«Дар освобождения», курс 6 «Ретрит страсти», занятие 5

[Говорящий 1] (0:00 - 36:23)
I thought you'd like to hear the context of the last quotation. So I went to the Sutra, original Sutra, and pulled out some of the context. And it's kind of cool.

We were talking about going to a movie and watching people describe the great deeds of others, rather than being the one they describe. And then the Buddha in that Sutra is dissing people who talk too much and don't do it. So here's what he says, MA LA RGA BA'I NYES PA'I DI DAG PO Let me tell you the problems that come when you talk too much.

It means talking without doing. BDAG NI SGRUB NYAMS BDAG NI SGRUB NYAMS DA NI CI CAG ZHES CI BA'I DUS TSE CI BA SNYANGS NAS BYAS SGRUB NYAMS I've lost all of my ability to practice now. Now what am I going to do?

CI BA'I DUS TSE People who talked their whole life away without doing. CI BA'I DUS TSE When they come to their death, CI BA'I DUS TSE CI BA SNYANGS NAS BYAS Then they are sad. They regret having talked about what they were going to do and not doing it.

SDUG BSNGAL MA RGYUR BZHIN DU SDUG BSNGAL RGYUR They never reached the depths of understanding and they reached pain. MA LA RGA BA'I NYES PA'I DI DAG So it's like a refrain. He keeps saying, MA LA RGA BA'I NYES PA'I DI DAG PO Which means, these are the problems of talking and not doing.

Here are some more. RTZA RGYUR BZHIN DU DGOS SHING YOD BA STE You are moved by events around you like a blade of grass in a windstorm. BZHIN DU BZHIN DU DE NI DE DAG RTEN GSUM GYUR DU NGES And you start to doubt yourself and your life.

DE NI RNAM YANG BLO BRTEN MI'I RGYUR TE And you never have any confidence in yourself. MA LA RGA BA'I NYES PA'I DI DAG PO Then he repeats the refrain. These are the problems of talking and not doing.

KHAR LA LTAR BA'I PHYIR NA DUG PA ZHIG Then comes the verse that we heard about going to a movie or a play and watching them talk about somebody else's deeds. Opposite of Lama Dorje. MA LA RGA BA'I NYES PA'I DI DAG PO DUG PAR GZHAN GYIS LEN PO'I PHYIR PA DANG BRAL BAR GSUNGS We shouldn't be like people who are listening to someone describe the great deeds of another person.

THOS PA'I TZAM LHO MI LEN PAR NYAL MED LA BAS DGOS Stop talking and start practicing. DE LTAR MED NA CHOS DE DUG KHYER BA'I RGYUR YANG DI LAS THU BA MED DE This is a very unusual Tibetan expression. Say CHOS.

DE CHOS means Dharma. DE You know DE. Some of my attendants probably know DE.

Because DE is short for DEMO. And DEMOS are the creatures who eat the chibis. Abominable snowmen.

So YETI. YETI in Tibetan is DEMO. That's a long story.

If you talk about Dharma all the time and you spend all your time discussing Dharma and you don't do it, then the Dharma becomes a CHOS DE. A Dharma YETI. Or something like that.

It turns into a monster. The Dharma turns into a monster. The Dharma becomes a monstrosity and not a beautiful thing.

Just to sit and talk about Dharma all day and then you don't go help poor people or sick people. Then the Dharma turns into a Dharma YETI. A Dharma gorilla or something like that.

Or abominable snowman. Monster. KHYER BA'I RGYUR YANG And nothing more than that.

THOS DANG MANG LA BSGOM DANG MYUNG CHOS DE'I RGYUR YIN It's almost like a... make a good rap lyric. THOS DANG MANG, BSGOM DANG MYUNG CHOS DE'I RGYUR YIN ZHES THOS DANG MANG means I've heard many teachings.

BSGOM DANG MYUNG, I haven't practiced many of them. I've heard many teachings. I've practiced only a few.

CHOS DE'I RGYUR, I've turned my Dharma into an abominable snowman. I'm an abominable snowman Dharma practitioner. You know, I became a monster.

The thing that was supposed to cure you became an object of your study. And you died like that. CHOS DE'I RGYUR YIN The Dharma became a monster.

GSUNGS PA LTAR DANG PO CHOS PA'I TSE NA SEMS LA CHUNG ZAD PHAN PA LTAR NANG YANG People who come to the Dharma teaching to learn more things and they're not planning to... In the class, they don't spend a lot of time thinking about how they could apply that to their own situation. It might help them a little to come to class.

It helps them a little, especially in the beginning. Because a little progress in the beginning is a lot compared to what you did before. PHAN PA LTAR NANG YANG DE'I GZUGS KYANG STE YANG DANG YANG DU YID LA BYAS PA DANG SGO MA MA BYAS NA But if after the class, after the retreat, you don't try to make repeated efforts to review what you learned and to put it into some practical application to help real people.

Real people, practical applications. KYANG STE YANG DANG YANG DU YID LA BYAS PA DANG DE'I RJES SU THOS PA'I SKABS NGAR LAS GZHAN TZAM DANG DE'I RJES SU DE LAS GZHAN TZAM GYIS Then there's this thing called the PHRAD TOGS. Say PHRAD TOGS.

PHRAD TOGS PHRAD TOGS means... Ken Rinpoche explained the word to me. I didn't have a dictionary my whole life.

I had Ken Rinpoche. So when I wanted to know what a word meant, I went upstairs and I bribed him with a tea or something. So I was like, what's PHRAD TOGS mean, Rinpoche?

And he's like, so you have a child who, I don't know, is always eating the cookies out of the cabinet. And then you hit them once, and then they keep eating the cookies and you hit them twice. And then you just keep hitting him.

