Классика Алмазного огранщика: Верхний Срединный путь — Великие книги мудрости, занятие 7

[Geshe Michael Roach]
All right, here we go. Put your seatbelts on. So, we've hit a verse of the root text of Nagarjuna, okay?

This is maybe the first full verse, right?

[Student]
No, second.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Second, so you want to number them eventually. I don't usually number the single line of [?], or if there is one, I don't remember.

[Student]
I'll check, I'll go back and check.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
I mean, it's traditional to start numbering the verses with the four line things, okay? So, do you want to just... do you want to gloss the verse for us in Tibetan?

Okay. And, because it's a long discussion coming after it, and very difficult, so it'd be nice to have it fresh in our mind. Go for it.

[Student]
Do I read it?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, explain each Tibetan word.

[Student]
Okay. Those whose, lo, is minds. Yeah.

And, yirme, I believe here, is the idea that things could exist or not.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Good, yeah.

[Student]
Uh-huh. Nampardeshi mi nepa.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Ne, ne.

[Student]
Sorry. Nampardeshi mi nepa.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Nepa.

[Student]
Nepa. Means gone beyond.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
And?

[Student]
No longer dwell.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Now, later it's going to be important for some reason. They've gone beyond.

[Student]
And no longer dwell.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
And they no longer dwell, in this idea that...

[Student]
That... Things could... Exist or not exist.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, good.

[Student]
Okay, got it? De la kyi ni khen gyi tun.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
So, what's helpful is, give, give and, gloss the subject, and then go find the verb for your, for your student.

[Student]
Okay.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
In the third line, where who's the subject?

[Student]
Those guys.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, those guys, because there's the key. By, by, by John to the store was gone.

[Student]
Uh-huh.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
In Tibetan, okay? Instrumental.

[Student]
By those guys, the ones who have gone beyond and no longer stay in the idea that there's a good start or stop. Have, they don't... They, yeah, sorry, they've realized...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Good.

[Student]
Uh, and khen kyi dun is a phrase, which we...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
We knew it was a phrase.

[Student]
Yeah, but...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Just kidding. They have perceived that... They've perceived that...

[Student]
That the dun of khen... The essence of a cause...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Not ngo-wo, dun.

[Student]
Yeah, the meaning of a cause.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, the meaning of a cause.

[Student]
Is the profound truth to be realized.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Is the profound lack of anything to see.

[Student]
The profound, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Okay, which is to say, which is to say, what's it mean? What's this mean? They've understood that...

Khen here is a code word for something else.

[Student]
Yeah, um...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Think [?] text.

[Student]
Yeah, dependence.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, dependent origination, okay? Khen here, uh, factor, is a code word by Nagarjuna for dependence. The twelve, the twelve links of dependence, okay?

And, and the point is, that these guys whose minds are super cool, gone beyond exists or non-exists, they understand that the guts of dependent origination is... Say it in plain words. Emptiness.

Okay, the real meaning of dependent origination is emptiness. That's a radical statement.

[Student]
And it kind of comes back to the discussion we were having last time.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Exactly, yeah.

[Student]
Or say, dependent origination is emptiness, or...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, it's an overstatement. Because emptiness is an absence of something, and dependent origination is the opposite. We call it the...

I like to teach it this way in ACI. This is emptiness, because it's... And then this is dependent origination.

So they go together, but they're not the same thing. But, but Nagarjuna being Nagarjuna, he's funny. He's brilliant and he's funny.

I like, I love this combination, you know? He's brilliant and he's funny, and he says weird stuff. He says, yeah, these guys have figured out that dependence is emptiness.

Which is too much, he went too far. But he just wants to stir up people. Like somebody else.

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha. Like the Buddha in the Heart Sutra. Nothing exists.

Okay, he's doing the same thing here. Okay? But it's, it's almost...

So I don't know... Essence is a good word here.

[Student]
I'd like to take a meeting, but maybe I could play with it.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Okay, so you now own the Master.

[Student]
Okay, yeah, I do.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
That sounds good to me. Well, I got a lot of notes here, so...

[Student]
I think I have the version with your notes.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Okay, so don't forget. But I've been changing them every half hour. So anyway, I'll give you my version at the end of today, and you update your version.

