«Дар освобождения», курс 5 «Обрести то, кем нам всегда суждено было стать», занятие 9

[Говорящий 1] (0:01 - 2:05)
Let's do some scripture. So, he just finished talking about horses and yaks and cows, oxen. Why?

Yeah, each one can carry a different size load. So, you should try to undertake whatever study you have the capacity to do. Whether it's extensive studies or refer studies, you should try.

I mean, we've been talking about the benefits of formal spiritual study. You can be a natural, right? What we call natural.

A football player or a natural singer. You can have a very beautiful voice or you can draw nicely, right? The point is that you take a person who has raw talent and then you train them.

Like a boxer or something like that. You get a very, very good boxer or you get a very, very good singer. So, like Mercedes has a beautiful voice, but she works on her voice.

She does Skype once a week with an opera singer in Australia, okay? And they work. You take raw talent and you take talent which is already professional quality.

Then you throw them in with a master. And then you get a master. Not just a good singer or a good artist.

You get a master. Out of that process, you get a master. So, he's been saying most of the people in this room have some kind of spiritual raw talent, right?

Or you wouldn't be here. And then you have to train that talent. You have to hone that talent under the guidance of a really qualified teacher.

Whatever you decide to do. Which brings me to nail art. Okay?

Anybody want to define nail art for me? Take a shot, Jeff. No?

You're surrogate mother of color. He said surrogate mother of color.

[Говорящий 2] (2:05 - 2:28)
How about you, Mercedes? It's a person who is a comedian. Okay, that's not too bad.

[Говорящий 1] (2:29 - 10:40)
Name means local. This is a Vinaya word. This comes from the monk's tradition, right?

And name means local. And then lama means lover. In the Vinaya, you are required to have a, they have it in AA, right, what do they call it?

A sponsor. A sponsor, right? In AA they have a sponsor.

So it's not like AA has three big shops at each center where they have AA, right? AA doesn't work that way. In AA, you have a person who's another person in AA who says, I'll take responsibility for this person.

If they decide at 2 o'clock in the morning that they're in danger of taking a drink, they can call me at 2 o'clock in the morning and I don't drink. I take on that responsibility. I think that's why AA has the highest success rate in the world for treating people with that addiction.

Because they encourage people to help other people with the same addiction. And that's how the system works. So in the monastery it's very similar.

You have your scripture lama, you have the lamas, you have the kimos, you have the monks who are running the monastery, you have the major teachers in the monastery who teach hundreds of students, right? And then you have your nay lamas. You are required as a monk to have a nay lama.

You're not allowed to not have a nay lama. So nay lama means someone you can call when you have a crisis. Because you can't always get a hold of that.

Or that teacher might be in a room with a couple hundred students. And if you can't call them and say, I'm depressed today, it's not going to happen. It won't work for you.

And then it also overburdens those people. They can't deal with 5,000 people writing them an email and saying, I don't feel happy today. I had a fight with my husband today.

How many can you answer responsibly? It's like a doctor. How many heart surgeries can you do in a day before you start to make mistakes?

Or you neglect someone and then something really bad happens. Like somebody committed suicide because you didn't email them back in time. It happened to my brother.

And the doctor was too busy. And he killed himself. Like he called the doctor.

The doctor was too busy. And so I don't want to be in that situation. We had a system called nay lama, and it was going quite well.

And it kind of, I don't know what happened. A lot of nay lamas went into a three-year retreat. So in a monastery, when your lama goes into a three-year retreat, you're required to find a new nay lama within 24 hours.

You are required to find a new nay lama. So I encourage you all. I need someone.

We can start with Jingming. Anybody kind of want to oversee that nay lama program? I'm sure you have time.

All right. So anyway, there used to be a spreadsheet with everybody's nay lama and the nay lama's email and the nay lama's telephone number. And then if the nay lama, we had to figure out a name for the nay lama.

If they had a problem. And Michael figured out a car accident or something. Actually, Michael was in Tokyo.

And then their nay lama got a phone call. So I'd like to start that system again. So maybe we could start with an email to the participants in this program.

