Серия ежедневной практики, курс 10 — Мантра Чже Цонгкапы (Ганден Лхагьяма) (1998), занятие 4

[Speaker 2]
Session four.

[Speaker 1]
Namo namaskariputra, namo namaskariputra, namo namaskariputra, namo namaskariputra, namo namaskariputra, namo namaskariputra, namo namaskariputra, namo namaskariputra, after a meditation. And then we'll talk about protection, like how to do the dharmas, what they do to protect you. We'll make protection markers, teach you about how to make what's called a protection circle.

And then, later on in the day, you'll start cutting out the paper for your windows and closing them up, okay? And I'll explain about that, alright? So, you're going to need your book, with the Ganya-Lhagyama.

We're on page ten. It's good to know the meaning of the mantra you're doing, even if it's Sanskrit, okay? I mean, there's...

people say it has its own holy meaning, and you don't need to know the meaning, but it's not like that. It does have its own holy meaning, whether you know the meaning, but it has more holy meaning if you don't know the meaning, okay? So, this particular mantra is written in Tibetan, and we'll go over the meaning of it, okay?

And you have to think about it while you say it. Later we'll go over the visualization that you'll be doing while you do the mantra, but right now we'll go over the meaning of the mantra, okay? Say, migme, migme, zewe, zewe, derchen, derchen, jenrezig, jenrezig, jime, jime, khenpe, khenpe, wangpo, wangpo, jampayang, jampayang, dupung, dupung, malu, malu, jomze, jomze, sangway dak, sangway dak, kangchen, kangchen, khepe, khepe, tsukyen, tsukyen, tsongkapa, tsongkapa, losang, losang, jagbe, jagbe, shabla, shabla, suwandeb, suwandeb, Okay.

That was a lung, okay? Meaning you got the oral transmission. I received it from Ken Rinpoche, and also the abbot of, the abbot of Sereme, who started Sereme in India.

And he gave a very sweet teaching on it to me in Puntauk for a couple of days. Mikme means, mikme means, and you should know his name, is Ngawan Tekchok, and he's pretty much responsible for getting Sereme started in India, okay? And he's still alive, and maybe we can meet him in January, okay?

Mikme, mikme is a very strange word. Mikme in logic means invisible or imperceptible. Here it means, you don't see anything, okay?

And it's describing a kind of love. There are three kinds of love described in the scriptures. This kind is one that, when it looks at a person and loves them, it sees their emptiness also, okay?

So, doesn't see anything means it doesn't see any self-existence. So, as you are loving a person, as you have compassion for some sentient being, you're aware at the same time that they are totally empty, and that you could, because your arm is empty, it could be a paw, or a hand, or a Manjushri's arm, and same goes for them, the people that you are loving, okay? And that's the ultimate form of love.

So, that love is wanting them to be happy, it's wanting them to be free of suffering, but it's also understanding their emptiness, which is how they get free of suffering. So, it's an informed love, and it's the best kind of love, because it really understands how the object of your compassion could be made into an enlightened being through your efforts. So, it's a special kind of love.

It doesn't necessarily mean that at the time you're seeing them, you see their emptiness directly, because only an enlightened being can see emptiness and normal reality at the same time. But it means intellectually you're understanding their emptiness as you love them. So, it's understanding clearly the potential that everyone around you could become an enlightened being because they're empty.

So, as you love them, you know, you're not thinking, oh, this poor guy needs some food, or this poor guy needs a place to stay, or you're thinking, this guy is empty, and I'll love them, and then if they learn how to be an enlightened being, if I could impart that to them, then they could be an enlightened being, and they wouldn't have to worry about food, or a place to stay, or any other problems.

So, at that same time, you're aware of their emptiness. MIG MED TSE BA means love. DER means...

DER you can translate into English as goldmine, or something like that. Meaning, it has exactly those connotations when you say, you know, this is a goldmine of information, or this is a goldmine of opportunity, or it means a big deposit of anything. Normally it's used for silvermines, goldmines, turquoise mines, okay?

DER CHEN means great treasure. CHEN RE GZIG means Avalokiteshvara, okay? People mistranslate the name, okay?

CHEN means eyes. GZIG means to look. RE means, you know, like, when you're in love with somebody, and you're like...

like you're just infatuated with them, it's like infatuated eyes, okay? It's like, you know, like can't take their eyes off of you, or something like that. It's like this very, very...

it's this way of looking at somebody that you're in love with them, okay? And that's how Avalokiteshvara... that's what the name means, Avalokiteshvara.

Like, looks at you with eyes of love, or something like that, okay? If you read it a different way, RE means cloth or rag, and I've seen people translate it as rag eyes, or something like that. That's very wrong, okay?

THY ME means immaculate. THY MA means a smell or impurity. THY ME means immaculate.

In this case it refers to knowledge. And what it means is knowledge that does not see things as self-existent, okay? In the case of an enlightened being, it also means they've removed both of the obstacles, meaning they can see all things in the universe, and they've removed all negativities, okay?

So you can take it either way. KHYEN PA means knowledge. DBANG PO means like king or lord, or something like that, okay?

