«Дар освобождения», курс 6 «Ретрит страсти», занятие 4

[Говорящий 1] (0:00 - 7:01)
So, we talked about three things that worked against your meditation, sorry, against your study, learning, and they were the three problems of the pot, right? Pot being upside down. I kind of toggle between two ideas.

One is that, I don't know who told me that, you're just not open to new ideas. But in his text, it was more like, you're not listening in the class. You're distracted by thinking about other things in your life.

Then the second one was what? Second problem of the pot. Yeah, it's already got some problems.

And I used to, I mean, I think the way Rinpoche thought it, it was more like you have these preconceptions about things in your heart. In this text, it was more like you have other motivations going on for being in the class. I want to collect knowledge so I can look smart, or I want another product to sell to my students.

Like that, okay. Then third one, problem of the pot. Yeah, like a hole in the bottom.

That everybody agrees is the same. It's like a hole, a leaky bottom. You don't remember anything.

I've had days like that. I get out of the class and somebody says, how did you like the class? I'm like, I don't remember a single thing from the class.

I don't even remember what it was about. It's extraordinary. Then there were six ways of thinking that would help you receive a teaching.

And that was to think of ourselves as someone who is ill, but I think maybe our potential hasn't been realized. We could be much, much more. So we're on the third.

First we said that I'm like a sick person. I think maybe while you're sitting there, the new way of listening to a teaching would be to try to apply it to your own situation immediately in the class. As the teacher is talking, you try to apply it to your own situation.

What is it this morning that you think you could be more? What could you be more that you haven't realized yet in your life? And I don't think there's an age limit on that.

I don't think it matters. At any age you can come to a sudden realization of who you could have been. And you can work on that.

So apply that now to your mind. ZHE RGYUD LA RGYAL BA means stick it on your spirit. Stick the teaching on your spirit and see how it applies.

Try to fit the shoe. See how the shoe fits. What could I be more?

And then that this teaching will be like a medicine in the sense of helping me to be... I think a vitamin maybe is better, right? This will be a food supplement.

Unapproved by the FDA. That will make me more than I am now. That's the point of this week I think.

It's to get you to dream about being something more than you are. Like that. And the punchline is that you could teach.

By the end of the week I'm going to talk you into believing that you're a teacher and that you should be teaching this stuff. And that that's your unrecognized... What do you call it?

Aptitude. You were supposed to be a teacher, but you don't know it yet. Okay.

All right. Now we're on to the third of the six conceptions, which is to think of your teacher as a master physician. GSUM PA DGE BA'I ZHES SNYEN LA, MEN PA SKYE PA LTA BU, DU SHES SKYE PA NI How do I gain a vision of my teacher as being a master physician?

DE YANG GNAS PA'I MEN PA MED PAR MEN GSOS NAS, TSAR DRANG DANG, SNGA BYAS SOGS NOR NAS MI BSTAN PA'I BRTEN DU, SOGS LA DGOS BAS NA If a sick person were to get a hold of some powerful medicines and without the assistance of a doctor try to apply them to themselves, right? It says, for example, without knowing the details of the progression of a fever, in Tibetan medicine, a fever progresses in a certain way through medium heat, then extreme heat, and then the fever breaks, and then you go into chills. And the doctor has to be very...

I used to translate for the Dalai Lama's doctor for many years, and it has to... the medicine has to be applied at the correct stages of the fever, or else you could hurt the person. So, if the patient tries to apply that medicine to themselves without a sensitivity to the stage of the fever, they could hurt themselves.

SNGA BYAS SOGS NOR NAS They would make a mistake in the timing of the medicine, and MI PHEN PA'I GTENG DU Not only would it not help them, SOGS LA DGOS It could threaten their life if a patient tried to apply a medicine to themselves without the skill of a physician, alright? DBAS NA, MED PAR BSKYED PAR ZHIG BSNGAL PAR GTEN DU DGOS PA LTAR So even in the world, in the case of a common disease, we have to find a good doctor, right? DGE BA'I ZHIG NYON NA MA BSTAN PAR PAS BYA'I PHYIR BUD DANG NAS CHOS BYAS CHOG NYAM NAS So, for a person to think in the spiritual realm that they could apply the teachings to themselves, he says, just by getting a good book, I would think nowadays it would be a YouTube video about meditation or something.

You know what I mean? Like, you say, okay, I don't need a teacher, I can YouTube it. Then you'll end up like Will Duncan's plumbing system.

Did you hear about that? So he built his own cabin for the three-year retreat, right? From YouTube videos.

