Heart Sutra — 2009-10-25

Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.

About this talk. In this 128-minute teaching on the Heart Sūtra, Tenzin Chogkyi explores the profound relationship between karma, emptiness, and the twelve links of dependent origination—the core Buddhist explanation of how uncontrolled rebirth arises and how wisdom can break the cycle. She begins by unpacking the twelve links across three lifetimes, showing how ignorance and afflictive emotions generate karmic actions that ripen into consciousness, name-and-form, and the six senses, ultimately leading to craving and grasping. The central practical insight is widening the gap between feeling and craving: recognizing that pleasant or unpleasant experiences arise from past karma, not from the object itself, allows practitioners to interrupt the automatic impulse to grasp or reject. Chogkyi then traces how Buddhist practice cuts through saṃsāra at two key points—directly realizing emptiness to sever root ignorance, and observing vows to avoid overwhelming sense contact. The mantra of the Heart Sūtra condenses the entire path into five stages: gate gate (accumulation and preparation), paragate (path of seeing), parasamgate (path of meditation), bodhi (awakening to Buddhahood), and soha (may this be realized). Aimed at practitioners with some familiarity with Buddhist doctrine.

File metadata (for organising)

File: Heart Sutra5 2009 10 25.mp3

UUID: dfed3a5d-2b81-4a7b-9e26-9c64054bda09

Teacher: Tenzin Chogkyi

Collection: Heart Sūtra (Tenzin Chogkyi)

Date: 2009-10-25

Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide

Words: ~15,376

Version of the twelve links of dependent origination with the so I always find it’s easier to relate to the picture if you know what the concepts are first. So we’re just going to go quickly through part of it, and we’re going to deal mostly with the part where we can use our understanding of karma and emptiness to free ourselves from suffering. Because this is the twelve links that Avalokiteśvara just talked about when he said, No ignorance, no cessation of ignorance, and no aging and death, and no cessation of aging and death, he meant, And all the rest of them are empty too. So let’s look at this. This is usually explained in terms of three lifetimes: the past life or lives, as we shall see, not just necessarily just the previous one and then the present life which is expanded to show the dynamics of what’s going on and then the future life.

So it’s usually explained in terms of three lifetimes. So it starts up at the top. The first link is ignorance, and this is especially the ignorance of the ultimate nature of reality, the ignorance about how we exist, you know, the root ignorance that is at the root of saṃsāra. Okay, so that ignorance. And then the next link is karmic formations.

Karmic formations. And we know that there’s got to be an afflictive emotion in there somewhere, right? So we know how it works. So ignorance you know, there’s a bunch of more spaces in here. If people John, do you want to move so you can see better?

You got it? Okay. That’s not the same as this, honey. Okay? This is my diagram.

That’s the other person’s I got the copy of your diagram. Yeah. You you got this before. Okay. So karmic formation.

So we’ve got that ignorance about the nature of reality giving rise to a disturbing emotion, an afflictive emotion. For example, attachment and aversion are the prime ones based on ignorance. And remember, we said the definition of attachment, for example, exaggerating the qualities of an object, thinking that if I possess that object I’m going to be happy forever. How could that happen without misunderstanding the nature of the object? I just created it with my concepts.

What’s to get attached to? It’s just a creation of my concept. So it’s based on ignorance. So ignorance and then there’s an afflictive emotion in here and then the formation of karma because we engage in some action motivated by that ignorance and that afflictive emotion. So all of that is going on in past lives.

The formation of karma because of that ignorance, the formation of karma. And then that consciousness this is the first link of the present life that consciousness loaded with karmic imprints, completely packed with karmic imprints comes into this life. From the Buddhist standpoint hang on, let me just kind of go through the thing and then we’ll have questions. So from the Buddhist standpoint, it’s not like sometimes there’s this New Age saying, Oh babies are pure, babies are fresh. Forget it.

Babies are loaded with all kinds of karmic imprints, you know? So, you know, in the beginning of this life, our consciousness brings those karmic imprints into this life. Okay? Babies are loaded. Babies aren’t pure babies, they’re loaded.

You’d have people like Loaded baby on Yeah, loaded baby on board. Okay, so present life consciousness. And then this is interesting because we just went into this. Name and form is the next link. So it means the consciousness links up with the fertilized egg and then the formation of the fetus.

One way of looking at this is talking about what’s happening in the womb. And this refers to the five aggregates. Form is the form aggregate and name is like a code word for the four mental ones. So this just really means body and mind. So body and mind.

That subtle consciousness comes in from the past life into the fertilized egg according to Buddhism at the moment of conception, and then the new being starts to form the six sense powers. Remember that are dependent on the sense organs? It’s more than that, but the brain forms, the sense organs form. So what we’re talking about here is the potential to have some kind of sense consciousness as a result of contact. You’ve got that potential, that sense power.

Remember, this is six of the sources that we just had on the previous flip chart. So all these things keep showing up over and over and over again. Remember the twelve sources, we have the sense powers plus the objects they come into contact with. So we’ve got the sense powers and then they come into contact. Here, this is contact.

That sixth sense power comes into contact with an object giving rise to that sense consciousness. And now we’re into the eighteen dhatus. So we’ve got the sense power, the object, the consciousness. And then after that, a split second later, we’ve got a feeling and this is the same feeling that showed up in the five aggregates, the five heaps. That’s just pleasant, unpleasant, neutral just that completely basic reaction.

It feels good it feels bad I don’t care. Okay so contact the next link is feeling and then the next link is craving Okay and this refers to two things: it refers to craving for more contact if our feeling was pleasant or craving to be separated from that object if the feeling was unpleasant. Even though it’s craving, which we usually think of as craving more, it can also be craving less. The reason that we use craving here, which is sort of synonymous with attachment in a way, is because we’ve got about a thousand attachment thoughts to every one aversion thought. Most people are going around, I want it, I want it, I want it, come on, more and more.

More of the pleasant stuff, and then every once in a while something comes up and you’re like, get me away from that. So in the Theravadan tradition they say attachment is the root of saṃsāra. In the Mahāyāna we say ignorance is the root of saṃsāra, but saying attachment is the root of saṃsāra is ninety nine point nine percent true. We would just say, Okay, it’s more than that because also it’s aversion. But attachment is most of our problem because it comes up so much more that we’re seeking pleasant sense contact.

That’s mostly what’s happening. So that craving this is just very basic. This is Oh, that felt good. I wouldn’t mind more of that. And then the next link, grasping, is a decision to do something about it.

Oh, okay, I’m going to do something to get more of that thing that felt pleasant. So this is more a decision to act. And then the next one becoming weird word, right? But that’s the way the word is translated. And that is, okay, on the basis of deciding to do something about it, you take action.

New karmic imprint formed as a result of your action. Craving is just, Oh, that was nice. Grasping is, I’m going to get more. And then becoming is whatever action that you took to get more of that sense contact or to push away the negative stuff. The craving would be like, Oh, that felt awful.

I want to get away from that. Grasping is, I’m going to do something to make sure that that never happens again, and then you do something. Stupid, right? Because we’re creating saṃsāra. Especially if you do one of the ten non virtues as a result of that feeling, particularly if you do something, some karmic action that’s one of the ten non virtues.

So becoming and now we’re at the end of the present life and then we flip into the next life. The power of that new karmic seed, that becoming those new imprints, forces us to be reborn. That’s what creates the power of rebirth. We say that rebirth is driven by the force of karma and delusions. It’s like this power that propels us into the next rebirth.

I always think of it as being kind of flung out of a catapult of karma and delusion into the next rebirth, characterized by birth, old age and death, and everything in between. So this is showing how we create our unenlightened existence. This is how we keep doing it. So how does karma and emptiness help us? Who can think of a way that we can break through?

How does our understanding of karma and emptiness help? Ben, microphone. Where’d it go? Probably because out of all these twelve things, there’s only three that we looks like we can really control or have any effect on. Okay.

So tell me. The the if, you know, everything from ignorance to the feeling or I guess the feeling contact, all the six senses, if all those things are all, an effect of cause and effect or whatever. Yeah. And they’re empty of their own nature or whatever, then, they don’t exist except that we we make them exist. So don’t then the only three things that we can control is the craving, grasping, and becoming around them.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And you got the right point that we can cut through because what he’s looking at here is this circle, cause and effect. And this is interesting to look at this. All of this stuff is in effect of past causes. Right? And we misunderstand that.

What do we think? We think there’s a cause and effect relationship here. We think that thing that we had contact with was the cause of our happiness. We think that thing that we had the contact with was the cause of our suffering. And when you realize, Hey, you know, if that chocolate cake tasted good, having chocolate cake in my world and the fact that it tasted good are both the result of what kind of karmic imprints?

Craving? Good karma, virtue. You know, good karma by definition is that which leads to happiness in the future. Know, bad karma by definition is that which leads to suffering in the future. The chocolate cake tastes good.