[Student]
Okay. Thank you, Geshe La.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah. In the dropbox, yeah. But I, like this morning I couldn't sleep.

I got up at four, because this thing's bothering me. You know? And I changed some things.

[Student]
Oh, so there's a bunch of stuff you have now that I don't. Okay. Should I read this in Tibetan?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, please.

[Student]
,GANG PA CHE DANG GZUN GYI THOB CHE DANG, ,CHE DANG GNYIS KYI THOB BYA BRTEN TO, BRTEN TO You got to get your Ts down, okay?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Don't aspirate those Ts. BRTEN TO means I pulled the THUB PA. BRTEN TO means I taught it.

The Rinpoche would really jump on people. Do you want to give a lecture about the idiom DANGS CHE DANG X?

[Student]
Yeah. So, like in English, sometimes we say quarter four or something like that, when we want to say three forty-five. In Tibetan it says CHE DANG GZUN, so it just means half three or two and a half.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Got it? So, it's an idiom. In Tibetan, when you want to say two and a half, you say half and three, meaning one more half and you got three.

[Student]
Got it? It comes again, last verse and a half. The English do that too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Half three or three. Yeah. So, what's GANG PA mean here?

[Student]
Verse.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Line.

[Student]
Line of verse. Okay, BADA.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
BADA.

[Student]
Actually, yeah, that's a mistake.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
The Sanskrit is BADA. And all A's change to E's in English. All Sanskrit A's change to E in English.

So, pedestrian, pedal, to walk.

[Student]
Feet.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, feet, yeah. Feet also comes from that, because P's change to F, and A's change to E, and D's change to D, T. Okay, so anyway.

[Student]
This is the part of my text that I was working on when Eva was visiting and I showed her, and she's like, no, that doesn't mean two and a half, it's three and a half. And I was like, no, it's two and a half.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
I got to tell her, so I was worried. Oh, it's fun to prove Eva wrong on something.

[Student]
It was really exciting. Yeah, I can't imagine that will ever happen again.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
So, who's got the master? You got the master? I don't have to change?

[Student]
No, I just changed it from... Okay, you own the master. Okay.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
This friend of ours is the Austrian Airlines supervisor. And I got on the plane, and her name is Angelica. And she was waiting at the door of the plane when I flew to Vienna or something.

And she found out my schedule and she got herself assigned to that flight. And she said, I got a special seat for you. And I said, oh, I'm in first class?

She said, no, you're with the pilot. And she put me in the jump seat, which is between the two pilots, which is totally illegal everywhere. And it was cool because the last thing, before they go like this, the co-pilot goes to the pilot and he says, you have the plane.

And the pilot says, I have the plane. Because apparently one day they both thought the other guy had the plane. So, you have the master.

You have the master. Okay, you have the master copy. I have the master copy.

[Student]
Okay, here we go.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Okay, neither one had the plane.

[Student]
So, okay, I'm sorry. Do you want to finish that line or should, okay. Oh, yeah, let's go back to the verse.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Now, explain. Explain. I'm going to help you out by consolidating the verse just for a few minutes in one place.

Now, I'm sorry. Now, tell us what he's talking about.

[Student]
So, he's talking about the verse and the first two and a half lines tell us who it is.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
In the Tibetan. By the way, I would always put in the braces in the Tibetan because it's not true of the Sanskrit and it's not true of the English.

[Student]
Oh.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
You see what I mean?

[Student]
Uh-huh. So, the first two and a half lines of the Tibetan.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah. Yeah.

[Student]
In square brackets. Yeah. Oh, thank you.

I didn't think about that.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
That's just something you do when you're in translator.

[Student]
Yeah.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Or you change the number.

[Student]
Right, right.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
And then you drive the hypertechnical [?] crazy. They think I finally found an error in Geshe La's translation. I mean, not that that's that important.

Okay. Okay.

[Student]
Okay, so those whose minds have gone beyond the idea that things could exist or not and who no longer dwell there. That's the one who is doing the realizing.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Understand, I would say.

[Student]
Who is doing the understanding.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Down to understand.

