Серия ежедневной практики, курс 03 — Размышление о практике даяния и принятия (1997, Коннектикут), занятие 7

[Speaker 2]
Session seven.

[Speaker 1]
I wanted to just maybe have almost an open discussion, and then we'll do a short meditation, and then we'll end, about the worldview involved in tonglen, which is the Buddhist worldview altogether. And if you don't get it, you'll never be a successful Buddhist, okay? And in fact, if you don't get it, you'll never be any different from anybody else, really.

You see what I mean? What Buddhism has to offer you, what Buddhism can make a difference for you, is its view of how things work, and why the world is happening the way it is for you. And if you don't truly get that, then all you'll be is just a little nicer person than you were before, but you won't really be helping people or like that.

So, you know, I've taught a course in North Carolina, this tonglen, maybe a year or two ago, and we got to the part about does it work or not. And I said, it doesn't work the way you think. You know what I mean?

That's what Asanga says in the book. He says, look, it works, but not the way you think it works. You can't take other people's pain.

Prove it.

[Speaker 2]
Would you take me to this right now?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, we're hot. I don't know about you, but I don't enjoy it. If somebody could take that karma away from me, if Ken Rinpoche or the Dalai Lama or the Buddha could take that karma away from me, well, I'd be cool right now.

The fact that I'm comfortable right now proves that either they can't take it away, or they can take it away, and they're flirting with me. You know what I mean? There's this Christian idea that they're testing you.

Oh, God could take your cancer away, but He wants it's a personal test for you. Well, then what's the personal test for babies that burn in buildings? What's the point?

It's not like that. There's nobody who can take your pain away. There's no such thing as taking another person's karma.

As you learn more about karma, you'll see why that's true. You are your karma. What you call you is just a composite of your past karma.

So how can you give that away? It's not that everybody has to have their own karma, and you can't give karma to other people. You is your karma.

The idea of giving your karma away doesn't mean anything. You are what you experience, and what you experience is a result of what you did in the past. So how are you going to give that to somebody else?

You see what I mean? Who you are is your past karma. You see what I mean?

It's a result of your past karma. It's the idea that you could share karma, give karma, take away somebody's sickness, anything like that. It doesn't work that way.

You can't do that. So even if Buddha wanted to take our karma, apparently they're not because I still suffer. So that's all.

They don't have the ability. There's no such thing. So then a lot of people in North Carolina freaked out.

They said, okay, I'm not going to do tonglen anymore. And then a few people came up and said, I read in a book that this guy did a prayer for his sister in Kansas, and her cancer went away. What's that?

And then somebody else came up and said, well, why did people get in a line for Dalai Lama to have him touch their head? If you can't give someone blessing or karma, then what's the use of that? So what do you guys think?

Huh?

[Speaker 2]
It's complicated.

[Speaker 1]
It's complicated. No, it's sort of disturbing because I actually had people, after tonglen in North Carolina, I actually had people come up and say, I'm not going to do tonglen anymore because it doesn't work. You said it doesn't work.

I didn't say that. I said it doesn't work the way you thought it did.

[Speaker 2]
It's my bad karma that they have bad karma, that they suffer through these things, or that see them having bad karma.

[Speaker 1]
That's one answer, okay?

[Speaker 2]
I mean, it's...

[Speaker 1]
Buddhas can only meet who? Tenth-level bodhisattvas. They can't meet anybody else.

If they walked into this room, they'd see everybody is a tenth-level bodhisattva. Does that mean everybody in this room is a tenth-level bodhisattva? You better say yes.

To them. To them. Okay?

Who are you to yourself? Just a schmuck.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so there's one opinion of you, and there's another perception of you. But what's the real you? There is no such thing.

Get used to it. There's nothing in the middle. There's only their perception of you, which is how you really are, to them, and there's your perception of you, which is how you really are to you, and there is nothing in between.

That's emptiness. Yeah? If you do tonglen for somebody, and that's purifying your own karma, so that you can become an enlightened being, so you can really help them.

That's the whole point of the book we read. Yeah, that John read. That's the whole point of the reading that John did.

[Speaker 2]
What you're seeing is, if you see a person suffering, you're seeing their projection. Yeah. So, is it possible that you can help your projection, if not that person itself?

Can your person change?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, there's two things that you can do. One, if you purify your own karma, you wouldn't see wars anymore, for example. Now, I have a Christian friend.

He came up to my cabin when I was doing a retreat, when I got out, and he said, we debated for a whole night, and then the next morning he said, I believe what you say. I believe that Michael Roach could purify his karma, and then in his perceptions, everything in the world would be perfect. All the people he ever met would be perfect.

There wouldn't be any wars. And then he said, that seems very selfish to me, because those people would still be seeing themselves in a war, and those people would still be seeing themselves die. And it seems to me, you're just sticking your head in the karmic sand and ignoring what they see.

How would you answer that? Close the needs by becoming enlightened. You couldn't do anything else for anybody except to achieve that incredible evolution and then be able to talk about it.

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
That's it.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, and then teach them. I mean, the main activity of Buddha is only one, teaching. It's all they can do.

They can't come to a planet and take away cancer or AIDS or anything else, because you have to do it yourself. So that way you've taken care of your perception of people and people's perception of people.

[Speaker 2]
Then you've got to purify their karma. They don't know how to take care of their own karma.

[Speaker 1]
They have to do it themselves.

[Speaker 2]
Doesn't the other person have the karma that you do tonglen on them?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. By the way, don't get proud that you're doing tonglen on them. Well, in a way.

