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

[Говорящий 1] (0:00 - 54:19)
I'd like to say one thing about the schedule, let's see. So you know, I've been going to retreats, I don't know, my Lama started his retreats in 1977 or something. So I've seen, I don't know, many retreats.

And a few years ago, we invited a massage therapist to come to the retreat, and there's a thing called lung. Most of you know about it. Lung means prana in Tibetan, but it also means a disorder of the prana, and they don't distinguish between the two words, okay?

You have lung, you say, of course I have prana, and they say, no, no. Do you feel tightness in your chest? Is your back hurting?

Are you having trouble sleeping? Do you feel anxious during the meditations or things like that? That means that it's from trying a little too hard.

I kind of like it. I think you should be at that edge. I think you should be at the edge of lung.

But it's not good to go into lung, okay? And it can hurt your body in the long run. If it becomes a problem with you when you meditate, then you should talk to a teacher and work on it, because it can hurt your health over the long run.

So anyway, we started asking a massage therapist to come, two of them. And I don't think we had any serious lung problems last time. I've been watching retreats for almost 35 years, and it helped a lot.

So if you feel any, you know, in the coming week, if you start to have pain somewhere, like your back or your knees or something, or you start to feel anxious or nervous, or you have trouble sleeping, or you're getting light headaches, then these are from a little bit too much effort in the meditation. And then I hope you would, if you feel comfortable having a massage, I encourage you to get one, okay? Secondly, there's a thing called me lama, which I'll talk to you about now, and then you can think about it for the next seven days or six days, I don't know what it is.

In the Vinaya, in the monk's rule, there is a custom called me lama. Lama means lama. It's the Tibetan translation for guru, or spiritual teacher.

And then ne means to stay close. Ne means to stay close. So in the monastery, we have many kinds of lamas.

We have gergen. Gergen means your house lama. And as you're growing up, they teach you how to write.

They make sure you take your vitamins. They keep you out of trouble. They're basically moms in the monastery, and they're very good at discipline.

And then Geshe Lothar's a famous house gergen. And then you have your petra gergen. Petra gergen means the one who teaches you scripture.

I had 12 petra gergen, 12 great petra gergen, in different subjects. And then you have a tsawe lama, that's your heart lama. That could be your mom, it could be your dog, it could be a monk or a nun, it could be a friend, it could be your sister.

Your heart lama could be anybody. My heart lama's not even a Buddhist. Then you have ne lama.

Ne lama in the Vinaya means they are a respected mentor that you have, especially for when you have a problem. You can go to them. It's someone that you feel an emotional and spiritual connection to.

They may not be your heart lama, but you trust them. And if you have an issue in your life, you can be frank with them. You know that they will be discreet and that they care about you.

It's a lot like in AA, what's it called? A sponsor. Meaning you can call them at 2 o'clock in the morning and say, I feel like taking a drink, and they will come over.

And they will sit with you until 5 in the morning, and they're okay with that, and they commit to that. So in our group, because there have come to be so many people studying, there are thousands of people studying in this community, we thought it would be a good idea to have like a ne lama system. In the monastery, you are required to have a ne lama.

You can't not have a ne lama. You have to inform the monastery who's your ne lama. If your ne lama dies, if your ne lama goes on vacation, if your ne lama goes to visit their sister for a week, you are required to have a substitute ne lama.

You're not allowed to be without a ne lama. If your ne lama goes on a trip at 6 in the evening, and you're required to go to the monk's bi-monthly, semi, anyway, twice a week, sojong, confession ceremony, which if you don't go, you get in big trouble. If your ne lama is unavailable, you're supposed to skip the ceremony, and go look for another ne lama.

It's that important. It's considered the most important monastic rite. So it overrides all other monastic requirements.

So, in the system that we have in this, we don't have a big organization, and we don't have pictures that you have to bow to, and you don't get a membership card. We don't have anything like that. Learn what you want.

Use it as you want. Steal it. Take it.

Take all the materials. Nothing's copyrighted. Put your name on it.

People have published books. And God bless you. Just spread it freely.

There's no group, per se. We just want you to be happy, and try to help make other people happy. To the best of your ability, help other people.

But one thing I do like, if you want to, I encourage you to think of a ne lama for yourself. And you can change ne lamas if you find that it's not a good fit, from both sides. I encourage you to seek a more experienced student that you meet, that you think that you would feel comfortable.

You're having a fight with your boyfriend, or your boss did something really bad. That someone you feel comfortable with calling at midnight and saying, I need to talk. Somebody like that.

Somebody that you can call at midnight and say, I need to talk about my private life. And someone that you trust. And I encourage people not to take more than 12 people as an, what do you call it?

The opposite of ne lama. Or ne disciple or something. Or ne helpy.

I don't know. So, lama? I don't know.

But I ask that you not take more than 12. So you have to be very selective. The 12 closest students that you have, you can agree to be their ne lama.

But then you really have to be there for them. And it's a very serious responsibility. If they need you at midnight, you have to go.