BYAMS PA'I YANG means Manjushri. Manjushri and Manjushri are the same thing. You can either say BYAMS PA'I YANG, or you can say BYAM YANG, or you can say BYAMS PA'I YANG.

Okay, it's all the same thing. They're all the same person, okay? BYAMS means gentle, and PA'I means glory, and YANG means voice.

So, Manju means gentle, Shri means glory, and Gosha means voice, okay? So, it speaks with a gentle voice of knowledge, something like that. Speaks softly and carries a big stick of wisdom, something like that, okay?

[Speaker 2]
All right.

[Speaker 1]
This DUS means demons or devils or bad thoughts, okay, negativities. BUNG means... BUNG means an armed force, like Marines, Air Force, Navy, Infantry, okay?

There's BUNG SHI in ancient India. You had to have your charioteers, your elephanteers, your archers, your infantry. Those are the four BUNGs.

So, BUNG means a big army, okay? DUS BUNG means an army of negative beings or thoughts, okay? MA LUS means to the last man, okay?

Not... MA LUS means to the last man or... It means all, completely, entirely, okay?

BYOM means smash or defeat. You know it in the word DRA BYOM, Arhat, okay? DZAD means who has done that, okay?

SANG BA'I DAG means the Lord of Secrets, and it refers to Vajradhara, which is the form that Lord Buddha takes to teach Tantra, okay? So that's the... If you met the Buddha and the Buddha was teaching you Tantra, they would look like Vajradhara, okay?

That's what SANG BA'I DAG means. GANG CHEN means... GANG means...

Those of you who know Tibetan, GANG without the SA means full, or what, or how, or... when, but if you add the SA, it changes to snow. So that's a word for snow.

It's a synonym for KAWA. So sometimes they say KAWA CHEN, sometimes they say GANG CHEN, okay? CHEN means having that, so GANG CHEN means the snowy land.

The Sanskrit for that is Himalaya, okay? Okay, GANG CHEN. KHYAD PA means...

great thinkers or wise men, okay? TZUGS RGYEN... TZUGS means...

TZUGS means the top of your head right here. This, you know, right at the top, the very tip top of your head. TZUGS RGYEN means ornament for the top of the head, okay?

You can say crowning jewel, okay? TZUGS RGYEN. But really it has a slightly different meaning, which is that in Asia, to put your feet on someone's head is the ultimate insult.

And if you were going to humble yourself before someone, you would touch your feet at their... your head at their feet. And that would be a way of saying you are God, you know, and I'm dirt, you know, something like that.

So, TZUGS RGYEN means... actually all other wise men of Tibet would take the top of their heads and put it at the feet of Je Tsongkapa, meaning you're incomparable or something like that. And, you know, it sounds like this Tibetan exaggeration thing, but I've actually read, you know, Pabongka Rinpoche has a beautiful section of comments about Je Tsongkapa made by the great thinkers of the other traditions of Tibet, like Karmapas, and they're very wonderful, they're extraordinary.

Like they'll say, oh, Tsongkapa... One of the Karmapas wrote this praise of Je Tsongkapa saying, you're just unbelievable. And I was like, you sure?

And I went and checked at Dr. Shen's and I found it, and it's very beautiful. So he was like recognized among his peers in Tibet in those days. And those were like the renaissance of Buddhism in Tibet.

Those were the big days, the 1400s were the good old days. And Buddhism just flowered and great things happened. Ganden, Debung, Sera, Tashi Humbo, Kumbum were all founded within a few years by Je Tsongkapa's students.

And it was just an incredible time in Tibet. It was the beginning of a whole era that ended in 1959. Tsongkapa.

Tsongkapa. Tsong means onion, okay? Some people say onion man or something like that.

It doesn't have anything to do with that. We read a text by Dharmabhadra saying that there's a river back in where he used to live called Tsongkha. And he was born near that river.

So he was called the one from the Tsongkha River, which is Tsongkapa. There's also a mountain near there called Tsongkha. Mount Tsongkha.

So anyway, maybe a long, long time ago there used to be onions there, I don't know. But I don't think it's appropriate to call him Mr. Onion or anything. Tsongkapa, okay?

And you might see it sometimes spelled with a B, a B-A before it. Okay, that's an ancient spelling. This is the modern spelling.

Losandrapa we went through yesterday, that's his ordination name. Shabla means, at his feet. Suandep means, I make request.

Okay. Okay, so now we'll go into the... That's the, you know, etymological meaning of it.

Now what's the meaning, meaning of it? Okay. There's this thing about enlightened beings that they have to have three qualities.

They say, khen... khen...

[Speaker 2]
say... say...

[Speaker 1]
nü... nü... khen say...

[Speaker 2]
khen say...

[Speaker 1]
nünden... nünden... And it's explained like this.

These lines are reflecting that Je Tsongkapa has khen say nünden. Okay, khenpa means knowledge. And it means the ability to see all things.

Like once you get enlightened, the big advantage is that you can see the whole future. And on top of that, you can read all the people's minds. Simultaneously.

You can see everything that's ever going to happen. And you can read the minds of every person in the universe, all at the same time. So it makes you like perfectly equipped to help people.

