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These Are Raw Transcripts That Have Not Been Edited in Any Way, and May Contain Errors Introduced by the Volunteer Transcribers These are raw transcripts that have not been edited in any way, and may contain errors introduced by the volunteer transcribers. Please refer to the audio on The Knowledge Base website (http://www.theknowledgebase.com) for the original teachings. ACI Course 12 Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, Part Three (RAW TRANSCRIPT) presented by Geshe Michael Roach New York Oct-Nov 1997 MISSING REVIEW CLASS 11? ACI 12, Class 1 971014-1 PLEASE NOTE: Missing review class 11 and any Tibetan is totally written by what it sounded like. Therefore, correct spelling is not guaranteed. Prayers About 12-13 hundred years ago. And, uh, this will be the ninth and the tenth chapter of the book. We’ve covered the first 8 chapters this year so far. Um, this book is not even taught in the monastery. It’s not part of the Geshe course, you know, uh, it’s not considered one of the five great books that’s in the monastery. And normally a monk at Sera or at one of the other monasteries, great monasteries, would study this on the side, like during visits by His Holiness the Dalai Lama or by in the old days by one of his … teachers. Um, so why do we spend a whole year on it? You know, um, it’s really perhaps the most important- one of the most important books in Buddhism. And it has survived since the early times of Buddhism, and people, you know, millions of people have studied it and it’s a very, very important book. Uh, if you have to perhaps decide what’s th the most important chapter in the book- it’s the 9 chapter. Uh, so you’re about to study the most important chapter of one of the most important books ever written by man, or whoever (laugh), uhh, it’s a great honor to hear it, you know, it’s very difficult to get to hear it. I think you remember the story that we told when Master Shantideva taught this, uh, particular chapter, uh, in the monastery. He started to write off the throne that he was on. And only a few people even heard the end of the chapter. Uh, only those people who could read his mind, uh, and could follow him as he floated into the air, uh, away from the monastery, th uh, heard the 9 chapter and there was this big argument about whether there th th th was a 10 chapter or not. So, you’re about to hear the 9 and 10 chapter and I promise not to fly away. Uh, (laugh), and uh, you have to get in your mind what’s going on in this chapter. This chapter is about emptiness. It’s about the meaning of emptiness. Uh, when you look back on your life, you know, when you get old, you should get old, ok, and uh, when you look back on your life and you think about what happened in your life. Uh, if you can see emptiness directly in this life which is about 20 minutes or something. It takes about 20 minutes. The real Tonglam, direct experience of emptiness on the path of seeing. It takes about 20 minutes of a human life. I think you can count that, and you can count your first experience of real boddichitta which takes less than that- takes maybe 5 minutes, and then, uh, you can count if you ever have any tantric realizations, life of kirim and zogrim(?)- the two levels of tantra. Uh, they would take a kirim experience would take a few minutes and a togrim (?) experience would take a little bit longer. But, you could look back on your life after 60 or 70 years and say- those are the only times in my life that were important. You know, that few minutes in my life was the only important time in my life. Uh, the rest was just moving from one of those realizations to the other, you know, physically, and in time. But, if a Buddhist looks back at their life, at the end of their life, and if you can say: I’ve seen those things for half an hour or something, uh, that’s, that’s the only meaningful thing that ever happened in your life. You know, that, that’s a very profound statement, you know, that when you look back on a whole human life uh, from the time you were born that those were the only really important things that happened. Those were the most important things that happened. And you can easily see that, and you can easily uh compare to the rest of your life make thousands, millions of times more important than only the other days of your life- are those few minutes. And the whole purpose of being a Buddhist is to try to get to those few minutes, is to try to make those few minutes happen. If you can make them happen, you won’t suffer anymore. If you can make the direct perception of emptiness happen in this life, you see your future lives, you know uh which life it will all end. You see your own enlightenment. Uh, you see the Buddha. And you see all of these things directly. You know them. And no one can ever convince you anything else, you know. You know that you so them, and that’s, that’s the nature of that experience. And from then on, you will not have any major sufferings. From the moment you see emptiness directly there won’t be any major bad thing happen to you in your entire existence ever again. Uh, it can’t happen after that. You know major problems, you’ll get minor problems. You’ll have to die like six more times. (clear throat) But that’s all. And that’s nothing, ok, I mean, those are, that’s the power of that experience. If you reach it. Kirim or Tzorim. If you have those, uh, experiences, then you have the direct knowledge that in this life, very soon, you can become a complete Buddha. As, enter some kind of paradise. So really those are all that matters in your life. The rest is just logistical support. You see what I mean: eating, sleeping, friends, family, job, your body, uh, your mind. Everything else is just conditions for those to happen. And they don’t mean anything more than that, you know. If they can lead you to that experience then they had some meaning. And if they can’t, if you don’t get to one of those experiences, they probably didn’t have much meaning. Which is like a pitch for coming to this class, ok. This class for that, you know, the only reason for the ninth chapter is to try to get you to see emptiness directly. That’s what you’re th here for. Uh, so so, and it’s very rare to hear the 9 chapter, and it’s very rare to hear it explained, uh, at all, so in the benefits I like that. So don’t don’t uh, it’s not, you’re not uh, this is not like one of those uh, they hand out those fliers around the city, I forget what they’re called- adult learning thing, annex thing- something like that. You know, like, this is not like how to write a good movie script or uh, a new yoga class, or or healthy living class, or. The point is not that. Just don’t think of this as a class. I mean, we call it a class- it’s not a class. If you get what’s going to happen what’s going to happen in the next 10 classes uh, you become a totally different kind of being on this planet and you will, and because of that experience you will not suffer in any major way again- period. I mean, it’s th really like some kind of threshhold in your life if you can hear the 9 chapter. If you understand what it’s about. And if it leads you to see emptiness directly then you don’t need anything else in the world actually. And you can die happily. You know, and you will (laugh)ok. So don’t miss one of these classes, ok, uh, don’t don’t you know- there’s no other reason for your life really, you know, there’s nothing else in your life that matters uh, like emptiness. There isn’t anything. Uh, don’t kid yourself, ok. If you miss more than two, don’t come, OK? Uh, that’s a deal. I mean there has to be a certain energy in this room. And it has to be that people are committed to, to learning emptiness and to seeing emptiness. So, if you think you’re going to miss more than 2 classes then come on Friday night and there’s little lesson..ok? But people in this room now, if you stay, uh, don’t miss class, ok? And if you miss more than two, then as a point of honor, just stop and don’t come. And come back on Friday, you’re welcome to come on Friday, ok. But there has to be a certain level of energy in this class and a certain level of commitment. If you miss if you miss more than that then it means you don’t understand what we’re talking about at all.
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