And then they become, what do you call them? They're like, okay, hit me. What do you call that?

Immune. Inured. Inured to the...

They don't care anymore. They say, hit me. I'm just going to take them tomorrow anyway.

And they say that. He calls it, here he says it, GZHAN TZAM GZHAN TZAM means the effect that a teaching has on you the second time you hear it is less. You hear some awesome teaching the second time and you're like, that's pretty cool.

And then the third time it's like, I wonder if he couldn't teach something new this week. And so there's a danger to coming to too many teachings and not trying to practice them. Because then you get very, you get like a, what do you call that kind of a child?

What would you call the child? Incorrigible is pretty good. You become untouched.

It doesn't affect you anymore. You hear some awesome thing and you're like, I heard that. That was in the Vajrayogini Tantra last year.

I heard about that. And it doesn't affect you anymore. So it's important to try to make changes the first time you hear it.

Because if you don't, then the second time you hear it, the likelihood that you'll try to make changes is not very strong. THAR DAM PA SAGS CI THAMS THOD KYANG In the end, a person like this, no matter how profound the teaching they might hear, RGYUD YOD NYAM PA they think to themselves, oh, I already heard that. I heard that already.

RGYUD NYAM PA LTA BU SOGS NAS RGYUD LA PHYIR YANG MED PHAN PA ZHIG YOD And then they are immune to the beneficial effects of the Dharma. It doesn't touch them anymore. They just say, I heard that before.

And then the fourth, fifth time they hear it, they're just like, they don't even hear it. I have students who could sit in my whole class for two hours and I don't think they hear a word. They don't think, they're just like looking around.

If you go to too many and you don't use it on yourself, then there's a danger. THAMS THOD KYANG RGYUD YOD NYAM PA LTA BU SOGS NAS RGYUD LA PHYIR YANG MED PHAN PA ZHIG YOD DE'I TSE NA CHU DE DU KHYER BA YIN And then the Dharma has become a yeti, a monster. PHAN PA ZHIG YOD BLO BPUN CHOG SREG GI GZIG BYAS RGYAL PAR So there's a master named Chog Sreg.

I should look up his Sanskrit name later. He wrote a thing called the Hundred Verses. RAB TU CHUNG NAS LA RLOG DANG BU MED KHYO GSUM MTHONG BA DANG BYAS CHAG NYID LAS SHOR BA DE DI GSUM YON CHEN ZHES PAR GYUR ZHES GSUM PA DANG This is okay.

This is, what do you call it? Politically incorrect verse. But I have to just translate it as it is.

So it's not my viewpoint. RAB TU CHUNG NAS LA RLOG DANG A monk who has disrobed. BU MED KHYO GSUM MTHONG BA A woman who has lain with three men.

BYAS CHAG NYID LAS SHOR BA A wolf that has escaped a trap. DI GSUM YON CHEN ZHES PAR GYUR Don't trust them. These are three things you shouldn't trust.

So that's just like a folk saying in Tibet. What's the point? Why did he put it here?

What were we talking about? Yeah, you go to too many teachings. I guess he would add a line that says a student who went four times to the same teaching.

And they're just like, they don't care. The fox knows how to get out of the trap. And the woman, she's like, okay, I had two or three of you before.

I know what to do. And the monk is like, they say disrobed monks tend to talk about other monks. Reveal their secrets and stuff.

Then a student who just goes to the same teaching four or five times then their mind is not affected anymore. It doesn't have any effect on them anymore. That's the point.

We can say the ,GA DAM GONG MED GSUM LAS, ,DIG CAN GCOD KYI THUL GAL, ,CHOS DE GCOD KYI MI THUL, ,DIG CAN GCOD KYI THUL THUL is a verb from DUL BA. What's DUL BA? Yeah, to tame or to discipline.

Vinaya is DUL BA. It says, ,DIG CAN GCOD KYI THUL You can tame a person who is evil with the Dharma. It's possible.

You can. But, ,CHOS DE GCOD KYI MI THUL What? MI THUL GCOD DE Yeah.

A person who has become hardened to the teachings themselves is hopeless. You can't help them. They'll say, I heard that already.

And you say, no, I'm just trying to tell you. You're going to the hell realms. And they're like, yeah, I heard that too.

And it just becomes like an armor plate against anything you can say. Say, you broke vow number 48. They say, yeah, but there's a scripture that talks about that.

And I don't have to worry. They've just got an answer for everything. And they're no longer applying it to their own self.

,GZHAN NAMS PA'I NGOMS PA'I GZHAN NAS ,GYONG PO RNAMS KYI THUL KYANG ,MAR GOG RNAMS KYI MI THUL GYONG PO I got to look this up. Okay, sorry. Let's be responsible.

This is an old saying in Tibet. How do you say it? In Tibet, they make lots of butter, because they don't have vegetables, because it's too high.

You live on barley and butter. Not much vegetables. And then there's no storage of anything.

But they've learned how to take an intestine out of a sheep and dry it in a certain way. And then you can stuff things in it. And you can carry them around.

It's like forms of bag. Then that mar gog means a bag that you use to store butter. So butter in Tibet, because of the altitude, can stay for about a year without refrigeration.

But you don't want to eat it. So anyway. But what happens is the sheep skin bags that are used to hold butter, the butter, what do you call it?

It permeates the leather. And then normal leather, when it starts to crack, you can use butter to make it softer, more pliable. But a mar gog, a bag that's been used to store butter, when it starts to split, you can't do anything.

Because it doesn't have to put more butter on it. It's already filled with butter. It's permeated with butter already.

When it starts to split, you have to throw it away. A person who hasn't been filled with Dharma still has some hope. Because you can teach them more Dharma.

But a person who's filled with Dharma all the time, they're, what do you call it? Immune to further Dharma. That's a big danger.

