made seeds and plant new seeds with bodhichitta.

Not even necessarily different behavior, but with this higher state of heart when I'm doing it.

It‘s like, okay, anything that's going on, let's just do this. Joyous effort, they call it. Having a good time doing our practices.

So we're recognizing those as the six perfections that are what the path of habituation looks like for a Mahayanist.

(76:43) It's not that the giving moral discipline, not getting angry, having fun, meditating and growing our wisdom are unique to the Mahayanist. It's what we're bringing to those activities, the bodhichitta that we are bringing to those activities, that makes those activities become the perfectionizers.

We were doing them before. Past lifetimes earlier this lifetime, that's how we gather the goodness to be on a path at all to be making progress in the path. Now, as our bodhichitta grows, we turn it on as we do those same deeds. Now those deeds are planting seeds for if we are doing that on our path of preparation, those seeds are being planted going towards our direct perception of emptiness, our path of seeing.

Then we come out of the path of seeing and we go, Oh, great. No, now I can really turn my bodhichitta on. Because in fact, you can't ever turn it off anymore once you've seen emptiness directly with bodhichitta in your heart.

Now you're doing your six perfections that you're already pretty good at. And you're doing them with the mind imbued with bodhichitta. So you are planting seeds that will take you all the way to your Buddhahood by way of behaviors, you've already trained yourself in. Do you see?

So don't wait to be working on your six perfections until you've seen emptiness directly. Work on them now. We already are, of course.

Then those first four perfections are growing the goodness to help our fifth and sixth perfections become perfectionizers: Our meditative concentration and our growing wisdom.

SHINE and HLAKTONG grow out of the goodness that we're creating by avoiding harming others and being kind. They grow bigger, faster, better as we avoid harming others and be kind to others, colored with the mind of bodhichitta, even intellectual bodhichitta, let alone the heartfelt bodhichitta.

Just to remind us, SHINE and HLAKTONG is Tibetan for shamatha and vipashyana, the single-pointed concentration meditation level from which we can see emptiness directly and the emptiness directly experienced.

Perfection number five, meditative concentration, learning to reach shamatha.

Perfection number six, the direct perception of emptiness, training intellectually in it until we do bring on the full experience.

Then we continue to do our perfections, as I said.

The Four Arya Truths

(81:00) As this upward spiral progresses, and we're on our path of preparation as a third capacity practitioner, we are already working with our six perfections.

We are studying and contemplating and growing the goodness of the six perfections in order to deepen our concentration, in order to deepen our intellectual understanding of emptiness, in order to fine-tune our bodhichitta that we have in mind as we do our deeds.

That goodness grows, grows, grows, grows into, oh my gosh, next thing you know, you're coming out of your direct perception of emptiness. And there's this period of time where you're experiencing different things directly, still in meditation, and then off-cushion time, that come to be known as the PAKPAY DENPA SHI, the four Arya Truths, the four things that a new Arya now knows are true. Like they finally got onto the bicycle in these four different arenas.

And then they got off the bicycle and go, oh, now I know what that was. Now I understand what they were teaching me. I really didn't get it before, right?

Intellectually, we understand the four Arya truths. But when we experience them directly, it'll be eye-opening, they say.

So these four, they're taught intellectually in a certain order. And then in terms of how they are experienced, they come in a different order when you're coming out of your direct perception of emptiness and experiencing them.

Then when you go back and think about how life has been colored by those four, and we really didn't know it, we see how that the order isn't so important because it's really like they're circular. And you can step into looking at them at any place along the way. You can't really say there's a first, a second, a third, and a fourth. But they come to you in these separate ways.

We've learned the intellectual way of studying them,

the truth of suffering, DUKNEL DENPA,
the truth of the cause of suffering, KUNJUNG DENPA,
the truth of the cessation of suffering, GOK DEN, and
the truth of the path to the end of suffering, LAM DEN.

The Truth of Suffering

But the way they happen is that there's the realization of the cause of suffering, not meaning first there is a cause, but meaning you realize all is suffering and all suffering has a cause.

The ramification is, there's no suffering other than the one that's the result of the cause. So you stop the cause, you can't have the result.