So every day, every night, he would go watch the next video for the next part of his house. And then... So I don't know what he...

he was mixing cement and he... he did the... he did a...

[Говорящий 2] (7:01 - 7:02)
The bottom of the shower.

[Говорящий 1] (7:02 - 43:45)
He did the shower, the bottom of the shower. And then he just threw the rest of the cement down the drain. And...

And then... He had to rip up the whole house. And so there's a little danger of just YouTubing it.

CHOG CHEN CHONG NYAMS KHA BSTAN DANG BSGOMS SO'I PHYIR MA So you can do study, you can do meditation off of YouTube. RTOGS PA'I NYAMS NYAMS GANG YANG NI SKYE BA You will get nowhere, he says. You will get nowhere.

You need a human teacher. You need the human transmission of the lineage, okay? A living teacher.

CHOG NYAMS NYAMS NYAMS GANG YANG NI SKYE BA You won't get anywhere. You won't have any realizations. ZHES RGYUD RENGS SU RENGS SU BRAL BA'I This is...

there's no English word for this. You're... The fabric of your spirit will become more and more hardened.

Okay? There's no English. Like if you keep studying something wrong, you keep trying to do...

It's like when you play an instrument and you learn wrong. Or you learn a language and you learn the wrong accent. I was studying Tibetan for, I don't know, many years.

Then I met this teacher, this great linguist, Tibetan linguist. And he came to stay with Rinpoche and me. And then he said...

I said, would you teach me? And he said, yes. And I said, what do you want to learn?

And I said, well, you're a master of Tibetan history. He was not a religious scholar. But he lived in the Potala for many years.

He was trained in the Potala. And then... So I said, can you teach me history or grammar, which is a big subject.

And then he said, you need to learn to pronounce Tibetan again. I have to rip out everything you know about Tibetan and you have to start over. And I'm like, you know, I don't need to start over.

He said, you need to start over. He said, let's start with A, B, C. And later I was very grateful.

So, you get hardened into bad habits. You learn some sort of half-assed meditation or something and you do it for a while and then you can't... it's hard to change later.

That's what rengtsu means. You get hardened into a bad habit. ,ROL DE NA CHOS SHIG CHEN GNYEN PA, ,RNAM PAR BSKYED PA DANG BRAL BA'I, ,DGE BA'I GZHAN YIN YANG, ,DU BYED PA'I CHEN DGOS, So you really have to find a good teacher and then you have to form a deep connection with them.

And that's a lifetime thing. Or it's a 10-year thing or something like that. It takes that.

It takes that kind of thing. In this kind of learning, it takes like a 10-year pretty constant connection with a teacher to get really good at it. It's different than other things.

I think the language is similar, right? Or a musical instrument. It takes a...

Or yoga. The best yoga teachers I know are people who had a close connection to a really great teacher. And you can almost tell who a person's yoga teacher was.

You run into a new teacher. I'm guessing Janet Stone. I'm just guessing, okay?

I would say some Ana Forrest. And there's a lady in New York who lives in San Francisco. Dana.

Dana. A little Dana, a little Ana Forrest. I'm just guessing.

I don't know. Just from the way she speaks and the way she moves and the way she does her yoga. And you can see people's influences.

If you're going to be really good, you have to have a master teacher. And you have to keep coming back to them. DENG DGOS GNAS PA'I MEN PAR GNYIS NA, RGA BA CHEN PO RGYAS If a really sick person meets a really good physician, they feel happy.

Oh, now I finally have someone who can help me. PHYIS SER GNYEN And then they will follow the doctor's instructions. That's a big thing, right?

Oh, I finally found a good doctor. And then they're like, oh, okay, whatever you say, I'll do. PHYIS SER GNYEN GNAS PA'I MEN PAR GNYIS NA GUS PA'I GNYEN GUR BA LTAR And they will respect the physician.

They won't go into the examination room and say, I don't think that's right. They will... I don't want to say kiss their rear end, but they will...

They have the cure, you need it. And you're like, hi. GNAS PA'I GNYEN PA'I RGA BA CHEN PO RGYAS SKYE BA GZHAN YIN GNYEN NAS KYANG BDE BZHIN DU BYED DGOS TE So we have to be the same when we finally find the spiritual teacher who fits us.

And not every teacher fits everybody. Teachers are like gloves, right? And you have to shop and find the one that you connect with, or a few that you connect with.

I had 12 main teachers in the monastery. And, you know, I went around and I... for different subjects I related to different teachers.

And then I have a heart teacher, and that's a different thing. So, you know, you need the one that speaks to you, and the one that you connect with. So that means you have to take some effort and go to different teachers and see.

