Серия ежедневной практики, курс 04 — Семичастная практика развития доброго сердца (1999, Голуэй), занятие 7

[Speaker 1]
This is the continuation of session five. Alright, I'm going to write down those five steps. It's the same names as last night.

It's called the five powers, but I'm just going to write them down as far as what they are when you do a dying meditation. First one is resolution. It's like, normally resolution means in the morning you're getting ready to be good all day, and you're trying to anticipate what problems you might have.

In this case, as you're dying, the resolution is different. It's, now I'm going to go on a strange trip. According to Tibetans, you go first to a place called the bardo, a sort of a spirit life for up to 49 days.

It's a little bit confusing, a little bit disorienting, you don't quite remember who you are. You don't have a physical body like this, it's like a spirit body. That's in order to get to the next place where you're going to be born.

And after that, then you'll be born as some other person. And then, as you die, you have to think, now wherever I go, I don't want to forget what I learned about exchanging myself and others, putting myself in others' bodies. It's the most valuable thing you can take with you.

You can't take money, you can't take your house, you can't take your car. If you take this meditation with you, about learning to watch out for other people, and then finally learning to break down the distinction between you and other people, this will serve you best in your next place you go. You have to go on.

You don't have a choice. My brother killed himself. He thought he was going to finish something.

We don't believe that. You can call it the soul, or you can call it the mind, but it goes on. And you can't stop it, actually.

You could put an atomic bomb in this room and blow up, and there'd still be 70 minds here. The mind is not dependent on the body in that sense. It's not physical.

It doesn't get cut, or weighed, or burned, or hurt. The mind is ineffable. So, you have to go somewhere, and you will go somewhere.

And the idea is to take with you the most precious thing you can. This will serve you to get all the other things you want later. You see what I mean?

And you can't take anything else with you. So, you must go on. The mind does go on.

You go on by yourself. No one goes with you. Take something along with you.

Decide, I want to remember this as I die, and later I want to remember how to do this. Because it will serve you wherever you go. It'll be the most precious thing you can have with you, wherever you go.

Okay? Second one. Okay, accustoming yourself.

It was called gom, you remember last night? What it means during the day is to take every opportunity you can to practice this thing of exchanging yourself and others. And we talked about the different ways you could do it.

You go up to somebody and just breathe next to them, right? Or you try to put your mind in their body. Or you try to watch them and see what they like, and try to do it for them.

So, even up to the last minute, keep practicing. Okay? It's one thing to decide that you'd like to remember this four days after you've died.

Okay? But it won't be easy. Okay?

The consciousness changes a lot. It's a lot like trying to remember something after you've fallen asleep. Okay?

It's like, just before you go to sleep, you say, I want to remember that last scone I had during my dreams. You see what I mean? And, you know, it's easy to say that as you fall asleep, but then two hours later, deep in your dreams, you're not going to remember it very easily.

Okay? If you eat 20 scones an hour for days before that, you might have a chance. Okay?

So, the idea is, even up to the last minute, continue to do this practice. Because then it sort of impregnates your mind. It stays in your mind.

It's like being obsessed with a certain new possession, like a car, up until the moment you go to sleep. And then probably in your dreams you'll have some kind of a car. You see what I mean?

So the idea is, even up to the last minute, people are looking over you and saying, don't worry, you're going to be alright. And you're right. And you like smile and say, I know, you're right, you know, I'm not worried.

And, you know, they know you're going to die, you know you're going to die. But even up to the last moment, you're thinking how to make these people happy. And, you know, this is really the sweetest thing.

You don't need anything physical to do these meditations. Okay? You just need another person around.

You know, you're just breathing and thinking, you know. And you can do this all the time. In the time that other people waste, you can become a great meditator.

You don't even need to spend an hour or two a day. Just in the little transition periods, on the way to work, on the subway, on the train, waiting for somebody, waiting for something, washing dishes, you know, cleaning the house, you're still breathing. And keep doing it.

You see what I mean? Keep meditating all day long. Okay?

In the death practice it means do it even up to the last few hours. Don't waste your time. You will be uncomfortable.

The body feels dry. The body sometimes feels hot, then gets cold. And there are all these signs that are going to come to you.

And it'll be hard to concentrate. That's why you have to start today. Okay?

If you do it every night of your life, the day you really die, it's a piece of cake. It's easy. Okay?

If you wait and try to do it at the last minute, you won't be able to remember much. Okay? Because you're frightened.

Try to put up a good face for everybody, but it's frightening to die. And you won't remember it unless you practice it a lot, every day. Okay?

Number three was... By the way, this was called the White Seas, right? Release all your possessions, and even your body.

Okay? Like, in the last few days... Don't wait, okay?

I mean, frankly, my father waited. And he was not trained. My mother came to India, was trained.

She had cancer, she was dying. She didn't have this illusion that she's going to be alright. She knew she's not alright.

And that takes a certain amount of courage to admit it. You see what I mean? So she got the house sold, split the money up among the four boys, got her own funeral arrangements taken care of, had the ambulance ready to come.

You know, everything... Mentally, she had given up everything weeks before she died. You see what I mean?

Months before she died. And we have to be like that. You know, my father was different.

He's like... He's got very bad lung cancer. He's lost a hundred pounds.

He's still saying he's going to make it. You see? And he's still on the phone trying to make a business deal.

You know what I mean? And still thinking that he's... And then didn't give away anything, and was still like unhappy, still grasping to things, and then suddenly died.

You see what I mean? So, you want to be like the first one. You see what I mean?

And practice it. Every night. Lay down in your bed.

Okay, I'm dying. Okay, who gets the table in the living room? You know?

Okay. Who gets the little bank account? You know?

Did I call the ambulance or not? Is the ambulance number with everybody? Do they know where to take the body?