Okay. You can read their minds and you know what's going to happen to them in the future. So, so it's like a perfect viewpoint from which to help people and to serve people.

So, so Je Tsongkapa has this quality. you know, well, we'll talk about it. TSE BA means, TSE BA means love.

And they always say in the scriptures, it doesn't help if they could read your mind and see your future if they didn't care about you. Okay, I mean, they wouldn't do anything for you. So, TSE BA means, love means they have the love to want to do something for you.

They say that they love you more than you love yourself. Okay, so, that would be a lot. So, like whatever concern or love you have for your own welfare, they have more than that.

NUS PA means, it doesn't do any good if they know about your situation and then they want to help you, but if they have no ability to help you, if they don't have the power to help you, then it's useless. So, NUS PA means, power, the power to help you. And this is like some extraordinary thing, their ability to emanate, for example.

So, people ask me, do you believe in God? I say, I used to just say no, you know, and then go and prove it from the fourth chapter of the Abhidharma, you know, and say, no, the world wasn't made by God, it was made by your karma, and it's silly to believe in God, and there's no such thing. But then, the people I said that to, my friends who were Christian, who were smart, they just got depressed, because they didn't have Buddhism, you know, so, they just started to get, you know, they'd call me a year later and say, I've been depressed for a year, you know, to think that no one's watching over me, and no one cares, and then I'd say, oh wait, that's a big mistake.

There are people watching over you, and this is the idea of certain beings have been following you from life to life, and they know what's happening to you better than you know, and they keep appearing throughout your life as different people watching you, and taking care of you, trying to help you, trying to reach you, and and Jetsun Kappa is like that. So Jetsun Kappa appeared in the time of the Buddha, Jetsun Kappa appeared later. Jetsun Kappa appeared as Padmasambhava, then had to come back again and introduce Buddhism as Atisha, and then came in as Jetsun Kappa, and then has come as different beings since then.

And you don't have to think of Jetsun Kappa as some historical figure from the 1400s or something like that. He continues to emanate as different people, and they're not restricted to emanating as one person, okay? They could be many people.

And since he has Khenchen Nu Den, he would want to follow you around all the time, and chase you around, and keep trying to get you enlightened, okay? So when you do this mantra, you don't have to think that you're doing a mantra to some guy who, Tibetan guy who has been dead for 500 years, or something like, it's not like that. You're doing a mantra to someone who's been around you frequently and following you, cares about you, knows about your life, knows what you're thinking, and is constantly emanating around you to help you, okay?

So as you do the mantra, you think like that, okay? We'll do some, we'll do a practice, okay? We'll practice it a little bit.

It's good to get it on your tongue. They say, and then after a while you won't have to look at it, okay? And we'll go through the normal preliminaries first, okay?

So, get ready. Start by watching your breath. Get into a position that you won't move, okay?

There's a couple of movers over on the right side here, don't move, okay? Get into a position that you won't have to move. Again, when we say watch your breath, you're being aware of the, the touch of the breath on the opening of the nostrils.

The cool air hitting it on the way in and the warm air coming out. I think about three rounds of ten is good. The out breath is the first half, and the in breath is the second half of number one, and then you go like that.

If your mind wanders major, you have to start over at the count, okay? If your mind gets distracted very instantaneously by some sound or something and you come right back, you don't have to start counting again, okay? Then take refuge mainly in the emptiness around you, that your life and the people around you and the place you live are all empty.

And if you kept your vows well, then everything could change. That's taking refuge. That's the only thing that can protect you.

Then think about bodhicitta, someone you know who's sick or depressed or in trouble, and all by accident of their ignorance. They don't know what to do, so they collected karma and now they have to go through that problem. Then invite a holy being, Jetsun Kappa, if you can.

As we spoke about yesterday, from Maitreya's heart on a cloud and have them sit in front of you. Maitreya's this beautiful, beautiful bodhisattva. Then make offerings.

Then think about something negative you thought yesterday or today or something you said and purify it. And then something good. Then ask for teachings and for good meditation.

And lastly, ask the lamas to stay near and your good friends and Jetsun Kappa. Okay, now we'll do the mantra. So if you have to look at the sheet, then get your sheet.

It's good to keep count of how many mantras you do. You can't count these until we close the place, okay? These are practices.

And there's some rules about doing a mantra, okay? Your mala has a hundred and eight or a hundred and ten beads or something like that. The eight or the ten is for mistakes, okay?

So one round you only count as a hundred. That's why there's the extra. If you have a major problem, like if you interrupt the mantra with other speech, like if you're halfway through a round and you say, how are you doing or something like that, you have to go back.

There's a rule, I'll get it in the break. Something like ten, you have to take off ten. Like if you have a bad day on a mantra retreat, you can end up with less than you started with, you know?

If you yawn, you have to take some off. If you burp, if you fart, like that. If you start to do another mantra because your mind is wandering, okay?

It happens. They say generally to sort of mutter it so you can hear it, okay? So, you know, loud enough for yourself to hear it.

Just sort of a loud whisper or something like that. So it'll be a little noisy, touch noisy in here, okay? But they say to hear it from other people is a blessing.