That's a big danger of knowing too much Dharma. And not trying it. Just learning Dharma and not applying it in your life.

So here, sitting here right now, listening in this class for the next, I don't know, hour or something, two hours, try to apply everything to yourself. Am I like that? Don't worry if I'm like that, I am.

Then, or if the person next to you is like that, they probably are, we don't know. Just worry, am I like that? Am I like taking a lot of teachings and I'm not applying them to myself?

Like that. Everything that comes up in the teaching, see how it applies to you. Find a way to apply it to your own situation.

And then you don't get immune to it. All right, got it? ZHES GSUNGS TSAR ZHES DU THA CHES PA THA CHES PA means lost cause.

That person is a lost cause. That's a good translation. PHYIR GZHAN GYI PHYIR DE ZHOG BA LA BYANG CHUB LAR MIM DI RTEN NA BRDUL NUS KYANG If a person has become immune to other forms of Dharma, you can still help them if you teach them the LAR MIM.

They've had Vajrayogini and they've had lots of emptiness teachings and they've had all these things. But if they haven't had LAR MIM, you can still pull out the LAR MIM at the end and take a shot. Get it?

All right. LAR MIM LA RLOR BRTEN NA But if they become immune to the LAR MIM, GANG GI KYANG BRDUL THAR MED PA then it's hopeless. Then forget it.

LTA BU YIN PAS GNAD DE LA SAB DGOS So be careful, he says. Be careful. Now we're down to LAR MIM.

DE NA GANG YAMS SUM LEN CHAR THOD PA MED PAR BYED So whatever GANG THUB PA'I SDUG BSNGAL LA BYAR TE THOD PA'I SEMS BSGOMS SUM YANG MA BRAL BA DGOS PA NI DE NA GANG YAMS SUM LEN CHAR THOD PA MED PAR BYED It is correct to come to the class and listen carefully to the teachings which are helping you know what you should be practicing. GANG THUB PA'I SDUG BSNGAL LA BYAR TE But then you have to take what you learn and apply it to your own spirit. THOD PA'I SEMS BSGOMS SUM YANG MA BRAL BA DGOS PA NI And you have to go through this...

What do you call it? There's a process. Say THOD.

THOD. SEMS. SEMS. GOM. THOD SEMS GOM.

THOD SEMS GOM. This process is so famous in a pedagogical sense, in an educational sense that the proper name of Sera Monastery is THOD SEMS GOM KYI GNYEN The Golden Isle of THOD SEMS and GOM. So it means this is the educational process as seen in a Tibetan monastery or by Buddhism.

Three steps in education. THOD means classroom time. Classroom hours with your teacher.

You sit in the class and you hear the teacher explain. That's called THOD. It means hearing.

SHRUTI in Sanskrit. Listening to the teacher's explanation. Then SAM means go for a walk in the woods and think about it.

Or as you're driving home or as you're on the plane, home, and think about it. That's the second stage in the classical process of learning in Buddhism, which is contemplation. Think about it.

Just think about it. Sort of in an intellectual way. Then GOM.

Meditate on it. All Buddhist learning is described in those three steps. You learn something in the class.

You consider its validity. Then GOM. Then you internalize it through meditation and practice.

You hear. You consider its validity. Contemplate it.

Then you go sit on your mat and you internalize it through the process of deep meditation. This is the classical way of learning. But what happens is people get to THOD and they don't go to the SAM and the GOM.

They just keep collecting more and more knowledge, more and more facts. Then they don't change. After a while they can change because they're too used to it.

It's very important to try to rot some changes in yourself with each time you come to a retreat or a teaching. Have some kind of program in your mind for when you get out of the retreat and how you're going to use this on yourself. Then during the class, see if you can jumpstart the whole thing and what do you call it?

Apply it to yourself even as it's being spoken. That's kind of more efficient. As it's being spoken, make changes in yourself.

That's a cool way. It also, as I said, it keeps you more engaged in the class. Rather than just listening, you're trying to use it on your own insides as we go.

DROM DROD KYI RGYAL PO BSKYANGS DROM DROD GYUR You know DROM DROD GYUR, right? DROM DROD GYUR, he's famous. I think he's a role model for a lot of us.

He never became a monk. He was a layman and he became an extraordinary teacher. He's up there with all the Dalai Lamas and all the Panchen Lamas and then Drom Tsen is there in his chuba, in his layman's robe.

Chuba is just like a jeans. He's up there in his T-shirt and jeans with all the Dalai Lamas in the thangkas. I like him.

I think he's cool. I used to think John Stilwell was Drom Tsen Gye. I don't know.

Anyway, Drom Tsen Gye means someone who, he's famous as the person who facilitated Lord Atisha's mission to Tibet. So this Indian Lama, guru, came to Tibet, started teaching. He needed, what do you call it, material assistance, logistical assistance.

This guy would always show up with three yaks, a bunch of butter, tea, a horse when he needs a horse. He just materialized things to help spread the thing, like a DCI advocate. Anyway, here we go.

DCI advocate means a person who agrees to take responsibility for a city on this planet and make sure that we can go there and have programs and stuff like that. It's fun. We'll talk about it later.

You have to pick a city. So anyway, Drom Tsen Gye said the following. LA THUG DUR TSE NA SANGS SGOM DOR LA SANGS DUR TSE NA THUG SGOM DOR LA SGOM DUR TSE NA THOS SANGS DOR When I sit in the class to get a teaching, it's already, what do you call it, it's like bok chenpa.

It's already, what do you call that, it's already setting fire to my contemplation and my meditation. You see what I mean? Even as I sit in the class, I'm already triggering contemplation and meditation in the class.

Then when I go home to do my SEMS, which is what? When I want to contemplate, when I walk through the woods and to think about what was taught today, then suddenly that triggers THOS and SGOM. I get more learning and I get more meditation.