You know, and take care of everything mentally. Okay? And, again I repeat, if you don't, if you have one thing you didn't want to give away because you thought maybe you'd be okay, your spirit will be held down.

Your spirit will be held back. And, you know, you hear about ghosts in houses and things like that. But Buddhism says they exist.

And those are the spirits of people who couldn't give up the house. And then they suffer. And they can't be released.

So it's important to mentally give up everything.

[Speaker 2]
Is there anything in Buddhist practice that would suggest more against donating your organs?

[Speaker 1]
It's a great question. He asked about donating organs. And my...

We asked some high lamas. And he said it's good. The only thing he said, it was kind of funny, but not for financial gain.

I mean, like, make sure it's free. You know, make sure your body is going to be used. The only thing they say is, be careful the body is really dead.

Because we believe that subtle consciousness stays for hours or even days after the stopping of the breath. So, you know, maybe you can't measure gross electrical movement. But we believe there's a very subtle electrical movement.

And you can't talk and you can't even hear anything anymore. But your mind is still working. And it has not left the body yet.

And if you do something drastic to the body, it'll hurt, it'll upset the mind. The mind will get upset, and it might go a wrong way. I mean, they say, it's important to let a person die peacefully, quietly, and leave the body for hours or, you know, even 24 hours if possible.

[Speaker 2]
And just let it...

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Yeah, I know. Anything you can harvest after that is okay.

There's a sign that they say in the scriptures that some kind of blood and fluids emit from your nose, and then you can... then the mind is gone, and you can cut up the body and use it for other things. In Tibet they give the body to animals, wild animals, as a last act of charity.

So, that's fine. They said fine. But make sure the mind is really gone.

If they've been meditating a lot, it might take even up to 24 hours for the mind to leave.

[Speaker 2]
What about cremation versus...

[Speaker 1]
We asked my Lama that, and he said it didn't really matter. In Tibet, they had restrictions on cremating bodies that had very infectious diseases, because they felt that the smoke might carry some microbes or something. And other than that, they said it doesn't matter.

It's... If the mind is... spirit is gone, the soul is gone, it's just a piece of meat now.

And however you dispose of it, dispose of it in a way that won't harm others. You know, clean, and in a way that won't harm the environment. And that's pretty much their standard.

That's how they decide what to do.

[Speaker 2]
If you did the practice and you died suddenly, in an accident, then I suppose you'd suggest that you have your will really prepared for your death.

[Speaker 1]
Everything should be ready. If you're a good meditator, if you've done a good death meditation, everything should be ready. Yeah, you should have a will ready.

People say, I'm 20 years old, I don't need a will. Do it. I don't know about Ireland.

In the United States, if you die without a will, the government takes half. Automatically. So, you're kind of also depriving the people you love of your assets.

You know what I mean? So, yeah, make a will. And then, actually, it'll be easier for your mind to die.

You know, your spirit won't be held up. You know, even in a sudden car accident, you'll be thinking, Oh, everything's taken care of. You see what I mean?

And then you'll be able to fly easier. Did you? Somebody?

Okay. All right. Fourth one.

Review your life. Go over one more time that abortion you had when you were 16. You know, the person you really hurt when you were 25.

The wife you never reconciled with when you were 30. The business partner you cheated when you were 40. Okay.

And then go admit them all one more time. You know, and then decide they're finished. In your mind decide, clean, now clean.

You know, my father, when I went to the lamas and I said, he's refusing to admit he's going to die. He's probably going to die in a week. And they said, sit with him, watch football games with him, give him orange juice.

This was all he could do, you know. And for a week or two weeks I sat with him and watched football game after football game. And then they said, at least get him to talk about the people that he's still angry about, or people he still has issues with, and get him to call them, or get him to...

All those people who cheated him in business, you know, forget it. Just relax, release it. You see what I mean?

And we did. We went through one by one, and released all the... still all the tensions he had about other people.

And then at the end, they said, just make sure he understands that it's over, that those troubles, or those arguments have been reconciled. And that way he did very well. That was very successful.

Yeah, okay. When you release the anger, do you really not get the next meditation? Yeah, you do.

Okay. Yeah, as you're practicing the dying meditation, over and over again, over and over again, okay? Purification of bad karma you have on your conscience, there comes a point when you have to decide it's finished.

But still, when you get to the death, dying process, you should still bring them up one more time and say, Oh yeah, I took care of that. You know, three years ago I finished that. I did the...

You know, I went and served in a hospital for three weeks, and it's over. You see what I mean? But still, it's important to bring it up, because it might come up suddenly in your mind, by accident.

You see what I mean? It's important to voluntarily bring it up and say, Oh yeah, that's finished. Okay?

So, you have to go over things one more time. Otherwise they might pop up in your mind as you die, and then you have a... It's a very bad influence on where you go, and things like that.

Yeah?

[Speaker 2]
Do you take the risk, like with a parent who has a lot of anger, do you take the risk of bringing up the memory of things that upset them? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, if they're close to dying and you know, bringing up that husband they had that they hated would probably not be able to reconcile. Don't bring it up, yeah. You have to use common sense.

These high Tibetan lamas, common sense is very important to them. I once met the oracle of Sara Monastery. This is a man who goes into a deep trance.

And there was this Canadian woman, I'll never forget, and they asked me to translate. And she wanted to know what to do with her life. And many people had told her, respect your parents, make an honest living, study religion, study spiritual life, meditate, study properly, be happy, okay?

And she still wanted to ask the oracle. So the oracle went into trance, you know, and this is a... he was this like pretty big guy, but he was like a quiet secretary of the monastery in his other life.