So I encourage those of you in this room, think about ne lama. Think about someone that you would like to be a ne lama. And then maybe next weekend ask them.

It should be someone, preferably ne means right, someone who lives near you. But in this day and age, you could Skype, I guess. So, hopefully there will be someone rather close.

But if not, Skype is okay. But I encourage you to have one. I encourage you to think about this system.

And when you feel ready, then ask someone if they can be your ne lama. And then that prevents people from slipping to the cracks. I meet thousands of people every year.

If you send me an email and say, I'm going to commit suicide tomorrow, I might not read it until next week. You see what I mean? So it's better to have...

I'm happy to help everyone, and I really am. But I want to make sure you're safe. And I want to make sure you have someone to turn to when you have a serious need.

Who's not going to be in Beijing and busy. So you try to think of someone that you trust. And I really encourage you to have a ne lama.

And I'm always there. I'll always help. And I'm happy.

I enjoy it. And I have this superstition, which is actually a knowledge, that if I don't serve all of you, my lama won't serve me. So there's an incentive there.

So it's true, right? So I'm happy to help you, but I want you to be covered more closely by someone who's more available all the time. So let's think about that as we go.

All right, here we go. So we left sadāsāputra. What was the last thing?

He asked for the verse. He said, now tell me the verse. I mean, now we're close, right?

I didn't cook you. Okay, you came back. And with his request to the bodhisattva, he recites the verse that we heard before, where he says, ,BDAG GIS BYAS PA NGAN PA'I GZUGS, ,GCOD KYI MED MONGS ZAL MTHONG NA, I have come to see my own nature by looking in the mirror of the Dharma.

,YID LA BDUN PAR RAB GYIS TE, And it pains me to see what I see. ,BDAG GIS BYAS PA NGAN PA'I GZUGS, ,BDAG GIS BYAS PA NGAN PA'I GZUGS, And I've decided to enter the path. He says that to the bodhisattva.

Then the bodhisattva says, ,GAL TE DA RE, ,KHO NUS DU RGYUR PA SIGS NAS, This is beautiful, okay? This is a beautiful word. There are so many beautiful words in Tibetan that are, they don't exist in our languages, right?

,KHO NUS DU RGYUR PA SIGS NAS He said, ,KHO NUS DU RGYUR PA SIGS NAS Then he saw that the mountain man had become a worthy vessel in which to pour the teachings. That's a beautiful way to say it, right? They didn't say, oh, he looked okay or something.

He said he saw, he perceived that he was a worthy vessel into which he could pour the teachings. ,SIGS NAS, ,RAB DU MA BA'I, Then the prince says to the mountain man, ,RAB DU MA BA'I RTEN MA SDUG, ,SDUG PA'I PHAL NI RNAM PAR BSKYED, ,BDAG DANG BRTAN PA'I MI GYIS BTAG, ,SIGS KYI DUS CI MTHONG BA BZHIN, ,GUS PA SKYE BYING SREG CIG BDOD, ,RAB DU DANG NA PHYI MA'I YID, ,MED PA'I MED PA'I TSIG NYEN BZHIN, ,RIM ROL SKYES TE CHOS NYON GCIG, NYON GCIG means listen. Now listen.

But first you have to do this other stuff. What? ,RAB DU MA BA'I RTEN MA SDUG, It's tradition, when you're teaching spiritual things, in the Buddhist tradition, that the disciple must be lower than the teacher, physically.

So even when the, like, the Sakya Pandita and his nephew went to teach the emperor of China, the emperor sat on the ground, and they sat on the throne, which was a big deal in those days. This was the king of the world, in that time. So, ,MED PA'I SDUG, ,SDUG PA'I PHAL NI RNAM PAR BSKYED, Then, shine, shine with humility.

Shine with humility. ,RGA DANG LDAN PA'I DMIGS KYI LTAR, Look upon the face of your teacher with joy. ,TZIG GI DUS KYI MTHONG BA BZHIN, Drink the teacher's words as if they were amrta, the nectar of deathlessness.

,DGU PA SKYE CING ZAD CIG LTOS, Show respect, and honor your teacher's single-pointedness. ,RAB DU DANG LA GCIG MED YID, Listen with a crystalline pure motivation, and a pure heart. ,GNAS PA'I MED PA'I TZIG GNYEN BZHIN, Listen as if you were a person, you know, with AIDS, hearing the only time, the recipe for the medicine that could cure you.

Like, I'll tell you once the ingredients you need, and you have a fatal disease, and you're like, you know, you're listening carefully. Right? Like that.

,RIM DUG BSKYED DU CHOS NYAN GCIG, ,RIM DUG BSKYED DU CHOS NYAN GCIG, And now listen to the Dharma with respect. Respect it. And you shouldn't teach someone who doesn't respect it.

You shouldn't teach them. I've had really elder students ask me, even recently, for teachings, and I just make some excuse up, because I know they don't respect it. So then, you have to...