Then when I go sit down to meditate, THOS SEMS DOR my listening and my contemplation take off. Meaning each of the three supports the other. It's not just a linear progression.

When you get to SARM, it makes you a better listener and a better meditator. When you get to meditation, it makes you a better listener and a better contemplator. Of course, learning makes you a better contemplator and a better meditator.

Got it? That's what he said. SGOM DOR LA CHU LAM DU BSKYED NAS BRAL ZHES PA ZHI GCIG TU MA LUS SDOM BYED PAS Every single thing I apply myself to, I use all three things.

Learning, contemplation, and meditation. CHU LAM DU BSKYED NAS BRAL ZHES PA I know how to turn a teaching into a path. Meaning a personal path.

I know how to convert a classroom teaching into my life's behavior. Like that. That's a beautiful skill.

SNGAGS DKA' DAM CHOG CHAR MA LUNG BA'I DON DBYA'I BAG MIG BZHIN DU ZHES PA'I LAS KUN DU RTOGS TE DKA' DAM YIN SNGAGS DKA' DAM CHOG CHAR MA LUNG BA'I I don't fall into one part of the teachings. DON DBYA'I BAG MIG BZHIN DU ZHES PA'I I know how to emanate a thousand eyes for the mask. Like a passion play in Europe.

They use masks. BAG means a mask. In Tibet, you can draw like a hundred eyes on one mask.

What he's saying is that there's a lot of debate about what this line means. Because it's a thousand years old and nobody really knows what it means. In my opinion, it's that there are folk operas in Tibet and you wear special masks.

Then some of the masks might have 12 eyes on the mask. He knows how to take one teaching and turn it into a thousand eyes. He learns one thing.

Then he puts on this mask and suddenly it multiplies to a thousand things. Then he sees a thousand things where other people only see one because he understands the process of DUR SAMGOM. BAG MIG BZHIN DU ZHES PA'I LAS KUN DU RTOG PA DE DKA' DAM YIN These thousand eyes allow me to understand all things perfectly.

DKA' DAM YIN I'm that kind of DKA' DAM PA. ZHES SUM PA LTAR ROL DE YANG, ZAD CAN GANG PA LAG PA BYAS PA LA MAN THUN RE NYID BSTAN PAS, SPYIR YANG MI DGYUR BAR Then ZAD means leprosy. ZAD CAN means a leper, a person with leprosy.

GANG LAG BYAS PA LA who's already had some amputations of their arms and legs. BYAS PA LA MAN THUN RE NYID BSTAN PAS If you give them medicine to stop the further spread of the leprosy, but they only apply it once or twice, it's not going to help. Leprosy was the most feared disease to that.

It was not uncommon. What do you call it? The treatment for it was very drastic.

Like sticking the arm into some asphalt, burning asphalt, or something like that, tar. It wasn't like... He's saying you can't take a person with...

What do you call it? Leprosy and give them a few drops of iodine on it or something. Nothing's going to happen.

You got to jam it into some boiling tar or something like that. Then they'll survive. The person will live.

They'll lose a limb. THOB CHEN BA'ANG MA NGOS TSAR DGOS PA LTAR If they do take medicine, they have to take a strong medicine and they have to keep taking it. They can't just take a few drops of it.

RANG CHAG THOB MA MED PA NAS NYON MONGS PA'I GNAD ZHIG THOB CHEN GYI THEG PA LA We are like a leper in that we have had a mental... We have had a spirit... A disease of the spirit has plagued us for a time with no beginning.

For a time with no beginning. We have suffered from diseases of the spirit. THOB CHEN THEG PA LA DANG MA RGYUD DON LA RE NYID LAM GSOS LANG BA'I MI CHOG PA Nothing's going to happen if you just go home and do a couple meditation sessions.

It's like putting iodine on leprosy. Nothing's going to happen. I think those of you who are serious about yoga, it's just a daily thing for five, ten, fifteen years.

That's all. Otherwise you'll never be very good at it. Meditation is the same.

Serving others is the same. It takes training. It takes a lot of training.

It takes persistence over many years time to get good at helping other people. LAM GSOS LANG BA'I MI CHOG PA CHU BA'I RGYUN BZHIN NEN GYI BAS DGOS Your practice should flow like a river. If someone plotted your yoga sessions on a chart, it should look like a bunch of dots flowing.

See what I mean? There shouldn't be gaps in it. Because then it will flow.

Meditation should be like that. Serving others should be like that. We're under no social obligation to serve others.

We are praised by our peers if we serve others occasionally because no one else is doing anything. But really, to be good at it, you have to do it daily. You should be serving others daily.

I'm talking hands-on stuff. I'm really happy with Jeff Eddy and Nick and Jigme. They're going to the prison.

They didn't let it go. We had 75 people came to the training. Those three are going.

Christine Walsh, some other people. But I'm really proud of that. And a prisoner came to me recently who got out and he went off on this thing.

He went off on this thing like how he saved his life. That was 10 years ago. Debbie Bai.

She saved my life. Now he's out. He has a very successful business and he's a meditation teacher.

But you have to... Service also has to be consistent and repeated constantly like yoga or meditation. Or you'd never be good at it.

You just look good because there's no competition right now. Nobody else is doing anything. But we should be good at it.

We should be really good at it. All right. LHAD MI CHOG PA CHUG GI GZHAN DU PHAGYUR TE Like going to the prison, anything you do they'll appreciate.

But why not be really good at it? Why not be the best at it? Take a lot of time and work really hard at it and make it really nice for them.