And other beings are in this room and they will hear it also, okay? So what I'd like you to do is, we'll do mantra for, let's see, maybe twenty minutes or something. It's this five-line mantra here.

Sometimes there's a six-line at the beginning, like an introductory line, but you don't have to do that, okay? You start with Mīgme Tserwa, okay? And try to maintain the visualization of Je Tsongkapa sitting in front of you and his hand on your chest, okay?

And blessing it. You're asking for blessings. You're asking for knowledge.

People think this is stupid, you know? You can go study ACI courses and you don't need this kind of stuff. And that's a mistake, okay?

Je Tsongkapa spent... You can't find a better scholar than Je Tsongkapa. He spent half his time doing this, this kind of thing.

He would go in a cave and do mantra retreats. There are many, many, many stories. He would go with Umapa, one of his lamas, and they would go each into his own room and do their mantras, and then they'd come out and have tea together, and they'd tell each other what they saw.

And Umapa would say, you know, I met Manjushri, and Je Tsongkapa would say, oh, I'm really jealous, I couldn't see him yet. And then Umapa would say, well, you want to ask him any questions? And then Je Tsongkapa would actually ask questions to Umapa, and Umapa would go ask Manjushri, and then he'd come back and tell Je Tsongkapa what Manjushri said.

Then later, Je Tsongkapa tried really hard and he was able to meet Manjushri directly. And they say that most of his writings are dictation that he took, which you can believe. How could somebody write 10,000 pages of that stuff like that?

Okay. Ultimately, Je Tsongkapa is Manjushri. The purpose of the mantra is khyen tse nyu den.

He has the love of Chenrezig, which is the embodiment of all the Buddha's love. He has the khyenpa of Manjushri, he has the knowledge of Manjushri. And then he has the power of a tantric warlord, okay, like some powerful tantric being.

So really the mantra is, the first three lines are khyen tse nyu, khyen tse, khyen nyu, okay. And then a line of Lo Tsongkapa Shabla. What was it?

Kanchen gyepay tsuk gyen Tsongkapa, Lo Tsongkapa Shabla su-den. The last two lines are like, just to Je Tsongkapa, meaning, you don't have to say the first three lines really, because he is the other three. You see what I mean?

So really the last two lines are saying he is the combination of the first three. And there's a lot of... there's many, many proofs for that.

I thought it was all hocus-pocus and stuff like that. You read Je Tsongkapa's Bhagraphy, you read certain sutras, he's clearly predicted in some sutras by Lord Buddha. He was a monk named Pema Ngyen Den in the time of the Buddha, and Buddha predicted who he would be.

And I used to think it was all like made up by people who wanted it to be like that, but we've been studying the original texts, it really does say that. It's very clear that he is predicted, and what he will do, that he will found a monastery called Ganden. And all of that is clear.

His mother had distinct dreams of Avalokiteshvara coming into her womb during her pregnancy, and there are many amazing things about visions of Manjushri. He used to be haunted by visions of Manjushri as a child. When he was a child, Atisha and Manjushri would keep coming in his dreams and teaching him.

And by the age of three, he already took his layman's vow. So he was extraordinary. I don't think it's BS, I think it's for real.

I've been studying the sutras. Just this last week, we spent a few days reading all the sutras. And I think it's for real.

So you're asking for a blessing from this being. And it will come in the form of the people around you. He will appear, or she will appear, around you.

And then you have to be... You'll recognize them because of the blessing of the mantra. And that's the reason to do the mantra.

Okay? So do the mantra. Do about twenty minutes.

They say good to hold it near your heart. Okay? Like that.

If you get tired, don't worry about it, you know? Switch hands. Do whatever you have to do.

But, start like that. Generally, you can use whatever hand is comfortable. YIN PAS KUN BYED MI NYES SPYOD If you know what that stuff is about, you know what to do.

Okay. And go through the visualization. Make the body clear.

Start with the silhouette. Then do the eyes. Then do the face.

Then do the hair. Then do the body. The warmth of the body.

The movement of the body. Get... You know, take the time.

Don't waste the time. Don't let your mind wander. When your mind wanders, bring it back.

If your hand gets tired, you can put it down. MI MED TSE WEI TO GYUR GYUR MI MED TSE WEI TO GYUR GYUR I'd like you to take about a 15-20 minute break. And then when you come back, we'll talk about protection circles and stuff like that.

Okay? Okay?

[Speaker 2]
This is the end of Session 4.

[Speaker 1]
Session 5 SUTRA TORMAS Okay, we're going to talk a little bit about how the tormas work, and then how you do your protection and stuff like that. The tormas we made are sort of like sutra tormas. And if you do a real lehrum, you have to get instructions on how to make the actual tantric tormas.

And that's a different story. You have to learn that. I just wanted to get you into the...

into the... all the... What do you call it?

These are like all the patterns that you have to have. These are all the elements you need during a tantric retreat. But they're all like sutra eyes.

So you'll have to get the actual instructions for them from your tantric lama. But these are all the elements and all the steps you have to go through before you put yourself into retreat. So I want to go over the tormas we made.