If it's out of ignorance, that's okay. If the person's just like walked off the street, and they say, Hey man, can you teach me the Prajnaparamita thing? And you're like...

Then they sit down, they lay down. I had a guy like that. Where was that?

He was laying down. Where was that? Yeah, laying down in the class.

But he didn't know any better. So then that's okay to teach them. But someone who understands and then doesn't respect, show respect during the class, then don't teach them.

RANG TU LTAR BA'I BRAL BA NYID ZHES GSUNGS DE NAS SU DAG SREG PU DO LEBS THUN PO ZHIG GIS BSTAN GUS Then the mountain man found a boulder and brought it in the cave. Had a flat top. And then he took off his...

He only had a cloak. That's all he had on. And he took it off and he laid it on that boulder.

DE LA RGYAL SRID BDAG BA ZHUGS SU CHUG And he respectfully asked the Bodhisattva to sit on the boulder. CHUG KHOR RANG DE'I BDUN DU DE NAS ZHAL RE DE DE BA PA DANG GSUNGS ZHIG ZER RO When he sat in front of the boulder and looked up at the Bodhisattva and said, Oh now, please teach me Arya. You Arya.

Please, please teach me. RGYAL SRID BDAG BA'I DAM PA DAG DANG MAN CIG TZAM JI LTAR BSDOD PAR THEG KYANG RUNG JI'I BAR BYA BA MI DGOS PAR RAB TU THEG PA NYID DU GYUR ZHES SOGS CHOS GSUNGS PAS Then the Bodhisattva Chandra taught him, DAM PA DAG DANG MAN CIG TZAM Even if you only have one chance in your life to sit at the foot of a really holy person. JI LTAR BSDOD PAR THEG KYANG RUNG JI'I BAR BYA BA MI DGOS PAR Even if you're not able to spend a lot of time with them, even if you're only able to have one teaching from them, RAB TU THEG PA NYID DU GYUR it will stay with you forever.

That teaching will stay with you forever. So he started with that. ZHES SOGS CHOS GSUNGS PAS KHO RGYUD DU RE GAR DUN SAB CHOD So KHO RGYUD, RGYUD means his mind, right?

The mind of the mountain man. DUL It was subdued or controlled or tamed, right? Softened.

Remember Chod used to say softened. I kind of like that. DUL MED GAR DUN SAB CHOD What's GAR DUN?

GAR DUN Kindness of the teacher. GAR DUN It's a famous word. It's a beautiful word.

It's the kindness of your teacher. GAR DUN GAR DUN SAB CHOD In order to repay the kindness of the bodhisattva for teaching him, SA BA'I DUN DU RGYAL PO BU'I RGYU CHU GO GUR TSUN DU CHUG YOD PA RNAMS BU LAS He offered the bodhisattva 99 other princes that he had captured and put into a little dungeon in his cave to eat later. That was really nice.

BU NAS CING RJE DENG PA'I THUL ZHUG BYIN PA And then forever after he took on the, what do you call that? Tapas. THUL ZHUG means tapas.

What's tapas? Like spiritual hardship. He took on the tapas of DENG PA.

What's DENG PA? Truth. Meaning he made a pledge to never tell a lie in his life again and to follow truth.

To follow truth in his whole life. To be a person of complete truth, which is difficult. He made a pledge.

Then, SEMS CAN GZOD PA PO BA He gave up killing any living creature. MI SHAD SA BA RNAMS He also gave up eating people, meat. DAM BYA'I PHU BA And he offered those pledges to the bodhisattva.

So that's the story of Sadas, Sadas of Phutpuram. It's longer. The story is much longer.

But I believe he became a great emperor of India later. But that's another story. DE NA CHOS NYANG PA'I TSE RANG GI ZHES RGYUD DANG RAG TU CHE BZHIN DU Therefore, as you sit in a class, you should RAG TU your own mind.

RAG TU means cross-examine your own heart during the class. You know like, did you, on the 3rd of November, at 4 o'clock, get jealous of the other student or not? You know, you're like, yes!

You have to cross-examine your own heart. Tough, like, did you or did you not? It's a very interesting use of the word.

To say that, you should be doing that to yourself during the class. RAG TU CHE BZHIN DU NYAN NAS ZHUGS DAG ZAS BU DAG ZHES RGYUD ZHIN DU TSOS PA YANG If you listen to the teaching in that way, and again, I don't know about you, for me, I'm more often cross-examining the person next to me, or the person who hurt me a year ago, or, you know, my ex ex whatever. Like, I'm cross-examining them.

I'm saying, God, I wish they were here to hear that. You know, and, you see, we do that. So, cross-examine yourself.

