«Дар освобождения», курс 4 «Ретрит об энергиях», занятие 13

[Говорящий 2] (0:00 - 5:35)
Okay, we'll meditate. First, please follow your breath. Then please come to the present moment.

Split off a small piece of your mind from the bath. And let that piece of your mind watch the rest of your mind think thoughts and see what thoughts the mind is thinking as you watch. Don't be in the thoughts.

Watch the mind thinking the thoughts from the outside. Then place an invisible wall in front of your mind. Try not to allow any thoughts of later, after tonight.

Don't think about tomorrow or next week. Try to bring the mind back to this place and this time without thinking of the future. Now block any thoughts of the past, thinking about yesterday or this morning.

And try to bring the mind to the present moment in this room with these other friends. Keep the mind here, in the present. And please ask your heart teacher to come and sit with you.

[Говорящий 1] (5:36 - 5:47)
Now I'd like you to imagine that your heart teacher is sitting next to you, on your neck, and not across from you.

[Говорящий 2] (5:47 - 5:52)
So you're both facing the same direction.

[Говорящий 1] (6:40 - 6:54)
Please bring your mind to the spot between your eyebrows, up about an inch, and then about half an inch or a little bit more into the skull, inside the skull.

[Говорящий 2] (6:56 - 7:42)
Focus your mind there. You will feel a place where if you hold your mind there, your concentration changes. Your eyes might turn up, but don't force it.

That place in you and that place in your teacher are joined together.

[Говорящий 1] (7:42 - 7:48)
You're sitting next to each other, but those two places are as one.

[Говорящий 2] (8:07 - 14:55)
Bring your mind to the chakra between your legs, about an inch into your body. Feel that spot, and it's connected to the same spot on your teacher who's sitting next to you. Now feel the flow of energy up and down your spine as you breathe in and out, between those two spots.

As the breath comes in or out, you feel an energy like liquid glass moving between the two spots in your body. At the same time, they are moving in your heart lama's body, in unison. Then please don't think you're sitting on the ground or on the floor.

Take your mind up to the sky, blue sky, higher and higher, until you reach the end of the blue sky and the darkness of space begins. You are sitting with your teacher above the world, sitting on the edge of the atmosphere itself, looking down at this beautiful blue world. As you feel the stream of liquid glass moving in your two bodies in unison.

Then lastly, feel that you and your teacher together are trying to match the breath and the flow of liquid glass in the bodies along the spines of every living being below you, below the sky, on the face of the earth. Then you and your teacher together are trying to give more strength and energy to every living creature below. Silver energy is flowing along the spines of people and birds, small insects, ants, fish, coming from the strength of your own energy and your teacher's energy.

You are giving life itself to an entire world of beings, sustaining your life with your life and your teacher's life. Then please ask your teacher to come into your heart, stay there with you, and come back to your breath, your ghost breath. Then when you're ready, you can open your eyes.

Take a good stretch.

[Говорящий 1] (14:57 - 1:07:18)
We'll do a little bit of the text. DE YANG GZHAN LUNG GI PHYI RGYUN DUG PA LHO RGYUD KYI RGYUD TSUL NI, GONG SA RGYAL BA SNGA BA CHUNG NAS, BYAMS PA'I GZHAN LUNG RGYAS PA LA RTZAM LTAGS PHABS TE We've been tracing the lineages of this particular style of teaching. We started basically with Lord Buddha two and a half thousand years ago.

We spent a lot of time on Lord Atisha a thousand years ago. We spent a little bit of time on Tsongkhapa four centuries later. We've sort of been tracing now the lineages that came down to us from Tsongkhapa in the last 600 years.

Then that's all, this whole retreat, the text has only been to learn where these teachings came from. Before we start that, you should know where they come from. Then I think they sort of trick you.

They tell you they're just telling you the history of where the teaching came from. But in the process, you end up hearing many examples of how a spiritual life can be led successfully. I think we learn about struggles and hardships, finding a teacher.

We read that people gave their lives to find their teacher. Then we heard that the teachers themselves, they also had challenges, especially during their training, in the years of their training, risked their lives and many disappointments, many hardships. So really it's not just a list of who taught whom for the last hundred generations.

It's the process supposed to teach us something. The process of talking about it is supposed to teach us something. Sooner or later you realize that many people have given their lives and have risked their lives and have devoted their entire lives to assure that it comes to you in an unbroken stream.

So many people died to bring these teachings to us, to preserve them for us. Then I think if you really get it, if you get what we've been talking about all week, you begin to feel a sense of responsibility or a sense that something has been entrusted to you. You thought you were just going away for weeks.

Now you're stuck with this like hundred generations. Are you going to be the one that breaks it? Are you going to be the one who doesn't pass it on?

So maybe you got more than you... What do you call it? Bargain for it.

So that's the reason. I think a big part of the reason why they spend so much time describing how these teachings came down to us is that it engenders in you a sense of responsibility for making sure that it doesn't die out on your watch. I was thinking today, I forgot to tell you earlier, I was thinking, now that you can talk, what's really fun?