And say, can you divulge to us who your nay lama is? How we can get a hold of them? If something happens to you.

Or if you have a crisis. You need something really bad. Somebody was in the hospital.

Somebody suddenly had a kidney stone. And there should be a nay lama system where we get care. Somebody wrote me an email in Tokyo at 4 a.m. I can't do anything. So, and I don't have capacity. I can't deal with thousands of, you know, I don't want to pull out, what do you call it? He had a stroke.

So I think I have to take care of my health and my sanity. And I also don't want to be the doctor who tried to do three heart surgeries in the same day and got messed up. One because he was tired or didn't have time.

So I'd like to make sure we get the nay lama system going here. So then you'll get an email from Becky that says, you know, do you have a nay lama? What's your email?

What's your phone number? And we had a rule that nobody could have more than 12 people that they are serving as nay lama. So pick your, the people who are asked to be nay lamas, they have to be careful not to take on too many.

Okay, we're going to set it at 12. So you'll approach one of our nay lamas and say, can you be my nay lama? And he'll say, I'm already up to 12.

And maybe one of my students, one of the 12 that I have, I consider good quality for a nay lama for you. And then it's like a Amway thing. No, really, we need it.

We need it to take care of people, we need it. Otherwise, it's just like hundreds of emails clogging up a few people's emails. We don't have time.

And they'll miss somebody. And then there'll be something bad happening. All right.

Maybe we'll have some chats. Let's see. Okay.

He's saying, look, you could undertake the 18 ACI courses. You could do the Dharma essentials courses that Namo Amitabha put together from the ACI courses. Or you could do the Lamrim courses.

But he says, whether you do a medium-length thing or an extensive thing or a shorter thing, it must contain all the topics. Okay. It must contain all the topics.

It can be a short version of all the topics or a medium version of all the topics or an extended version of all the topics, but you need all the topics. Let's see. Okay.

What he's saying is that he's discouraging you from, like, getting very strong in one topic and ignoring another topic. They need sort of equal depth. The depth can be less.

The depth can be medium. Or the depth can be huge. But it should be equal across all the topics.

Okay. And you see it. I kind of see it developing in our group in a small way.

Like, at Diamond Mountain, we concentrated so much on emptiness and on the secret teachings that I think we got a little bit unbalanced. It's like people had a big right muscle, but the left muscle was small, and it doesn't look nice. Okay.

Like, they should be kind of equal.

[Говорящий 2] (10:41 - 10:41)
Okay.

[Говорящий 1] (10:41 - 11:17)
So you have to take the major subjects, compassion, meditation, yoga, ethics, an understanding of emptiness, and cowboy music. And they should all be pretty well represented in relative strengths. Okay.

You shouldn't be, like, spending all your time on discussing the fine points of emptiness and never talking about ethics. Or like, okay, you need a nice balance. You have to be balanced.

[Говорящий 2] (11:17 - 11:17)
Okay.

[Говорящий 1] (11:17 - 49:00)
And you have to watch yourself and not get obsessive with some things and then, what do you call them? Anemic and eat other things. Okay.

For example, if you had three beds but no pants, that would be a problem. Right? You should have at least one bed and one pair of pants.

I'm talking God's mercy. Or you've got a whole, what do you call it? A walk-in closet with Calvin Klein stuff, and you don't have a bed.

So you should have, you know, you should have the amount that you need in each topic. Okay. And you shouldn't have zero in some topics and, like, 3,000 in the other topics.

CHAGSAMNA THOGPA GYAG CHEN CHUNG CIG DAG YANG NANG DRIN GNYIS PA NI If the topics are all complete in whichever depth you choose to go, okay, you can choose Lamrim. You can choose Dharma Essentials. You can choose ACI courses.

You can choose ACI courses plus Tantric courses, right? You can go crazy. But you should have a well-balanced spread.

Whether you choose to go deep or less deep, you should still have a good spread. All right? DENGAR DE DENG KHA GYI GZHAG CHEN DANG GZHAG GYEN GYI GZHAG CHEN DANG RANG LA THAB NI CHAG PA SHIG RO Then he says, you know, if you take a monk whose cell is well-appointed, right?

