«Дар освобождения», курс 4 «Ретрит об энергиях», занятие 9

[Говорящий 2] (0:00 - 2:34)
Okay, let's meditate. Then please come to your breath. Hold your mind against your breath, like you're holding something up against the wall.

Then please come to your Muladhara Chakra, between your legs, maybe an inch under the skin. Just roll, just pass your mind over that area and see if you can feel some bump, ball. When you feel it, stay there.

And I'd like you to try breathing through that place. So you breathe out, you breathe in through that place.

[Говорящий 1] (3:13 - 3:25)
Then you need a direction, you need to know which direction to breathe in. I'd like you to exhale. When you exhale, breathe up your spine.

Send the breath up your spine.

[Говорящий 2] (3:26 - 5:26)
Send the exhales up your spine, to the tip of your head. You're still breathing out of your Muladhara Chakra, chakra between your legs. And you're breathing up your spine.

Now I'd like you to extend your exhale. Make your exhale a little bit longer. You can time it with your heartbeat.

Maybe three heartbeats long. When you inhale, the breath comes back down the spine into the Muladhara.

[Говорящий 1] (5:26 - 5:35)
So the Muladhara is like, its name suggests, it's like an attached point in your body.

[Говорящий 2] (5:39 - 13:25)
It's like the base. And then you breathe out up the spine. And you breathe back to the Muladhara.

Like one of those ping pong paddles that have a ball on a rubber band. The chakra is like the paddle and the ball always comes back. Long, calm, luxurious, happy exhales.

Relax. Longer exhale. Maybe four heartbeats.

Maybe five. But no strain. Just relax.

Now picture the flow up your spine and the flow back down your spine as being like the color of glass. Now let the exhale come up to the tip of the head and then curves down to the chakra in your forehead. And then it goes back down between the legs on the inhale.

So full breath out. The stream of glass touches the middle of your forehead. Inside.

And then it goes back between your legs. Stay here for a while. Now imagine the exhale comes to your forehead from between your legs.

And just a little bit of glass comes out of your forehead. A little bit of prana leaves your forehead. Maybe less than a half an inch.

And then it comes back between your legs. Then relax here. Just breathe here.

We'll stay here for a while. Then come back to your breath. Then relax.

Open your eyes. Stretch.

[Говорящий 1] (13:25 - 1:02:50)
We'll do questions later. You can write them. Maybe we'll talk.

I don't know. We'll see. But first we have to find out if the prince found anybody in the caves with the 130 armored horsemen.

Lama Tsul, where's Jefani? Yeah, so Lama Tsul, he went to look for Lama. Tsul and Sal are the same.

Lama Tsul, TSUL DU CHEN PO'I RIGS DRAG CIG NA DRAM ZEG, DZE LTAR RIGS ZHUGS PA DANG BRAL Then he checked in all the caves. There's some nice caves near here called Sycamore Canyon, if you ever have time. There's water.

There's a river. Nobody ever goes there. There's huge caves there.

You can stay for a while. So Jefani, he found a lama named Jefani. DE'I RGYAB SEMS NANG NAS Jefani taught him, RGYAB SEMS, he taught him how to take refuge.

How do you take refuge? BUDDHA RNAM SHARANAM GACCHAM Next time your girlfriend yells at you, you're like, take refuge. It's not some like thing where you sit in front of a Buddhist statue.

See, in every religion, when people start, they don't understand and then they start making up rules and they start making up statues and they say you have to bow to statues. It's not like that. Taking refuge is when your girlfriend yells at you and then you take refuge and you don't say anything back because you don't like her yelling at you.

Everybody knows she's wrong. You don't have to tell her. We all understand.

Just shut her down. Shut down the complaining and don't respond. Then you have taken refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

All three. By just doing that. Then people didn't get it and then they started making statues and said you have to bow to statues and you have to say this thing over and over again.

That doesn't protect you. If you be quiet because you understand where your girlfriend's criticism is coming from, then that's protection. Then you went for refuge.

So I assume Jatari taught him that kind of refuge. Then Sem, Khyab Sem, he learned Semke. He learned Bodhichitta.

Jatari started to tell about DCI and all the tourists he could go on and help the world. DE'I RGYEN SEM DANG DANG Then Jatari does an interesting thing. NAL LEN DAR THOG MED NAS BRAL BA'I LAMA He says to him, at Nalenda Monastery there's a lama with whom you have had a karmic connection for time with no beginning.

THOG MED DANG THOG MED NAS BRAL BA'I LAMA So you've had a karmic connection with him. His name is Changju Sambo. Sorry, probably Bodhibhadra.

