ACI 14 «Лоджонг: развитие доброго сердца», занятие 2

LoJong
Tape Two
<Transcriber: Anthony Deague>



We’ve been studying the {B: Lo-jong sikgye ma}, which is {lojong}, or developing
the good heart in eight verses and we’re half way through. So last course you
were doing about fifteen pages of logic a night and this course your doing
sixteen lines a night, okay. And it’s kind of cool, and I’m sure you’ll appreciate it.
So, [laughs] anyway, we’ll go to the first verse, okay. Please repeat after me.
{dakla} [repeat] {shengyi} [repeat] {trakdok gi} [repeat] {shekur} [repeat] {lasok}
[repeat] {mirikpay} [repeat]. (bdag la gzhan gyis phrag dog gis gshe skur la sogs mi
rigs pa’I). I think this is maybe the hardest class I ever taught, okay, this class
tonight, okay, very difficult, and I’m not kidding. Like you guys have been
through logic, and you’ve been through Shantideva’s … Master Shantideva’s
logic chapter and everything, I mean, wisdom chapter, and you’ve been through
Diamond Cutter deep stuff, I think this class is more difficult. I think these verses
tonight are more difficult, and I think your mind … in the sense that your will
not accept them, your mind will try to fight what you’re going to hear tonight.
And it’s … what I’m planting in you tonight is a lot of grief for the immediate
future, okay. It’s very, very hard to live, the kind of life that’s being described in
these verses, okay. And once you’ve heard it, and heard it explained, you know
that it is the right thing to do. So you’re cursed from now on. You’ll be this
schizophrenic, you know. You will know what’s the right thing to do, and your
mind won’t want to do it. And it’s going to be … I mean, I had students break
out in tears just spontaneously once in a while. They know this is the right thing
to do, and it’s very hard to do. And they‘re just sitting there and they just burst
out into tears, you know. I say, ‘What’s wrong?’ And they say, ‘That’s very hard
to do’, [laughs] you know. So your going to hear it, sorry, you know, and then
you can’t forget it after tonight, okay. This is the very essence of the lojong,
okay. This is the sweetest part of the {lojong} and the hardest part of the lojong,
okay. So here we go. {Dak la} means ‘to me’. {Dak} means ‘me’ and {dak la}
means ‘to me’. {Shen gyi} means ‘by other people’. Other people … to me,
okay. {Trakdok} means ‘jealousy’, okay. {Trak tok kyi} means ‘out of jealousy.’
Okay, because of jealousy. So the first line says, Other people, because they’re
jealous, will do something to me, okay, they will do something to me. What?
{Shekur}. {Shekur} means to put somebody down or to criticize somebody or to
speak badly of somebody, okay. Say bad things about you, out of jealousy. {La
sok} means etcetera, okay, and you know, everything else; they cheat you, tell
the bosses bad things about you, all sorts of things, everything you can imagine
that somebody else could do to you out of jealousy, okay. Say something to
your friends that’s not true, say something to your wife or husband that’s not
true. Say something to … by the way, the {me rig pa, me rig pa} means here
untrue, unfounded, unjustified, undeserved, okay, improper. Okay, like they’re
saying something to other people about you that’s not right, it’s not true, it’s not
just, and they are doing it out of jealousy. Okay. So what are you supposed to
do about it? If you’re a great {kadampa geshe}, if you’re a great lojong
practitioner, what are you supposed to do about it, okay? Somebody out of
jealousy is trying to hurt you, okay, and the next few minutes is the hardest few
minutes is the hardest thing to accept okay, and it’s true, and it’s the key to
happiness, all right. And remember we studied Master Shantideva, and we were
in the patience chapter. And I remember preparing the readings. It was too
much to teach in one year, so I was chopping out parts, you know, and that’s
really hard, to go through Master Shantideva and decide what the people in New
York won’t hear. You know, and I was going through and I found this long
section on where did the world come from and is there a creator and was there a
big bang and all this stuff, and I said, oh, this is really nice, twenty pages long,
this is perfect to chop out because who wants to hear all this stuff, you know,
and they won’t even notice its gone, you know. And then I started to read it and
it was really beautiful, because the reason he was talking about the creator and
things like that, emptiness, was because he was trying to get you to figure out
where all the bad things in your life come from. He was trying to get you to
decide, you take one thing, like what? Like this one person who’s jealous of you
and who’s trying to hurt you behind your back or something. So like, Master
Shantideva saying, you cannot practice patience, you cannot be a good Buddhist,
unless you analyse where this person came from. And then you can find out
what’s the right thing to do. Then based on wisdom, of knowing where did this
guy come from in the first place, you can decide what to do. And it’s a very
important distinction between what are they doing to you, or how are they
doing it to you, and where did they come from in the first place, you see what I
mean. Like you say who’s causing all this trouble in my life? Why is the boss
getting down on me? Why is this person who used to be my friend, they don’t
trust me any more? Someone’s talking to them behind my back, somebody’s
giving rumors to them, you know, somebody’s lying to them because they’re
jealous of me, you know. And then your like, ‘Oh, I figured it out, you know, it
was so and so said this to them and that’s why they’re being mad at me, and
that’s why they are saying bad things about me. I finally figured it out, you
know, this is the way its going. This person started it, you know.’ And then
that’s wrong worldview, okay, totally wrong.           You just describing how it
happened and not why it happened, you see what I mean? And there’s a big
difference; you see. What makes cancer, says Master Shantideva? And we talked
about it before. There’s chromosomes in your body, okay, every cell has a
genetic chain, and one atomic particle, and it can come from brick, it can come
from the ground, it can come from the sky, it can come from the sun, it doesn’t
have to be an uranium block, you know. One particle hits one gene chain in one
cell, it breaks it in a certain way and then that starts to divide uncontrollably.
And you die of cancer. One atomic particle hits one microscopic chain in your
body, just standing next to a bus station, you know what I mean, doesn’t have to
be uranium or something like that, and then suddenly you’ve got cancer. That
explains how you got the cancer, it doesn’t explain why you got the cancer. And
there’s a big difference, you know, and you’ve got to think about that. To
practice the {lojong} that we’re going to talk about tonight, as a Buddhist, you
have to give up thinking about how something happens. You have to figure out
why it happened, okay. And it’s a big … you can never be happy, you can
never reach paradise, you can never reach nirvana, unless you make this
distinction. How did this happen? ‘Oh, this guy was talking to the boss, they
went out to dinner, oh, now I remember, two days ago, you know, he must
have said something to him and that’s why he’s mad at me now.’ Okay, that’s
how it happened. But why? You see? Why did they have dinner? Why didn’t
the dinner get cancelled? And why did the guy want to say that? And where did
this guy come from anyway? Okay, and that’s what you … that’s the real goal
of Buddhism, is to figure that out, okay. That’s the big thing. So what are you
supposed to do when someone’s talking behind your back? What are you
supposed to do when something bad happens in your life? You have to figure
out where it came from, okay, not how it came about. You have to figure out
why? Why me? Okay, you have to figure out that. It’s this thing about this ...
you know ‘world-emperors’ in the third chapter of the Abhidharmakosha, king
of the world, president of the world. There used to be these beings on this
planet and other planets, because of the karma they collected, they get to be king
of the world. And if you read the fine print, there’s four different kinds. They’re
called ‘wheel emperors’ because they have these little …well, some people say
big space ships or something that they can fly around in. And some of them
have gold ones, some have silver, some have copper, some have bronze or
something like that. Or steel. And there's a very interesting distinction between
them. If you have a gold {chakra} that’s helping you to rule the world, a gold
wheel, then everybody in the world wants you to be king of the world, they
come and beg you to be king of the world, you know. ‘Scott, please come and
be king of the world, you know, and we’ll pay you anything you ask for. Just
please be come... just come and be our king of the world, okay? And then he
guy with the silver circle, he has to go and kind of sell himself, you know, he’s
like, ‘You think I could be king of the world?’ you know. And then the third guy,
he has to like run an election, and he has to like convince everybody, and he has
to push everybody, his karma is not as good, you know. And then the forth guy
actually has to threaten everybody, you know, he says, ‘You make me king of
the world or I’m blowing you up’, you know what I mean. And there's a
difference in the karma between each person. And I used to think at work, you
know, like they’d be considering me for a new position, or they’d be thinking to
give me a raise or something like that. And sometimes it would be close, like
maybe yes, maybe no, and then I’d feel like the guy with the copper wheel, you
know. And then sometimes they’d say, oh, everybody wants him to have that
position, please take it, you know, we’ll double your salary, you know, and
that’s like a golden wheel. You see what I mean, and it depends on your karma.