It is in my life, and I’m enjoying it because I helped somebody in some past life. It’s the only cause. And it ain’t the chocolate cake that’s the cause. It’s a condition. And that’s when we get the difference between causes and conditions.

A cause is what turns into the result, the actual stuff that turns into the result. The conditions are what makes it happen. It doesn’t matter how many chocolate cakes are in your life. If you don’t have a karmic cause because you’ve done something good in the past, ain’t no amount of chocolate cake is going to make you feel good. You have to have that karmic seed and then the condition of the chocolate cake can then cause that karmic seed to ripen.

It’s just like planting a flower and then you water it and you put the grow light on it and give it the nice compost. If you don’t have seed, you can water the hell out of some pot with really good soil in it and nothing’s going to happen. So we’re mistaking the condition for the cause and we’re thinking this is cause and this is effect. Okay? So, you know, if you realize that they’re both an effect of your past virtue, if you want future lives filled with chocolate cake, what are you going to do?

Share it with your friends. Bake your friends chocolate cake. Are you going to steal it from the bakery? No, because you just created the cause for future lives completely devoid of chocolate. I can’t imagine anything more miserable.

Okay? So it’s understanding this karmically and also understanding even the fact that chocolate cake appears as something pleasant to you is also your karma because you’re just creating that pleasant appearance also by your karma. And what’s the proof of that? Someone else doesn’t like it. Yeah, I’ve heard it’s hard to imagine, but I’ve heard there’s people who don’t like chocolate.

And if chocolate were inherently delicious from its own side, independent of my projection and independent of my karma, everybody would love chocolate the same. And some people break out in hives, some people just don’t like the taste of it. Go figure. My friend Achan Amro, who Ben knows, it was his birthday recently and I sent him this email wishing him sky is full of chocolate cake, and he wrote back going well I don’t really like chocolate cake, but I had a nice birthday anyway and I’m like How can that be? You know?

So this misunderstanding right here. Understanding that we cut the wheel here We understand the stupidest thing that you’re going to do is crave more contact with the object, especially misunderstanding that it’s the cause and doing something stupid to get more of it. That’s what we’ve been doing since beginningless time and it’s why we’re in this mess. This is free will, Lynn. This is where free will comes in because all of these we can’t help.

We’re in the moment kind of riding this I’m from Santa Cruz so I have to use a surfing analogy we’re at the peak of a wave and our past karma has pushed us here. There’s nothing we can do about it. When we’re in the middle of an experience and we’re experiencing a feeling in that moment, nothing we can do about it. But there’s definitely something we can do applying our wisdom to make sure that we don’t keep that wheel spinning. So there’s nothing we can do in the moment because it’s an effect of something that we created in the past.

But our reaction is not an effect. Buddhism says there isn’t determinism in that way, that our effects or our responses are predetermined. So that’s where the whole idea of free will comes in. Our experience that we have is an effect of past karma but we can choose here before creating new causes with our wisdom. If we don’t know this, we’re probably going to continue to do stupid things and continue to be stuck in saṃsāra because we’re going to react stupidly.

We’re going to keep thinking that that’s the cause and we’re going to keep doing stupid things. But we can use our wisdom to override our impulses. We have karmic imprints for reacting in certain ways, for certain all of that is true. But thank goodness we can use our wisdom to override our karmic impulses. We asked Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche one time we were talking to him about this and the whole thing about free will and he said, When the mental affliction is so strong it’s almost as if you don’t have a choice.

And there are certain times that you’re just so full of attachment or aversion that it’s like you don’t know better and it’s almost like you can’t help it. But most of the time we can. And that’s why I say in those moments when you’re having a strong pleasant or unpleasant experience, for God’s sake remember the twelve links. My students have this diagram pinned up to their refrigerator and next to the meditator because it’s the key to everything and it’s the key to cutting through. Because if we can remember then, oh, it’s not that experience.

It’s not the contact with that person, that object that’s causing the negative feeling. And that’s why in the Chinese prison camps, some people are suffering and some people say, like my teacher, Ripa Rinpoche, oh, it was great. I had all this time practice and do retreat and it was really good for my renunciation. Because it’s not the cause. That experience is not the cause of the feeling.

So remembering this is huge. It’s like enormous and it’s the key to breaking through saṃsāra. So we use our understanding of karma to see that our karma made us have that feeling and we also use our understanding of emptiness to even question the appearance we’re having of that sense object that we’re contacting. Okay? Yeah, Catherine.

Microphone. The link of craving. Is making me think about the eight worldly dharmas. Is that the same? That’s the craving for certain things and craving to avoid other things?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that’s part of it. That motivation comes in. Craving for more pleasant sense contact.

We’re craving for gain, for pleasure, for fame and all that stuff. Again, misunderstanding that all those things are the cause of our happiness. And the only cause of our happiness is virtue. The proof is Hollywood millionaires that commit suicide, right? If all that stuff was really the cause of happiness, nobody with all those things would be depressed and sad and commit suicide.

And then the proof of that is somebody like Mother Teresa with two saris who’s blissfully happy in the middle of the leprosy colony in Calcutta because she’s got so much virtue that she can transform this situation that would have most of us freaking out into a pure realm. So that’s the proof of why it’s not the stuff that makes us feel the way we do. It’s our karma. And it’s great because then you can be an inner being. Then you can be one of those nangpas.

You can be an inner being realizing it’s just my virtue that makes me feel good. It ain’t all that stuff. And it’s huge. It’s a really, really huge way to break through. So I always say here widen that gap before you instantly go into craving as a result of your feeling.

Just create some space there. One of my students said, I didn’t even know there was a gap. Like what gap? You know? Like I just go.

But if with our wisdom and with our mindfulness and that’s where good old fashioned Buddhist mindfulness practice really helps, right? Because we slow it all way down. You know, you have contact with an object, you feel a certain way before you immediately jump to craving and grasping, you slow it down. You feel that grasping arising. You feel that craving arising, and you remind yourself, Hey, wait a minute.

That thing is not the cause of my happiness. My virtue is the cause of my happiness. The thing happened to be there causing that karmic seed to ripen, but it’s not the cause. So we have to just slow down. We go at this completely ridiculous breakneck speed and there’s no way we can be mindful when that craving starts to arise.

So part of it is understanding this, getting super familiar with this, knowing the dynamic, knowing the process, and then just slowing everything down so we can feel that mind of craving, which is an ignorant mind, arising and we can remember, Hey, I remember. Tenzin Choki wrote that and it’s the effect it’s not the cause. So this is a huge place that we can break through. And then there’s another place in our Buddhist practice that we can break through. Can anybody see where it is?

There’s another significant place that we can break through that has to do with our practices. John, yeah. You’re cheating, John. You heard this before. No, I’m kidding.

It’s all right. Well, right there at the top, ignorance. Yeah, yeah. In the direct realization of emptiness, right? The path perfection of wisdom, remember?

We’ve got that path perfection of wisdom kat saṃsāra at the root. So that’s what we’re going for in the Heart Sūtra, breaking through at that root ignorance at the very, very top. Because then none of the cycle is going to go. That’s link number one. None of the cycle is going to go.

There’s another place in our practice where we break through right before sense contact. So for example, we have certain vows to avoid certain sense objects that are especially compelling. Even if you don’t have those vows, it’s interesting in our practice. We say, Until you’re stronger and until you can transform this whole thing, if you know that there are certain objects that are especially compelling for you, avoid contact with them until you’re stronger. We say, It’s like a sapling.

Our minds are like a little sapling. Beginning, you need to surround it with a deer fence and give it a lot of water and fertilizer until it’s stronger. And then it’s going to be impervious. Once it’s a big oak tree, it doesn’t matter how many deer are around, they can’t bother it. And our minds are the same way.

When we’re starting out, it’s smart to figure out what sense you contact with which objects are going to almost always make you forget that the object wasn’t the cause. That’s the reason behind, for example, the Buddhist monastic vow of celibacy. We have a celibacy vow to avoid that sense contact because sexual contact is so compelling it’s almost impossible to not think the guy is the cause of your pleasure. Oh right, it’s my past karma. See how that works?

In certain practices, you avoid the sense contact. That isn’t as effective as understanding emptiness, right? Because it’s cutting it midway through the effect. But if your mind is still it is a way that we can practice. And in fact, this friend of mine who has been among both in the Tibetan tradition and the Theravadan tradition and he says, In Theravāda, a lot of the practices are about just cutting it here and avoiding the sense contact.

So the way the monastic discipline is practiced is about avoiding that contact in the first place, being very, very subdued and avoiding that contact. But for us, I think right here is really important. Cutting it here means we’re at the path of seeing and we’ve seen what it takes to get there. We’ll get there and that’s very powerful and we say we say that that cuts saṃsāra at the root meaning if you chop down a tree’s root it’s not going to sprout back up again. This is cutting off some branches and some twigs and this is maybe cutting the main trunk but this is cutting the root so it’s not going to spring up again at all.