It is Bodhibhadra. YOD DER SONG You should go there. So Jatari says, you should go meet this other lama because I perceive that you've had a karmic connection with him forever.

SONG DE NAS LAMA CHANGS RGYU SONG PO DANG BRAL Then he went to meet that other lama, Bodhibhadra. RINPO CHE CHOS PA'I GNYER PA RDZAS He pleased him with an offering of jewels. LAMA NYAMS SHAG RDZAS NAS The lama went into meditation.

DGOS SUM CING GI LA And then in meditation he blessed Lord Atisha to think in beautiful ways and to speak in beautiful ways and to act in beautiful ways. He blessed his three doors. SEMS SKYES KYI BDAG PA MANG DU NANG He granted him many instructions on love for the world, saving the world.

DE LAMA RIGS PA'I KHU CHUG GI DRUNG DU DANG Then he sent him to RIGS PA'I KHU CHUG. RIGS PA'I KHU CHUG in Sanskrit is Vidyakokula and he's one of the big lamas of Chandrakirti's lineage from Chandrakirti down to us. There's two Vidyakokulas, the elder and the younger.

But he sent him to Vidyakokula. I think already he has a beautiful karma because he doesn't have this karma to meet a lama who's possessive of him. You see, some teachers, me included, everybody, you think of students like baseball cards.

I think I met David Swenson one time. He gave me some classes and then I said, well, where's your center? He says, I don't have a center.

I just travel. Then I said, well, how do you teach your close students? He says, I don't have any close students.

Then I'm like, why? He said, who wants them? It's a hassle.

People just, it becomes a point of contention between yoga teachers. I have Sting, you have Pavarotti. He's got, what's her name?

Gwyneth Paltrow. Then you start getting treating your students like commodities. I think it's refreshing and it's kind of beautiful that in the, Lord Atisha has the karma that he's meeting these lamas who send him, he says, okay, I'll teach you what I know or I specialize in this thing and then you should go to this other guy because he specializes in something else.

So he gets sent on to other lamas from the beginning. It's kind of beautiful. ,DE LAM RIGS PA'I KHUR CHUG GI DRUNG DU DANG, ,DE KYANG SEMS BSKYED GYI DAM DANG NAS, ,SNGON GYI LAM MA AABA'I DUS TE BAR BYAL DU DANG, Then he granted him more teachings on love, universal love.

Then he sent him on to, SNGON GYI LAM MA means his lama from his previous lives, which was AABA'I DUS TE. So this is going to be important. So he ends up at AABA'I DUS TE.

AABA'I came into English as off. DUS TE means to throw off. AABA'I DUS TE means it's another name for the central channel because we seek to throw off the bondage of the two side channels.

That's what we talked about in Nygma's class today. We're seeking to get off, get the side channels off. They are like grapevines or if you know Morning Glories, they just choke out all the other plants.

They go around all the other plants and they choke them, like this. So AABA'I DUS TE means try to tear the side channels off of their stranglehold on the central channel, AABA'I DUS TE. So this Lama, his name was AABA'I DUS TE.

JAL DU BSTANG He sent him to AABA'I DUS TE. DE DANG BYANG BA NA He met AABA'I DUS TE. LAM MED DE RING RGYAL BU SKABS TU GSUNGS KHYIM GYI GNAS MED LTOS LA ZHOGS GSUNGS The Lama said, you should go back to your parents, to the kingdom, to the palace.

KHYIM GYI GNAS MED LTOS LA ZHOGS You should go observe the problems of staying in that kind of life. DE DAG PEPA NA YAB YUM DGE NAS So he ended up back home. YAB YUM DGE What's YAB YUM?

YAB YUM is the honorific for... In Tantra, it's the man and the woman, the practitioners. But in scriptural Tibetan, it's the royal father and the royal mother.

So you can see how it came into Tantra. YAB YUM DGE NAS They were happy to see him come back. BDAG BA'I SNYING PO They addressed him as Chandragarbha.

That was his original name when he was a kid. He was called Chandragarbha. GYUR NI GANG DU BYIN GDUG PA MA RGYUR THAM ZHES PA MA RGYO'AM LAS PA LAS SHES SHUG PA DANG So they said to him, GANG DU BYIN, where have you been?

GDUG PA MA RGYUR THAM Did you get tuckered out wherever you went? ZHES PA MA RGYO'AM Did you get tired of whatever you were doing there? LAS PA LAS We're glad to see you back.

They said to him, SHES SHUG PA DANG In response he said, THUGS KA'I RGYAB NAS LAMA TSUL DU BYIN I went to seek a lama, those beings in whom even the Buddhas take refuge. I like it. I really like that.