Okay? The first big torma with the two other tormas, that was to Jetsun Kappa and his two students, Gyatsobje and Kirubje. If you're doing a lehrum for Vajrayogini, then there would be a similar amount of tormas with different shape, different colors, different kargins.

And you have to learn that. That torma, beginning tomorrow morning, you should start adding one pyramid a day on that plate. So you take one from the pyramid plate and you add it to that plate in front of the tormas.

And it means you are refreshing it. Okay? If you're in a long retreat and they start to dry out and break up and fall apart, or if the mice get to them, you have to do them over again.

It takes a whole day. It's very exhausting. So you probably don't want to...

You know, you'll get to where you really want to keep them away from the mice. You know, it kind of breaks your concentration if you have to do them over again. So when you're in a real retreat, like a month or six weeks, which I think if you do a mantra retreat for Vajrayogini, you should take your time.

You know, there's people who finished in 14 days. The guy's name is Steve Foster. They changed it to Steve Faster.

But it doesn't work. Don't rush it, okay? The mantras are supposed to be clear, and your motivation is supposed to be clear, and you're supposed to be relaxed, and you're supposed to be enjoying it.

There's other people who tried to finish in two weeks and went crazy, and for two days they were running around. It's not worth it. It's better to try to get a full...

In my mind, it takes about five weeks, if you count all the setup time, to do a nice, slow one. To do a bhoom. Bhoom means a hundred thousand mantras.

And if you take Vajrayogini, you're supposed to do four of those. And each one changes you vastly. This is not like some kind of ridiculous thing that Tibetan people do, yak herders who don't know any philosophy or something like that.

They're very profound, and they change you a lot. Even this mantra retreat will change you a lot. So that's the first dharma.

And that will stay on your altar the whole time. And you keep refreshing it every day. At the end, always make a few more pyramids than you intend to stay in, because then you're not under any pressure to come out.

You might find at the end that you want to stay in a few more days or something like that, or a few more years. Anyway, it's good to have a few extra ones. So we made ten.

We only have seven days or something, but you make some extra ones. So you'll start adding those tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning, also, you should have three rows of water bowls, and just the normal order of the water bowls, starting from your left as you face the altar.

You know, two waters. If you don't know, ask somebody. And you should fill them up every morning.

The first one should be water with saffron in it, if you can. The second one should be water with saffron in it, if you can. Third one is...

The custom is to put rice up to the level of the top of the thing, that offering cup. You know, so you fill it up a little bit extra, and then you sweep it off like that, and then you put a flower there. You'll see two kinds of flowers.

One, you can put a fresh flower, or you can put tsampaka, which is actually a seed pod that looks like a flower. I don't know if you've seen Rinpoche use them, but Tibetans use those because they last a long time. They look like flowers and they last about six months or something.

So you can stick those in there also. Or anything, what do you call it? Those dried flowers?

What do they call them, the thin ones? The very thin dried flowers, with a little thin stalk and a little tiny flower. There's another name for it.

I'll think of it. Anyway, they dye the colors on them. Yeah, anyway.

[Speaker 2]
No, dried.

[Speaker 1]
There's a special word for it, I forget. Anyway, you can use those. The fourth cup should be rice a little bit heaped up, so the top looks a little round.

So you don't scoop it off like that. It should be a little round. And then you put two incense sticks side by side.

Try to get them straight. Like that. By the way, there's a trick to get the rice in the bowl.

You get a bigger bowl, fill it full of rice and just scoop it. And you don't sit there with rice and try to fill the bowl. It'll take you all day.

So you've got du-bei. Then a-lu-ke means put a lamp. You can put a tea light in there, but according to the rules of God's dough, you can't light it.

So you can imagine that it's burning. Or you can put a butter lamp or whatever. Okay, a-lu-ke.

Gen-de. The next bowl would be, again, water with some kind of perfume in it. Like if you have some scent or what do you call it?

The orange stuff. Saffron. Don't say saffron in it.

A-ga-pa-li. Gen-de. Nu-de.

Okay. And then nu-de, which means something to eat. I mean, normally they fill up the bowl with rice and then put like three cookies there.

White is better. White or yellow. They think it's inauspicious to use black.

Okay. And then if you have music, you can put a CD-ROM there, a music CD-ROM or a bell or a tape or a guitar pick or something like that. Okay.

And that represents music. So you guys should do that every morning in your rooms now. Starting tomorrow morning.

Three rows. In a row. Not quite touching.

Okay, like one rice length apart between the bowls. Very important. Like, it's important to do it right when you're in retreat.

When you're in retreat, it's very important to do the offerings right in the morning. Okay, so you have finally time to do it and get up early. Like, when I'm in retreat, it takes about 45 minutes or something.

Take time. Do it really nice. Put out some fresh cookies.

We have lots of... Yeah, tons of cookies. Yeah, I mean, when I go into retreat, I buy literally about 100 boxes of cookies or something and store them and change it every day.

You know, change it every day and make it nice. Have a good time with it. You know, make it really pretty.

Put different things there. Yeah. You don't have to change the rice.

And you don't have to change the incense. Yeah. You could, yeah.

