Базовый курс ACI 1: Основные учения буддизма (2019, Аризона), занятие 8

[Speaker 1]
So, we reached ACI teacher training class 8, course 1, and we're going to talk about ... we already talked about the benefits of bodhichitta, how cool is bodhichitta, we talked about nine different things, and then we talked about 22 different things, and then you're supposed to be hungry for it now, you're supposed to say, oh Geshe-la, that sounds good to me, I'll buy this car, how much is this car, what do I have to pay? Then there's seven steps, how do you say seven like that in China?

Seven? No, with a hand. Oh, seven.

Six, seven, eight. Okay, alright. I like it, you can talk secret to your friend, no?

Okay, so, seven steps, seven and a half, okay? Seven and a half steps to get bodhichitta yourself, okay? There's two famous methods, one is exchanging yourself and others, okay?

Starts with that, dak chen nyangpa, dak chen gyepa, two steps really. Seeing that we are all equal, we all have equal right to happiness, and then exchanging yourself with other people, seeing what do they want. In English, what's the idiom?

Yeah, put yourself in the other person's shoes, right? So, there's two great traditions for developing bodhichitta. So, that's one, you think about we all equal, we all have equal right to happiness, and the second part of that is you exchange other people.

I didn't put it in the homework, because it's depressing, because you're supposed to put yourself in other people's, in your friend's shoes, and then you're supposed to look at Michael. So, I put myself in, I don't know, Jeff's shoes, and he's looking at Michael, and he's thinking, why didn't he tell me like yesterday, you know, we're gonna do a song together, why didn't he, you know, we've been here a week, and he couldn't think ahead and let me know, he's so nervous to prepare in one hour, and anyway, he doesn't have a good guitar here for me, and Marcus is thinking, I guess I was ever gonna play it, but then he didn't talk to me for three days. So, it's kind of depressing.

The real exchanging self and others, it's not very fun. You try to imagine how other people see you, especially when you're not very considerate, or you're not very nice, okay. So, I didn't put in the homework, because it's too sad, okay.

So, we're gonna do the seventh step. Say, gyun de, mengak dun. Gyun de, mengak dun.

Gyun de means, Mr. Human Dictionary, who took all my money. You notice I didn't bet you for a few days? I'm out of money, honey.

Hmm? Cause and effect, mengak dun. Seven advices for cause and effect, okay.

You get the first one, it causes the second one, you get the second one, it causes the third one. It's like the Wheel of Life, but a good one, okay. It's a good Wheel of Life, okay.

So, I'll give you the famous names, okay. Say, Marshe, Tinchen, Tinso, Yewangjampa, Ningjiechenpo, Lhagsamnanda, and then Chanjubgesam, okay. So, we're gonna go through these seven tonight.

If we have time, which Tim hopes I do, we'll do part of class ... in fact, we have to do class nine tonight, so yeah. Because tomorrow's a little tight also.

I promised you a bees and the birds lecture, but I'm gonna wait till the last day, so you don't leave, because you want to hear about it. In America, your parents are supposed to give you this talk about where babies come from. And some parents, some dads are too shy, and they never explain it to the kid, and the kid thinks the baby comes from a bird, a stork.

So, it's part of my job to educate you in everything, okay. Alright, first one. Marshe means, if you came into this life with a mind, okay, if you had a first thought in this mind, then according to Buddhism, it must come from a gyi tung gi cause.

It must come from the same stuff. And in Buddhism, we say mind and body are separate. Mind and body are connected.

If you drink a lot of alcohol, your mind will get stupid. If you have a lot of pressure at work with your mind, you will get ulcer, you'll get heart attack. So, there's a connection, but they are different stuff.

So, if you have a ... this is an ACI course for proof of future life, proof of past life. If you had a first thought in this life, then you must have had a thought before it, because nothing comes from nothing, okay.

Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could. There's a song you have to learn, okay. Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could.

So, somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good, okay. It's a ... anyway, I love this song, from my parents generation, a hundred years ago.