[Student]
Oh, yeah, right. No longer dwell.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah. So, the point is that Gyaltsab Je wants to split the verse into the what is perceived and who perceives it. So, those lines in English, which is three lines in one word.

[Student]
Oh, because the word...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
You see, yeah. It's the realizer. And then the rest is the...

[Student]
The essence of the cause is the profound truth that there is nothing at all to see. That's what's realized.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, that's what they figured out. Got it? That's all he's saying.

[Student]
The cause means dependent?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, the word cause here is shorthand for dependent origination. He could have said, ten ching del war chung wa, but he only had room for gyu, because it's poetry. And he's Nagarjuna.

He wants to cause trouble. Yeah. Yeah, he used the word cause for cause and effect in dependence.

Okay. Okay, so actually he used the word cause for causation. Okay, here we go.

[Student]
Oh yeah, and I agree with your changes you made in the note here, of what it is we realize.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Oh, there's lots of stuff here.

[Student]
I know.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, okay. So now I'm going to just take over the plane. de la tsen dir tongpa nyi la gompa lap chen me kyang So, don't forget that this text is talking about lower schools understanding emptiness.

Okay? So he says, de la tsen dir... Notice the prenasal.

tsen dir. In this life, they did not engage in... lap chen means very powerful or effective.

It means big wave, and don't ever translate it that way. This is tricky. Somebody tell me about it.

The spelling. It's not gom. It's kom.

It can mean step without the S, I think. Yeah, yeah, okay? Yeah, it doesn't mean meditation.

That would have been B-S-G-O-M-S. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, okay?

Who haven't got themselves used to this idea? It does not mean meditate here. It's not spelled that way.

Meditation is derived from a root that means to get used to. Kom. Like gom lam.

Path of habituation. Yeah, okay? So, they haven't got themselves used to emptiness thinking in a very powerful way in this life.

What's the maingak?

[Student]
That they did it in past lives.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Good, okay? We call maingak means inferred, implied something else. When you say in this life they didn't do some powerful getting used to the idea of emptiness, it means they did in their past life, okay?

It's the implication, isn't it? But, ngun depe gyewor, ngun and depa are a positive. In past lives, meaning lives gone past, lives have gone by, in those lives, kom top dang denpa.

[Student]
They did powerfully. They had power. Yeah.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Literally, yeah, they had the power of habituation. Then he gives an example of one of these guys. Who?

[Student]
Shariputra.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Arya Shariputra. Arya Shariputra. Now, you gotta understand, you have to appreciate that in emptiness literature, people like Shariputra are an example of like primitive Aryas, you know?

They're like, they're lower school, you know? Traditionally, Shariputra is considered a Hinayana Arya. Okay.

Okay?

[Student]
Arhat, right? Well, here it says Arya. Right, that's true.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Okay, Arya Shariputra. And people like him, khan dak gi lo, dey dak gi nam pa tob pay, their minds understood a certain point. Why is the Tibetan so clumsy here?

[Student]
I don't know.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Somebody else tell me.

[Student]
Khan dak gi lo, dey dak gi nam pa tob pay. I mean, what's clumsy about it is it says their minds realize emptiness.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Well, that's clumsy too. But the wording is clumsy. Why?

[Student]
Khan dak gi lo.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
He's weaving.

[Student]
Oh!

[Geshe Michael Roach]
From the verse. Yeah, go back to the verse. Go back to the verse.

You know, go back to the verse, find me a khan dak gi. Oh, there it is, uh-huh.

[Student]
Khan dak gi lo.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
That's why it's so clumsy. He's trying to insert the verse in a sentence and it's quite clunky.

[Student]
I totally saw that coming.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Khan dak gi lo yu me le. So, what we're gonna ask all you guys to do... is bold it out, yeah.

Khan dak gi lo. Emboldened. Okay.

[Student]
So, in the Tibetan and in the English?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Exactly. English, it'll be italicized because bold is distracting to a reader. It just gets distracting as well.

Italics is a little distracting, but not as bad.

[Student]
And then, even if I... I think I've looked in your transitions before to verify this, but even if I change it slightly to fit the syntax, I would still put it in italics, right? Like, if it doesn't say exactly...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Exactly, yeah. Yeah, slight difference is okay. Okay.

