Special Insight 1: Wisdom of Emptiness (26 April 2011)

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1:47 Maybe we'll try to be timely since we only have an hour of class tonight, since we're going to do the Medicine Buddha Puja at 7.30 for Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Report an error in the passage at 1:47 Highlight the passage at 1:47

2:04 Hopefully you all got that message. Report an error in the passage at 2:04 Highlight the passage at 2:04

2:11 Yeah, yeah, it'd be good if 7.25, yeah, that would be good, because then we'll have to change the gompa setup a little bit to do the puja setup. Report an error in the passage at 2:11 Highlight the passage at 2:11

2:28 Yeah. Not the three hour extensive, unless you guys want to stay away. Report an error in the passage at 2:28 Highlight the passage at 2:28

2:45 So let's just spend a minute and set our motivation. Report an error in the passage at 2:45 Highlight the passage at 2:45

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3:25 Let's see if we can develop a bodhicitta motivation, or at least a motivation to benefit others. And Report an error in the passage at 3:25 Highlight the passage at 3:25

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5:10 we'll start with the Manjushri prayer, which is on the first page of the white book that Jessica is handing out right now. Report an error in the passage at 5:10 Highlight the passage at 5:10

5:44 Obey sense to my guru and protector, Manjushri, who holds to his heart a scriptural text symbolic of his seeing all things as they are, whose undistelligent science sources the sun, unclouded by all delusions or traces of ignorance, who teaches in sixty ways with the loving compassion of a father for his only son, all creatures caught in the prison of saṃsāra, confused in the darkness of their ignorance, overwhelmed by their suffering. Report an error in the passage at 5:44 Highlight the passage at 5:44

6:10 You, whose dragon thunder proclamation of Dharma rouses us from the stupor of our delusions and frees us from the iron chains of our karma, who wields the sword of wisdom hewing down suffering wherever its sprouts appear, clearing away the darkness of ignorance. You, whose princely body is adorned with 112 marks of a Buddha, who has completed this stage is achieving the highest perfection of a bodhisattva, who has been pure from the beginning. Report an error in the passage at 6:10 Highlight the passage at 6:10

6:36 I bow down to you. Omara Patsanadi. We'll just do it once. Report an error in the passage at 6:36 Highlight the passage at 6:36

7:02 With the brilliance of your wisdom, O compassionate one, illuminate the darkness in closing my mind. Enlighten my intelligence and wisdom so that I may gain insight into Buddha's words and the texts that explain them. And then the Heart Sūtra in the Gold Book on Report an error in the passage at 7:02 Highlight the passage at 7:02

7:29 page 76. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 7:29 Highlight the passage at 7:29

7:37 I prostrate to the Arya Triple Jim. Thus did I hear at one time, the Bhagavan was dwelling on Massive Ultras Mountain in Rajgriya, 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. Also at that time, the bodhisattva, mahasattva, Arya, Avalokiteshvara, looked upon the very practice of the profound perfection of wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 7:37 Highlight the passage at 7:37

8:05 And beheld those five aggregates also as empty of inherent nature. Then through the power of Buddha, the Venerable Shariputra said this to the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, Arya Avalokiteshvara. 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, Mahasattva, Arya Avalokiteshvara said this to the Venerable Sharivadiputra. Report an error in the passage at 8:05 Highlight the passage at 8:05

8:32 Shariputra, 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. Report an error in the passage at 8:32 Highlight the passage at 8:32

9:00 Shariputra, likewise all phenomena are emptiness, without characteristic, unproduced, unceased, stainless, not without stain, not deficient, not fulfilled. Shariputra, 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. Report an error in the passage at 9:00 Highlight the passage at 9:00

9:24 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 and 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. Report an error in the passage at 9:24 Highlight the passage at 9:24

9:47 Similarly, there is no suffering, origination, cessation and path. There is no exalted wisdom, no attainment and also no non-attainment. 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 end point of nirvāṇa. All the Buddhas who dwell in the three times also manifestly, completely awaken to unsurpassable, perfect, complete enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 9:47 Highlight the passage at 9:47

10:20 In 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. Report an error in the passage at 10:20 Highlight the passage at 10:20

10:41 Thayata Om Gathe Gathe Paragathe Parasam Gathe Bodhishoha Shariputra, the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva should train in the profound perfection of wisdom like that. Then the Bhagavan arose from that concentration and commended the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, Arya, Avalokiteshvara, saying, Well said, well said, son of the lineage, it is like that. Report an error in the passage at 10:41 Highlight the passage at 10:41

11:06 It is like that. One should practice the profound perfection of wisdom just as you have indicated. Even the Tathagatas rejoice. The Bhagavan, having thus spoken, the Venerable Sarivadiputra, the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, Arya, Avalokiteshvara, and those surrounding in their entirety, along with the world of gods, humans, asuras, and Gandharvas, were overjoyed and highly praised that spoken by the Bhagavan. Report an error in the passage at 11:06 Highlight the passage at 11:06

11:34 And then on 98 is refuge in bodhicitta. Report an error in the passage at 11:34 Highlight the passage at 11:34