We did this last time. We had the meditation poster last retreat. We taught the poster and then I asked if people would teach it.

Then I was encouraging people, find somebody who lives somewhere else. Like last time, I don't know, somebody in Japan hooked up with somebody from Germany and somebody from Buenos Aires hooked up with somebody from New York. It was cool.

In the past six months the poster has been taught in many cities. I like team teaching. I think it's nice.

I think you might want to think about doing sort of an exchange program. You could go up to Eric Stryson and say, I always wanted to teach in Hong Kong. You can invite yourself to Hong Kong like I invite myself to Paris.

Then you can invite someone else to come to your city, wherever you live. I think it's a very... It can change the whole experience.

I encourage you. You have till tomorrow afternoon, right? Then during meals especially, just hook up with somebody.

Yeah, like Manila and Tokyo. Sorry, Hong Kong. Manila and Hong Kong.

Sorry. Or Paris and Kiel. Or something.

Guadalajara. Yeah, yeah. Hola.

So, you know. No, you could go to Suzanne's place and you could organize a little teaching together with somebody else in the class. It's only a two-hour flight, I think, Guadalajara.

Then she could come with you to your place and you could have a class together. It's really, really fun. It's not scary at all.

Hector used to think it was scary. I remember. Now he's like a star, a pop star in New York.

He helped many, many people. Really fun. It's just fun.

So try it once. Just pick on somebody. Whoever you're eating your oatmeal with tomorrow.

And then say, hey, you want to come to Poughkeepsie? And they're like, oh, I was hoping you were the guy from Paris. You know, like that.

Do it, okay? I ask you to do it, okay? Don't be shy.

You can go to Tel Aviv. It's beautiful. It's really fun.

And then you just hook up. And then because there's two of you, it's not so much pressure. The other guy will remember what you forgot.

Sometimes in the monastery, they put up a team of debaters. Two guys. And then they tag team.

They'll be attacked by four guys or six guys. And then they help each other. So try, okay?

At least one other person. You could do three also, something like that. But two is pretty easy.

And then just do it, okay? Put up some posters around the yoga studios. Some people ask me, what was your first class, Geshe-la?

How many people came to your first class? The postman came to my door in New Jersey and he banged on the door. I told this story.

And he's like, I thought that's weird. Usually he only bangs on the door just before Christmas. Because you're supposed to give him a...

It's basically a bribe. Svyatka? Svyatka.

They taught me the word in Ukraine. Is it Svyatka? Svyatka.

Yeah, yeah. So anyway, it's a big tradition. And so I'm like, okay, what can I do for you?

Because if you don't pay the Christmas bribe, your mail's late all the time and he drops things. So I'm like, can I help you? You didn't get your envelope last December.

He's like, no, no, I've been delivering your mail for a couple of years. And you always get these weird letters from Tibet and Nepal and India. What do you guys do here?

I was just curious what you guys do here. And I said, it's a little monastery and there's a big lama here in the next room and he teaches people. And he said, well, could you teach me?

And I'm like, I don't know, I have to ask my teacher. So I went in the next room to Khenpo Rinpoche and I said, you know, the postman wants a dharma. So he said, teach him.

Then I said, I never taught anybody. He said, just teach him. Teach him what I taught you last week.

Then I go back out and I look at the guy and then I'm looking around. Then I went back to Rinpoche and I said, well, where am I supposed to teach him? We don't have any place.

He said, teach him in the car. Then I said, Rinpoche, you know the car? We had a beetle.

And I'm like, you know. And he's like, yeah, teach him in the car. He can sit in the back and you sit in the front.

He was always saying stuff like that. Then I'm like, you can't tell if he's joking or if he's serious. One time he told this guy, he came to the house for the first time and there was a bunch of like 12 bananas on the table.

And he said, Rinpoche walked by and he said, Rinpoche, and Rinpoche's like, what? And he says, what's the fastest way to enlightenment? He says, you eat those 12 bananas.

And he ate them. So anyway, your first class is not going to be, you know. It's going to be probably better than the beetle, but not much.

So don't be shy. Don't be self-conscious about it. Just do it, shamelessly.

There's not enough doctors in town. There's a major shortage of doctors in town. There's a few doctors and they don't know what the hell they're doing.

If you got the pen thing and you got this week, then you have enough to help somebody in a serious way. Okay, I'm giving you that assignment. Hook up with somebody.

It doesn't have to be some big glorious thing. You can start at a coffee shop or something. Just say, come and have coffee with us.

You can do it. Everybody can do it. All the teachers who taught this week, they started out like that.

So try, try. It is the most satisfying way of life there is. You have your regular job.

You have your family. And then, you know, like Hector, a couple of days a week he's teaching. And people love it.

And it helps them very much in their life. In the hardships of their life, it's the bright moment in their week. So do it.

Hook up with somebody. It's fun. Like, you know, you get to go somewhere and it's just fun.

