«Дар освобождения», курс 4 «Ретрит об энергиях», занятие 3

[Говорящий 2] (0:00 - 2:27)
OK, we'll do a small meditation. Slap straight. Close your eyes.

Relax your face. Relax your forehead. Relax the corners of your mouth.

Relax your eyelids. Bring your mind to your breath. Separate a piece of your mind off towards the back.

Begin to watch your own mind. Think it starts from a distance.

[Говорящий 1] (2:29 - 2:37)
Don't just watch the thoughts, watch the mind. Don't be involved in the thoughts. Don't be in the thoughts and don't be thinking them.

[Говорящий 2] (2:37 - 4:37)
Just watching someone else thinking them. See what comes up. Now stop any thoughts about the future.

Don't let your mind think about the future. Tonight, tomorrow, next week. It's like a big clear wall ahead of you.

No thoughts about the past. Lock the back of your mind. Relax into the present moment.

[Говорящий 1] (4:37 - 4:52)
This room, our friends here, together. Stay in the present moment. Feel that relief of not having to think about the past and the future.

[Говорящий 2] (4:53 - 6:48)
Just be here. No plans. No worries about the past.

The present moment. Come back to your breath. Then relax and open your eyes.

Stretch.

[Говорящий 1] (6:49 - 20:25)
I'd like to go through the homework. I'm going to discuss through the homework to make sure you got everything. For those of you who want to catch up on the floor, we did a couple of years ago.

We didn't talk about Tsongkhapa. Tsongkhapa. Say it, Tsongkhapa?

Tsongkhapa means... You can mean to start a task, to undertake a task, but it can also mean to write a book. Tsongkhapa means to write a book.

Tsongkhapa means to express that you will write a book. So, every Buddhist book, normally starts off with something like that. It means the author, at the beginning, makes a commitment to write a book.

So, in this case, Tsongkhapa would say, committed to write all the notes out in his teacher's lectures. Most of you know, you swear that you will either finish or die. And there are books in the Buddhist canon which I have.

Finished. And the guy died in the middle of a sentence. So, it just...

The karma starts in the middle of a sentence. And it means he did suffer downtown. And he didn't finish the book.

So, it's the idea of choosing a task correctly. Deciding what you want to do with your life. You will be doing some meditation, so whatever you want to do, you will be alive, right?

But then at some point, you make a decision of what you want to do with your life. And then you make some kind of commitments. So, the idea is...

is to learn to choose carefully what you would like to do. I think we tend to do too many things. Most of us tend to do too many things.

The Internet is making that worse. You know, it was supposed to save time, but it's cutting down a little bit of time. Now we have no time.

And... because we have to check our Facebook, and we have to check our email, and we have to update our blog. We have to Twitter about being alive.

So... So the idea is to try to cut this down. Try to cut down on the things you're doing.

Choose... Choose a few things that you do every day, and that you don't... you don't...

you make a commitment to do every day, and you cut that. So... And then you check your motivation.

All right? That was a big key in the opening pages of the text. And we talked about it already.

But it's when you just pause from time to time. It's a very, very extreme meditation. We'll do it, okay?

But you pause and you say, why am I doing what I'm doing right now? Why am I here? What do I want to accomplish?

You know, why did I come to the Friendly Pines? Somebody said it's... You ever been to Friendly Pines?

No. That was last year. Why did I come here?

You know, what do I expect to get? What do I expect to do here? And that's a very good meditation.

Personally, I found, when you do a motivation check like a couple times a day, like, what am I doing? Especially if you get off balance. If you start to get upset at somebody, or you start to get angry at somebody, or you start to feel lost and you don't know what to do, or you have a headache, or you're tired, or anything, you feel depressed, then learn to do a...

It's called Ku-Gong Chupa, right? You check your motivation. Just check in with your motivation.

Like, why am I sitting here right now in my house, where I'm the best? You know, why am I... You know, when I met the person who annotated me, why was I there?

You see? And there's like a magic trick. If you can come up with some reason that you were trying to help somebody else, then you just feel better.

Right away. Everything's okay. So check your motivation from time to time.

Why am I here? And you know, 80% is you wanted to be with your friends, you heard that food was very good, you heard that the bed was very good, my hair was very good. You know, a lot of your motivation is not so great.

It's not evil. It's just like low-level what you're seeking. You know?

But in there, somewhere, there's some kind of motivation for others. There always is. And you can find it.

You can come up with it. So, you know, when you feel down, or you're not sure of what you're doing, or any kind of tired or you don't feel anything or whatever, judge your motivation for anything positive. And you can come up with some stuff.

You know, you can say, I was kind of thinking to learn that yoga and teach it to my mother. You can find something, right? Anytime you can look into your motivation, and you can come up with a single thing that relates to somebody else, you will feel immediately happier and better and more energetic.