In yoga I enjoy going to different teachers. And then I have a few teachers that I feel the best connection to. But I enjoy going to other teachers as well.

As long as it doesn't get... what do you call it? As long as one doesn't tell you to do one thing and then the other one tells you to do the different thing.

That gets confusing. NYANG BA LTAR RGYAL BA'I GZHAN YIN GNYAD KYANG, DE BZHIN DU BYED DGOS TE YIN RTEN RINPO'I BYED DUG PA LAS There's a scripture called the summary of the high qualities, the precious high qualities. DE LTAR BA'I NAR BYANG CHUB DAM PA TSUL BA'I YID SANGS PA DRAG LDAN SKHAS PA'I SNGA RGYAL NGES BYONG STE GNAS PA'I TSOGS KYI SOGS SPYIR GNAS PA'I TSOGS KYI SOGS SPYIR NYIN PA'I LTEN PAR LTAR YAL BA MED PAR RGYAL BA'I GZHAN YIN LTEN PAR BYA So that text says, therefore, if you are seeking highest enlightenment, SANGS PA DRAG LDAN SKHAS PA'I SNGA RGYAL NGES BYONG STE you must try...

those who have a good mind must try to... SNGA RGYAL NGES BYONG means to destroy your pride. Crush your pride.

Crush your own pride. GNAS PA'I TSOGS KYI SOGS SPYIR Those who wish to be healed, SNGA RGYAL NGES BYONG STE must take themselves to a position. Therefore, take yourself to a spiritual teacher.

SNGA RGYAL NGES BYONG STE YAL BA MED PAR means single-pointedly. ZHIG PA NGAN RTEN NYAMS SU BLANGS PA LA GNAS TSO' BA'I RDU ZHIG BSKYED PA NI The fourth conception is to think of following the practices that you are given by your teacher as the treatment. This is the application of the medicine.

GNAS PA'I GNAS LA PHAN BYED MED NYID YIN KHYANG GNAS PA'I MED PAR LAS MED TZAM BA MANG BA'I LAM LA LAM LAS MA SRID PAR NGES BSGOR BZHAG So there may be the one special medicine which has the power to cure the disease of the patient. But, okay, there's a KYANG. KYANG means but.

GNAS PA'I MED PAR LAS MED TZAM BA MANG BA'I LAM But you see cases where sick people take all different kinds of fine medicines from the physician and then MA SRID Where's DING PO? MA SRID MA ZAD MA ZA They don't take it. In Tibetan you say eat medicine.

They don't eat the medicine. In English you say take the medicine. MA SRID NGES BSGOR BZHAG They set it on their nightstand.

Carefully. But they don't take it. Literally it means at their pillow.

They set it on their pillow and they don't take it. NGES BSGOR BZHAG MED PA'I RGYIS ZER NAM MI PHYIR They don't do what the doctor asked them to do. MA PHYIR ZER BA THAMS CAD PHYIR This is me.

And everything that the doctor says not to do, they do. Like eat chocolate or drink coffee. THAMS CAD PHYIR NI GNAS LA BRTEN NAS MA PHAN PA NI And then they are surprised when they don't get better.

They don't take the medicine. They don't do what the doctor said to do. And they do everything that the doctor said not to do.

MA PHAN PA NI MED PA'I MA LEN MED PA'I MA LEN Those of you who are studying Tibetan, this is a difficult construction. It's an instrumental with a word that means answer. But it means it's not the doctor's fault.

MED PA'I MA LEN It's not the doctor's fault that you didn't get better. MED PA'I MA LEN MED GA'I MA LEN And it's not the medicine's fault. MED PA'I RANG NYID KYI MA BYUNG BA DANG It's the patient's fault that they didn't get better.

RANG NYID KYI MA BYUNG BA DANG MED PA SKYE PA DANG BRAL BA'I RGYUR BA'I GZHAN YIN NA NYON MONGS PA'I GNAS ZHU BA BYED PA'I MED DANG BRAL BA'I DANG SNGAGS MANG DU THOS KYANG Then you can receive many high instructions and advices from a spiritual teacher who is like a master physician. But there's another KYANG, right? NYAMS SU MI LEN NO But if you don't put them into practice in your personal life, DAM PA SOGS LA RGYAS PA JI TZAM THOB KYANG No matter how deep those instructions are, no matter how detailed those instructions are, RGYUD THOB MI PHAN PA NI It won't help you.

It won't do anything. LAM MA'I MA LEN What's that mean? LAM MA MA LEN It's not the teacher's fault.

It's not the Lama's fault. SPYIR GYI MA LEN It's not the Dharma's fault. It's not that you had a bad teacher or a bad teaching.