And, so nothing comes from nothing, and if you have a first thought in this life, it must have come from a thought before, okay. Which means you had a previous life. Which means you had a mother in that life, okay.

Normally you had a mother, and if you had one previous life, then it doesn't make sense that you would have less than countless previous lives. Which came first, chicken or the egg? What's the Buddhist answer?

That's correct. There's no ... you can't say egg came first, you can't say chicken came first.

And you know, when kids tell each other this question, they think they're very smart, they think they're very cute, the other person's like ... but actually it's a good question, and the answer is obvious. There was no first egg, and there was no first chicken, okay.

There can't be. That's a rough example, but if you take a single moment of consciousness, there can't be nothing before that, and there can't be something that's completely different, like iron or oxygen. There has to be awareness, makes awareness.

So you have had countless lives, you have had countless mothers, and even if there are countless living beings in the universe, which we say there are, in Buddhism we say there are countless living beings, you can see all of them. In this life, okay, you can do it. Just try, okay?

Try hard. It's the sweetest thing in this life, okay? Almost.

Try, and then you will see directly, then you don't need me to teach you, you will see directly that there are countless living beings in this universe, and statistically, each one has been your mom, okay? How many times? Yeah, like countless times, okay?

Then when you teach ACI, okay? Especially in the United States, you will get some strange questions, you know? Like, I don't like my mom.

I hate my mom, you know? And I don't care if somebody was my mom. If they were my mom, I hate them more, okay?

And only an American will ask this question, I don't know why. Even if you don't like your mom, even if you don't get along, even if she wasn't a good mom, even if she threw you out two days after you were born, she carried you for nine months. And these days you can get an abortion, you don't have to have a kid, but your mom decided to have a kid, you see?

And she risked her life to give you life. It was a trade, 50-50, you know? If you die to give life to this child, will you give it?

And your mom said yes, I will die, and I will give my life to this one, you know? So, we're all amazing lucky, you know? I saw a birth, I went to see Lama Aura's birth of her baby.

Me and Veronica went in Tucson. I think it took two and a half or three days of labor. We were the last people who didn't leave.

We finally left, to tell you the truth. And then I thought, who will go through this for another person, you know? It's unbelievable.

I can't imagine it, you know? So, whatever you think of your mom, she gave you your life. And normally she taught you how to talk.

I remember my mom teaching me words, you know? And I would say like, banana, and she'd say, no, banana. I'd say, banana?

And she'd say, no, banana. And I'd say, no, banana. And then she'd be so happy, she'd go, wow, cool, you know?

Banana, yeah, good boy, you know? You could have some candy. And that's why I learned a lot of scripture.

So, she taught you to walk. And the first, I don't know, four or five years, you're extremely vulnerable. You can die from anything.

If your mom leave you alone, a dog can come and kill you by accident, or anything can happen. You can get sick, you know? In India, 60,000 kids go missing every year.

They are stolen for sex trade and things like that. So, if your mother doesn't watch you all the time, or think about you all the time, then you will die, you know? So, you know, appreciate what is a mom.

And that's the second step of the seven. Say, jin ten? Yeah, think about how nice she was, how kind she was.

Feed you from her own body. I heard this in the Pabongka Rinpoche, in the scripture. They say, just after you tore your mother's guts open, she'll pick you up and kiss you a thousand times like you really did something nice to her, you know?

And you're like, wow, that's really strange. And then, when Katie had her baby, I don't know, me and Adam are kind of close to each other, so he sent me the video of that moment, not just before. I said, don't send me that one.

And she's picking up the baby for the first time, and she's kissing the baby for the first time, but her breath is like ... I'm like, whoa, you know? And she's strong, she's very healthy, she's young, you know?

And I'm like, wow. And she wasn't even thinking about it. And the video was kind of scary, but her breath was like someone who almost died, you know?

Because she did almost die. So, the second step, DRIN DRAN, means think of all the nice things she did for us, okay? She had to feed us three times a day, gentle food.

I think the coolest thing is they teach you how to talk, they teach you how to read, they teach you how to walk, okay? So, when you do this meditation, the first part is just logic, okay? It takes mind to create mind.

