«Дар освобождения», курс 6 «Ретрит страсти», занятие 9

[Говорящий 1] (0:00 - 49:55)
It was done. So we did 20 karmic results that will come to you if you teach. And don't be shy about teaching, okay?

There's no doctors in town. People come to me and they say, look, I'm not a very good teacher, and I'm also too shy. And I'm like, you're the only show in town, you know?

So really, people are suffering. If it's true that everything comes from seeds in your mind, and if it's true that you can get all the dreams of your life by providing them to others and planting seeds, then it means that almost the entire world is mistaken. It means that almost all the activities of the world are mistaken.

All the work, all the efforts, all the relationships are bound to fail. And then if you have some understanding of how to plant a seed, and you can share that with someone. I have a friend, who is it?

Salim. He always says, I'll share it with people. He doesn't like to say he's teaching.

And I think that's fine. That's okay. But people's lives are desperate.

People are desperately unhappy. What they're doing doesn't work. And at some level, they know that.

They know that when they wake up and get in their car, they might die before they get to work. Everybody knows that. It doesn't matter how rich or famous you are.

Some people look confident, like Donald Trump, but they're not. My old boss lives in the Trump Tower. I go have breakfast there every time I'm in New York.

And Christina's mom is in the penthouse. Christina's mom is in the penthouse. And all the people there are just as unsure of themselves as we are.

Everyone's afraid of life and to die. Everyone is unsure of what to do. The things they try, they fail.

And everyone's concerned about getting older. It doesn't matter where you go or who it is. It doesn't matter how wealthy they are.

Even if you just know the basics of how to plant the seed, then you can really, really help people. It doesn't matter if you feel shy. You don't feel like a great master or something like that.

It doesn't matter. Anything you can tell to anybody that will help them understand how to plant the seed to get the things they want is already a great kindness. And it's the greatest thing you'll ever do in your life.

So don't be shy. It doesn't mean proselytize. It doesn't mean you grab people.

Don't be, what do you call it, nudnik? Alright. You guys know nudnik?

Nudnik is Yiddish. It's a diamond language, partly. And it means an irritatingly insistent person.

So don't be a nudnik. But help people. I think it helps if you don't identify where it comes from.

Sometimes. You don't have to say, I went to this retreat and here's what I learned from this Buddhist teacher and you have to buy it. You can just say, I was thinking about it.

It does seem that what you do comes around. I heard there's a way to make it come around faster. Like that.

Alright. So we finished the karmic results. Here are other benefits of being a teacher.

PHAN YON GZHAN There are other benefits. YANG DRAG ZHUGS CAN GYI ZHUGS PA'I RDO This is a sutra that was requested. Sometimes sutras are named by the person who started the conversation.

They asked a question in class and then the Buddha gave an answer. So this one was requested by a person named DRAG ZHUGS CAN. I forget the Sanskrit.

I think it's Ugra or something like that. KHYIM PA'I SANGS RIGS PAG TU MED PA'I PHYIN PA BAS RAB TU CHUNG BA'I PHYUD GZIGS SU BYED PA'I TSIGS SANGS PHYIN PA SEMS LHAG PA GSUNGS SO In that sutra it says there are two kinds of people. Some people enjoy making monetary offerings or food offerings or physical offerings.

That's their practice. That's their main spiritual practice. He's giving the example of someone who was very wealthy and was able to offer, I don't know, nowadays it would be like $10 million or $100 million to a temple or a monastery or something like that, a church.

But if rather than that, RAB TU CHUNG BA means someone who had committed to this path, PHYUD GZIGS SU BYED PA If they taught a single verse of four lines to another person in a Starbucks coffee shop, GSUNGS LHAG PA means they would get more good karma. That's better karma. Some people spend a lot of their time making money.

They are good people and they're generous people and they offer it to spiritual causes and things like that. But better to learn about the seeds and teach a single verse of it to someone. More powerful.