SPYIR GYI MA LEN PAR BLO MA RANG NYID KYIS NYES PA YIN It's the student's fault. It's the disciple's fault. If you don't put into practice what they say.

Practice means, after 60 years in my life, you want the key to practice, do a little bit every day. That's all. Just do a little bit every day.

And then you get really good at it. Don't think you're going to do four hours of meditation. Try to get in half an hour.

But if it's every day, it will work. And you'll have wonderful miracles happen in your life. Practice means a little bit every day.

But don't skip any days. That's all. That's like some deep, decades-long instruction.

ZHIG PA CHEN MEN DANG, DANG NGON MANG DU THOB PA'I NYES PA YIN NYES PA NYES PA NYES PA THING NGON ZIN GYI RGYAL PO NAS Do you guys know what THING NGON ZIN GYI RGYAL PO is? THING NGON ZIN GYI RGYAL PO The King of Concentration Sutra. It's a very beautiful sutra.

Lama Christi worked on it. I taught her many parts of it. And she taught it in the book GYIN PA.

And it's very beautiful. It's a very beautiful sutra. THING NGON ZIN GYI RGYAL It's a sutra on meditation by the Buddha.

YANG DAG YANG DU DE'I RTZA BA YID MEN PA KHYAD ZHING RIGS PA DE NYES TE DE KHYANG SNYING RJE NYES BAR ZHAG LAS NI MEN DE LTAR BAR RGYI ZHES BYIN PA DANG MEN MANG SANG ZHING PHANG PA DE LANG NAS SNGA BA TSOR BAR GYUR BA'I MEN MI THUNG MEN PA'I MA LEN MEN GYI MA NYES TE GNAS PA DE NYID KYIS NI NYES PA YIN MEN PA KHYAD ZHING RIGS PA DE NYES TE YANG DAG YANG DU DE'I RTZA BA YID The patient looks everywhere trying to find a good doctor. MEN PA KHYAD ZHING RIGS PA DE NYES TE They find a master physician who is very skilled.

DE KHYANG SNYING RJE NYES BAR ZHAG LAS NI And then that physician, out of great compassion, MEN DE LTAR BAR GYI gives the disciple, gives the patient some fine medicine and says, please take it. ZHES BYIN PA DANG MEN MANG SANG ZHING PHANG PA DE LANG NAS They offer, they take from the physician many fine, very effective medicines. And PHANG PA, PHANG PA means precious and cherished medicines.

DE LANG NAS SNGA BA TSO BAR RGYUR BA'I MEN MI MTHUNG But then the patient doesn't take the medicine which would have cured them. MEN PA'I MA LEN So now this is Lord Buddha talking two and a half thousand years ago. MEN PA'I MA LEN It's not the doctor's fault.

MEN GYI MA NYES It's not the medicine's fault. GNAS PA DE NYID KYIS NYES PA YIN It's the patient's fault. That it didn't work.

DE BZHIN BRTAN PA DI LA RAB BYUNG STE Then people who RAB BYUNG in this teaching. RAB BYUNG means lead the home life. It means those who commit to this teaching.

Those who commit to this teaching. RTOGS DANG BSAM BRTAN DBANG PO KUN RIGS NAS They can learn about the various spiritual powers and meditation and the different strengths of the teaching. KUN RIGS NAS They can learn all of these details.

BSGOM PA LA NI LUNG BAR TZAM MI BYED But they don't do their daily meditation. A little bit. MI TZAM They don't stick to a daily...

What do you call? Regimen of meditation. Just a little bit.

Like 15 minutes, that's all. Get on your cushion once a day, you're home free. You'll see emptiness.

Don't get on your cushion. Skip this. No, it's like medicine stays in your bloodstream for...

I don't know. I have this cough. I'm taking this medicine.

I've realized that I have to take it every day. Or it doesn't help. Because its effect...

It only lasts in the bloodstream for like 12 hours. And then you have to take another one. And if you don't, then nothing will happen.

The chemical has to be in your blood for a few days. And it's the same with Dharma. You have to meditate every day.

And you have to do your yoga every day. Or it doesn't have an effect. It's like chemical in your bloodstream.

RIGS MI TZON PAR BSGOM PA LA NI LUNG BAR TZAM MI BYED RIGS PAR MI TZON GA LA NYANG NGAN DA So they don't assert... What do you call? Not assert themselves.

Exert themselves. They don't exert themselves properly. They don't try hard enough.

Then GA LA NYANG NGAN DE GA LA means... How would they ever NYANG NGAN DE? NYANG DE NI PHAM Yeah, how would they ever get to nirvana?