That's fine. That's like a depression antidote, treat. It doesn't cost anything.

We call it therapy or we call it drugs. Antidepressants. Just try it, okay?

When you feel down, you're not sure what you're doing, and you feel a little bit lost, judge your motivation for why you're here, and you will find some kind of reason why you're trying to help somebody else. It says a little bit about T.J. Richardson saying honoring other commitments. So he honored, what kind of commitment did he honor?

Yeah, he gave his 30 years or something. And he worked hard on it. It wasn't like he was, it wasn't like he was picking it up every two weeks.

You know? Like this part of the book I wrote that says five years, and I write a chapter every three months. It's not like that.

He worked on it ten minutes. But he makes another commitment, especially in contract. We have a commitment to respect our teacher, to show respect to our teacher.

And there's a specific chapter about how you speak about your teacher, or the words you use to refer to your teacher. How do you use your teacher's name? So if you're careful, your own heart teaches me, I'm not saying me, I'm saying whoever is your heart teacher.

If you're careful and you use their name carefully, it can become a mantra. My teacher would do that three or four years and just say your teacher's name. I did.

And I didn't do the, to tell you the truth, I didn't do the mantra. I did the other mantra. And I just said my teacher's name for three years.

And it worked. So, so then we are encouraged, especially in the secret teachings, not to speak of our teacher's name. Right?

So here's how he refers to his teacher. I'm going to write down the record of that being of glory unmatched in the kindness he has given to us. Holy Mother, you stay my honor only for this purpose.

Deliver children to the world. He didn't say, you know, five, really. So, then he's keeping, he's kind of keeping a higher commitment than he has.

In the open mind, he's keeping some higher commitments. Okay. So I'm coming to the first one.

Let me see if I can come to the second one. Somebody's pointing out, you know, that if you want to catch up on the course, you've got to finish the first four homeworks somewhere in this week. And I just covered the first one for you.

Uh. Okay. Uh.

Okay. Then there's the question on homework. We're going to start homework two.

This is a review of class two. This afternoon's session is a little bit long. It's too long.

I don't know who writes the... I think it was me. Uh.

But, uh. I thought we'd break it up. I thought we'd do some, we'd go through some of his teaching.

And then we would, uh, maybe get a stretch break and a long break. I'm wondering if it would be too slow to say what you were talking about. Uh, it's not going to be difficult.

Uh. And then, uh, and then I thought we'd just have questions and answers. It's definitely hard.

It's hard for me too. I mean, you have no idea what you're talking about. So, uh.

We'll break it up. We're not going to do two and a half hours straight. You did twelve hours straight.

But that's another story. Uh. ...

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... Now we are in Tokyo, Nisen-ku, Nippon-enbaku, Nyan-ja, Nye-ken, Nyan-nen, Nekar-che, Kande, Kinkan, Beishin, Kansen-o. It's very, very beautiful.

It's from... It's... Nyan-bu.

Say Nyan-bu. Nyan-bu means a lama or a yogi or a yogini. They write the story of their personal life.

Their personal spiritual life. It's called the Song of My Spiritual Life. A hundred thousand songs have been written in Nyan-bu.

Same thing. Bu is a spiritual song. So this is just a copy.

The last two lines are a refrain. Nyan-ja, Nekar, Nyan-nen, Nekar-che, Kande, Kinkan, Beishin, Kansen-o. It means, I...

This is how I, the yogi, have practiced. Both of you who are Kande, let's guess which Kande's name we mean. Those who do hope for freedom.

Those of you who hope for freedom. Beishin, Kansen-o. Nishin, Beishin.

So this Song of His Spiritual Life is a bunch of verses. Each ending with the same two lines. Just say, hey, that's what I did.

Maybe you should try this. Like that, okay? Then this particular verse starts out.

The body and mind with which we have been blessed in this life is better than a wish given to us. So a jewel, a special jewel, like if you hold it in your hand and you can make a wish and you'll get anything you want. It means that your body and your mind is more precious.

Why? How could that be? How could it be that anything could be more precious than something you can hold in your hand and wish for you?

You don't know what to wish for. Yeah, you don't know what to wish for. Like your body and the mind that you were born in, you don't wish for your high experiences that you put in the hospital.

You didn't know what the hospital was.

[Говорящий 2] (20:26 - 20:27)
It's better.

[Говорящий 1] (20:29 - 41:08)
Your mind and body that you have right now are better. Than any of the body types you knew. And this is the only time you will ever find a body and mind like this.

It won't be repeated. I like that. It's very beautiful for me.

Hard to find easy to this. Your body. Hard to find easy to this.

Don't get old and die. It stays for the length of a lightning flash. It remains in this world for the length of time that it takes lightning to flash.

You've got to get what you want to get done in the time it takes for lightning to flash. The body's not going to wait for you. When the body goes, the mind doesn't have to stay.