I found that if you have certain kinds of flour, it works well. And some kinds it doesn't work well. What do they call those things?

Straw flowers. Yeah, those are good. Yeah, those are really nice.

Okay. So, ask each room to do that. Okay, have three rows of water bowls like that.

Okay. Starting from the left, going to the right as you face the altar. Yeah.

Do the one farthest away from you first. Normally what I do is fill up all the rice things first. I put in the water last.

And then fill in all the water. When you're doing seven water bowls, you stack them, you fill the first one on top, and then you... it represents the turning of the wheel that we talked about in the last class.

And you fill each one from the last one. But when you're doing this, I spread them out, do the rice ones first, and then fill in the water ones. And then I put them back together, because otherwise it's impossible.

Okay. There's a really neat trick. Get a plastic straw for cleaning up.

After you're all done and everything looks great, then one of the rice piles will fall off onto the table. And then it's really easy to suck them up with a plastic straw. Okay.

Otherwise you have to move like 13 cups and start all over again. Okay. It's a little trick.

It saves about an hour.

[Speaker 2]
Do you take the water out at night? Do you also take the rice out?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, you take out the water, but you don't have to take out the rice. Just leave it there. Okay.

Yeah. Why are there three steps? It's practice for something that's coming later.

And later on there'll be a little bit of reversal about the rose and stuff. But right now you can think that Je Tsongkhapa and his two disciples. Like that.

There was something else about that. Offering bags? Oh, and then the water should be thrown outside, okay, where somebody won't step on it.

Now you guys can't go outside after this evening. So how are you going to do that? We've asked everybody as well.

Yeah, okay, the waste bucket. Okay. It's considered...

It's like considered holy substances after that. So you're not allowed to throw it on the ground where somebody might step on it. You're not allowed to pour the water out in the toilet or something like that.

Okay. If you're living in the city and there's no choice and there's absolutely no other... You know, I used to pour it out the window.

The neighbor started screaming one day. Then you can, in your mind, mentally, you know, believe that you're not throwing it in the toilet and throw it in the sink. Never throw it in the toilet, but you pour it into the sink.

But better if you can avoid it, okay? Like Leon uses it for his plants and stuff like that. So that's nice.

[Speaker 2]
What should we, at the end of the retreat, what should we do with these offerings? We're going to collect them all.

[Speaker 1]
Like cookies and stuff? Yeah, burn them? I'd say every day you can put them out.

On that fire? Yeah, or out past there. But you'll see.

Because I can have them burn here. I wouldn't burn them. You just throw them out.

Rinpoche just puts them out in the woods. Okay, for the animals? Well, not for the animals, but if they haven't eaten, I don't know.

Technically... I've heard two stories. I don't know which is right.

I mean, Rinpoche says that they could get sick if you feed it to them directly. Then again, he always puts his offerings out there. And they end up eating those.

I don't know. I wouldn't purposely feed them to them, but if they happen to come... It seems like...

I mean, from what Rinpoche does, that's what Rinpoche does. Yeah, or just where someone won't step on it. But take your time and make it really, really nice.

It's a big part of retreat that you make the offerings now. It's making a statement that you believe in these beings. That's all.

Otherwise it looks stupid. If there are no enlightened beings, it's stupid to lay out those things. You know, like Santa Claus cookies or something.

It shows that you don't know what's going on. If you set them out, it's an indication that you do believe in them, and that you really want to meet them, and you want to see them. It's an act of faith in a way.

So it's important to do it nice. Yeah, maybe that we could burn or something, I guess. Or keep separately in a separate garbage bag.

I'll leave another garbage bag for Rinpoche. Paper towels, we'll burn them in the bed. Okay.

Now the other dharmas. What was the next one we made? One single one.

The single one, okay. We'll be making protection markers. These are made with a couple of pieces of kusha grass.

I'll show you how to make them before we finish today, this session. I mean, you put them in the four directions outside. It's the last thing you do before you close your house.

So it'll be these markers. They're on a piece of paper with some kusha grass on them. And we'll all make one, each.

And then you go outside to the boundaries of where you're going to be. So it can be outside the house, for example. We'll be putting them on trees right around the house.

And you go in the four directions. We'll start with this direction, because our door is here, this direction. So we start there, work our way that direction, then that direction, and then we'll put one here at the door, and then we'll come in and lock the door, and then you're here until next Sunday.

You can't go outside. And you should be very strict about it. When you do retreat, you should be very strict about it.

I think once you get better at retreat, once you've done a few, you can start to expand the borders. You can try to go outside a little bit and walk or something. But I would suggest doing three or four without it, just inside the house.

It makes you a little crazy. It builds up wind. And that's the whole point.

It puts you on sort of an edge. And then you start understanding things that you didn't understand before. And you have to be careful that you don't go past that and get wacky.

Between wacky and here, that's the right place. And it's like a pressure cooker. You have to make a little pressure on yourself.

And so it'll hurt to sit there that long. By the way, your jaw will get sore from the mantras. You know right here?

First few days, don't worry about it. It's normal. Your lips will start to crack.

You need some lip stuff. And your back will hurt, and your butt will hurt, and everything else will hurt. But try to stay still and do your mantras.