For us, our personal lama is more important than all the enlightened beings of the universe because we can't talk to them. That's a beautiful way to start a conversation. I went to look for a lama of the likes that the Buddhas would bow down to.

RIGS DRAG DAG TU NGES TSUL DU BYIN I went to seek solitude among the mountains and the caves. GANG DU BYIN KYANG KHOR BA'I GNYIS MI MTHONG But no matter where I went, I saw suffering. I saw the suffering in this world.

TSUL DU GROG KYANG KHOR BA'I GNYIS MI BYED No matter who I met and who I befriended, they started to talk to me about their problems. JI LTAR BYED KYANG ZHES PA MA'I PHAD PAS Whatever I tried to do, it didn't make me happy. GO SKABS CHE ZHIG BDAG NI CHOS LA GRO GO SKABS CHE is a beautiful word.

Say it. GO SKABS CHE Give me a chance and I'll go on to a spiritual path. GO SKABS CHE means to open an opportunity.

Just give me the chance and let me go. CHOS LA GRO ZHES GSUNGS PA DANG YAB YUN GYIS And his father and mother said, KHOR BA'I RGYAL NA RGYAL TSE GSUNGS NA GONGS SPYOD LA CHOS PA RGYAL PO LA RGYIN PA TSUL LA GANG ZHING LA If the state of the world dismays you, then come take your proper place as a prince. You can have the money to make lots of offerings.

You can give money to poor people. You can build temples. RGYAL DON CHEN DANG PA SOGS You can invite monks to the palace and they can do prayers.

Like that. RGYAL PO SOGS CHEN NA GUNG DU DE BA RGYUR Everybody will be happy. Everybody will get what they want.

TSUL SHES PA NA NGES KYIS KHO BA DE LA CHER TE PAS RGYAL TSE LA CHAGS PA'I RNAM BA'I RGYUD TZAM YIN MI ZLA'O Then he responds and he says, Look, I've seen life. I've seen what's going to happen to me if I stay. I've seen what happens to people.

RGYAL TSE LA CHAGS PA'I RNAM BA'I RGYUD TZAM I don't have a single atom of desire to stay here in this kind of life. TZAM YIN MI ZLA'O ZER GYI PO RANG DZIN GSUN RANG LA SKYE MED There's no difference between your golden palace and a prison. TSUL MU DANG GDUG GI PHUNG MO LA SKYE MED There's no difference between these princesses you're offering me and a pile of demons.

RGYAL TSE LA CHAGS PA'I RNAM BA'I RGYUD TZAM YIN MI ZLA'O KHA SA'I SNGAGS GSUM DANG GYIS SHAR NAG PHRAG LA SKYE MED There's no difference between your delectable food with the three kinds of sweet stuff and pus-covered dog meat. Those are, by the way, these are, what are they called? Honey, sugar, and what's the brown thing?

Jaggery, yeah. But what do they call it in America? It's molasses, yeah.

Molasses, sugar, and honey are the three sweets. Your food is covered with the three sweets, but to me it looks like dog meat covered with pus and blood. PHRAG LA BAR TZAM DGOS RGYEN GYI TSE PA DANG MI TZAM THUD DU LA BAR KHYUN LA KHYAD PAR CHUNG ZAD MED I can't see any difference between wearing the royal silk and wearing burlap sacks sitting in a pile of poop, poo.

Therefore, BDAG NAGS SU BSAM BRTAN DGONGS PA'I GRO So I'm going to go off into the forest and meditate. Which is appropriate as a certain stage in your life. There's a stage in your life when you should go off into the mountains or in the cave.

There's a time in your life for that. It's like the Bible said, right? There is a season to every time there's a season.

Turn, turn, turn. That's a Bible thing. Anyway, there's a proper time for that.

Then there's a time to come back to the palace and change the palace. You see what I mean? Again, if you have a lower intellect, a lower understanding, then you'll say all palaces are bad and all forests are good.

That's not right. To be in a palace and have a tantric practice is the fastest way to become a Buddha. To be in a forest and think you've got to ignore everybody else is the long way.

You've got to put it all in context. You have to understand that. You can have a family life and reach enlightenment faster if you know what you're doing.

If you don't know what you're doing, it doesn't matter if you take robes and sit in the forest. SKYES BU LA SKYES BU CHUNG ZHIG MI DANG, NYID MA DE RIGS NA LA ZHAG LTA'O MA DANG CIG BU RAM CHUNG ZHIG THOG Please mix me up some... Right now, this morning.

No, he's acting like a prince already. Could you have some meat and milk and honey mixed up for me and I'll go off to the forest? It's like, could you cook me a beef bourguignon and I'll head off on my spiritual quest.