YANG RGYUD DU BAR GYUR ZHING Then he said, no matter how how crude your your spiritual, what do you call, sensitivity is, it will change. If the mountain man can change, you can change, he says. TSOS PA YANG RGYUD DU BAR GYUR ZHING PHYOD DANG SEMS NYID BLO GZUGS BYAS NAS NYAN NA LAM MA JI TZAM SANG YANG, DAM MA JI TZAM NO YANG RGYUD LA CING ZHES TZAM YANG MI BSTAN If you divorce the teaching from your personal spiritual condition, if you don't apply it immediately to your own behavior and your own thinking, in the moment, at the teaching, then it doesn't matter how good the teacher is, and it doesn't matter how beautiful the teaching is, it won't help you at all. So you have to take each word and check and see if it applies.

Does the shoe fit? It will fit somewhat, because you're here. There's a karma that brought you here.

Whatever's going to come in the next few pages was written for you. Trust me. So then see where it fits.

And keep doing that the whole time. Learn how to take a teaching and you will have a good time in your life. Learn how to really be a good student, even in a yoga class or something.

Then you'll really be happy in your life. And if you don't, you'll just get harder and harder. You'll become more hardened.

That's a good word for, what were we looking for? CHUB LTUNG, right? You'll become hardened and you won't hear things.

So right away, tonight, whatever comes in the text next, I don't remember what it is, let's apply it to ourselves. Learn to apply it immediately to yourself. If you get bored, I think that's a sign that you're not doing it.

Because it's infinitely interesting to explore all your negativities. It's an endless variety. There's always stuff there.

So if people get bored and they just start spacing out, I know they're not listening well. They're not applying it to themselves. SEMS NYID BLO SOGS CHEN NAS NGAN, I was just learning something.

RGA' ZHIG GIS CHOS NYAN PA'I TSE RANG GI NGAR MA SHES PA DANG MA THOS PAR BYIN DAG GSUNGS NYAM NAS NYAN PA'I BSTAN PA'I ZHES KYI LAM YI PHAN Don't be one of those people who's checking the Lama during the teaching and saying, which parts are new? Which parts haven't I heard before? I had a fight with somebody in Singapore and they're like, Geshe-la, you taught the same thing you taught last year.

Yeah, and I said, yeah, I did. Okay. NYAN NAS NYAN PA'I BSTAN PA'I ZHES KYI LAM YI PHAN So don't be a person who's like, oh, that's new.

That's interesting. He said something new. ZHES KYI LAM YI PHAN RGA' ZHIG GIS DAM LA GYI SABS NAS NAM LA NAN NAS MI BYAS PA THAMS CAD NYAN PA SOGS LA YI LTOS PAR BYAS PA Some people skip the difficult parts of the talk and head for the stories.

In our tradition, we're proud. Dalai Lama's lineage, Gelugpa, our shtick is that we head for the hard part. We go for the hard part.

You can tell a story once in a while, but I want to hear the nitty gritty of emptiness. Like that. We head for the hard parts and we skip the easy parts.

So don't be a person who just is waiting for a nice story. I didn't say anything. I'm going to mention them.

Pema, for example, LUN RGYAL CHOG GAL SANG RGYAL TSUL LAM RIM BSRUNG DPA'I SKABS There was a time, back in the time of the seventh Dalai Lama, whose name was GAL SANG RGYAL TSUL, he was teaching the Lam Rim. We're on the 14th now. I don't know, it must have been around 200 years ago.

So in GAM GZHI GYI DGE RIGS BLO SKYES CHEN PO'I CHUNG And then one guy came out of the teaching and he said, today I learned something extraordinary. And his friend said, what was it? And he said, PHAN YUL MA YI CHA KHAR ZER BA DUNG DU RDZONG BA'I You know that thing in the scriptures, they're always talking about a place called YUL MA YI CHA KHAR You know the Lama said it was this fortress up on this hill outside of Asa.

I never knew that. That's like amazing. So all he got out of the whole teaching was a little geography.

You see, like he was like, I never knew that. I didn't know that Richard Thaw was in Kansas. That's amazing.

That's really something. You know, like, and that's all he, it was new information. It was something he could use on the Jeopardy game.

Right? Okay. PHAN YUL MA YI CHA KHAR ZER BA DUNG DU RDZONG BA'I MA SO MA DGOS Don't be like that.

RGA SHI LAM NAS GANG SONG ZHUNG DANG PHYIR MI PHYIR BTAGS NAS Some people who've had some training are waiting for the Lama to make a mistake. Oh, is he going to say something that isn't true according to scripture? Can I detect a mistake in the teaching?

He'll say something that doesn't follow scripture. Okay? Especially in a monastery.

I mean, you spend 30 years studying scripture and then somebody gets up to talk and everybody's like... Even His Holiness. His Holiness comes to stare and all these young geishas are like...

They're just waiting for something. Okay, don't be like that. PHAN YUL MA YI CHA KHAR ZER BA DUNG DU RDZONG BA'I RGA SHI LAM NAS GANG SONG ZHUNG DANG PHYIR MI PHYIR BTAGS NAS LAMA LA ZHUGS DAG BYAS PA DANG NYAN ZHUGS DAG BYAS PA means...

I was the ZHUGS DAG BYAS PA of Sarah, May, for many years. I edited all the textbooks, which was wonderful for me. But you have to read that book and find mistakes in the text.