That's what he's talking about. LOB PA'I CHANDRA GO MI This is an old Indian sage called Chandra Gomi. He said, DER YANG RGYUN DU SEMS NI RNAM MONGS LA YUL RIM BDUS SU GNAS SHES BSTAN BYAS CING BYAS CAN THAMS PA LAG PA BYAS PA LA THANGS RGA MAN BRTAN PA'I GCIG RGYUR CI This is an old Indian quotation.

It's from a book called Shakta. Several sources attribute it to a book by Chandra Gomi called Shakta, which means in praise of admitting your mistakes morally. In praise of admitting your moral mistake.

But I couldn't find it. Either we're missing a volume of the DANG NYON or I don't know. But we have this quotation from it.

RGYUN DU SEMS NI RNAM MONGS LA Our mind has been misunderstanding things for countless eons. YUL RIM BDUS SU GNAS SHES BSTAN BYAS CING We have suffered this disease for countless years. BYAS CAN THAMS PA LAG PA BYAS PA LA If there were a person with leprosy who had already had some amputations of arms and legs, THANGS RGA MAN BRTAN PA'I GCIG RGYUR CI Then there's a thing called THANGS RGA MAN.

It's a kind of medicine made from herbs. What use is it to give them a few touches of the medicine on their limbs? Nothing's going to happen.

Don't expect big results from these teachings if you don't make a big personal effort in a disciplined way daily to do something with them. Then nothing's going to happen. SHES GSUNGS PA LTAR ROL CHAL CHAL LAG LEN LA He's going to tell one story, then let's take a break.

I like this story. It's a very famous story and I think it has a deep lesson for us. CHAL CHAL LAG LEN LA BDE PA You have to get good at putting a teaching into practice immediately.

I'm talking like in the five minutes following the teaching. Or even as the teacher's describing something. If the teacher's on a chapter about jealousy, then as they're talking, you should be examining yourself and saying, do I have jealousy?

When was the last time I had jealousy? How can I use that on my jealousy? All the teaching should go through your ears and then be focused on your own soul.

How can I use this on me? Even as you're listening. CHAL CHAL means instantaneously.

You are applying it to your own self. In the class. You're already Sam and Gom in the class.

Then he said, he gives an example of a good yogi who was doing that. Who? Geshe Cheng Ah.

Geshe Cheng Ah is an old Kadampa Geshe from a thousand years ago in Tibet. You should be like him. GOM GYIS BDUR BA ZIG PAS He was sitting in a cave reading Vinaya.

He was reading text about the monk's vows. GOS PAR GYI ZHI'I SKABS SU RAB CHUNG GI GOS PAR There's a very famous Vinaya scripture called GOS PAR GYI ZHI'I which means a teaching concerning the use of leather or dried skins of animals. GOS PAR GYI ZHI'I SKABS SU RAB CHUNG GI GOS PAR BYANG MI CHOG PAR Then he got to a sentence in that scripture that said a monk should never use the skin of an animal for anything.

Leather. GOS PAR Then he was sitting on an animal skin while he was reading that. So he stopped in the middle of the sentence.

He got up and he took the leather and he threw it out. He tossed it out of the cave. Then he went back down, sat down, and he kept reading.

DE MA THAG PHYIR KHO MI ZHIG YOD PA DE MI BYANG PHANG BA'I ZHIG YANG MA ZIG PA'I YUL THAG KHO TU GOS PAR BYANG CHOG Then he went back down, sat down, opened up the scripture again and the second half of the sentence said, in extreme cases, if you are sitting in a cave and you're freezing and your practice is really endangered and someone has given you a leather seed or a skin seed, you're allowed to use it. Then he went outside and got the...

and brought it back. But he didn't wait to finish the sentence to get up and throw the skin out of the cave. I like that.

I think that's calm. DE MA THAG KHO TU MIG SEL LANG BA means he understood there was an exception to the rule. ZIG NAS, NGAR GYI KOM LDAN YAR LANG NAS He went out and got the skin.

ZHUGS LDAN DU MTHIL MA Set it back under his butt and kept reading.

[Говорящий 2] (36:30 - 36:33)
Can I say a quick Tibetan question that popped in my head?

[Говорящий 1] (36:35 - 36:36)
Yes please, loud.

[Говорящий 2] (36:37 - 37:08)
You were talking this morning in the yoga class about the central channel, and it attacks really well and the side channels as well as the central channel. Yeah. If I understood correctly, then that would be negative emotional afflictions going away.

And is that like... I'm wondering how that relates to nirvana, which is also the removal of negative afflictions very important, but it makes sense. Yeah.

[Говорящий 1] (37:11 - 45:04)
Did everybody hear the question okay? So this morning in the Naguma class, we were talking about how she designed her series partly with the intention of causing the two side channels to withdraw into the central channel. In fact, in Sanskrit, one of the names for the central channel is avadhuti.

So ava means off. Duti means to throw off. The idea is that you have these two side channels that are...

You know that medical symbol? Some people say that that was a depiction of the channels. I don't know.

I don't think that's the original historical idea of it, but it's possible. On the left side, you have a channel. When prana flows in that channel called ida, then you want things unreasonably.

We gave the example of second and third biscotti in one trip to Starbucks. The first biscotti, you feel happy and you have hot chocolate and biscotti. I go to Starbucks almost every day because I like to hang out there, because I like to watch people while I work.

I have a hot chocolate and a biscotti. I enjoy them. I'm hungry.

I'm thirsty. I sip them and chew on them slowly. I translate.

It's fun. I have a good time. I feel at ease.

After an hour and a half, it's too much computer. I start to get nervous and overworked and agitated from the vibes of the computer. Then I feel unhappy.

I start to feel unhappy. Then I think another biscotti and another hot chocolate would make me feel better. So I go have another one.

Then we say the prana has moved from this channel, the central channel, to the ida. The prana has shifted. When the prana is running in this channel, you want things that you don't need.

