«Дар освобождения», курс 6 «Ретрит страсти», занятие 10

[Говорящий 1] (0:00 - 48:56)
I brought the text from my house, so you'd be impressed. The computer is much more efficient. So that will take us 10 years.

We finished a year? Something like that. One year?

Okay, you have nine years to go, or a bit more. It feels great. You guys feel great.

The meditation is really good, and I think you're working very hard. People are all smiling. That's a good sign.

I think the yoga is good, and the meditation and the discipline is good. And I heard Alisa Monte's classes were awesome. And the subject that we've reached is very important.

This book is an instruction manual for enlightenment. It's billed as Chanjulangi Rinpoche, right? The steps A to Z to enlightenment, right?

It's a special kind of Tibetan literature. And we've reached, what, after a year of work, right? We've reached what I think is the most important part.

And especially those of you who are teaching, I'm really glad that you're here, because we've reached the section on how to be a good teacher. We just finished the section on how to be a good student, all right? How to listen, how to receive a teaching properly.

And that's a very ancient and beautiful protocol and etiquette, which I think is very wonderful in our modern times, right? To go through an ancient system of graceful learning and being respectful and affectionate to each other and to the teacher. I think it's a beautiful thing in our world that we can enjoy some ancient advice on that, two and a half thousand years old.

So we reached a section on how to teach, right? And he divided it into two sections. One was the proper attitude as you teach, and then later the proper behavior as you teach, as a teacher.

And I think for us, this is maybe one of the most useful parts of this instruction book, how to be a good student. And then hopefully all students become teachers. And then how to be a good teacher, right?

So I'll review a little bit about the attitude. We went through the attitude from a quotation, and we'll review that, and then we'll go on to the proper behavior of a teacher, okay? And again, the context of this is that I hope, I mean, in our tradition, immediate tradition, it's 42 generations, right?

And then you have to think, I'm the next link in the chain. It has been passed on for two and a half thousand years, and it has not been broken. We can recite the teachers back to the beginning, right?

We have to do it every two weeks in the monastery. And so then your name will be named for your students. It splits every student, right?

And then, so you have to listen carefully, and you have to take good notes, and you have to be able to pass it on to your students, because you are the next link, and you should teach, you should be the next link, okay? Again, it's not my interest to, that you join a certain sect or doctrine or religion. I don't care.

We have photos. I didn't put them up. I think just the ideas, sweet, helpful ideas, without the baggage, the cultural baggage, you know, just ideas that will help anybody.

Of any background. We have many programs in Muslim countries, and we just got back from Beijing, teaching Communist Party regulars, and I don't think it's necessary to cast it as a religion. I think they are just the concept that you can have whatever you want in your life.

All your wishes in this life can be fulfilled if you learn how to grant other people's wishes. And there's a science to that. I thought we would talk more about it tomorrow, because I'm doing personal appointments with some people, and today I did some, and either people have some dream in mind, or they have some challenge in their life, and this system provides a unique way of gaining the things you hope for, and removing problems in your life.

It's unique, and it's beautiful. And anyone can understand it, and anyone can use it. And then keep doing whatever religion your parents did.

I don't, it's okay. Go to, you know, I had this Irish guy, he came up to me and said, Oh, Geshe Michael, I really like your teaching. Now I'm going to switch to Buddhism.

And I'm like, this was Kevin Thornton. I'm like, Kevin, at that time you had this beautiful daughter, right? So I was like, so you're going to marry your daughter in a basement of your house with some 16-armed blue Tibetan deity, or are you going to go to a good Irish church and cathedral with organ music and a nice white veil and all that?

And he says, maybe I'll go for the veil. And I said, that's how you grew up. That's okay.

And then I think Jesus would be very happy if he knew you were working to learn new ways to serve others, and then to plant what you want to reap. It's very much, maybe this is a new way to get insight into that. So tomorrow we will, I thought we'd go through some of the karmic tricks you can use to be successful at the things you want to be and to remove the problems in your life.

So the theme of this week is creativity or the passion, what passion you have in your life. Sometimes people lose their passion in their life. Things happen in their life.

They change partners. The children move out. They get tired of the job that they used to enjoy.