Meaning what? It's got a yoga mat. It's got a meditation cushion.

It's got a simple little pallet bed. It's got an altar. Right?

That's all. And two sets of robes. That's what you're allowed to have, right?

And that's enough. For them, that's well-appointed. Then he says, if you're a prince, then you should also be well-appointed as a prince.

That's someone who did the whole ACI courses, is the prince. The monk in this case is like someone who schlepped through the 14 verses of the Lamrim. Okay?

Got it? But you need a… You should have everything that a prince should have.

Or you should have everything that a monk should have. But the monks really shouldn't lack a meditation cushion. And the prince's quarters shouldn't lack 34 sotos.

Okay? Got it. We should all be princes and princesses.

Some of you already are. Okay. Chakni Chakshi.

Nipa chodam chumalam dojita kepa ni, saimim buddho me. Now we get to the main subject, okay? So obviously we're going to come to most of it in Prescott.

Okay? So here we go. Here's the main subject that I was hoping you would all hear.

But Geshe Michael went too slow. Nipa Chodronchua, how do we properly take a class, right? How do we, what is proper comportment in a class?

What's the etiquette for learning and for teaching the Holy Dhamma? What's the proper etiquette for that, okay? Sai Nyingpo Dorle, he quotes a sutra called Shuddhi Bhagavata, right?

The Essence of Earth, it's a very selfless name. Jigdru Decheng Khöpe, Chönyin Kyi, De La Chakshin Khurwar Ni Chao, Chö Ma Wa La Chöpa Chao Ni, Sangye Dhar De La Du She Kye. I'll translate the quotation, but then I'll explain, okay?

He'll explain it. Jigdru Decheng, you must have unwavering, you must have single-pointed devotion to whoever you choose as a teacher. I'm not saying me, okay?

I'm teaching this subject because it came in the long run. I'm not teaching it because I want all the money or whatever, okay? You have to find your own personal teacher.

It could be me, it could not be me, it could be somebody else. It's up to you, I'm not, I'm just gonna teach you the etiquette. I'm not hinting that you should apply the etiquette first to myself, okay?

Mainly I'm hoping that my grandchildren will learn the etiquette and my kids don't have to explain to my grandchildren the etiquette because that would look self-serving by my kids. So mainly I'm trying to educate my grandkids that they should respect their teachers like they would any Tibetan monk, okay? Because that's the name of the game, okay.

K'opay ch'unyin ke, you should listen with respect, you should listen with honor. Dey lak chashin korome jaan, you should never criticize your teacher or speak badly of them. Ch'u mawa lak chupa jaan ne, you should make offerings to your particular teachers, okay?

Sangey daar dena dushay ke, and you should think of them as an enlightened being, all right? Now that starts probably a two-year subject for us, okay? Because the first section of the government is how to behave around the teacher.

And we are totally ignorant of it in the United States. We don't have that system in the United States. And it's a beautiful, fulfilling, happy system, okay?

It's not some like cult guru thing. It's not like that. To have a personal relationship with a true master, such as Kung Fu Panda Han, or the Karate Kid, there is such a thing, and it's beautiful, okay?

It's just really, really beautiful. Are there people who abuse the holy union of marriage? Yes, how many?

Half of the people in America get divorced, right? Does that mean that marriage is not a holy institution, or a very beautiful thing? No, if you do it properly, it's a very beautiful thing, right?

There have been abuses by gurus. People set themselves up as gurus, and there have been abuses. And gurus can be tough, but there are also countless cases of extremely sweet, wonderful marriages.

It's not like there's an outlaw marriage because half the people in the United States get divorced. Marriage is a beautiful institution, if it is done correctly. So to be under the guidance of a master, the personal guidance of someone who's qualified, and to engage in that relationship with them is the most beautiful relationship in the world, I think.

And I've lived most of my life under really tough lamas, personally living with really hard, male tough lamas, and I'm really grateful. And I don't think there's anything that makes you happier in the world than to be with a real master. And I encourage you to think of it that way.

I'm not saying you go out and find some co-currior and you kill chickens for them, or I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about you meet a real master. It could be a yoga master, it could be a meditation master, it could be someone who's good at Spanish language.