Okay, we have Matthew and then John. Matthew and Mark and Luke are in there Sorry. The first question was I was a little confused about how this plays out in terms of free will and determinism? Did you say that Here. Here.

Okay. It’s it’s not free will up to that point. Is that what you were saying? Well, it’s it’s effect. And free will, again, that’s a Christian idea.

Right? So we’re not it’s not doesn’t exactly correlate, but we’re kind of talking about are our choices determined by our karma? Okay, so it’s determined up to that point. Well, we’re experiencing this as a result of our past karma and then right here is where we’re creating the new causes. And by the way, we’re in different parts of this twelve links and overlapping parts all the time simultaneously.

Like you’re in the Starbucks with your mocha frappuccino and your brownie bites and then a cute guy comes walking in the door, right? So it’s like that. Like in every moment we’re in different links simultaneously. But the point is all of this stuff is in effect and then this is where we can choose to respond differently and this is where a lot of our Buddhist practices come in. We choose to respond differently here because of our wisdom, our understanding of karma and emptiness.

For those of you that really like this, I’m in New Zealand. They asked me to do a week long course called karma, Emptiness and the Twelve Links. My god. New on top. Yeah, New Zealand on top of it.

Yeah, because it’s there’s so much to this, you know, and we’re kind of packing it in to like but they asked me to do a whole week on karma Emptiness and the twelve links, so there’s not anybody who wants to, look on my website that’s got my schedule on it, which is on my little card. God, now I’ve forgotten. Either December or January. Yeah, that’s their summer. Yeah.

December, January, and February? New Zealand summer, guys? Come on, we can have a class reunion. Okay. John had something and oh, you’ve got another one.

Yeah, the other question I had was, so you were talking about in the area of the six senses, one thing you can do is to avoid, you know, like vows of chastity and poverty or whatever you whatever, you know, is called. Right. Then We don’t have the obedience. Yeah, we do. But the other thing I was wondering is where would performing virtuous deeds fit on the cycle?

Well remember, this is the cause of saṃsāra. Performing virtuous deeds is what gets us out with an understanding of emptiness. We talk about contaminated good karma, just virtuous deeds done without an understanding of emptiness, and they cause us to have good feelings here. So all of the good feelings that we have from the virtue that we’ve done in past lives without thinking of emptiness is just what we call contaminated good karma. It doesn’t get us free from saṃsāra.

It just causes us to have better samsaric experiences. So that’s still in there. So it doesn’t contribute to our positive karma? The fact that we’re in a human rebirth is caused by our contaminated good karma. The fact that we can meet somebody like His Holiness, the Dalai Lama and Geshe Dakpa and get these teachings is due to contaminated good karma.

The reason that we motivate and dedicate and think about emptiness now that we know better when we’re doing all our virtue is that then that puts it in the karmic bank account for enlightenment and not just a better rebirth. So that’s the difference between virtue done with an understanding of emptiness and karma and with the right kind of dedication. It propels it in that direction versus just plain old virtue that we’ve done that got us here. I mean, thank God. And it gets us to, for example, a good samsaric rebirth, but it doesn’t create causes for our enlightenment without that understanding, except indirectly because we can be a human and hear the teachings.

Isn’t this cool, by the way? Is that cool or what? Can I get some positive visual Okay? Just so that I know that I’m seeing this the proper way, just for some clarification. So it would seem to me that, yeah, if you can open the gap between feeling and craving, that would be a good thing.

Now, to open that, to widen that gap, like, I would assume a good way of doing that is developing bodhicitta, right? Well, mostly what we’re doing here is understanding and meditating on karma, emptiness, the twelve links, how our saṃsāra is created, and slowing down and being mindful. I would say those are the main practices that make us widen the gap. Bodhicitta is great as a motivation, but to directly cut this here it involves understanding this whole process, understanding karma, understanding emptiness, doing lots and lots of meditation on it, and then being really, really mindful. Because with mindfulness, if you’re well trained, you can feel those impulses start to arise, and you can catch them before it manifests in any kind of action.

Usually catch it right about here, you know, it’s like it starts to come up and then you’re just like, Oh, that craving is coming up, and then you remind yourself. The mindfulness catches you and then you use wisdom to remind yourself. Okay. So it’s mostly karma and emptiness at that point. Okay.

Yeah. Because I was wondering because like this like, as I was, like, explaining to you last night, like, the thing that, like, I’ve been trying to do is, you know, to have, like, the bodhicitta motivation. Yeah. Yeah. That’s made it easier to go and be able to go and, you know, like when anger, think, go grab it and then turn it back in on itself and see where it’s coming from.

Yeah. And for sure that helps is just the Yeah. Yeah. Definitely for sure is just that motivation that you’re setting for everything that you’re doing, definitely, you know, but then directly. So I would say that would be more of an indirect kind of cause for being able to widen that gap and then the direct cause.

But if you just got Bodhicitta and you don’t understand the twelve links, you don’t have the ammunition you need to really stop it. And it’s interesting, you know, for example I said how sense contact and then for example monastic celibacy vows We have these pre monastic trainings where for two weeks they meet and they tell you your vows. I posit and I think it’s really true that if you don’t understand the twelve links you’re not going to be a happy monastic. You’re just going to think that Lord Buddha is trying to spoil all your fun. But if you understand where those vows stop you from creating the cause of saṃsāra, then you’ll be happy.

So it’s very interesting when we think of any kind of Buddhist morality or any kind of ethics. Sometimes we do it kind of begrudgingly. Oh, you know, Lord Buddha just said I couldn’t have fun. But forget it. Lord Buddha is telling you because this, by the way, is what he realized the night that he got enlightened.

He got this twelve link thing. And for years I would be taught it in these classes and I just didn’t get it at all. It’s like all these weird things and the three lifetimes and you’re like, What’s going on? And then I have this insight into where you can cut through. So it’s really important to have that understanding and then it makes your morality make sense, it makes all your bodhisattva practices make sense, it makes everything make sense.

But it’s mostly directly this understanding and then your mindfulness slowing yourself down that allows you to create that gap. Lynn had something. If she remembers, it was a long time ago. I hope you answered questions. I I questioned why we began with ignorance and why the cause is so negative to start with.

Because this is saṃsāra we’re talking about right now. Okay? Okay. Because I I mean, I think a lot about Buddha nature and that we really are motivated for good. We’re altruistically motivated underneath it.

Right. So I just wondered about that. Yeah, and this is the explanation of how we create our uncontrolled rebirth in saṃsāra. So it’s kind of bad news. It’s kind of a drag.

But understanding it, can realize how to reverse it. Because remember Avalokitesh where I said, And no aging and death. And reverse the whole thing. With your wisdom, you reverse it. But this is just you have to understand how you create it.

Otherwise we’re going to be doing all our practices because Lama Zopa told us to, and then the minute we get tired of it we’re going to drop it because we don’t understand why we’re doing it. And when you can relate your Buddhist practices to where does it cut through the twelve links, it’s so much better. Then you won’t give up. Because if you don’t understand, you’re just doing it because deity told you to. Forget it.

It’s not gonna work. Yeah. So that’s why we have to understand this. You know? That’s why we have to When you were talking about the contact and feeling and talking about the varieties of experiences Yeah.

People to back who were Right. Risen. And I suddenly thought about, you know, concentration camps were really Yeah. Yeah. And I don’t think anybody thought it was a, you know, time to a good time to it good time to meditate.

I don’t think anybody No, but people really transformed it. There’s this book by Elie Wiesel who talks about the difference between the survivors that made it into a positive experience, mostly by Bodhicitta, trying to think of others, trying to make others happy, trying to take care of them. And then they came out without post traumatic stress disorder. I was talking to somebody recently who was in Dharmasala, and there’s some psychologist there studying why the Tibetans don’t seem to have post traumatic stress disorder because of what happened. It’s because they understand.

So it’s true, even for concentration camps. It’s not like everybody thought it was party, but some people were able to use it as part of the path and as a way to increase their Bodhicitta and just their plain old compassion because they’ve done all these studies and people who are just like, Victim, oh poor me, it’s so horrible. Of course, for most people it was like that. And then there were some outstanding people that really tried to take care of others and benefit others. For them, it was a teaching.

It was a lesson. It was part of the path. And I’m trying to study how Tibetan Buddhists don’t suffer from survivor’s guilt, which is part of PTSD. Yeah. And I think emptiness is probably Yeah.

Yeah. Understanding karma and emptiness. Yeah. Yeah. And I’m just like I said, I’m giving you the raw material, and you gotta cook it.

Maria’s got something, and then Carla. When Lynn said the thing about the concentration camps, I automatically I’m not gonna get this totally right, but I read A Wise Heart by Jack Kornfield. And he was talking about a man who’s now or was a psychologist and was in that situation as a child. And as a child, he could see how amongst all the torture, all the suffering, that there were still men and women who would put their suffering aside Yeah. To help all other Yeah.