In a way, yeah. I mean, in a sense... By the way, this is the crux.

Get this and never forget it, because if you don't get this, you'll never be a good Buddhist. Everything's the same as tonglen. Everything you ever do for another person is the same as tonglen.

What am I talking about? Let's take the case of a mugging. A what?

A mugging. Someone's getting mugged on the street. You see it.

What's the dynamic here? People in Ireland got it. It was very interesting.

Two Christian people were in the back. Deep Catholic people. They were fighting me the whole course.

We got to this part. They asked about three questions. And they had this look on their face.

The next day we were leaving, the lady stood up. She said, I want to say something. In 18 years, this is the only thing I've lived for.

I heard what I needed to hear in my whole life. This is it. It was so intense.

Because these are two Catholic people in the back who were picking at me the whole class. At the end she said, that's it. I believe that's it.

18 years I've been looking for this. She just started crying. What's the answer?

[Speaker 2]
Mugging.

[Speaker 1]
If you stop the mugging, it's the victim's karma to have the mugging stopped. Right. Okay?

If you go and try to stop the guy from stabbing the lady, and you succeed, whose fault is it? Whose credit is it? It's the victim's.

Okay? They had the good karma to have you come and help. Yeah, and if you come and they stab her and you, what?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
You had the karma to be stabbed, and she had the karma to be stabbed. Okay? So what's really the result of you helping somebody to mugging?

You don't get mugged in the future. Or someone comes and saves you. Okay?

Now, what's going on? You're helping the person, all the real result is going to be is that you don't get mugged in the future. They either get mugged or not mugged depending on their own karma.

Okay? So why help people? You can't really affect it.

If you save her, it's her karma. If you don't save her, it's her karma. Why should you go to her aid?

Yeah, you're making your own paradise. For whom? For her.

Get used to it. Get used to that way of thinking. Get used to that way of thinking.

You have to think like that to save, to help her. So you can teach her how to get to paradise. You see?

That's all that's going on. Get used to it. What's this mean?

You will never be disappointed again. Every action you do is because it's right. Okay?

Whether you get something good out of it, whether a horrible result, people attack you, hate you, criticize you, or people think you're a genius, it doesn't matter. You do it because it's right. It's very interesting.

It's the power of right. You see what I mean? You take an action because it's right.

Because God damn it, you can't predict the result. You never will be able to predict the result. Get used to it.

Okay? It's very interesting. The reason Buddhists can't be Buddhists so well is because it doesn't seem to work out sometimes.

You stop killing the roaches in your house and then they get worse. And you're like, why should I keep this up? You know?

That's a wrong worldview. You'll never get to heaven if you don't keep this worldview. You see what I mean?

You've got to get used to that. You know, you give your money away and you're still broke. You know?

So they give up Buddhism. To you. To them.

To them something's interesting. But don't forget that, yeah, their karma, as they're experiencing their karma, is your projection to you. Their karma as they're experiencing their karma to them is their projection.

So you've got to keep going like that. You get caught a little bit, I think, like that. So you've got to get used to that.

What's the implication? Any particular good deed you ever do may have it... You can't predict the result.

The result is not coming because of what you're doing. Get used to it. Okay?

That's why smart people go into business and make money. And other smart people go into business and lose money. And stupid people go into business and make money.

And stupid people go into business and lose money. Because it doesn't matter if you're stupid or smart. It only matters what you did in the past.

It's very profound. If you live your life this way, you'll be a true Buddhist. And it's hard.

It's really hard. The things you do now have no effect on the apparent immediate results. Get used to it.

Not at all. Okay? If you lie and get money, it had nothing to do with the lie.

If you tell the truth and get money, it didn't have anything to do with telling the truth. Get used to it. It had to do with being generous in the past.

Okay? You have a problem with somebody criticizing you? You're in the dressing room and people are talking too loud and noisy and bothering you?

Should you... I'll give you two choices. A.

Tell them they're bothering you. B. Don't tell them they're bothering you.

It doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. Get used to it.

The suffering of humanity is caused because they don't understand it. You know? People like you and me spend our whole nights worrying what to do about this person.

Should I do A or should I do B? It doesn't matter. Okay?

That's not the question. Okay? Where did this person come from?

That's the question. It's not like, this person has come and trying to hurt me. Should I hurt them back or should I be patient?

What will work now? Neither one. Okay?

So what should you do? Yeah, be patient so you don't have to meet them again in the future. But don't expect it's going to help in the immediate present.

It's not going to. That die was cast. You know, except for some extraordinary karmic purification or something like that.

You know, you're not going to change it. You must though do the right thing because it's right. And that's so liberating.

You know, that means you can say to your boss whatever you want. You know? That means at any given moment in your life you can always do the right thing and you can sit back and relax.

Okay? And if some disaster happens, it was going to happen anyway. Get used to it.

Okay? But a wrong result cannot come from you doing the right thing. It's impossible.

It's totally impossible. In Ireland they were running up to me with the Bible, you know. You don't get thistles from...

Where's the moors? You don't get... They finally found it.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, you don't get figs from thistles or grapes from thorns.

[Speaker 1]
Jesus was big on this thing. It's like, just do the right thing. It must create a good result.

But will it keep you from getting crucified tomorrow? No! No!

Okay? Okay? You've got to get used to that.

This is Buddhist activity. This is a Buddhist action. Someone's attacking you, accusing you of something.

Should you defend yourself, A, or should you defend yourself, B? Neither one. You should stop criticizing other people.

And they'll go away. You've got to get used to that. Okay?