Yeah, slight difference is okay. And we'll see places in the Tibetan where he means to... he's weaving, but he used a different word.

Like, num instead of dak or something, and then you still italicize the num. Okay, because he's just... he just didn't want to, you know, the beat was off or something, but he means that.

Okay, okay. So, they have understood... they have understood with their mind...

where is that number tong?

[Student]
Mm-hmm.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, here it is, number tong. The last part of the verse.

[Student]
Yeah.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Now, when people gloss verses, they will add a lot of positives. Okay? They have understood, which is to say, they have seen directly with their wisdom.

You see, so when you translate it, the sentence is going to have to say, which is to say, they have seen it directly with their wisdom, which means... that's an important addition here. Why?

They didn't just understand, they... saw directly. It's implying they saw emptiness directly.

Okay, got it?

[Student]
Yeah.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Technically, they saw directly that emptiness is the meaning of dependent origination.

[Student]
Okay?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Okay, but what Gyaltsab Je added was not just for show, it's not just flowery. He wants you to know it was munsum. It was a direct perception.

So, RTOG can be understand, but now Gyaltsab Je is... Gyaltsab Je is commenting. He's now...

now he's commentating, thank you. He's not just giving, you know, flowery little fillers. He's actually clarifying that the word realized means they saw it directly.

Okay, so that... that comment in his commentary is helpful. It teaches us something new.

Okay, got it? So...

[Student]
So, when you say the catch-topia, I mean, I guess I was trying with great deal, but that's not...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Oh, that's okay. Yeah, that's okay. All right.

Now, the next lines, he didn't have the commas. He didn't have all the commas. So, I spent a long time trying to figure out why is this so rough?

Why is this so confusing? And then I realized the beats were the same. That's 12, 13, 12, 13, 14, 15 beats.

By the way, this is how we count the monasteries. THAR PA'I CHOG TU'I MANG BA'I GYUR CHOG DE YID RANG GI GYEN TE GSUM 15 And I was like, boom, you know? Oh, it's a poem.

[Student]
You know, I was like, wow, you know?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
I was like, it took me so long. Because it was so bizarre. As a paragraph, it's bizarre.

As a poem, it's, oh, that's sutra. That's a sutra. It's got to be a sutra.

And then I found the sutra. Okay, here's the sutra. And Jigme has translated many of the titles, I think a third of the titles of all the sutras.

So you already have a... It's called the Great Gathering, The Secret Formula of the Tip of the Jewel. It's a sutra.

It's taught by Lord Buddha. Okay, there's the original. Okay, and there's the context.

Okay, but we're not going to go there yet. Let's do this quotation. Okay.

I would leave the jitar right now, okay? The world... By the way, this reflects [?] text yesterday.

Because we had those two parallelisms. We are at the mercy of other forces because we are at the mercy of karma and negative emotions. And we are not unchanging because we are changing.

Okay, so here's the same theme, which is a Hinayana theme. This emphasis on the source of samsara. Okay, so the world...

gyur den jung, it came from something. Okay, that's the whole Buddhist thing. You know, the suffering in the world is not an accident.

It has a cause. Four Noble Truths theme. You know, Arya truths.

It has a cause. gyur den jung, okay? It has a cause.

What is it? The cause which created it is karma and negative emotions.

[Student]
Oh, so it's not... It's not karma and negative emotions and their causes, it's...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
They are, it's je gyu. So je gyu is a technical term that means the cause that made it. Okay, so je den, the world, jung, has occurred because it has a cause which is making it.

And that cause that is making it is karma and negative emotions. Okay, so je gyu means the cause which has created it. And jung, jung means it does have.

It has come about. It has happened. Okay, because of something that made it.

In what? Karma and negative emotions. Okay.

Uh, and the denpa, as a noun...

[Student]
The recollection?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Nope.

[Student]
With a E. Memory? The...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Oh, sorry.

[Student]
It's the guide.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
The guide. The lead. The guide, yeah, yeah.

The guide, okay.

[Student]
I guess that's what I didn't...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Because remember it's DRA without the prenasal, okay? So anyway, the great guide, capital G, has stated, okay...