It's a lot of fun. All right. DE YANG ZHES RLUNG GI THUGYEN BDOD PA LHO RGYUD KYI RGYUD SU NI So now we're tracing a specific lineage, two specific lineages of the Great Fifth.

The Great Fifth means the most famous of the Dalai Lamas. Basically, he united Tibet into a country. He started the Potala Palace.

And up till now, he's been considered the greatest Dalai Lama. I think the current one is greater for many reasons. Anyway, the Great Fifth wrote a book called The Word of Gentle Voice, right?

The Word of Gentle Voice, Manjushri. Then apparently he had written a longer version of that lamrim. And then he took it and he, say, Tsel Tak.

Tsel is a tree in Tibet. It produces a red sap. There's a word for it in English.

I don't remember. But it's called Tsel in Tibetan. And some of the scriptures were written in that ink.

Some of the Kongyurs, the ancient Kongyurs were written, they were printed in red ink, which is called the Tsel Parma. So Tsel Tak means he highlighted the important parts of his own text. And then those highlighted parts were taken out and made into a separate short lamrim.

Pabde lamrim dupa shik tun ne. Tun means to extract, especially with herbs, to tun. So he tun the essence of his bigger book and made a smaller book.

Tun de. Pabde lamrim dupa shik tun. It had special details that weren't contained in the other lineage that came down from the Fifth Dalai Lama.

So from the Fifth Dalai Lama come down two lineages. One is called the Southern Lineage and one is called the Central Lineage. Southern Tibet and Central Tibet.

Two lineages came down. How? Why?

Ami went to Hong Kong to teach with Eric. And then Darcy went to Paris to teach with Cecile. And already you got two lineages.

And then their students start teaching and then their students start teaching. Naturally in Paris you emphasize something that you don't emphasize in Hong Kong. Just depending on the audience.

So there came to be two lineages from the Fifth Dalai Lama. How did they differ? He gives three examples of the way in which the two practices of the lamrim differ.

It's a preview into what we're going to learn in the actual lamrim, which is a lot of meditative practices. A lot of these lamrim, most of the lamrim is practiced in your own head. They are attempts to change your view of the world and attempts to change your attitudes towards others.

So there will be one way in which the two lineages diverged was in how they treated three different kinds of meditative practices. Number one. SKYAB YUL SKYAB YUL means how you visualize your own teacher as someone who will protect you.

How you visualize your own teacher as someone who will protect you. And then you might visualize the physical dharma, like books, along with your teacher. In our belief, the physical things are not protection.

You cannot get protection from a statue or from books. There's a famous story that Lord Buddha's village was attacked during his lifetime. People ran to his house thinking they could get protection.

Some people hid under part of his robes and they were cut down. They were murdered holding on to him. So we don't believe that a physical statue or a book can protect you, or even a person.

The only thing that can protect you is your own understanding. In the case of...we were talking about what? The wife who criticizes you.

The girlfriend who criticizes you all the time, right? Then protection is...what is protection? Your own understanding protects you.

How? They complain to you or they criticize you and then you think, I don't like this. I would like this to stop.

Then because you understand how reality works, you determine not to criticize the person at work that you've been critical of. Because you want to shut down the mental seeds which are causing your girlfriend to criticize you. That's taking refuge in Buddhism.

Then it got out of hand. As usual, the fundamentalists got a hold of it. Then they said, anybody who wants to be a Buddhist has to sit in front of a statue and say, you've got to turn it over.

Who had the bag? Anyway, I forget. It's like...this is it. Buddha Sharanam Gacchami. Buddha Sharanam Gacchami. This is probably from, I don't know, India?

Or Sri Lanka? Sri Lanka. You've got to have a Buddhist statue in your house or you're not a Buddhist.

Then you've got to say, I believe in the Buddha three times a day or you're not a Buddhist. You see what I mean? Then they forgot it was relating to your wife, your girlfriend criticizing you.

This can't protect you. The bag can't do anything for you. No, really.

The picture is not going to help you. Repeating the thing on the top 300 times is not going to do anything. It won't do anything.

It's understanding that protects you. If I respond to my girlfriend the way she's talking to me now, I will have to meet her again next week in the same mode. You see what I mean?

So out of understanding, you stop the cycle. You cut the cycle. So how you visualize that or how you picture that in meditation is different in the southern and central lineages of the Fifth Dalai Lama's teaching.

Second is called sok ching. Sok ching means how do you picture the lamas and the holy beings who have taught these things in the past. Then if you're of low spiritual IQ, they give you a picture, a thangka, a scroll painting.

You unroll it and you say, this is Nagarjuna. This is Dharmakirti. This is Tsongkhapa.

Bow down to this picture three times a day. Everything will be okay. You know what I mean?

Then as you go higher in the teachings, you can close your eyes and think of them but you're not visualizing a picture. They are breathing. Their eyes are blinking.

You can feel the warmth of their body. Then you listen to what they're telling you and it's all about your girlfriend's criticism and how to stop it. You have a personal experience of them.