You see, some things are close, and some things are not close. You see what I
mean. Some things you can get easy, and some things it’s really a big sweat.
You have to sweat about it. Maybe they’re going to do it, maybe they’re not
going to do it. But where did that come from? You see what I mean, why? Why
does one guy get the golden wheel, and one guy get the … you see. And when
something’s bad, why did it happen in the first place? You see what I mean?
And I wanted to talk about, I was thinking to put it in terms of … people were
telling me they went to hear His Holiness speak, and there were demonstrators
outside, and what do I think about it? You know, what side am I on? And I was
thinking about it, you know, and my official position up to now is, I think the
whole thing is ridiculous, and stupid, and crazy, and American Buddhists
shouldn’t even get involved with it, it’s silly, you know. Its about a dharma
protector whose essence is compassion, the ultimate protection is compassion. If
there is a dharma protector, then their whole nature is compassion, which is
loving other beings and giving them anything they want. And now people are
fighting over this guy. They are fighting over a being, exist or not exist, I don’t
know? I’m never met this being, you know, but supposed to be the essence of
compassion. So if you’re on one side you’re fighting about compassion, on the
other side your fighting about compassion.
So people ask me, ‘What do you think about it?’ So now I’m going to tell you,
okay, the time has come, all right. [Laughs, laughter] And it’s from my heart, it’s
really from my heart. When I was …became a Buddhist, I went to see His
Holiness, I mean. I was studying in Dharamsala. My mother was dying of
cancer, that’s why I wanted to become a Buddhist, I wanted to know why. You
know, I understand how, you know, the cells are dividing in her breast; I
understand that, but why her? She never hurt anybody, you know, why? So I
go to Dharamsala, I study, I study, I study. And I keep getting these letters from
my mother, ‘Had my first check up, didn’t go too well’, you know, and then I get
another letter, you know, ‘Got really sick as school today’. She was a teacher,
schoolteacher, like fifth grade school teacher. Then I get another letter, ‘Got
really bad, blacked out in school today, they told me I had to quit’. Then I get
another letter, ‘Doctors say it’s going to be difficult, I have to take extra
radiation’. Got another letter said, ‘The doctor said go home, no hope, do
whatever you want to do’, you know. And people are starting to tell me, bring
her to India, and the Lamas can tell her how to die right, you know. And then at
least she can die right, you know. And I said, she’s never been outside of
Phoenix Arizona, you know, and they’re saying like, put her on a plane - she’s
going into seizures every two hours or something - put her on a plane, bring her
to India, let the Lamas teach her how to die. I wrote her a letter, I said, if you
want come, you know, she said, ‘What have I got to lose’, you know, so she
came! So here I am, you know, I remember behind the customs thing, they
would not let me in. She’s like dragging herself down the thing, and she’s like
passing out, and they won’t let me in to touch her, you know. And I just
remember this thing, and take her off to Dharamsala in a cab, laying down, you
know, and trying to keep her alive all the way up there, and then go up … and
we get an audience with … first we go to His Holiness’ doctor and he examines
her and he comes out and he says, ‘Teach her about Buddhism real quick’,
[laughs] it’s like … teach her … it’s like, here are some pills for the pain, you
know.      And then they say, go meet His Holiness, you know, try to get His
Holiness to touch her at least, or something like that. So we had this incredible
meeting with His Holiness and … and you know, I’m like asking him what
should I do with the rest of my life? ‘I want to drop out of school and stay with
you’, and he says, ‘No, no, you have to go back to school, you have to finish
school, and take care of your mother, and go meet this Geshe Tarchin guy, you
know, and everything will be all right.’ So I’m like, ‘I don’t want to go back to
the United States’, he said, ‘No, you’ve got to go.’ So I came back you know. So
the reason I’m here is His Holiness, you know. The last person my mother
hugged was His Holiness, you know, and everything comes from His Holiness.
So then, you know, when I was becoming a Buddhist, He was like God, you
know. Like when we saw him the first time in Washington D.C. we were all like
on the floor, it was so … he touched somebody, and they’re like ‘Oh, he touched
me, he touched me’, you know. I remember he touched my hand and I was like,
‘Oh man’ you know, when he touched my hand, you know, it felt like something
else, you know. It was like that. That was my karma when I was 22 years old.
Was that that’s how the world felt about the Dalai Lama. You know. Now
what’s my karma? I come back from retreat, you know, people tell me, I went
to see His Holiness, I say, ‘How was it? What did he teach?’ They say, ‘I don’t
know but there were these people outside yelling, you know, and they don’t like
him, and he’s doing bad things, and there’s all these horrible things.’ I get phone
calls from India, this is happening, this is happening, you know, and I’m like ...
they say, ‘What do you think, what do you think?’ You know, what am I
supposed to think? … is that this is what your supposed to think, okay. I
collected really bad karma with my Lama. You know. I haven’t been good
enough to my Lama, so I have to see this going on in the world, that I didn’t
have to see going on fifteen years ago. Whose fault is it? Who’s right? You see
what I mean? Is it side A or side B? No, it’s Michael Roach, okay, and you have
to think like that, okay. That’s correct view, okay. Who’s right in the protector
controversy? It’s you whose wrong, you know, you. Everyone in this room has
collected the karma to see this holy being have someone dislike him and protest
against him, in America, in the United States of America, not … you know, like in
Lhasa or something, you know. We have the karma to see that. Who made
that? You know, you studied Shantideva; who made it? Whose fault is it? Who’s
right? Who’s wrong? You know, we made it, you know, we weren’t good
enough to our Lamas, so we have to see this thing. That’s all I think about the
protector controversy [laughs], you know. I’m very sad I have to see it, it’s ...
and … so who’s right and who’s wrong? You’re wrong. What made it happen?
You weren’t good enough to your Lamas, you know, you didn’t take care of
your Lama.       So you have to see this thing. How do you fix the protector
controversy? Who will win? You know. Whoever treats their Lama right, and
treats the Dharma right, then you don’t have to see that any more. You know,
some day you’ll see in the newspaper, so and so went to Dharamsala and
prostrated before His Holiness, and His Holiness hugged them, and the whole
thing’s over, and we hereby cancel, you know, the Berlin Wall went down
today, why? You know, who did that? It was impossible when I was a kid, you
know. It was impossible six months before it happened. You know, how do
you get things to happen like that? What do you do if somebody, jealous of you
and … and does something. You see, it’s not the question of do you shut up or
do you say something, do you fight back or do you not fight back? The question
is why did it happen in the first place and how do you get rid of these things, you
see what I mean? It’s not a question of are they right or are you right? Don’t
think of things like that any more. That person exists in your life because your
were jealous of somebody else. Period. And that’s the right thing to do, what?