So ZHUGS DAG means to... What do you call it? Edit.

Proofread. He says, don't proofread the Lama. Don't be there to proofread the Lama.

Oh, he made a mistake. That's not the date of the Seventh-day Lama. That's the Sixth-day Lama.

Like that. You're not like... Shouldn't be there to correct the Lama.

ZHUGS DAG BYAS PA DANG NYAN LAMA TSE LING YONGS SU NYONGS PA BYAS THAN SANG GI LO BO RNAM LA LAMA ZHUGS DAG BYAS KHYAD NANG DRAG ZHES GSUNGS There was a very great Lama called Tse Ling Yongsun Rinpoche. He wrote a beautiful text, a two-volume text on the life stories of all the Lamas of the Lama lineage. It's extremely beautiful.

And he wrote many other great texts. He said, THAN SANG GI LO BO RNAM Disciples nowadays are almost as if they are proofreading the Lama. He used that same expression.

They're like correcting. Their interest is in correcting the Lama. ZHUGS DAG BYAS PA DANG NYAN LDAN DE RIGS KYI RGYUD LA BRTEN NAS MI PHAN PA'I If you get into that kind of mode, where you're checking for errors in the teaching, then you won't have time to apply it to yourself as the teaching continues.

RANG GI RGYU MTHOL TU RGYAL BZHIN NYAN PO'I KHYAL CHE Therefore, drop the critical. I mean, critical means, you can be critical in the sense of questioning the validity of a concept. That's not correcting the Lama.

Correcting the Lama is like, oh, he got that date wrong, or he quoted that text but he got the wrong spelling, or something like that. To be critical is encouraged. I don't buy that.

Prove it to me. You have to say that. You should say that.

I was in Toronto. There was this black lady in the back of the room. Everything I said, she was like, I don't think so.

Prove it. And I was like, I couldn't get through the talk. This lady was on me every time.

But she sincerely wanted to know the answers. And she wouldn't buy some kind of quick answer. She said, no, no, prove it to me.

And then I got to finish the class. I'm like, phew. Then she moved to Arizona.

So that was Shadi. Now she's a teacher in Vancouver. And she's a good teacher.

And she trained herself. But she came to me later and she said, I said, so why did you come to Arizona? She quit a good job.

And she said, you're the only person who really answered my questions. Who was willing to answer my questions. Now she's a good teacher.

I'm sure she's getting questioned a lot. It's okay to question, but not to cross-examine. THOG TU RGYAL BZHIN GNYEN PO'I KHYAL TSE As the teaching continues, continue to apply it to your own life and your own situation.

You're here. The reason you're here is two things. You have a dream or you have a problem.

And it could be either one. It could be both. It's either one or both.

The reason you came to this retreat is that you either have a dream or you have a problem. That relates to you. So use the teaching for those things.

Use the teaching as it continues this week and for the rest of your life. Apply the teaching to your dream. To achieving what you dream.

And to solving whatever challenges you have. And don't use it for anything. That's why you're here.

So use it for that. Take it and use it for your current situation. The Buddha, being omniscient, designed events in such a way that the answers that you need are here this week.

Everybody's answers are here in this text this week. Everything you need to to solve every challenge in your life and to get all your dreams in your life is going to be presented this week. Keep your ears open.

It's going to come. Because an omniscient being designed it that way. They designed it so X many people's dreams would be addressed in a single week.

So don't worry about what the other people are doing. Just concentrate on getting your answer. And always go to a teaching like that.

Rinpoche asked me one day, I said, Dalai Lama is coming to New York. And I said, what should I do? And he said, do you want to go?

If you want to go, you should go. And I said, but I want to be with you. I'd rather be with you.

He said, well, you could be with me. You've been with me for, what, 25 years? Every day.

You don't get to see the Dalai Lama every day. I said, but I'd rather be with you. I'd rather not miss a day with you than go to hear the Dalai Lama, right?

So I didn't go. It should be like that. I mean, the answers to what you need will come.

Okay? Got it. DE NA BYANG CHUB LIM LA MIN GYI LAMA BYAS PA'I TSE NANG GCIG YIN GCOD PA RDZO BA MI BYAS PA So don't worry if the Lama makes, how do you say, as a Lama, when you are teaching other people.

This is cool, okay? And my Lama, my heart teacher, is very insistent on that. I said, what should I, when I go sit in front of a bunch of people, what's the most important thing?

And she said, before you open your mouth, sit there and look at all of them and think what would help them the most tonight. What would help them the most tonight? And then sometimes it's not what I planned to say.

And it's not the text that I even chose. And the homework I had planned just doesn't relate at all. And that happens overseas.

They send a schedule six months ahead. We send a reading. We send a homework.

Then I get up and teach something else. Then they freak out. And they're like, what?

Geshe-la, be prepared, there's 700 people here. 700 people got a 25 page reading and you didn't talk about a single word in it. And I'm like, that isn't what they needed.