Or they're just coming into their maturity in life. They just came out of college and they don't really know what they want. Some people never had a passion and they don't know how to find one.

Some people had a passion and lost it. And then some people have a passion, but they feel they want to keep that passion, but they want something higher also. Something that would serve the world.

A passion or some way to use the passion they have to serve others. And they feel like that would make them whole. That would be a whole life.

So we have, tomorrow we'll talk about that. Okay, there's a system to do that, to reach passion. And we brought some passionate teachers here, Alisa Monte.

And then tomorrow we have Eden Fall and some other people. And I just thought we could study passion a little. And then tomorrow, I think, tomorrow afternoon maybe, we'll talk about ways to, karmic ways to find your passion or to sustain your passion or to bring passion back to a relationship, for example.

And then we'll be having ideas. I've asked the teachers to help us also. They're very creative people.

I think Alisa Monte is one of the most creative people in the world that I know of. And I would encourage her to speak about from where does she draw her creativity? Because she has sustained it for many years.

So between all those influences, maybe we can be passionate. All right, okay. Okay, sumpa samba dhanjongwa jitabu shepa.

The proper attitude for a teacher. Dabong lawa drakpe. Then he's quoting a Lama from a place called Dabon.

His name was Ngawang Drakpa. ,SPE GYI BDAG NI DRO LTAR BYED PA'I NGAL, ,GZHAN GYIS LEN DANG CI ZHUGS DRAG TUGS PANG, ,KHOR LA BYAMS SGOM DU ZHIG NGES ZIN PAS, ,TSUL SHING BSTAN DGE DE BA'I YOD CES SAM, Then we finish the section about 20 different karmic results of teaching. Taking the time to share what you've learned with other people.

Maybe it's just in the kitchen and your sister is saying, her husband never listens to her. And then you share with her the things we're going to talk about tomorrow. I don't call it karma.

We teach in China or India and... Who is that? Ye Li, right?

In China. Karma in India. And once you say those words in those countries, 2,000 years of wrong ideas kick in.

So we avoid them. We talk about seeds in the mind. Mental seeds.

And then you start with a clean slate about how it works. So we finished discussing 20 personal things about you which will change if you start to teach. Start to teach in your kitchen or in Starbucks or in front of 1,000 people in Shanghai.

Doesn't matter, okay? It's all the same. George Shubhasambhani.

So he gives us some examples. What's pekyu? You can talk if I ask you something.

Pekyu. Say again? Yeah, I'd say professional jealousy, maybe.

Like pekyu means you hold some things back. There's a fear in some teachers that their students will get better than them. There's a fear among some.

I know some yoga teachers who don't like to teach everything they know because they're afraid the student will quit and start a yoga studio across the street and compete with them. But as a teacher, the first fault of attitude is called pekyu, means unwilling to share everything you know because of some fear of competition or jealousy. So that's the first thing you have to get over.

You have to want the student to reach their full potential. And you have to give up everything, give them everything you have, so that they can reach their full potential and not feel threatened by them, okay? You should share everything.

And I personally like to encourage my students to open a studio across the street and start teaching. And it will only be sweeter. Don't worry about competition.

It's only sweeter to have 20 centers in town that are all run by your ex-students. And it's just a pleasure. It's more of a pleasure, okay?

So don't be afraid of it. That's sort of a childish attitude that we all have. But you can get over it.

These kinds of attitudes, if you break them once or twice and see how fun it is to have your student open up a studio across the street and do well, then you break the old habit and you start a new good habit. So the hard thing is to break it the first time and to really share everything you have and help your student to become independent. Push them out of the nest.

Give them financial help. Give them the materials. None of the materials we have are copyrighted.

I just tell people, change the name on the top. And it's okay. All right, thank you.

DANG NI GROG DANG NI GROG means, as a teacher, don't be boastful. It's okay to share experiences. I think most experience that a spiritual teacher would share would be lessons they had learned painfully.

And that kind of thing you can share with people. I was insanely jealous of another disciple of my Lama. Those stories are uplifting.

But to sit there and boast about how many pages you memorized or things like that, it turns a student off. You want to impress them, but the opposite happens. They just get turned off.

They say, oh, this is the kind of teacher who is more interested about their own achievements. I went to some famous yoga teacher in India. It was very uncomfortable.