Oh, I got the list of penalties. And it's kind of a bad news because you have days when you're just taking off more than you're putting on. But anyway, for a yawn, take off three.

You just go back three beats. You see what I mean? Catch yourself yawning.

Where's Michael Wick? He's going to be in trouble.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Do you think I'm a full-on yawn? What if he's surprised? If it's a half-yawn, take off one and a half.

No, it should be a full yawn. If you suppress it, it's okay. Coughing out loud or talking to someone, take off five.

Talking meaning any other words, like if you start to say some other mantra or something like that. I think you better take off five. By the way, the point is that after we close it tonight, nothing comes out of your mouth but mantra.

Okay? That's the whole point. So if you cheat and talk to somebody, you're just ruining your own retreat.

Okay? Shouldn't be anything come out of your mouth except mantra. They even say take care of your mouth.

Don't put a knife in your mouth. Don't stick anything in your mouth. That's why they say don't blow out candles after that.

Do it with your hand or knock them out. But nothing should come out of your mouth but the mantra. And you can keep doing it all the time while you're...

as you go to sleep or anything else. If you have dakya commitments, tundra commitments, that's no problem. Keep doing them.

That's as good as mantra. Okay? Farting, take off seven.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Spitting, blowing your nose or sneezing, ten. Falling asleep, fifteen. I didn't catch it.

Can you go below zero? Oh yeah, you can. I've had days.

No, not really. It's hard to do that. But I think in a ten minute period you can go below zero.

[Speaker 2]
What if you space out inside of it for a second?

[Speaker 1]
That's okay. As long as it keeps going. We'll be going over the visualization.

I get to talk for another half a day or so. And there's a very sweet visualization. There's three parts to the visualization.

Two of them are explained in the book and one of them isn't explained in the book. That's no problem. We're talking after you start your mantra.

Yeah. It's not in the scripture. It doesn't say anything like that.

You can do it, but try not to. It disturbs other people. And it's better for you if you...

Again, it builds up a little pressure inside if you don't move. And it hurts a little bit. If you start getting wind, like a tightness in your chest or feeling shaky or something like that, then move around, get comfortable.

If it gets really bad, talk to a friend. She'll give you some kitchen duty or something like that. But try to hold on as much as you can.

You have to be somewhere in between. The mantra? Yeah.

By the way, the name is Miksema. Very, very famous in Tibet. We just got a shipment of data from India.

It's two volumes. How many? A hundred.

A hundred and three texts on this practice. She had to split them up. She had to find where they started, where they stopped, who wrote them, stuff like that.

And it's beautiful. Okay. Did you have a question?

When are you doing the Protection Markers tonight? Protection Marker will be the last. We'll make them now.

We'll put them up. The last act before you get locked up. That's good.

Okay, so we're going to make these Protection Markers. When we actually put them up and then come back, we'll stop on the porch here and we'll do... There's a prayer that you do to empower the Protection Marker.

So you load it, activate it. And when you do that prayer, you use a torma. And if you're doing Vajrayogini, it's a deity called Khenrohi.

We'll be using... We'll be asking, actually, Je Tsongkhapa to come and emanate a protector at each of the Protection Markers. Okay.

These things really work. I mean, I have personally seen someone with Protection Markers in a huge forest fire, like 15-mile line of fire, and the fire just split and went around the place. And I'm not into new-agey stuff and stuff like that.

I don't believe in superstition, but I've seen it, so it's cool if you really empower them properly. And of course, the main thing is to keep out your bad thoughts. I mean, it's not like spirits so much are going to bother you as much as your own jealousy and being cranky at a fellow student or something like that.

Something that can ruin your meditation. Maybe the worst one is wandering, where you just wander off from that visualization. By the way, it's important to keep the visualization moving.

You know, you can't... This is another Muthu Dharmabhadra question. One of his students said, you know, I have trouble sitting there for four hours seeing some guy touching my chest.

You know, what am I... It has to... Nothing happening, you know.

And he says, quote, you know, any intelligent person would have the same problem. So you have to keep the meditation going. And I'll teach you...

There's like 11 visualizations that can be going on at this time. I don't want to overload you, but I also want you to be challenged so the visualization moves, okay? You can't sit there for four hours and just visualize some...

It's hard to visualize some guy. There has to be something, a kind of movement, you know. A normal sadhana moves like a movie, and it should be the same thing.

So that's what the single dharma is for. And then we'll leave that dharma outside, on the steps, on the stone, okay? Before we put up the protection markers, you're supposed to go through the house and burn a lot of incense, okay?

I'll leave that to Fran, okay? Just before that, you go through the whole house and do a lot of incense. And if you have flower petals, you throw them all over the floors, okay?

No, it's to purify the place inside. It's actually nice to see the flower petals for a week, you know. Then you take the sake of substance, which is milk and honey and cow poop, and you smear it on the walls.

But we'll save that for another time. I haven't actually tried that one. And then, before we go out to put up the markers, we'll do a ghektor, okay?

That was the last thing you did with the three goblets and the three... And that's an offering to the local spirits and to the pretas in this area who can disturb your meditation, okay? And that's like, we're going to do a retreat here.