So that's sok ching. I'm not going to teach you to meditate on a picture. I want you to try to meditate on living creatures, living beings, who will then become real in your mind.

After that, they'll pop out and come to your house and sit with you on the bed and teach you how to be like them, really. So that's different between the two lineages, how you picture your teachers is different between the two lineages. They're both sweet, but they're different.

Last thing. I said, tukang. There's this beautiful practice.

I was sitting with Rinpoche one day and he says, let's do tukang. I'm like, Rinpoche, I don't know how to do tukang. He gets a big silver bowl.

Then he gets a peacock feather. Then he gets some saffron water. Then he has an old style mirror, which was polished silver.

Before they had glass mirrors. They were just polished silver. He's got this polished silver mirror with a bunch of long silk scarves coming off, like rainbow colors, very beautiful.

Then he's got his little bowl down there. Then he takes this silver picture and he says, okay, tukang time. I'm like, what are you doing, Rinpoche?

Then he takes the peacock feather and he's like, then he starts, THUGS RGYAS GANG PHAG BZHIN, BDOG CI GZHAN BA LTANG ZHIG YID BLO He starts reciting this thing. He's like a little kid with toy soldiers. He says, look, there's Nagarjuna.

We're going to bathe his body. I'm like, what? He's like, oh, it's so cool.

Then he's like, let's do his hair. Then we'll do his arms. We'll wash his feet for him.

He's doing this whole beautiful thing with this peacock feather. Then he pours water on it every once in a while and it pours off into the silver bowl. Then he keeps going.

He keeps washing all the lamas of the lineage. Oh, this one needs head and shoulders. This one.

He spends like half an hour on that. That's called THUGS RGYAS GANG. THUGS RGYAS GANG means in your meditation, you bathe.

You bathe. It was customary to massage your teacher. In those days, it was a custom to offer a massage of their body.

Then you might wash their feet or something like that. It sounds kind of corny, but it's a very comforting practice. It's a very beautiful practice to imagine your teacher washing their holy body and serving them in that way.

Very beautiful. There are even etiquette rules. Lama Ngap Chupa, right?

Guru Panchasika. It's the oldest book we have in Tibet after the Buddha. It's a list of etiquette about your teacher.

Then it tells you how to massage them, how you're supposed to bow down before you massage them, how you bow down after you massage them. It was a spiritual practice. Those details differ from between the southern lineage and the central lineage.

For example, we're going to get to that later. ,'OD RGYUD DANG MI BRAL BA'I MA NGAG DANG, ,'CHAD PA'I EPA LAMA BYAMS PA RIN CHEN LA SNANG, The Fifth Dalai Lama passed it down to a lama called Epa Lama. BYAMS PA RIN CHEN ,DE SEMS SHAR KHYEN CHEN LO SANGS KHYAD TSUN LA SNANG He passed it down to...

Okay, now it's getting boring. Sorry. He passed it down to SEMS SHAR KHYEN CHEN LO SANGS KHYAD TSUN.

,DE'I KHYER NABS KYI RTZAL CHE BA'I RTZAL BTAG ,PHAB LUGS LA RGYAS DUS NA TSOGS SHES ,THUGS LA SHAR BAS ,THUGS RTOGS MA CHOD PAR, ,CHOD GYIS BDAG PO SNGAGS PA CHEN PO LA ,RANG NA ZHUGS BSGOM NAS ,KUN DUNG RANG DU NGOS RGYAL GYI ,JAG CHOR GCIG GI YIN NA Then this last lama, he saw the extract, the extracted version, and he started to wonder what the full version looked like. Then he actually barged his way into the Fifth Dalai Lama's throne room and asked him, could you give me the whole thing? Which is very weird.

,KUN DUNG RANG NI NGOS RGYAL GYI ,JAG CHOR GCIG GI YIN NA In the time it took to have one Tibetan tea together, he got the whole thing. Somehow the Fifth Dalai Lama passed on the whole thing to him. By the way, we're talking Southern lineage now.

,CHAL TZAM SEMS PAS RNAM DANG MED DU BYUNG DIN TZAD SOGS PA'I KHYAM PO TSE He became the abbot of Tse Potala, which is the Tibetan word for the Potala Palace. They're called Tse Potala. SOGS PA'I KHYAM PO TSE ,KUR TZE MED LA YIN NAS LAM RIM CHOS DINGS SU ,DUG PA LA ZHUL BA'I ,DUG PA'I SGOS PA'I THUN PAR ZHIG In the latter part of his life, he was able to reach a high state of realization by studying this Lam Rim that he had been granted by the Fifth Dalai Lama.

,DE YOD PA'I DUS BYIN PUN TZOL RGYAL TSUL LA SNANG Then that Lama gave it to somebody named ,YOD PA'I DUS BYIN PUN TZOL RGYAL TSUL ,DE YANG SNONG CI BDAG PA GSUM LA RDZOGS PA TSE That Lama used to give Lam Rim retreats that lasted for three months. ,ZHIG LAG GI RTOG PA KHYAB PA CHEN THUG RGYUD LA THUN PAR Then he got to high states of realization on the SHI NAS and BHAG DONG. Emptiness and high states of meditation.