It doesn't matter. But to engage in a master-disciple relationship, if you miss it in this life, it's almost like you've missed a relationship with someone of the opposite sex. You see what I mean?

You've never had those emotions of that joy when knowing what a beautiful thing it is. It's, to me, the most beautiful relationship there is. And it's extremely, makes you extremely happy, okay?

If it's done properly from the teacher's side and from the student's side. Okay. And it can be, and you can do it, okay.

Sanghe Dharmakirti. Je sumpa dharm, tumpa sanghe la khapa dharm rimdo, chitta khyapa dharm dharm, chenmawa bhakti dharm, tukpa chen gua. So he's saying you should respect your personal teacher, whoever is your heart teacher, okay?

I'm not saying me. I'm saying, okay, the whole conversation is relative. I'm talking to my grandkids, okay?

And you all have teachers that perhaps I have trained. But how should you behave towards those teachers? What he says here, he gives the example of the Buddha.

I would give the example of the Dalai Lama. The current, his light is the current Dalai Lama. The greatest of the Dalai Lamas who has ever been, okay?

Why would you treat your personal Dharma teacher differently from the Dalai Lama? You see what I mean? You know, if the Dalai Lama says he's coming to your house, right, you'd probably vacuum, right?

I do. You know, I mean, when my teacher comes, I spend, I fight with it. It seems like I'm busy.

I have emails piling up. I have people all over the world are demanding things from me, hundreds of people. And then Lama says, I'm coming over this afternoon.

And then I'm like, okay. And I drop everything. And I clean, I get up early, I clean the house, I wash myself, I cut the trees, you know?

I wear a good shirt. I change, you know, I get out of my young clothes for the first time in a week. And I go to Julie Town.

I get my Julie Town. I'm like, oh God, what's a short recipe? You know, and then I call Jimmy or Nipa and Marissa.

When you get orange blossom lotion, you know, they call it tonic to put it in a recipe. Then they take off. They're like the assistants of the assistant, right?

They take off to find some rare spice in Cottonwood, Arizona. I don't know where it's from. And, or Adam told me, you know, they did the last one, I think.

What was that? It was, what was the recipe? I don't remember.

Ooh. It was an exotic recipe. And we didn't find anything, but I faked it and it worked good.

So, why would you treat your teacher best in the dialogue? The dialogue is not gonna come and teach you personally. Your personal teacher is therefore, according to the scriptures, is more important for you than the dialogue.

And you should take more care to honor them than you do the dialogue. If the dialogue only came to your house, it wouldn't be as important as if the teacher who's teaching you ACI verse one came to your house. And you should think that way, see?

The more you invest in your relationship to your teacher, the more teaching happens, the deeper the teaching goes. If you short them, you know, you say, I'll run out and get, I'll go, I'll run out to Safeway and buy a cake, right? Well, I don't need to grow a flower.

I grow flowers just to have flowers on hand for Mama when Mama comes, right? I take care of the garden all year, so I'll have very fresh flowers. When Mama comes, so, don't go out to Safeway and buy a cake in a plastic box, okay?

Then make a cake with your own hands and clean the house and make it beautiful. And put out beautiful songs and get ready for me. I have never asked Mama one time, see?

I said, I'll be here, I'll be ready, you know? I get up super early and I'm ready. And sometimes I sit there all day and they call me and say, I'm coming tomorrow.

Then I have to throw out the beef bourguignon and start something else. All right, so, why would you treat them less than the dog, right? So, if you have that viewpoint of them, then when they come and teach you, amazing things will happen.

If you buy a plastic, you know those cheap, cruddy, plastic things that they put Safeway chocolate cakes in, right? Then you'll get a teaching which is Safeway cruddy chocolate cake, okay? Because that's where it comes from.

So you, the more you honor your teacher, the better. People, you know, and you have to let people know the score, you see? Or you have to ask your grandfather to do it, okay?

Can you teach my students that if they offer me stale Safeway chocolate cakes, the teaching won't come through as well, okay? The teaching won't come through as well, right? They won't get it.