There must have been a previous moment of mind before the first moment in this life, which is proof that you've been alive countless lives. No beginning. And everyone has been your mother, okay?

Everybody in the universe has been your mother, and statistically, countless times. Not like once or twice, okay? Everyone's been your mother, okay?

DRIN DRAN. Now, when do you do this meditation? When you drive back to Tucson you do this meditation.

You stop at the truck stop, which in America are rough places, okay? I'm sorry it's what many of you are seeing of America. They're usually some of the dirtiest places.

The toilet stop on the highway, maybe in your country it's the same. In China they're beautiful, I'm sorry. But, so, these are rough places, rough people go there, and so you go into a store and oftentimes there's rough people in there.

People around here, they walk in the store with guns on, you know? They have guns, real guns, and they mean, you know? And so, I predict on the way to Tucson, if you stop for pee-pee, if you have strong bladder, you don't have to stop.

But if you stop in one of these rough places, you will see some ... I think you might see some rough people, okay? And if you're like me, okay, I'm a Buddhist, I decided I'm a Buddhist, so I'm supposed to be nice to everybody, I'm supposed to treat everybody equal.

But when I see them, I kind of avoid them, you know? Like, I go down this aisle and I come back to get the cherry pie, so I don't like to walk past them, you know? I feel ...

actually, I feel a little bit scared or something, I don't want to meet them, you know? And then I decide they're a rough person, they're a dirty person, maybe dangerous person, okay? So, starting tomorrow, if you're going back to the airport tomorrow, when you stop at these gas stations ...

in Arizona, it's a poor state and they're a little bit rough places, and maybe you will see one of these people, then I challenge you to do your MAR SHES meditation in Tsing Tsang, first two steps, okay? Like, stop your reaction, you know? Oh, this is a rough person, and say this rough person has been my mom, this rough person gave me milk from their breast.

Even if it's a man, right? It's a little strange. You see a rough guy, and he's all like ...

and then it's kind of a strange ... it's a cool strange thing. Stop in this door, look at them, and say this is my mom.

I lost my mom, and I found her again, and she's the ... this is the mom who gave me milk for years, you know? This is the mom who risked her life for me.

And there's a special magic that comes from these two steps, okay? And you should experience it, it's very very cool. I used to do it on the subway in New York.

Subway in New York is very dangerous in those times. Did they get better Nancy? I don't know, not much better.

I mean, in the old days you never say anything to anybody, and you avoid anyone who looks dangerous, right? Especially at night. And so, I remember, I had to go on the subway every day, and in New York you face the other people in many of the chairs, you face the other people, and you try not to look at them.

There's an unspoken rule in New York that you don't look in someone's eyes, unless you want to fight. So, you keep your eyes down, you know? And then I would be doing this meditation, you know, and here'd be this big, rough, mean-looking businessman, and I think, oh, he opened his shirt and gave me milk, you know?

Thank you, you know? And something happens in the subway car. Some sweet feeling starts to change in the subway car, okay?

And you will really enjoy it, okay? Or in the store on the way to Tucson, okay? The little gasoline store.

It's a wonderful way to live your life, okay? This meditation is magic, okay? And you could do the ...

what do you call it? Two husbands in the kitchen thing? Oh, this disgusting person's coming for me, I must have been disgusting.

But this one is sweeter, you know? This one is like ... Aww, you're so disgusting and you gave me milk, you know?

And the whole feeling in the store changes. Everyone feels it in the subway or on the airplane. Some kind of body language, you're like ...

you know? And everybody's like ... Everyone senses it from body language, and the whole mood in the airplane changes.

Everyone changes. So, especially if you're in a frightening situation. When the dog barks, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad, okay?

Like when you're in a tough situation. The American passport guy is giving you a hassle. Are you sure?

Are you sure what you're doing? And then you've got to be ... he gave me milk, then he'll be ...

okay, go ahead. You know, when you're afraid they smell it and they want to be more tough, but just remember the milk, okay? And something magic happens, okay?