All the rooms were full of awards he had received. I sat with him to get darshan, to get advice. He just wanted to show me his photos, his photo collection of poses he used to do.

And I was sort of discouraged. So don't be boastful. You can boast about the mistakes you made and lessons you've learned.

And the rest, if you're really special, it will come out. It'll come through. You don't have to talk about it.

DANG NI RTOG DANG SPYOD PA'I NGAL SPYOD PA'I NGAL means get discouraged with the student. And I think what we talked about the other day was that when you start teaching, they call EPSAR TSAPO. Say EPSAR.

EPSAR TSAPO It means the novelty of having so much attention. And everyone is giving you flowers and saying you're so smart. And you get a lot of attention that you didn't used to get at the beginning.

And then that wears off. The novelty of getting attention wears off. It can even go the opposite way.

If you get too much attention, it can be very exhausting. And a lot of the attention, the shallow attention you get, like I'm in China, right? And like 500 people, I say, after the talk, I'll stay for photos.

Chinese people like photos with a well-known person. Then it will take an extra three or four hours to do photos. There'll be a line of 500 people to do photos.

And you want to connect with them. You look at them and they're walking up the stage to do the photo. And you look at them and they're not looking at you.

They're looking at the cameraman. And then you're like, here I am. And then you want to touch them somehow.

And then they sit down and you take the photo. And then they just run towards the cameraman. And then you're like...

And then you realize how shallow that kind of attention is. The kind of attention that movie stars get or rock and roll stars get, it's very shallow and it's very unfelt. There's no real love behind it.

It's just a kind of a scene. And so there's a chance that when that all wears off and it becomes hard work, or when a student is having trouble and they're going through a hard time and they need counseling today, a couple hours. And day after tomorrow, they're going to need a couple hours more.

And you're tired. And all the attention wore off. And now it's down to somebody who really needs help and really needs your help.

And then it's just hard work. And if your motivation is less than perfect at the beginning, you won't be able or willing to do the work. And you will hurt them.

They will depend on you. They'll come to you for help. And you'll say, it's okay, I have a newspaper interview.

And so when it becomes hard work, you have to become even more interested and even more excited. You should be excited about the chance to be of a lasting benefit to someone rather than have your photo taken with 500 Chinese people. You see what I mean?

Because that's more exciting. But it's hard work and you might get tired. So Dini said, as a teacher, you shouldn't be tired.

Or you say the same, you give the same teaching day after day. You tell them not to have certain ideas. And then you hear them teach the first time and you're like, man, that's what I told them not to say.

And then you can get discouraged. But don't get discouraged. You just keep plugging away.

CHEGS PA'I MYANG GZHAN GYIS LENG GZHAN GYIS LENG means as a teacher to focus a lot of your energy on other teachers that you feel jealous of or you criticize other groups. That group doesn't meditate with their left foot up first. They meditate with their right foot up first.

You know, like that. And the whole talk is about how bad the other groups are. And then sometimes you want to just raise your hand and say, but what do you want to teach?

Because they're just always talking about somebody else. Somebody else who doesn't do it the way we do it. You know, what do we call it?

C.S. Lewis, right? Laniya. He wrote a beautiful book called The Screwtape Letters.

It's a letter from the devil to his nephew as he's trying to corrupt somebody. And he talks about the fish knife syndrome, which means, you know, when you were a little kid, you went to somebody else's house and they used a different kind of knife to cut an orange or an apple. And you thought they weren't doing it right.

They weren't using the right knife. And as we get older, we tend to do that with other groups or other beliefs. That gets into the next one, which is, sorry.

Well, down the ways, he's going to say trato. Trato means jealousy, just outright jealousy of other teachers, other groups, counting how many students they have, counting how many students came to your retreat, being very concerned that not enough students have signed up for your program and trying to pump up the numbers somehow. You invite your mother and all of her friends when you offer them free refreshments.

And you're very concerned about the other groups in town, how many people are coming to their programs and how popular are they. Just from the beginning, here I am to tell you, after a hard life of experience, just relax. And whoever comes, teach them sweetly.

Teach them from your heart. And don't compare yourself to other people. You are different.

You are unique and you are special. You can say, nobody else knows how special I am and that's why less students came. Like that.