Yesterday we said it was okay to want things and it is okay to want things. You want to have a nice car? Have a nice car.

It's okay. You want to have a nice house that you can practice in? That's okay.

You want to have a nice partner? That's okay also. It's not okay to steal other people's money to get your house or steal other people's partner to get your partner.

You see what I mean? That's the difference. So when the prana moves to this side, this central channel, when prana is moving in the central channel, you are amenable and you are open to believing that the world is coming from how you treat other people.

When the prana moves to here, you lose that. Then you're taking things from other people. You want things and you take them.

That prana has moved to this side channel. Then the other side for anger. We gave the example in the yoga class of...

No, you've got to tell the whole story. You have your second biscotti and then you're like, God, this is going to make me fat. Then you feel upset.

You think, well, I'm upset. Maybe I'd feel better if I had a third one. Then you go to get a third one and they say, we don't have any more.

Then you're like... Unreasonable desire goes quickly to anger. I don't know what you mean.

Then you get angry. Then the prana is flowing in the right side. Then the ultimate purpose of all yoga is to cause those two side channels to atrophy.

Those of you who know the Vajrayogini Sutra, GSUNGS RDZIN THEG SHING SBYONG GSUNGS RDZIN, say GSUNGS RDZIN. THEG SHING SBYONG GSUNGS means the right hand channel. RDZIN, it's a code word.

RDZIN is the left hand channel. THEG SHING means a vine of ivy. They say destroy the two vines of ivy.

SBYONG means to destroy. It's in the Vajrayogini Sutra. The goal of yoga is to destroy the two side channels and rip them off of the central channel.

Like ivy. I have morning, what do you call it? Morning glories.

They take over your garden. They twine around all the other plants and they slowly choke them. I love morning glory flowers.

In fact, in Arizona, it's illegal to plant them. It's illegal to sell the seeds in Arizona. You go and you rip them off the roses, and you rip them off the jasmine, and you rip them off the juniper trees.

We seek to do the same with the two side channels. Then they withdraw into the central channel. Then you are only a central channel.

Then the body changes into light because the knots created by the two side channels create the material flesh of the body. When you avadhuti, when you tear them off, with yoga and with meditation, CI NON THAB LA TSOR BAS means you can destroy them from the inside, or you can rip them off from the outside. You can put your body in certain positions and it will start to loosen them from the main channel, from the central channel.

Then from the inside, you struggle. CITTA BVRATI NIR RO DA CITTA BVRATI NIR RO DA I went crazy. You got to tell Janice Stone.

Where is that guy? She's like, stop your CITTA BVRATI. Stop thinking about everything.

I'm like, ouch. The class was so good up till now. CITTA BVRATI doesn't mean random thoughts in your mind.

CITTA BVRATI means looking at things BVRATI, the wrong way. Normally, like you want a boyfriend and you struggle. You go get new clothes.

You go on a new diet. You go on a new exercise program. You throw out your old cosmetics and you go to Sephora.

That causes so much confusion to go to Sephora. There's too many choices. You're like, damn.

Then after a while you get tired and you just buy whatever you can. That's CITTA BVRATI. That's a misunderstanding of how the world works.

Your perception is skewed. BVRATI means skewed. The word weird comes from BVRATI, philologically.

If you see that the way to get a boyfriend is to go to a nursing home or help a lonely person, then you plant the seed. Then you can go to Sephora or not go to Sephora. It doesn't matter.

The boyfriend will come. It's 100% sure he will come. If you want to go to Sephora, you can.

If you want to buy some new clothes, you can. You don't have to. He will come anyway.

Because that's not what causes him. That's still nice to have some nice clothes. It's okay.

Anyway, then you would only have understanding left. If the prana were always flowing in the central channel, you wouldn't have CITTA BVRATI. You wouldn't misunderstand how to get a boyfriend.

Then you would become enlightened slowly. That's enlightenment. You would become enlightened.

What was your question? I don't remember.

[Говорящий 2] (45:05 - 45:11)
You said it was an automatic nirvana.

[Говорящий 1] (45:11 - 49:51)
Oh yeah, then that would be nirvana. So what is nirvana? Nirvana happens before enlightenment.

Nirvana is defined as? NYON DRIM MA LUNG PO'I BAM PA'I SOS THANGA What it means is, nirvana is the end of your negative emotions. Nirvana is before enlightenment.

In most cases. Nirvana means you are incapable. You cannot be made upset by another person.

It's not possible. If a person were like a demon, like your ex-boyfriend or your boss, and they decided, I'm going to upset her. I'm going to find a way to upset her.

And they tried everything they knew. If you had already reached nirvana, they couldn't do it. They couldn't upset you.

So how does seeing emptiness help you reach nirvana? Supposedly, nirvana is defined as getting rid of your obstacles because you saw emptiness directly. Getting rid of your negative emotions forever because you saw emptiness directly.

How does understanding emptiness help you overcome, for example, anger? And then the classic example is the boss screams at you or your ex-boyfriend says something about you and you hear it. And then human nature, which is samsaric nature, is to respond with the same.

They said, oh yeah? Oh yeah, you said that about our relationship three years ago? That was private between us?

Well, I'll tell you something about him. So you respond with the same. You thereby plant another seed.

And then the next boyfriend you have is doing the same thing. So it becomes a cycle. A person who has understood emptiness understands that the world is being created by seeds which are planted by what they do and say and think.

So when it comes out that the boyfriend said such and such about them, about something private from three years ago, then they just let it go. They break the cycle. Not because the boyfriend was doing a good thing.

He was doing a bad thing. But they understand that it's coming from them. They understand that what the boyfriend is doing is coming from them, the ex-boyfriend.