So, do it, okay? Do it. It makes your life very magical.

You don't have to do it all day, okay? It gets a little indigestion if you have milk all day. Just once or twice.

When you're afraid, or someone's being tough to you, or you know, you're a little bit uncomfortable with somebody, then just ... I wonder if it was sweet or salty, you know? And the whole atmosphere changes, okay?

It's a magic, it's a magic pill. It's like eating ... what's that guy?

That movie, Matrix. It's a good Matrix pill, okay? Everything changes in the whole room, okay?

Just try it, and Buddhism should be fun. If you're not having fun in Buddhism, you're doing it wrong, okay? Something's wrong.

If you're very serious, you're not a good Buddhist, okay? Buddhists are silly, and they play happy songs, okay? And you should pull out this pill and take it, okay?

When you're tense, or someone's yelling at you, you can say, yeah, but thanks for the milk, I hate you bud. The milk was a good thing, okay? So, that's called DRIN DRAN, okay?

DRIN DRAN. Third step, DRIN GZO. Say DRIN GZO.

If this person gave me milk countless times, and if they risked their life to give me life, at least I should be nice to them, okay? At least I should show some gratitude. That's number three, okay?

DRIN GZO means to pay back the gratitude, to pay back the kindness of a person. So, do something nice, give them a smile. In some places in America, if you smile, they also hit you.

So, you can smile, small smile. And just imagine, I would like to pay you back, you know, I'm grateful you risked your life for me. So, there's nobody you ever meet, animal, bird, human, there's nobody you ever meet that you shouldn't be nice to them, because they all gave you your life, okay?

They all gave you life. I'm going to tell you another stupid American idea, okay? I'm sorry to pick on America, but picking on America is an American tradition.

So, actually I'm being patriotic. Many, many people will say, well I don't see why I should ... why should I pay them back?

I mean that was a long time ago. If your theory is correct Geshe-la, they also killed me countless times. They threw me in the fire countless times.

They shot me with a gun countless times. You're not looking at the whole picture, you know. Yeah, they gave me birth countless times, but they also killed me countless times.

They killed my family countless times. They destroyed my country countless times, you know. Then, I call that just bad attitude, okay?

And part of my enjoying teaching you these courses 27 years later, is I have these 66 understandings, me and John, we have proof of high realization. Sakya ... I forget his name.

Sunimdrapa, you know? There's a one Sakya Lama who's famous even in our tradition, I think he's mentioned in this book, for formalizing the training of a spiritual partner. So, he's ...

Pabongka Rinpoche says, if you want to know about spiritual partners, go study his books. And whenever they paint him, he's bald, like me and John. And then, when you ask the Lamas, you know, why is he bald?

They say, intense realizations. Intense realizations. The heat is rising and burning off the hair, okay?

So, you can check it out. I think it's Sunimdrapa, you know? I'll check, okay.

Anyway, so, in your life, from 66 right John? You're 67 right? Okay.

You have a choice, okay? There's crappy stuff in life, and there's sweet stuff in life, and I don't care how advanced you are, if you came to this ... kamadhatu?

If you came to the desire realm, okay? You have about 50% crap and sweet things. It's 50-50.

If you're Mother Teresa, you have 51 and 49, okay? Seriously, none of us is so much better than anyone else in this world, okay? We all have the same six main negative emotions.

We all have the same mistakes. We all did the same bad things, okay? Or, we wouldn't be here, okay?

So, your life is karnat-lende, karnat-deva, black and white mix, 50-50. Karma, shukla, ma, kush, no, yogueness, three, vidham, itthare, sham. Yoga Sutra, fourth chapter.

Your life is mixed, okay? 50-50. Half of the things are going to be sad, and half of the things are going to be beautiful.

So, you have a choice, okay? You can focus on the sad things, or you can focus on the happy things. And really, you have a choice, okay?

You have a choice. You can go to the gasoline store, and the first guy you say, you say, this guy killed me countless times. This guy killed me countless times in my past life.