GA LA means... He's like, GA LA means like... How's it going to happen?

That they're going to reach nirvana. ZHES DANG That's the Buddha speaking. And then he has another quotation.

NGES RAB TU SANGS PA'I PHYIR ZHES KYANG KHYAD KYI MTHUN NAS YANG DAG MA BYAS NA GNAS PA MEN GYI RGYAL PA THOB PA DAG BDAG GIS NAS NI SO BA MI NUS SHIN ZHES DANG He doesn't identify where this quotation came from. But we have all the... We have all the ancient books from India.

We finished them, okay? Mr. Doris, where's Doris? Mr. Doris finished that. And so we have the Kangyur and the Tengyur now in the database. So I can just look it up in like 10 seconds. And so this quotation is a continuation from the THING NGEN ZIG GI RGYAL PO from the Samadhi Raja Sutra, okay?

And I thought you'd like to hear the whole thing. Sometimes he doesn't quote the whole thing. And I go through and I pick out...

I go through and check the whole few pages around that. And where I think it's sexy, I'm going to add, which will make it a 20-year thing. So here's the whole quotation.

DE PHYIR PHEN YIN GYI RGYUD DAG MTHUN NAS NI GSUNG MED CAN GYUR LA YANG MA PA SKYE Having heard what's going to happen to you when you get enlightened, you should want it. DE SHES DAM PA MTHONG BA NYE DKA' YI It's difficult even to set eyes on a Buddha. PHYIN MA'I DUS NA RGYUR PA SKYES SA RE If you don't take advantage of the chance you have now, you will regret it later.

NGES NI RAB TU BSAM BA'I And now comes the quotation as it appears, in our text. NGES NI RAB TU BSAM BA'I PHYIR ZHES KYANG I can give you some beautiful Dharma teaching. SKYE GYI MTHUN NAS YANG DAG MA BYAS NA But if you listen to it and then don't put it into practice in your own life, GNAS PA MEN GYI RGYAL PA THOB PA DANG You'll be like a person who walks around with the medicine carefully tucked in a bag.

Like they carry a bag with them, but they don't take it. BDAG GIS NI NI SO BA MI NUS ZHIN It's not going to cure you if you don't take it. NUS ZHIN DE PHYIR KHYAD PAR BZHIN DU THOB PA DANG Therefore those who have understanding, good disciples who have understanding, BDAG TU TING ZIN GYIS NI RGYAL PA YI should every day take themselves into a deep state of meditation.

RGYAL PA YI TSUL KHRIMS SPYOD PA STONG BA'I NYAN BCAS LA And then you should understand that the secret to good meditation is TSUL KHRIMS, ethical life. To be a good person, to be nice to other people is the key to deep meditation. That was a big discovery of Je Tsongkapa.

I mean, what was it? Two thousand years later, right? He makes this breakthrough in Tibet and he starts advertising that if you want to be a good meditator you should keep your vows.

He wrote this famous letter to one of his disciples about that. But here's the Buddha saying the same thing. If you want to be a good meditator, be nice to other people.

SPYOD PA'I STONG BA That's how Dharmamitra refers to morality. He doesn't say morality. He doesn't say ethics.

He pauses and he says, be nice to other people. And I like it. That's like perfect.

TSUL KHRIMS SPYOD PA STONG BA NYAN BCAS LA TING ZIN GYIS NI RGYAL PA YI YONG MI DKA' It will never be difficult to fall into a deep state of meditation if you're being nice to people in the other periods of your day. TING ZIN GYIS LUS TE ZHIG PA'O Thus ends the fourth chapter of the Samadhi Raja Sutra. See, that's the end of the fourth chapter.

It's very beautiful. CHEN GYUL LAS KYANG What do we say CHEN GYUL? Yeah, the Bodhisattva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life.

Shantideva. LUS KYI DI DAG PHYIR PAR BYA TSIG SANGS RGYUD PA'I PHYIS SU GRUB MAN BYAS LAGS PA TZAM GYIS NI GNAS PA DAG LA PHAN GYUR RAM It's not going to help you. The doctor's words that tell you to do this certain thing, it's not the words that help you.

It's not the words that are going to cure you. MAN BYAS LAGS PA TZAM GYIS NI You can sit and read books about health all day. GNAS PA DAG LA PHAN GYUR RAM But it's not going to help your disease.

There is a very cute, that cartoon, you got to see it. Hot Power Yoga. He says, I like that.

He says, what was it? You're not going to get good at yoga by reading men's health magazines. What was the other thing though?