Stop being jealous, you don’t like people attacking you, keep your vows perfect
and according to every Buddhist book in the universe you won’t have to see
these people any more. It’s not the question of what’s the best way to get
around this person. What’s the best way to handle this person? Should I say this
or should I say that; that’s not the point. Keep your vows and these people
won’t exist any more in your world. That’s the whole point. You don’t like this
stuff? You don’t like the protector problem, you don’t like this person being
jealous of you? Clean up your own act, okay. That’s the hard thing about
{lojong}. It’s like the hardest thing they could have said, right. It would be easier
if they said anything else, right? That’s the lojong. So what are you supposed to
do? Here’s the hard part. Say {gyongka} [repeat] {rang gi} [repeat] {lenpa dang}
[repeat] {gyelka} [repeat] {shenla} [repeat] {bulwar shok} [repeat]. (gyong kha
rang gis len pa dang rgyal kha gzhan la ‘bul bar shog) {Gyongka} means, in a
situation, the disadvantage or the loss, okay. It’s like your doing a business deal,
like someone’s going to come out ahead and somebody is going to come out
behind. {Gyon ka} means, to come out behind. {Gyongka} means, the loss or the
disadvantage in a situation, okay; {gyongka}. {Rang-gi lenpa}. {Rang-gi} means,
by me, by you. {Lenpa} means, take it your self, okay. So this line means, take
the loss yourself in any situation, in any unpleasant situation. In any kind of
controversy, in any kind of competition, in any kind of problem between two
human beings, you take the loss upon yourself. You decide, I will take the short
end of the stick. And decide, okay; you take the loss. {Gyelka}, the next verse,
next line, {gyelka} means, the profit or the advantage in any situation; {gyelka}.
It means the profit or the advantage in any situation. {Shen la} means, to other
people. {Bulwar} doesn’t just mean, give it to them, it means, with great respect
and love and honor, offer it to them. {Bulwar shok} means, may I have the
strength to do that. Okay. {Shok} means that, okay. Any time there is an
interaction between two people, and you’re on one side of it, give them all the
profit, all the benefit, let them come out ahead. {Gyongka rang gi lenpa}, and
take the short end of the stick, and take the loss, okay. Is it just? No, he just said
‘me rig pa’ somebody has accused you unjustly, with no justification they have
tried to hurt you, why? {Trakdok}; their jealous of you, okay. Well, what are
you supposed to do about it? With great respect and love offer them all the
profit from the situation and take whatever loss there is yourself, okay. And I
get twenty minds in this room just said, ‘Oh, but people will just take advantage
of me! I’m tired of being this push-over Buddhist, you know. Everybody, my
supervisor at work will be taking advantage of me every day now, you know. If
I keep cleaning up the bathroom, people will just make me clean up the kitchen
too. You know, you know what I mean, [laughs]. If I keep doing all the …
taking the dirty side of things, everybody will take advantage of me.’ Now get
this, okay, you gotta get this. If there’s a person in your life who would want to
take advantage of you, that’s because you didn’t give people the advantage in
the past. Get it? I’ll repeat it. If there’s a person in your life who wants to take
advantage of you, or who’s in a position to take advantage of you, or who’s in
any kind of position to hurt you at all, you made them because you hurt people
in the past and you didn’t give them the advantage in the past. So if you want to
make sure that these kind of people keep showing up in your life, then struggle
against them, fight against them, try to come up on top, okay, and you will
assure that these kind of people keep coming up in your life. Okay. What’s the
best way to get rid of people who are exploiting you and who are taking
advantage of you? Serve them, give them what they want, take the loss
yourself. Okay, it’s very difficult. It’s the hardest thing I ever said in this class.
You know, and your mind will struggle against it, you will find ten thousand
reasons why he’s wrong, you know. This is crazy, if the whole world was like
this all the Hitlers would be running the show. You know what I mean, I mean,
your mind fights against it, your mind doesn’t want to accept that, okay. If you
don’t accept it, your not accepting karma and you’re not a Buddhist, okay. I’ll
say it again. If you had constantly offered other people the benefit of any deal or
situation between you and someone else, there wouldn’t exist in your life those
people. If we had treated out Lamas right, there wouldn’t be any protector
controversy for you to be on side A or side B, okay. So the goal of life is to get
rid of them; what? To get rid of side A and side B, you know, so that it never
happens, okay. How do you do that? You keep your own vows clean and you
keep giving the advantage to other people. By the way, sooner or later you run
out of people taking advantage of you, this is how you get rid of them,
permanently. What will happen then, people will be knocking your door down
to give you money, property, fame, admiration, whatever you want. It’ll …
that’s the only way to make it come. That is the source of money. Marx and
Engles were wrong, okay, they were wrong. It’s not the earth, it’s good karma,
okay. You want to get rich, famous, have people pay attention to you, get all the
girls you ever wanted? Keep your vows perfect, okay. I’m not kidding, I’m
really not kidding. Keep your vows perfect, you … everything you want will
come, you know. You don’t win by struggling against other people and you
don’t get everything by trying to push it and trying to trick them out of it, or get
them out of it, or fight with them or struggle with them. You want things?
Serve other people, okay. Aside from being the right thing to do, it’s the smart
thing to do, okay, and it works, it really does work. I’ll point out something else.
Whatever approach that you were taking up to now, didn’t work, did it? Your
not rich, famous, admired and have fifty thousand whatever, okay. I mean,
whatever … I mean, you can keep trying that way, but it didn’t work, did it?
Admit it, okay, it didn’t work. You have big credit card bills, you know, some
people like you some people don’t, there’s still people at work who scream at
you, whatever you’re doing hasn’t worked, okay, admit it. Okay, try this way
for a while, try the Kadampa Geshe way. Okay, and just serve other people.
They take advantage of you, God bless you, you know, thank you. All right,
here would you like my overcoat also now that you stole my wallet, you know.
[Laughs, laughter.] Okay, so three things to think about. First of all, you are a
sworn Bodhisattva, if you’re in this class, half the people here, I know I was
there, you took Bodhisattva vows, okay [laughs, laughter], you know. You are
sworn to make other people happy, you are sworn by your vow to be the
servant of the people. You know. {“Ten du bor chur chik…”} you know, you
said those words, you know, ‘I give myself as a servant of all other living beings.
I will give up all the happiness I have, and I’ll offer it to anybody who needs it.’
Period. You already took it, you swore. You can either, you know, send me a …
what do they call it? You know, you can retract yourself, or put up or shut up,
you know. You said you would give other people your happiness. Well, let’s
see if you can do it, okay. I mean, that’s the first part of the rationale. Second
part is, that’s the only way to be happy yourself. You want to be happy?
Whatever you’re trying didn’t work so far. You want all your relationships to be
holy, sweet, permanent, fantastic relationships?           You want to be well-off
financially, or you know, taken care of. You want to be physically healthy?
Well, take care of other people. It is the karma of doing that that makes you get
that, okay. That’s what makes it happen, okay. Now, one thing more to say,
one thing more to say, okay. If another person is taking advantage of you or
another person in a way which would give them bad karma … if you see
someone mugging another person on the street, as a Bodhisattva what are you
supposed to do? And if someone comes and mugs you, okay, or if someone
comes and lies about you, or causes some kind of problem involving you, you
are required as a Bodhisattva to take whatever steps you can to keep them from
collecting bad karma, okay. You are required as a Bodhisattva to go punch the
guy whose mugging the lady. Okay, and that doesn’t contradict what I said
before, at all. And you have to think about it, okay. So there’s three levels here.