Then you're optimistic. What are you talking about? 心地善意 俊心悄悄 If you understand the situation you're in.

How precious it is the chance you've got. How easy it is to lose. 能够善心悄悄地 俊心悄悄地 Take all your worldly activities and understand that they are like I don't know, have you ever driven down an Indian highway and see that it's rushing to break?

They have these old baskets. And they stand in the middle of the highway. And they turn the drain up.

And then the chaff flies off in the wind. Then they dump the basket back on the highway and cover it with cloth. And they run out of the way.

And then all the big Indian trucks come and run over it. And they separate the chaff from the wheat. And then they run out of the highway again.

And they hope that there's not another truck coming. And then the chaff. It really just looks like popcorn.

You know sometimes a little piece comes off the popcorn? It looks like that. He says that's how much your normal activities are worth.

That little piece that falls off the popcorn is really good. That's how much all the activities of your life are worth. You should change the verse to popcorn movie.

And I think you've got to be really careful with this. There's some, you know, there's kind of like, I don't know. There are all these people that must understand to become fundamentalists in Indian literature.

And then they start saying nobody can listen to music. Or nobody can go to the movies. Or, you know, because it's all popcorn fluff.

You know? And they start making up rules. That's not what makes something worth, right?

I mean a lot of tantric teachers that I know encourage this. On tantric holidays they ask their students to go to a movie and see if there's any tantric message in the movie. You know?

Like, I watched a movie. Okay. My mama told me to, right?

And I didn't finish it. I got home and I finished it. But it's called Reddy Pokhara.

You know, it's, you never heard of it. It's some young man, he's in love with some lady girl since he was a kid. And he's following her life without her knowing.

So like when she moves to a new town, he moves there. But he's trying to tell her that he's in love with her, right? So anyway, her dad gets sick.

And then he figures out that she's part of the scene. And so he moves to that town, where it's, you know. And then they have a scene.

They're sitting there and she's talking to her dad. And there's a bunch of them. And a bell's sitting there.

You know, there's a bell. There's a bell with a bunch of them. And they're right in the middle, you know.

And I'm like, that's great. And I don't understand anything about it. It's just there.

Check it out. It's quite bad. I thought something was going to happen.

They're in here or something. But it was just there. So worldly activity means activity which is not magical.

And activity which is not fun and deep and happy and, you know, cool. Magnetism. And worldly activity is to try to.

And also it means infinite activity, right? Like trying to be happy without helping other people. Trying to ignore other people and be happy at the same time.

Then that's worldly. I mean, you can eat a big piece of chocolate cake, right? And if you only really want to taste it and share it with others, then that's not worldly, right?

But the chocolate in your mouth is not offering very healthily, then that becomes a worldly. It's not the cake. In the lower interest, they screw it all up.

They're like, nobody can eat chocolate cake. Chocolate cake is sunshine. Like that.

Jīta-jāla-bhūpaṁ cāra-śrīma-sakṣaṇi. Get rid of things in your life that are not magical or happy or special. Stop doing things that are just jive or selfish.

Or you don't understand what's going on. Nityaṁ tvaṁ nirvola-tvenu. Night and day, think how you can get the most out of your time here.

Because you don't have much time. Then the refrain comes. So that's the verse that Mahābhūta Rinpoche chooses as the first word of a thousand-page book that takes ten or fifteen years to study.

That's the first line. Those are the opening words. Do something with your mind.

That's kind of what the theme of this retreat is, right? Decide what you want to do with your mind. Where do you want to put it?

Maybe the reason you don't have energy is you don't have anything worthy of the energies. And then find something that is worthy of your effort. And I propose that by going to Ukraine and teaching dharma to the Russian monk, he also says, this is fun.

And this is meaningful. And you have a good time. If you do that kind of thing, your life will be really fun.

And meaningful. Alright. Then the second question on this homework is what is samsara, right?

So, you want to mispronounce it together? Sam-sa-ra. There is no N before an S in Sanskrit language.

Sam-sanskrit. It's an N. It has to be an N.

N is not allowed before an S. So it's Sanskrit. Sam-sa-ra.

It's not Sanskrit. Okay. Samsara means...

So many people say, oh yes, I'm going to go on a three-year retreat and live samsara, you know? As if samsara were itch-booey or too-sara or... You know what I mean?

So samsara means... You know anusara, right? Yoga.

So anu means continual. Sara means to flow. In some languages, the S changes to F.

The R changes to L. And you get the word flow. So samsara...

Samsara means the constant flow or the cycle of... Anusara means like the continual flow. So...

Samsara means the cycle of life. We call it the wheel of life. The cycle of suffering.

And then people think it's a place. And they say, I'm going to give up... I don't know.

Watching TV. You know? I'm going to leave samsara.