But when you're trying to teach it, you teach it first by demonstrating that suffering is true.The truth of suffering is that in order to even have the direct perception of emptiness, to grow the goodness that we need to do, we need to recognize that there's nothing in our experience that can bring us anything but suffering. So that we're willing enough to change our behavior enough to grow the goodness enough to have this experience of ultimate reality.

It's the bigness of all of that that's important.

So this truth of the fact of suffering is really what it's talking about.

And like, honestly, if you look in your heart, are we still thinking that there is something in our human life that can be pleasurable? And it's like, honestly, if we think no, there's nothing pleasurable in this whole life, you know, that's depression. Probably even clinical depression. Like I think I'm on the verge. It's just so clear to me. Every move is painful, literally, physically. And then every thought, it's like it's never… right? It just seems to be getting harder and worse.

I don't want to leave people like, yeah, become a really good Buddhist and need antidepressant medications just to do your practice. Not like that.

But do we believe no, no, no, there is finally something that I can do, I can become kind enough. I can have enough wisdom in my heart that I can make some goodness that will bring some happiness to somebody in this lifetime. Like, technically, we are mistaken.

Can we bring happiness to somebody? Yeah, we can see it happen.

But aren't they gonna die eventually anyway?

Aren't we gonna die eventually anyway?

And then anything's anything could happen unless we've reached the level of close the door. But even still, so we get another human rebirth. There's no suffering. We're all alone, right? High after low, right? That we still have those six sufferings as a human. It's like, come on, we've got to stop this whole process.

The Truth of the Cause of Suffering

But until we recognize the truth of suffering, which means everything we experience as ignorant humans is suffering now, either obvious, suffering of change, or pervasive, it was caused by suffering and it will be the cause of future suffering.

So any moment of experience is revealing three sufferings. The one that caused it, it, and the one it's contributing to in the future—truth of the cause of suffering.

Yeah, we won't really get it until we experience it directly.

They call it two, two divisions of the truth of suffering, the impure vessel in which we live, and its impure contents. Meaning this world that we live in is the truth of suffering. There's nothing in it that isn't suffering now caused by suffering and a cause for future suffering, and its impure contents means all the beings who live in this world. The stuff is the world, the beings are the contents of it. Every one of those beings is a suffering being made of those three sufferings:

suffering in the moment,
the sufferings that made the cause and
the sufferings that those sufferings are creating for the future.

Ouch.

The truth of the fact is suffering. Not it's true there is suffering.

Every moment is from suffering, suffering, now creating more.

All right.

KUNGJUNG DENPA, the truth of the cause of suffering.

It has two parts, LE and NYONGMONG PA.

The truth of the cause of suffering.

What's the cause of suffering? Karma.

What's karma? Movement of the mind and what it motivates.

What does it motivate? What I say and do.

So one of the causes of suffering is karma, our actions.

And NYONGMONG PA. NYONGMONG we know is mental afflictions.

NYONGMONG PA means mentally afflicted things. Meaning the things that we get mentally afflicted about.

So the cause of suffering isn't the mental affliction itself. It's the things that the mental affliction arise because of, is the cause. The cause of the mental affliction is in the cause of suffering because the mental affliction is the suffering.

Then of course the cause of that cause is karma that we made and are making. Right? It's ripening and plantings are happening so seamlessly that we're perpetuating these causes of suffering as long as we're continuing to allow that process to go on unaware or unshifted, unresponded differently too. I don't know if that was English.

The Truth of the End of Suffering

So one of your realizations is this deep, direct experience of how cause-result, cause-result, cause-result, cause-result is this continuous and ubiquitous happening.

And the cause and the result are all the truth of suffering.

And that process is the cause.

And, we realize GOK DEN, the truth of the end of suffering.

Now we realize that because we just experienced it for 20 minutes. We didn't know it was 20 minutes till we came out of it. And we didn't really know it was that until we came out of it either. Because in it, there is no distinction, subject-object-interaction between. You can't think, oh, wow, I'm free of suffering right now because that's subject-object, right? It's not your, Geshela says, communing with ultimate reality.

But even that gives my mind the wrong connotation.

There just is. You don't disappear. Things aren't all annihilated. Can't describe until you come out. And then it's like, ooh, right? And you still don't have words for it, apparently.

So you already have this GOK DEN, this realization of the end of suffering. But then you understand more viscerally, intellectually, oh man, that thing about the causes.