You swore you would take care of other people and give them all your
happiness; put up or shut up, okay. If you want to be happy yourself that’s the
only way to do it anyway. So go do it and try it, whatever you have been trying
up till now, didn’t happen … didn’t work. Last thing, that doesn’t mean that if
someone is hurting someone else, you go step in and do something, even if it
means they’re hurting you. If someone’s doing something wrong, you stop
them. Why? Not to make yourself happy, to help them not collect bad karma,
you have that responsibility. So I don’t mean that Buddhists should roll over and
let people stab you or something like that, you know, you have to try to stop
them. Why? Mainly because they’ll collect bad karma, okay. And those are the
three things about taking loss, okay, but get used to it, get used to it, and try it.
And do not believe your mind when it fights against it. And it will, you know.
One quarter of the people in this room will actually go out in the next week and
try this. And the first time they really do get the loss, they’ll say, ‘Huh, boy that
was silly, forget that’, you know [laughs, laughter] you know. You have to keep
it up, you have to be persistent. And don’t let that other side of your mind win,
okay, and I curse you right now. I curse you with the knowledge that you have
to so this, sooner or later everybody in this room has to reach the point where
they can give up the dearest things to them on a moments notice because it’s the
right thing to do, okay, and it’s hard, okay, it’s really hard. And it’s beautiful and
it’s perfect and it’s the road to happiness, okay. Try. Okay, next one. And don’t
start diluting it, okay, and don’t start making conditions. You know, every
situation, everything good that you have, you know, give it away, okay. Even if
they are being unjust and unreasonable and jealous of you, even if their
motivations are crappy, you give them everything they want, okay. Very hard
to do, okay. By the way we’re on verse number six, okay. By the way, if we
don’t clean up our act with our Lamas, if we continue on the course that created
the controversy, we’ll lose them, okay. I mean, His Holiness will get old and he
won’t be here or something, okay. You want to lose His Holiness, then don’t
change, you see what I mean? The only thing that could make His Holiness
leave this world is if we don’t treat our Lamas right, you see what I mean? If
you did treat your Lamas right, he would live in your world forever, as long as
you’re here, he would be here. And if he’s getting old or if he’s appearing to get
old in your eyes, it’s because you’re not doing something right, and that’s why
people lose their Lamas; Geshe Rabten, Lama Yeshe, like that. They didn’t take
care of them, they didn’t have the right attitude towards them and then they lose
them. And we’re like half way with His Holiness. If something like that can
happen, in my world, it means I’m already going in a very dangerous direction,
you know, all the signs are very bad and very wrong. And I have to change or
else it will get worse, you see what I mean? If something like that can even
happen, in my universe, then the sign ... if I continue like that into the future, it’s
very bad. Very bad things will happen, much worse will happen. You know,
he’s getting old, okay. Say {gang la} [repeat] {dakgi} [repeat] {pen takpay}
[repeat] {gang la} [repeat] {dakgi} [repeat] {pen takpay} [repeat]. Okay, you
thought the last one was hard, here’s another … [laughs],okay. {gangla} means,
to anybody at all. {Dak kyi} means, by me, okay, by me. {Pen} means, help.
Pen means, help, to help you. {Pen takpay} means, that they will help you. {pen
takpay, pen takpay}, same thing; to help you. Whoever, by me, to have, what
does it mean? Well, let’s see the next line… Say {rewa} [repeat] {chewa} [repeat]
{gangshik gi} [repeat] Okay, {re wa} means, hope, like you’re hoping someone
will help you. So, so far it means if I turn to another person with hope that they
will help me, okay, what kind of hope? {Rewa chewa}, big hopes. great hopes,
okay. I turn to another person with great hopes that they will help me, I’m
really in a bind, I’m really down and out, there’s something you can do for me
that I need desperately, okay, and I know you can do it. And finally I break
down and ask you, ‘please, you know, give me what I need, I know you have it,
I need it right now’. {Re wa che wa gang shig gi}. {Kang shig gi} means, and they
…, okay, {gang shik gi} means, and they, what? You know what’s coming. Say
{shin tu}, repeat. In colloquial they say {shin-tu!} [Laughs, laughter] Say {shintu}
[repeat] {mirik} [repeat] {nuje na-ang} [repeat] (shin tu mi rigs gnod byed na’ang).
Okay, {shin-tu} means, really, okay, really. If somebody in the monastery does
something to you they say {“shin-tu nyne yang la kyan ba sor shag”}. You
know, ‘He really did me over’, you know, okay, {shin tu}. {Mirik} means, very,
very wrong, unjustified, undeserved, or is anything undeserved? Anyway,
unjustified, totally irrational, undeserved behaviour. What? {Nuje}… they screw
you. {Nuje} means, to harm somebody. And it’s exactly the word in English
‘screw’ is very good, and I don’t … I’m not, you know, I’m not … my Lama told
me not to use curse words in class, okay. But here the word means screw, okay.
You go to somebody, you know, and you got … or your just hoping from the
bottom of your heart, you know, please help me get this position, you know,
please help me get this grant, you know, please help me get this money, please
help me get this thing I need, you know. And two days later you find out that
they totally, totally, they went in and blew the whole thing purposely, just to
make sure you didn’t get it, you know what I mean. Like they just turned
around and did the complete opposite of what you asked them to do. And
maybe they ended up with this money or this girl or this job or whatever, three
days later, you know. Not only they didn’t put in a good word for you, they
went in and put a really bad word, and then got whatever it was themselves,
you know what I mean. Like this is {shin tu nya ne du chu nam}, okay. So
suppose you have a situation like that. You’re hoping they will give you some
help, they turn around and screw you royally, {shin-tu}, okay, royally. Okay.
Say {shenyen} [repeat] {dampar} [repeat] {tawar shok} [repeat] (bshes gnyen dam
par blta bar shog). Okay, {shenyen} means holy spiritual guide. Holy, sacred,
wonderful, spiritual friend, okay. Normally it’s reserved for your Lama, your
root lama. Okay, {shenyen} , okay. {dampar} means, holy, highest, incredible,
okay. {Tawa shok} means, look upon them that way, realise and look upon them
as your holy guru, as your holy lama, okay. The next person who screws you
royally when you turn to them for help, and instead of just not helping you, they
turn around and knife you in the back, okay; {shenyen dampar tawa shok}, this
is my holy lama, oh, thank you, okay, you taught me the essence of life, you
know. And I used to say, you know, I spent eight years at Rinpoche’s side, I
didn’t go anywhere, I didn’t go to my mother’s funeral, I didn’t go to my
brother’s wedding, I didn’t go to my brother’s funeral, I stayed by His side for
eight years and I didn’t move, you know. Then he said, ‘Time to go to work’ and
I’m like, ‘What?’ He said, ‘You got to go to New York. ‘No, no, anything but
that. ‘No, no, go to work and go to New York and go to work.’ I said, ‘No,
please, no, you know.’ And I resisted for six months, you know. And then one
day he gave this very moving lecture in Rachures University, and on the drive
home I said, ‘I’ll do anything you ever ask me to do’. He said, ‘Go to work in
New York’ and I said, ‘No.’ [Laughs, laughter.] And so I went to work in New
York, and then I entered the Dharma laboratory, you know, a New York city
office, corporation. you know, and it was wonderful. And my mind opened like
ten times more than before. Here’s everything; jealousy, desire, anger,
competition, people screwing each other left and right, greed, greed, you know,
everything you could ever hope for is here in one convenient office, you know
[laughs, laughter]. And I got an education that I never got in eight years of
monastery, you know. In six months I learned more, seriously, I learned to deal
with so many more emotions and mental afflictions then I ever could have
learned at Rinpoche’s side, and I went and thanked him, you know, I said ‘Oh,
thank you for sending me to stay with those people in that office you know, it’s
an education you never gave me from the Scriptures, you know. I never could
have understood those things.’ And he’s like, ‘See, I told you to go to work in
New York’ you know. And that’s the thing, you know, there are things you can
learn from the bad people around you, you could never learn from anybody
else. And thank them, you know. What’s the main lesson that they taught you?
