«Дар освобождения», курс 7 «Учимся быть тихими», занятие 6

[Говорящий 1] (0:00 - 49:54)
Okay, so we were discussing the eight components of a proper meditation posture, which are called the nam-lang chö-gye. Say nam-lang. Chö-gye.

The eight-point posture of Vairochana, one of the Buddhas. And we were discussing the benefit of two different kinds of grass put under your meditation cushion, which were kusha and durwa. We finished the discussion about durwa, and now we're on to kusha.

And he, Pabongka Rinpoche, who is the teacher of the current Dalai Lama, and he was my teacher's teacher, he quotes the first line of a verse about kusha grass. Where do you get kusha grass nowadays? In the Indian grocery store.

Okay, ask for a broom. They'll give you one. Then you got to take it apart and take some skill.

He quotes the first line of a verse about kusha grass, and I want to give you the whole thing. You'll also see this kind of verse in the fire offerings. We're going to be doing two fire offerings at the summer retreat in Prescott in August, and we'll be using kusha grass there.

You'll see how it's used in a fire offering. Those fire offerings, I mean, Rinpoche trained me in those for 25 years, and it's a good transmission. We do it the ancient way.

The custom is 5,000 years old. It comes from Vedic times, Homa. You can participate in the fire offering.

I think it's very, very beautiful, and it's exciting to become part of that lineage. So we'll do it together. KUSHA DINI TZANG SHING RGYAS SANGS PA'I LHAG RNAMS BDAG CES YIN KHON BYUNG GSUM PO NYES BYAS PA SA LAS SKYE MA'I DANG MI SNYING BDAG GIS RGYAS RNAMS THAMS CAD NI SHES DANG BRTAG SHES ZAD DU GSUL This is the full verse.

I found it in one of the penchant lamas, the second penchant lama's, one of his works, which is possible only because of the refugee camp computer project, which is celebrating its 25th year this year. You should appreciate it. You should tell Mark Tripedi and people like that, Ningbo, Jigme, Lama Aura, what a good job they're doing on that.

Sometimes you should call on them and thank them. Everybody's working for free mostly. Alice is also doing all the books.

Where is she? Thankless job, trying to juggle books where there's not enough money for the computers. Anyway, thank you for that.

She does a great job. KUSHA DINI TZANG CHUNG DGE Kusha grass represents cleanliness and goodness. TZANG PA'I LHAG RNAMS BDAG CES YIN In the Brahma realms, the worldly god realms, they love it, they use it all the time, for cleaning things, for making things pure.

KUN BYUNG GSUM PO NYES BYAS PA It's a way to please the three jewels. SA LA'I KHYAD PA'I DANG MI NYIN It is the essence of all flowering things which grow from the earth. BDAG GIS RGEGS DANG THAMS CAD NE ZHIG DANG LTAR ZHIG TSE DU GSUR It stops all obstacles and it brings all auspicious things.

These are the selling points for kusha grass according to the Second Panchen Lama. RGYAB DANG MI TZANG BA ZAL BA'I RDZAS TE Now we're back to Pabongka Rinpoche. You can see...

No, you can't see. RGYAB DANG MI TZANG BA ZAL BA'I RDZAS It is a substance which cleans away spiritual obstacles and lack of cleanliness, lack of spiritual cleanness, like that. RGYAL GO THUG PA'I ACHARYA RNAM LA RGYAB CHUNG NA In the old days in India, the acharyas, meaning the Buddhist masters, had some kind of spiritual obstacle.

CHUNG NA KUSHA'I TSEL DU SHAK LA'I NYEL DU BRAL BA LTAR They would actually go sleep in a meadow of kusha grass. They would go sleep in a meadow of kusha grass. SHAK LA'I NYEL DU BRAL BA LTAR RGYAL GO THUG PA'I ACHARYA RNAM LA RGYAB CHUNG NA LUS DUG LUG DGE DAM ZHES PA'I DUG LUG DGE NI There is a famous lamrim on which this text is based, called Lamrim Marti.

Say lamrim. Marti. There are eight great lamrims.

Marti is one of them. Marmi is red, crimson. Chi means instructions.

It means the instructions that a master physician gives to the medical students when they dissect a corpse. It's called the red instruction. And it came to be used for spiritual books when the lama tears the subject apart.

It's called a dissection text. So anyway, he's quoting from that book, if you care. Nygmo is, I think, the only one.

He happens to be quoting at this point and nobody would know. So anyway. ZHES PA'I DUG LUG DGE NI That book says the eight or.