I don't have any money. Should I save my money, or should I invest my money? It doesn't matter.

Give away everything you can. Okay? Give away as much as you can.

It might only be a couple of dollars. But that's the correct action to take when you don't have enough money. Okay?

You've got to get used to that. Then the whole cause and effect of your whole life changes. It's extraordinary.

I'm not feeling well. Should I exercise, or should I rest? I should honor life.

You see? Then if you exercise, you'll get stronger. And then if you rest, you'll get stronger.

Get it? You know? Should I take these vitamins, or should I enter a gym?

I want to look better. What's the answer? It doesn't matter.

Respect life, and then either one will make you healthy. Get it? It's beautiful.

It's really beautiful. Respect life and sit in an easy chair and watch TV all day, and your muscles will start to bulge. I'm not kidding.

I'm not kidding. Get used to it. Get used to it.

What's the proof of that? Fifty percent of people go to the gym, and they have a heart attack. Lots of people take vitamins.

They don't work. Other people take vitamins. They do work.

If I have a headache, should I take an aspirin or not? It doesn't really matter, okay? The headache will go away in an hour if you've respected life in the past.

The headache won't go away at all whether you take aspirin or not if you haven't respected life in the past. Get used to it. Get used to what's really making the world go.

Okay? It's profound. And tonglen is running...

You know, you get bothered that tonglen doesn't work directly. Guess what? Nothing does either.

Nothing else does either. Get used to it. Any problem you have, people coming into your dressing room making noise, should you tell them to go away or should you let them stay?

It doesn't matter. Respect other people. Don't make noise to other people, and those people will go away.

Yeah?

[Speaker 2]
Can you explain that proof more thoroughly? Because, like in the secular world, you say, well, there are mitigating circumstances upon the person for whom the vitamin works. But it's a serious hypothesis converging at the same time.

[Speaker 1]
The Irish were very tough on this. They were very tough on this. You know, they said, ultimately you can find a hormone in this guy's brain and that's why aspirin doesn't work on him.

You know what I mean? And then you get into... Always ask to demonstrate how and why.

Okay? How is it that the medicine's not working? This person has a certain hormone in their brain and the medicine doesn't work.

I didn't ask. And they think that's why. That's only how.

Why do they have that hormone? Oh, because they didn't protect life in the past. You see what I mean?

[Speaker 2]
But how is that a proof?

[Speaker 1]
Oh, it's not a proof. You've got to go a long way for a proof. I'm proposing something.

Okay. Yeah, to prove. You know, the proof is very obvious and it will go over your head and you'll say it's no proof at all.

Causes and effects must be similar. Totally similar.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
And that's what Jesus... Jesus was big on that and most people didn't get it and they killed him anyway. Okay?

It's very, very, very profound. You cannot have a life-threatening experience without having threatened life. Cause and effect must be similar.

Causes must come before effects and the effect must resemble the cause. Science runs on this principle. But it's just so uncomfortable to think that, you know, I got cancer because I didn't respect life in the past.

Actually, it's the only logical thing that could have caused cancer. But it's just uncomfortable for the Western mind. It's uncomfortable for the desire realm mind to think about it.

We're not used to that. That's why we're here.

[Speaker 2]
You know?

[Speaker 1]
So, 95% of people in the desire realm won't be able to understand this proof. They'll say it doesn't make sense. Actually, it's perfectly sensible.

You know? The cause must precisely resemble the result. Period.

You don't get thorns from... pigs from thorns. Whatever.

That's all Jesus had in mind. He was adamant about it. Not many people got it.

The whole cause and effect of your life is not working the way you thought it was. And that's why things aren't going right. And you've got to get used to that.

And once you act on this other cause and effect for a while, you'll see that it works. And that's... The proof is in the pudding.

You know what I mean? Just try... I have certain problems in my life.

I just deal with them that way. You see what I mean? People criticize me.

I try to be very careful not to criticize other people. You see what I mean? Because that's really what's causing it.

It's not if I did A or B, they'd still criticize me. If I stopped doing B and I only did A, they'd still criticize me. It's because I'm critical of other people.

It's not because of what I'm doing. You see what I mean? It's very interesting.

Andy Warhol paints some crap and they pay him a million dollars. You know? Joe Schmo paints some crap and they tell him to get out of the house.

[Speaker 2]
You know?

[Speaker 1]
It's... It doesn't matter what you do. You see what I mean?

The apparent causes, that's not where it's coming from. She's very patient, Christina. Go ahead, Christina.

[Speaker 2]
The more you purify, is it the right time between the cause and the result?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Actually, you know, what speeds up... You do an action.

There's an apparent result and there's a real result. Okay? Like, you lie to get a green card.

The apparent result is you get a green card. You know? Five years later, you're walking around, nobody believes you.

Whatever you say, nobody believes you. Okay? The reason you got the green card was you were honest in the past.

The lie had nothing to do with the green card. And now the lie is going to cause you all this trouble later. Okay?

If you understand the process, which is called the perfection of wisdom, and if you sprinkle it on the first five perfections, they give results like that. You know what I mean? And the basis of tantric practice is that.

The basis of all tantra is that if you understand what I've just said, you can change even your body before you die. You can go into a different body before you die. The whole idea is that you can speed up the gap, the maturation period, the ripening period, because you...

by knowing how it works. You see what I mean? If you do something nice to somebody...

If you give somebody something to eat and you don't know how it works, you're going to get something to eat back. If you give somebody something to eat and while you're doing it, you think about all this stuff, you'll enter a Buddha paradise. It's a big difference.