Rinpoche said, he used to always say, ‘You don’t like samsara? You don’t like
suffering?’ You know. ‘Then do something about it!’ You know, you know, I
mean, he’s like … samsara or the suffering that we have in life is very kind to us
because sooner or later it reveals its true nature. It strings you along for awhile,
life is happy, life is cool, the Big Apple, everything opportunity, maybe you can
make it, you know, maybe life can be all right, you just need a little more
exercise, you know. And stuff like that. It strings you along and then suddenly
it reveals its true nature, you know. You got cancer, okay, you’re fired, you
know, I met another man, you know what I mean, or something like that, you
know what I mean, and in five minutes the whole thing collapses. He said the
nice thing about samsara is that sooner or later it must show its true colours. So
here’s this person coming to you, giving you a gentle or not so gentle reminder
that this life is your fault. And here you’ve been trying to live with it, you’ve
been trying to find something nice about it, and now it’s screwing you. Thanks
for reminding me, you know, and you have to thank them. You have to say,
you know, I forget, I was hoping things would be all right, now you showed me,
I have to get out of this thing altogether. By the way, is it going to another
planet? No. Can you get out of it and still be in New York? Yes. Very delicate,
okay. Nirvana is a mental condition, okay. You can be in the same office, you
can be around the same people, you can be working the same job, and you
personally move into a state of Nirvana in that office. By the way, that’s how it
has to happen and it will happen. So, if you ain’t there yet, and if there exists a
being in this life who could screw you, then thank them for reminding you that
you ain’t there yet, okay. And as long as you keep meeting those people, it’s just
a barometer of your own state of your mind. You didn’t get there yet. Thanks
for reminding me, okay. And see them that way, honestly see them that way. If
there still exists a person in New York City who can piss you off or screw you,
that’s your fault. You didn’t get there yet, okay. And if they weren’t around to
remind you, you’d take longer to figure it out; thank you. Thanks a lot, okay
[laughs]. You have to see it that way, it’s true. It’s the truth. I’m not saying …
by the way, this lo-jong stuff is not try to see it this way because you’ll feel
better, it’s not that. This is the truth, you know, it’s not like, try to see them as
your spiritual friend. They are your spiritual friend, okay; make the distinction.
It’s not like, try to see this lousy situation in a good way, that’s not the case.
They really are this holy, sweet lama, who’s reminding you, you’re still stuck
here and you better do something about it, okay. It’s not symbolic, it’s literal,
okay. All right. Take a break and come back in about ten minutes, okay. Okay,
please repeat after me. {dorna} [repeat] {ngudang} [repeat] {gyupa yi} [repeat]
{pende} [repeat] {manam} [repeat] {kunla bul} [repeat] {mayi ngudang} [repeat]
{dukngel kun} [repeat] {sangwe dakla} [repeat] {lenpar shok} [repeat]. (mdor na
dngos dang brgyud pa yis, phan bde ma rnams kun la ‘bul, ma yi gnod dang sdug bsngal
kun, gsang bas bdag la len par shog). Okay, {dorna} means, {dorna} means, in
brief, okay. It comes from the word {‘do’} which means sutra and sutra means a
brief book, so {dorna} means, in brief … he’s going to wrap up the first six
verses, okay. Then he says,{ngudang gyupa yi}. {ngu},{ngu} means, directly,
{dang}means, and {gyupa yi} means, indirectly.           Okay.      So, directly and
indirectly. It means directly and in other ways, okay. {Pende} means, {pen}
means, help. {De} means, happiness. {Pende} means help and happiness, okay.
{Manam} means, my mothers; referring to all other living creatures, okay, my
mothers.
{kunla bul}means, give them everything, I’m sorry, give it to all of them, give
help and happiness to all of them, directly and indirectly, okay. Give good things
to other people, directly and indirectly, {dorna}; hey, that’s the bottom line, okay.
Do nam means this is the bottom line. Everything good, give it to other people,
okay, directly and indirectly. Then it says, {mayi nudang dukngel kun sangwe
dakla lenpar shok} {mayi nudang} means, all the harms they do to you, all the
harms that are done in the world by any living being. {dukngel} means, and all
of their sufferings. {Kun} means, all of those things, everything they do wrong
and all the suffering that’s happening among other people.
I’m going to skip the {sang we}, okay, I’m going to skip the {sang we}. {Dakla
lenpar shok} means, I will take it upon myself, okay, I will take it upon myself.
Anytime someone’s going to get hurt, anytime someone’s going to hurt
someone else, I want it to happen to me first. I’ll take it myself, and {sang we}
means, secretly. I won’t brag about it, I don’t care if nobody knows about it, I’m
not going to advertise it, if somebody asks me ‘Are you doing that?’ I’m going to
say, ‘Huh’ me?’ You know, okay, but I mean, every chance I get to take the heat
off somebody, every time there’s a chance for me to take some problem away
from somebody, I’ll do it and I’ll do it in such a way that no-one ever knows
about it. You know, I will take other people’s sufferings away from them
secretly, they won’t even know I am doing it. Every time I have a chance to
intercept some kind of a problem and make it happen to me instead, I’ll do it.
They will … maybe they will never know. And that’s the perfect way to do it,
okay. That’s like … I read Ann Landers one day, she said that too. I swear to
God, she said, ‘Do something good for somebody today and make sure they
don’t find out about it’. And that’s the secret to happiness, you know. This is
Diamond Lion is saying the same thing, okay. Like if you’re aware that
someone’s got a problem, if you’re aware that something’s going to hit
somebody, go and make sure that it never reaches them, you know, if your …
especially with somebody like Khen Rinpoche or Lama Zopa, there’s a problem
forming, he’s going to hear about it, just intercept it and take all the problem
yourself, work hard, stay up, finish it, make sure they never hear about it, okay.