Okay, that's true, but what a miserable life, you know? What a miserable way to live, okay? Oh, this guy hurt me in high school, he was my boyfriend, you know?

It's true, okay? Nobody said it's not true, it's true. And many people hurt you in your life, but you have a choice, right?

You always have a choice, you know? You can look at the dark side, or you look at the sunny side, okay? So, that's my answer to that debate.

When someone says, when you're teaching these seven steps, some irritating student, and it's usually the same one coming from you, and they will say, yeah, but this guy killed me countless times. And you can say, that's true, but do you want to spend your whole life looking at people who killed you? Or would you rather have some magic in the store, you see?

Would you rather have some fun in your life? And really, life is so difficult for everybody, don't waste your time, to be honest. I've been criticized by about everybody, and just let it go, okay?

It doesn't help you, it doesn't make you happy, it doesn't improve it. Just say, you know, you criticize me, yeah, there's dumb people in the world, it's okay, you know? Don't focus on it, okay?

People who give you trouble, I'm telling you from 66 and 67 right John? Don't focus on those people. Say, I appreciate you criticize me.

By the way, in English we say a grain of truth right? Almost all criticism has at least 1% truth, okay? So, if you're a really good person, listen to the criticism, take the 1% and let go of the 99%.

Okay, I'm not ... I appreciate your comment, you know, I appreciate what you said, I'll work on it, but the rest is bullshit, and I'm not gonna spend my time on it, you know? I'm not gonna worry about it when I get home, I'm gonna have a nice dinner, I'm gonna watch Netflix, and then I'm gonna read Diamond Cutter Sutra, or maybe the Sutra first in case I die.

Okay, so don't take seriously, okay? Don't spend your life worrying about what somebody said about you. There's a grain of truth, fix something, but don't look at bad things, don't go around your whole life saying this person killed me in countless lifetimes, okay?

You're just wasting your time, okay? And you don't have time, and life is full of unbelievably beautiful things, okay? If you just look at the poo-poo, and not the beautiful things, then you're some kind of crazy person, okay?

There's so many beautiful things, okay? Then focus on them, okay? That's my non-emptiness Dharma advice, okay?

Focus on the nice things, okay? So, step number three, DRIN GZO. You should say I want to pay this mom back, you know?

I owe you, thanks for the milk, can I pay for your hostess cupcakes in the store? You know, I mean, we have a cool custom, I really think an ACI teacher should do it once a month or something, it's very very fun, okay? We go to a restaurant, we did it with Jasmine, Jasmine and Tim, we went for a meeting in the town here, and we went to the only restaurant which was open for only one day, I don't remember, and we had dinner, and there was a big Mexican family next to us, three, four generations, and they were very beautiful, you know?

They're all cowboys, and you could see they had a hard life, and ... but they were having fun with each other, they were really loving each other, and so, if you want to do this, step three, repay their kindness, ask for their bill, ask for their bill, and then pay it secretly, and leave before they ... ask the waiter or waitress not to tell them, until you leave, you know?

Sometimes it's cool to watch in the window, and they're like ... and they're like ... I think sometimes the waiter keeps the money, but nah, I don't think so.

They also like the game, okay? So, it's a beautiful practice, okay? This is my own ...

it's not in the Lamrim, okay? Maybe it is, I didn't find it yet, but ... you know, pick up their check, pay their bill, quietly, secretly, and ...

Scott and Arit went to LA for breakfast. I mean, they never ever take a break, and they told ... there's one Israeli breakfast place, so they went there.

There's none in Arizona, forget it, and ... so, they went there, but the night ... the night before, they went to a restaurant, and ...

and they said we're gonna pay that couple's bill, because they look unhappy with each other, the husband's not talking to the wife, the wife's not talking to the husband. That's a really good one to pay the bill, if they spend the whole time on the phone, and they don't look at each other. It means their marriage got unhappy, and ...

they need some ... Geshe-la's gonna take a rest. Okay, here we go, relax.