People there. And he just that resonated with him. And ultimately, he basically said that, no matter how much torture you suffer, no matter how much you go through, there’s still that ultimate decision, that that last human freedom Yeah. Where you have the the the ability to choose how you’re gonna react to your situation. Right, right.

And that just kind of just bursted into my head when she said that. And that’s why his holiness, the Dalai Lama calls, you know, exchanging self and others this method that we have for developing Bodhicitta enlightened self interest. He goes, Oh, by giving up attachment to your own happiness just happens to be the only way to get happy. It’s weird. It’s like you give up all of this self absorption and you go, Oh, doesn’t matter whether I’m happy or not.

And then boom, miraculously, you’re happier than you ever were. So enlightened self interest. And even if people don’t know that phrase, you know, just instinctively or past life imprints or whatever it is that causes them to do that and they suffer less. The rule of thumb seems to be think about other people more and yourself less and you’ll be a lot happier. That’s just pretty basic.

And we’re not trained that way at all. We so don’t think that way. I remember my father when I was growing up and he was like Honey, look out for number one because nobody else is going to look out for you. I’m like Daddy, you’re wrong. Sorry.

Because it just doesn’t work. If it worked, I’d say do it, but it just makes us more and more miserable. And then we think, I’m unhappy. I’ve gotta look out for number one more. And then we get more miserable, and it just goes on like that.

It’s just this never ending. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions about the twelve links?

I have one. Oh, Carla had one. Sorry. Sorry. Carla, sorry.

Just a clarification. When you talked earlier about creating virtues and sprouting in the pleasure of eating the chocolate cake Yeah. As a form of happiness. I mean, that’s conventional gross level experience. Is that really the happiness that comes out of past virtues?

I have a hard time Any happiness that we have comes out of good karma. The definition of good karma is that which leads to happiness. More happiness. I kill someone and I feel pleasure, that’s not the cause of your pleasure at all. Your pleasure was caused by some other karmic seed that happens to be and we’re fooled by proximity into thinking there’s a cause and effect relationship.

We’re fooled by proximity. Anybody who feels happy after they do some non virtue, whatever it is, it’s some other karma that’s taken a long time to ripen. And then that non virtue that they do is going to take a long time to ripen into some suffering. And we’re fooled by proximity all the time in thinking there’s a cause and effect relationship and that’s not a cause and effect relationship at all. And it’s not the sense contact of killing someone that makes you even fooled into thinking.

It’s not that. It’s not like a sense contact with an object that then serves as a condition for your pleasure. Yeah. So I’m still mistaking, you know, effect as as cause by saying that. Right?

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That’s that’s what’s happening. Right.

Identifying as cause as opposed to Yeah. Both are effect. Right. Or you steal let’s give an even more mundane example. You know, you steal five hundred dollars and you buy a nice stereo system and you listen to music that makes you happy.

And you think the stealing was the cause of your happiness. Getting the nice stereo system and listening to the music and having that mundane happiness is still the cause of some good deed that you did in the past. And then stealing is going to create the cause for some, you know, not having the resources that you need to live later on in this life or in some future life. Okay, so we’re fooled by that proximity. Yeah.

What about non virtuous things that people did before they knew better? I I guess that’s part of ignorance, but like children or It’s still it’s like physics. karma is completely impersonal and it doesn’t matter how much you know, it’s still going to have an effect. Now, if you know that something is wrong or if you’ve taken a vow not to do it and then you do it, it’s heavier negativity because it’s a deeper imprint. To go against something that you do know, especially something that you vowed not to do, creates a stronger imprint.

Because remember, karma isn’t anybody keeping track. It’s the imprint in your mind and just carrying that into feeling an effect in the future. So the more you know, the more your negative karma actually causes a worse so sorry everybody. Now I’ve taught you about this so it just made it worse for you. Or better because I’ve given you the ammunition that you need to cut through it.

Okay. Yeah. Sorry. A quick follow-up. What if you did something without an intended consequence and the intent and the consequence was, like, way worse than you intended.

Like, you see what I’m saying? Like, you’re Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

What you did something meaning, like, for some beneficial result and then negative happened? Yeah, for a beneficial result or even neutral, but then something pretty terrible happened. Yeah, it mostly depends on your intention. And again, this isn’t a class on karma. It’s really complicated.

Know, we do a whole course on how karma works and the mechanisms and all the components of a complete karmic action, what makes the effect heavier or lighter, and so we just don’t have time to get into all of that. But the motivation is a big part of it. Know, the motivation plays a big role. Okay. So any more kind of general karmic questions, we just don’t have enough time to get really into a lot of the detail of karma, but there’s other places that you can go for those details.

But just using our understanding to break through this, Really, really important, especially that gap. When you feel caught up in a strong subjective experience of pleasant or unpleasant, you feel like taking some action, just check and see. It’s not that that sense contact with that object is the cause. So just remember this relationship. All right, so let’s get back to the Heart Sūtra.

So we’re on the section where Avalokiteśvara says, Śāriputra, therefore. So we’ve started again another path. So what we’re talking about here is the last meditation before you’re a Buddha. Avalokiteśvara is giving us the instruction on the final meditation that leads us to Buddhahood. Because remember I said the difference between or you transit from one path to the next in deep meditation.

So there’s a meditation at the end of the path of meditation. Okay? We’re here. We’re at the end of the path of meditation right before this line. The very last meditation of that path of meditation is called the vajra like meditative absorption.

Okay, the very last meditation. The vajra like meditative absorption. And so up until now in the path of meditation, been meditating on the twelve sources, the eighteen elements, the twelve links, the four noble truths all along. And now we’re at the point of Buddhahood and we go into our final meditation. And then therefore means since that’s the case, since you’ve perfected all four paths, the fifth path is going to be the result.

That little word therefore means all of that stuff. Therefore, since you just finished or you’re just getting ready to finish the four paths, the fifth path is the result. There is no attainment. We’re at the point of Buddhahood. Does it mean there’s no Buddhahood?

There’s no attainment? No. From its own side, yes. He’s saying there’s no attainment from its own side, meaning everything that you’ve done up until now, therefore, because you traversed all four of those paths, there is a dependently arising attainment. There’s no attainment from its own side, but the attainment you get at the end of all of that is a dependent arising.

So that’s what he’s just saying. At that point of attainment, there’s no attainment from its own side because you just got there through all that hard work that you did, all those causes and conditions you created. Then there’s attainment. There’s no attainment for that being in that meditative absorption until the moment they’re a Buddha because then they can see conventional and ultimate reality at the same time. So you go into the meditation.

You’re still a tenth level Bodhisattva. You go into that vajra like meditative concentration, that last meditation. You go into the direct realization of emptiness, all conventional phenomena. You can’t have any awareness of it. And then a nanosecond after you’ve eliminated the final obscuration to omniscience, which is the last defilement to go, and you’re a Buddha.

And you must know then because you’re still meditating on emptiness, and all of a sudden you can see the emptiness in the conventional. So you must know at that point. But just right up until that point, you don’t even know that you’re a hair’s breadth from being a Buddha yet. The only thing appearing to you is emptiness. That’s pretty trippy.

That’s going to be interesting, right? Like you’re in that, nothing else is appearing, and all of a sudden you’re still in the direct realization of emptiness and then everything shows up again. Then what it looks like then is a big debate. What does a Buddha see then? What does conventional reality to a Buddha look like?

Right? Who knows? You know, big debate. Big debate. So that’s what that means.

There’s no attainment as you’re approaching it. You’re still just seeing emptiness directly, still just seeing that mere absence. Because there’s no attainment from its own side, bodhisattvas rely on and dwell in the perfection of wisdom. What is rely on and dwell? That’s what they depend on to get there.

And the perfection of wisdom here is talking about the path perfection of wisdom, which, remember, is that direct realization of emptiness. So they rely on it and they dwell in it, meaning they do it over and over and over again. They keep doing that meditation. So all during the path of seeing, all during the path of meditation, all the bodhisattvas depend on that meditation. They keep doing it over and over and over again.

So relying and dwell in the perfection of wisdom means keep doing the path perfection of wisdom, keep doing the direct realization of emptiness over and over and over again. The mind without obscuration and without fear. No more obscurations. Remember we talked about the two kinds of obscurations. We have the defilements, which was the karma and the afflictive emotions.

That’s eliminated after the seventh Bhumi. And then we have the obscurations to omniscience that’s eliminated now at the moment of Buddhahood. No more obscurations and no more fear because you’ve got no more causes of suffering, You’ve got no more causes of being an unenlightened being. So it’s very cool. No more obscurations, no more fear.

Not a shred of anything left that limits you at all. No more limitations. Having completely passed beyond error. And then this means they’ve completely passed beyond what we call the four distortions. The four distortions.

Four wrong ways of looking at things. Okay, this is specifically the error that we’re talking about here is the four distortions. So the four distortions are seeing the impure as pure, seeing suffering as happiness, seeing things that are impermanent or changing as unchanging, and seeing things that are selfless and without essence as having some self or essence. Seeing things that are impure as pure. So that’s a distorted kind of mind that most of us have.