BYAS SU LHAG PA'I DUG GIS BYUNG DU RDZO GSUM PA LUR LANG MA Then he sang a song. He sang a spiritual song about how he wanted to go spend his life with Master Avadhuti. YAB YUN GNYIS GANG DUR BYED DU RNAMS This mother and father decided to let him do what he wanted, which is not the usual scenario.

Probably they thought he'd get tired without the beef bourguignon. DE NAS LTA PA STONG DANG BYAS GNOGS SU PHEBS Then he traveled off to the forest with but a thousand horsemen. Avadhuti SHAL LA SDUG He threw his head at the feet of Avadhuti.

DE SEMS RGYAS THEG CHEN DBANG KHOR YANG BRTZE He taught him about bodhichitta and then he started to teach him tantra. DBANG KHOR YANG BRTZE RIGS NAGS PA TSUL LA GANG DU BRAL DANG RANG HUL LAS DUG DU GSUM Then he told him there's a temple on a mountain called the Black Mountains and there's a Lama there named Shri Rahula. You should go there.

He was your Lama in a past life. DE YANG SNGON GYI LAMA YIN He was also your Lama in a past life. DE NAS LAMA RAHULA'I DRUNG DU BYIN PA NA So he went to Rahula.

LAMA'I RGYUD GSUNGS RGYUN YOD PA'I TSOR ZIG The Lama was engaged in teaching tantra to a group of disciples. Then he saw with his, what do you call it? He understood that Atisha was trying to get to him.

This is very typical. And that he wanted to learn the Dharma. So GDIG PA BYA BA'I PHYIR To test him.

GDIG PA means to threaten somebody. It's one of the words from Migyewa. BAD DIG To threaten him.

RGYAL BA'I RTEN DU THOG CA'I PHAG MA He, what do you call it? He called up some lightning. He called up some lightning and sent one down on Atisha.

THOG CA'I MUD DE SNGAG PA SPYIR BRTEN RIG LA SONGS The lightning refused to touch Atisha. And the lightning went to somebody else. There was a bad place.

People were doing bad things. The lightning said, I don't want to strike Atisha. I'll go over there.

So the lightning came down like this and then it went like this. It hit somebody else. RIG LA SONGS KHOR GYI RNAL SBYOR PA NAM GYI LAM MA LA GZUN YIN ZHUGS PAS Then all the yogis in the room.

KHOR GYI RNAL SBYOR PA They said, who is this guy? They're like, who is that guy who's coming here who can deflect your lightning? And then he said, DIG KHYER BA SNGAB RGYAL SNGAB RGYUD TSAR GNYIS SU BSKYED PA'I PHAN CHEN GYI LU SHAR DAG SU LAS PAR RGYUR PA Listen, this guy has been a monk and a pandita for 552 lives.

He's been a great sage. 552 lives. THEG SANGS PHAN GAL AR CHOD RGYAL RGYAL PA'I PHAL GYI ZHES SU RGYUR KYANG And now he has been born as the prince of the king of Bengal.

RGYAL SRID LAM MA CHAGS PAR RGA BA CHOD PAR GDOD PA YIN DU He has no attachment to the palace or to the kingdom. He wants to do tapas. He wants to do difficult spiritual practice.

He's decided he wants to try to do that. GSOS MED KUN LO TSAR SKYE NAS GZHANG DE GSOS PAR BYED So they were all amazed and they all got up to honor Atisha as he entered the room. BYAMS PA THAG LAM MA DANG PA SEMS DU GSOS KHYIM LAS BYUNG STE THAR PA GRUB TU KHYANG JI LTAR THAR PA'I RGYUR THOR PAR YID BANG GA LA RUG HO BO CING YIN DAG BYAS TA RI DANG BYANG CHUB SANG PO DANG RIG PA'I KHU CHU ABA DUR DI PA DNGOS DU MED PA'I LAM MA BRTEN GYUR KYANG LTA RUNG RGYAL ZIN NAS LA GRUB MA RGYUR Then Lord Atisha addressed the Lama Rahula with the following verse.

Lama, please listen to what I have to say. KHYIM LAS BYUNG STE THAR PA GRUB TU KHYANG I would like to leave the family life. I would like to seek liberation.

That in itself, be careful. Be careful with that kind of language. All right, you got to get it.

The greatest tantricas of India were kings. The Kalachakra was granted to a king. The Kalachakra that His Holiness taught in Washington DC a couple of weeks ago was granted by the Buddha to a king who remained a king.

So be careful with that kind of language where they say, I'm going to leave the family life and get enlightened. Because if you have the wrong state of mind, it's not going to help. If you have the right state of mind, it doesn't matter where you go.