So she said, when you get up to teach, whatever your plan was, look at the people and say what would help them the most tonight. And then don't worry about how you sound. TSIS KHYEN CHOS PA means don't step, what do you call it?

On eggshells? Don't walk on eggshells about am I going to look good or not? Or am I going to quote the text right or not?

Don't think about those things as a teacher. Just concentrate on what will help them. Whether they believe it or not, whether they think so or not, it doesn't matter.

Concentrate on what will help them. And forget the rest. And forget how you sound.

And forget how you look. Just what would help them in that moment. All right.

LHAM DANG PHYIR GYI TSE KHYEN CHOS PA Because most of you are teaching, so you should know. Somebody asked me during the break, they're a new student and they said, I'm not really into proselytizing. You're asking us to go teach.

And I said, but this is different. I'm just asking you to share an idea with other people and not quote the source. You don't have to tell them where it came from.

I don't care. I'm very careful when I teach in other countries, especially in some countries I'm not allowed to teach. There are several countries in the world where we go where we're not allowed to bring up religion.

And I almost prefer it. Because then there's not all this baggage about this sect and that sect and this disagreement and that doctrine and blah, blah, blah. And I also don't get involved with all those things.

I could care less. I'm not asking you to go out and talk people into having a Geshe Michael ID card. I don't care.

What I would like you to do is go out and spread the idea. What idea? Your world and the people that you meet and the things that happen to you are coming from how you treat other people.

And you can change it all. You can have everything you want. Money.

Beautiful relationship. You can be strong, healthy. You can have a world which is peaceful and prosperous for everyone because it's all coming from you.

You just have to plant it. You don't have to tell them where it came from. I don't care.

We're teaching a lot of Muslim people now in Jakarta and Montreal. We teach people in the Communist Party of Vietnam. We were in Hanoi.

I was on stage with a statue of Ho Chi Minh. That was weird. And that's okay.

It doesn't matter. Anybody can use these ideas. That's all.

Spread the ideas. I don't care whose picture you have in your house. I could care less.

Most of my pictures aren't very good. If you're Catholic, have a picture of Jesus. If you're Muslim, have a picture of Muhammad.

I don't care. Whatever your parents did, have that kind of picture. I don't care.

I'm not asking you to spread that. I'm asking you to help people grasp that it is within their power to have whatever they want if they understand that it's coming from their own mind and how they treat others. That they can have whatever they want if they provide it to someone else first.

That's all. Just that idea. That's what I'm asking you to spread.

Nothing else. We don't even have an organization. I don't even know.

The books are printed all over the world. I don't even know who's printing them. It's all black market.

In China, it's all black market. In Russia, it's all black market. I don't even know who's printing it.

That's okay. As long as they keep printing it. Okay.

RANG GI SDUG TSOR GNYEN ROL GONG GI SDUG THAG TSOR BYAS NAS SHES GNYEN GYEN ROL MA RNAMS KYIS KYANG GNYEN ROL GONG GI LDAN DRAG MI BYAS PA GANG GSUM THAMS CAD RANG GI RGYUR THUGS DER GAL So those of you who teach should teach with the primary goal of helping, being of immediate assistance to the people in the audience. Those of you who are taking teachers should avoid the problems that we talked about above and you should try to take each thing and apply it to yourself personally. RANG GI SDUG TSOR BYAS NAS GNYEN ROL Then there's this concept in Buddhism of taming your mind.

It's a difficult idea, right? It sounds weird. Then I asked Rinpoche, the Tibetan word is duwa, right?

I said, what do you mean duwa? Tulwa, right? He said, one day, he used to watch TV a lot.

I don't know how much he was looking at it. I think it was to make me comfortable. Like sometimes we'd be in the middle of some, what do you call that detective guy?

Columbo. We'd be in the middle of Columbo and there'd be some beautiful lady and you'd be about to find out who the murderer was. Then he'd say, okay, go to bed.

Rinpoche is like, just a couple more minutes. Then I thought, he's not watching it. What's he doing with the TV?

But anyway, I think it was to make all his Western students feel more comfortable, right? Why did I bring that up? Then he said, one day, he called me and says, come up.

He had a bell. I was like a Pavlovian dog. He would ring the bell and I had to run up.

I couldn't walk. I had to run upstairs. He asked Lama, what do you want?

I said, look at that. There's Tulwa. I looked on the TV and it was a rodeo.

They had the horse. The horse was trying to throw the guy off and the guy was like, he says, the horse is your mind. The guy is me.

You get it? He says, that's what Tulwa means. There's this concept in Buddhism that your mind is like wild.

If you really understood your mind, if you could see your mind as maybe my teacher sees my mind, it looks like insane. You're just insane. If all this stuff about you can only get things by providing that the someone else first is true, then that means that almost every human activity is insane.

All human activity is insane. All attempts to get a boyfriend through cosmetics or clothes or clubs or internet, it's insane. Because it has nothing to do with getting a boyfriend.