And then when he goes into trance, he's got this helmet and long hair and this sword and shield, and he went into trance, and there's three people holding him down, because this other spirit comes into him, and he's like... And we're all back in the corner, you know, and they dragged us up to him, and he's waving a sword, and they're trying to stop him. And he's, What do you want?

And they said, She wants to ask you what to do with her life. And he says, And then he says, Get an honest living. And he said, Respect your parents.

you know, find a good teacher and follow what they say, you know, and it was exactly the same advice she got from everybody else. But she was like, okay, okay. And my respect for oracles just increased like that, you know, and it's a lot of it is common sense.

In dealing, common sense is like very valuable in spiritual things, you know, there's always an exception, you see what I mean? And when you live with a high lama, I lived in the same house with a high lama for 20 years, he trained me, and 90% of the knowledge you get from them is common sense, you see what I mean? Yeah, you're supposed to do this, you're supposed to shave your head if you're a monk.

Now, if you go to Ireland with a shaved head, they're going to think you're a punk guy or something. So, he said, grow your hair a little bit, you know what I mean? And this is just common sense, you know what I mean?

It's not like destroying your vows or something like that. Just common sense things, you see what I mean? Like that.

Common sense is uncommon. Okay. Number five.

Take all their sins and sickness and sadness. Most important step in the dying, okay? And Jesus set a perfect example, all right?

I think what's beautiful in this teaching is that each one of us is supposed to do the same, okay? So, as you die, you imagine that all the sadness among people's hearts, all the sickness they have, and the cause of those two things, which is all the bad deeds they've done. You see, you're taking away the cause of their trouble, and their trouble.

You know, bad deeds create imprints in your mind, they make you see things. You're taking that away from them, and you're taking their sickness and their sadness, which is the result of the bad deeds. And then you take it all into you, and you die with it, you take it out with you.

You see what I mean? You know, stick it in here, I'm about to die, okay? You know, what have I got to lose?

You know, stick it all in me. By the way, it's important to imagine that it's all destroyed before you die, okay? Don't die with it, all right?

And that's very important in this meditation of breathing also. Don't take other people's pains, and suffering, and illness, and hold it. Destroy it, you know, inside of you.

Last thing, you know, who wrote this book, Dham? If you remember, it was called Geshe Jigawa, his name was Jigawa. He lived 1101 to 1175.

He did this meditation, and then in 1175, on his deathbed, his students were surrounding him, and everyone's crying, and saying, please don't die, you know, and he's like, gotta go, you know? And then he said, I'm gonna do that number five. As I die, I'm going to take all the pain, all the trouble, all the sins of other people, and I'm gonna go to hell, and take care of people there.

He decided. He said, we believe there is a hell. People nowadays are trying to make it out to be just bad moods during the day.

It's not like that, okay? We believe there is such a place. And he said, I'm purposely gonna go to hell, and do what I can to help people, you know?

I'm not gonna try to get to heaven. I decided I'd rather go to hell, and help people there, do what I can. So, he's on his deathbed, and he's like, okay, I'm dying.

And this is real, they wrote it down, okay? And he said, I'm dying, I'm doing the meditation, everything's quiet, you know? And they're like, what do you see?

You know, he says, I'm going to hell, I'm trying to go to hell. And then he's like, oh no, oh no. You know, they say, what's happening?

He's like, it's not working, you know? It's not working. They say, what's wrong?

He says, I'm going to heaven, I can't stop it, you know? This is the end of session five. Session six.

In conjunction with this teaching, this training, there are 18 what they call pledges, okay? Like 18 little rules you could keep for yourself. And they're on the reading number six.

I don't know what page that would be. Page 11? Does it start out, keep to the three laws?

Page 11, okay. And I'm going to go over them just briefly, because they're very strange there, you know? They're not very clear.

And they're sort of cryptic. So I want to go through them one by one. First one says, keep to the three laws.

Three laws are like this. First one is, after you have learned about this teaching, like you have to exchange yourself and others, or you have to try to anticipate what other people want, the first law is, don't disrespect your prior commitments, okay? Like I have, sometimes people come up to me and say, I loved your teaching this weekend, I'm going to move to New York.

And I say, but don't you have children and family? They say, yeah. But it's okay, it's more important, you know?

And not like that, okay? If you're going to keep this meditation well, if you're going to make this commitment, you have to keep the commitments you already have, your church commitments, your family commitments. We say that you have to respect all the commitments you've made.

You shouldn't jump from one commitment to another commitment, you see what I mean? You should try to meditate more, you should try to maybe go on some long retreats, you should try to learn more about these things. But not at the expense of your prior commitments, okay?

So you have to honor all the commitments you've made already, and now you have some new commitments, you see what I mean? But not to like, keep jumping ships. That's a bad habit, okay?

Second law is never hurt yourself to keep these commitments, you see what I mean? Like, don't go giving away all your rent money. You need a basic comfortable place to live, you need a quiet place, you need good food, you need clothing.

That's a prior commitment also, to yourself, and you should take care of yourself well. To deny yourself in a way that hurts yourself, in order to serve others, is against the principles of this teaching, you see what I mean? Take good care of yourself.

You are one of the people on this planet, and you won't be very good at taking care of other people if you don't take care of yourself. It doesn't mean to buy yourself three new suits a week, but it means take care of your basic needs, take care of your... We say you shouldn't be an imposition on other people.

You shouldn't say, oh, now I'm going to be a big meditator, and everybody else should pay for my expenses. You see what I mean? You should have an honest livelihood, you should take care of your body, your health, and your livelihood.

That's the second law of the three laws, okay? Third one is, don't discriminate between other people. It means, don't practice the virtue of patience with your friends, and refuse to practice it with people you don't like, okay?

Like, if you're going to do these meditations, like, if you're going to do taking people's problems, don't go after the easy people and just take their problems, okay? Try a few hard people also, okay? Don't discriminate in that sense.