If you study well, you can find amazing beings in your house. You might go to India and spend ten years and miss the milkman. All right, it happens a lot.

THAR PA GRUB TU KHYANG DE DAG BYA PA'I RIG RGYUD THOB PA'I I've been born into a very illustrious family. BANGA LA RUG HO CING YIN DA But I feel like there's a danger that I could be shackled to Bengal. BYAS TA RI DANG, BYANG CHUB SANG PO DANG I met BYAS TA RI.

I met Bodhibhadra. RIG PA'I KHUR CHUG, I met Vidya Kokala. And I met Avadhuti.

NGOS DUR GNAS PA'I LAMA BSTAN GYUR KYANG And so I've been able to study with some lamas who have had high realizations. BDAG DUNG RGYAL ZIN NAS LA GRUB MA GYUR But I haven't really been able to free myself from the palace. They still expect me there.

And I still have ties there that I can't break. GRUB MA GYUR DAG NI LAMA KHYAD KYI DRUNG DU DANG Now they sent me to you. DAG LA DE GZHAN SEMS RGYAS DBANG GUR GYIS Grant me the teachings on love.

Grant me the teachings on tantra. And thereby I will be freed from my chains. ZHES ZHUS PA'I SNYING SHAG CHU GSUM PAR DU DGE BZHIN DU The Lama Rahula was pleased.

So for 13 days straight, he taught him privately. And he gave him the instructions for He Vajra. So he taught him the high tantric instructions.

DBANG GUR Gave him initiation. DAM LAG TZANG BA'I RNAMS Gave him all the secret instructions. SANG CHEN GNYES SHES SANG BA'I RDO RJE Gave him the tantric name, which most people don't know, is GNYES SHES SANG BA'I RDO RJE I haven't found it mentioned in Sanskrit, but you could reconstruct it to Jnana Guhya Vajra.

Probably it's Jnana Guhya Vajra. RTAG He gave him that name. DEN NAS LAMA RAHULA JIGS PA'I DUG...

Oh, this is cool. JIGS PA'I DUG RTOG PO MO CHER BU RGYAS LA RGYAL BU DI CI DANG BYAS He's going to figure out a way to sever the links between Atisha and his parents. Here we go.

JIGS PA'I DUG RTOG PO MO CHER BU He chose eight of his disciples, men and women, who were deep into the yamantaka practice. He told them to take their clothes off. RGYAL BU DI CI DANG BYAS Follow Atisha as he goes back home.

BANGA LA SANGS RGYAB RGYAL PA'I SEMS PA RGYUR Maybe you can change the king's mind. RGYAL BU DI RGYAL ZHIG CHU LA LAMA ABBA'I DUTTI THUN PA'I LAR GYUR Get the son successfully divorced from his duties as prince and get him back to Abba Dutti. So that's their assignment.

RGYAL BU KYANG DE'I TSE HERUKA CHAD ZAD NAS PAS He dressed up the prince in Heruka tantric outfit. Then sent him back to the palace. NYES KHOR DU LAS PA'I TSE When he got close to the palace, KUN GYIS THEG PA'I NGO YANG ZHIG People looked and they figured out, they recognized him, even though he looked crazy.

ZHIG PA YANG SKYE They got scared. DA LA GSUM DU MYO CHUG KYANG TE Then for three months they ripped up the palace. They ran around and they danced around and they did crazy tantric things and made a mess and made a bother of themselves.

MYO CHUG KYANG MYO CHUG means crazy behavior. GNAL BYAG PO MO RNAMS SPYOD ZHING RGYUD They ran around the palace and did their rituals. KUN GYIS RGYAL SRID PO'O GO THAG BYAS THAMS CAD THEN ZHING RANG SRAR PHYI MA BYIN LHAG PA Then everybody decided it would be better if he left, if he gave up the kingdom.

THAMS CAD THEN ZHING RANG But they were sorry to see him go and everybody was crying. LHAG PA DU YAB GYI GZHAN NAS His father said, you know what his father was going to say. EM MA BUG GYI'U LAS PA TSE PA'I TSE My son, when you were born, YA TSEN TE DANG RGYAL SRID KYANG NYAM NAS There were miraculous signs and I thought you were going to be a great king.

I was overwhelmed with happiness. DANG NI SNAG PHYIR BRTEN LO JI LTAR LA So why do you want to run off now and follow a spiritual path? JI LTAR LA ZHES GSUNGS PA DANG RGYAL BU DE LEN DU Atisha replied, JI GSUNGS BDAG GIS RGYAL SRID GSUNGS KHYUR NA TSIN DE YOD TZAM YAB DANG GROG MO KYANG If I do choose to stay, and if I take the reins of the country, TSIN DE YOD TZAM YAB DANG GROG MO KYANG you and I, father, can stay together for a while.