More good karma. DE LTAR PHAN YIN DE RNAMS DRAN NAS DE RNAMS BDAG GIS DE BA'I YOD BYED DO YIN YAMS NAS CHE DGOS He says, understand that becoming a teacher and taking on that responsibility is the one thing that will fulfill you in this life. You will feel fulfilled and you will feel like you found the thing that you were supposed to do.

That's the point of this retreat, right? So we kind of tricked you. You thought we were going to teach you how to be an artist or a musician or something.

And you can be, okay? If you teach the karma you collect, then you can do anything. You can pick up anything and do it.

Those are little things. You can learn a language or you can learn a musical instrument. It's not a big thing.

If you want to master something else, teach first. And that karma will enable you to do anything else you want. It doesn't matter.

It changes your capacity radically. I always wanted to play an upright bass. As a teacher, you're not supposed to brag about what you did yourself.

But anyway, I always wanted to play an upright bass. And then I bought one in Tucson, I don't know, a couple of years ago, right? And I just touched it and it started to play itself.

And I didn't learn. No one ever taught me. It's something I always wanted to do in my whole life.

I wanted to play with some good jazz guys in Paris. We did. It was a basement and there was only ten people there.

But we played in Paris. You can do anything you want. Make that karma with teaching.

Then you can just pick it up. It's easy. Everything else is easy.

So, BDAG GIS BDE BA'I YOD CES DO When you teach, you can have in the back of your mind that this is what's going to fulfill my life. This is what's going to give my life meaning. And this will make me deeply happy for the rest of my life.

YOD CES DO NYAMS DU CHE DGOS PHAN YON DI RNAMS CHOS KYI STENG NAS CHOS SHES PA KHO NA TZAM MIN PAR I love this part. This is so Pabongka Rinpoche. This is what makes this text a spiritual classic, beyond even the Lam Rim Chenmo or something.

He says, PHAN YON DI RNAMS CHOS KYI STENGS NAS CHOS SHES PA KHO NA TZAM MIN PAR These benefits don't only accrue to a person in a red suit who gets up on a throne in a big teaching hall. MIN PAR DGE RGYEN LTA BU RGYUR TU LA SPER BYED TSUL ZHING CI PA TSUN LA Even a person who is just like helping a person in a stove up, even a person who is sitting over tea with someone and listening to their problems and making little tiny suggestions how to plant the seeds to fix those problems, they get the same benefits. They get the same karma as the Dalai Lama talking in Madison Square Garden.

Remember that. DGE RGYEN LTA BU RGYUR TU LA SPER BYED TSUL ZHING CI PA TSUN LA PHYOD DON DAG PA'I TSE YANG THOB KUN DU LHA LUS DANG MI MA YIN PA SOGS MANG GI SDUG PA LA BYAS PA MOD PA LTOS NA This is interesting. According to Buddhist belief, there are countless unseen beings in the world.

They are constantly surrounding us. There are suffering ones like pretas. There are suffering ghosts and hungry spirits, craving spirits.

They died. They were attached to Pringles. They had Pringles on their mind as they died.

Then they go into some spirit form and they wander around looking for Pringles. Really, there are such things. A lot with houses, they say haunted house.

That's true. So people died, they were very, very attached to their house. Then their spirit stays there.

They are suffering. We can't see them. But they are suffering and they are around almost every house.

There are some. Then there are other spirits. Then there are enlightened beings constantly around.

They are wherever they think. They think everywhere. They are also around.

There are worldly gods like Brahma, Shiva, Indra, and things like that. Those kinds of beings, powerful spirit beings. They exist.

They are around. ,MIM MA YIN SOGS MANGGUD DUG PA LA BYAS PA MED PA BRTEN NA, So when you teach in Starbucks, imagine that they are there. They are also listening.

Like I come down here and somebody asks me a question and other people are listening. It's always like that. Even when you are talking to somebody at Starbucks or in your bedroom.

There are lots of other people listening. Be aware. Speak clearly.

,PAS BYED ZIN GYUR TSE PA'I TSE YANG DE DAM DRA, Even when you are trying to memorize a text or you are reciting a ritual, be aware. Like we are going to do a fire offering, which has just been expanded. We are going to do three fire offerings at once.