[Student]
That they are the causes that make the world.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Now, you gotta understand this idiomatic use of gyu, okay? After, straight after a verb, gyu doesn't mean cause anymore.

[Student]
Oh.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
It means future participle. The thing to be done. Oh.

Okay, like sagyu kariyore, what is there to eat today? It means, eat cause what is there today. They say, eat cause what is there today.

It means, what do we have to eat today?

[Student]
Whoa.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Okay.

[Student]
That's not even after a verb, I guess. Oh, it's sa, not...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, sa. Sa, yeah, yeah. To eat.

Yeah, sagyu.

[Student]
Okay.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Chegyu yomare, you know, there's no reason why you should do that. Uh-huh. Okay, chegyu yomare.

[Student]
Chegyu yomare.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, it means, that's not something you should be doing.

[Student]
Uh-huh.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Got it?

[Student]
The reason to do...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
It literally means reason to do, but it doesn't mean that... Oh, here it means dokyu. What is it we have to stop?

[Student]
Yeah.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Okay?

[Student]
Oh, so it's not reason, it's more like what is... Yeah, exactly.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
...to be stopped. Yeah, exactly.

[Student]
Uh-huh.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
What is it we have to shut down? Dok means to shut down.

[Student]
Uh-huh.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
It can be spelled... What's the other prenasal N? Oh, ziyo?

Yeah, ziyo. I will kiss you, but you got the beard. Okay, uh...

If he ever shaves it off, I'm in trouble. Okay, so... So, what you have to shut down is...

[Student]
Le dang nyamo.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, said our leader.

[Student]
Said our guide, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, clarified. Our leader clarified that what you have to shut down is karma and negative emotion. Uh...

Or however, or something? Now, now... Who is he to tell us?

What we have to shut down? You know, what is his authority? And then the last two lines clarify his authority.

And let's go to the last part here. De yi... De yi...

He, the Buddha... Rang gi khyen de sum. He has only stated what he has realized.

That's a typical Buddha attribute. He only says what he's figured out. What he's perceived.

Well, in the night... He's just saying what he has understood correctly. Khyen means he knows.

He speaks whereof he knows. He speaks whereof he knows. Okay?

[Student]
Yeah.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
And then the rest is just more... Clarification of who is Buddha. Who is this guy?

Who is this one who speaks of what he knows? Then you just go backwards. Tibetan syntax.

Who is he? He's kyu chok.

[Student]
He's the head bull.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, okay. It's the bull who leads the herd. You see a big triangle of wild cows, and he's the one in front.

Okay, kyu chok. Kyu means herd. Chok means head.

Okay, kyu chok. He's the kyu chok of what? Mawas.

This is a noun.

[Student]
Proponents?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, professor. Professors, literally. But in the old way.

Professor. Teachers. The king of all teachers.

The one who teaches what?

[Student]
Liberation. The highest path.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Highest freedom. And where does he stay? He mi nepa.

[Student]
He doesn't stay.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
He definitely is not living... Definitely not living in... Suffering.

[Student]
Don't know.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Birth. Yeah. Aging.

[Student]
Yeah.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Or... Grupa means hassles.

[Student]
Hassles?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Oh, good.

[Student]
Degeneration is what I was going to say.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
It means trouble.

[Student]
Birth, aging, and trouble.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, it means troubles.

[Student]
I got troubles.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
It's grupa. I got troubles. It's the plural of troubles.

Trouble. And then again, he's done that... This is that peek-a-boo thing?

[Student]
He is the one. Who is it?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, who is... Kang-na means Kang-ser-na. If you ask...

Who are you to tell us? Who is the jenpa? Who is this guy?

What authority do you have? Oh, well he's... He's the guy who only speaks of what he figured out.

He's the head bull of all teachers of... Who teach about nirvana and buddhahood. And he no longer lives in a state of having to be born to get all...

And all the troubles in between. Okay, got it? Shepe tsik che.

[Student]
Says the verse?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, this verse was thupa.

[Student]
Heard.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
By Sharipu. From?

[Student]
Tatu.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, tatul. Tatul. Yeah, not tatul.

Tatul.

[Student]
Yeah, ta is ashva.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Tul is a verb of dulwa. Dulwa. Which do not...