,RGYUD LA THUN PAR YER PA LOB PA MANG PO NA SNONG CI GYI BSKYANG Then he taught his own students in his home place called Yerpa by SNONG CI. What's SNONG CI? Do you remember?

SNONG CI. SNONG CI means you don't just read it from the book. You say, okay, last year I was meditating on emptiness and here's what I saw.

So the whole instruction is based on the person's personal, his or her actual realizations. ,DE CHOG LUG GYI RGYUD KYI SGO NAS GRUB PA THUGS TE ,TSOR GYUR GYI LAM RA PHAL CHE BA DE LTAR YIN GSUNG Then he practiced the body mandala of DE CHOG. Sambhara.

Heruka. That's a special practice where you visualize an entire enlightened world inside your body. Then he reached his spiritual goals by practicing that.

Those of you who had Vajrayogini have had that practice. ,CHOG GYUR GYI LAM RA PHAL CHE BA DE LTAR YIN GSUNG Most of the lamas of the Southern lineage had similar experiences. ,DE A'I LAMA DKA' CHU BSTAN DAG LA SNANG He taught A'I Lama, called A'I Lama.

,DKA' CHU BSTAN DAG His name was Kachari. The name of Vajrayogini's heaven. ,DE KHYEN CING RGYON DUN BYANG YANG LA SNANG He taught a lama named Khyen Cing Rgyon Dun BYANG YANG.

,DE'I LHO GYI GSHER LUNG RGYAS PA BTAG PHAG RGYU MA BTAG RGYUN ,BYAMS CHUNG RDOG LAS MTSAN LOGS SU YOD PA DI GOS PAR MDZAD He was a little bit worried that people were doing highlights of the highlights and highlights of the highlights of the highlights and then he decided maybe we should standardize this particular text and he helped to standardize it. ,DE'I NGAR PHYI MA LAS MED KYANG ,KHYAB RJE GRUB GANG RIM PO CHE GNAS PHAR DU BRTZON NANG TSE In the past, it had always been a written manuscript and then at that point, someone had it carved which helped prevent corruption. In India, they couldn't do carving because of the weather.

In Tibet, you can take a block of butter and leave it outside for a year and nothing will happen because there's no, what do you call it? Until recently, there have been no microbes there. It's so high, it's so cold and so clean that things didn't spoil.

We had a printing of the Dengyar ordered from Derge. I bribed the Chinese officials of Derge and we got a whole Dengyar, 210 volumes, shipped out to Delhi long ago from the original blocks. These are 1700.

The blocks were made in 1700 and they still look the same. They haven't changed because of the weather. So they carved it.

,KHYEN CHEN RGYEN DON BYAM YANG, ,GYIS RJE SNGA BA'ANG THOD DOR BA'ANG NANG, Somebody named KHYEN CHEN RGYEN DON BYAM YANG granted it to SNGA BA'ANG THOD DOR. ,DE DAG CHAR KHYEN CHEN BSTAN PA RGYAL TSOR BA'ANG NANG, By the way, Pabongka Rinpoche loves to trace his lineages. There's whole books of his lineages in that database.

,DI DAG CHAR LO MNYER KHAB GZHAN BYAL GYI ZHING ZHAG TU, ,DU MED LTA BA'ANG NYES PAR GSUM, That's something I wanted to talk about. It is said that one day while he was chopping wood he came to an understanding of the Middle Way. He understood the Middle Way.

Then you get into all these things about... It's called satori, right? Like somebody is out sweeping the porch and suddenly they have an insight into emptiness.

Then there's... I think we have to talk about that. Because here it came up.

Somebody was out chopping wood and they had an insight into emptiness. Then because people haven't had that experience then there start to be weird ideas about what's possible and what's not possible. I think we should talk about it.

It's not possible to see ultimate reality chopping wood. It's not possible. You have to be in a deep state of meditation.

You have to be in such a deep state of meditation that if someone came up to you with a bag of McDonald's French fries and put it under your nose, you couldn't smell it. Your sense organs are completely withdrawn. So you can't be chopping wood, you would cut your fingers off.

Your sense organs have to be completely withdrawn and up to a higher level. We call it form realm. You have to be in a seated meditation position.

It doesn't have to be a full lotus. But it's not possible to see emptiness under any other circumstances. It just won't happen.

Which means if you're not meditating about an hour a day it's not possible to see emptiness. It won't happen. It can't happen.

Do you have to do it all at the same time? No. Because then you'll be wandering around for 45, 50 minutes.

I would suggest breaking it up. But you have to be meditating regularly if you want to see emptiness. If you don't see emptiness, you can never get enlightened and you can't reach nirvana either.

You can't stop even your anger or your jealousy or other... Not possible. So you have to try.

You have to try to get there. So I thought we should clarify that. So where do you think happened?