And that’s like perfect service of other people, you know. Any time they’re
going to have a problem or something, just quietly move in and take care of it
even if you lose money, or lose sleep or lose your … anything, just move in
there and take care of it. And who cares if no-one ever hears about it, no
coveching about it, ‘I love to do that, oh I donate all this money, they don’t even
appreciate me, you know’, and none of that, okay …okay, just secretly. Just take
care of it, they don’t need to know, nobody needs to know, those are the
sweetest virtues of all, okay. Then {ngudang dukngel kun sangwe dakla lenpar
shok}, and then give them all your good things, and maybe they never know
where it came from, you know. I have this fantasy of Bodhisattvas breaking into
peoples’ houses and putting money in their wallets and sneaking out at night,
you know, and stuff like that, you know. Like just do things for other people,
give them things, take care of things, take care of them. In programming the call
it ‘transparently’, you know, the user never knows that the programmer took
care of all this stuff, it just works, you know. And do all these sweet benefits and
do all these sweet things for other people, and just do it anonymously, and if
they never know, fine. You know, one less problem got to them, one more
sweet thing happened to them, and you’re at the bottom of it but nobody
knows, okay, and it’s the sweetest kinds of virtue. Okay, those are {ngu}.{gyupa
yi} means, if you can’t do it directly then do it indirectly by doing the practice of
{tong-len}. And that’s a reference to {tong-len}. Okay. It’s a special meditation
where you visualise all of the problems that are happening some place where
you can’t do anything about it, you know what I mean. Like there’s problems
happening in some part of the world, you can’t get there, you don’t have the
resources to help these people, then you visualise yourself taking all of these
problems in during your meditation in your breath. And then you destroy
them, you put a special bright light in your heart and you bring all those hassles
of other people and you breathe them in your nose and you bring them down
here and you … and it’s very important, in one breath you blow them out, and
you destroy them. And you practice fantasizing about being able to destroy all
the troubles of the world, taking all the troubles of the world upon you,
especially when you’re sick or having trouble, and especially at the moment of
your death, is the most powerful one, okay. At the moment of your death you
say, ‘I’m going to die in the next five minutes, let all the troubles of everybody
who lives come into me and I’m going to destroy them. You know, my death
will destroy them.’ Something like that, and this is a very powerful {tong-len}
that’s taught in the Scriptures, okay. So you can do it every morning, quietly,
secretly, in your own room, just practice taking in all their problems, goes into
your heart, and you blow it out. You destroy it with this light in your heart. And
it’s just gone and they don’t have it any more, okay. And then you practice
doing the opposite. I like this one, it’s really cool, it’s called, it’s the {tong} of
{tong len}. And you practice that when your breath goes out it’s this beautiful
white light, like honey, and it’s going out and it’s spreading in the world and
everybody who walks through that breath, or everybody who gets touched by
an atom of that breath, it’s … on that atom of your breath exists everything they
ever wished for, okay. So you imagine that atoms from your breath are floating
around New York City, like you breathed I don’t know how many thousand
times today, a lot of atoms came and went. Each one of them is stacked with
cars, houses, raises, you know, girlfriends, boyfriends, dogs, cats, anything
anybody wants. And it’s just floating around the city, people are breathing it in,
people are getting money, you know, suddenly they got a raise, they don’t
know what happened, suddenly met the boy of their dreams, you know, and
they don’t know that you did it, you know. And this is this fantasy thing where
you create everything that anybody would ever wish for, okay, and you have to
study that meditation. There’s a separate course for that, there’s an aux… you
know, supplementary course for that, and you can study it sometime, it’s very
holy. But that’s what it means when the text says directly and indirectly, okay.
Directly, take care of people quietly, efficiently, secretly, okay. Indirectly, you
know, visualise that you could do more, you know, fantasise about doing more
and then, what’s it mean? Indirectly means, some day that kind of thinking, that
thinking pattern, will make it actually happen and you will be able to do it
directly, okay. You’ll become an enlightened being and then you’ll be able to do
all those things. So that’s the exercise, okay, that’s what he means by indirectly,
okay.
Okay, we’re onto the last verse. I’m not going to write the Tibetan because you
have it on page five. I’ll write the pronunciation. Say {dedak} [repeat] {kun
kyang} [repeat] {chu gye kyi} [repeat] {tokpay dri me} [repeat] {mabak par}
[repeat] {chunam gyumar} [repeat] {shepa yi} [repeat] (shenpay chingwa}
[repeat] {le drul shok) [repeat]. (de dag kun kyang chos brgyad kyi, rtag pa’I dri mas
ma sbags zhing, chos kun sgyu mar shes pa’I blos, zhen med ‘ching ba las grol shog). By
the way, you’ll see it spelt slightly differently in different texts. These {lo-jongs}
were not written down in the beginning and they were passed from person to
person, so if you get five manuscripts they are slightly different, okay, and I’m
just warning you in case you see it in other versions. I’ve checked like five of
them and they all mean the same thing, there’s some slight differences, okay.
{dedak} means, those. And it means all those holy practices that I just talked
about tonight. All of that stuff that I talked about doing, all that impossible stuff
so now you know you have to do sooner or later. By the way, you may you
might as well just roll over now and do it, okay. Sooner or later your going to
have to do it. You can’t get to nirvana unless you do it, you know. You can
resist, what, you can run but you can’t hide. Sooner or later you got to do it,
okay, you might as well start now. Just give up, just do it, okay. Whatever
you’re doing up till now didn’t work, you’re proof of that, you life is proof of
that. So try this for a while, see if anything changes, what can you lose? Right.
A lot of money, but anyway … [laughs, laughter]. {dedak} means, all these
behaviours that he’s been talking about, these crazy Buddhist behaviours which
are beautiful, holy and the right thing to do. {kun kyang}, all of these. {chu gye}
means, the eight thoughts. I translate it as eight ideas of things. Now, in the
commentaries it’s very beautiful because there’s two different sets of eight, some
people say this is the eight worldly thoughts, some people say it’s the eight ways
of seeing things as self existent. And I think they’re both beautiful, so that’s why
I was trying to time it so you could get both of them tonight, okay. So we’re
going to go over the eight worldly thoughts, which is one way to explain it, this
is the way that Chekawa explained it for example, about nine hundred years
ago. And then we’re going to see like the first Changye Rinpoche from the
seventeen hundreds, he’s going to explain it totally different way, and both of
them are right. And I think they are both sexy, so here we go. Say {jikten}
[repeat], {chu gye} [repeat] {jikten} [repeat], {chu gye} [repeat]. (‘jig rten chos
brgyad). By the way, before I explain that I want to say one more thing about the
verse that came before about taking the loss yourself. There’s a homework
question I didn’t cover, okay? It says what did the first Changye Rinpoche have
to say about how we should take the loss ourselves. And he made a big deal
about it, he made a big deal in his commentary, about two things, he says,
you’ve got to have two things going on in your mind when you let yourself get
the short end of the stick in your office tomorrow morning, okay. For me it’s
going to be tomorrow afternoon, all right? And Dean didn’t go under and they
sucked me back, okay. First of all, enjoy it, have a good time, okay. Realise that
this is going to get you liberated, Buddha paradise, nirvana, totally whole, purely
pure dharma being of light, and say ‘Wow, great’. Here, I’ll take it. Be happy
about it, okay. Any kind of hesitation is very bad, okay. And the second part is,
don’t have any regrets about it now or a year from now or five years from now,
okay. No regrets, okay. It’s very important when you do a difficult virtue, like
giving someone else the position that you really wanted, that you do not feel
regret later, okay. You must never regret doing something, even if it was hard
for you, be proud of yourself, okay. And every time your mind says, I don’t
know if you did the right thing, say, shut up, you know, you did do the right
thing for once, stupid, you know, don’t regret it later. If you want to destroy
that good karma, regret it. You’ll lose the job and you’ll lose the virtue, okay. So
don’t blow it, okay. Never regret it, once you give something away, once you
give another person the …you might have to report to this person for the next
five years, it’s happened to me, okay. Fine, never regret it, okay. Then the virtue
gets bigger and bigger, okay. And do it joyfully, you know, don’t say, ‘Yeah
okay, yeah, I’ll wash the bathroom, yeah’, bodhisattva, you know, [laughs]
okay, don’t make a big face. I mean, look, you’re going to have to wash the
bathroom anyway, you might as well be happy about it, okay. So when you
take the loss yourself, do it with joy, okay. It’ll help the other person a lot, all
right. {jikten chu gye} {Jikten} means, worldly, non-nirvana, okay, non-
enlightened. {Chu} means dharma but here it just means thoughts, okay. People
have translated this as the eight worldly dharmas and then they went on to
describe these eight horrible thoughts, and I always thought it was weird they
called them ‘dharmas’, you know. The word is dharma but here it means
thoughts, okay. {Gye} means eight different worldly thoughts, okay. And
Diamond Lion is saying look, ‘You go do these powerful virtues, don’t mess
them up with eight thoughts, {mabak par}. {Mabak par} means … {bak par}
means polluted or stink them up. {Bak par} means don’t stink them up with the
wrong thoughts, you know. While you’re doing these difficult spiritual practices
like making sure somebody else in your office gets the promotion you wanted,
don’t blow it later by having these eight stinky thoughts, okay. {Bak par} means
like to take a pure glass of water and throw vomit into it or something, okay.