Sorry, oops, I said it. Tamed. Yeah, tatul.

His name is the horse who was broken. Ashwajit. And I believe he's one of the first five disciples.

He was one of the five [?] cubs. Okay? He was one of the five [?] cubs.

And he said this verse to Shariputra. Okay? He taught this verse to Shariputra.

And tulpa tsam kyi.

[Student]
By hearing it, you got a thorough understanding of Dekonani.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, kon du chun means he got it. So I don't know if I would say thorough understanding. The point is he's Sarantina's director.

He became a stream enterer. He became an Arya.

[Student]
Can I make a jump when I'm translating this, to say that rather than just saying he grasped emptiness?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
You can have a footnote. You... find me a stronger single word than grasp.

Ask some lawyer. Don't give me a pile of adjectives. It weakens your writing.

Single word verbs are extremely powerful. Find a single verb. In Sanskrit, we pile on prefixes to get a meaning.

But in English, a good writer finds a more powerful verb than understood. Because kon du chun does mean to totally grasp something or something like that. Got it.

It's a light bulb. Yeah, it's grok, but it's... By the way, the implication is thoroughness.

In its entirety. You gotta find a single English word. Thoroughly understand is a good way to put your reader to sleep.

When was the last time you heard thoroughly understand on a news show? You know? Okay, got it?

Yes. We covered it.

[Student]
So, I'm gonna do it in verse. But Geshe La, if you... I'm imagining that I...

I don't necessarily have to keep the lines.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
What's this sung mi chun? Yeah, that's scripture says. Scripture, capital S, you see?

Well, I wouldn't... Yeah, now, your question is, can you rearrange the lines? Absolutely.

Can you take liberties with the lines? That's up to you. I like to make it totally readable and include every single word.

You know? I like my cake and eat it too. You know?

You have to think like that. If you had to tear out words... If you had to throw out parts and put the car...

You know, something's gonna go wrong. So, try to catch every word, but make it eminently readable. And that's what I want the mixed nuts to be famous for a hundred years from now.

Okay? They got every single syllable in there, but it still reads like a detective novel. Okay?

That's your goal. Don't make these clumsy, you know... They did thoroughly understand [?] completeness.

[Student]
Okay?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
That's called Sanskrit prefix disease. And many translators have it. Right, right, right.

Okay, I thought you'd appreciate seeing what comes before and after that little section of the sutra. Oh, cool. Okay?

NYE RGYAL GYI MED PA Upatisha said, GYUL GYI STON PA'I JI SKAD MA He met... Apparently he met Ashwajit. And he says, GYUL GYI STON PA'I JI SKAD MA You're an awesome teacher.

You're a teacher. JI SKAD means... You know, what's your teacher talk about?

You know, what's he saying? What's so cool? JI SKAD STON You know, how does he teach?

And then, SRED DANG LDAN PA LTA LTUNG KYI MED PA Ashwajit answered, DE PHYIR TSID DANG LDAN PA LAS PAR RAB TU BSTOD If you want to know, DE PHYIR means for that purpose of telling you my answer. Now at SRED DANG LDAN PA, apparently Shariputra was already a monk.

[Student]
Oh.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Junior monk. Okay? He says to Shariputra, LAS PAR RAB TU BSTOD Lend me your ear.

Okay? YID LA GSUNG ZHIG And what I say, memorize it on the spot. This is the imperative of DZIN.

This is the imperative of DZIN. Hold it in your mind. Keep it in your mind.

GSUNG GSUNG You'll never ever see that. The distinction between the verb tenses gets sloppy in the last thousand years. Okay?

Translations from ancient Sanskrit, they're still showing the four tenses in Tibetan. But later it's all DZIN. NGES SHES DO And I will tell you.

And then he gives the verse. Okay? Then he gives the verse.

Okay? Then let's read the end of the... Let's read the...

You know? What happened after that? DE NAS KUN DU RGYUR NGES RGYAL DE NAS UPA TIS ZHA Okay?

[Student]
Which is Shariputra.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
I'm going to get to that. Oh.

[Student]
Okay.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
It's a punchline. Come on. KUN DU RGYUR means running around all the time.