We see impure things as pure. We see things that are really in the nature of suffering as happiness. We see things that are changing as unchanging. We think things are going to last forever and just, you know, if we have some kind of some sarc happiness, we somehow just think it’s going to last forever and we freak out when it doesn’t because we expected it to be permanent or unchanging. And then we see things that are selfless as having some self or essence.

So those are the four distortions. Those happen to also be remember I said the sixteen aspects of the Four Noble Truths before that you realize directly right after that first meditation on emptiness? Those are the four aspects of the truth of suffering. Those are the four aspects of the first noble truth, or those four distortions. Same thing.

So those four distortions is overcoming error, completely past beyond error. So we go one hundred and eighty degrees opposite to those wrong views. Completely eliminate those wrong views. They reach the endpoint of nirvana. So this is talking about the fifth path.

And the word nirvana because we said, Wait a minute. nirvana is just solitary peace, but the Tibetan word that’s translated as nirvana here means pass beyond sorrow or pass beyond grief. So we could retranslate it and say They completely pass beyond air, and they completely pass beyond grief or sorrow, which is the Tibetan word for nirvana. So fifth path, path of no more learning. And then he says, all the Buddhas who dwell in the three times also manifestly, completely awaken to the unsurpassable, perfect, complete enlightenment in reliance on the perfection of wisdom.

So he’s saying, every Buddha that ever existed, all the Buddhas in the three times, past, present, and future, all depended on this path perfection of wisdom. They all depended on the direct realization of emptiness to get enlightened. No exceptions. A non negotiable realization to have for enlightenment. Okay?

Just three times again. Past, present, and future. Yeah. Okay. Alright.

So we’re at the end. We’re at Buddhahood. Okay. Do you need a little break before we finish the sūtra? Are you okay?

Yeah? Everybody alright? Alright. So therefore okay? The mantra of the perfection of wisdom.

So the mantra and it’s interesting. The word mantra means protection of the mind. The etymology of the Sanskrit word mantra. Mantra literally doesn’t mean a bunch of words in Sanskrit. Sanskrit.

It means that which protects the mind. And what’s the real protection for the mind? The realization of emptiness. Yeah. Go, Chris.

The direct realization of emptiness. So that’s the real mantra. So the mantra of the perfection of wisdom is actually referring to I mean, we’re going to go into some Sanskrit words but the real protection of the mind is that direct realization of emptiness, that path perfection of wisdom. So the mantra of the perfection of wisdom, the mantra of great knowledge, the unsurpassed mantra, the mantra equal to the unequaled, the mantra that fairly pacifies all suffering should be known as truth since it is not false. So what does all this mean, all of these superlatives?

Okay, so what does all of this mean? The mantra of great knowledge. The mantra is called the mantra of great knowledge because it destroys ignorance and the three poisons. Ignorance, attachment and aversion. So it’s called the mantra of great knowledge because it destroys ignorance and the three poisons.

It’s called the unsurpassed because there’s no higher protection than this. It protects us completely from ignorance, negative karma. It protects us from the two extremes of saṃsāra and nirvana. So it’s unsurpassed. No better protection than that direct realization of emptiness, that perfection of wisdom.

It’s called equal to the unequaled. So Buddhahood is synonymous with the resultant perfection of wisdom. There’s nothing higher than that. That’s the unequaled. Nothing is equal to it.

Nothing is higher. So we’re saying here that it’s equal to that. That perfection of wisdom is equal to the resultant perfection of wisdom, Buddhahood, the omniscient mind of a Buddha nothing equal to that. That’s the unequaled. So this is equal to the unequaled, the enlightened state.

So by using the path perfection of wisdom, we attain that resultant perfection of wisdom. So that’s equal to the unequaled. And then thoroughly pacifies all suffering. It pacifies manifest suffering and any propensities or karmic potentials for any kind of suffering. So all suffering, both manifest suffering and the karmic seeds and potentials for that suffering.

And then because it is not false means two things: it’s undeceiving. It will not lead you astray. By practicing the perfection of wisdom, it is not false, meaning it’s not going to lead you astray. And it’s also telling you the ultimate nature of reality, the truth about reality. In that way, it’s not false either, because it’s not any kind of false view of reality.

It’s the ultimate nature of reality. So this is what all of those superlative adjectives mean. So any questions here before we go into the mantra? Can you just repeat the first thing about destroying the three poisons? Okay.

The great knowledge, because it destroys ignorance and the three poisons, it’s called the mantra of great knowledge. Yeah. John. The three poisons? Ignorance, attachment, and aversion.

As those are the three sometimes we call them the three root delusions or the three poisons because everything, all the other mental afflictions, afflictive emotions are some combination of those three. So ignorance, attachment and aversion are the main three. Okay, any other? Yeah. So what is the purpose of the mantra?

Yeah, yeah, and it’s to remind us of the five paths that we’ll see in just a minute. It’s to remind us of the five paths because each part of the mantra refers to one of the five paths Because that’s the real protection, is traversing Tibetan Buddhism isn’t magic. Sometimes it seems kind of magical and mystical and you just recite some words and then all these miracles happen, and it’s not like that. So the meaning of the mantra is to remind us of the five paths. And it’s interesting this is one of the few mantras that shows up in a sūtra teaching.

Sometimes vajrayana is called secret mantrayana, right? And so the use of mantras is very common in the vajrayana. And this is one of the few I can only think of a couple of sūtra teachings that also include mantras, and this is one of the few ones, but it mostly reminds us of the path. Okay, yeah, Ben. Can you just repeat what the you said that it’s not just a literal mantra, but the definition of what a mantra is.

Yeah, for the mind, that which protects the mind. That’s what mantra means, protection for the mind. So the real protection is that realization. The real thing that protects the mind isn’t a bunch of words in Sanskrit. It’s that realization in our mind, that direct realization of emptiness.

Now we’re at the mantra. Tayatha means It is thus or Here’s the way it is. Tayatha here’s the way it is. Gate means go. And this first go refers to the path of accumulation.

The first Gate refers to the path of accumulation. Get going on the path of accumulation. And then the second gate refers to the path of preparation. Get going on the path of preparation. Pāragate means go beyond and that refers to the path of seeing.

It’s kind of interesting. They go from Gate Gate which refers to what we call the mundane path, the path where you’re not an ārya yet, to paragate, the path of seeing. Go beyond. And then parasamgate, go completely beyond. Okay?

Pārasamgate, go completely beyond. And that refers to the path of meditation. Then bodhi, awake. Path of no more learning, awake. Buddhahood, that refers to the result.

Bodhi, awake. And sometimes you’ll read in scriptures bodhi being used as sort of a synonym of Buddhahood. You know, when we attain the result of bodhi, they’ll say, meaning Buddhahood, so it’s a synonym. Svāhā SO BE IT or May this be realized. So it is thus: Get going on the path of accumulation.

Keep going on the path of preparation. Go beyond during the path of seeing. Go completely beyond during the path of meditation to enlightenment. May that be realized. So that’s what the mantra means.

Okay? Yes. Microphone. See, this is why I really wanted to take your class because I didn’t know any of this before. And it was just confusing and actually honestly kind of a little boring to read the Heart Sūtra.

But now that it I know everybody said but now that I know it’s so beautiful Because not only is the whole Buddhist path condensed into, like, a page and a half that we can recite, but that whole page and a half is condensed into a a little mantra. Yeah. That is so beautiful. Yeah. Love it.

I’m so glad. Yeah. Me too. It’s cool, isn’t it? Isn’t it great?

You’re never going to read the Heart Sūtra ever the same again. And we’re going to read it at the end before we dedicate really slowly and pause. After every paragraph, it will be like a review meditation of the whole class. And just feel how different it’s going to feel when we read it like that. I think Geshe la referred to this mantra as the instructions for those people who are very skillful and very wise.

So this is like the smallest condensation of all the instructions of the path is in this one little mantra. Yeah, perfect. Because if you really know it well, like the back of your hand, all you need to do is hear the mantra and you review the whole five paths thing. All you do is hear the mantra and all of this runs through your mind. You’re like, Oh yeah, right, the path of accumulation.

This is what’s happening there. The path of preparation, That’s what’s happening there. Yeah. Yeah. But it’s cool.

It’s yeah. It’s very, very cool the way that works. But don’t you think that there’s not one person But here? Oh, microphone. She’s heard me enough.

Don’t you think that everybody here at some point in one of their previous lives has just that mantra. They’ve heard that. There’s no way we would talk. Really? Absolutely.

Absolutely. There’s no way. I remember once Ripa Rinpoche, one of my teachers, I remember one time we were at Lama Zopa Rinpoche wanted us to do some puja for the water system at Vajrapāni, and it was like nineteen ninety three. Alan Wallace was teaching a course that weekend, and we had to do this puja with Riba Rinpoche on Sunday morning at the last minute at nine thirty in the morning. It was way before the days of email.