We will be together for a while. SKYE BA RTEN DU PA BUR MI SHES SHING But fathers and sons get shuffled by all this rebirth. We'll get shuffled around later.

PHAN NYON MED NA SHING DU TZAM BA YIN I don't know if in a future life I will hurt you or you will hurt me maybe. We don't know what we will be to each other in the future. BDAG GIS RGYAL ZHIG CHEN PO'I RAB SPANG NAS Let me give up the kingdom.

NYES PAR RNAM DU BYANG CHUB LAM DUG NA Let me practice the path. SKYE BA RTEN DU DGAR DER GROG SU'I ONG Then you and I will be joined together forever, happily. If I can reach enlightenment, then it's for sure we'll be together.

If you don't let me go, then we might end up... Life will shift us around. I might kill you, you might kill me.

We might be reborn as enemies like that. In other words, it's not sure that by keeping someone in your house that you're going to live happily ever after. Let's become enlightened.

Then you will live happily ever after. You can be together happily ever after. He wants to be with his father happily ever after.

So he wants to leave the palace. DE'I PHYIR BDAG LA DGO DGOS TSAR SU I ask you to let me go. YUN GYI GZHAN LAS, CI PHEN PO'I DUS SHIN DU DREG NA YANG, SKYE DGOS KUN NA LAS KYI PHEN PA TSO I don't want to lose you, says his father.

Sorry, his mother. I don't want to lose my son. I'm sad to see him go.

But we all have to follow the path that our karma propels us upon. PHEN PA TSO SKYE DGOS KUN DU BDE BAR CHOS LA MTHONG Let the boy go. Let him practice his spiritual life.

PHYIN NAS BSTAN DU SGROG PA'I SMOS LAM TSAL Then let us all pray that we are all together in the end. Let us all pray that we'll be together in the end. SMOS LAM TSAL ZHES GSUNG NAS SNANG BA'I PHYIN She gave her permission.

DE NAS RGYAL PO'I SNANG BAR MTHONG RANG GNAL BYOR PO MO'I RNAM DANG LHAN CIG TU GNOD DU Then at dawn, at daybreak the next morning, the prince went back to the forest with his crazy yogi boy and girlfriends and companions. He went back to Lama Avadhuti. He studied UMED ZHOS.

He studied the Dharma of the Middle. UMA can mean Majjhimika. TSA UMA means the central channel.

The channel we were breathing through earlier today is called UMA. RNAM LA LAB He studied UMA. It's not clear.

He studied the central channel or he studied emptiness? Probably both. LEN DE THAR ZHIG KYANG BRTEN He also studied karmic seeds in detail.

So probably that was emptiness. DGUNG ROL NYER GCIG NAS NYER DGOS BAR AVADHUTI CHOD PAR KYANG From the age of 21 up to the age of 29, he did the practice of Avadhuti. That would be how many years?

Eight years. Then there's a disagreement in the scriptures about how many years he stayed with Avadhuti. Some people say more.

Some people say less. CI BYAR RINPOCHE CI BYAR RINPOCHE, he made little marks. What do you call it?

SIC, right? It means maybe there's a bubu here, maybe there's not. He made a mark there.

Maybe it was more, maybe it was less. DGOS BAR AVADHUTI CHOD PAR KYANG Of course I went off on what? Ten pages of what the heck was Avadhuti's secret practice.

It was central channel practice. It's exactly what you did today. It was a central channel practice.

Is it a coincidence that one of his lamas is named Avadhuti, which means central channel? And the other one is Rahula, which means central channel. Because the two side channels are called the sun and the moon.

In the Yoga Sutra they're called Surya and Chandra. Rahula is the dark planet. When there's an eclipse in India, they believe that the dark planet has consumed the sun or the moon.

So sometimes the central channel is called Rahula, the dark planet, because it's going to destroy the two side channels. It's going to consume the two side channels. So he's got a lama named Rahula.

He's got a lama named Avadhuti. He's studying Uma, and he spends nine years doing the practice of Avadhuti. So that Avadhuti means central channel.

It's exactly what you're doing. It's exactly why you're doing yoga. That's why yoga was invented and that's why yoga was meant to do.

Along the way you also lose weight, but that's just a coincidence. But then it got all corrupted into weight loss centers. But the ultimate purpose of yoga was to loosen the two side channels and allow the Avadhuti, the central channel, to flow freely.

That has two effects. One is that you see ultimate reality directly. The second is that you love people.