And then you realize, well, if I just stop the causes, that whole wheel grinds to a halt.

Stop replanting the causes for suffering and no more suffering can happen. However long it takes.

So in stopping all suffering, two things must be stopped in order to stop all the causes for suffering. Those two things are called the GAKJA.

The GAKJA means the thing emptiness is empty of. Oh, that's clear as mud.

The thing that we deny. Also clear as mud to me.

The GAKJA, a thing that it could exist independent of any other factor. That's too vague.

What do we really mean by the GAKJA as it's revealed by this direct experience of the cessation of suffering? What has to be cessased, is that a word? Ceased in order to stop perpetuating suffering.

There's two versions of it.

We could say, simply, GEKAJ is a self-existent thing. A thing that could exist in it, from it, the same for everybody, unaffected by anything. Which means it could never change. Which means, where did it come from? Like, how could it be there one moment and not the next? Like, wait a minute.

How can a thing that exists in it, from it, independent of any other factor, be such a thing and do the kinds of things that I see things do in my world? You know, something's wrong with this picture.

Do I believe that things have their own identities? Yes, I have to admit I do.

But then, do I believe that they're independent of any other factor and can't be affected by anything? No, I don't believe that.

Well, which is it, Sarahni? Do they have their identity in them from them? Because if they do, they make it, they make them be what they are. Everybody have to see them the same way.

And if they're not like that, well, then where do you think they come from?

And we go, oh, unique to me. I see them this way, you see them that way.

Right. So what does that mean about the thing's own identity?

Oh my gosh. It can't be in it.

Well, maybe something in it because everybody sees a stick.

Really?

It'll take us through all the schools if we follow that train of thought.

So these two GAKJAs, two flavors of the same GAKJA, actually.

There's a GAKJA that stopped on the path of seeing. That's referring to the belief that the pen has its pen-ness in it. Made from a factory, all those ramifications. We have a belief that others have their identities.

They don't have their own identities. But our belief that they do is so strong that it makes us interact with them with that belief, such that we plant the seed with that belief, such that we still see them that way every time we see.

So it's not so much the things that we see differently. It's our belief in them having their own nature that is gone when you come out of your direct perception of emptiness, because you have directly perceived the fact that that belief has been in error since forever. And from that direct experience, you come back out and it's happening again. Oh, pen in it. And you go, so silly. Right? That's impossible. Pens in them from them. Impossible. Never were. Gosh, I was fooled. For infinite eons. Silly me. I'm not fooled anymore, even though I see it that way still.

So the first GAKJA is this intellectual belief in the self-existent nature. Makes for the GAKJA, the self-existent nature of the thing. But it's really the belief we're getting rid of, because there's no self-existent nature to get rid of. It was never there.

Belief was there. The belief is an existing thing, not self-existing.

Then the second GAKJA to be stopped is the GAKJA that stopped by reasoning. So it's not really the second GAKJA, it's the first GAKJA that we get rid of as we're on our path of preparation and we're learning about self-existent things and how absurd it is to think that they are, but how impossible it is to not think that they are, because our seeds are ripening that they are, and we still believe it.

So, to have this clear ability to reason through, if the pen had its own nature in it from it, what would be the ramification of that? We can think that through.

It would say what it is. So everybody would see it the same way. It's so simple.

Does everybody see this object the same way?

Not even you and me don't see it the same way. Here, do you see it the same way as you saw it the first time today? No, this is the second time, third time, fourth time.

Well, we never see something the same way every time.

The GAKJA that we come to recognize by reasoning is, oh my gosh, that thing in it from it is just simply impossible. I still see it that way, I still react to it that way, but oh stupid me. It's inconsistent with logic.

The goodness of going through that logic to come to the conclusion, oh not in it from it, that's impossible—that's a great goodness. When we do it collared with the ‚I'm doing this logic in order for all beings to benefit so I can become a Buddha so they can really benefit‘. Now those seeds of telling the pen thing to yourself are really seeds for reaching it and then reaching your Buddhahood afterwards.

Just tell yourself the pen thing over and over again.

Imagine you're telling it to somebody else as you do it and imagine that you're doing it so that both of you can become fully awakened angels someday soon.

The seeds we plant are directed towards growing the goodness to experience directly the truth of the end of suffering.