We had to just call people Saturday night you know how many people we got at home to see because Lama Zopa said as many people come to this puja as possible be really good. We only had about fifteen people because everybody else was in the course or we couldn’t get them on the phone. And I remember, so this motley crew kind of stumbles into the Chenrezig gompa at vajrapani to do this puja. And Ripa Rinpoche, before the puja, he just he stopped and looked around the room and he goes, It might seem really random who’s here right now, but he goes, We created specific causes in past lives to be in this room doing this one Pooja together right now. We’re all like, We did?

And I think of that like my Dharma friends that I’m in classes with year after year after year and practicing and group retreats and all that stuff, man, no way that we weren’t and to be in this room together for this weekend, absolutely no way it could have happened by accident, random. It was created by karma. So yeah, for sure. For sure. You know, definitely.

I’ll never forget when Ripa Rinpoche said that, and we’re all like, You know, it’s like, oh, no. It was just like, who’s home on Saturday night? Like, we’re the losers. Funny. All us losers that did something really good in some mass life together.

Yeah. But for sure, definitely. Yeah. We have some connection, you know, because otherwise, why would we be here So the mantra that’s supposed to remind us of the path. Okay, now that you’ve gotten the explanation of the path.

Yeah. OM which we’ve been omitting. You know, I never ever have heard Tibetan Lama put the OM in there and in the commentaries they don’t have an explanation of the OM. So don’t put that in there. I just yeah, I’ve never I mean maybe it’s an alternative, it’s in brackets, And in the commentaries that I’ve studied, they don’t explain the Om.

Yeah. This is pure speculation, but it might I wonder if it’s, like, an abbreviation for it is this, like, because I’ve never heard TArya Tārā om. And the om. Oh, they do? Yeah.

Oh, okay. Yeah. So much for that. In the brackets. Yeah.

But I think the first time I ever heard the perfection the mantra, they never said teyata. They said, Om Gate Gate Pāragate. Oh, really? Okay. Because I’ve only ever heard Tayatha Gate Gate Pāragate.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe it is. Yeah.

And maybe the Om’s an alternative. Yeah. I don’t know. Then Avalokiteśvara is wrapping up his instruction to Śāriputra, and he says, Shariputratra, the bodhisattva maLhasattva should train in the profound perfection of wisdom like that. So bodhisattva Mahāsattva we already talked about what that meant.

It means those beings who are working for their own benefit and the benefit of others. Remember we said bodhisattva means own benefit, Mahāsattva means benefit of others. So those bodhisattva, maLhasattvas should train in the profound perfection of wisdom just the way that I’ve explained, meaning they should practice the path perfection of wisdom to get the resultant perfection of wisdom, just like I explained in the scriptural perfection of wisdom. So he just gave us all the instructions about how to practice the path perfection of wisdom, keep practicing that direct realization of emptiness to get to the resultant perfection of wisdom that we just got to. Then the Bhagavan arose from that concentration and commended the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Ārya Avalokiteśvara.

Wait a minute. He’s supposed to be meditating on emptiness, right? So he gets out and commends Avalokiteśvara proving he’s a Buddha because if he wasn’t a Buddha he wouldn’t have heard what was happening while he’s sitting in the corner. So he’s busting himself here. If he was really absorbed in the concentration on the aspects of the profound without being a Buddha he couldn’t have heard the conversation, so he comes out of his pretend meditation and he says to the bodhisattva, Mahāsattva, Ārya, Avalokiteśvara, well said, well said.

Son of the lineage, it is like that. It is like that. One should practice the profound perfection of wisdom just as you have indicated. Even the Tathagatas rejoice. So he says, Well said, well said.

And in the Tibetan there’s three well saids. One is translated here as the commending the bodhisattva. So he’s saying well said three times. It was considered a real grammatical error to repeat something, to be redundant. So each of these three well saids means something different.

So he says, well said. He commends him. That’s one well said saying, well said, well said. He’s not just stuttering. The Buddha isn’t just being redundant.

They all mean something. So the first well said means you taught it well. It means you taught it well. And we’ve just gone into the realm of the other two kind of sutras with this one line. So remember we said there’s three kind of sutras: speech spoken directly by the Buddha.

This is the first time he’s said anything. So now we’ve got that first kind of sūtra. And then we said, There are sutras that are words spoken with the approval of the Buddha. It’s the second kind, too, because he’s saying, Well said. You said it right.

The second well said means, I’m pleased that you spoke like that. So we’ve just gone from the third kind of sūtra, which is that blessed emanation sūtra speech blessed or inspired by the Buddha. The whole thing up until now has been that third kind. Now suddenly we’ve jumped in. We’ve added the first two kinds of sutras: speech directly spoken by the Buddha and speech spoken by the permission or approval of the Buddha.

So now the Buddha’s approving of it, so everything now becomes both inspired speech and speech that was given the Buddha’s approval to be called Sūtra. So now Ānanda knows so that when they all gather together, he can say what happened. He’s been given permission because the Buddha said, Well said, well said. The first one means you said it right, exactly like that. The second one means I’m pleased at what you said.

I approve of what you said, and it pleased me. Then the third well said means because remember there’s all those other monks and bodhisattvas hanging out Hey guys, you can pay attention to this. This was good instruction, so you pay attention. So the commentaries say all of these three well saids mean something slightly different because otherwise it would be a mistake in grammar. Interesting, isn’t it?

We wouldn’t have known that. We would have thought, how come? Well said, well said. And then also says, It is like that twice. So the first one means you’ve taught the Dharma the way it’s supposed to be.

That’s a correct teaching. So again he’s giving his seal of approval to that teaching. Then the second one again is addressed to the audience saying He’s right. You can trust that. You can follow the instructions that he gave in this Heart Sūtra.

You can follow that teaching. Then he says, Even the Tathagatas rejoice. Tathāgata is another word for the Buddha. He’s saying, Wait a minute. He’s the Buddha.

He’s already approved of it. He’s happy. Who else is going to be happy? He says, All of the other Buddhas are going to be happy too. Not only is it going to please me, but any other Buddha that ever existed, all those Buddhas of the three times, they’re going to be happy about it too.

So he’s saying all of the other Buddhas rejoice. The Bhagavan having thus spoken means that the Buddha is giving his permission and that means that we can call this a sūtra because the Buddha gave his permission. So the last part, the Buddha having thus spoken, the Venerable Śāriputra, the Bodhisattva, MaLhasattva, Ārya Avalokiteśvara, those surrounding in their entirety, along with the world of gods, humans, asuras, and Gandharvas, We’re overjoyed and highly praise that spoken by the Bhagavan. So the Bhagavan having thus spoken means he’s given his approval. We can call it a sūtra now.

Then everybody’s like, woo hoo, that was great. And wait a minute, there’s all these before we said there’s just monks and bodhisattvas, and now there’s humans, Gandharvas, gods, asuras. So that means anytime the dharma is being spoken, there’s beings from all of these other realms they’re listening to it too. And I mentioned that biography of that Thai forest master, Acharya Mun, and he was saying, Oh, at midnight I teach the devas. They come.

There are beings of other realms that have the ability to benefit from the teachings of the Dharma, so they say that whenever there is a Dharma teaching, there’s all of these other beings come along to listen to. Now remember my teacher, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, when he would teach, he would teach, and then he taught in Tibetan, and then the translator would be translating. And he’d be kind of sitting on his throne. He was always like so blissed out. Know?

He’d just be sitting there like and then all of a sudden, he’d just kind of go kind of like a cat. You know how cats do that sometimes? They’re all and and we’d be like, who’s up there? You know? And I’m sure that, like, the Gandharvas showed up, you know, and he’s all he would, like, look up in the ceiling.

You know? So that’s supposedly the way it works. I’m sure that he saw him. So everybody else is there too. And then they commended they were overjoyed because it was such a perfect teaching and they highly praised that spoken by the Bhagavan.

Wait a minute. What do they mean spoken by the Bhagavan? Hint number three about what’s going on, right? So this shows again the whole thing was that blessed speech. Because otherwise, what are they so excited that he would say, It’s well said?

No. You know, the whole thing was spoken by the Buddha, so another hint that it’s that kind of blessed speech. So I want to read it again before we dedicate the merit, but we’ve got some time for some other questions, if we’ve got some last questions, comments. It’s right here in front of So let me just ask, what does pronoid mean? It’s the opposite of paranoia.

I know that, but how did you parse that? You know, there’s a website called pronoia dot org or something, only their definition is a little bit different. Their definition is realizing that everybody’s conspiring to make you happy, and I take it one step farther, you know, thinking that everyone’s conspiring to get you enlightened. So I’ve taken it it’s not just about samsaric happiness, it’s actually realizing. But I remember, and I can’t remember, it was eons ago, I don’t even know if that website still exists, but it was this website all about you know, it had a link to the rainbow gathering.