Because I figured then you won't get cold. Rob knows the details. Don't worry about it.

So everybody will be doing the fire offering. We will be reciting something and you will be reciting some prayers or some mantras. Then you think there are lots of beings around here who are also listening.

,GZHAN LA, ,SKYE BYA ZHES PA TSUN ZHES DU SNANG DGOS KYI GNAS BSTAN NA, ,PHEN YIN SKYE PAR CAN CHUNG, Even a casual conversation with a stranger and you say something. Like you are at a bar and you are going to know this person for exactly three minutes and a half. You turn to them and say, somebody is doing something nice.

You say, hey, good karma, right? Probably they are going to get a maple covered donut later. Then you get off the bus.

That is the only thing you will ever say to them in this life. Let it be something meaningful. It can sound like a joke.

But it will stick in their head. You can do a prayer while you are saying it and it will stick in their head. Me and Lama Krishna used to go to McDonald's, buy some french fries, go outside, sit at one of those plastic, uncomfortable, unmovable tables and take off little pieces of french fries and throw it to the birds.

When they grab it, you say, ,BLANG PO LA BRAL CHAD, You will be my disciple in the future life. You just sit there and nobody knows what you are up to. You are just throwing french fry pieces.

You can eat some too. But you can do that all day long. You can do little things.

Just say something to somebody or pass through their life. Say something special to them. Dedicate it in the moment that you say it.

I pray for your enlightenment. There have been lamas who purposely bumped into people. They were not paying any attention.

They were not going to listen if they said something. On the subway, they purposely bashed them to make a karmic connection for later. So you never know.

Lama Dorje Khyepa here. NYID PA STON PA DANG CHOS LA RIM ROL KHYAD PA NI There is a section now. It's the second large division of the presentation which is developing respect for a teacher and a teaching.

DAG PO SNGA BA'ANG PHRAG PAS RGYAL YUL TSUN ZAD STON PA'I NI DEN SHAMS So we have to, even if you are teaching, you have to show respect for the teaching. Even if you are a teacher, there are formalities. There are expressions of respect for what you are about to do.

You are about to handle nuclear material. And you have to handle it with respect. We are not what we teach.

That's just a basic thing. We are teaching these incredible texts. We are not half of that or a quarter of that.

We are just like kids showing off nuclear weapons. A lot of people get mixed up. They think, I am Pabongka Rinpoche.

I am that good. Don't go there. We are small, defective, unhappy people.

And then we get a chance to handle platinum and gold and share it with other people. But don't get this big head that you would be good enough to write this or I would be good enough to write this. We are not.

So don't get delusions of grandeur. You are teaching Tsongkapa. You are teaching the Dalai Lama.

You are teaching the Panchen Lama. But you are just a messenger, a boy. And don't get a big head.

Don't confuse it. People will react to the greatness of the teaching. And don't think it's to you.

Don't get all big head. People will throw themselves on the ground. People will start to cry.

People will have breakthroughs, realizations. It's the Dharma. It's not your level of understanding.

If it was you, they would be confused and unhappy. They would be having trouble with all their friends and their partner. So don't get confused.

Honor the source, which is much higher than we are. And be grateful that you have a chance to... We are like those dwarves in Grindelwald's Bay.

Okay, anyway. We get to handle the gold, but we don't have any gold. All right.

RANG RAB PA'I RGYAL YIN GSUNGS DONG PA'I TSE RDI GNYIS The one Lama named Dabong Drapa, he used to say, you know, even when Lord Buddha taught the Dharma in ancient times, GNYIS BSTAN BSHAMS means he would arrange the Dharma seat. He would arrange the throne as if it were the Buddha coming. As if some other being were coming to teach.

He was humble and he would arrange the throne. Because he would decorate the throne on which he was going to teach because of the greatness of the material he was presenting and not because of him. As an act of humility, he would arrange the seat.