The eight or. DAM In the text up there, DAM. And I'll talk about that later.

It says the eight aspects of a good meditation posture, or. We got to talk about the or. ZHES PA'I DUG LUG DGE NI Here's the eight.

So here you get first question to homework three, which we're finally reaching. Yay. I know you were upset.

NAM NAM CHOD DUNG GIS BSTENG DU Actually, there's only seven points to the meditation posture of Vajracana. BSTENG DU, but you add to it UK. What's UK?

The breathing. How do you breathe as you're preparing to go into deep meditation? So there are eight points of the physical posture.

Sorry, seven. And then they count breath as number eight. So sometimes they count eight, and sometimes they count seven, because sometimes you do the breath separately.

Today we had the breath meditation separately by Acharya Nick. Right? In the morning.

Those of you who got up. OK. UK DANG BA NEN PA'I RGYAS YIN DE NI RGYAL BA BA'I SA PAS Now there was a famous Lama called Wen Sapa.

He lived 1505 to 1566. Wen Sapa means the hermit. The guy who lives in the wilderness.

He lived in the wilderness. And he's important in the Lamrim tradition. They don't say it here, but in general, in Tibet, if a student asks a Lama, Hey, did anybody actually get enlightened from doing all this stuff?

They'll say, Wen Sapa did. Why and how? I haven't read the biography, but he's famous for being somebody who did it.

And he made a verse about the proper meditation posture. He put it into a poem. Ready?

Here we go. DGANG PA LHAG PA SKAD PA GSUM SO CHU BYAS RNAMS SDOM PA'I ZHIG SGO DMIGS PHRAG PA DBUGS DANG ZHIG SNAM PAR SNANG ZAD CHOS RGYAS YIN He made a poem out of it. That says, by the way, you don't have to write it down yet.

It says, legs, hands, back. Three different ones. Then he said, teeth, lips, and tongue count as one.

How many we got so far? Four. Head, eyes, shoulders, and breath.

We got eight. Those are the eight. We'll explain.

It's a long explanation. By the way, you'll never get such a good explanation. This is the source.

You'll never see a better explanation. That's true of a lot of things in this text. This is the greatest text on Lam Rim.

This is the best presentation of the Steps to Enlightenment. And we will take another 10 or 12 years to finish it. And we will all be gray-haired.

But we will still be surfing. All right. GZHES GSUM PA LTAR GANG PO NI DORJE KYI RTUNG If you can do it, you can put the two feet into a full lotus posture.

Okay? In Tibetan and in Sanskrit, the lotus posture is not called the lotus posture. That's a different posture.

Just for your information. They call it DORJE KYI RTUNG. Say DORJE.

DORJE KYI RTUNG So it's the what posture? It's the diamond posture. Diamond posture means a full lotus.

They don't call it full lotus. I don't know where full lotus came from. It's called the diamond posture.

DE LA SNGAGS KYI RDZO RIM BSGOM PAS SKABS LTA BU MA RTOG SEMS RGYUD DANG BYAS RGYUD LTA BU CHOG But if you're practicing anything other than completion stage. Completion stage is one of the two stages of secret practice, tantra. There are two stages of secret practice.

Say KYI RIM. RDZO RIM Once they asked me to translate for a Lama from East Tibet. He said, CI RIGS RIGS I'm like, I'm in front of all these people and I'm trying to translate.

He's like, we have to study CI RIGS RIGS. I'm like, CI RIGS means candy. What does CI RIGS mean?

He's like, no, no, KYI RIM and RDZO RIM. You can barely understand them. So KYI RIM means, in tantra, KYI RIM means the attempt to come into contact with divine beings, the angels.

The attempt to make actual contact with angels is the first half of tantra. The second half is called RDZO RIM. That's where they train you to become like them.

Basically. Those are the two parts of secret practice. So he's saying, if you're not doing RDZO RIM, if you're not doing channel work, inner body work with chakras, you don't have to do a full lotus.

Yay. Okay. RTA BU MA THOG You can do a SEMS KYI RIM or you can do a BYAS KYI RIM.

It's okay. RTA BU THOG means it's okay. SEMS KYI RIM means SEMS PAS KYI RIM It means a bodhisattva leg posture, which is a half lotus, what we call a half lotus.

One foot up on top of the other thigh. In Tibetan Buddhism, that's usually the left foot up on the right thigh and the other foot tucked under. In the yoga tradition of, the Hindu yoga tradition in India, it's the right foot up.