It probably has a link to Burning Man now. You know, links to all of these all of these things. Yeah. Pro noia. Pro noia dot org.

Where’s the link? Yeah. We should make bumper stickers. I’m pronoid. How about you or something like that?

I actually have a request. I wonder if you have time to explain Om Mani Padme Hum. I think that is kind of a long explanation, and I think we don’t really have time because I want to just kind of focus on the Heart Sūtra right now because there is a couple of different ways to explain the meaning of Om Mani Padme Hum, and to really do it justice would take quite a bit of time because there’s several different interpretations of the meaning of it. So next time. Okay.

Yeah. Rebecca. You had mentioned, I think, and just this is a detail well, that Avalokiteśvara is an arhat, not a bodhisattva? No. Okay.

I’m glad I’m asking. Yeah. In the vajrayana, consider him a Buddha. In the Sūtra, we consider him a tenth level bodhisattva. So it’s the difference between being a Buddha and being a tenth level bodhisattva.

In this Sūtra? In this Sūtra, because it’s Sūtra and not tantra. So in the tantra, we see the Bodhisattva of compassion as an actual fully enlightened being, and here because it’s a sūtra context, which is why I said in the beginning he’s meditating on emptiness intellectually because he’s getting ready to speak. Now, if it were a vajrayana teaching, no problem with that because we’re seeing him as a Buddha. But we have to see him as a bodhisattva here because it’s a sūtra level teaching.

So he’s meditating on emptiness intellectually because he’s just getting ready to talk. Thank you. Is there someone who’s in Haraja? I might have misunderstood what you said. Is there someone Śāriputra?

It Śāriputra? Yeah. Okay. That’s I And that’s what the monks are in this one. The great assembly of monks are all Harhats that aren’t bodhisattvas.

So the reason that we have these two assemblies is just showing the difference. So Śāriputra is this great arhat foremost in wisdom that has to ask this really basic question of the bodhisattva: How do you practice? Thank you. I just misheard you yesterday. Thank you.

And there’s this great story about how Shariputratra lost his Bodhicitta in some past life. He used to be a great bodhisattva, And this is a story to exemplify. So he’s a great bodhisattva. He actually had the ability to give parts of his body away. And so some yakṣa, this kind of demonic being, masqueraded as a human and came to test Shariputratra, and he asked him for his right hand.

I need a hand. Happen to have one? I heard you’re a great bodhisattva. How about it? So Shariputratra, without hesitating, chopped off his right hand and handed it to the yakṣa masquerading as a Brahmin or something.

Well, in India, you don’t hand anything to anybody with your left hand. Really, no, no, because that’s used for poo poo. So you don’t ever hand anything to anybody in India. It’s seen as the most extreme insult to touch anybody with your left hand, to hand anything. But hey, Shariputu just chopped his right hand off.

He needed to hand it to him with something. So he hands him his right hand, and then the Yaksha, masquerading as a human, goes, Oh, that’s disgusting. How dare you? And he just flings the hand to the ground and goes stalking off. And in that moment, past life, Śāriputra goes, I’ve had it with these sentient beings.

You cut off your right hand and it’s still not enough. So he gave up his Bodhicitta. He just got completely fed up in that moment. So that’s the story about how Shariputratra in a past life was a great bodhisattva. And this is sort of this morality tale, because one of the bodhisattva vows that we have is never give up your Bodhicitta no matter how anybody treats you.

Just forget about it. You try and help them and they’re not grateful and just forget about it. So that’s the story about Shariputratra. So in this context he seemed to be an arhat. Did you have something, Anna?

No. I did. Oh, yeah. On the path of meditation, getting back to this, trying to get my mind around it, Is this one constant meditation? No.

No. No. No. No. So what are you doing in between?

Benefiting beings. So you and then you go back and you’re in your hut and you’re quiet and it’s all, and then you do the next. Yeah, so you’re just doing whatever’s most beneficial at that moment. You might be in long retreat if that’s the most beneficial thing. You could be zipping around the globe teaching students if that’s the right thing.

You could be working in a soup kitchen, whatever it is. But yeah, it’s not one long continuous meditation. You just keep going into that direct perception of emptiness over and over and over again. You come out. Like I said, everything looks the way it always did, but you know it’s not like that.

You know? So it’s just keep going in and coming It sounded like you said that that person, that yogi or yogini how would you describe it? I guess you’d say ayabodhisattva that they’re not aware of these shifts? They are. They’ve got to be, no?

Yeah. Oh, okay. No, no, no. What I’m saying is when you shift to the next path, the moment that you shift, you’re in deep meditation. So you’re not aware of it then because the only thing that you’re perceiving then is emptiness.

And then you come out and you’ve just shifted from the path of seeing to the path of meditation, for example. So all of those shifts and the shifts between the Bodhisattva grounds happen in deep meditation also. All of those shifts between paths and between grounds all happen. So when you’re in the meditation, all that’s appearing is emptiness and you’re not aware that you’ve just now you’re suddenly at the next level until you come out. Until you come out.

Then you’re aware. Kind of describe what you think that might be like to be aware of, Oh, I just shifted. In fact, I want to run right back into meditation and keep going. Why would you want to go get on a plane? Yeah, right.

Only to benefit beings and to increase your virtue because you’re still really still working on the accumulation of wisdom and merit at that point. You know, so you’re still doing those. And you’re perfecting those six or those ten perfections. Right? You’ve perfected.

You’re the perfect, generous person. And it doesn’t mean that that means that all the beggars in the world are fed. It just means that personally you’ve perfected your generosity so you’re able to provide without any holding back. So you’d be doing that. You’d be doing all those things when you’re out of meditation.

And in fact, these things actually couldn’t happen only in meditation, can we? No. Because I mean, where would you be practicing patience? Right. Right.

If not for other humans? Yeah. Or dogs? Right. Fleas.

Fleas. Gina. Are there any books you’d recommend to further explore karma or what some of your favorites would be? Yeah, there’s boy, there’s a great book by Geshe Tashi Sering called The Four Noble Truths that’s got a lot about karma in it. There’s a huge book by Geshe Sopa.

Geshe Sopa from Wisconsin has been teaching the Lam Rim for like thirty five years or something, and they’re transcribing transcribing all his teachings, and there’s a fat volume all about karma. Sorry. Which Geshe Sopa? S o p S o p a? S it’s published by Snow Lion, I believe.

It might be in is it in the bookstore? No. We can order it. Okay. I just I just requested it to be ordered for myself.

Okay. Order it for whoever wants. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

So those either the guy we’re already ordering more of the Gesheitashi for when he comes. So Does he have a karma one or the just the Four Noble Truths one? Okay, because he doesn’t have a karma one. And then also if you’ve got the Lamrim Chenmo, Lama Tsongkhapa is the three volume set in the first volume. There’s a lot of detail about karma in that first volume, too.

There’s a great teaching on the twelve links by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, called The Meaning of Life. Like you’d never figure that’s about the twelve links. And also in the last part of I believe it’s the first volume of the Lamrim Chenmo is a good twelve links section, too. So that would be more on the twelve links there. Did everybody get those books?

Was I going too fast? Gesitashi’s T S E R I N G. Yeah. When you mentioned that you meditate on emptiness, meditating actually sitting on. Yeah.

But when you meditate on the other perfections, can you make the leap in terms of, let’s say, giving and not acknowledging that you are not the giver, you’re not the gift. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you’re doing that intellectually. Intellectually, you’re reminding yourself. So it’s more of contemplating when you’re in the act of giving.

You’re contemplating what they call the emptiness of the three spheres that the giver, the actual process of giving and the recipient are all empty of inherent existence. So yeah, exactly. Would that be meditation on emptiness or We call that contemplation. We wouldn’t really call it meditation so much. Remember I said meditation only really happens after the path of accumulation is finished, the path of accumulation, because before that, anything we do, we’re calling it contemplation.

And only when we have perfect single pointed concentration do we even call it meditation. So the kind of things that we do when we’re in the act of doing it, we’d probably call that contemplating emptiness of the three spheres while we’re practicing the perfections, which is also great, really important to do that. Good. I’m glad you brought that up. Great.

Yeah. One more question, then we’ll oh, no. We’ve got time. We’re all right. I’m so used to being late.

I can’t get used to that we actually have some time. Please, can you tell me the difference between tantra, mantra, and sūtra? Okay. So sometimes Oh, you mean the meaning of the words? The actual meaning of the words?

The word tantra actually means continuum, continuum. Then mantra means, as we said, protection of the mind. And then sūtra, we usually translate that as discourses. But in general, we talk about secret mantra which is synonymous with tantra, which is synonymous with vajrayana. Those are three phrases that we use for certain techniques that we use.

So Tantra, vajrayana, and Secret Mantra often are used synonymously. Tantra literally just means continuum, but it refers to those techniques that we use, special techniques. Yeah. Okay. Got two more questions.