It’s a very bad word in Tibetan, {bak par} means polluted or corrupted or, like
that. So do your seven verses that came before and never have the following
eight thoughts, okay. Here they are. Say {nye kur} [repeat], {jungna} [repeat]
{ga} [repeat]. {nye kur} [repeat], {jungna} [repeat] {ga} [repeat]. (rnyed bkur
byung na dga’). {nye kur} has a lot of different meanings. In this case it means
something that you got, you know, like money or a position or a car or a
girlfriend or something that you obtained. {jungna} means, if you get it, {ga}, to
be happy, okay. So the first worldly thought is, when you get something, you
get all excited and you get all happy; {nye kur jungna ga}. That’s the first worldly
thought. This line has caused all these guilt complexes among the Judeo
Christian westerners like me, who, you know, have this inability to be happy
when the time is right to be happy. You know, okay, so you just succeeded in
teaching a great class at the Quaker house, don’t be happy, don’t be happy, it’s
wrong. You know what I mean. Of course it’s not meaning that, okay. Of
course it doesn’t mean that. It doesn’t mean like, don’t enjoy ice-cream or don’t
enjoy a good movie or something like that. Don’t listen to music, you might like
it, it doesn’t mean that. {nye kur jungna ga}, means this unreasonable, stupid
happiness that gets all high, that’s going to fall down in twenty four hours. It’s
like kids who are eating candy and then you know they are going to be crying in
half an hour. You know what I mean. It’s like this unreasonable up, about, oh,
you know everything’s going oh, oh, I’m so excited, I met this guy in the coffee
shop, oh, everything is perfect now, you know, you know, and your mind goes
too high. You know, and it’s just going to fall down. It’s like to be too excited
about something that doesn’t deserve it. Normal good things in samsara are all
going to collapse shortly. Don’t get your mind all excited about it, because
you’re just going to be disappointed later, okay. So {nye kur jungna ga}, you can
have dharma happiness. Hey, look at that, the laws of karma have been
satisfied; I was good to somebody and I got some money back, great. Karma is
wonderful, thank you Mr. Karma. That’s intelligent Buddhist rejoicing, okay,
that is fine. Don’t think you shouldn’t do that, that’s wonderful. That’s very
smart because it will - what’s that Pavlov thing, you know, - it’ll encourage you
to keep doing it. Hey, this stuff really works, right? Hey, this stuff really works,
you know. I’ve been good, I kept my vows for, you know, like three months,
and all … everything is straightening out in my life, that’s wonderful. That’s fine,
your supposed to think like that. This is talking about, you know, getting all
excited about some worldly thing that’s going to collapse in a week anyway.
And you know that, okay. Number two. Say {ma jung na} [repeat], {mi ga}
[repeat]. {ma jung na} [repeat], {mi ga} [repeat]. ( ma byung na mi dga’). {ma jung
na} means if you don’t get what you’re hoping to get, okay, {ma jung na}
means if you don’t get something that you’re hoping to get, {mi ga} means, to
get all upset about it, okay. That’s the second worldly thought. And he’s saying,
when you do those first seven verses, don’t let your mind be poisoned by these
eight thoughts. This one is, ‘Oh, I didn’t get what I wanted.’ I had … There was
this lady who came to Khen Rinpoche and said, ‘I’m taking my … I haven’t been
to temple for my whole life, but I want to come to a class and go into temple and
do some prayers’. And Rinpoche said, ‘Why did you just decide to come to
temple and come to class and go to the temple and do some prayers?’ And she
said, ‘Well, I’m doing my driver’s license test tomorrow and I want to pass, so
I’m coming into the temple to pray. And by the way, if I don’t pass then I’m not
going to ever come to the temple ever again.’ You know, so you know,
Rinpoche is like, threw her out. And the point is this. If you’re trying to practice
and things don’t go so good, okay, some things will screw up, okay. If you’re
doing good practice, you can make ... the Diamond-Cutter Sutra says, the
Buddha said, if you’re doing really good practice, your bad karma will ripen
quickly, and finish. So you’ll have some disasters will happen, okay. Some things
won’t go well, okay. And by the way you’re just kidding yourself anyway
because you didn’t do that much virtue that you didn’t … that you cleaned out
all your bad karma. Of course you still have a lot of bad karma and of course,
even if you do make some whimpy attempt to practice the dharma for a few
weeks, you still have a few million years of bad karma left, okay. So don’t be
shocked when something happens, you know, and don’t quit dharma and say,
‘Oh, this doesn’t work’ or get all upset about it, okay. But over a steady,
extended, sustained, dharma practice, keeping your book and your vows, your
life will absolutely transform and every event and object in your life will change
into some holy sacred thing, and you can watch it happen, and you can bet on it.
In the meantime, occasional bad things will happen, and expect it, and don’t get
all depressed about it, okay, that’s a worldly thought, okay. Even as you practice
dharma, you know, you finally going to say, ‘Okay, I’m going to be honest
today at work for the first time because of that inspiring lecture last night, you
know. So you go and you tell your boss what you really think, and he kicks you
out or he yells at you and you get in trouble, you know. And you go back to
your chair, you know, and your sitting there and your like, ‘Gee, you know, I
don’t know if it’s so good to tell the truth and all that stuff.’ You know. Don’t
doubt yourself and don’t get upset about it. Truth is extremely powerful. You
know, always stick with the truth, and then … there will be like hitches, you
know, due to you’re past bad karma, but in the end truth always creates
wonderful, beautiful things. So just stick to it, okay, that’s the point. Number
three. So, so far we have being happy in a stupid way when you get something,
and being unhappy when you lose something. Rinpoche is always watching
New York Mets on TV and some guy will hit a home run, you know, bamm! and
he says watch the {jikten chu gi} on this guy’s face as he rounds third base, you
know. And this guy’s like, you know, like that. And then he says, ‘Watch the
{jikten chu gi}, the eight worldly thoughts on his face next inning when he drops
the fly ball,’ you know. And I’m waiting, you know, and the guy’s like ‘Ahh’,
and he misses the ball and all the fans are like … ‘Boo’ and he’s going ... he’s like
that, you know [laughs, laughter]. And he’s always like saying, ‘There, there’s
the eight worldly dharmas you know, there’s the eight worldly thoughts,’ you
know. He loves to do that. [Laughs, laughter] Say {dewa} [repeat], {jung na}
[repeat], {ga} [repeat], {dewa} [repeat], {jung na} [repeat], {ga} [repeat]. (bde ba
byung na dga’). {ma jung na} [repeat] {mi ga} [repeat]. {ma jung na} [repeat] {mi
ga} [repeat]. (ma byung na mi dga’). {dewa} means, you feel good, okay, {dewa}
means you feel good. {jung na ga} means, you get all happy when you’re feeling
well, especially physically, okay. Like, you know, you had a good lunch and you
had a Michael and Zoë’s milkshake and one of those no-sugar brownies and the
whole world is wonderful, you know. And then suddenly you get a headache or
suddenly you get a cold, and then suddenly everything in the world is horrible,
you know, everything’s bad. So he’s saying number three is to get all happy
when you’re feeling good physically. ‘Oh, everything’s wonderful’, you know.