Oh yeah, so Scott and Arit said we'll pay that couple's bill, and then the waitress brought them a bill for $3,000. It was a big test of their Buddhism, because they ordered a very expensive bottle of wine, like a $2,000 bottle of wine, and ... but they ...

they kept their bodhichitta, and they paid the bill, okay? It was like two credit cards. Okay, alright.

So, do little things to honor your mom, okay? Do little things, it's really really fun. If you're having a bad day, someone yelled at you, or something didn't go right, do these practices okay?

In your mind say thanks for the meal mom, and then, I don't know, pay for their bill, okay? There's an ice cream store in Japan I think, some person gave extra money and they said I'm paying for the next person, please tell the next person it's free. I think 700 people in a row did it, and that's really cool.

Okay, so play ... play little mom honoring games like that, okay? It's not stupid, it'll plant deep seeds.

I think it's better than meditating on ... oh no, this was my mom, you know? Paying a $3,000 wine bill is ...

that's devotion, okay? Alright, step number four. Say YOD CHEN PO.

It's called Maitri, Maitri in Sanskrit. It's where Maitreya's name comes from, and it means love, okay? Love.

And these next two steps, step number four is called love, and step number five is called compassion, okay? Great compassion. So, step number four is called love, and it's a special kind of love where you enjoy staring at your kid, you know?

You're like this, okay? You know, when you're in love with your girlfriend in high school, you're like ... did you do this thing with your girlfriend or boyfriend in high school?

You just look at each other's eyes for one hour, and I ... I mean it wears off, but ... YOD CHEN PO means love, that loves the way this person looks, okay?

So, when you see this rough person in the gasoline store, or you see this couple who's having a fight in the restaurant, then just look at them and give them love. Now, this kind of ... number four and number five are different, okay?

Number four wants to give the person beautiful things, okay? The definition of love, the definition of love in the seven steps is, I want to give beautiful things to this person, okay? Like, I want this person to have a bike, and I want this person to have candy, and I want this person to have a good salary, and I want this person to have a beautiful boyfriend, alright?

Okay? So, you look at people and you wish them good things, okay? That's called YI ONG BYAMS PA.

YI ONG means attractive love, attractive maitri. It means you look at them and you have a crush on them, okay? In English, it means ...

you know, you know, when I met Veronica ... 50 years ago, okay? This year, okay?

So, like that, but for everybody, okay? They're like your child, okay? Then the next one is SNYING RJE CHEN PO, MAHA KARUNA, compassion.

And in Buddhism, karuna is different from maitri. Maitri wants to give nice things. Karuna wants to take away problems, okay?

Karuna wants to take away problems, okay? For a hundred dollars, except for a word, who never forgets anything? Strange guy.

Yeah. Which comes first? Wait, I want logic too.

I mean, a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks. I want a good answer, I don't want a sucky answer. Compare it to a kid who fell off their bike.

Explain what's a boo-boo. Yeah, good, okay, good, yeah. See, there's a big debate about these two steps.

In Buddhism, people say, oh, compassion should come first, because you don't give a kid candy if they are crying because they hurt their leg, you know? First you fix the leg, you kiss the leg. Who got it right?

Was it Gyelse? Man, okay Xiaoping? A hundred bucks for the boss, okay?

Yeah, first you take care of their trouble, and then you give them something sweet, okay? First you take care of their trouble, then you give ... so some lamas teach it the other way, okay?

You can do it either way. Is there some argument you can think of for zero dollars? Why love should come first?

Okay, that's a pretty good argument. If you don't care about them, why would you want to take away their pain? So, that's good.

That's actually the classical answer. Alright, I got out of that cheap. What number we on?

Number six, okay? Say, LHAG BSAM NAM DAG. This is one of my favorite ideas in Buddhism.

It means, I take responsibility. The American President Truman had a sign on his desk that said, the buck stops here. It means, I'm the last step in the responsibility.

I accept responsibility for this whole country, for everybody. I will make final decisions, you know? And bodhisattvas are like that, okay?