That's the difference between dirty good karma and... and perfect good karma. Big difference.

So, that's all. Yeah? Yeah.

To you.

[Speaker 2]
To you. How do you know in the hell how things get very tough?

[Speaker 1]
It's a really tough question. Okay. This is the most difficult question.

I... Akshara and me talk about this often. I asked Pabongka Rinpoche during his Geshe exams.

I was his first questioner. I believe that at that point you have the power to perceive how they're perceiving themselves. You see what I mean?

But at the same time, it doesn't make them less of a deity to you. To you they are an enlightened being and you're aware that to themselves they're not. And there's no contradiction there or else you don't understand emptiness.

If you insist that they must be perceiving them as selves as a deity for them to be a deity, then you're saying that the pen has to be a chewable object. You see what I mean?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. It's all right. Any other questions?

No? Clear. Yeah.

Oh, I didn't say nobody can help anybody. By the way, nobody should go out of here thinking I said that, okay? That's why I'm talking.

He can teach. And that's all... 99% of what a Buddha can do is teaching.

He's teaching people. That's what they do. Now if you pray, if you're sick and you pray to Tara and you get better, why did you get better?

Yeah. Or the karma of the faith in Tara. Okay?

The karma of the faith in Tara cures you. That's why you should go to His Holiness and get bonked on the head occasionally. You should stand in line and let him touch you on the head.

Okay? If you have any kind of faith in him at that moment, you will collect the good karma of that faith and it will help you. It'll give you a blessing.

He cannot give you a blessing. Get used to it. Any more than you can help a person getting mugged.

Get used to it. Does this mean that you shouldn't do all these spiritual things? Does this mean that you shouldn't pray for other people?

On the contrary, it means you should pray more for other people because now you know how it really works. Okay? Now that you know how tonglen really works, you've got to do it all the time.

Okay? It's not like, oh, I don't need to do tonglen because it doesn't work. No.

I have to do tonglen because now I know how it really works. Okay? Yeah?

Yeah, they should become Buddhist saints actually.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
I think the implication is probably that, yeah. Now, is that practical? You know, yeah, it is practical.

Okay, but, in order to instill faith in other people, I mean, Buddhists still have to, you know, it would be improper for you to just totally ignore somebody and say, oh, that's your karma. You've got to get used to this. Anytime someone is suffering, on any level, you must help them immediately on that level.

And that doesn't contradict with all the things I've been saying. Okay? The reason a homeless person doesn't have a home is why?

They didn't provide housing for someone else in the past. Does that mean you should ignore them? I mean, see, to go from A to B, that kind of logic is totally, absolutely sick Buddhist logic.

That's the ultimate sick Buddhist logic. In the garden, somebody says that and the guy gets pissed off at him. He says, you just made the biggest idiot statement I ever heard.

You know? You know, to go from that to that is crazy. To say, you're homeless because you didn't provide a home, for somebody else, so I'm going to ignore you.

It's the stupidest thing you can do. Of course. I think if you look carefully, they don't make logic.

I mean, the more you start to get into this, this thinking, you'll see the more sense it makes. Like in business, I was in business for 16 long years. And it's totally random who gets rich and who doesn't.

I mean, if you really sit down and plot it with a pen, IQ versus success, you know, it's totally unconnected. My boss couldn't write a letter. You know?

He was proud of it for some reason. He couldn't write a sentence. And I went to the diamond dealers club to get in.

I was like the only person that could write their name on a thing. You know? And it's totally independent of your intelligence.

It's striking. You know? Now, I'll ask you a question.

Why do more people get cured by penicillin than don't, if it's all random? Yeah, you have the karma. I mean, why do more people who go to skilled doctors, why do less people who go to skilled doctors get killed than people who go to less skilled doctors?

Anyway. It's an interesting thing, and I'll tell you the idea. The karma to have enough money to go to a better doctor is typical of people who have the karma to get cured.

Get it? You're on a roll. You see what I mean?

If you have enough good karma to have the money to go to a better doctor, you more likely have the karma to get cured. Get it? It's not that better doctors cure you more often.

Get used to it. Get used to it. That's why better doctors still kill people.

Like Andy Warhol. He was killed by a very fine doctor. You see what I mean?

But normally the karma to have the money to have a better doctor swims around the karma to be cured. People go on a roll of good karma. You see what I mean?

But it's not that the good doctors cure you more often. Get used to it. Does that mean you shouldn't go to better doctors?

Not at all.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, why is it that causes and results are of the same type?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I don't know.

Jaiji, I didn't think about it much. Why is it that watermelon seeds give watermelons? I think ultimately it has to be your karma that things work that way.

You know? Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
So does that mean that there's no observable data and physical...

[Speaker 1]
Well, somebody asked me like in Ireland, they said, we talked about penicillin. You see, penicillin seems to work on almost everybody. And now penicillin is changing.

It's interesting. Now it's curing less people. And then the guy raises his hand and said, no, we know why it's the AIDS people, the virus is getting, what do you call it?

Resistant to penicillin. And I said, now again, you're off on the how and not the why. You're describing to me how penicillin's not working.

You're not describing to me why penicillin's not working right now. You see? You're telling me how the process is working.

You're not telling me why it happens to be happening now. And it's all the same. Yeah.

I think in a relative way that you can relate to other people, you can be knowledgeable about history, you can be knowledgeable about science, music, etc. But ultimately, no, they have no relevance at all. Get used to it.

No, get used to it. You want to be a great musician? Do what?

Speak kindly to other people. You see? It has nothing to do with practicing.