You gain a high degree of love. That's why you feel high after a good yoga class, like today. We had a class with Mira.

That's why you feel high. For a little while your central channel is free. You feel relaxed and you feel uplifted.

Your complexion changes and your body changes. That's the point of those practices. So he spent his twenties, he spent all his twenties with Avadhuti, learning to open the central channel.

DOR NA LAM MA'I PHYUN DU THOS SAMGONG GSUM BSTAN MTHO'I GCIG DU GRUB PAR BRDZAD TE To put it briefly, he learned to study, he learned contemplation, and he learned meditation at the feet of these lamas. BSTAN MTHO'I GCIG DU GRUB PAR BRDZAD means... BSTAN MTHO'I GCIG is famous.

BSTAN means meditation cushion. MTHO'I means period. GCIG means one.

This refers to like a high resolution by a yogi, like I'm going to sit under this tree and I'm not standing up in time enlightened. I don't know how many yogis died under trees, but that's called BSTAN MTHO'I GCIG. That's like do it in a single sitting.

He worked to do it in a single sitting. DBER BU SNGON PO LAS There's a book called The Blue Annals. It was written around 1100.

It's a beautiful history of Buddhism. Sorry. It has Tsongkhapa in it, so it must go up to the 1400s.

But it's a beautiful history of Buddhism in India and Tibet. It's like this thing. It's very...

I got Nyguma's story out of there. It says, LO DUNG RJES SUB BYANG BA'ABA DU He spent seven years at the feet of Avadhuti, which is why the other math doesn't add up. Because that would be eight years, I think.

So that's the story of his studies at Avadhuti. What I thought we could do is take... The point is that he's studying Central Channel right away, in his 20s.

The lamas threw him straight into Central Channel world for eight years, nine years. Then we'll see where he goes from there. So the person who brought the lamrim to Tibet, and many people, again, they consider the lamrim to be very elementary.

The person who brought it to Tibet, the first ten years of his practice was Central Channel, was tantra, was dzogrim. Which maybe means the lamrim is something profound. Maybe it has something to do with your chakras and stuff.

Let's take a 10-15 minute bathroom break. Do you have anything? Then come back with some questions.

Otherwise, you got to hear more history. A couple of people asked about, does the glass move down on the in-breath or up on the in-breath? Because I said one way when we did it earlier in lower chakras and I said a different way when we did it.

I want you to play around with it. I was in a yoga class of Jenny Brill from Black Dog Yoga in Sherman Oaks. She's really fun.

Then one day we took class and she's like, okay, when you jump up from a down dog, when you jump forward from a down dog, do you breathe in or do you breathe out? She asked the class and it was 50-50. Then everybody started arguing about why one was better than the other.

Then she said, well, let's try it. She sat down and we tried it. We tried it like for 20 times.

We just jumped and jumped and jumped. Then we tried to breathe in on the jump. We tried to breathe out on the jump.

It was cool. You can try both ways. What's happening is that when you exhale, the prana is moving down.

That's what you're feeling. That's correct. Because the prana has to collect towards the bottom of the diaphragm to push the muscles to cause the air to go out.

So the air is moving up. The prana is moving down. Then you get confused.

It feels better for some people to imagine on the exhale that the prana is returning to the muladhara, that the glass is coming back down to the muladhara because that follows the actual path of prana. Prana accumulates in the lower belly to exhale as a prana vayu, I guess. That's what the difference between a prana and a vayu.

They're both called lung in Tibetan. So it's confusing. The Tibetans translated vayu as lung and they translated prana as lung.

But when the various pranas of the body accumulate in one area of the body in order to perform a function, like definitely poo-pooing is a prana vayu. So when you're grunting and then... No, I mean when you feel like this, as everybody does, all the prana is collecting near your anus and it's pushing.

Or when you have a baby, all that prana is joining together into a thing called a vayu. So prana means inner wind. Vayu also means wind.

But practically speaking, you have pranas all over your body. Then when your body has to do something, when you have to speak the udana vayu, you are projecting wind out of your throat. So then the upper moving wind is acting.

But when you exhale, all the pranas in your body are collecting in the lower part of your abdomen to push the air out. So you will feel, if you're sensitive, you'll feel the prana moving down. And it will seem strange to you to try to push it up while you're exhaling.

And that's fine. If you're on a less subtle level, it's easier to follow the air. And this air is moving up.

So I think you would start it with the air. But if you're more hooked into your prana, you'll feel it moving down as you exhale. Got it?

And you'll feel it moving up as you inhale. So just try both. It comes back to Jenny Brill's class.