The transmission won't be as powerful, okay? If you really honor your teacher, then the teaching changes, right? The way the teaching comes through changes.

It's not like they're gonna be offended they didn't get a nice cake from you. They probably can't eat cake anyway, okay? It's not for them, okay?

Don't ever think that, okay? They don't need anything, right? If they're a good lover, they have a good practice, they can stay home, they can do their yoga, they can do their meditation, they can work on their own things.

They have lots of things to do. You know, it's not like they need a pile of, 30 pounds of flowers to drive home and wrap up in a garbage bag and throw out this morning. You know, they, it's for us, okay?

It's for us, it's for the transmission. The transmission of the long-run cannot happen properly to a person who is not respectful. And I personally just avoid those people, okay?

I don't teach people like that. They ask me, I say, I'm busy, I say I can't get there. Because it won't work anyway, okay?

Nothing will be transmitted. And I don't like to get them upset or angry, I just, I make up something and go, you know, I can't make it this month or something. Because they're not going to listen anyway, they don't get upset and then they'll be worse, right?

And so, anyway, okay. I'm not going to read. Just in the thought, I'm just going to read.

Changsha lay, kuni nyong'o pa may pa dan, linga yong'o may jey pa dan, nyen go par sung be, dey la khen pa dar dar wa nyil, gyur su nyen dar, gur tey jey pa dan, si shu jey pa dan, mi cho wa dar, jey su gyur par dar wa nyl, leng ka mi tsong bar dan, jung gi nyen bar su. So we'll just do a few minutes, and then I think it's good luck to end in the middle of this subject, okay? Which goes on infinitely anyway.

Changsha is the Love Letter of the Bodhisattvas written by Master Asanga in the fourth century or so, okay? This particular book was not considered dictation from my trainer. This is a book he wrote on his own, but you know, sorry.

Okay, kuni nyong'o may pa dan, linga yong'o may jey pa. He's talking about how to take a teaching, okay? The proper way to take a teaching.

I teach this every 15 years or so, okay? It cycles every 15 years or so, okay? And we've reached this subject, and it's important for everybody.

So try to pass it on to your grandkids, all right? I have great-grandkids. I think I have great-great-grandkids now.

It's the one that makes me feel old. Kuni nyong'o may pa dan. You should listen without any negative thoughts.

Linga yong'o may jey pa. You shouldn't, you shouldn't, there are five different kinds of attitudes you should avoid while taking a teaching, okay? Kho pa su, linga pa su.

De la khen pa dam trao ni. So he's gonna go through certain, the etiquette, the mental etiquette for taking a teaching. The first one is called khen pa dam trao.

Khen pa dam trao means you should take the teaching with humility, okay? You should take the teaching with humility. And that has six different, there are six different topics in the subject of humility on the behalf, on the disciple side.

We'll get to humility on the teacher side also, right? So here we go. Dun sung nyong'o, you should ask for teaching at the proper time, when it's convenient for the teacher.

I don't tell, my mama thinks I don't have anything else to do, but they don't have any clue of what I'm doing. I say, I'm available, just call me, you know? And that's all, that's the number one priority.

And everything else comes after that. I just say, I'm available. I don't ask what time they're coming.

I don't ask what days they need me. I'm just available. If I get a call, I drop everything, and I go immediately, you know?

So dun sung nyong'o means they set the time. They decide the time. You don't send them a list of days which is okay for them to come to your place like that, okay?

You say, please come when it's convenient for you, okay? If you are the teacher. Dun sung nyong'o nam, kon chi che pa.

Kon chi che pa means honor them properly. We'll get to it. We'll get to what they mean.

Si chi che pa means sort of like pamper them, okay? Ma tro pa means never get mentally afflicted around them, never get upset around them. We'll talk about it.

Je se dru pa means practice what they ask. And then, len gang nik tro pa means don't get argumentative towards them. Don't contradict them, okay?

Je se druke nyong'o pa sung. These are six qualities with which we should listen to a teacher's instruction. And again, I'm not saying it for me.

I'm saying it for your students, okay? I have sent an email out last week asking my students who I'm teaching to ask my grandchildren to tune in to this because I want them to teach my students properly, okay? It's too late for me.