Try to be equal. A lot of the people who need help the worst are not very attractive, they are not very friendly, and you can't discriminate against people on that basis. You have to help everyone you come in contact with, okay?

Whether they are... look beautiful, or happy, or friendly, or not, it's easy to be patient with friendly, happy people. You have to go find the ugly, stupid, irritating people, okay?

This is your material that you have to work with, okay? Then it says, change your mind and stay the same. What's that mean, okay?

It means that second line there. You got it? Page...page 11. It means on the inside, start becoming like Christina Nobel, or Mother Teresa, or the Pope, or, you know, on the inside, start making all these changes in your behavior, in your life. But on the outside, don't make a big deal about it, you know what I mean? Your friends should say, I don't know, he's a lot more friendly, and he's a lot more great, but he's not...

I don't know why, you know, they don't go to work tomorrow and say, oh, I just started teaching, I know 20 Tibetan words, I'm gonna change everything, you're gonna like me now. Don't advertise it, just do it. There's this company Nike in the United States, right?

Just do it. Don't tell everybody how great you're gonna be. Just do it, okay?

On the outside, looks like the same old you. You don't have to cut your hair off, you don't have to wear a strange red costume, you don't have to say strange words and do strange things, although it's good later, okay? But no.

On the outside, look like a normal guy, okay? On the inside, you're doing major transformation, okay? And that's the ideal way to do it, okay?

By the way, I don't mean to say you shouldn't become a monk or nun, if it comes to you someday, it's a great blessing. And if the time ever comes, you should try it. But in the meantime, on the outside, you just look like an ordinary person.

But on the inside, you're making big improvements, alright? Number three, speak not of what was broken. This means specifically, if you see other people making mistakes in their spiritual life, don't give them a hard time.

Don't go and say, oh, I saw you at that talk last week, and now you're being so selfish, you know. Don't manage other people's spiritual life, they get to do that, okay? Alright?

Don't go accusing them of mistakes, okay? Don't concentrate on... What if Jesus said, the splinter in your neighbor's eye and not the log in your own, okay?

That's the whole meaning. Next one says, never worry about what they're doing. That's the same sort of sense, is that you manage one person's spiritual life, and that's whose?

Your own, okay? You can't read other people's minds. For all you know, they became a Buddha 2,000 years ago, or 5,000 years ago.

You don't know. You can't judge a single other person. So, don't try to manage other people's spiritual lives, you know.

Worry about your own. Now, does this mean if you see someone doing something bad, you shouldn't say something? It doesn't mean that, okay?

If you see someone hurting someone, of course you should try to stop them, okay? But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about this little judgmental thing, where you decided your neighbor doesn't go to church enough, or...

You're making all their spiritual decisions for them. You're judging them, making decisions for them, giving them advice that they didn't ask you for, okay? And that's what I'm talking about.

If you see someone hurting someone, you have to say something. That's a different thing, okay? Number five.

Oh, by the way, which I think is number seven now, right? Because we had... it's the fifth line, but we had three laws first, so that counts as three.

Okay, so line number one had three in it. Line number two is four. Line number three is five.

Line number six is... sorry, line number four is six. And now we're on line number five, which is really number seven.

This is rule number seven, pledge number seven. Got it? The first line had three, okay?

Now we're on rid yourself of the biggest affliction first. There's this rule in spiritual things. When I was a younger, okay, teenager, we used to have gang fights.

Not big thing, okay? Not like New York. These were kind of soft fights, okay?

But, you know, ten kids from the other neighborhood would come, and we'd bring ten kids, and we'd meet in the park, and we'd have a little fight. Rumble, they call it rumble, okay? And not a big sticks and chains, not like that.

Just wrestling and fighting, you know. And the rule was, go after the leader first, you know? Like you'd take two, three guys and try to knock out their leader.

And then the other guys would run away, you see what I mean? The idea is to go for the big guy first. Usually you want to pick on the little guys, but really you should concentrate on that one leader.

And when you're doing your management of your spiritual affairs, find out your own worst habit, your own worst emotion, and work on that. Affliction means your own worst emotion. If it's anger, work on your anger first.

If it's jealousy, work on your jealousy first. We tend to ignore the most important one and work on the second one. I don't know why, okay?

You tend to want to ignore what your number one is. You want to pretend you don't have it, okay? And stop pretending.

Examine yourself. What's your biggest problem? Anger, jealousy, pride?

And go after that one first. And then you'll find that the other ones are easier, okay? Next one, never hope for any reward.

What you do should be done for others. I've talked a lot about the fact that if you truly find the secret to happiness, you will go to heaven, you will see angels, you will have a happy life, you will make money, okay? Now, should you just do it for the sake of making money?

No, okay? And if you're just doing all of these things to try to get something for yourself and ignore others, you didn't get the point. You see what I mean?

When I say you can be healthy, happy, stronger, financially successful, of course I'm talking in the sense that when you get it, you use it for something, okay? You will find quickly that you will... you can make money from these things.

If you understand these principles, it works, you can make money. But if you don't use it to help other people, you'll quickly be as miserable as you were before. Okay?

It doesn't help to have money if you don't use it for something good, okay? And you'll quickly find that out, okay? That's why wealthy people when they get about 60 in the United States, they start donating, building schools and museums, and they realize it.

I mean, the intelligent wealthy people realize it. It won't really make you happy unless you use it for something, okay? Does that mean you shouldn't get rich?

No, you should, okay? Dalai Lama spoke to 40,000 people in Central Park, August, and we were all there, and he said, yeah, go ahead, make money, and then use it, you know, use it for something, help people with it, that's fine, no problem, okay? So, reward for yourself.