BSTAN BSHAMS ZHES GSUNGS PA LTAR CHUNG DMAN DE'I KYIS ZHES CING GI RDO DE GSUNGS PA'I TSE When Lord Buddha taught emptiness, when he taught the Prajnaparamita Sutras, GNYIS KYI CHAGS SHING SANGS PA'I PHYIR GYIS RGYEN PA ZER GYI YAS BDAB BYAMS PA LTA BU with his own hands, which were marked with the marks of enlightened being and which resembled the limbs of a tree made of pure gold. Like with his own hands. LTA BU CHU BYAS PA'I BSTAN BSHAMS PAR MDZAD PA He arranged the teaching place.

He made sure the altar was nice. He made sure the seat was good. Because of the power of what he was going to say and not him.

As an act of humility. BSTAN BSHAMS PAR MDZAD LTA BU CHU BYAS PA'I BSTAN BSHAMS PAR MDZAD PA SANGS RGYAS KYI RGYEN KHOR BA'I ZHING YIN PAS KHOS PA CHEN PO'I PHYIR DGOS The Buddha himself is the ultimate object of reverence. But he's showing reference to something higher than him, which is the ideas which he's going to present.

So he makes sure the teaching place is beautiful. Because he wouldn't want those ideas to be presented in a room that wasn't beautifully arranged. ZHING YIN PAS KHOS PA CHEN PO'I PHYIR DGOS DE BZHIN DU DKA' DUS DANG PO'I TSE YANG DRA BCOM PA LA BSLAB GYIS RNAMS SBYAR TSEG PA'I DANG DU This is a very important word.

Say it. DKA' DUS. DKA' DUS DANG PO DKA' DUS DKA' DUS So in the Buddha's time, he never wrote anything.

He just gave... basically it was all questions and answers. People would ask him a question and then he would give a long answer.

And that would become a sutra. And it would be called the Sutra Asked by Barber or something like that. And that's how sutras got named.

Then the Buddha passed, pretended to pass. And then hundreds of years later, many years later, there were assemblies of people who had heard him speak. Like I heard him speak when I was a young man.

I heard the Buddha give a teaching. DGE BDAG GIS THOS PA DU GCIG NA What is that? That's the opening lines of the Heart Sutra.

I heard this once. Once I heard this. Who's saying that?

It's somebody who was there when the Buddha taught and something. Many years before. Maybe when he was very young.

Now he's very old. So DKA' DUS, there were meetings, convocations at which older students came back together and they tried to write down what the Buddha had said. And that's how the scriptures were written down.

They say those people had, what do you call it? What's it called? Perfect memory.

There's a word. Photographic memory. They said they had a photographic memory.

That they memorized every single word as it was spoken. They say that those disciples were much more advanced than we are. So they didn't have 747s and iPods.

But we say they were more advanced 2,000 years ago. People were more advanced. They had the capacity to memorize what was spoken as it was spoken and never forget it.

So they got together. When they got together, there were 500 of them at the first convocation. And they were all arhats already.

They had all already reached nirvana. All of these senior students, 500 of them, had already reached nirvana. Then KUN DGA'O, which is Ananda.

The disciple Ananda. One of the Buddha's closest disciples. Whose name means bliss.

He was going to recite so that other people could write down the teachings he had heard. So all 500 arhats took off their golden robe, the one I wore last night. It's called nam ja.

The outer robe is a ceremonial robe. It's a high ceremonial robe. They took it off and they laid it on the throne.

500. Then they asked him to sit on top of them. Which is very improper to sit on top of a robe.

As a seat. But it's to show that what he was about to say was higher. It was higher than that.

It was very beautiful. Make a good scene in a movie, I guess. KUN DGA'O ZHIG MI GSUM GYI ZHIG GIS CHE BA DE LTA BU RDZAS PAR BAS They were acknowledging the greatness of the ideas.

The ideas are greater than the forms of the ideas. The ideas are greater than the people or the books or the robes. The ideas are what is truly sacred.

You can spread those in coffee shops. You can go to Beijing and speak to Communist Party members and share it with them. We did two weeks ago.

That's the real precious thing. If ideas are transferred from one person to another, then that's what we're doing. That's what we're doing.

Regardless of the format or the robes or all the temples and the books and all that stuff. We don't need that stuff. It's nice.