So, now, there's an important ACI teacher training thing here, okay? And, you better have LHAG BSAM NAM DAG, or you will never be a Dharma teacher, okay? You better have number six, or you will never be a Dharma teacher, okay?

I take responsibility for the program, I will find the place, I will get the readings together, I'll pay for everything, I will get refreshments ready for everybody, and I don't care if nobody helps me, okay? I'm on my own, I accept that. It's my honor to take final responsibility, okay?

The buck stops here, the responsibility stops here, and I accept it. I know it's gonna come, I know there's gonna be hard days when no one helps you. We used to have special ceremonies twice a month called TSE CHU, tantric ceremony in our teacher's house, and I don't know, 20 students would come, and me and Geshe Lothar, we hated those ceremonies, because the Buddhist people make the biggest mess of any kind of people.

I don't know what it is. You give refreshments to a Buddhist, it's all over the floor. Maybe they're thinking equanimity for ants or something.

I don't know what it is. But, good Buddhist ACI Dharma students studying compassion and bodhichitta, they make the biggest messes. Lock the door to the toilet if you don't want to clean it for two hours.

Somehow the Buddhist boy can't hit the target in the toilet. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's some kind of compassion.

But, we would spend at least two hours cleaning up after them. Two people working hard, it would take us two hours to clean up after them. So, don't expect help, don't expect support, don't expect encouragement, don't expect thank you, just expect hard work.

Okay? And it's your honor, okay? And you're lucky to be an ACI teacher, and that's called LHAG BSAM NAM DANG, and if you don't have it, you will never help the universe, okay?

Because you're gonna get ... the minute you stick your head up, all the demons come, okay? It's a famous Buddhist saying, you raise your head up, all the trouble is gonna come to you, okay?

So, if you want the demons to leave you alone, watch YouTube your whole life, or Netflix, never do any Dharma, okay? But, if you decide to be an ACI teacher, be tough, okay? And no one's gonna help you.

If you were gonna wait for people to help you, you will never be an ACI teacher, okay? You pay, you find a place, you get the readings ready, you deal with the two or three really crazy students, okay? And that's your life for the rest of your life, okay?

And it's the sweetest life you can have. I think John and I and Connie, we've been doing this Dharma business for, I don't know, 50 years? And it's a great business, okay?

Dharma teaching is the happiest thing you can do in your life, but don't expect help, okay? And if you don't get help, just enjoy, okay? I love cleaning the floor of the sacred cake that was offered in the puja, you know?

And rubbed into the carpet by a bodhisattva, you know? I'm so honored, you know? You gotta think like that, okay?

Right, Andrea? She takes care of me. Yeah, okay.

Okay, so that's number six. And you know, even if you give up ACI, even if you give up Buddhism, even if you decide to do something else in your life, this attitude is really sweet, okay? I take responsibility for everything.

I'll fundraise, you know? I'll buy the cakes, you know? If you want to lose money, be an ACI teacher, okay?

By the way, it turns around later, I can tell you that, okay? Right, Pilma? Then people start giving you money, but it's not the first day, or the third or fourth year, okay?

It takes time for karma to ripen, but anyway, it doesn't matter. I take responsibility. I will do it, and you have to have this if you're going to be an ACI teacher.

And it's a beautiful feeling, it's a really beautiful feeling. You are the mom of the family called all living beings. You are the mom of the family called all living beings, and moms don't avoid responsibility, moms always take responsibility, okay?

Alright, if you have these six, you get number seven. For a hundred dollars, if you have these six ... oh yeah, it is bodhichitta, okay?

But why is it different from the first six? What? It's a what?

A hundred dollars from a human computer. I need to borrow some money later, to get home. Yeah, this is the only one which is only a result, and not a cause.

I'm sure it doesn't cause Buddhahood, right? Word? Just kidding.

Yeah, in this list, it's one which is only a result. So, don't forget the name of the list, it's the cause and effect advices, but number seven is only a result, okay? Okay, so, if you start tomorrow practicing in the gasoline store on the airplane or in the airport, if someone pushes you with their luggage, there's a special kind of luggage all over the world that's designed to run over your feet, they give it to old ladies mostly, and if someone rearranges your foot with their luggage, then you're gonna do this milk meditation, okay?