And it means a wanderer. Oh. It means an ascetic monk.

Okay? It's a nickname for monks who wander around. A mendicant.

Yeah, mendicant. NAM DANG DI THOS NAS Having heard this particular presentation of the Dharma, CHOS NAM LA CHOS KYI MIG His Dharma eye was open towards all Dharmas. Okay?

His Dharma eye was open towards all Dharmas. This one. You can see all...

[Student]
Yeah.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
DUL MED means the dust was cleared from his eyes.

[Student]
Oh. Is that the same as atom?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah. It means dust also. The dust was cleared from his eyes.

His eyes were freed from all impurities. He got non-Klesha-ness. You know?

His negative thoughts were removed. And DE NA and because of that, GYUN DU ZHUGS.

[Student]
GYUN DU ZHUGS. He just became a stream enterer.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah. Ah, so that's how we know. He reached the result of stream entering.

[Student]
So I can put that in his footnote.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
That's cool. This verse triggered the direct perception of emptiness in Upatisha. That's cool.

Yeah, yeah. And then in celebration, he spoke the following verse himself.

[Student]
Upatisha.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah. Upatisha said, SANGS RGYAS KYIS NI SHIN TU GNYER GANG THOS BYED NYID DU TSUL CHU ZHIG PA You have explained to me this deathless nectar. I have been able to hear that thing which is so hard to find.

The Buddha's teaching.

[Student]
Okay?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
GNYER GANG THOS BYED NYID DU TSUL CHU ZHIG PA Now this constant waterfall of rebirth has been dried up. GYEN PA We had GYEN PA in Adam's text. It was one of the seven...

CHUNG GYUR In English. Oh, elements? Products of the elements.

Products of the elements. Thirst. But here it means dried up.

So I'm thirsty means I'm dry.

[Student]
GYEN PA That's another word for thirst though, right?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Yeah, and in colloquial, GAM BO Yeah. Like what's GYAG PA GAM BO?

[Student]
Dried poop? No, it's like poop.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
When you're like disgusted with somebody you say, Ah, GYAG PA GAM BO.

[Student]
That's dried shit.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
It's the only word people remember today.

[Student]
I don't know what it is.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
It's just a thing about curse words.

[Student]
You know?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
On your deathbed, you're going to go like, GYAG PA GAM BO GYAG PA GAM BO It means... It means bullshit. GYAG PA GAM BO Don't give me that.

GYEN PA GYEN PA GONG TU CHUD I have grasped the truth. DE NYID RDOG BA NANG GI SDUG BSNGAL RAB TU ZHIG DBANG RGYUR BA DE This is the kind of thing that can put to rest the sufferings of all beings. LAM DI DANG PO'I ZHIG RANG CHOS NAMS SGO MA MI NYAM CHOS PA YIN So now I have...

I will never... I will never... descend...

I will never degenerate.

[Student]
Sorry, which word?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
MI NYAM I will never degenerate from meditation upon this wisdom, this high path. Okay? Okay?

Now, this piece I cut out from an earlier part in the sutra, and it... because he attributed it to Shariputra, Gyaltsab Je. But this was attributed to Upatisha.

Okay? So I thought, Gyaltsab Je has made a mistake. But knowing it was Gyaltsab Je, I went to check myself.

And it's very interesting. I looked up NYE RGYAL SHES What's that trick? Find the literal meaning of a word, right?

So I used this trick on the sutra. And it says... Apparently, it's Ashvajit or somebody asked him, what's your name?

And he says, I'm Upatisha. But my mother's name was... Sharika.

And because I was born from her, some people call me... Shariputra.

[Student]
Which makes sense.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Son of Sharika. Okay, so Upatisha is Shariputra. So Gyaltsab Je wasn't wrong.

And he's showing off that he knows who Upatisha is. Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. Okay, got it?

Yeah. Yeah, that's cool.

[Student]
I always thought...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
That's why I was dancing around.

[Student]
It took me like two weeks to break this one. That's so cool. You know?

I always thought it was Shariputra because they call him son of noble family in the Heart Sutra. I always thought it was Shariputra because the Heart Sutra is so famous and they call him son of noble family.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
No, that's a catch-all. All bodhisattvas are children of noble family. Sons and daughters.