What kind of insight did he have? I think you could call it jorlam, right? Second power.

What is jorlam? You have intellectual insights into ultimate reality. I'll give you an example.

Point to something in this room that is not coming from you. Just point to anything in this room which is not coming from how you have treated other people in the past. If you're well trained you say, there's nothing.

Nothing in the room. Not me. Not you.

Not your mind. Not the person next to you. It's all coming from you.

You just had an insight into emptiness. And you weren't even chopping wood. No, it happens.

He probably had the pot-on-the-stove experience. Probably he saw emptiness within the next day or so. But he didn't see emptiness chopping wood.

Not possible. So we're continuing with the Southern lineage of the Fifth Dalai Lama's Lam Rim and I promise it will end soon. DE'I SRED DOR LAMA GAL DEN LA SNANG He taught it to SRED DOR LAMA GAL DEN LA SNANG Then I think Pabongka Rinpoche was trying to pep things up and he started telling stories about some of the Lamas.

So here we go. DI LA NGUL DANG NAM BU SOGS BU KHAN GANG BYUNG ZIN CHAGS KYANG MI TSE This particular Lama, SRED DOR LAMA GAL DEN, people used to give him gifts of gold, silver coins, and what do you call it? Bolts of silk.

DANG NAM BU SOGS BU KHAN GANG BYUNG ZIN CHAGS KYANG MI TSE He didn't get attached to them. STONG BAR YANG MI BRDZAD PAR Neither did he give them away. The gifts he got.

NYIN DAM GYI CHAGS BSAD GCIG TU GYUR BAR MDZAD He found nearby a cliff with a big boulder near it. The boulder had a fissure down the middle of it and he would throw all the stuff down there. It's interesting.

There's a bodhisattva vow, what? If somebody offers you a gift as a teacher, you have to accept it gracefully. You have to try to see some beauty in it and use it and think about it.

I remember when His Holiness came to our temple and then there was this crazy lady who used to come around. She was kind of like pretty crazy. We were hoping she wouldn't come that day, but she came.

His Holiness's assistant at the time was Dobumbtoku, who I knew from my studies in India. She came up to me and she said, I have a gift for the Dalai Lama and you have to make sure he gets it. I'm like, as if I'm going to get within 100 feet of him.

Then she gives me this plaster of Paris American Eagle. I'm like, okay, I'll make sure it gets to him. Then I went to Dobumb Rinpoche.

I said, look Rinpoche, there's this lady. I made a promise that His Holiness has to get this plaster of Paris American Eagle. It wasn't even painted or anything.

He said, okay, I'll try to get it to him. Then His Holiness did a big ceremony. He did this long life ceremony in the temple.

It was very beautiful. Then at the end he says, and I would like to present the temple with a gift. Then all the Mongolians are like, oh, thank you.

It's still hanging there, I think so. Anyway, if you're going to get rid of them, throw them off a cliff or something. DE SOGS MI RANG GANG ZHIG SONG NAS After several generations, people found the stuff at the bottom of this boulder.

They made off with the coins. The silver coins were still intact, but the silk was all rotted. NYES RGYUD YOD PA'I RNAMS DAG YAG MTSAN PHYIR BYIN MI RDZE YANG Actually, we're not supposed to refuse a gift.

PHYIR BYIN MI RDZE YANG PA YANG Then he wants to justify why, he wants to explain the situation more carefully. He says, the reason he didn't pass these gifts on was that he was afraid that by receiving them and by passing them on, he would start to get a big head and think he was a big teacher. You see what I mean?

So he was protecting his own mind by throwing away the offerings. LOM SEMS SKYE BA'I NYES DMIGS LA BSGOM PA DE DE'I RJES LO BZANG CHEN PO'I LA RNAMS He granted the lineage to RJES LO BZANG CHEN PO. DE'I RGYAS BA'I GZHAN YING THUGS BRTEN RAB RGYAS LA RNAMS He passed it on to RGYAS SHES THUGS BRTEN RAB RGYAS.

DE'I THUGS DAM SKABS LAM RIM GSUNGS BDEBS LA DANG DANG NAS GSUNGS RJES BYAMS CHAGS BSGYUR ZHUGS This particular Lama, when he would do the, what do you call it? Supplication to the Lamas of the Lam Rim lineage. This is a prayer that we do.

RGYAL YANG TSUL DOR NYID NA MA YIN RGYAL YANG TSUL DOR NYID NA MA YIN You do it as fast as you can. LAM RIM GSUNGS BDEBS DANG DANG NAS After he had sung it, one day he just stopped moving. Then everybody was worried about him.

Then some people said he probably fell asleep. Then they tried to wake him up and then they realized he was in meditation on the Lamas of the Lam Rim. SGOS PAR ZHUGS STONG DE'I DGE SLUNG BYANG CHUB THOG MED BYAS PA RNAMS He passed it on to a monk named DGE SLUNG BYANG CHUB THOG MED.