I like them. Sometimes. But it's not the point.

The point is the exchange of holy ideas. It's not dependent on a certain clothes or pictures or like that. BDE PA DANG PO'I TSE ZHIG GIS CHE BA DE LTA BU RDZAS PAR BAS GZHAN DU CHUG DGOS SOGS SANGS RGYAS KYI NA SANG YIN PAS SEMS KYIS CI DAG STONG MA Then he goes off.

This is very common in a monastery. Apparently, Pabongka Rinpoche had seen some of his disciples using robes for lower purposes. I'm like the guy who threw the ladder out.

It's common in the monastery that if you're a cook, you will use your shawl to shine a plate or something. Big lamas come in and you just take the edge of the shawl and you shine a plate or you dry a plate with it. He's going off on that.

Your robes, every part of your robes, doesn't belong to you. Remember those sweatshirts that say, Property of Athletic Department, Tulane University? He's like, your robes are property of Lord Buddha.

You can't use them to clean stuff or you can't sit on them. Okay, all right. I've seen many monks use them as seats.

It's very bad. He says, CHOS KYI BYAS PA'I BYAS NI DE DAG DGOS You have to respect the greatness of what you're dealing with. The material you're handling is very powerful.

Be careful around it. It's like nuclear, plutonium. Be careful.

The stuff you're dealing with, as an amateur physicist, is like plutonium. Like very hot plutonium. Okay, about to go off.

BRTZON PA'I YIN RTEN DANG DKA' DRIN DRAN NAS DANG KYANG KHUL PA SKYE DGOS Remember the enlightenment of the teacher, the qualities of your teacher and the Buddha. Then always respect the books which express the ideas, the robes which people wore when they spoke about those ideas. The ideas make the other things holy.

Be careful around the other things. Okay, now I like this. This is kind of the essence of what I was hoping to teach this last time, last ten day teaching.

I wrote this email to like 200 people I know who are teaching and I said, listen in. This is the part, we just got to it because we're going a little slow and then I thought. This is a section called the proper intention for teaching, the proper motivation for teaching.

Then the proper, what do you call it? How you carry yourself. Comportment.

How you carry yourself as a teacher. The proper way to carry yourself as a teacher. We're going to talk about motivation.

Then we're going to talk about what's the proper way to teach. How should you handle yourself as you teach. Here we go.

GSUM PA SANGS PA DANG G-YOR JI LTA BU SHES PA LA Here's our third category, which is the proper motivation and the proper style with which to teach. SANGS PA NI, we'll start with the motivation. BDAG PO'I SNGA BA DAG PAS He said, this teacher called BDAG PO'I SNGA BA DAG PAS said, PAS KYIS BDAG NYID RTOGS DANG BYAS PA'I MYAL, GZHAN KHYEN LEN DANG CI ZHUGS DRAG DOGS SPANG, KHOR LA BYAMS BSGOM DU SHES SNGAGS ZIN PA'I, TSUL SHING BRTEN DGE BDE BA'I YOD CES SAM, SHES GSUNGS PA LTAR He gave a verse about the proper motivation for teaching.

Then it's full of really strange and old expressions. Pabongka Rinpoche goes through them one by one. So I'm not going to try to translate it.

I'll go through them exponentially. DANG SNGAGS KYI GNAS KYAL CHE BA RNAMS These are very important points for a teacher. ZER NA CHE DE MI STON PA'I PA'I KHYOD Say PA'I KHYOD.

PA'I KHYOD There's no English word. There's no such thing. PA'I KHYOD means for a teacher, for a master of any subject to withhold part of their mastery because they're afraid the student will get as good as them.

So like a sitar teacher or something. They will not show you something because they're afraid you'll get really good. You see what I mean?

That's called PA'I KHYOD. So as a teacher, you should avoid PA'I KHYOD. Give everything.

Don't hold back things. Out of fear. Never fear that your student is going to match you or get better than you.

That's the point. That's the goal. You should be happy.

Like a piano teacher. When the student plays Carnegie Hall and the piano teacher never did, then they should feel some prime. They should feel like a parent's prime.