We have to clearly identify the GAKJA in order to know what it is, has never been there, can't be there, is impossible to be there because we're still seeing them everywhere.

We think we're seeing them everywhere. We can't be seeing them everywhere because they don't exist. They are impossible.

But it takes over and over and over and over and over again before we go oh yeah. Like, I get it, and then experiencing it directly before it's like oh I really get it.

The Truth of the Path

And then LAM DEN is the path to the end of that suffering.

What we need to do now that we know what we know.

And what is it that we do?

Avoid harming others, practice our making goodness, doing both with the wish to reach total enlightenment for the sake of all beings so that we are avoiding our 10 non-virtues, growing our 10 virtues, keeping our Pratimoksha vows, whichever ones we have, living according to our bodhisattva vows, tantric vows if you have them, using your six perfections, your first four perfections to grow your meditative depth, to grow the seeds to see emptiness directly again, which we'll do, and to move ourselves through those bodhisattva bhumi levels.

Perfecting giving, perfecting moral discipline, perfecting not getting angry, perfecting joyous effort, all contributing to the perfecting meditation which we've already done but we need to perpetuate, and perfecting our wisdom which we've already done but we're growing it into our omniscience.

Not that vipashyana becomes omniscience but you know, I think you understand.

Course Wrap-up

(1:46:42) So I'm supposed to go into the six perfections and I kind of have already.

So to wrap it all up, to wrap up this whole class, course, the Lam Rim is a teaching that's complete. It has all the steps for all three capacities and it's told from the perspective of the highest capacity.

So it technically is a Mahayana teaching and it shows us that even if we stepped into this career as a Mahayanist, we need to look at our first and second level capacity that's strong from past lives but get it strong for this life as well so that we can be using it to empower our third capacity practice to feed our goodness, to grow our depth of meditation, to grow our wisdom, to grow our goodness, to grow our wisdom and push that upward spiral up, up, up, up.

Lamrim is there, we learn it well. We use it again and again. Even as we get to the highest yoga tantra coursework.

We spent the first year doing Lam Rim again. I don't know what Geshela has in mind.

Part way through we did it again, and at the very end we did it again.

So it's like Lam Rim isn't something that's just a beginner teaching at all. It's our encyclopedia. It's our itinerary, our trip itinerary, right? Life's journey itinerary.

So please learn it well. Use it. All right.

So congratulations. Except for the review, we finished course 9. We are halfway through your whole ACI courses. That's fabulous. Really. I think for at least one person, I think she's done and it's really, really extraordinary.

So not just for the goodness of this particular class, but for the whole course and all we've done together, right? We've been at this two years, right?

So, so much goodness. Be happy with yourself.

Think of this goodness like a beautiful glowing gemstone you can hold in your hands. Beyond exquisite.

Recall your own precious, holy being. That one so special for you.

See how happy they are with you. Feel your devotion to them, your reliance upon them.

Ask them to please, please stay close, to continue to guide you, help you, inspire you. And then offer them this gemstone of goodness.

See them accept it and bless it. And they carry it with them right back into your heart.

See them there. Feel them there. Their love, their compassion, their wisdom.

It feels so good. We want to keep it forever. And so we know to share it.

By the power of the goodness that we've just done

May all beings complete the collection of merit and wisdom

And thus gain the two ultimate bodies that merit and wisdom make.

So use those three long exhales to share this goodness with that one person, to share it with everybody you love, to share it with every existing being everywhere.

See them all filled with happiness, filled with loving kindness, filled with wisdom.

And may it be so.

Thank you, everyone. I look forward to you teaching me. Have fun. Have a nice weekend. I'll see you Sunday evening, my Sunday. Okay. Bye-bye.

(student) Lama, could I ask a question?

(Lama Sarahni) You may.

(student) That's how you mentioned in the, during the, I mean, the death process that our, the brain shut down. And then even our feelings, did you mention that the ability to think, right the thoughts are gone. So I'm, I'm not very clear with this part about the mind. Like when we study, we learn about the mind has this main mind and the mental functions, right? The 51 mental functions. So which part gets on like to the buttocks and basically is more in terms of the…, what do we really take along? Because all the heaps are gone, right? So then the brain shut down. Then what, what do we take along?