Mozart was writing better music than you and I could after a thousand years at age? Six. Five.

I don't know. Okay. Alright, I mean, it's obviously coming from somewhere else.

You see what I mean? Everything, it's very interesting. You want to be pretty longer in this lifetime?

What? Be patient to other people. Stop getting angry.

Okay? It's extraordinary. It's extraordinary.

You want to enjoy good health the rest of your life? Honor life. Okay?

It's very interesting. It has nothing to do with the gym and nothing to do with, what's that thing called? Lancome.

I didn't say practice didn't do anything. Speak kindly to other people. Say nice things.

Say sweet things. No, I'm just saying what would make you a good musician? Oh, no.

It applies to speaking like a Buddha, yeah. Buddha's speech has 60 qualities. Buddha can speak in Bengali and people will hear Hebrew or Czechoslovakian or anything.

That's a result of speaking kindly to other people. Yeah. That part of Buddhahood, yeah.

But, I don't know. If you don't buy it right now, I don't blame you. It's very hard to live with.

And you've lived with the opposite for countless eons and that's why you're still in the desire realm, dying. Sooner or later, you got to try to switch over to this other world view. It is not easy.

It is not easy. The implication is you have to be totally, 100%, absolutely truthful and honest to other people every moment of your life because it's the only thing that works. Every kind of fudging and compromising and trying to do things sneaky or something like that, it just, according to this principles, is invalid.

It doesn't work at all. Okay. And, and then you get to a certain point in your practice where it just pops in your head.

There's a big flash of light and you say, God damn it. I can be totally honest with everybody all the time. And that's the right thing to do.

And, hey, it feels kind of good actually. Saves a lot of time. It's very, very profound.

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
It's brilliant.

[Speaker 1]
It's the best meditation. And it doesn't work at all. Now get used to it.

Can't take another person's karma at all. And you have to do tonglen. It's mostly like, really then tonglen would make sense.

Given the idea of karma and emptiness, this leaf's not even green from its own side. I perceive it as green because I have the karma to perceive it as green. I'm actually imposing the greenness on it from my mind.

That's why to colorblind people this looks gray. Okay? It's not a defect in their eye.

You're telling me how. Why do they have the defect in their eye? They didn't give pleasing colors to other people.

Or something like that. Okay? Really.

Everything's like that. There's no greenness to this leaf. The leaf has no greenness in it.

At all. Okay? If you see green, it's because you were good to someone else.

If you like green. If you hate green, it's because you were bad to someone else. Okay?

Get used to it. If you don't, if you haven't given pleasant colors to someone else or done something nice to other people, you'll see gray. That's all.

There is no greenness here. Get used to that. Okay?

It's not chlorophyll or iron or anything that's making it green. It's that you gave something colorful to somebody.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Get used to it. You created the chlorophyll and the iron. They're just the medium by which your karma is working itself out.

Get used to that. Get very used to that. By the way, this means that miracles are possible.

There's nothing soft about water. Okay? It has no quality of its own.

Empty. rang shing gi tongpa rang gi tenu gi dupa Emba. Okay?

Dakmeba. Water is not soft by its nature. If you had different karma, you could walk on water.

And he did. And one of his friends had karma to walk on it for a few minutes. And then he couldn't.

Okay? It's called sempur gyi ting ngen dzin. It's in the Abhidharmakosha.

Anybody can do it. It's a certain level of meditation. It's a karma.

Yeah? I just have two questions. The first one's really quick.

In person meetings, you often hear, what word is that? Instant karma is like a joke. It's a word that was made up by somebody.

The closest thing you can get to instant karma is Tantra. The thing that makes it instant is the motivation. And instant in this case means nigme tse tung chig la.

We read it the other day. What's that mean?

[Speaker 2]
nigme tse tung chig la What does it mean?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, it means in one human lifetime in the age of degeneration. Which means in a hundred years or so. Okay?

There's that prayer. Where does it go? kang gi jeng gi de che ni ke che ni la chao kam ke che ni la chao kam means in one instant, meaning in one lifetime.

Yeah, so instant karma means in one lifetime karma. How's that? It means if you practice Tantra with proper training and motivation, you can reach a Tantric paradise before you die.

[Speaker 2]
My second question is couldn't this also be used by someone to protect their own defenses?

[Speaker 1]
Like, oh, people aren't reacting to me the way they are now because of what I'm doing now, but because of something in the past.

[Speaker 2]
Like, oh, people are reacting to me this way now because I must mistreat people in the past. But I might be treating people in an appropriate way now. And you just kind of continue doing that until you're facing it.

I mean, couldn't it be used almost very easily to protect their own defenses?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, a person could say, I'm doing something... The way people react to me in the present moment is not due to my present behavior. Therefore, my present behavior is okay when it's not.

That's totally possible. Yeah, yeah. That can be a real big trap.

Yeah, yeah. So recently, we all had the karma to see children killing each other in Colorado. And as Buddhists, we would know that we'd protect life to prevent that from occurring in our perception again.

[Speaker 2]
In our world.

[Speaker 1]
In our world.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
And is it pointless to become involved in those sociological discussions about the apparent causes of such a thing? Is it pointless to argue one way or another about kids playing certain video games or watching certain movies? As long as you understand that you're talking about how to fix them karmically.

You see what I mean? How to fix who karmically? The children who watch the video games.

You see what I mean? That's all. You can?

Okay, so... Yeah, you can still have a debate about whether it's good to watch videos about violence or not. But the discussion for Buddhists would be couched in terms of, does this give them a seat in their mind to see killing in the future?