DE'I RGYAS ZHES DANG LAMA SOGS KHA YANG MIM PAR He wasn't a RGYAS ZHES and he wasn't a reincarnated Lama. Lama in the monastery means THUG ROL. When you say Lama in the monastery, it means THUG ROL.

He was neither a RGYAS ZHES nor a THUG ROL. He was, we call him, say DABBA? Say DABBA?

DAK YANG DABBA DAK YANG It means a monk who is just a monk. DABBA DAK YANG When His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, I'm just a simple monk, that's what he's thinking in his head. He's thinking DABBA DAK YANG.

It means I'm just a little monk who stays in a little cell and I have a little tiny bed and I have two sets of clothes and that's all I am. That means DABBA DAK YANG. He wasn't a RGYAS ZHES.

He wasn't a big THUG ROL. He was a DABBA DAK YANG. RANG RGYAL BAR ZHIG YIN Just some guy.

SBYANG RI RICHAR DU ZHUGS NAS He used to stay in a hermitage called SBYANG RI RICHAR. Then every day he would walk down to a meadow, like the meadow down there, which I haven't seen because they don't let me out of my house. CHUNG ROL ZHI YOD PAR GSUM THOR SNANG RJES Then he used to go down there and make an offering of a DOR MA.

So we did DOR MA last night. Those are the little conehead guys. LAM YIN LA THUGS DAM ZAD CIG TU RDZAD Then he would go into meditation on the LAM YIN in the meadow.

He would walk down to the meadow, make a DOR MA offering to the local spirits. These are tortured local spirits. If you make the offering with the correct state of mind, they are capable of taking some sustenance from it.

Otherwise, they'd never find anything. If you could see them, it would be like moths to a flame. It would be covered with spirits.

One of those little DOR MAs last night would have been covered with spirits, taking little sustenance from it. Like, I don't know, piled on top of each other. BYAMS NING RJE THUG RGYUD LA CHUNG DE Then he was able to have the vision of a perfect world.

He could see how it could happen. I like to tell this story. I was in Guangzhou, which is South China.

It's just outside of the Hong Kong border. Probably 75% of the world's goods are made in that area. Shenzhen and Guangzhou and maybe a little bit in Zhuhai.

Probably the rug you're sitting on, the paneling, the lights, the cars, the parts for the cars, the sound system, the tablecloth, these are all made in Guangzhou. It's the world's manufacturer. It employs millions of people.

It stretches for 50 miles. It's back-to-back factories. Shenzhen was an empty field, I think 10 years ago, 12 years ago, 30 years ago.

Then Deng Xiaoping decided to try to make factories there. Now it's 12 million people. It looks like Harrison Ford's science fiction movie.

It looks like Blade Runner now. It's unbelievable. It was empty fields.

Anyway, we're giving a talk in Guangzhou. Then I have to stick to making money and blah, blah, blah. Then, I don't know, for two days I taught them that you can be more prosperous, your business can be more prosperous if you help other people become more prosperous.

That was my whole thing. I taught them the pan thing. They understood the seed thing and they all got it.

They're very sharp. They're smart people. They ask great questions.

They were all asking great questions. Sometimes when you're teaching you will see a moment. A moment will offer itself.

This thing stops and then you know you have 45 seconds before the next thing can start. You see an opportunity. Then I was just like, well, you all understand now how to make money.

They're like, yeah. I said, well, how do you make money? They said, you help other people make money.

Then I'm like, these are all people, they grew up in very hard times. They grew up in a very hard, brutal system. They've had no spiritual training.

It was illegal for 50 years. They don't have any exposure. You can ask them, do they sell heart sutures in this town?

They just look at you. They don't even know the names of the books. I tried to get books there.

One out of a hundred people knows what you're talking about. It's been wiped out. Then I kind of innocently said, well, okay, what would happen if everybody in the world believed that this was how to make money?

I told you, right? There's this thing going on in their mind and then they just got it. That vision of a world where people thought that the only way to succeed would be to help make others succeed.

They got it. You could see bodhichitta spread in the minds of a couple hundred people who never had any spiritual training at all. They don't have churches.

They don't have temples. They have historical sites, but there hasn't been any working temples. They're not aware of any spiritual teachers.

Then suddenly in the room, everybody's got bodhichitta clicking in the room. That monk, he would make his dharma offering and then he would sit down and he would think about this thing. What would happen in the world if everybody believed that everything was coming from them?

Then it hit him and then he would start to weep in the meadow. He would just sit by himself in the meadow and weep for like an hour. KHO NA RDZAS PA LUM RDZIS GCIG PAS There was a boy, what do you call him?

Sheepherder. LUM RDZIS means sheepherder. He told me, oh, that's so strange.

An old man by himself weeping in the middle of a meadow for an hour. Then he came back the next day and found him doing the same thing. Then every day he would come back and here's this old man in the middle of the field just crying to himself.

It's a beautiful story. That's one of the southern lineage guides. BSTAN PA LTAR BA'ONG DE'I DU ZHAL LUNG HO RGYUR GYI GCIG YIN DGE SLONG DI GCIG PA LA MA STOG MI ZHUGS PAS At that time, something strange happened.