They shouldn't be like, oh damn, he played Carnegie Hall and I never did. That's kind of weird, right? As a teacher, it's kind of perverted to hold something back or to be afraid that your student is going to surpass you.

It should be an honor that the student should surpass you. That's the whole idea. If you're a great teacher, the student should be greater.

That's a good thing. That actually means you are greater. PA'I KHYOD Don't have PA'I KHYOD.

Don't hold things back. Share everything. Share everything.

When they're ready. When they're ready, share everything you can. PA'I KHYOD ,GZHAN ZIN PA DANG, ,RTZON PA'I STON PA'I PA'I KHYOD DANG, ,CHOS CHE PA'I ZHOR LA, ,GNYE KHYAMS SNGAR, ,DI DANG DI CHE ZHES DANG NI SGROB PA, This is the sentence I was referring to a few moments ago.

He says, in the course of teaching, don't keep referring to your own great achievements. Don't say, oh, that reminds me of when I was trying to learn to meditate, but of course I masturbated. It's okay to share some things, if it's with a good heart.

Especially your mistakes. I think if you share your mistakes with your students, it can really help them. It's a kind of modesty or humility, right?

You say, I really screwed up with this other student called Art Engel, who I couldn't stand because his Tibetan was better than mine. And the teacher paid all the attention to him and took him on a trip and didn't take me. That's why I got in the diamond business.

He took Art on a trip. I'm like, damn, I'm going to go get a job then. I shouldn't tell you that.

See, it helps, I think, to tell those things. That's okay. But don't sit there and brag about all the good things you did.

It cheapens the Dharma and it doesn't impress anybody. The students are actually thinking, oh, this teacher is a little boastful, and it lowers their view of you. All right.

NGUL NAS BYIN PA'I SEMS BYED PA'I RGYUN DUG PA'I PHYI DANG BYED PA'I NGAL BA DANG BYED PA'I NGAL BA This is the third thing that the other Lama mentioned in his verse. BYED PA'I NGAL BA means never get discouraged. Never get discouraged teaching.

Lots of bad things will happen to you. You teach somebody for 15 years and then suddenly they turn on you and they do some really bad things to you. You can't quit.

You can't give up. To the extent that your motivation is pure, if your motivation is really to help other people, then you'll never get discouraged. If your motivation is pride, or your motivation is control of other people, or to possess other people, and that's a big danger.

As a Lama, you're in a position to control other people or to possess them. Almost like you would possess a car or a horse. You have to be very careful about your own motivation.

When they turn on you or when they leave for another teacher, it's a chance to explore how pure was your motivation. If you had a good motivation, you can say, well, I'm glad I shared with them as much as I did. If you have a bad motivation, you're like, oh, this is a terrible person.

They went to another teacher. They betrayed me. Like that.

That reveals that your motivation was defective from the beginning. You should only wish for their happiness and share as much as you can. Don't think you own them or possess them.

Be happy when they grow and they fly from the nest. Don't try to own them. Share everything and then kick them out of the nest.

Which is sometimes a traumatic process. But never be discouraged. You devote 15 years to teaching somebody.

They screw up and they do something really bad. Then what are you going to do? You just have to keep going.

You don't have a choice. You do the best you can. You don't succeed.

Well, whatever you taught them did succeed. Then you move on. You have to move on.

Also, you can't get tired. A lot of people teach because it's fun. They will teach so long as it is fun for them.

There might come a point where it's no longer fun. I don't mean that it's not interesting or it's not engaging. I mean it might get too big.

Then for you to really serve all those people becomes physically hard on your body. Then a sense of responsibility has to kick in. There will be a time when it's not fun to have more students.

It's just exhausting. Then a person with a lesser motivation will stop. They'll say, this makes me tired.

Or this is too much. Or like that. This is not fun for me.

This is no longer interesting for me. So you shouldn't be teaching because it's interesting. You should be teaching out of a sense of responsibility.

At a certain point of maturity in a teacher's life, when it becomes burdensome, they embrace it. Because this is my responsibility. It's fun to teach.

You get attention. It's like I met Richard. Richard Gere came to our house one time.