It doesn't get you a boyfriend. You see what I mean? Only helping lonely people can get you a boyfriend.

You see? And everything else is, it's like this tribe that says you have to bang on a coconut to get the sun to come up. You know?

And you're like, okay, just one day, don't bang on the coconut. Let's see what happens. You know?

No, they say, no, no. How are the crops going to grow if we don't bang on the coconut? But it doesn't have any connection with the sun coming up.

All human activity is as coconuts being banged to make the sun come up. They don't have anything to do with it. Going to a club, going on the internet, wearing a certain lipstick, buying certain clothes, trying to look a certain way, talking a certain way, they all have nothing to do with attracting a boy.

Nothing. No connection. The extent to which you help lonely people determines whether you find a partner.

And that's the only thing. Nothing else. All other activity aimed at getting a partner is fruitless and unconnected to that goal, as much as banging a coconut has to do with the sun coming up.

Okay? Which means that if a Lama could look into your mind, you'd look insane. You're just insane.

Okay? I'm trying to get you to feel this sense of tulwa. Okay?

All right, there we go, tulwa. It's true, okay? Then you have a little glimpse of what's true and then you'll have this weird experience of being out in the world where nobody else thinks you're insane.

Right? What? Go to a nursing home to find a boy?

What are you into? You know? Okay, anyway.

DE DAG CHEN NA RTOG PA'I NAS DANG PO CHOD DAL GYUR GYI BA YIN Realizations begin at the moment that you hear a teaching. Realizations begin in the moment that you hear a teaching. Start now.

Don't go meditate on it six weeks from now. In the class. Try to have a breakthrough.

In the class. CHOD DAL GYIR GYI BA YIN LA MED KYANG CHUD DE'I STENG NI ZHES PA LTA BU ZHAG TU BSTAN DANG BYA BU NAS ZHUGS KYANG MI YONGS BLO MED KYANG CHUD DAL DU YOD KHU BA LTA BU KHOGS TU BLO SBYONG LA YANG MI BYUNG BA YIN And there's a... What do you call it?

There's a... What do you call it? There's an etiquette to the process.

Okay? There's an etiquette to the process. Lamas have learned.

My lama... I mean, my lama used to hit me. And then after a few years he was like, oh, you don't want to meditate?

I'm sorry, that's okay. Because he got used to Americans. But there's a tradition, an etiquette of how to conduct the teaching.

And once your students are ready, they should be taught that etiquette. Which is why I'm putting this on tape. So you can get out of it.

You can just play them the tape and say, it's not me, it's Geshe Michael. He says you should follow a certain etiquette during the teaching. It's most proper to have a formal teaching and the teacher, you invite the teacher, you honor the teacher, you put them on a throne, you do everything according to the book, right?

You can ask a guy to come to your house and have a cup of coffee together and you can say, hey man, tell me about it. But it won't be the same. If you do the formal thing, there's a beauty to it.

We all went to Christmas mass, okay? We all went to mass on Christmas Eve, all the people in Phoenix. And there was a beauty to it.

There was a formality and a ceremony to it. It was very beautiful. All the Jewish people came too.

And we had a good time. And we all took the wine. There was a beauty to some kind of, how do you say, proper, proper way of doing it.

So he says here, he says, don't just invite the teacher to your house and give him a cup of coffee and say, hey, teach him that envelope. Even the mountain man got a boulder and put his own coat on, something like that. You should try to, you will get more out of it the more beautiful you follow the tradition.

It's not to say magical things don't happen at Starbucks with your teacher. That also happens. But you'll get a, when you have a teaching, you should do it right.

It's like having a wedding and not having rice or flowers. You can do it. You can go to the justice of peace and they make you sign something in 10 minutes and you're legally married.

But it ain't the same, is it? You got to go to a cathedral and you got to have a big dress on. It's different.

Okay, MI YONGS. LO MED KYANG CHUD DEL DU YI KHUR BA LTA BU'I SKOL GYI BLO SBYONG LA LA MI YONGS LO MED KYANG And it won't do for the student to wait till they get home to try to have a breakthrough. You might not make it home.

You might die on the way. Have your breakthroughs as soon as you can. The minute you hear a new idea, try to have a breakthrough.

Don't save it for later. I'll have my breakthrough when I'm not busy. Good luck.

Because it'll never come. Okay, MI SBYONG BA YIN SNGON RGYAS SHES PO LTAR BA'I CHOS GANG GSUM DANG THA NA CHA DUNG GSUM PA TSUM KYANG SEMS LA SHIN TU PHAL MA ZHIG YOD CHE There was a RGYAS SHES in Kadampa times named Potowa. And he had this thing.

And this is the last thing we'll do tonight. RGYAS SHES PO LTAR BA'I attracted huge crowds of disciples. And sometimes he would just tell stories.

He would tell... CHA DUNG means... What do you call it?

What do you call it? Like the odyssey or an epic. He would go off on Gesar epic.

Okay, there's a Gesar epics in Tibet. These are like odyssey stories, Hercules stories, or Odyssey stories. Anyway, he would go off on some story.

