Nagajuna’s Sixty Stanzas on Reasoning Part 8 Dzongsar Rinpoche

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Nagajuna 8

These are just notes by a confused being from a talk by a sublime being trying to understand the most profound teachings of the Buddha, via Nagajuna via Dzongsar Rinpoche. If you found yourself here, don’t bother reading this, watch the talk.

This talk was very hard to understand, not good sound quality and choppy , then Q&A at the end where most of the questions could not be understood.

Sublime beings see the world as illusion. Our ideas, values, likes, dislikes. This is not truly dwelling phenomena. Today we like one thing, we could hate it tomorrow.

Some likes and dislikes continue longer than others. But nothing lasts. Nothing is dwelling. Dwelling is the place in between coming and going. And nothing is truly dwelling.

Nations change, political systems change. In the past, India did not exist as a state, as a separate state. It’s only been in existence for about 100 years. Just no more than six days ago, I thought there were only two genders. Now in Nepal, the passports say male or female or other.

That concept is now broken for me. Now. When I go to other places, I will be passionately thinking that they should do what Nepal is doing. 

We are not negating appearance. We are not saying there is no face in the mirror. 

To say there is no appearance is to say it is truly nonexistent.  there is not truly existing Nonexistent. That’s nihilism. Buddha says ego as big as Mount Meru is okay, but attachment to emptiness as truly nonexistent as small as a sesame seed is much more dangerous.

Then he goes on to. Even powerful beings like Brahma don’t exist. And only Buddha can teach Brahma and Krishna because they are idiots, and even worse, because they are smart idiots. Some people are very good at shamatha. very good at onepointedness, very good shamatha is almost identical to Buddha.

 Good shamatha practitioners are shinjang . They could eat two grains of rice a day. I’ve actually met people who are very good at shamatha. Maybe not that good to only eat two grains of rice.

Very advanced, very little clinging to self, mind is so refined. They have clairvoyance. But clairvoyance is not omniscience. Very high level of meditation, very high level of meditative state.

But aim needs to be to see the truth. Not just shinjanged , we are  those who get hijacked by craving. Persons who have a glimpse of the truth will free themselves from the rope of craving. Why did Buddha teach karma, compassion, love? Out of necessity, you may have to first  tell that things exist. things like karma, impermanence, aggregates, nidanas 

This is why aggregates karma impermanence are taught. Buddha talked about his past lives of being a monkey or being a king. This is all just as a way to teach. Those who cannot conceive the idea of shunyata they want to hear or to understand, may see it as nihilism. not good seeing shunyata as nihilism. 

Person who can not see emptiness,  This person is taught karma. Karma emotion. Six realms, six perceptions.

One who understands cause and condition, cause and effect. Distinguishing different types of teachings.

But the truth, to see everything is as illusion is the aim. The rest are just  methods.

Two types of teachings, the direct teachings, and expedient teachings  direct holding the view, things are illusion, the expedient teachings, all the rest of it, 4 truths, karma, ninanas, logic, reason, 84,000 expedient,  really not true, just path as there is no truly existent dwelling of anything. So then he goes into some Q and A.

So someone asks, is studying madyamika  a way to check if we are getting results from our meditation?

The only way to tell about if a decision is good or bad. The only way to measure our deeds is, is it getting us closer to the truth. Is it getting us closer to seeing shunyata ? If you want to really know karma, you have to know emptiness. Or if you want to really know karma, you have to know emptiness.

how to do this?

go light a lamp at a stupa and think that you,   lighting the lamp,  and the lamp are all projections.

Doing things with the view. That’s the practice. Whatever we do, contemplating that there is no truly existing  action, actor or result.

The beginning of the sky is when you know it is sky.  ????

You could kill someone yesterday, and you could say that you’re not the same person today. some kind of mix up of relitive and absolute.  But relitively karma exists, but ulimately there is no karma, but it is a big problem to mix these things up, relitive and absolute “thinking” .

You killed them yesterday and things change. So you’re not the person who killed them. so you are innocent.  Everything is changing. So you could say you are innocent. It does not really work that way, trying to use absolute logic for relative world. 

so some Tibetian or Sanskrit phase is used, but it means. 

 three aspects of something not analyzingnot assessing and just let it alone

We could think about even shaking hands. Is this truly existing? Shaking hands? So shaking hands we could see it as empty. But shaking hands can be a very big deal.

It could start a war. Who shook hands with who? Even impermanence is not permanent. This doesn’t mean it becomes permanent, but impermanence it’s not permanent. 

How to Wake Up so there’s a question about how to wake up. How the teachings taught. 

He responds:  this is the big dream. I am part of your dream. And now in your dream, I will tell you how to wake up from the dream.
And this is how you wake up from the dream.

Study  Nagajuna, offer lamps,  contemplate emptiness. There is nothing better you can do.

Another question about the war between wisdom and habit. War between wisdom and emotion is like the war between husband and wife. They are so close. Wisdom and emotion are so close to each other. 

Another question
But the answer is impermanence is emptiness. Emptiness is neither impermanence or emptiness.

Independent arising does not exist. Only dependent arising exists, but neither exists. Trying to find the end of the sky is all described on the relative level. Ultimately, you cannot talk, you cannot talk about the ultimate or absolute level. But that is reality, reality is all we can work with. What else is there? 

Do more hearing and contemplating.

 So another question and the answer is also,   do more hearing and contemplating. 

Gaining certainty in the view means you are less and less victim of condition. 

And then there’s a discussion about the word “when”. not spelled that way.I don’t know how it’s spelled, and I don’t know if it’s Sanskrit or Tibetan, but when is translated as isolation. And it’s a tricky translation and it has something to do with all phenomena are isolated. In the text that talks about when isolated from extreme meaning, emptiness isolate, and it goes into just this translation issue. tricky word to use. 

So then another question is asked and he says I’m going to teach you Sun Tsu,  Art of war.
Use the enemy’s tactics against them. The enemy attacks by habitual habits. So we developed the habit of neurosis.
So to use the enemy’s tactic against it, you use the opposite habit, which are the various things of hearing, contemplating, practicing, offerings, karma, 4 truths, study nagajuna  and everything 84,000 collections of dharma, the habits that counteract the habit of seeing things as real.

So maybe every time you put on your shoes, you could practice dharma for 30 seconds, make it a habit. .

A mark of practice. You are no longer excited if someone praises you, and it doesn’t affect you if someone criticizes you. If this begins to happen, you are getting somewhere.

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