Do both and see which one works at this point in your practice. Talk about free will please. Angry boss is yelling, we have a choice not to yell back or not.

And then they wrote choice in quotation marks. Do we really have a choice or is our response also forced on us by our karmic seeds? So the question boils down to how do we change ourselves?

And it's a very true question. And it's an old argument. It's an old debate in the scriptures.

So, all right, I go to a class. You explain to me that my boyfriend is coming from me. My boyfriend criticizes me.

And then if I decide not to criticize him back because I figured out that it's coming from me, is that free will? Or is that just another imposition of karmic seeds on me? You see what I mean?

And it's a good question. I don't know. The way to get out of it in Tibet, I mean one way to get out of it, which I don't like, but I don't know, it's there, is the fly on the poop story.

Which boils down to a fly who was sitting on a cow pie and then a thunderstorm broke out and the cow pie got, what do you call it? There's a little water flood and the cow pie got carried down the hill and he's like riding on a cow pie and then the cow pie goes around a stupa and then from that he gets his seed to become a Buddhist later. But it wasn't really his fault.

No, I mean that's a free will discussion. He was just riding on the cow pie. But of course anybody with any brains will say, why was he on that cow pie?

And why did the flood come right then? Why did it go around the stupa and not just drown him? That's also karmic seeds, right?

I think it comes back to the idea of truth, of the way things work. The Christians have an idea of original sin, right? Meaning from the time of the Garden of Eden people have been sinful.

And that's their nature. Buddhism is sort of similar really and they say that you have always misunderstood things, forever. We have always misunderstood where things were coming from.

So in a world where all things were equal you could never get out. It's not possible. If everything is seeds and if you were built with seeds to misunderstand things then you will continue to misunderstand things forever.

There's no hope. Then they say, but that perception of the world is faulty. That perception of the world is mistaken.

It's not true that your boyfriend is yelling at you because they want to. In fact, they are yelling at you because you yelled at somebody last week. So there you have a seed in your mind.

Sooner or later the two viewpoints collide. Sooner or later you are faced with a decision. Will I...

Somebody at this point in Europe one day in the class said, we have no choice but to accept free will. But anyway, at some point the two ideas will... they will try to coexist in the same mind.

That's the devil and the angel thing that we've been doing in Phoenix. Sooner or later there comes a time when those two viewpoints collide in a single person's mind. We like to think, oh, I have that viewpoint already.

I accept the viewpoint Geshe Michael. I know my boyfriend is coming for me. Then he yells at you on the Monday when you get back and you just blow up.

You can't sustain it. You can't sustain the new viewpoint. But there comes a time when there's a true battle.

There comes a time when he yells at you and you're like... And then there's a direct confrontation between the wrong idea and the right idea in reality, in the moment. And you're struggling.

You're frozen. You're paralyzed. You're ready to go the old way but now the new way is so much stronger in your mind that it demands you to be quiet.

Then there's a momentary fight. Then you win. One day you win.

I call it the half-finished sentence syndrome. Once you start doing half sentences your viewpoints get good. You're stupid.

I don't like the food you cooked. Then you're like... Then in that moment, after the R in your, there's a confrontation of your old views and your new views.

Then for the first time your new view stops the sentence. That's the crucial point in the question of free will. I think.

It's not discussed in scripture that much. A lot of the things you ask me, I have to search 100,000 pages to give you an answer. If it wasn't for the database it would be hopeless.

They don't ask a lot of questions or they're buried somewhere in the 14th century. Anyway, I think free will comes at that moment. The chance to change yourself comes at that moment.

And the change doesn't come through decision really. I don't think so. I think the change occurs because of the inherent strength of truth as opposed to something which is false.

It's not true that your boyfriend is coming from himself. It's not true that he wants to say something bad to you. And then at some point your belief in that comes face to face with your newfound understanding.

All belief meets new understanding. And the new understanding is correct. It's functional.

If you stick to that you will be happy and you'll get all the things you ever wanted. And you'll get rid of all the bad boyfriends you ever wanted. You see what I mean?

It's functional. It works. And the other one doesn't work.

In the way advertised. To reason with your boyfriend doesn't work. You know that.

You should know that by now. It doesn't matter how much reasons you have or how correct they are. Then sometimes he just says, I don't care.

All these years he's been saying, be logical. Then when the moment comes and you're logical and then he's like, I don't care. That's just how I feel.

It doesn't matter. I think free will is tied into understanding. At some point understanding overcomes.

You can make a choice. You can decide not to speak back. It is free will.

And it's a free will which is planted and which is forced upon you. No, I'm not kidding. Try to feel that.

Try to get used to that. You don't have a choice but to have free will at that moment.