Oh, and eating power bars. And it was so true. So it's not like reading about yoga is going to help you in particular.

ZHES GSUNGS PA LTAR RANG DE NA GNAS SOGS LA MAN LAGS PA TZAM GYIS MI CHOG PA It's not enough just to buy the medicine from the doctor. LAGS PA SA DGOS You have to take it. LAGS PA What's LAGS SOGS LAGS SOGS in the Heart Sutra?

LAGS SOGS means Siddha, Siddha. Oh yeah, right on, right on. Siddha still in India means, drive the rickshaw straight on.

Siddha, Siddha. So LAGS PA SA means, you have to take it as it was prescribed. You have to take it properly.

DGOS SHING DE YANG MEN PEN NGAG BZHIN CHE DGOS PA LTAR And then you have to listen to the advice of the physician. Like they all have other advices. Like, if this starts to happen, call me.

Now take two of those a day instead of one. Then if you listen, you'll probably get better. Which is a struggle for me, Dr. Moore. GZHAN SEMS PA LTAR DE NA GNAS SOGS And Mrs. Moore. GNAS SOGS LA MAN LAGS PA TZAM GYIS MI CHOG PA LAGS PA SA DGOS SHING DE YANG MEN PEN NGAG BZHIN CHE DGOS PA LTAR NYON MONGS PA'I GNAS ZHI BA LA We are in the business of attempting to cure the disease of mental afflictions. He says.

GNAS ZHI BA LA DANG SNGAGS KYI DRING You talk to Jarnay. And you have to take those advices of your teacher and apply them to your own spirit. GNAS SOGS Jarnay.

SNYAMS SU LA'ANG DGOS PA YIN And try them. Try to do them. You're not going to be perfect.

It's the attempt that makes you perfect. It's not that you're going to be perfect at it right away. Like you'll do yoga wrong for the first three or four years.

But you'll never know if you don't keep doing it how to do it better. LA'ANG DGOS PA YIN LA RIM CHEN MO LAS KYANG Then he quotes the LA RIM CHEN MO which is the big LA RIM by Je Tsongkapa. Which many people would say is the greatest book ever written in Tibet.

It's a thousand page string of quotations from other books. It's a master work of plagiarism. Which in Tibet is considered good.

Why not just quote enlightened beings? I mean, okay. It is probably...

I would say this book is greater for us. But at the time it was the greatest book in Tibet. LA'ANG KYANG THOS NAS SHES PA CHES PA'I DGOS PA YANG CHES PA YIN PAS THOS NAS SHES PA CHES PA'I DGOS PA YANG CHES PA YIN PAS THOS PA'I DUN LA NUS PA DANG DUN NAS LA RIM NAS CHES DU BYANG THOS NAS SHES PA CHES PA'I DGOS PA YANG CHES PA YIN PAS What's the point of listening to a teaching?

THOS PA'I DUN LA NUS PA DANG DUN NAS LA RIM NAS CHES You have to put it into practice. NUS PA DANG DUN Say NUS PA NUS PA DANG DANG DUN In accordance with your capacity. As best you can.

He's giving you some slack. As best as you can, put it into practice. NUS PA DANG DUN NAS LA RIM NAS DU NAS, that's a NAS.

Yeah, that's a crucial point. MA'I MA? MA'I MA MA'I MA HATTA Okay.

NAS DU CHE'O CHES SU NYAM LEN MED PA'I THOS RGYAL DANG THOB RGYAL NAM DANG MA'I MA SOGS PAS SIGS TZAM GYUR LEN PA NI But if you undertake great scriptural learning without practice, without personal practice. THOB RGYAL NAM DANG MA'I MA SOGS PAS And you study many high secret practices. MA'I MA SOGS PAS You collect them like baseball cards.

SIGS TZAM GYUR LEN PA NI It's just going to be words. It's just words and it's not practice. TSUL TZAM LEN MI LHAG BSAM GUS BA'I MDO LAS Then he quotes a sutra called LHAG BSAM GUS BA'I MDO.

LHAG BSAM we did in New York. What's LHAG BSAM? Yeah, it's to take responsibility yourself for things.

And that extends to everything from cleaning the toilet to saving all living creatures. And if someone's not willing to take responsibility for cleaning the toilet, they're probably not going to do a very good job with the all living creatures. So LHAG BSAM means...

LHAG BSAM is a beautiful thing. I think in my parents' generation... So my parents grew up in World War II, right?

Most of the men in this country served in World War II. They came back with some kind of attitude of LHAG BSAM. Like Israelis.

You meet an Israeli, they've all been through three years of military and they can get stuff done. They get stuff done, right? I don't know, they get stuff done.