And... You have to realize that samsara... What is samsara?

What does it mean, samsara? Why do they call it a cycle? Why is life called a cycle?

And then there's a very simple example of samsara. It's the person who irritates you the most in this life. Lisa did.

Okay? Like they have their own collection of... They're like baseball cards.

You know? For people who have irritations. I got their picture here, you know?

And there was some nun. What's her name? The nun from Oregon.

She has a retreat center there. Washington. Yeah, I heard her talk in there.

It was really nice. And she said... She said...

What was it? People have insulted you or hurt you in your life. In certain words.

That you have never forgotten. You have repeated those words over and over for years. And they...

If you ask them, they wouldn't even remember saying them. You know? So you're like...

And the person who gave you that... Who harmed you... The person who hurt you...

Your feelings... Wouldn't recall a week later what they said. And in a year's later...

Ten years later, you can still recite all the words... Of what they said to you. You know what I mean?

In certain words. What is sansara? The person who most irritates you now...

Says something unkind to you. Like you're stupid. That's...

That's the back end of a sansara cycle. Then... You get angry and you say...

No, you're stupid. Okay? That's the front end of a new sansara cycle.

So you plant the seed again. They say you're stupid. The seed is pretty.

If you could keep your mouth shut, it would all be over. But we can't. And then you say, no, you're stupid.

And then we plant a new seed. And in a week later, that seed is going to rot in the water. They're going to show up again and call you stupid.

Or somebody else. That's sansara. That's sansara.

It's not a place. And it's not an activity. It's not like watching movies is sansara.

If you go to a movie and you're looking for the bodies and the bones and the back tendon... That's a transcendental sansara. If you go to a movie and...

You know, to just waste your time... With no higher intention. Then that's sansara.

And it will repeat itself. So small sansaras are happening all the time. Someone hurts you.

You respond. Then they hurt you again. And somebody else hurts you again.

So those are cycles. Those are small cycles. So then he gets on the subject of what really he's doing on the second day.

Which is what we'll be doing this afternoon. He talks about... He gets the short on here.

He takes you through the whole on here. Then he starts talking about what... So you have a beautiful body.

And you have a beautiful mind. But what are you going to do with it? What is a worthy goal to do with it?

And he lists three different goals. The goals of the long run start beyond what anybody normally wants in their whole life. The lowest goal of the long run is beyond any goal that a normal person wants to get in their whole life.

A normal person's life in the whole length of human life may never reach his desire for the lowest goal of the long run. Which is what? I just don't want to go somewhere bad when I die.

The worst... The lowest goal of the long run is to protect ourselves from something after you die. The worst of it.

Then that whole thing is, you know, it gets a little fundamentalist also to me. People are like, you're going to go to hell or else. If you eat guy's cream, you're going to be born as a weebot.

It gets a little... That's not the point. And we've said it many times, but you can you know, just check in on it.

You don't die and your spirit leaves your body and your spirit wanders around and finds a new body, a fresh body and jumps in there. That's not the way it works. Watch my hand.

Are you ready? Okay, so you watch my hand go from one side to the other side. My hand didn't move.

65 still images were coming up in your mind. 65 comic scenes ripened in this much time. 65 scenes of doing something to somebody ripened in the time I did this.

There were still photographs. They were here, here, here, here, here. And then there's an illusion of flow because they're happening so fast.

So it looked to you like I moved my arm, right? Between here and here a different picture came up in your mind. From a comic scene.

Comic scene opened the mind. From here, one comic scene opened. To here, another comic scene opened.

That's all. That's the way the world works. You're just watching scenes open fast one after another.

You could have died between here and here. It could have been that I died between here and here. In that case, a different scene ripened in the second moment.

In the second millisecond. A different scene ripened. And suddenly I'm seeing her.

And I'm over there in the horse's chin. You know? And I'm looking at the same appendage that I used to look at before.

But the scenes are ripening differently. Different scenes are ripening. Between here and here in any given present the perception can change.

Because it's changing anyway. This is not the same scene as this one. So it's not weird to say here you're seeing a scene opens to see it as a human eye.

And then the next millisecond a scene opens to see it as a horse's leg. It's not a big deal. It's happening every second anyway.

It's just another scene opening. And your mind has lost tons of every kind of scene. You've done everything to everybody.

So to be concerned about what you're going to be after you die it's going to happen as fast as my arm moving from here to here. The arm will stop. The scene, the scene to see an arm will change.

And then other scenes will assert themselves. And that's what it means to be reborn. It's not like they pull your soul out of your body and they have a discussion or they go on the internet to see what kind of body you can have and then they stop you into some body.

It's not like that. If you can move your arm right now, you can be reborn in another realm in the same amount of time. Because it's just another scene opening.

Okay? So that's a goal. Not to have it happen to you, right?