Just kidding. De damo du sung nyong'o. What does it mean to ask for teaching at the proper time?

What does timing mean with a lam, okay? Timing is number one. We're gonna have six subjects.

We'll probably only cover one, and that's timing. The first one is timing for the teaching. Lama thug de shing, thug jang nepa sok tan, tan ne.

You request a teaching, and you say to the lama, I'm free any time. You decide when to teach, okay? When, where, and when you say.

For as long as you say, we'll have the teaching, okay? I don't know anything. I'm asking for a teaching.

I'm asking for this extraordinarily precious, pure lineage of 100 generations, unbroken for 100 generations. I would like the honor of being the next person in the generation. I would love to be the next link in the lineage.

I want to join the lineage, and I want to carry it on. And in any place or time which is convenient for you, I would be honored to have it, and I'm available. I don't care where it is.

I don't care where it is. You tell me, I'll be there. I'll be there early, and I'll stay after and clean up the chairs, okay?

You got that? Thug de, thug jang nepa, when the lama is not already busy with other projects or commitments that they have. Don't push a lama who's already sold that time, okay?

Like, don't, let go of it. The lama says, look, I can't, you know, I have a meeting today, I can't talk to you. It's just 30 seconds, Geshe-la, I have a meeting.

I'm late for the meeting. It doesn't mean don't ask, okay? I lived next door to Chidja Rinpoche for six months.

I lived less than 100 yards from Chidja Rinpoche for six months in the final years of his life, okay? And I never went to his house, and I never asked him for a teaching. The person who wrote down this book, the Dalai Lama's teaching, okay?

And, because I didn't want to bother him. Because all these hippies were running over there and banging on his door, and I said, you know, I don't want to bother him. I think it's improper to bother him, you know?

Then he passed away. Then I told him, Chidja Rinpoche, you know, he said, where did you stay when you were with Geshe-la? I said, I lived next to Chidja Rinpoche.

And he said, so, you know, how many times did you meet him? And I said, I didn't meet him. I didn't want to bother him.

And he flew into a rage. He got very angry. He said, you're crazy.

You're a fool. You should have gone over and tried, okay? So you're supposed to try.

And then when they say I'm busy, you're supposed to back off gracefully and come back again persistently, in a graceful way, okay? That's the game. A good teacher is busy, and we have to be sensitive, but we have to keep trying.

We have to be persistent, okay? I was very persistent with my teacher. I've always been persistent.

Sometimes they call me Mr. Persistent. I never quit, you know? I get to see Lama on Sunday, and I say, what are you doing on Monday?

You know, what's up Monday morning? Am I cooking breakfast? No, no, no.

Did you just have dinner? I'm not done with dinner yet. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'll make it.

Okay. SOG TAM THUNE CHUG PA LE RANG LA GANG GANG DRIG GYI HAM PA DANG RANG SHE GYI NI NYEN Then don't be so arrogant as to try to schedule your longest time, okay? You can come on this day, but you can't come on this day.

Don't be so arrogant as to ask for a teaching or something like an ordination and try to schedule the longest, the day for the Lama. This would be a convenient day for me. And that's, he calls HAM PA.

HAM PA means early. That's just a kind of parents, okay? So RANG SHE GYI NI NYEN It's not up to you.

It's up to them, okay? RUNG DGE ZHES PO TO BA This is maybe a good place to end, but it's kind of sad. Okay.

RUNG DGE ZHES PO TO BA UN THUG DGAR GANG DGON THUG SO LA MANG PO JIG PAS UN MYOG NEY Okay, there was a teacher named, he was a DGE ZHES, the old DGE ZHES, one PO TO BA. He was one of the early katanas, PO TO BA. He was in the time of Wangri Thapa, the late Ascendant, okay?

And he said, he was teaching a place called THUG DGAR GANG GANG GANG GANG GANG BA GANG GANG MONASTERY in Upper Oud State, North of Lhasa, okay? SO LA MANG PO JIG PA He had taught for many days and put out a lot of effort, so he was exhausted, okay? Then UN MYOG He got, you get this thing if you teach for a bunch of days in a row, you get this kind of dull headache, okay?