You tell an Israeli to do something and they're like, it gets done, you don't have to worry about it. I don't know, I think America's kind of lost it. It'll come back.

But it's like, I'll take care of that. I'll take responsibility for that. It's the attitude of taking responsibility for solving things and taking care of things.

And it's a good thing. I tried to talk about it in New York last time. I thought it's a thing that we could really use in our country or our present era.

That individual citizens take responsibility. Like the solar thing. We're like, okay, so...

Every apartment in Beijing has a solar hot water heater. They don't have any sunlight. I can show you, this is amazing.

This is landing in Beijing. I took a picture of it because it was so extraordinary. There.

That's the day we landed in Beijing. That's what it looked like out of the car from the airport. That's all you can see.

It's a big gray cloud. There's no city. It's just a gray cloud.

And they had to cancel the flights the next day because nobody could see anything. So then we have to take responsibility. So anyway, they all have solar hot water heaters on top of their apartments.

I had a friend in Phoenix, Deb, right? Where is Deb anyway? She said, my housing association doesn't allow us to put one on the roof.

We're not allowed to put a solar panel on the roof because it doesn't look nice. And that's not laksam. Then you're just using oil.

You're burning the oil for your children and your grandchildren. In 20 years there will be no more oil in the United States. Even the fracking will end in 20 years.

There will be no more oil in the United States in 20 years. Then do something. I mean, do some little laksam.

That's your responsibility to think about other people. How are they going to feel without any plastic bags or asphalt roads? You can't keep food.

And you can't drive anywhere without oil. What, you're going to use it all up? It's like unbelievable.

So laksam means, take some responsibility. So anyway, this sutra is called laksam kuway do. The Buddha is kulwa.

Kulwa means, the Buddha is exhorting his disciples to take personal responsibility. As we just did. It's nice.

Next one. Let's start with 6th samsara. ,BU RAM SHING GZHUN GNYUNG PO GCIG YANG MED, ,DGA' BAR BYA BA'I ROL NI NANG NA GDUG, So there's, what do you call it?

Sugar cane. And he says, the sweetness of the sugar cane is not in the skin of the sugar cane. You got to dig into the middle.

,BU RAM SHING GZHUN GNYUNG PO GCIG YANG MED, ,DGA' BAR BYA BA'I ROL NI NANG NA GDUG, ,GZHUN PA GZUGS PA'I MI NI BU RAM ROL, ,GZHUN PA GNYIS PA GNYIS PA MA YIN NO, You can go around eating the, GZHUN PA means the casing of a stalk, or the, like a rice husk. It means the husk. You can eat the husk, but you won't get the taste.

You will never have the taste of it. I think David Swenson has, when David Swenson teaches yoga, he's got something like that. What is that?

It's like trying to describe to someone the taste of an apple without eating it, without having eaten one. Like you need to try it. ,GNYIS PA MA YIN, ,JI LTAR GZHIN PA DE GZHIN MA BA STE, Talking is like the husk of the sugar cane.

,GRO LTA BU NI, ,DI LA BDUN SEM YIN, The sweetness is in the practice. The words are like the skin of the sugar cane, and the sweetness is in the practice, inside. ,ZHES BU RANG BDUN MI NYE BA'I, ,PUR BZHIN GYI GZHUN PA TZAM GYI ROL LA BCAG NAS, So people who go around eating the skin off of a sugar cane because they want to taste something sweet, are kind of dumb.

Which means like just getting caught up in the Dharma words, and not doing your meditation or your yoga, or going out and building solar panels, like that. You just get caught up. It becomes a whole culture of talking about Dharma, and not doing it.

It's very dangerous, right? ,'NGOS LTA BU'I PHYUN NA, ,'DUG PA ZHIG NA, ,GZHAM GYI ROL LA BCAG NAS, ,KHAR LA LTA BU'I PHYUN NA, ,DUG PA ZHIG NA, ,PA BA ZHIG NA, I love this thing. I love this.

I love these words. Maybe we'll stop at... Here comes one of my favorite things in all of the Lam Rim.

I really feel strongly about this. This is a continuing from the sutra, ,DA LHAG BSAM GUL BA'I DO, The sutra about taking personal responsibility. Then he says, ,KHAR LA LTA BU'I PHYUN NA, ,DUG PA ZHIG NA, You can sit in the audience at a theatrical performance.

,PA BA ZHIG NA, ,GZHAN GYI ROL LA BCAG NAS, ,KHAR LA LTA BU'I PHYUN NA, You can watch people play out the great deeds of people who lived in the past. ,BDAG NI NYAN DANG NYAM PAR RGYUR BA STE, Why go see a movie about the great deeds of another person when you could be doing it yourself? Why go to a theater to see the...