That you have to go, you don't need to be in here to do anything. You've got to stand over there and get abused by humans. Okay?

We treat our hearts as well. Why are you keeping them? You love them.

That's cool. I feel as though they love me. How about they ride around on you for a while?

You know? And they give you a caramel apple on the end. You know?

So it's like... So that's the lowest goal. That's it.

Then the second goal is even if you could maintain scenes that capture on humans, there's a problem with it. It gets old. It breaks down.

Everybody's heart breaks down. No matter how beautiful you are, how good your lover is, how thin you are, how attractive you are, how tall you are, it doesn't matter. You have to lose it.

You will lose it. You have to lose it. And it will be hard.

Losing it is hard. You watch an old person go to the store and sometimes the people just ignore them. You know?

You watch them go to the store and you say, excuse me and the guys walk by. And then they're like, could you show me where the... You know?

And it's almost like they're not there. Because nobody wants to be reminded that they will be this old woman later. And they don't like old people.

They make people nervous. Because they know deep down they know that this is what they will become. It's not enough to just continue in this life.

That's the second goal of love. Third goal... Oh, so second goal would be, could I stop the process altogether?

Could I not be born like this? Could I not continue like this? Then the highest goal would be, could I help others escape that pain also?

Could I help everybody escape that pain? Try to... If you travel with us, it's fun, right?

Very fun. All the time. Especially jet lag.

But I think if you travel with us around the world, constantly, you can start to see patterns in the world. You can see global patterns. And global shifts of patterns.

And you can sense potential for major shifts in the world. Like, if you had gone to Kiev and Paris before that and Vancouver before that. So you get sort of your hands on the pulse of the planet.

And you start to feel patterns in the... The patterns are such right now that this world could become an enlightened place in our lifetimes. You've sensed the movements.

You know? Like, you get clues here and there. Some Russian guy says, you know, 30,000 people are going to come here and be independent.

And then you go to some other country and they're like... You go to Detroit. There was one with some beautiful people there.

And now, I swear to God, there's a university on every block. Every single block. It's really weird.

It's bizarre. Like, you can go from a mortgage house to a car, not drive for more than five minutes, and have a different mortgage house in a different studio every day for a week. It's like in school.

Every minute. And things are changing. The consciousness is changing.

You know, Detroit. And all these ex-lawyers working on opening yoga studios. I told them, don't be shy.

You can export yoga instead of cars.

[Говорящий 2] (41:09 - 41:09)
You know?

[Говорящий 1] (41:11 - 44:54)
And we can export that consciousness. And we are. That's what we're doing overseas.

So, it's coming. The patterns are developing. It's very interesting.

If you really travel constantly and you're not unconscious, you can see these patterns. Alright. Then, naturally, as soon as you recognize that something is valuable, what's the next thing that comes to mind?

Like, you're dating some girl or some guy, you know, and then you finally fall deeply in love. And you're finally seeing all their beauty. The first time you really see all of their beauty in there, right?

Then what's the next thought in your head? Yeah. Yeah, what is it about?

You see? And that's encouraging you on this. As soon as you figure out that you have a unique body of mind, which is historically positioned in a time of flux in which the world you're living could become an enlightenment dharma in the next 10 years, right?

And then you're like, God damn, I don't want to lose this. I got an in here. This is going to be cool.

You know, you don't want to... The next natural thought should be Yeah, I don't want to lose this chair. I want to be here if it happens.

I want to be part of it. So, that's the next natural scene in the long run. You know, you're in cognizance, right?

You understand that you could lose it. As soon as you know how valuable it is, the next natural thought is that I could lose it. Same with a girlfriend, unfortunately.

In the case of death, okay? Let's take three thoughts together and then I'll review class two for you. In the case of death, in the case we mentioned, I did a historical task.

It could well happen that people all around the world, every country, are meditating, doing yoga, even Bulgaria. I mean, we went to teach them kirtan. We went to do a kirtan.

And we sang all our songs and I thought they'd be really impressed. They said, well, we know some songs too. And I said, okay, we can sing a song.

And then this lady got up and she ripped the song, one of the songs we did. This Bulgarian lady, you know? And she got up and she ripped this song.

And we're like, you know? And things are changing, you know? Things are really changing.

So, you go from, I'm in a very incredible time in history, and in my life. And I could be part of a very beautiful thing. And the minute you know before it's worth something, then you're afraid of losing it.

Then you're like, well, I could lose it too. But in the long run, you have to go one step more. What would that be?

I'm in an extraordinary time of my life and in the world. I could lose it any moment. But it would be the next step.

Share it. Or keep it. Well, I think that's interesting in a sentence.

How do I keep it? Share it. That would be how I keep it.

If I said you're going to die tomorrow, what would you be thinking?

[Говорящий 2] (44:55 - 44:56)
What's important?