Also, don't hope for any reward means don't think this is going to work tomorrow. It doesn't work like that, it's like gardening, okay? Don't expect the world to change tomorrow.

It's as foolish as planting onions or potatoes and standing there tomorrow morning and demanding that they come up, you know? What's taking you so long? I planted you yesterday.

You know, spiritual things are exactly the same. It takes time. The nice thing about the practice we talked about, switching with other people, that works...

it makes you happier within 2 or 3 days, okay? That is an extremely powerful karma. It begins to affect your mind within 2 or 3 days, okay?

So that you can expect pretty soon. But as far as major financial success coming to you, feeling 20 years younger, some chronic pain that you've had going away, it does happen, it takes time. You have to be persistent, okay?

It will happen, but don't expect it in a week, okay? Stop eating poison food, okay? Food in this case means doing good things for other people.

Poison means you're still thinking about yourself, okay? Still you're concentrating on yourself, okay? Like, okay, you do give some money, but your main idea is, oh, I hope I get twice as much back tomorrow, you see what I mean?

You're not thinking about the other people. So, it is food, but you're poisoning it, you see what I mean? It is a goodness, it is a good imprint.

You are putting something beautiful in your mind, but it's being corrupted by concentrating on yourself, okay? Don't let the stream flow smooth. I like this one.

By the way, this is number 10 if you're keeping track. When you get a bad emotion, when you start to feel anger, when you start to feel jealousy, when you start to get irritated with someone, flow smooth means you just sit there and let it go, okay? You just watch it, and it gets stronger and stronger, okay?

Not to let it flow smooth means put up a fight, okay? Put up some kind of resistance, all right? You start being jealous of somebody, and maybe you can't stop yourself, but at least put up a fight, all right?

Don't just sit there and let it control your mind, okay? Those of you who know about bodhisattva vows, there are many vows about not letting anger go on. There's a vow about not letting desire go on, okay?

And then they talk about, how do you keep this vow? You start to get angry. At least put up some resistance, all right?

You may not be able to stop it. Maybe after 20 minutes it's going to control your mind, and you are going to get angry. But at least give it 5 minutes of struggle, you know?

I have personally, as a monk, spent all night struggling with certain emotions, you know what I mean? Like the dawn would come, and I'm still like, you know, didn't sleep, still fighting those emotions, you know what I mean? And you have to get good at it, you know?

Like a boxer, okay? Give him like 3 good rounds, then fall down, okay? All right?

It's all right. You won't be able to stop all your negative emotions. At least put up a good fight.

It'll help in the future, okay? At least resist 5 minutes, 5 seconds, 30 minutes, you know, hold that anger, hold that jealousy. And then it'll run over you like a big truck.

At least you put up a fight. You can be proud of yourself, okay? My teacher used to say, you can go to hell and brag about it, you know?

He'd say, I'm not here like you other guys. You were lazy, you just got angry. I fought it for half an hour, and then I got angry.

You know, okay? All right. Number 11, forget repaying criticism.

This refers to 4 special kinds of meditation. Okay, by the way, I'm going a little fast, I'm sorry. That's all the time we have.

We have a class starting in New York on Tuesday, okay? Forget repaying criticism means 4 different kinds of things that people can do to you. Okay, number 1 is criticism.

You're stupid, you don't do this very well, okay? Number 2 is actually violence to you, mental, emotional or physical violence, okay? They do something to you, hit you, strike you, yell at...something like that. Emotional violence is just as bad, you know? Number 3, they get angry at you. Number 4, they actually yell at you, they scold you for something, or they put you down, okay?

These are called the 4... Sorry? Yeah, they're like 4 things that people do to you.

And then the idea is, you don't respond in kind. You see what I mean? Do not respond with the same thing.

That's what forget repaying criticism means. Criticism here is a code word for those 4 things. Somebody hits you, show them the other cheek.

I used to wonder what that meant. I didn't understand that it meant someone hits you on this cheek and you say, oh, would you like to hit me on the other one? You know what I mean?

It seems bizarre to do that. It seems crazy, you know? Are you suggesting, Jesus, that if someone hits me on my left side of my face, my reaction should be, would you like to hit me on the other side?

And you say, yeah, that's what I'm suggesting, okay? Instead of hitting them back. That's the idea here.

Someone gets angry at you. I mean, the natural thing is to get angry. You start to get angry.

Sometimes you can resist for 3, 4, 5 minutes, you know? They're like saying something, and you're like, okay, I understand. And then they say it again, and then you're like, okay, okay, it's okay, it's alright.

And then they do it 4 or 5 times more, and then you're like, shut up, you know? I mean, sooner or later you lose it. You see what I mean?

And the idea is, don't repay violence with violence. Whether it's anger, or words, or hitting you, or getting upset at you, forget that reaction. It's primitive.

It's caveman. Okay? It doesn't work.

If you want to see this person hurt you again, hurt them back. Because that's the only way you will see them hurt you. You see what I mean?

That's the idea of a mental imprint. When your arm goes out, and meets the other person's face, and you watch your hand go there, and you hit them, a certain imprint is put into your mind. We call it karma, it doesn't matter what you call it.

Imprint is made in your mind. It goes to the subconscious. It swims around like a fish.

6 months, 8 months, 1 year, suddenly you're walking down the street, somebody hits you. And you're like, where'd that come from? I didn't do anything to you.

But you did. Alright? We say nothing comes from nothing.

Every bad thing that ever happens to you comes from those little fish swimming around in your subconscious. Okay? You put in there 6 months ago.

Don't you remember? In Australia, it's really easy to explain. I have great students in Australia, because they know about boomerangs.

You see what I mean? You throw one. And 6 months later, boom!

You know, and you're like, who did that? You know, and it's you, get it? Okay?