That monk was the last one who had the lineage transmission of the southern lineage. He was the last. It got down to one monk who knew the southern lineage.

He was the last one who was taught the southern lineage. BYAS PA NYE BAR NA BDAG LTAR KHYEN GSUNG LO SANGS RGYUN PA SHES BDAG GIS KHYAB CHEN NA MA RIM PA BYAS RAB BYUNG GI SDONG PA SHES SA DE Then the monk with whom my own teacher took his first vows, monk's vows. So the monk who granted Pabongka Rinpoche's teacher his first monk vows.

SLOG RGYUR GYI GCIG YIN GZHAN DU ZHIP TU TSEL KHYANG GCIG YIN THOB PA RGYAS SLONG DI NAS MED PAS He was thinking it would be important for him to learn the southern lineage but then he came to understand that there was only this one monk left. He could only find one monk who still had the transmission. DGE SLONG GYI RNAMS KYIS MA GTUG KYANG GCIG YIN SANG MA ZHU NA BYAS PA SDONG NAS He thought to himself, this old monk wouldn't be able to give me a proper transmission of the technical part of the MA RIM.

He's just an old, he's not a Geshe, he's just an old dravidakyan. He thought to himself, well, he probably can't give me a proper teaching but if I could ask him just to read it to me I would get the oral transmission and then it wouldn't die in the world. At least the oral transmission could survive even if the old man doesn't know what he's talking about.

BYAS PA SDONG NAS GNYIS GCIG RGYEN RLONG DANG BRJAL RDZOMS SKABS So he went to the monk and he met him one day. BDAG CA ZHAL RLUNG PHO RGYUR GYI GCIG RGYUN ZHUG PA NYID NAS MED You are the last monk who has the transmission of the southern lineage. DI RGYUN CHEN NA GZHIN DU PHANGS PA'I It would be a big loss in the world if the lineage were to be...

What do you call it? They say cut. In Tibetan they say cut.

If it's stopped. PHAGS PA NYID RGYUN TZAM ZHIG DNGOS LA SNANG NA Could you give me an oral transmission of the southern? It means he reads the Fifth Dalai Lama to him with no explanation because he's not capable of it.

LA RLOS NAS RLUNG RIGS KYI RGYEN TE DGE PAR BAR BU CHOG ZHUGS PA Then I will explain to you what it means. He's talking to the old man. You read the text to me so the lineage is not broken.

The oral transmission. Then I'll enlighten you as to its meaning. RGYEN RLONG GI DAG LTA BU KHALA BU NUS ZHES SNANG MIN GNYIS KYIS KHUL MDZAD Then the old man said, who am I to give anybody an oral lineage?

I'm just a dumb old monk. RGYEN RJES SU SNANG BA'I SKABS MED NA SAG LA BRDUN BA NYONG THOB PAR ZHIG NAS SNANG BA'I But then he agreed to do it. Then he started to teach the Lamrim to him.

MED NAGS SUB Extraordinarily profound teachings on the Lamrim. NYONG THOB Only based on his own personal realizations. ZHIG NAS SNANG BA'I RJES BLO SANGS RGYEN PA HA LAS PA The monk who received it, HA LAS Wow.

He was amazed. He was like, wow. HA LAS RDZE TSOR DE NGES KHO NA BAR BU RGYUD YIN ZHUGS PA NGO TSAR DU Now I'm ashamed that I offered to enlighten him as to the meaning.

Monastic Geshe, he's a Kadampa Geshe. The modern Geshe is a title. It's a degree.

The old Geshe was like a master. Like a master of personal experience. They weren't handing out degrees.

You came to be a Geshe from your realizations. CHEN PO DE SNGAGS SPYOD TSE RJES BLO SANGS RGYEN PA YANG ZHIG LHAG GI SDUG BSNGAL TSE KHYAD PAR BYED NYES BYAS This Lama came to have high realizations, the younger one who got the transmission. LUG GIS KYI SGO NAS GRUB PA NYES PA ZHIG RE He also practiced the body mandala and reached the high stage of realizations.

RIGS BDAG MED BANG RIM CHUD DER BRTAN ZHIG RDZAY CAN He lived at a monastery called Bang Rim in a place called Bdagme. RJES RGYAL SEMS BRTAN ZIN GYI DGU BYED CHUNG BA YIN PAS I think we stop there. It goes on and on.

I'm required to do this. At least you get some fun stories. We're doing good.

I think we can finish tomorrow. This is the 10th class. Miriam, are you up for that?

DUNG NYID RIGS SHING RIGS DANG BYANG RIGS RANG NYIN GZHI NENG RIG YIN MAG GI SANG NGES SHING RIGS RIGS DE RANG GRUB RANG DRAG GZI RANG RIGS PA In the name of the Incarnation, Sangha, Neshe, Sanjosh, Sangha, Neshe, Nachon, Amba, Kuni, Kovach,