[Говорящий 1] (44:57 - 45:57)
When am I going to die? You see? Like, what happens to me after that?

People get... I've heard this thing in England during World War II. All of the people who have killed thousands of people all day long during the bombing of London, right?

And then the minute they call off the war, peacefully... Anyway, the end of the war. The next day there was nobody in the churches.

You know? Because nobody was worried about they're going to get blown up tonight. You know?

And what's going to happen to me afterwards? Maybe I've got to make my peace with God just in case, you know, a B-2 lands on my head tonight. You know?

And then the next day they're all in prison. The churches are all in prison. So, the next natural thought is where do I go?

What would happen to me? How does it translate to boyfriend? How does it translate into boyfriend?

How does that translate to boyfriend? Well, where am I going to find an instrument?

[Говорящий 2] (45:57 - 45:59)
You know?

[Говорящий 1] (46:01 - 46:19)
You know? Maybe this pressure... Uh...

What would... These pressures, I can lose them and then I have to start a new adventure every year by avoiding the bombs which is why these pressures suck in. Alright?

[Говорящий 2] (46:20 - 46:20)
Okay?

[Говорящий 1] (46:22 - 53:15)
Alright. Uh... That's the...

I just reviewed the second class of this course. I thought, uh... If you have any...

Let's do like 15 minutes. It's just an open mic, okay? If you have any questions at all.

They don't have to be relevant. Or reverent. Like, anything you want to ask about.

If you don't ask about anything, I'll do some of these questions. Are we done? No, sorry.

Just say it loud so they can hear you. So, when my mind like, seeds ripen in my mind all the time. So why do I keep ripening the same seeds?

Like you see, my husband and my job over and over again. And it happens sometimes. My seeds don't ripen like, four, then build it, then you know, something crazy.

Totally different, random thing. Why do they seem like they don't? In small flows at least.

There are realms where they don't ripen in seeds. You just skip from realm to realm, moment to moment. Like, you're in outer space, suddenly you're born in between stars.

You die within two seconds. Then you're in a hell realm. Somebody lifts an axe, chops your head off.

It doesn't have a... Just, we're kind of lucky. But, if you had a car accident, or a stroke, or a...

I don't know, your boyfriend walks in and says he just found some other lady this morning. I mean, sudden, massive changes. But the reason they sustain, the reason you can have the same boyfriend for a couple of years or something, is that you planted similar seeds.

So there's an argument in the academic culture about, is it possible to plant a single seed which has multiple results over a period of time that would sustain a flow? And then, is it possible that a single moment of a seed could require multiple actions to produce it? Can it be that multiple actions are required to produce a single impression?

And can it be that a single seed can split off into... What do you call it? The sustained perception of a boyfriend over six years?

I'll be honest and quote. Yeah. Both are possible.

So, it's like, I don't know, sports? Like, I have, I don't know, certain plants in my garden. I have, what do you call those things?

They're like thistle or something. You get around, and then they open up like that, and there's thousands of seeds in there. It's like a dandelion, but it's some kind of special...

It's called niger seed. Niger. It's a kind of thistle.

And they make these little open pocket balls, and then they open and then suddenly there's a thousand seeds. So it's possible that one action committed with intense emotion could sustain a boyfriend for six years. And it's also possible that it would take three years of deciding your mom's name to finally get to be with her.

Something like that. You see what I mean? So, here's a question.

How can we help the world all be by doing work? Uh... Personally, I think, what I...

You see, you read Buddhist scriptures, you went to Buddhist teachings, you heard Baba's talk, and that the scenario that you formed in your mind was that somehow you would be meditating occasionally and doing your book. And, uh... Uh...

At some point, you know, you would turn into Buddha. You know. And then, uh...

And then you would save the world, or something like that. But it happens gradually. It all happens gradually.

And it's, uh, you know, organic in a way. It just happens. Things start to happen in your world.

And things start to shift in your world. And in your practice, your yoga, your meditation, keeping your six-packs, uh... They start, those seeds start to ripen.

And it's not like there's a big revolution or something. Just slowly, uh... People in Bulgaria are learning Tibetan, and Russians, and Mafiosos are getting a diamond cutter at work, and...

Just small things start to happen. Because of your daily practice. It's not that the whole Mandala of the enlightened world pops up in there.

It's that it slowly slides there. And nobody notices, because they're in it. You know.

And then suddenly you're in Northern Victoria. And suddenly there's a yoga studio on every block. And sincere, devoted people there you never see now, you know.

And, uh... But because you live there, you don't notice it. Because you're in it, you don't notice it.

So I think, can you help all beings with your daily work? That's how, that's the only thing you can do. That's what you're supposed to do.

You just keep doing your daily practice. And if it's a decent practice, and a well-informed practice, then they start putting yoga studios everywhere in Detroit. That just happens.