Hang on. Hang on. Hold on. He spoke some yesterday. You were talking about the three turning of the wheels.

Yeah. And you talked about the third turning of the wheel. He was stepping back a little and saying, wait a minute. Yeah. So I was trying to look it up.

How it was the third turning of the wheel, and some I I saw someplace Buddha Nature, and you had said something about three natures. Right. Right. There are two kinds of sutras that were considered to be the third turning of the wheel. One, the main sūtra that’s usually studied to explain something called the three natures is called the Sūtra Unraveling the Thought of the Buddha.

And then there was another group of sutras that was included in the Third Turning of the Wheel, which are the sutras on Buddha nature. For example, the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra is an example of that. So the Third Turning of the Wheel includes two groups of teachings, one on something called the three natures, which doesn’t mean Buddha nature. Okay? It’s the u the word three natures is used, but it’s not Buddha nature.

And then Buddha nature would be the other main subject Okay. Of that third turning of the wheel. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. What do you mean by contra? Yeah. When you explain contra, what does it mean by contra?

It usually refers to mental continuum. Okay. A mental continuum meaning kind of a string. And a string is another way that tantra is sometimes translated as just a continuum meaning it just goes on like from moment to moment to moment. The mental continuum kind of continues on through time, changing moment to moment.

So that’s what it mostly refers to. But that’s a long story. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Why don’t we get up and stretch?

And if anybody needs a pee pee break real quick, we won’t take a whole long break, but maybe five minutes or so if you need to get up and stretch. And then what I want to do is come back and read the Heart Sūtra slowly, stopping to contemplate, and then we’ll dedicate the merit. So maybe just like seven minutes or something. If anyone would like to order any four books that we’ve been talking about, Oh, great. Great.

You’ve got that. Or I could just do the whole thing. Okay. Yeah. And then it’s right.

That’s not right. And then that’s about the donkey thing. So if you have connections in Dharmasala, let them know about that I don’t. Project. Oh, okay.

I thought maybe with your research No. I’m doing my research. From here. Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah. That’s to show it was a whole litter of puppies that was getting rabies shots, and then they were putting a red stripes so they could tell which ones already got their shots because they all look the same. Isn’t that cute? Isn’t that looking?

Isn’t that great? Yeah. And then that was this paralyzed dog that we built a wheelchair for. Yeah. Yeah.

And then those are the donkeys and you can see their knee injuries. They bring this to our office. Oh great, perfect. And then this is the card of the lady who’s doing that. Her email is here, but that’s her card.

Started a nonprofit so that, you know, we can raise money in the States for the donkeys and the dogs. That’s great. Okay. So what I wanted to do now is a review meditation. So what we’ll do now when we go through the Heart Sūtra is we’ll pause after each, just to make it easy after each paragraph.

And we’ll just pause and just review what you’ve learned this weekend. Know, go over the meaning in your mind again, just review what the meaning of it is. The more we imprint what the meaning is when we recite it, then every time you recite it, it’s going to be an actual meditation on emptiness, meditation on the five paths every time that you recite it. Okay? So we’re going to start again with the title because it’s always auspicious to say the title both in English and in Sanskrit.

Page seventy seven, The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra, Ārya Bhagavati Prajñāpāramitā Hridaya Sūtra. I prostrate to the Ārya triple gem. Thus did I hear at one time, the Bhagavan was dwelling on massive vultures mountain in Rajagriya, together with a great community of monks and a great community of bodhisattvas. At that time, the Bhagavan was absorbed in the concentration on the categories of phenomena called profound perception. So stop after this paragraph and then just review the meaning of that first section.

Also, at that time, the bodhisattva, maLhasattva, ārya, Avalokiteśvara looked upon the very practice of the profound perfection of wisdom and beheld those five aggregates also as empty of inherent nature. Then through the power of Buddha, the venerable Shariputratra said this to the bodhisattva, MaLhasattva, Ārya, Avalokiteśvara, how should any son of the lineage train who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom? He said that, and the bodhisattva, maLhasattva, Ārya, Avalokiteśvara said this to the Venerable Śāriputra. Shariputratra, any son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage who wishes to practice the activity of the profound perfection of wisdom should look upon it like this, correctly and repeatedly beholding those five aggregates also as empty of inherent nature. Form is empty.

Emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form. Form is also not other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, discrimination, compositional factors, and consciousness are empty. Shariputratra.

Likewise, all phenomena are emptiness without characteristic, unproduced, unceased, stainless, not without stain, not deficient, not fulfilled. Śāriputra, therefore, in emptiness, there is no form, no feeling, no discrimination, no compositional factors, no consciousness, no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no visual form, no sound, no odor, no taste, no object of touch, and no phenomenon. There is no eye element and so on, up to including no mind element and no mental consciousness element. There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so on, up to and including no aging and death, and no extinction of aging and death. Similarly, there is no suffering, origination, cessation, and path.

There is no exalted wisdom, no attainment, and also no nonattainment. Shariputra, therefore, because there is no attainment, Bodhisattvas rely on and dwell in the perfection of wisdom, the mind without obscuration and without fear. Having completely passed beyond error, they reach the endpoint of nirvana. All the Buddhas who dwell in the three times also manifestly, completely awaken to unsurpassable, perfect, complete enlightenment on reliance on the perfection of wisdom. Therefore, the mantra of the perfection of wisdom, the mantra of great knowledge, the unsurpassed mantra, the mantra equal to the unequaled, the mantra that thoroughly pacifies all suffering should be known as truth since it is not false.

The mantra of the perfection of wisdom is declared. Śāriputra, the bodhisattva, Mahāsattva should train in the profound perfection of wisdom like that. Then the Bhagavan arose from that concentration and commended the Bodhisattva, Mahāsattva, Ārya, Avalokiteśvara, saying, well said, well said, son of the lineage. It is like that. It is like that.

Once you practice the profound perfection of wisdom, just as you have indicated, even the Tathagatas rejoice. The Bhagavan, having thus spoken, the Venerable Śāriputra, the Bodhisattva, MaLhasattva, Ārya, Avalokiteśvara, those surrounding in their entirety, along with the world of gods, humans, asuras, and Gandharvas, were overjoyed and highly praise that spoken by the Bhagavan. And now we’re gonna dedicate the merit with the prayers on page two hundred forty six. Master Śāntideva’s Bodhicharyavatara, Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. So before we recite the prayers, take just a minute to think of your own special dedications.

It may be that you’ve got some dedications that you’d like to make. Just reflect all the energy of our time together this weekend, all this incredible virtue to going towards your personal goals and especially our enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. So take just a minute to reflect. May all beings everywhere play by sufferings of body and mind, obtain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits. May no living creature suffer, commit evil, or ever fall ill.

May no one be afraid or belittled with a mind weighed down by depression. May the blind see forms and the deaf hear sounds. May those whose bodies are worn with toil be restored on finding repose. May the naked find clothing, the hungry find food. May the thirsty find water and delicious drinks.

May the poor find wealth, those weak with sorrow find joy. May the forlorn find hope, constant happiness, and prosperity. May there be timely rains and bountiful harvests. May all medicines be effective and wholesome prayers bear fruit. May all who are sick and ill quickly be freed from their ailments.

Whatever diseases there are in the world, may they never occur again. May the frightened cease to be afraid, and those bound be freed. May the powerless find power, and may people think of benefiting each other. For as long as space remains, for as long as sentient beings remain, until then, may I too remain to dispel the miseries of the world. Page ninety one in your Oh, I did mine first.

I won’t. I can’t lead into it. Thank you. So I wanted to, of course, before everyone people can make personal offerings or, you know, come up. We have some loaner katas out in the lobby.

There’s a little box of them. People would like to borrow one of and to then right to the requesting. Right now, we do have some dates set up with her for April and June. Oh, okay. Well, I would love to do one of those.

We have to alter it for a city center and a nonresidential center, but to try to do a karma and dependent arising course would be great. So maybe when Geshe was not here, like, late before you go back to New Zealand next year. Okay. We’ll talk about that. Okay.

Thank you. And I will download and listen to all of those. Thank you. And I just want to thank everybody, NZ, Elaine, Shuky, and Michelle who worked for They’re sleeping right now. And all the volunteers that helped because of course with the recession, you know, they had to lay a lot of staff off and the gap has been amply filled by all these wonderful volunteers.

All of these people. All these you know, everybody, Janet and Gina and Karen, everybody, Marcella, all the volunteers, Carla. So I just want to thank everybody for keeping the center running because it’s just so important to provide the teachings and, you know, often in these challenging times, we don’t have the means that we would like something so much for all that you’re doing for everybody at this company. Oh, thank you. It is an honor.

Thank you. What else would we be doing? Right? No. It’s just It keeps us out of trouble.

When when I come in at Great. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. You.

So welcome. And make sure you get my email so you can we’ve got my email. Oh, yeah. Peppermint. Yeah.

Peppermint. Oh, appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Gina. Oh, that’s it.

Thank you.