You are special. You are special and you can offer something that no one else offers. Stick to your own style.

Don't try to imitate other people. They're more popular than me. Maybe I need to paint my yoga studio the color they did.

Don't stress about that. Teach whoever resonates with you, they will come. And they will resonate with you more than anybody else.

And whoever resonates with you, then serve them, help them. The resonance might change after a year or five years or 15 years. They might decide they would like to go to another teacher.

Then be graceful and help them and praise the other teachers' good qualities and thank them. David Swenson told me, he says, don't treat students like baseball cards. I got stings, stings my feet.

I got Pavarotti. No, I had this talk with somebody. And don't think like that.

Just enjoy who you are. Teach the way you teach. And whoever comes, just be close with them and enjoy it.

And don't compare yourself to other teachers. You're different, you're special. And teach it your way.

When you think competitively with other teachers, the karma of that is that you will lose students. All right. Then the last one we had in there was, qi shou means you kind of delay.

You don't get your act together. You don't rent the space. You don't fix it up.

You don't get your class together in time. You don't have homeworks ready at the retreat. But you're always delaying.

People ask you, people come with sincere questions. And you haven't prepared. And you can't give an answer.

Prepare for your class. Take a lot of time to prepare for your class. And prepare what you're going to teach.

Don't get sloppy. I think people get more famous. And they get more used to teaching.

And they get more used to the attention. And then they don't work as hard before the class to be prepared. So I always say, go to the dollar store with $100.

Walk into the class ready to teach for 100 hours, if it's only a one-hour class in Toronto or something. Then walk in ready to teach the whole book. I'm working very hard on this text a year ahead.

Today, I was working in a coffee shop in Cuttcot on a year from now. And you should be ready and have your plan ready for your class. Be ready for the class.

OK, I think we're, I mean, who was it, Pabongka Rinpoche? Then he ends by saying, NYANG PO PO RNAM LA BYAMS PA DANG NING RJE ZHUGS DRAG PA DU SHING SNGAG ZHAG TU ZHES DGOS Leave off those five negative emotions. And when you walk into a class, think to yourself, what would help these people the most?

I mean, that should always be the first thing in your mind. Walk in, even if you have planned a class, and then you suddenly realize this may not be the most helpful thing for the people tonight, then be willing to change your plan. Like, think carefully as you walk in.

A really good teacher sits down and looks around the room, and they might radically change their plan for the class, just seeing where the students are that day, that night. And they might be, when you walk in and you sit down and look around, and then think what would really help people tonight with their life. They all have problems, and they all have dreams.

And your job is to make their dreams come true. And you don't have any other job. You're not supposed to look intelligent or skilled.

By hook or crook, you are supposed to make their dreams come true. And that should be your motivation when you sit down. That should be how you're thinking when you sit down.

How can I make these people's dreams come true? Sometimes that involves helping them improve their dream. People's dreams are not big enough sometimes.

They don't even know how to dream. So that's another thing. We'll talk about that tomorrow.

Helping them form a dream. SNYING RJE ZHUGS BSTAN DU GZHAN SNGAR ZHAG TU DANG DU GZHAN SNGAR NI RANG RNAMS PA CHU LA MIN NYAN PAR PO LA NAS SOGS SNGAR GYI DU SHES DUG He says, keep in mind, set your motivation with the five conceptions. Did we have the five conceptions?

Good. We had six. At least one person was missing.

OK. No, you're supposed to say, wait a minute. We had six.

He says, what are the five conceptions? What am I talking about? Me.

RANG RNAMS PA Now, you see, before we had six conceptions. As a student, as a disciple, we are supposed to listen to the teaching with six conceptions, right? Let's see if I remember.

I don't know. Where's the first one? I'm sick.

I have a problem. I'm not living my life to my full capacity, potential. I'm less than I could have been.

If you don't think that, you won't try hard. I could be more. I could be doing something more.

Number one. Number two. Yeah?

Whatever teaching. The ideas that we are getting. Yeah, I think the teacher is like a doctor, right?

So this teacher is going to help me become what I. I'm coming to this class, and I'm listening to this teacher, because I think they might help me to become the more thing that I think I could be. Teacher is like a doctor.