You see what I mean? And not, does this instigate them to kill in the future, or something like that. You see what I mean?

That's all. It's like difference in how you couch it. And how you think about it.

So when you say to a non-Buddhist, you don't say, I think this is the cause for... How would you present it to a non-Buddhist? How did Lord Buddha present it to us in the lower four schools?

He'd probably say something like, it's not good for kids to watch violence. You know? No, because the result is okay.

The mechanism, the dynamic is not explained correctly. But that's okay. The people in Ireland were very touchy on these subjects because the trainer of the British soccer team had just gotten fired at the suggestion of the Prime Minister of England by saying that children with disabilities, it was their own fault.

This is the biggest, most important guy in England. The coach of the soccer team. Forget this Prime Minister.

It was a really... And they said, be careful, Michael Roach. You can't go around saying this stuff.

You'll get in trouble, man. But yeah, it's true. It doesn't mean you ignore those children.

But you got to be careful how you... In other words, when you talk to an audience, you have to go down to that audience's level.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
And that's valid Buddhist teaching. Okay? Yeah?

[Speaker 2]
There's one thing that's true in the way you presented it, which is passion.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, I didn't hear him actually.

[Speaker 2]
I just wanted to ask you a quick question. It could be true that noticeably speaking, that someone else almost needs to be in a psychological certain psychological space relative to me, but I think sometimes when you try and reach someone with your Buddhist stuff and they're not psychologically clear or stable about people, so then it's almost like sometimes I'll try to even with myself and I've got to try and feel different and I'm almost just a second or second at the passion level until they get to the point where they're comfortable and then become the person you need from.

[Speaker 1]
Um, yeah, you're required to do that. Buddhist logic says what? You cannot present a reason to a person unless they already accept its truth.

There's three parts to a logical statement. Consider this thing. It is so-and-so because of this.

If the opponent doesn't accept the truth of all three things and if you present that to them as a proof and even if it's generally true, it's false. Get used to it. Okay?

It's very interesting. In Buddhist logic, a true statement is false if you present it to someone who can't accept it yet. Okay?

It's very cool, you know. By the way, if you also go to Dharmakirti and try to prove to him something he already accepts, that's also a false statement. Get used to that.

Okay? In the rules of Buddhist logic. We'll do two more and then we'll take a break.

Okay? There is a dynamic interaction which is a result of your projection. Get used to that.

It doesn't make it lonely. It doesn't make it one-sided. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, they're affecting them. Yeah, they are. But only insofar as projections are demanding it.

Yeah, but it doesn't make it less personal or something like that. You do exist. I am trying to convince you of a certain worldview.

At a certain point, you will be convinced of that worldview. And then you'll start acting on that worldview. You get happier and happier, richer and richer, healthier and healthier.

Your life will start becoming like magic, totally magic life, you know. And, yeah, we have that interaction. But that doesn't mean it's not a projection.

Yeah. To tell you the truth, you said layperson. To tell you the truth, in its ultimate stages, it doesn't matter what you're doing as a career at all, you know.

The main thing is that you hold this worldview. You see what I mean? So, you could be an absolutely ultimate Buddhist guru, lama, teacher and live a family life or a corporate life or...

You see, it's independent of that. That doesn't matter at all. It's just what's your worldview, you know.

If you don't have this worldview and you're wearing robes and you're spouting Tibetan verses and you don't have this worldview, you're not really a Buddhist, you know. You're not living by Buddhist worldview. And then you could be in a corporation.

Who are the great tantric masters? Let's take the Kalachakra. Name the first 27 lineage holders of the Kalachakra.

They were politicians. They were businessmen. Okay, get used to it.

You see, your outer activity is independent of your... All you need is bodhicitta and you need worldview. The bodhicitta we had this morning, I got an attack of something close, okay?

And you felt, you know. And then you need this worldview. Once you got those two weapons, it doesn't matter what career you lead, really.

You know what I mean? Or whether you live with a family or not. It doesn't matter.

That's almost just totally... I think we should send all our Buddhists out to be corporate CEOs. That's what we're working on, right?

Because they can really affect more people. So, if you have bodhicitta and this worldview, then God bless, do anything you want. It doesn't really matter.

You will profoundly affect other people. You see what I mean? If you ran a small department at a company by this worldview and people noticed it, they would start to act that way.

And that is the spread of Buddhism in America. It's not that this many people are wearing red robes or this many people have this thing on their altar. The spread of Buddhism in America means that this worldview, called Buddhism or not called Buddhism, is spreading.

And it might even be more effective to be in a company for 16 years, don't tell anybody you're a Buddhist monk, just live by those principles, make lots of money, and people are attracted to the way you're doing it. You see what I mean? And that's spreading Buddhism.

It's very nice. It's very cool. It doesn't matter what you do, really.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah? What, in one sentence, could you say that the world's viewed as just a law?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, I mean, yeah. It's all gotten very philosophical. Like in Ireland, we got up to this point.

Everybody was in the break. They said, Michael, could you bring it back to what I can understand? It's just that this, given any particular circumstance in your life, particularly the negative ones, do the right thing.

And never doubt that this will create total happiness for all living beings. Even if in the short run, this can be a long sentence, right? But it's still one sentence.

Even if in the short run, big poop hits the fan. Okay? That's all.

That's all. At any given moment in your life, especially with difficult situations, do what's right. And then don't get at all worried if something bad seems to happen, because they're not related at all.

Okay? You must do the right thing at every moment of the day. Okay?