And then you get a little headache or something goes a little bit wrong or you
feel upset stomach, and suddenly you’re grumpy to everybody, you’re saying
bad things to everybody, they can tell something’s ... your back is hurting you
again. You know, because you’re being nasty to everybody again. A true
dharma person, the way you relate to other person must become independent
of how you feel physically, okay. I mean, you have to be able to overcome that,
you know. You know, whether you feel really good physically or whether
you’re in pain physically, you have to have joy and love for other people. It
cannot change just because you had a bad lunch, okay, can’t change, that’s what
he’s saying. When you take that lose yourself, and you don’t have a coat, and it
starts to get cold, you know, don’t get grumpy and start acting different, okay;
you have to act the same. Whether you feel healthy or not, whether you have a
headache or not, whether you feel tired or not. Whether you feel cold or hungry
or not, you still have to do the right thing as a Buddhist, okay. You still have to
be compassionate to other people, you still have to worry more about other
people, okay. That’s three and four. By the way, it’s not cause and effect, right?
You’re not cold because you gave up the seat for that other person. You’re not
hungry because you gave away your last no-sugar brownie, okay. All you’re
doing is creating more in the future. What number are we on? Five and six. Say
{nyendrak} [repeat], {jung na} [repeat], {ga} [repeat]. {nyendrak} [repeat], {jung
na} [repeat], {ga} [repeat] (snyan graks byung na dga’). {ma jung na} [repeat], {mi
ga} [repeat]. {ma jung na} [repeat], {mi ga} [repeat]. (ma byung na mi dga’). Okay.
{nyendrak} means, you get famous or well known. People start talking about
you, you get on the radar, okay. {jung na ga}, you get all excited about it. ‘Oh, I
was in Time magazine, you know, lot of people coming to my classes, I walk
down the street, they recognise me, you know’, and you get all like happy about
it, okay. And then, {ma jung na miga}, nobody knows you, nobody cares
[laughs] and then you’re all upset about it, okay. And you get worried about it,
okay. This is a cool thing. You know, Sakya Pandita, you’re going to study, I
mean, those of you who are coming to Friday night class, and you’re studying
that Sakya {Lo-jong}, there’s a very powerful commentary by the Sakya Pandita
and I’m feeding it to you, okay, and this is this extraordinary holy Lama who
memorised the eight thousand verses, Prajna Paramita in Sanskrit and used to
go around reciting it for fun, you know. He became the greatest Lama in Tibet
at that time, 1200s, throughout the country, known from one side to the other
side. Couldn’t get down the street without somebody stopping him and asking
him to prove something. And then they asked some Lama, you know, why is
he so famous, you know, why is his name gone all the way to the border of
China, the whole Tibetan world knows this guy, what was it that he did? You
know. And this guy has like some kind of clairvoyance, you know, and he
checks, and he says, ‘You know why, because his lama had diarrhoea one day,
and he went in and cleaned it up with his hands, with his own hands, and he
thought, this is the sweetest nectar I ever saw, you know, and that’s why he’s so
famous.’ You see what I mean? The real cause and effect of things is very weird.
You know. Why is Madonna famous? You know, you know, I mean, [laughs]
why? You know, why are famous people that seem to have no ... You know, I
mean, I’m not saying her ... I’m not, I can’t know, right, I don’t know, but I’m
saying why does it seem like people have no particular good qualities, are like
famous and rich, you know, and then some other people who seem to be very
pure and noble and everything, they just ... nobody heard about them, nobody
could care less about them, and they die in obscurity, poor, you know why is it?
It has nothing to do with their current situation. It has everything to do with
what they did in the past, okay. And you get exactly what you deserve. You
know, karma is merciless and infallible. Karma never moves an inch. You
know, nothing ever happens to you that you didn’t design yourself, okay. So
don’t get too happy about it or too sad about it. Just be pure from now on,
that’s all you can do, you know, just take care of everything from now on. Don’t
worry about the karma that you did was bad. You’re going to get good things
come, and they’re always going to screw up to something else, and just when
you think it’s the worse thing of all, there’ll be this cheque in the mail from Uncle
so-and-so that you never met, you know, and that’s the way it’ll go. In every
single situation involving another person, do the right thing dharmically, and
don’t worry what happens, okay.             Because it cannot have a bad result.
Everything will be perfect, you just have to keep doing it, okay. {Ma jung na
miga} means, same thing, right. Don’t get famous and you’re unhappy about it,
okay. Seven and eight.      Stillwell, we could just come in and turn the clock back,
you know. Did you think of it? No. We’ll take care of that. Say {tura} [repeat],
{jung na} [repeat], {ga} [repeat] (bstong ra byung na dga’). {ma jung na} [repeat],
{miga} [repeat] (ma byung na mi dga’). {tura} [repeat], {jung na} [repeat], {ga}
[repeat] ). {ma jung na} [repeat], {miga} [repeat]. {tura} means, somebody
praises you, ‘Oh, you did such a wonderful job, you’re so smart. You’re so
clever’, you know, ‘You did that so well.’ And then {ga}, you get all excited. You
know. You go to work and the boss says, Great job on that account’, you know,
and you’re like wow, you know. And you know what happens the next day, you
know, and you go in and you’re the same person, right? You didn’t change since
yesterday; suddenly you’re the biggest idiot in the company, you know, {ma
jung na miga}. I can’t believe you would do that, I just can’t believe it, you
know. And it used to amaze me because every ... the most lavish praise I ever
got in my company was for things I had nothing to do with. You know, like they
would call you into their office and you would be like shaking, you know, and
they’d say, ‘Great job on that JC Penny account!’ you know, and your like, I
wasn’t even here that day, but you’re like, ‘Thank you, sir’, you know. And then
the next day you’re in there and they’re screaming at you for something you
didn’t do either. You know, and you’re like what goes on, what makes these
things happen? You have to understand the emptiness, right? You have to see.
Don’t get all excited because they said something good. Don’t get all depressed
because they said something bad. Just keep your vows pure. Just follow those
{Lo-jongs}, you know, and everything will be happy in the future. Everything
will be pure and wonderful in the future. It’s obvious from the praise you get
and the yelling you get at work, that it’s all random, right? It’s obvious, right?
It’s obvious that it has nothing to do with your current behavior. Right? It’s
obvious it’s coming from some former thing, you know, that you have no
control of right now. So don’t get so excited about it, don’t be too depressed
about it. Do the right thing from now on. In every situation, good or bad,
negative/positive, they’re praising you, they’re not praising you, you’re sick,
you’re not sick, you’re getting things, you’re not getting things, people talking
about you, or they’re not talking about you. Forget it, it’s out of your control,
it’s passed, that karma was collected a long time ago. Now respond with a pure
dharma {Lo-Jong} mind, you know. Every activity you do, every response now
is total truth, purity, everything pure your mind and your activities and your
speech, everything is true. And then the future will take care of itself, you know.
Don’t confuse the crap from the past that you can’t do anything about, with
creating a Buddha paradise in the future, because you have that option now.
And that’s what lo-jong is all about, okay, that’s what you … that’s now how
you have to live from now on. Forget the last one and a half questions on your
homework, okay, and we’ll cover them at the beginning next … on Thursday, all
right. So don’t worry about the second set of eight, and don’t worry about the
last question. They both are talking about the emptiness of the situation, they
are both talking about, now it’s time to see the emptiness of these situations and
do the right thing from now on. But you must understand the emptiness now,
don’t be stupid any more. And that’s too long a subject to cover in one and a
half minutes, okay. We’ll do a short prayer and then please try to leave as
quickly as possible because otherwise they’ll throw us out, okay.
[prayer: short mandala]
[prayer: dedication]