Master physician, right? Three. What they're teaching is like medicine.

Four. My following what they have taught is similar to taking medicine, to bring me up to my... I prefer to say vitamin, right?

Supplement. Then five and six were a little strange. Five was, think of the enlightened beings as a holy being, or think of the holy being as an enlightened being.

And then number six was... Yeah. That's big, and we'll talk about it tomorrow.

But as you listen to ideas which are going to change your life, part of your motivation can be, if this thing works as advertised, then I will share it with others. I will keep it going. Okay.

He's giving some half-hour method to get anything you want in your life. Geshe Michael, tomorrow, will do, okay? He's claiming that in a half hour, you can learn a method that can make any wish you have come true in this life.

Anything. And then as you start to experiment, do small experiments with the method that is given to you. In the back of your mind should be the motivation.

If it does work, I will share it. Okay. I'll check it out.

I'll do what he said for a month or a couple of weeks. And if it gives those results that he claims, then I'm going to teach it. I will keep it in the world.

I will be the next one to keep it in the world. If it doesn't work, then relax. Go watch TV.

You know, I don't know. Get some other app. Nar Shantusha Tutting.

So he says, now he's turning it around, okay? Now he's turning the six conceptions around. Now if you're a teacher, you are the doctor.

I am the doctor. Okay. People come to me and say, I don't feel comfortable teaching those ideas.

I haven't been trained for 25 years in the monastery all day, every day. I haven't had any big realizations. I still get jealous of every teacher in town.

I don't know if I should teach. I mean, my answer is, look, it's a critical situation. What do you call it, triage?

Triage? It's triage, okay? Everyone is suffering.

Everyone is afraid of life. They are going to die. They are getting old.

They can't hang on to anything. They get a good job, they lose it. They get a good man, they miss him.

They bear children, they die. And then everyone's concerned about life. Everyone has the same fundamental worries about getting old or dying or feeding themselves and their families.

You're the only doctor in town. Everyone is critically ill. I saw last night, you didn't get to see anything.

I saw Like Water for Elephants, right? Saw that boy in the movie. He never finished veterinary school.

But he's the only guy on the train who knows anything. So he's got to take care of this circus animal. We're like that.

Like we're the only show in town. So you just do the best you can. I'm the doctor.

What I'm teaching is like, they say medicine. I like to call it the only cure for AIDS. I like to call it that.

It's more precious than that. It's more rare than that. It's more powerful than that.

You are learning, I would say, I believe, you are learning something this week that is more precious than the cure for AIDS. And you will leave this camp with that knowledge. And you can help people.

You can really help people. OK? So what you have is like medicine.

NYEN PA PO LA MED PA How should you think of those who listen to your teaching, who come to your teaching? Yeah, they're ill. They're in big trouble.

They're, what do you call? What do you call? Almost to die sick.

Terminally ill. They are terminally ill. Whatever you offer them is, will be some comfort.

OK, terminally ill. NYEN PA SOGS So how many we got there? No, is it?

I'm the doctor. What I'm teaching is the medicine. Oh, and then he said SOGS.

What's LA SOGS PA? That's not really fair. It's et cetera.

SNGAR DU SHES SGRUB KYI NEN DANG NAS YANGS SU LAMA NAS TSOR BA'I DU SHES MA STOGS He says, leave out the one about the treatment. When you're teaching. Why?

DU SHES MA STOGS DU SHES KYI SHING TSUL SHIN TU ME DGE BA DE DANG BDAG GIS DE RGYUR CHEN NAMTE TZAM CHI BU DE NYID NGOR MA RNGON GYI RLEN DU BYAG PA If I practice that, I will get better. OK, he says leave that out because you're the teacher. When you're the teacher.

Of course, that kind of contradicts his other advice. That we should apply it even to ourselves as we teach. Anyway, he says it's the students who should concentrate on practicing what was taught.

But it doesn't mean that the teacher shouldn't. Earlier, he said the teacher should. I think even if you're teaching dance or something like that.

Let's say you're teaching alignment. Some kind of alignment. Then even if you're not actively dancing anymore, you could listen to your own advice.

That's the idea. You would listen to your own advice. As I walk through the city or as I stand in my kitchen and cook, I will have good alignment.