(Lama Sarahni) Yeah. So I don't know how to answer it in terms of the main mind and mental functions. I don't know how they use those terms. But this idea within what we would call main mind includes a sense of me in every seed, like the subject, the subject side. So there's an awareness, more like an awaring happening all the time. And within this awaring happening all the time, there's always a subject side of it and object side of it and an interaction between side of it. And we relate to that as subject side-me, object side-you, or the pen and the interaction we can analyze. The interaction can be, I see it or I use it or I feel it, or I have attachment to it. It's mine. All these different pieces of the interaction between, and that's where all those mental functions are happening in relation to the subject-object-relationship going on. And as this human life, we're used to having an ability to have some kind of sense of interacting with other.

And as that breaks down, even the ability to distinguish, distinguish color and form goes away. Feeling it doesn't cease, but our like relationship to it is going away. But there are stages that we go through where as the physical body is breaking down the experience of that is that the seed ripening is no longer ripening the earth element, which is the solidity factor. And so our ability to be aware of having a solid body goes away before we're dead in the dying process. And then the ripening of water element ceases. So the moisture, the fluidity, the coolness factor, that stops that we don't have perception of it anymore because we've been projecting it all along. And now we're not. And then fire element ceases.

We have hallucinations that happen when those are ceasing. And there's still a sense of subject side. It's already not me, Sarahni because the function of the brain has already broken down. But there's still a sense of subject side experiencing something and it's unfamiliar. And because of the unfamiliarity, it's disturbing.

So typical is although the, it's not Sarahni dying disturbed. It's the awaring happening of things unfamiliar. The awareness itself is being chaotic. It's still seeds, ripening seeds, ripening. So it's like, are you having mental afflictions? Oh, now I'm experiencing fear. No. But is there disturbance of the subject side? Yes. Because it's unfamiliar. It has no way to react. Like we expect, I can pick up this pen and move it. And it happens every single time. But if our mind is in such a place that something's happening and it can't react, it can't influence. It's like, argh. So I don't know how to describe that in terms of, are you, do you still have your heaps? At what point does this heap go away? That heap go away? They, they do all stop being projected, but there's still a wearing happening, right? Awareness is being ripened, but now what's ripening is dying seeds are ripening. And then finally, there's the last one from this life. And then the next one is Bardo.

Then, does a Bardo being have heaps? What kind of heaps does a Bardo being have? I don't know.

But then that said, I don't know. Long question. If you can't stay, don't stay.

How do we help somebody who's going through that? If from their side, we don't even exist anymore already by the time they've gotten to the point where their sensory perception can't connect. Like how could we ever help anybody?

And it's like, we can make this mind to mind connection apparently, and now I'm thinking self-existently because they've got a mind and I've got a mind and I can through the power of my mind, my concentration, I can help them tether in some way or help them direct in some way. And it seems to be the case. And they even say that if you say their name out loud, their past name out loud, and you give them instructions, verbal instructions, even if it's not in their language that, they say, their mind will heal or hear, and they will understand. But then what we think is happening, can't be happening for that to have the effect on the mind. Something else is going on because it's not like we can make that person suddenly have their personality back and know English and know what the words mean. But it's happening vibrationally. And so it can have an impact on their mind, which is also just vibrations shape shifting. And it comes with experience.

So, it is hard to work out with our intellectual minds to be able to say just exactly what's going on there. Try to work it out. But recognize it's like, it's not going to quite be like that. But when we try to work it out, it makes it less scary. Right?

Because if we were, if we're expecting to have those hallucinations from when the elements dissolve away, like, you know you're dying in whatever capacity. And it's like, okay, I'm watching for that silvery mirage. You're like, and when I see it, I'm going to be happy to see it. We could go to the next one, like the whole process could be experienced entirely differently. And instead of it all being disconcerting, and it can be, you know, in my mental words, whoa, I'm on this, right? I'm going to use this. But it won't be an intellectual words. Because by the time you go from one hallucination to the next, you are past, you don't have that brain functioning in that way. But your familiarity with the process will turn on. And it won't be chaotic. It'll be, I want to say directed, but it won't be directed either. But it'll be useful instead of harmful. And we and we learn those, right? We learned that death process. We learned it in Lam Rim. We learn it in Diamond Way again. Hope that helps.

(student) Thank you so much.

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