Even the stories he told, people had breakthroughs. People in the audience would have breakthroughs. And they kept coming.

More and more people came. And they had breakthroughs all the time. DE'I TSE RGYAS SHES CHUG GI YOD ZER There was another RGYAS SHES around.

His name was CHUG GI YOD ZER. KHYAD PA CHEN PO ZHIG YOD PAS And he was a great scholar. He was a great pundit.

He knew his stuff. YOD PAS DANG SNGAGS SAB LA RGYAS PA JI THAMS SEMS KYANG And he would... He could describe anything.

He could quote anything. And he understood all the details. KHYAD PA CHEN PO ZHIG YOD PAS DANG SNGAGS SAB LA RGYAS PA JI THAMS SEMS KYANG SEMS LA NI PHEN PO But people said somehow when they went there, they didn't have the same reaction to his teaching.

And they didn't follow him. And he's not well-known anymore. I never heard of him.

Geshe Potowa is very famous still. A thousand years later, he's still famous. This other Geshe was more learned.

But people didn't have the same reaction in his classes. Something about the first Lama stuck with them and got them excited and they had breakthroughs in his class. Even though he's just telling a joke.

And then the other guy who knew more, nothing happened. Why? RGYAS PA JI THAMS SEMS KYANG POTOWA LA ZHUGS PA Then somebody came to Potowa and said, why is that?

What's going on? And he said, POTOWA KHO NGIS LEGS PAR ZHES PA BA ZHIG SEMS PAS YIN KYANG He knows better than me. And he's teaching more detail than I can.

SEMS PAS YIN KYANG DNGOS NYID KYI BYAS LUGS KHYAD PAR YIN SEMS But there's a difference between our teachings. There's a difference between the way we teach. There's a difference in the style in which we teach.

Then they said, well, what is that? DE'I BYIN DA YIN ZHUGS PA Then the person who's asking him said, well, what's the difference? KHO NGIS ZHES BYAR BRTEN LA BAD PA'I DBANG DU BYAS NAS GSUNGS He's trying to explain the structure of reality.

He's like trying to explain the structure of the world. NGES KYIS CHOS THAMS CAD KYI BRAL ZAD NANG DU BRTEN I take the Dharma that I teach. I take the, what do you call?

A sword, and then you have the tip. I take the tip of the sword of the Dharma and I stab it in my heart. As I'm teaching, I stab my own heart with what I'm saying.

What's he mean? He's applying it to himself. He's teaching about jealousy.

As he teaches, he's examining himself, his own jealousy. He's exploring his own jealousy. As he teaches, he's exploring his own jealousy.

BYAS PA YIN ZHUNG That's the difference. That's the difference. When I teach, everything I say, because of my training, I'm applying to myself as I go.

It's interesting. It's beautiful. And people sensed it.

You see? And then they started to do that. And they got more out of him.

So even as a teacher, as you teach, I think His Holiness is good at that. His Holiness will often say, I need to improve on this. Like he's obviously, his teacher was the man who edited this book.

Got it? All right. Probably.

That's where it came from. BYAS PA YIN ZHUNG BYAS SU GSUNGS DE RGYAS SHES GCOD KYI OD ZER GYI SEMS NAS Uh-oh. His words got to RGYAS SHES GCOD KYI OD ZER.

His explanation got to RGYAS SHES GCOD KYI OD ZER. PHO RTO BA'I DRIN DU SPYOD SEMS PAR PHEP So he came to check out RGYAS SHES PHO RTO BA. THUG RGYUD LA GZHIN DU PHEN PO CHUNG DE And he found it was wonderful and it helped him a lot.

Personally, it helped him a lot. YIN CHUNG DE SNGAR MA ZHES PA ZHIG ZHES RGYUD MA CHUNG YANG SNGAR MA GO BA ZHIG GO RGYUD CHUNG That will also make a good rap song. Okay, you ready?

SNGAR MA ZHES PA ZHIG ZHES RGYUD MA CHUNG SNGAR MA GO BA ZHIG GO RGYUD CHUNG It means, he didn't teach me anything I didn't know, but he taught me a lot that I didn't understand. Okay. Got it?

It's nice. It's cool. DE NA So we should be like that, he said.

DE NA RGYAS SHES STON PA'I ZHAL NAS STON PA'I means Dromtonpa, that's the disciple of Lord Atisha, who was a lay person. THEG CHEN GYI LAMA CHA BA ZHES PA NA BYAMS RE PAR GHO BAR SKYES LA BLAG TU LEN PA NA BSTAN PA'I THAMS PA LA GANG PHAN DANG THEG CAR DON DU GANG RGYUR TU MA ZHIG DGOS ZHES GSUNG PA YANG DU LTA BU LA BYA DGOS I don't know what that means. I'm going to do it tomorrow.

Okay. I don't know what that means. Yeah, forget that.

Tomorrow, okay. Let's pick it up tomorrow.