I heard like George Bellingham or somebody, they said, don't drop your alignment at the dance school. Bring it home. And as you walk or as you sit or as you cook, then be aware of your alignment.

And even if you're not dancing yourself as a teacher, but still be aware of your alignment and keep it. So as a teacher of these things, spiritual things, then whatever level of spiritual thing you're teaching, apply it to yourself constantly during the day. Whatever subject you're on, keep applying it to yourself.

I'm going to just start the next section. Then we'll take a break. And then we'll do questions and answers.

We'll have about a half hour for that. SBYOR BA JI LTA BU ZHES PA NI This is called, I don't know, comportment or something like that. You'll see.

I'll just start talking about it. The first was the attitude. We finished the attitude.

Now we're on to how should you act as a teacher. SBYOR BA JI LTA BU ZHES PA NI CHU SOGS TZANG DRA DANG LDAN PAS DGOS SAGS PA KHYEN You should keep good personal hygiene. And you should dress nicely.

And that just depends on where you're teaching. If I'm teaching at a yoga festival, then I wear a hoodie and some old jeans. And that's the proper dress.

You see what I mean? Don't wear a tie to a yoga festival. But when you get up in Beijing to teach business people, then don't wear the hoodie.

Or what do you call those hats? Wrapper hat, a wool cap. Like, fit the audience, whatever audience it is, fit them.

So for dress down, you should dress down. Dress up, you should dress up. But do it consciously.

Be aware of your image as a teacher. It's wrong for the student to judge the teacher on their image. But it's unfair to a new student to pretend to be a new student.

Project an image which is much different from what you're advertising. So if you're going to teach a yoga class, don't show up in a suit. If you're going to teach the Young Presidents Association of Singapore, then don't show up in yoga clothes.

You try to fit the... You're playing a certain role. By the way, you should be able to morph.

That's crucial for a teacher. And that's a big deal in Buddhism. The teacher should morph to the audience.

If the audience is all young people, then you wear something young. If the audience is all... We gave a talk to, I don't know, the Chinese community in Singapore.

They're all 60. They're all smoking. It's a whole cafeteria full of people smoking.

And all these old communist guys. And then you should wear an old communist suit. And I did.

And they felt comfortable with me. You see what I mean? And then if you go teach power yoga in Scottsdale, you should wear some Lululemon or something.

You know, something that's not... Or, sorry, spiritual gangster. Something which is a little hip for that audience.

And it's not... What do you call it? That's not being...

What do you call it? What's the insincere? It's not being funny.

You should have the capacity to shift quickly to an audience's expectations. Because it will help them learn better. If you show up in a tie and a suit at power yoga, it's just going to turn everybody off.

And they won't hear what you have to say. And if you show up in a World Cup in a business event, then they won't listen. They...

You may have beautiful, powerful things to say, but it will disturb the flow of the instruction. They won't be able to get past your appearance. You see what I mean?

So I don't like suits. If you study the inner body and you study chakras, the worst thing you can do to your body is to constrict the neck with a piece of cloth. You know?

But you have to. Because otherwise, it will block the transmission of the information. And your language should shift to the audience.

I go to these teachings, like people are saying, if you want the shunyata of the Dharmakaya to enter your dharma sadhana, then, you know what I'm like, you haven't said a single English word except, eh and dah, you know? And then you lost half the audience. They don't know what you're saying, you know?

Same when you write a book, okay? If you're writing a book for professional Buddhists, then you can write that. But just be aware you're going to lose everybody else.

Stephen Hawking, who's... I told you I'm writing a new book called, A Better History of Time. I am.

But it... And he's going to be... He's going to be sorry.

But... But his book was on the British Times bestseller list for over 300 weeks, 327 weeks. It's a record for any book in history.

And I read an interview with him, you know? And they said, how did you write such a brilliant book? He said, that wasn't what it sounded like at the beginning.

I had all these proofs and theories and formulas. And then my editor told... At Putnam or whatever, they said, every formula you put in this book, you're going to lose 10,000 people, you know?

And then he said, I got it down to one... There's only one formula in that book, it equals M.C.'s plan, right? And...

And he said, I was very angry at the editor and I didn't want to listen to the editor. But he did. He listened to him.