Every bad thing that happens to you is a boomerang. Okay, maybe it was thrown 6 months ago. But it's there.

You put it... Your mind is a tape recorder. When you do violence, it records the violence.

It stays in the subconscious. And then it comes back up, like a boomerang. And suddenly this guy is walking in the room and yelling at you, for no reason at all, I didn't do anything.

You did do something. Get used to it. Figure it out.

Okay? Jesus was adamant. You don't get something bad from nothing.

It comes from something bad. Okay? It comes from something you did before.

That's all. We say that there's no likelihood, there's no chance in the universe that something bad can happen to you that didn't come from something bad before. Period.

Impossible. No such thing. Okay?

Get used to it. What's the next one? Give up laying ambushes.

Okay? This means somebody does something to you and you wait for a chance to get back. You see what I mean?

Forget it. Just leave it. Okay?

And here I talk about the gap. The gap means, how long does it take you to forget it? Okay?

Is it going to take you a day or two days or one week or one month? Hey, forget it now. Just forget it.

Somebody does something to you, they do something to harm you, within half an hour, let it go. Let it go. Does that mean you should let crazy people run around and kill people and hurt people?

No. You must restrain them. I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about someone insulted you and you're waiting for a chance to get them back. Just drop it. Okay?

Just peace. Peace comes unilaterally from you. Okay?

You can't like... punch... criticize them back and then it's going to stop there?

No. Then they have to criticize you. And then you have to criticize them.

And then they have to criticize... Just let it go. Okay?

Yeah? You're letting it go for an understanding that it's going back to him anyway. Is that...

Oh, yeah. I mean, if you're going to be a little bit naughty, you can reflect on the fact that he's going to get it back anyway from Mr. Karma. Okay?

We say Mr. Karma. Okay? I mean, actually, it's sort of bad to think that way, but...

Mr. Karma doesn't need your help. He's going to get him back anyway. Okay?

You have to let it go or else Mr. Karma is going to get you also. Okay? All right.

No going for the... jugular. Jugular means...

if you have a chance to criticize someone in public for something they did do or didn't do, it doesn't matter. Don't do it. You see what I mean?

At least go in private and talk to them. You see what I mean? Don't...

Don't expose someone else's problems in public. You see what I mean? Don't get them in a big room full of people and say, By the way, that thing you did yesterday was the stupidest thing I ever heard of.

And then 20 other people are like... You know... That's called going for the jugular.

If you have a problem with someone or you want to point out something they did, go do it in private. Don't embarrass them in front of 20 people. Load your own truck, no passing the buck.

I kind of translated that a little liberally. They didn't have trucks a thousand years ago in Tibet. This means...

take responsibility for the bad things that come to you. Okay? Don't try to blame it on someone else.

If someone comes to you and seems angry, you have two choices. You can try to talk them out of it logically and explain to them why they are a bad person. Okay?

Or you can say, This person was created because I was bad in the past. Now, what's the real way to fix it? Don't get angry.

You see what I mean? We call this the stupid way to fix things and the right way to fix things. Okay?

Stupid way. You're angry. Don't be angry.

You shouldn't be angry. I didn't do what you thought I did. It is no problem.

It doesn't... It goes on and on. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't work.

But it doesn't fix things. The reason you're meeting an angry person is because you have anger. So the real solution is what?

Stop being angry. Okay? If you're tired of meeting angry people, stop being angry.

They say in Tibet, Wear shoes. Don't cover the whole world with leather. You see what I mean?

You're not gonna talk all the angry people out of being angry. There's too many of them. Okay?

You're not gonna solve every angry person in the world. Just don't be angry yourself. And they will start to disappear.

You see what I mean? Okay? You can't...

You can't kill all the violent people in the world. Just don't be violent. And they will disappear.

You see what I mean? Yeah?

[Speaker 2]
Michael, just say in a situation where your child is there and it has been hit by an angry woman.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. And you're there and... That woman has taken something into her hands to hit a child that's underage, say, ten years old, across the head for something she couldn't tolerate.

How would you respond to that? I think you have to judge... Now, she's talking about a specific instance where a mother hits a child and you're standing there.

It happens in the United States.

[Speaker 2]
No, I'm the mother of the child, say.

[Speaker 1]
They're hitting your child. Okay. You have to think.

You have to draw a distinction between responding to correct the person and being angry. Okay? Being angry is always bad karma.

Okay? Being angry always hurts you. Being angry will always cause you to see something bad in the future.

Okay? You have to remember that. But to restrain a person who's violent and to try to correct them, peacefully, calmly, is a very good action.

Okay? Big difference. We're not advocating that you should sit there and do nothing.

You have to do something. If you're a Buddhist, if you are a moral person and you see something wrong, you have to do something. You must do something.

What we're saying is that don't be violent inside and outside. You see what I mean? Don't respond to it with violence.

Because that just creates another violence. You see what I mean? That's all.

What about when it's necessary to do violence to restrain the person? That's the principle we talked about the other night. First stop.

A. Make sure you don't have any anger towards this person. B.

Pretend they are your mother. Okay? Your own mother.

And you came home after working hard all day and you walked in the kitchen and she went crazy and she's got a big butcher knife and she's coming at you at the door. What will you do? You know?

Would you shoot her? You see what I mean? I'm talking your own mother.

You see what I mean? They say that the answer to your question, the first answer is pretend that this person is your own mother. Now, would you hit your own mother?

You see what I mean? Or would you try to... You know you come up behind them and grab them like that and say calm down, calm down and you fall down and you both fall down and you're still holding them.

It's called restraint rather than violence, right? So, that's okay. The main thing is you shouldn't be angry.

Anything you do out of anger will be a bad deed. Anything you do out of calmness can be a good deed even if it's almost violence. You see what I mean?