We asked him to sponsor some project in Mongolia. He came in the summer in New York to Sixth Street, the temple at Sixth Street. He knocked on the door and we opened the door.

Here's this guy. He's got a baseball cap on. He's got these big dark glasses.

He has a wool scarf wrapped all the way up to here. I'm like, are you Richard? He said, yes.

I said, well, come in. It's like 110 degrees out there. I'm like, why have you got all this stuff on?

He said, you don't know what it's like to walk down the street and 50 people are grabbing you. He said, it's really suffering. It's really unpleasant.

I can't walk down. I can't go to a restaurant in New York City and have a quiet meal. It's not possible.

It's suffering. It hurts. I don't get any privacy.

There's always people trying to take my picture and put it in some magazine. If I sneeze and I look like that. There's a point when the teaching, the attention isn't fun anymore.

To take care of that many people becomes difficult and a drain on your life. Then it's a good motivation check. It's your responsibility to say that.

You don't have a choice. It's inconvenient. They call you at midnight.

They're having a crisis. It becomes unfun to have that much attention. Then responsibility has to continue.

You can't say I'm tired or that's too much for me. You are responsible for them. If you don't fulfill that responsibility, it could really hurt them.

At a certain point, you have to be acting out of a sense of just pure willingness to help someone else at the cost of your peace and your health. All right. CHAGS DANG GI KUN NAS BLANGS TE GZHAN GYIS KHYEN BRJOD PA GZHAN GYIS KHYEN BRJOD PA means some people get up to teach and most of the teaching time is devoted to explaining why other teachers are creepy and not as skilled as them.

You go to a yoga class sometimes like that. I don't know, it's like an Ashtanga class and they're all saying, we do Vinyasa, we keep you moving. We're not like those Iyengar people who stop and explain alignment for 15 minutes and you get cold and then your muscles start.

Then you're a new student and you don't know who's Iyengar and you don't know what's Ashtanga. The teacher spends the whole hour explaining to you why Iyengar is bad and then you're like, it's just useless. Or sects, Tibetan sects also.

All the Kagyus don't know what they're talking about and the Nyingpas are crazy and the Dukongs are, who'd want to be a Dukong? And a new student doesn't know any of these things and it doesn't matter to them. All of the Dharma seems sweet to them.

Oftentimes the new students are more pure than the teachers who are all into one sect. So don't go off on the sect thing, sectarian thing. Don't spend the whole class explaining why some of the teachers, why people shouldn't be going to the teacher across the street at the Zen center or something.

You just turn the students off. They're not stupid. People are very subtle.

People are very, what do you call it? Sensitive. People know when you're just ragging on some other group because you're insecure.

And then they get turned off. Be, what do you call it? What's that one?

The opposite of parochial. Be... They have ecumenical?

Is it ecumenical? I don't know. Be open to everybody.

And not just in your mouth. It's really disgusting also when somebody gets up and says, we like the Muslim people. They're okay.

And then you're like... And then, if you're going to be brotherly to everybody, then bring an imam to your Dharma group. We did, right?

It's beautiful. And it wasn't some politically correct thing. And it was awesome.

And we had a really good time. And we love each other. I don't know.

You don't know the end of the story. We paid them, right? The man and the woman who came from Montreal and Toronto.

And they sent it back. They sent the money back. They said, donate it to one of your buddies.

Anyway. Be ecumenical and be in your heart and not in your mouth. I think we do that well in this group in yoga.

We have all kinds of yoga. We have all kinds of teachers coming. I go personally to every kind of yoga class I can.

And I'm glad I did. And it's made me really appreciate all the different kinds of yoga. There's some kinds I can't do.

Or there's some kinds that I get sick. If I go to 110 degrees, I personally get sick. But I appreciate it.

And I think if you go to them, if you go to some other teachings, then you start to appreciate everybody. So you shouldn't get up there and spend the whole time criticizing somebody else. Usually it's because you're insecure.