It's called UN MYOG, it's a word for it. UN MYOG means that. Because you put out so much prana, right?

And you're just exhausted and you get this kind of dull headache that doesn't go away for a while. UN MYOG NEY He got it. ZHUG PA'I DGAR NYE ZHIG GIS CHUR ZHUG PA'I Then somebody came up to him and said, would you teach me?

I need to ask you a question, okay? DGE ZHIG PA THUG DGAR GZHAN THUG GYI YAR GZHANG NEY He jumped up and chased the person down the street. I'm getting up and I'm standing here.

Like I've been teaching like a week in a row and I haven't done anything yet. Your timing should be more sensitive, okay? Also, you're more likely to succeed, right?

If they look fresh or they just got there, then ask them then, okay? So he's like, it says here THUG DGAR GZHANG THUG THUG DGAR His holy heart gave the appearance of rising. His holy heart gave the appearance of rising.

It means, it looked like he was pissed off. But they don't use language like that about a monk. They say like his holy heart rose, okay?

It's an honorific language. There's a different language for high monk. SHING MEI PHUNG CHUNG MA YIN PAS DGE ZHIG PA THUG DGAR What's PA mean, PA?

What's a PA? Master, okay? He says, you should be a master at G.

You should be a master at knowing the right time with your Lama, okay? And you get to know your Lama, especially your heart Lama, right? You know the times when you should ask for something.

And you know the times when you shouldn't ask for something. You know, they're busy or they're visiting somebody in the hospital or you know, they're trying to save this retreat from bankruptcy and they spend all night sending emails. And then you should be able to look at your heart teacher especially, and then you should be able to look at their face and know whether that's a good time or not.

That's kepa about two. That's to be skilled in knowing the right time to ask for something, okay? I think that's a good place to end.

Nah, let's do another one. How long do you think, 10 minutes? Because we're going to do long, boring thank yous and I think you'll get a wrong impression on the class.

Okay, anyway. It's okay. Can you tell them?

Tell them it's okay. If they're wrong. You see?

Kunti means, it's traditional before a class to do chak sal. And chak sal means to bow, to bow to the teacher. You can do a Japanese bow, you can do an American bow.

You can do a full Tibetan bow, sit down on the floor. It doesn't matter, okay? It doesn't, we'll get to that subject later, okay?

You should acknowledge the teacher in some graceful, beautiful way. The word for bow in Tibetan is chak sal. It means to seek a gift, a spiritual gift from the hand of the master.

To bow is called seeking a spiritual gift from the hand of the master. It's not called bow. It's a beautiful word and it means, you should acknowledge the teacher's entrance.

Okay, it's traditional. And you should, that one means you should stand when the teacher comes in and we should stand when the teacher leaves as a matter of respect. I got to Dantai, I was confused.

I thought it would be more respectful to sit down, you know, somehow, than to stand over the teacher. And then I got yelled at for that. They said, you have to get up when the teacher comes.

Again, it's not some cult thing or some Asian thing. These are sweet, beautiful traditions that are almost 3,000 years old. And if you learn them, it will make you happy.

You will feel like you're part of an ancient, sacred lineage, okay? Rather than, you know, I, that's what I was thinking. It's not for me, I don't care.

I feel the same either way. It's even more trouble, you know, to have people making a fuss. But you should make a fuss about your teacher.

This is the place in the scripture where I'm supposed to tell you the truth. You should make a fuss about your teacher. You should treat them like somebody special.

You know? All right. So you should, shall sit with some of them.

In the old days, you would wash their feet, okay? In Arizona, it's kind of out of fashion, I think. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples as an act of humility, right?

So it was a custom in ancient times, before roads and before sidewalks, your feet were always caked with mud. And it was a tradition to wash the feet of people as they came. So some of my students tried to do it.

It was just cold and uncomfortable. And I'm not suggesting you do it. But just to show, I'm kind of more into affection than respect.

Respect sometimes seems a little strange to me. Like somebody will get up in class and bow to you and all this, and then send you a nasty e-mail or something. You know what I mean?