11:45 I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly. By the merits I create through listening to the Dharma, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. Report an error in the passage at 11:45 Highlight the passage at 11:45

12:04 By the merits I create through listening to the Dharma, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By the merits I create through listening to the Dharma. May I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 12:04 Highlight the passage at 12:04

12:29 So we've been covering the first of the four schools, the four tenet schools, which is the Vaibhashika or the Great Exposition School. Report an error in the passage at 12:29 Highlight the passage at 12:29

12:42 And these are good building blocks in order, well I shouldn't use the word building blocks, the good steps on the way to be able to understand the highest view, which is the Prasangika view. So just as a quick review, right, the two truths as asserted by the Vaibashika school is the ultimate truth are those things that cannot be broken down any further, right, like the partless particles and the temporally partless moments of consciousness, as well as those things. Report an error in the passage at 12:42 Highlight the passage at 12:42

13:19 That can be broken down further, but when you break them down, they maintain their entity. They maintain being what it is. Like space was the classic example. You can break down space mentally, but it's still space. So it's an ultimate truth. It's an ultimate truth. Whereas a cup, if you break it into many pieces, it's no longer a cup. So it's a conventional truth. Report an error in the passage at 13:19 Highlight the passage at 13:19

13:47 So those things that are composed of parts are conventional truths. They're more superficial truths. And so this was useful, right, because in order to break down a mental affliction or in order to have a mental affliction, we see something as being a whole thing, right? And then if we break it down into parts, right, that... Report an error in the passage at 13:47 Highlight the passage at 13:47

14:14 Phenomenon doesn't exist anymore for your mind. And so that breaks down the mental affliction. Report an error in the passage at 14:14 Highlight the passage at 14:14

14:24 And then we also last time talked about what do we have to realize in order to get out of saṃsāra, according to Vaibeshika, was the lack of the self-sufficient, substantially existent self. And so we did a meditation on that. This is the self that seems to be... The boss of the body and the mind, like the I have a body and mind, the my body, my mind, the person that seems to be there and possesses the body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 14:24 Highlight the passage at 14:24

15:00 It seems to be a person that's on top of the body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 15:00 Highlight the passage at 15:00

15:08 So did people kind of get a sense or are they starting to get a sense of this self-sufficient self? In your experience, like we really believe that there's a self, like a real me, right? Not just something that's labeled, but a real me, you know, that's going to die and be reborn and that gets insulted and that is good at certain things and not so good at other things, right? Report an error in the passage at 15:08 Highlight the passage at 15:08

15:36 A real me. Report an error in the passage at 15:36 Highlight the passage at 15:36

15:42 So all of the schools except the highest school, the Prasangika school, assert that all you have to do is realize that, the lack of the self-sufficient. Substantial existent self to get out of saṃsāra. Only the highest school says that, no, there's something more subtle that you need to realize. So we'll get to that when we get to Prasambi. So I kind of went through that quickly because we don't have much time today. Report an error in the passage at 15:42 Highlight the passage at 15:42

16:11 So I want to move on to the next school, the Sautrantika school. So we've gone through the Vibashika or the Great Exposition school, at least on a... High level, right? And then the next school is the Sautrantaka school or the Sūtra school. Report an error in the passage at 16:11 Highlight the passage at 16:11

16:35 The Vaibhshkas are called the Great Exposition school because there are these seven treatises called the Great Exposition that they take as being the literal words of the Buddha and that they use as their basis. called Report an error in the passage at 16:35 Highlight the passage at 16:35

16:51 And none of the other schools say that those are words of the Buddha. The sūtra school, the Sautrantaka school, take the sutras as being of prime importance. All the schools take the sutras as the basis of their teachings. But particularly the sūtra school, prime importance and really, for the most part, literal in meaning. Report an error in the passage at 16:51 Highlight the passage at 16:51

17:17 There's just, at a high level, there's two Sautrantaka schools, sub-schools. A follow of scripture and a follow of reasoning. And the follow of scripture follow a lot of the same or agree with the Baibashikas in many things, including the two truths. So we won't go through that school. But I want to get into what's unique about Sartrantica, which is the follower of reasoning school. Report an error in the passage at 17:17 Highlight the passage at 17:17

17:51 And they follow the... Teachings of Dharmakirti and Dignaga, who were the logicians really. So just a little bit of historical context. So Vaibhashikas assert the two truths in terms of right partless particles and those things that are composed of partless particles. So Trantikas assert the two truths in a very different way, very different from all of the other schools. Report an error in the passage at 17:51 Highlight the passage at 17:51

18:22 So remember, conventional truth is kind of more of a superficial truth, whereas the ultimate truth is a deeper truth. But both truths are valid. It's not that the ultimate truth invalidates the conventional truth. So the Sotrantikas, and this is studied widely and extensively as a basis of the monastic education. Report an error in the passage at 18:22 Highlight the passage at 18:22

18:48 Like the first years in the monastic colleges, they study what's called the collected topics and low rig. Which is all based on the Sartrantica school, the Sūtra school. Report an error in the passage at 18:48 Highlight the passage at 18:48