Or you don't know your system very well. ,GCES PA'I NGES BAR DANG, CHAGS DANG YIN KUN RANG PAS, ,CHAGS MED DUG PAR CI ZHUGS KYI LAS BLO BYAS PA, What's LAS BLO? LAS BLO means lazy.

I'll teach you later. CI ZHUGS means, what do you call it? No, it means to postpone or delay.

Somebody says, can you teach me the eight principles of Madhyamaka? And you're like, yeah, okay, maybe sometime. Really, you don't know them very well and you're too lazy to go look them up.

So don't be lazy and keep delaying. When somebody asks for a teaching, give it. If you can.

If there's time and you have the skill, then teach them. Don't be lazy. LAS BLO BYAS PA DANG We're a little bit over time.

Let me see. One more. ,GZHAN MTHO BAR MTHOGS PA'I PHRAG RTOG, ,GZHAN MTHO BAR MTHOGS PA'I PHRAG RTOG means not out of jealousy.

Don't have this sense of jealousy. And that gets into competitiveness. The Lama across town gives a Yamantaka initiation.

So you give a blue-armed Yamantaka initiation. And then they give a 12 blue-armed Yamantaka initiation. And then you up the stakes.

Like that. Like competing with some other teacher or some other group. Let it go.

Be who you are. If five people come to your school and 2,000 people come across the street, don't stress about it. The five people are gaining something special from you.

And be happy with who you are. Be satisfied with who you are. Don't compare yourself to other people.

That's just general good advice in your life. Be who you are. Be special.

Teach what you can. Teach it the way you can. And don't compare yourself to other people.

It's just a waste of time. It never ends. There's always somebody who has more students than you.

Then you're going to hit the Dalai Lama. He gets 20,000 people in the stadium in Mexico City. You're never going to hit that.

You might as well just be who you are. Teach what you can. Have a good time.

Don't compare yourself to other people and other teachers. It gets really bad. If I train all of you and then you go start your own little centers, then you should cooperate with each other.

You're in Mexico City. Somebody else is in Singapore teaching. Invite them to come to Mexico City or Sofia.

Have a good time with each other. Don't look on the internet to see if the Sofia group got bigger than the Mexico City group. And hate Jada from afar.

Cooperate with each other. Find reasons to do little programs with each other. It's much more fun.

It's a lot more fun to collaborate than to be jealous of each other. I had a guy in the monastery. His name is George Dreyfus.

He's Swiss. He was the first Western Geshe. Tibetans would come to me and say, they would watch me debate and then they'd say, George is better.

I'd be like, damn. They'd say, he's like a miracle. It's like a demon takes him over and he becomes Tibetan.

He becomes a true Geshe. He's like ripping everyone up. No one can stand up against him.

I'm like, damn. I work really hard and I'm really jealous of him. He's like a block away in the monastery.

I avoid that block. Then one day I was like, I don't know. I should get over this.

I said, I'm going to go meet him. When you meet another monk, you're supposed to take orange squash. Orange.

It's old, rotten. It's what do you call it? Concentrate.

It's concentrate. Then you add it to water all day. That's how the monks make soda pop.

You always take an orange squash. You take a silk scarf. You take some Tibetan donuts, kapse.

It's like you're paying a call on another monk. There's stuff you're supposed to do. Then I go.

I'm like, knock on his door. I'm like, hi, I'm Mike. I wasn't Geshe at that time.

I was like, my name's Mike. I don't know. I thought maybe we could talk.

Then I went in there and I sat down. I'm looking at his face. I said, I'm jealous of you.

Then he's like, that's fine. In that moment, we became friends. Then we started watching out for each other.

We started helping each other. We're still friends. 20 years later.

Oftentimes the people you are most jealous of are the ones that would be the best friends. Because they are doing the same thing you're doing and that's why you're jealous of them. Just go confront this person and say, let's go out to dinner together.

Then you'll probably make a really good friend. People who are other teachers. Then do little collaborations with them.

Then instead of being jealous of them, you become their partners in crime. Try that. It's really good.

To sit there across town and hate another teacher and be jealous of them is also miserable. It's no fun. It won't make you happy.

You'll be unhappy all the time. All right. Let's begin.

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