They don't perpetuate it because they understand that what he said was coming from something they said before. So the last thing you'd want to do is say another thing about the ex-boyfriend. You'd want to just stop the cycle and say, okay, it's true he's a schmuck, but let it go.

And then you break the cycle. And then you reach nirvana. That's nirvana.

You say, I'm not going to get angry because what he said was coming from me. And if I get angry, I'll just create another schmuck like him. Then slowly you don't have anger.

No one can piss you off. Nobody. Impossible.

That's nirvana. And you can only reach it by understanding where things are coming from. We say it's not possible to remove anger from the human soul without that understanding.

There's no other method or power that can remove anger from the human being. It's not possible. Only if you understand that the crap is coming from you can you stop it.

Because otherwise you'll keep responding to violence with violence. It's cool. It's very cool.

So that's the connection. The more prana you got into the central channel, the more clear it would become to you that the boyfriend is coming from you, the ex-boyfriend. And then you would stop responding, and that's nirvana.

And then eventually that would lead to enlightenment. Nirvana is triggered by the condition of your inner wings. And to do yoga and to get more prana into the sushumna enables you more clearly not to respond to the boyfriend.

And then that's nirvana. So yoga is what they call outer aid. A partner.

And yoga are considered two forms of outer aid in the search for nirvana. Like that. It's cool.

Yes, ma'am.

[Говорящий 2] (49:52 - 50:20)
I have a question about meditation that I think maybe everyone will know. So in terms of working with the breath, if your intention is really to distract yourself from the point of focus, it has a simplicity and accessibility, and it lacks bromance, and it lacks doubt. I know it's just your breath.

And so there's a sutra, right, on the prana... I don't know.

[Говорящий 1] (50:21 - 50:21)
Say again?

[Говорящий 2] (50:22 - 51:36)
On the prana sati or something, sutra? I don't know. There's a whole book about how to practice the breath.

This Veda teacher talks about this whole process. His teachers. He said, you know, you could see emptiness if you just work on the breath.

And you're always saying no, no, no. You know, you're in your mind. So I think I just have a couple of questions about that.

First of all, is there a way to feel that the breath is holy? Very holy. And two, because of the simplicity, is there a time and a place to just practice that single point of focus with the breath?

Because it does seem to be helping you reach a deeper peace in life, like a kind of a different place, you know? Okay. Then you can then use, you know.

Yeah. And then the other thing is, if a lower school person uses the breath to see, there must be a different, there must be something different, right? And we talked about that when we were teaching emptiness.

The object and the subject are the same, but there must be something different. I'm just wondering, you know, if that seems to be about the bodhicitta.

[Говорящий 1] (51:37 - 58:50)
Okay. There's a book called Abhidharma. There's a whole series of books called Abhidharma.

Seven books of Abhidharma, I think. Only one of which is widely used anymore, which is called the Abhidharma Kosha, right? So it's written in the 4th century by Asanga's brother, half-brother Vasubandhu.

Then in there, when he teaches meditation, he says start by watching your breath, which is called uk. In Tibetan it's called uk jungm. Uk means breath, jung means the exhalation, and muk means the inhalation.

So uk jungm is a practice that comes from the Abhidharma. Abhidharma is one of the five great subjects of Buddhism. What are the rest?

You can say Prajnaparamita, which is lower middle way. Abhidharma, which is second school, sorry, first school, which is called Vaibhashika. Then there's Soutrantika, which are the logic schools.

Then there's Madhyamika, which are the middle way emptiness schools. Then there's a school on Vinaya, which is ethics. So these are the five great subjects of ancient India and of Buddhism.

In Tantra, you can consider it sixth. Historically, only two of them made it to southern Asia. Three of the schools weren't, the lineage was never passed on to Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, the southern schools.

And I've been there. I've studied in Thailand and Sri Lanka. So I think what happened was they got stuck on the breath thing because it was presented in one of those two schools.

It's considered, in the whole frame of the five schools, to be a useful preliminary to meditation. Like you use it to sharpen the mind and to focus the mind. And then you move on to another meditation with content.

We would say that the mind is like a mirror and then you place objects before it. And then the mind absorbs the content of those objects. So for example, if you meditate on the Dalai Lama, then you place a person's personality in front of the mirror of your mind.

And then that personality is reflected in your mind. And the word meditation in Sanskrit is bhavana. In Tibetan it's gom.

So bhavana means become. Na means to make you. Bhavana means that which makes you become that thing, which you place before the mind.

It's interesting. The word for meditation is a technique to become that thing. So if you place an image of the Dalai Lama before your mind, the mirror of your mind, and if that image is reflected in the mirror of your mind often enough, and consistently enough, day after day, you become that person.

It's what do you call it? Osmosis. What's the other word?

Anyway, you become that thing which you meditate upon. And that's the meaning of the word meditation. So breath is good, but you don't want to become breath.

Breath is good to get into a groove. It's very, very powerful. It's very, very beautiful.

It's very, very good. And I do it constantly, and we are trained to do that. But then you're encouraged to go on to something with more content.

Because whatever you place before the mind, you will become that. So then you have to go on to other more important objects. Without any other background, could a person who only meditated on the breath come to see emptiness by only meditating on the breath?

No, not possible. If a person had studied emptiness extensively in their past life, and then meditated on the breath in this life, could it trigger the perception of emptiness? Yes.

But if you're assuming a zero start point or something, it's better to get a lot of teachings on emptiness, then use breath meditation, and then go on to meditate on those teachings. And that's how it happens. That's how it really happens.

So it is possible someone meditated on the breath and saw emptiness, but that's because they already had those teachings in their mind. I think for us it's safer to do both. Do the breath meditation and then go on to what you've learned.

And I'm talking, Rinpoche used to say 3,000 hours. He used to say the number 3,000 hours of meditation teachings. Classroom hours on emptiness, to see emptiness.