Then you get used to it, and you don't reflect that it's enlightened. But then sooner or later you have to admit it's enlightened. Okay?

It's like that. Of course you're getting it. That's what creates it.

And it's happening. And because you're in it, you don't notice it. You have to take distance from it.

You have to realize how far we've come. I couldn't use the word yoga in the 1930s. The editor told me to take it out.

He said, put God. You know? So that people can do God.

You know? And he thought people wouldn't buy the book if I mentioned yoga.

[Говорящий 2] (53:16 - 53:16)
You know?

[Говорящий 1] (53:17 - 53:23)
And now I say, cool, right? You should see the Mafia of Supreme Yoga.

[Говорящий 2] (53:24 - 53:25)
Okay.

[Говорящий 1] (53:26 - 1:08:16)
Any other questions? You know, can you review something for... Could you possibly review something?

There's a meditation you can do where you can prove to yourself that you're not your physical body. Right? Like, I am not my body because...

Right? And then you could take the step and say I'm not my mind by similar proofs. You know, like the disconnection between your body or then the mind also breaking you down.

Can you review then if I'm not my body and I'm not my mind, then what am I? Yeah, okay. I think it's very, very confusing.

And it's an old proof in Buddhist literature, for instance, right? You know, Chittita. You are not one and you are not many.

You are not singular and you are not combination. Right? It's just confusing.

And I heard it recently. I heard somebody talking about it recently. It was one of my own students.

Me? I don't know. But it was bad.

And it wasn't helpful. And it's like they were telling somebody, you're not your mind. You know?

And the person just looked confused. You know? They're like can I have a mind?

And they're like yeah, you have a mind, but you're not your mind. And the guy said, well, I never thought I was my mind. I just have my mind.

And then they said, well, you're not your body either. And the other thing is like I knew that. Because I have my body.

And then they jumped out at me and said, well, who do you think you are? If you're not your body or your mind? And he said, well, I'm just Joe.

They call me Joe. Somebody calls my body and mind together Joe. And Joe has a body and Joe has a mind.

And that's the thing. And that's the way it is. You're not only your mind, right?

Or you couldn't say, I'm thinking. And you're not only your body. Or if you cut your finger, then suddenly you'd be Geshe Michael.

You know what I mean? So, I think the point in the scriptures is that are you any one of your parts? Just for thoroughness, they ask the question, are you any one of your parts?

Akashabdhi. Are you your ear? You know, and he, after months gone, you know, I'm not only my ear.

And so we can eliminate the chukudam. Chukudam means are you one or are you many? We can eliminate the one.

You're not just your ear. But then the top question, the point of the exercise and the answer to the question is when you get to the combination of all the parts. I'm not only my ear.

What if you had two ears and two eyes and two nostrils and a mouth and all the stuff I got and you have a mind and a couple other stuff like my name. Then you have a question. Then you have a question.

Then that's not true. Because there are people who don't recognize what a part is. Like you can have a tie and you can have a hood and you can have a top of a car and you can have the two bumpers.

And they can either be put together in the right way and if an eskimo from the 17th century walked by they don't see a car. They can't see it as a car. You can have all the parts of a thing together and it still isn't that thing.

Probably there are objects in this room that we ourselves in 2011 are incapable of tying together properly. There are probably many objects in this room that people ten years from now will reassemble mentally and they'll see things in this room that we don't see. In the same way that an eskimo from the 17th century wouldn't see the air conditioner as an air conditioner.

They would see it as a pretty box with a smooth front. You see what I mean? And there are many objects in our own lives that we know we can't recognize that would help us.

Like the internet 20 years ago. We call it optical fiber cable made from sand. We transmit the world's information on sand.

On little pieces of sand. Thinner than a human hand. We didn't ever tie it together until three years ago.

We didn't get it. And there's probably lots of other stuff like that sitting around that we can't decode. We can't piece it together.

Discovery means you just have to think. So anyway, you take two arms, you take two legs, you take a head, you take it for yourself, you take a mind, you give it a name, Geshe Michael. But it's still not Geshe Michael yet.

Until karmic seeds open in your mind that force you to synthesize it together as a thing. Okay? So the last ingredient of all conglomerates is the karmic seed opening and you perceiving it all together as a thing.

Because without that it's just a pile of parts. Okay? That's all they mean when they talk about all that.

That's all they mean. Are you only your inner self? No.

Are you only your body? No. Are you only your mind?

No. But are you your body and mind put together? And then you have to say no.

Well then what are you? Am I body and mind put together? And then a karmic seed opens in my mind and causes me to piece it together.

Without that karmic seed opening, you're the astronaut from the 17th century who can't see a car. When he's standing next to a car. Or he's driving a car.

Okay? Got it? That's all that stuff means.

And then it gets so it gets so messed up. And people are trying to convince people. You know who taught me this?