And for us, that means the most powerful karma we can do to get ourselves into a tantric paradise now. And how other people react to that is totally independent of that. Okay?

You've got to get used to that. It can only cause you a tantric paradise. Now, will other people react to you that way for the first five years, ten years?

No. Because of your old karma. Okay?

Get used to it. At any given moment for us, for those of you who have taken Vajrayogini initiation, it means to act upon the opposite of Tamil Nangshim. Constantly.

Live your life like that. Kirim. Everybody else is, A.

Dojin Nyanjoma. Period. Okay?

And act that way at every given moment. And don't be shy when something seems to go wrong because it has nothing to do with what you're doing. Get used to it.

People will... I mean, if you do that, really, people will say, You're nuts. For a while.

And then they'll say, Hey, I was only kidding. Come on. Yeah?

[Speaker 2]
I have a problem with the self-existing object that we assume it is not changing. Why is it built in that a self-existing object would be non-changing?

[Speaker 1]
A self-existing object?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
That's a whole different subject. If you want to talk about it, it's okay. We'll talk about it.

And then we'll take a break. I want to make more money, so I decide to work... He says, What's the proof that a self-existing object would be unchanging?

Let's take a self-existing object. The way to make more money is to work harder. That's a self-existing object.

What's that mean? Yeah, everybody who works hard would make more money. All those slobs on the highway out in the summer 108 degree heat digging the dirt there should make the most money of all.

Okay? And those guys who have investments that their father made and died and left to them and are sitting there on the couch making hundreds of thousands of dollars per day are working hard. You see what I mean?

So, what can we say about the truth of the statement he who works hard gets rich? It's not true. Which means it doesn't exist.

That thing that it refers to doesn't exist. Okay? Get used to that.

It has the same validity as Santa Claus. Okay? It has the same reality as the Easter Bunny.

Okay? Get used to it. The Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the fact that he who works hard gets rich have the same ontological status which is zero.

Zero. They don't exist. Okay?

Now, could, can Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny get old? No. Why?

[Speaker 2]
They don't exist. Body can't get old either. Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Okay? So, so can the fact that he who works hard gets rich change? No.

It was all, it was false yesterday, it's false today, it'll be false tomorrow. It's unchanging.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
So that's the answer to that. But by the way, we wouldn't say it's unchanging because actually non-existent things can't have any qualities at all. You see what I mean?

How tall is Barbie? Yeah. How tall is Santa Claus?

I mean, you can't say, okay? I mean, they don't have any qualities. Non-existent things don't have any qualities.

Get used to it. Okay, we'll take a break. And then we'll do a short meditation.

We're going to do a short tonglen on your favorite subject, yourself. Okay? I thought it's good to practice one because this is the one you should really start with from tomorrow morning.

Okay? So take a nice long break, get something cool, and then come back, and then we'll, we'll go home. Okay?

Okay, we'll do just a short meditation. Start by watching your breath, ten breaths.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Now do kundu nobu luk, which means just visualize your Lama in front of you, and ask them for help during meditation. This is a short, short, short preliminary. I shouldn't teach it to you.

Okay. Now try to think carefully about the rest of the day until you go to sleep tonight, and go through every hour or so, and try to anticipate, try to predict the greatest problem you're going to have. Someone says something unkind to you, or you're going to have some kind of anxiety about something, or you might have some mental affliction towards somebody.

Try to predict where you'll be. You know, who will it be standing in front of you? What will you look like at that moment?

What is it that they're going to say to you? What is it that you're going to think to them? Try to create a possible problem that's going to happen today before you go to sleep.

[Speaker 2]
And now do tung len on yourself.

[Speaker 1]
Imagine that you are there now. You are sitting invisible in the background. In front of you is yourself this evening.

And take all the mental affliction that they're having, or all the problem that they're having, and collect it like black ink from all the parts of their body, collecting towards the heart. And then decide that you'll take this pain from them and start to breathe the blackness towards you, out of their throat, out of their nostrils, towards your face.

[Speaker 2]
Then get the flame ready in your heart, your own selfishness, and then start to bring that black ball in.

[Speaker 1]
You take a deep breath out, and then a deep breath in. See the blackness come down your nose, your throat, and then touch the flame, and then a burst of light. Okay, go ahead.

And you see the smoke dissipating, the gray smoke. Your body's full of light. And then focus on yourself later on today, and see how good they feel without that mental affliction, without that problem.

See how relaxed, contented, happy they feel not to have that. They don't know exactly why it went away, but they're happy. And now breathe, just take about ten slow, deep breaths.

Each time the breath goes out, give yourself this evening the opposite of that problem. Like if you think you'll have a problem with jealousy, then breathe out white light from your nose, and it's bathing this person, and it's filling them up with white light, and giving them happiness, satisfaction, without jealousy. Or if you think it's going to be anger, then cover them with some kind of patience, happiness, and do that with your out-breath.

Then ask your lama to come into your heart, and then dedicate this whole class, this whole course this weekend to the teachings on bodhicitta spreading in this country, and that people could learn to be more kind to each other. Take more of the trouble that each of them has from other people, and give more of your happiness to other people.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, then relax a bit.

[Speaker 1]
Two more points. There's some projects I forgot to mention yesterday. I think one important one that I forgot to talk about, one of the architects and the developers who's helping us in Arizona believes that it'd be very important to start to make retirement facilities for spiritually-minded Americans like you and me.

And so in Arizona, a large part of that property, maybe 500 acres will be dedicated. We'd like to build a retirement community there. Don't laugh, you'll get there.