So you need that. You really do need that. And it works.

It happens. And yoga opens the central channel and speeds the process. When you see emptiness directly, large amounts of prana are injected into the central channel and they cause you to see emptiness directly.

So you can speed it up by doing physical practices which are carefully designed to inject more prana into the central channel. But to see emptiness you need to samgong. You need to study.

You have to think about it. Argue with other people. And then you have to go sit in your room and meditate on it.

And it's not going to happen just through watching the breath. But watching the breath is a beautiful... It's there with you all the time until you die.

It's always there to meditate on. So it's a beautiful practice. It's a wonderful practice.

Everybody uses it. But then they use it as a tool. It's like a microscope.

It's like developing a very fine microscope. But then you have to train the microscope on something. You see what I mean?

Meditation is a tool. It's not a goal. And then you need content.

It's like having a really fast web connection with no content. Really. Seriously.

[Говорящий 2] (58:52 - 59:26)
It's hard to figure out how to structure it. I can do that in Buddhist school. It's helping me rest my mind in one place.

Whereas my ears are long. I take a lot of rides. I don't know that I'm doing it.

And then you taught us in the first part about the single-pointed level of meditation. And so it's very specific. So would you say that you spend half of your time doing that and then you run from home after?

Or do you separate the times that you do?

[Говорящий 1] (59:28 - 1:07:23)
That's the function of your personal teacher. That's why you need a heart lama. You need someone.

If you're going to be good at yoga, you need to be in the yoga studio with your teacher every day for years. If you're going to be good at meditation, you've got to be under the guidance of a meditation teacher constantly, daily. That means you have to find one.

And then you have to make the commitment to stay near them. We don't talk much about that. I don't talk much about that.

But if you want to be good at yoga, you have to go move to New York and be in Dharmatra's class every day for a couple years. That's the commitment you make. And it's the same with meditation.

Each person is different. Someone might need half breath, half emptiness. Somebody might...

Then the teacher might slap you on the head and say, forget the emptiness and the breath. I want bodhicitta. But it's like you need to be in the sphere of a qualified teacher.

And there's no other... I can't give you a rule without being with you frequently and like that. I'd say in general it's good to...

I've always used it a lot, breath meditation. I've used it up to a quarter of the meditation time, and then go on to something else. I think that might be a good rule of thumb for you.

Okay. Maybe one more quick question. Okay.

Did everybody hear? So classically, there are what we call mun sum tsema and jeyapak tsema. In the Yoga Sutra, pratyakshanumanagama, first chapter.

Classically, you begin your comprehension of emptiness in a classroom situation. There's a qualified teacher, preferably who has seen emptiness directly. And then they start to describe how to do it.

And they take you through a lot of classical presentations. And that's there, right? Shruti, that's listening.

And then sam means you take that home and you... on long walks and on car drives and waiting for dentists, you think about it. And then gom means you meditate on it.

And then you have your... There's a stage called jorlam, path of preparation. During jorlam, you begin to have intense intellectual understandings of emptiness.

This is like a process that happens to everybody. With enough teaching, with enough practice, you enter jorlam. It's a spiritual milestone that everyone goes through who sees emptiness.

And then you start to have intense intellectual understandings of emptiness. They culminate in jorlam chud chok, which is only maybe an hour long or half hour long. And you directly perceive how your mind is creating the objects around you.

Not intellectually. You directly perceive how your mind is creating an object such as a computer or a table or a pot. You catch your mind, you catch karmic seeds opening in your mind, creating tiny images which then fly out and are imposed upon objects in the world.

And you catch yourself doing it for the first time. After the intellectual breakthroughs, you have an experiential breakthrough, which is not in meditation. You're standing around and you suddenly see how, oh, this thing is an image emerging from a karmic seed in my mind.

And that's why I see this thing today. And you actually catch the image being produced by the mind. And that's earth shaking.

That's dependent origination. That's the real meaning of dependent origination. You see how your own mind is creating the objects around you as seeds open in the mind which were planted there by how you treated other people.

But you catch your mind doing it. Then that's the first time you perceive dependent origination directly, rather than as a concept. You catch your mind doing it.

That's called jorlam chud chok. That's called the highest seeing in the world. Except for seeing emptiness directly.

Then in the next few hours, you always see emptiness directly. In the following next few hours, you have a direct perception of emptiness. And that perception in no way differs from the way emptiness is perceived by a Buddha.

It's not qualitatively different than the way an enlightened being sees emptiness. The way you see emptiness the first time yourself, long before your Buddhahood, and the way an existing Buddha is seeing emptiness are exactly the same. There's no difference.

That's very interesting. That's the answer to your question. 100% nothing exists which is not coming from seeds in my mind.

You can't be more or less that. You see what I mean? It's 100% not coming from anything else.

And it never gets bigger or more than that. Then there's another debate after that. You want that one?

What do you call the ambience, the milieu of the mind which is perceiving that emptiness in exactly the same way? It can be different. Because an enlightened person's mind is simultaneously seeing every other object in the universe.

But the quality of their emptiness perception doesn't differ from... What do you call it? The setting or the context is different.

They're also perceiving every other event in the universe. But how they're seeing emptiness doesn't differ. Because it either is or it isn't completely devoid of not coming from a seed.

Got it? It's very beautiful. And that's a big subject in the scriptures.

It's a very interesting subject. We debated it firstly in the monastery. Then they got into this argument of among Buddhists, people who got enlightened earlier, are they seeing it differently?

I took that position one night. If somebody got enlightened like a trillion years ago and somebody got enlightened a billion years ago, are they seeing emptiness the same? That's another question.

I was like, anytime you see something that you've already seen before, again you see it in a deeper way. They're like, no, no. It got really hot.

All right.