That's the difference. The main thing is the intention, okay? The emotion that you have.

[Speaker 2]
Why is she seeing her child being hit?

[Speaker 1]
You're seeing your child being hit because you hit someone else's child in the past. Okay? That's all.

Yeah? Is there a difference between feeling anger and expressing anger? Angela asked if there's a difference between feeling anger and expressing it.

This is the distinction between a mental bad deed and a verbal bad deed. Just say somebody came up and started this. You would feel angry but not express it back.

That's what I mean. An untrained person will feel anger. A trained person will be able to stop the anger before it even starts.

You see what I mean? Like a real Buddhist monk or somebody like that, you come up and hit them in the face, they're already thinking of why they shouldn't be angry at you. You see what I mean?

The minute the hand touches their face, they're already controlling their mind. You know? And they're cool as a cucumber.

Then they might hit you in the face to correct you. But there's no bad deed. They're not angry.

They don't hate you. They're not trying to hurt you. They're just trying to get you to act properly in the future.

You know? And that's fine. Okay?

That's a very delicate distinction and you have to make it. It's proper for a parent to correct their child even when they have to appear to be angry. But you can't be angry.

Okay? That's a big difference. There's no sin if you're doing it out of compassion.

Okay? But check your heart carefully before you do it. Yeah?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah. Always. Always.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, there's... Yeah, always. There's always...

Get this. Jesus was fanatical about it. Thistles, grapes, thorns and...

Figs.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
A bad event cannot occur to you if you have not done something bad. Impossible. Impossible.

The comforting thing is when you do something good, it will always have a good result. Okay? Now sometimes apparently it hurts.

You know? And sometimes you tell a lie and you seem to get a thousand dollars. Forget it.

There's no cause and effect there. It is the key to happiness. It is the key to every religion.

You have to understand it. You don't get lemons from orange seeds. It's impossible.

It's just impossible. And the same thing holds for events in your life. It's impossible to have an unpleasant thing happen to you if you haven't done something unpleasant to someone else.

It's impossible. And any good thing you ever do is never lost. It will always have a sweet result.

Okay? And if something appears to happen bad after that, that comes from something older. You know?

If you tell the truth and suddenly this person is firing you. Okay? Don't worry.

By the way, we call this an act of truth. It's courage. It's real, true, spiritual, warrior, saint courage.

Just do the right thing all the time. It cannot have a bad effect. It cannot cause you problems.

It cannot go wrong. Be absolutely honest. Tell the truth exactly as you see it.

And have the courage to do exactly what you think is right. It cannot have a bad result. They may lock you up.

They may hit you. They may cut your arms off. That comes from something older.

Okay? I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding.

You cannot have a bad result from being a good person. It's impossible. Okay?

Yeah?

[Speaker 2]
I have a problem with this anger.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah?

[Speaker 2]
Is it that anger is always, always, always, always wrong? In the sense that if I see an injustice in the world and I get anger about the injustice and then I use that emotion of anger to say I want or need to do something about it and don't do that peacefully.

[Speaker 1]
Does anger still work? That's my question. That's a good question.

She's talking about what we could call righteous anger. You know, you see an injustice being done and then you get this emotion. We say that emotion is not anger.

You know? It's not the same as a violence anger. You see, I mean, it should be an emotion of almost justice.

You see what I mean? And not anger. Anger clouds your mind.

It makes you stupid. It makes you do stupid things. It should be this cold, calm recognition.

This is an injustice and I will try to stop it. Even if it hurts me, I'll try to stop it. You see what I mean?

It feels a little like anger, but it's not the same thing. We call it, jam, jam, jam. And that's a...

You take on the form of almost a monster, you see? And you've got flaming... A lion.

What's his name again? Arslan? Arslan.

Arslan? Arslan. Okay, he's a lion.

You know? And yeah, you stand up like a lion, and you say, I will not put up with this injustice. I'm going to fight it.

You know what I mean? That's fine. That's great.

Times to be like a lion. But no anger. Very cool, very calm, and then you can be a really good lion.

Okay? In meditation you can deal with...

[Speaker 2]
If you have a certain pattern, say, emotion, fear, jealousy or whatever, do you not disagree that anger is the whole root of all those?

[Speaker 1]
Oh no, no, anger is not the root. Anger is called a... secondary bad emotion, okay?

It comes from a feeling of dislike for something that happens to you. Okay? And that comes from not understanding that you have created this thing.

You see what I mean? You can't really hate a bad person who comes into your life if you realize that you created them. Dr. Frankenstein is getting killed by his creation. But I think somewhere in there he's thinking, I was really stupid. I shouldn't have made this thing. I should have made him a little bit nicer.

You see? It's that same feeling you have. You can't really hate someone else if you understand that you made them.

You see what I mean? That's all. And anger comes as a secondary from that.

Anger grows from not understanding that you've made this thing yourself. Because the emotion you would have if you really understood that every irritating person you ever met was created by you, you'd be like... like that.

You know, you wouldn't be angry. You'd be, oh man, that was stupid. Okay?

That's all. That's all. If you really understood who created all the problems in your life, you wouldn't get angry at anybody, except one person.

Okay. Don't get fixed on speed. Okay?

Now, this one's really hard to figure out, but if you have a commentary, it's okay. Geshe Chekawa wrote a commentary, I studied it. It means, if they put out 15 scones and there's 20 people there, don't try to get it as fast as you can.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
I mean, don't... If there's a chance to take something and there's many people who need it, let the other people go first. This is like on a bus.

If you meet real Buddhists in New York, it's very beautiful. It's very... You know, people who are really, really practicing.

You know, they get to the bus station, there's 30 people crowding around the thing, and they're like, you go ahead. You go ahead. I'm okay, I have time.