The idea is that when you get to 55, 60, you could move there. You could have regular classes going on, especially about how to die, especially how to do tonglen. There's a deep teaching on tonglen as you die, and that's one of the last readings that you're going to get.

And that's five steps for how to take on others' pain. There's a thing called ney chok gi dungyel. Say ney chok.

[Speaker 2]
Ney chok.

[Speaker 1]
Dungyel.

[Speaker 2]
Dungyel.

[Speaker 1]
Ney chok dungyel is a special pain you feel when you die. When you thrust a knife into a cow and kill it or something like that, they feel this special death agony at the final moments, and almost every being has it. And so the idea is to start to get ready for that and then connect that to taking other people's pain.

You see what I mean? So you train yourself so that at the moment that you die and you start to get this pain of a person who's dying, which is a special pain, it's supposed to be a unique kind of pain, that you train yourself long in advance to suck other people's suffering up into that pain as you start to feel it. So you start to practice doing that.

And so doing po'a, this is the real meaning of galugpa po'a, transference of consciousness at death, is to train yourself to take other people's pain into the pain that you feel as you die, and die that way. And that's the best way to go to heaven, after you die. It's the best way to enter a paradise in the bardo.

If you don't make it in this life, you can do it in the bardo, and that's how you pull it off. You practice taking other people's pain into the pain you feel when you die. So you have to try to practice that.

So we're thinking to build a retirement community there, simple adobe homes. Maybe it costs a person a few hundred dollars a month to live there. And then you just take care of them physically and spiritually as they get older.

And I thought it would provide some good employment for the younger students there, until they have to move in. But I thought it would be a really cool idea, so we're working pretty hard on that. And the other thing is, we wanted to do some social work there.

We're about 40 miles from Mexico, and we've been visiting daycare centers, handicap centers, places where retarded people are taught skills. We wanted to start a computer center there and start typing Tibetan there. In the handicap, these are deaf children and children without legs.

And I couldn't raise the money, I tried. And so they went ahead and did it anyway. They got the money.

And they have a building, they have the computers, and they're typing already. They're kids without legs and deaf children, like teenagers. So it's a good income for them.

So we'd like to be able to do social work there, help them out, things like that. So that's another project. Also, the correspondence course is going to be moving out of Winston and Andrea's home.

They've been doing a lot of the production of the correspondence courses. I think there are about a thousand people in the correspondence courses now. We've sent out over a million pages of materials, pretty much for free.

But we'll need a physical space to do it. We'll probably move it here to Godstow. And then we'll need people on the weekends to come up and help stuff binders and send it out.

I think it's really sweet. We do a lot of prisoners. There's about 300 courses a year are finished by prisoners, something like that.

Those are all for free, 100% for free. It's about $48 a pop or something like that. So far we've been able to do it.

But we might need help stuffing. The only way we can do it is if volunteers help stuff the things. And they are very, very grateful for the courses.

We have hundreds and hundreds of letters from prisoners who are doing really well in the correspondence courses. So that's another thing. Last thing I'd like to say is you'll be getting a reading about doing tonglen all day long.

As you breathe... Especially in New York City. Somebody was visiting New York and told me, this is really easy.

Every time you see somebody unhappy, every time you see somebody having a hard time on the street, in the subway, at the store, you just breathe at them. You see what I mean? You just stand there.

In New York you can't say anything to anybody, right? So you just... Send them some help.

You know what I mean? Get in the habit of just breathing at them and sending them help like white light. Like just covering their body, covering their mind, calming them down, helping them out.

Make that a practice. And then when you breathe in, say, look, I'll take some of your anxiety. And you're just standing there.

They thought you had cocaine last night and you're still... So just stand there and sniff at them. And it's a very holy practice.

Then you don't need to tell anybody you're doing it. You just do it all day long. This is the kind of practice you can just keep going at it, keep doing it.

Memorize the verse if you can. Some people do that as a mantra. They walk around and they do a mantra as a mantra.

In English it's fine. And don't do it all the time like that. I suggest you, when you get home, you do it about half an hour, 45 minutes in the morning.

Those of you who are doing Vajrayogini practice, you can make it part of dorwa dhapen nengjor. And the texts say that dorwa dhapen nengjor is much more powerful, but you have to know the principle to do it right. So you just go a little bit farther and do dorwa dhapen nengjor on top of tonglen.

If you want to know where to put it, that's where it is. And you do it very, very... The foundation is tonglen, and then you add the dorwa dhapen nengjor aspect to it, and it becomes much more powerful than simple tonglen.

So you should do that. I suggest you take yourself for a while in the afternoon. And what you'll find is when you're scheduled mental affliction this evening, won't be as perfect as it was going to be.

There'll be some kind of hesitation. When the moment comes and you start to get irritated as this person, the fact that you did tonglen on yourself this afternoon will hit you, and it'll help you. So try to do it on yourself for a while.

Personally, every three or four days, I would do it on a person that I'm having trouble with.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Because there's this profound interaction that takes place the next time you meet them. You were going to have an argument, you were going to stare at them or something, and then suddenly you remember the tonglen you did. And there's this very subtle subconscious conversation goes on between you, this interchange.

And the whole karma changes, and the whole event changes. So I'd say two or three days on yourself in the afternoon. It's really just a mental role play, right, for the hassle that's coming this afternoon.

And then do tonglen on people you're having trouble with. Personally, I find that to be very useful. Okay?

[Speaker 2]
The Asian Classics Institute is dedicated to preserving the pure teachings and practice of Buddhism. To contact us on other courses available, or for further information, please check our website at www.world-view.org.