Okay, by the way, he says, dakarabdhu jangwar yang, palmen nonglak sok. And then he says, and the fact that I became a monk, my parents allowed me. My parents gave permission.

I don't know why he throws that in, but... Okay, got it?

[Student]
So does it imply that he was like a Hindu monk or something first?

[Geshe Michael Roach]
No. It just means... I don't know what it means.

It means I took my mother's name. But I didn't disrespect her. I call myself son of Shari because I want to remember her or something like that, you know?

[Student]
What I was thinking that implies he's a Hindu monk is because he's a monk already and he meets a Buddhist and he says, tell me about your teacher.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
I think he's already a Buddhist monk who meets another Buddhist. I think, I think, yeah. Otherwise they wouldn't call him Tse Dan Denpa.

They wouldn't refer to a non-Buddhist mendicant as a Tse Dan Denpa. I don't think so. But you could read the sutra.

Okay, anyway, there you go. It's a verse. Good luck.

Do you have to have equal syllables? You can try, but it will make it less, it'll make it less readable. I kind of like to, I kind of hear the ends and then it happens to come out right.

So use your ear. And don't feel like you have to, it's really cloying if people make it equal syllables and the last syllables rhyme every two lines. I went to meet the Buddha because I was a Buddha.

You know, this is, you know, it just gets cloying, annoying. Come on. I would say, it's verse, but to translate 15 syllables takes about 25.

So, you know, I might even cut it up into separate verses and put a space between them because it's too much.

[Student]
Because it's so long.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
And the fact that it's so long was already proven by the fact that it got messed up between Gyaltsab Je and us. And that I went crazy trying to figure it out because the commas got left out. It just read like an ancient book.

And then suddenly I realized there was a way to parse it into meter. You know, but... But you have to...

So, to me, I would make three or four verses. Okay? Just because it's too much information.

All right, we solved this mystery, but there's worse ones to come.

[Student]
So, this is the root text here? I didn't even catch that.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
What's that?

[Student]
I didn't catch if this next part is the root text.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Now, be careful because... he'll weave the root text in once, and then he'll explain the words of the root text, but that's not the weaving. Okay?

So, there'll be multiple weavings. Then you have to choose the primary one. So, the word lo, mati, in the verse, he's going to stay on that theme for a while.

But don't bold it every single time. Because he's not... he doesn't mean to...

he's not weaving it after the first time. He weaves it once to show he's cool, and then he's going to explain lo for like three pages. So, don't bold out every lo for three pages.

Okay. lo jitabu shen na Well, what kind of mind are they talking about in the verse? Because the verse said...

let's go back there and remember what the heck the verse said. Uh... Their minds have gone beyond...

Those whose minds... Yeah. Is or not is.

Is or isn't. Nine o'clock. No.

[Student]
What? Five more minutes.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
You sure? Oh. Really?

I thought it was nine. Always. It's 8.45?

[Student]
We have a break. We have a break. 9.45. We don't. Sorry, his class starts at 8.45? Oh.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Oh. No. I thought there was a break.

Yeah.

[Student]
Yeah. I sent Nick with...

[Geshe Michael Roach]
Okay. We'll stop. We'll stop right now.

Okay. Anyway, their minds have gone beyond is and isn't. And...

their minds no longer stay. Okay, that... let's leave it there.

Okay. So, what... who has this kind of mind?

[Student]
Okay. That's what we'll discuss.

[Geshe Michael Roach]
lo jit... What is that? Tell me what this mind is like.

Okay. Then he's going to get into... this mind has gone beyond is and isn't.

You might want to translate that. I don't know. But it's not exactly the same, is it?

Beyond is and isn't? Well, it's not exactly the same. But I'm saying...

Nagarjuna is sexy. Nagarjuna is a Rumi. Nagarjuna is Rumi.

Don't make him University of Virginia. Rumi is this famous Persian poet. You know.

Nagarjuna is poetic. And brief. And sexy.

And don't make him boring. Do weird stuff.

[Student]
Beyond is or isn't. And mostly just for the root text. They don't live anywhere.

They live in the nowhere.