Chunyilat's You know Chunyilat? Chunyilat's a nun from New Jersey. And she had a daughter her mother named her Karni.

Chunyilat's name is Karni. And her mother named her after the author. So in Italian, she named her daughter Janice.

Okay, anyway. From Janice Joplin. And then just to illuminate a moment.

And then so Janice used to hang out in the in the classroom, in the kitchen when we were having class from Riveter. And then Riveter would teach us all this stuff. And then we would go into the kitchen.

And Janice would be there. She was like 10 years old. And then I you know, we just came out of a discussion of teaching that.

And I walked in the kitchen and I looked at her and I said Janice is a nun. And she says, what? I said, are you your mind?

No. Are you your body? No.

Are you all of you together? And then she goes, yeah. I am.

And then I just thought, stupid, you know. I didn't know what to say. Because I misunderstood it.

Are you everything all together? It seemed like that. But then it's the car that happens in your mind to see you all together.

That's all. But it's not. It just frustrates me.

Because you go to some teaching and somebody talks for two hours about your mind, your ear. We need that. Okay.

Maybe one more question. Then we'll take a break. Deeply break.

So, in the ACM courses that are online, the ACM 3, there's two courses actually. One is recorded later. And at the very end, I've been emailing people about this, but no one knows.

At the very end, it's you saying, I'm going to give you this talk where you can take the entire long run and meditate on it as it relates to the emptiness of each factor. Of each what? The emptiness of each step.

Okay. I can't find it. Okay.

Maybe I never did it. Maybe this is it. This is what I'm trying to do.

What do I mean? I mean, the traditional way to teach death meditation is just like kind of get heavy on people and kind of threaten them. You know, like, you're going to die.

And you're going to go to the hellholes. You know what I mean? And meditate on that.

You know. And it's unsatisfying. It doesn't work really.

It doesn't really work. I haven't seen it work. I think you need to explain to somebody why they're dying.

Why dying is a perception. And why aging is a perception. You see, you have to explain to somebody what we just talked about.

To really get someone to appreciate that they could be a horse by tomorrow, any one of us, you have to understand how seeds ripen in the mind. And how there is no human there and there is no horse there without the seed. Even if you had all the parts it wouldn't be a horse.

Something has to synthesize them together. So, for me, it would be practical to go through the last steps of the monament, which I'm going to teach you in a few minutes, and then go back to the front. And what's the first great monament?

What's the first and greatest of all the monaments? Of all the stuff in the mind, what is the first and the greatest? Radiation.

Find your heart beat. So, you know, you can take somebody if you don't explain everything to them, then you're like, you know, you're having this like the middle of this week. It'll be, which energy pep-up do you want?

You know? And then you get into these long discussions of should we go to India to look for a lama or is Nepal better or maybe Dantala has somebody there. And that's an unenlightened way to teach and study the monament.

If you study the emptiness part first, you study the meditation part first, then when you come back to the first and greatest of all the monaments, which is to find the teacher, you grasp that you don't find them, you create them because they're coming from you. And then I have friends who are very uncomfortable with that. They're like, no, my lama can't be coming from me.

Why? They're too perfect. It's not a keval, it's not a, you know, that's not logically followed.

It doesn't logically follow that you can't create somebody who's better than you if you create the seed. That's the whole idea. You've got seeds grow.

They come to you. Karma grows. So you do a you share with somebody else what little dharma knowledge you have.

That plants a seed. And it creates a lama who is omniscient. Okay?

Because seeds grow, they come to you. Right? So it's a soft principle.

Solid principle is that principle. You can't create a person who's more, who's infinitely wiser than you. That's like saying you can't grow an apple tree from a seed.

You know? The apple tree's bigger than the seed. The lama that you create by sharing what you know with others in a gentle and sweet way, is that you is that you create your heart lama.

That's cool. But if you attack the lama without that knowledge, then you get into these discussions of you get into decisions. Should I go to Nepal?

I heard there's a good lama over there. You see what I mean? We have shirts.

I'll wear it tomorrow. They were printed up by our Ukrainian team. It says, it says, and then it says in English on the back, it says stop making decisions.

And they got it. They got it. If you don't, if you start the lama without understanding anything, then you're trying to decide which lama should I go to, which country should I go to, which Indian town, diary or written Indian town, or this page, you know, and then you go walking around looking for them.

If you understand anything, you plant seeds consciously at the first lama. And you plant the teacher by helping others consciously. And then they just show up.

Okay? They just come into your life. In fact, you can't avoid them.

What is this? Lama Aura met Kirti Sencha by leaning out of her window in the Lower East Side of New York and looking through a window across the way and seeing some purple flash. And then went over to investigate.

Okay? I mean, she didn't have to go in there. Okay?

That's the way it works. If you know yourself. Okay.