Please don't mind us. We ask you to help us. We ask you to cooperate.

And if you don't, may your heads split open, you know, by the power of this retreat. That's actually what he's saying, okay? Something like that.

So we'll go out on the back porch, on the stone, and we'll do the Heart Sutra, and then we'll do that mantra, Aṃgatagatiparagatiparasaṃgatibodhisattva, and then we'll light the ghektors, okay? So, that'll be... They should be out there by seven, okay?

So, by seven o'clock, your ghektor. Ghek means optical. Tor means dharma, okay?

Should be out on the back steps there, okay? Well away from the house, okay? Just stay outside.

You don't go through the house. I mean, normally you light it in the house and go outside, but it's too much. We'll burn the house down, I think.

If it's too windy, we might do them somewhere else. Okay, we'll start making the protection markers. You're going to need a pen.

Red is better, okay? Red pen. Yeah.

Pink is okay. And you can share. It's not...

it's just three letters, okay? Yeah, it's okay to pause. She asked if it's okay to pause if you're doing the mantra.

That's fine. It's good... I mean, ideally, it's to continue the mantra while you're doing the visualization, okay?

But it's okay to pause if you feel more comfortable. And normally you keep a book next to you, and then every time you do a hundred, you do a hatch mark, and then keep your counts that way. If you have a mala...

Can I see your mala? If you have this kind of mala with the counters, you can... you do your hundreds on one counter and you do your thousands on another counter.

You see? So, like, everything should come in towards the mala. So, you start by pushing all the counters out, and then after you finish a hundred, you move one down, and after you finish another hundred, you move another down.

And when you get to a thousand, then you go to the other counter and move one down, okay? So, I suggest you do the... the Dorje is good for hundreds, and the bell is good for thousands, okay?

And... when Rinpoche escaped from Tibet, he only took one thing with him. He was in the bathroom when the first shell hit his house, and he had a towel and his rosary, and he ran to the side of the mountain next to Sera, which looks very much like Dragoon Mountain, and at the top he realized he'd only taken his...

his rosary and his towel, you know? He's just, you know... And then he sent Losantanda back to get supplies.

And he met these bandits, and it's a long story. Anyway, who were already ransacking the monastery, you know? But anyway, that's a good one.

But he had a mala that had these counters that were carved out of steel by this amazing old woman in Hassa, like this yogini. And we made molds, and we cast them in silver. We did one in gold and gave it to His Holiness.

And we still have the molds. I think it'd be cool if somebody wants to do like... Fran Diane knows this stuff.

Just take it to one of those guys on 47th Street, and we could make them. You know, everybody could have one. They're really cool.

And there's the actual... what it looks like. It's very pretty, and it was carved out of steel by this eccentric yogini in Hassa.

So if you want to do that, that's a project we can do. And then they cast them, and then they polish them. Then you've got to get somebody to help you make the...

These threads were made by Rinpoche, and you actually take thread and you braid it in a certain way. And then it lasts... This one's been about, I don't know, 12 years or something.

It can last a long time. Okay. Okay, so you fold your paper in three parts.

By the way, if you don't have counters on your model, then just make hatch marks on a book. Start with one. Okay, so it'll end up like that.

It doesn't have to be exact. And then keep folding it until you think it'll rip without... You know what I mean?

So you can rip it in a line. Yeah. And then use your fingernail, your thumbnail.

And then you can just rip it. We gave you two pieces in case you mess up one. You're going to need four pieces, so you have to do the second sheet anyway.

Then fold it like this, okay? I mean, on mine it comes out to five. Like you're rolling a cigarette or whatever.

Yeah, see? The point is to end up with something that looks like that. So you just fold it five times.

There's five panels here. The number's not so important, it's just that the width should be about like that. That's fine.

Two and a half sores. You know what a sore is? That's how they measure things in Tibet.

That's four sores. That's two sores. That's a true.

That's a kang. That's a dom. It's very nice for measuring things.

Red is better. Orange is not as good. You can share.

I mean, there's no...

[Speaker 2]
You've got to move your...

[Speaker 1]
You can hold it at the side or the top. That's fine. No, it's going to...

It should be on the second panel, okay? Like if you fold it all up, there'll be one panel. That's going to be the back.

Where the opening is. And then it should write it right here. And you have to do it on all four, right?

Meaning... Not like an accordion. It should be like...

By the way, don't fold it like an accordion. Fold it like a cigarette, okay? If you remember those days...

Everybody ready?

[Speaker 2]
No.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, we'll do one. And then if you're not, then we'll give it a little time. Ready?

Actually, if we have enough squishy, it's good if you could have maybe even two strands or something. So it looks a little substantial. And maybe even three strands, okay?

Always messing me up. It should look about like that. If they're long, it's fine.

These are... Short is better. About that long is good.

If you have to break them, it's fine. Then you unwrap this thing. Set that in the middle.

Roll it back up. You don't need scotch tape. Because what you're going to do...

Then you're going to take that pin. Then you're going to punch it like that. Try to catch the cushion with the pin also.

Then it won't slide out. Alright, here we go.

[Speaker 2]
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