Like, you're gonna look at them, okay? And the whole feeling in the airport will change. Check it out, it's really fun, it's really fun.

Okay, we finished the homework except for the last question, which is, I told you how many steps? No, I said seven and a half. So, here's the half, okay?

Here's the half. It's traditional to start the seven with equanimity, okay? Unless you already feel equal towards all other people, it's gonna be hard for you to think this was my mom, you see?

It's gonna be hard for you to do step number one, unless you already feel pretty equal. All religions, all countries, all races, man, woman, old, young, nice, mean, if you can't get over that, you can't start the list. You're not allowed to start the list, and that's a pretty big half, you know?

It just means you have to work on it, okay? And the way to work on it, you know, you're in a line, people keep cutting in the line. I went to Kyrgyzstan at three o'clock in the morning.

Bishkek Airport, there's one customs officer, there were like a thousand passengers, and we stood there for four or five hours, and people fought with each other. It was very traumatic, and we had to catch a plane. And so, in those hard moments, you have to remember, everybody in this line wants to go, you know?

Everybody in this life wants to have a happy life. Everybody wants money, everybody wants a beautiful family, you know? Everybody wants to be healthy.

It's not right to discriminate between people, okay? We are taught in America, we are brought up ... because this country is such a ...

mongol? Mongol means mixed up? Dog mixed up?

Somebody asked me, Geshe-la, what country are your parents from? I said, I have no idea, you know? In America, it's always, we're all mixed up, we don't know what ...

what's our parents ... racially, where they come from. So, it doesn't really ...

you know, in this country, you are taught as a child, respect every country, respect every race. We don't do it, okay? I know, but at least we ...

the teachers tell us in the school, everybody's equal, you know? You should respect everybody. But it's a bigger kind of equality.

Everybody is equal, that they want to be happy. Everybody. There's nobody want to be unhappy.

Somebody told me in a class, what about people who commit suicide? I think they're trying to be happy on some ... they're trying to stop their pain or something, okay?

So, everybody wants to be ... we're all equal, okay? We all have the same goal.

We're not different from each other, so ... so relax when you're in the airport for four hours in a line. Everyone's pushing in front of you.

We have equal right to go ... to go through the line. We have equal right.

You can't say we don't have equal right. We all have equal right. Everybody wants to be happy.

They're all just trying to be happy. All of us, when we try to be happy, we hurt other people by accident, okay? We don't think.

We just try to get what we want, and oftentimes we hurt other people, okay? So, people are going to hurt you sometimes, it's okay, you know? I was complaining about someone who hurt me, and my Lama gave me ...

you've seen this photo, there's a photograph of a young beautiful woman who jumped out of the highest building in America, and she landed on a car, and she died instantly. But the car looks like a beautiful bed. It all looks like a blanket, like a soft blanket, and she's kind of has this look on her face, you know, like ...

she doesn't look like crazy or anything, she's kind of peaceful, and she's sitting on this car that she crushed with her body. My Lama said, look, if people do this to themselves, why you think they won't do something to you, okay? If people do this kind of pain to themselves ...

many people overeat, many people smoke, many people drink, many people give themselves cancer, give themselves heart attack, 65% of people in America give themselves diabetes, overweight ... if they can't be nice to themself, why are you so surprised they're not nice to you? You know, it's the human nature, you know, we're all trying to be happy, we're all trying to get something for ourselves, so relax, okay?

Everyone's equal. This is how to do the first ... yeah, that's the lady ...

this is how to do the first meditation, okay? This is how ... if people hurt themselves, then of course they're gonna hurt you, okay?

Don't be surprised that people who are trying to get what they want, sometimes they hurt you, okay? But we're all equal, okay? Got it?

That finishes class eight, right Tim? I'm exactly on schedule, if I may say so. Kind of, kind of exactly on schedule.

And we're gonna go to class nine, okay?