You know? Buddhist always has time. You see?

You go ahead. You know, I know you have to get home. You just go ahead.

You know? And you don't like rush ahead and try to take it first. Okay?

It's always in the background, and always in a very transparent way. Like you're not showing off. Oh, I'm good enough not to fight.

You go ahead and fight. You know? It's not like that.

It's like, you just kind of float to the back and let everyone else get a ticket, and then you get the last ticket, and you sit in the worst seat, and you're happy, and you do your tung len.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
And nobody knows. You know? And if you keep that up, day after day, you just get used to it.

Okay, I always sit in the back of the bus. At least I have a seat. You know?

It's okay. And you feel much happier. You know, when we're on airplanes, we travel with, I don't know, ten, fifteen people.

We always get off last. Everybody jumps up. Everybody stands there.

And we have another ten minutes to study and meditate and read our books and joke around and have the last of the Coca-Cola from the stewardess. And we just relax. You know?

It doesn't matter. Ten minutes doesn't matter. You know?

Let them all go. You know? We're all last.

The stewardess is always waiting for us. You know? Could you leave now?

And we're like, Oh! Everyone in the plane is empty. You know?

And, okay, we'll go now. And like that. Just be used to being last.

And you shall be first. Okay? And it's fun, and no tension.

You just relax. Okay, I'm the last one off the plane. I got my bag the same time everybody else got my bag.

You know? Who cares? Okay?

All right. Don't feed the wrong face. Does it say, don't feed the wrong face?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah. Don't feed the wrong face.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, don't feed the wrong face. This means, don't transfer your old neurosis and your old problems to your new meditation and your new practice. Okay?

Like, suppose you have a problem with pride, and you want to work on your pride. So you go and learn this new thing, and you memorize it, and you know all the Tibetan words for it, and you're going to go show off to people. You know?

I know how to stop pride. You know? And you're just transferring your pride to a new thing.

You see what I mean? And it's very common in the practice of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. You see what I mean?

You just transfer your old problems to your new practice. You see what I mean? All the old problems you had, especially pride and things like that, I know, I memorized this whole prayer about pride.

You know that? You know what I mean? And, you know, and then somebody says, well, did you work on your pride?

And you're like, no. It means, don't feed your old bad emotions with your new knowledge. Don't corrupt it.

That's also the meaning of the next one, which is very famous. This is very famous. Don't turn the sweet angel into a devil.

What it means is, don't start using your newfound knowledge to feed your old mental afflictions, your old bad emotions. Don't just use this new thing to have the same problems you used to have. You see what I mean?

And you see this in the West. People form a group to study. And they start to have the same conflicts in the group that the group was supposed to stop.

You see what I mean? And somebody says, I'm going to be president of the new group. You say, no, no, I'm going to be president of the new group.

You know what I mean? What group? The non-violence group.

And if you think you're going to be president, I'll tell you something. You know what I mean? And you're just transferring all your old problems into a new setting.

And you're actually turning this potential for a sweet holy angel, you're making this angel into a devil. You see what I mean? You're making this sweet new information into another source to have problems about.

Then you go out and it's another religious faction. I'm in the Angela Dublin faction. I'm in the Kevin Galway faction.

That's not how we do that prayer. And then suddenly, all of the old conflict comes onto a new subject. You see what I mean?

It just becomes another reason to have a conflict. You see what I mean? So...

And it happens in the West. It happens in New York. We have...

It happens everywhere. Okay? It's human nature.

Don't turn the new sweet thing into the old devil. Okay? Last one has a bad word.

I'm sorry for it. My teacher said not to do it, and I did it. Don't look for crap to make yourself happy.

This means don't go watching for other... I don't know how to say. There's a human tendency to take some comfort in other people's problems.

Like, somehow, you can be miserable, but if you meet someone who's even more miserable, you feel better. You see what I mean? This is the O.J. Simpson syndrome. You know, I can't believe that I travel all over the world during O.J. Simpson's murder case. Every newspaper, every radio, every television station, this guy is having this huge problem. It's so interesting.

You see what I mean? And, you know, a million people are dying in Africa, and 40,000 people are dying in this war, and here's this one guy, you know, but everyone is amazed because he's famous, and he's having this big problem. And they're transfixed.

They're just... It's so amazing, you know. Do you think he did it?

I don't know. Oh, but there's this... No, but this is...

You know, this is like taking some kind of pleasure in other people's problems. Okay? And it's a human nature.

I saw it in this big company. I had one boss. It seemed to take special pleasure whenever one of our people made a big mistake in an order.

And to me it was amazing because we would all lose money. You see? If one person in your company makes a big mistake, do you think the boss is going to take it out of his profits?

You know? No, he's going to cut everybody's Christmas bonus. You see what I mean?

But still you have this interest. Oh, did you hear? So-and-so made a $50,000 mistake yesterday.

Wow! I'm glad it wasn't me. You know?

And you take this interest, you see? And it's human nature. So don't look for those kind of things to make yourself feel better.

It's a source of gossip and things like that. Okay? What I'd like to do is take a break.

And then we have about an hour to that. And I'm going to ask Winston... We have a special system how to keep this.

It's called the book. And... six times book.

And we're going to give each person a little notebook. And Winston's going to explain how it works. Winston is in charge of the university that we're building in the Western United States to study these things.

And also we have a... We're going to be building colleges for sacred... traditional medicine, sacred dance, sacred music, sacred art, and things like that.

He's in charge of this project. And he's already raised enough funds to build... It's about a 100-acre property now.

It'll be a 9,000-acre campus. And he's in charge of that. So...

He's going to give a little explanation of the book after we come back. So come back in about 10... 10-15 minutes.

All right? This is the end of Session 6.