Like, I would rather, I think in our cultural context, to hug each other or to smile at each other or to help each other or to share a cup of hot chocolate. To feed each other. I think these are all more beautiful.

These are the way, in our culture, I think affection in our culture is the equivalent of respect. I would much rather feel, in a room, a huge wave of affection goes through the room. For all of us, for all of us together.

I don't trust people who claim to be affectionate for me and are not affectionate to the other students in the class. They reserve their affection for the teacher. I don't trust those kind of people.

They always flip later. I'd much rather, I feel much more comfortable around people who show me respect and affection and also show affection to all the other students because if they're constantly bickering with some of the students, and then they turn around and bow to me with this big, you know, and they give me $100 or something, I don't trust that kind of people. Sooner or later, they will treat me like the way they're treating their other students.

I'd rather, I only feel comfortable around people who are being affectionate to everybody. Who else will change? I'm told me, lamay chah dupa lamay chah.

Mi chah, now this is delicate, okay? Then we'll start. If a mama asks you to do something, never show off, you know, just say yes, mama.

You know, smile and say yes, mama. And then do it well and do it happily. Okay?

And I'm talking to you from 30 years of experience living with Ken Rinpoche and his demands on me. I have to pay for everything. And I have to pay for his house.

And I have to go to work to make the money. And then I have to pay for all his students. And then I have to raise all the money for all the monks.

And he put huge demands on me. And I didn't want to do some of that. Then he'd say, well, I'll water the flowers for two hours.

And I'm like, Rinpoche, I didn't come here to water flowers. I came here to study Prajnaparamita, you know? And then he'd say, well, I'm not talking in Tibetan anymore.

But I will talk to art in Tibetan. And I'm like, whoa, that went on for like 10 years. And you know, you can't, you can't show a grumpy face when the Lama asks you to do something.

What will happen is that the Lama will ask, will stop asking you to do something, okay? If it's like pulling teeth to get someone to do something that you want, then sooner or later, you're just gonna tell that person, look, you know, I don't want to inconvenience you. I don't want you to be unhappy.

So I'll have someone else do that for me, okay? So you're just kind of gonna lose every job you want if you don't do it with grace and happily. It just should be, what do you call, transparent, right?

Ascertain what Lama wants and get it done, and they don't need to know how you did it. And I do that with my teacher. I just, I'm constantly fulfilling needs that they don't even know about.

I paid Rinpoche's bills for 20 years. He didn't, he never saw a bill. He didn't know he had bills, you know, like that.

He never saw a home bill. I guess he thought everything was free or something, you know, and just do it with joy, okay? If you're gonna do the Lama thing, do it with joy.

If you can't do it with joy, then wait until some other time when you can do it with joy. Don't, like, say you're gonna do the Lama thing and then live in a state of schizophrenia where you're constantly refusing to do things or you're not happy about doing things, like that, okay? In that case, then wait until you find a Lama that you can start helping, okay?

I'm actually quite happy with all my students. Like, I've been lucky, right? I swear.

I'm very lucky about Western teachers, you know, that I see. My Lama's always been lucky, man. If I have extraordinary students who take care of me and do everything, you know, I have hundreds of people I can count on.

If I need something or, you know, if I need something done, there are hundreds of people I can ask, and they do it. So I'm not saying this for my own, I'm very lucky.

[Говорящий 2] (49:01 - 49:11)
I'm very happy with my students, very fortunate.

[Говорящий 1] (49:12 - 49:35)
But then, you have to train the grandkids, right? To treat you properly, okay, all right? And that's why I'm going to this.

Okay. Let's do a mandala prayer, okay? And then I'd like to thank all the people who worked, so I'd like to ask Rebecca to do the organizing of this event, you know.

[Говорящий 2] (49:35 - 50:29)
♪ You can change at any time ♪ ♪ Without changing anybody ♪ ♪ Some days you may be very lonely ♪ ♪ But when you're not, you're not too far away ♪ ♪ You can change at any time ♪ ♪ Some days you may be very lonely ♪ ♪ But when you're not, you're not too far away ♪