And then that book is a classic. I mean, it's... Until now.

So... So anyway, don't speak some... What do you call it?

Dharma talk. Dharma speak? If you're speaking to a few Buddhists who've been trained in that, then okay.

But other people, you're just going to confuse them and lose them. You say shunyata, even say dharma or karma, you're just going to lose... They won't know it's sadhana.

They won't know it's tapas. They won't know you'll lose people. You're just...

What do you call? You are impeding their progress. You're supposed to be facilitating their progress.

It's to speak people's language. I taught in a bar. I taught football.

But you have to be able to. Which also means it's useful as a teacher to keep your eyes open and your ears open. Like if you're stuck in the restaurant near Geshe Michael's house and there's 17 televisions going, watch, see if Ohio State's doing pretty good.

And then if you get stuck on a bus with some football player guy, you can say, yeah, yeah, Ohio State, man. And then they listen to you. They'll start to listen to you.

Okay, you got to be able to... There's no fixed identity for a good teacher, spiritual teacher. You should morph to the situation immediately.

And make people feel comfortable and use their language. Okay, all right. SANGS RGYAS Good personal health.

I think even as like a yoga teacher especially, you should take a shower and stuff like that. Wear clean clothes. BSTAN PA'I DGOS SAGS PA KHYEN Wear nice clothes.

CI BSTAN THOB PA LA GDUG It's a tradition in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition that the teacher should sit higher than the student. And that's just etiquette. So that honors not the teacher, but what they're teaching.

CHING GI DANG ZAL Smile and be friendly. And don't be grumpy all the time and looking like lam all the time. And look like...

You're teaching meditation. Why? People want to learn to be peaceful and happy.

And then you look like you're in anguish all the time. Then they won't come. They just won't come.

And then you'll lose them. And you won't help them. Even if you are peaceful, but you look anguished, then stop looking angry.

Because they won't come. They won't listen. I was in psychology class.

I was going to be a psychology major. At Princeton, the first class we went to was abnormal psych because I thought that'd be fun. And every week, they had a new psychologist from New York would drive down.

It's like an hour and a half. And they would give a talk. And the first, like the second one that came, she was drinking coffee and she was like this.

And I quit. You know, I quit. I quit after that.

I said, she's having trouble, you know. And who wants to learn that? And the same, but the same with dharma.

If you're obviously grumpy, if you're obviously not getting along with other people, if you're obviously jealous of other people, and if your face will reflect it. People know everything. They look at your face and they know everything.

So be, you know, take care that you smile at people. Make them feel comfortable. SDUG BSAL means you should have a bright, shining face.

SDUG BSNGAL PA'I PHYIR DUG PA'I DANG LUNG DANG RTEN GZIG DANG LDAN PAR BYED DGOS PA YIN As far as the style with which you teach, don't get hung up on one format, you know. Whatever format seems to help the students, be willing to shift from format to format. So he gives the example in his times, right, of PA'I means scripture.

LUNG means you memorize ancient sayings and ancient books. DEN GZIG means you use logical reasoning. Some people just don't respond to logic.

They feel insulted or they think that's not spiritual. And then some people, they respond better if you hold up a woodblock print, even if the computer does it better. You know, you hold up this thing and you, you know.

So whatever would make them believe the best, then use that. Don't be stuck on something. Okay.

If the Chinese older elders of Singapore would like you to wear a red suit and use a long piece of paper, then do that. You know, and if it would help the people at the trade union talk in Singapore more, if you worked off a computer and a projector, what do you call it, PowerPoint, then use that. Don't be stuck on one format.

LDAN PAR BYED DGOS I think video, film, you know, live broadcast on the web. I mean, get into new formats. Okay, you can help people.

Whatever comes up new that you can help somebody with, don't get stuck. I heard people say, I don't want to, I don't want to read books off the computer. I want to read off paper.

And that's the, there was a huge argument like 300 years ago. People said, I can't believe they would want to read something that was printed on a press rather than handwritten. You know, there was a whole generation that refused to read anything that wasn't scribed.

You know, and now nobody has a book that's scribed. And the same will happen with electronic stuff. So just move into it.

Use those tools, use them. Don't get stuck in like the last century. All right, okay, good bye.