What's his name? What's the movie with all the robots and stuff? Transformers.

We have this obsession with going to watch other people's deeds in a movie. We go in the evening to see Transformers. What do you call that when you're getting into someone else's thing?

It's vicarious. You are having a vicarious pleasure of the hero's crazy cool deeds. And then you spend all your time going to the movie.

And then it doesn't occur to you that you could be the movie. They could make a movie about you. People always ask me, we go to Beijing, they say, you want to go see the Great Wall and the museums?

I say, no. And they say, why? They say, they're going to make a museum about what we're doing later.

You see? Let them make a museum about DCI's first trip to Beijing. You know what I mean?

Let's do it ourselves. Let's be the Transformer guys ourselves. In the time it takes you to go watch somebody else's heroic deeds, you could do a few yourself.

Let them make a movie about us. Don't go sit in the movie and watch somebody else. Let them make a movie about you.

Because you can. You have the ammunition to be Spider-Man. He was lucky he got bit by some cosmic spider, right?

You got bit by the Dharma. Now you have something to offer. Now you have the equipment to be a superhero.

I don't know. We were in China. It was really cool.

We kept saying superhero. And there was some word they said, super hero. It's like chocolate.

Or Shinboku. What's Shinboku? Starbucks.

Anyway. You can be the hero yourself. Be the...

Okay? Be the superhero yourself. Don't go watch movies about superheroes.

Go watch one once in a while to get inspired. And then do it yourself. But the thing is how...

You see the guy in Transformers. Even when he tries to quit the superhero business and work in a regular office, he runs smack dab into the guy who figured out the plot. The Chinese guy who got thrown out the window.

You don't have any education. This is the benefit of taking 20-hour flights every week. He decides not to be a superhero.

He just tries to be a regular guy. And he gets an office job as a mail clerk. But of course the guy in the next room is at the middle of the whole plot to destroy the earth.

So for him it's just circumstance. Throws him into the superhero business again. And you're always thinking, well I never got bit by a spider.

Or I never got kryptonite poisoning. But you did. You got this system.

That makes you a superhero. You have the equipment to be a superhero though. And it's cool.

And we do it. You don't know how cool it is to go to Kiev or Sofia or Beijing and turn people on to this stuff. And they get it.

And then they're all like, ah. I had lunch with the lady who used to work for Good Morning America.

[Говорящий 2] (43:46 - 43:46)
Iskand?

[Говорящий 1] (43:47 - 46:58)
Iskand. Yeah. Iska.

Spark. Iskra. So her name is Spark.

Iskra. So I'm sitting with Iskra at lunch. And we're all sitting around the table.

There's like 20 Bulgarian people. And we're just eating. And then they're all like, let's have a revolution.

Let's have a revolution. And I'm like, well, slow down, slow down. You know?

But you can do it. You can have one. That happens a lot in many countries.

It occurs to people. And then they have to like, let's go. Not quite that fast.

But you have a teaching that you can start a revolution with. And you can be at the middle of a revolution. And I get really frustrated.

I had somebody tell me the other day, oh Geshe-la, I tried to teach a class. Not so many people came. So I went home and watched soap operas.

And I'm like, man, I mean, come on. I don't care. I don't care.

Go put posters up in the mall. Go wear a chicken outfit or something. And have a little chutzpah.

You have the goods. You have something. Yeah?

Oh, she used it. OK. She owes me.

All right. So you have the ammunition. Now start your little revolution.

Really, what I mean is you have something precious and special that other people don't have. And there's no reason why you can't be a superhero. Teach people to plant the seeds for all their heart's desires by serving that thing to other people first.

And then once they catch on, your life is magical. Because then you get to be the superhero. You get to be the...

You have the teaching. Now, see, you're like the guy who got bit by this magical spider. OK?

Like, how many people get to be Superman or Spiderman? And you have it. You got bit.

So now you should... I mean, it doesn't take a lot of effort. Just go to some yoga school and say, I'm going to teach meditation for free at 10 p.m. And then two people will show up. And then you're like, that's OK. That's how you start. And you change the world.

You will change the world. You will be at the center of the revolution. It's really...

It's cool to be at the center of the revolution. OK? Don't go watching movies about it.

All right? We'll stop there, I guess. Nah, I'm leaving it at that.

I like the revolution thing. You got to be careful in, you know, how you say it in some countries, but... Tiffany.

[Говорящий 2] (47:47 - 49:05)
Tiffany. Thank you. Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd.

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