Like if you go to Dharma Rinpoche's class, he'll put the right foot up first, I think. I don't think it, well, maybe it does matter. Maybe you should do it according to your own lineage.

We're left footers. And anyone who uses the right foot is going to go to hell probably. SEMS KYI RIM Then, SEMS KYI RIM means what they call sukhasana in the yoga tradition.

Today, John Salisbury, who gave a great class, kicked our rear ends. That's where just both ankles are on the floor and you're not trying to do any kind of a lotus or anything. That's called in Tibetan, that's called a half lotus, a half posture.

So far we have three options, right? full lotus, or half lotus, or sukhasana. Which means easy pose, right?

Okay. I always have to look them up because I get confused because of the lotus thing. And I look them up, and I thought you'd like to hear some comments on those postures, which will delay the homework further.

Okay? I found some very interesting comments, and I like them, okay? I want you to hear them.

Okay, here's one. This is from a commentary on Mahamudra. Okay?

I think it's probably Mucchadharabhadra. Anyway, ,DE YANG GAM PA LAG PA SKYE PA GSUM, ,SO CHUD CHEN RNAMS SDONG PA'I ZHIG, ,SGO DMIGS GRAB PA DBUGS DANG ZHIG, ,SNAM PAR SNANGS RTZE CHOS KYI YIN ZHES GAM PA, He quotes the same text about the eight. He quotes the same text that I just quoted you.

Then he says, ,GAM PA'I DORJE GYUD RIN THOB MAR BSTAN DAL GYI KHYAD CHE BA'I, ,GANG THUB TZAM, It's good luck if you try to do a full lotus when you start your meditation session. But you can feel he's going to say something, right? He says, it's good luck.

Try as hard as you can to get your feet into a full lotus for the first couple minutes, because it'll be auspicious for later. Dandel means auspicious. ,LUS MI BDE BA SKYE NA, When you start to get serious pain, in the 16th century, it was an issue also.

You're not special and Tibetans also get pain in their knees. ,LUS MI BDE BA SKYE NA, ,MIG PA LA GNOD PAS, This is crucial. Listen to this.

He says, if you force a lotus posture too long, your knees will hurt and you'll lose your meditation object. Because you'll start thinking about your knees, which are not your meditation object. You're supposed to be meditating on your teacher or on impermanence or something.

And if your body hurts, you have thwarted your meditation. You see what I mean? So park the body in a comfortable position.

He says, don't keep the full lotus. When it starts to hurt, break it. How you do that without moving, I'm not sure.

,GNOD PA'I GANG SAM NAS, ,GANG PA YOD MO'OG TU PHAB, Then you could pull the left knee, left foot, thigh, calf down and you could put the right one on top of the left one. So he's doing the opposite. ,LAR BSTAN DU BZHAG PA'I, That's called SEMS PA'I GYUR DRUNG.

In the Tibetan tradition, that's called a bodhisattva leg posture. Like you would call it a half lotus. They call it a bodhisattva posture.

,DE YANG MA THUB NA GYUR DRUNG, ,THAMS MED PA BYA'O, If you can't manage a half lotus, then just plop your both ankles down and leave it at that. I like that. That's a real ancient scripture that says, if your knees start hurting, for God's sake, break the pose.

And because it's going to distract your meditation. So that could lead to a whole bunch of thinking like it's okay to sit on a chair. All right?

The point is get your body parked so the mind can leave. If the parked car starts going beep, beep, beep, beep, then you have to run out of the building, right? Turn off the car alarm.

It's exactly the same thing, okay? Leave it parked and go do your stuff, okay? All right, ,LHAG PA NYID NYAMS SHAG GI CHAGS RGYAS, He finished talking about the legs.

So now we're on to the second of the eight points, okay? Which are the hands? Put them in meditation posture.

What's that? The left hand, the left palm down face up first and then the right palm on top of it. So that's traditional Buddhist Tibetan tradition.

Left hand goes down first on your lap, right hand goes down next. You might find that you have less lap than other people, okay? And it starts to go like this.

So some people, they carry a little piece of cloth around with them, like a kitchen towel or something, and they fold it up and they put it on their hands. That forces their hands up a bit and that brings their shoulders back and they can meditate longer, okay? So check where your hands come on your feet.

If you're doing a full lotus, your hands will be up higher and your back will be straighter. If you're doing easy pose, the hands might be too low and you'll find yourself getting, what do you call it? Stooping.

So if you find that, you can put something under your hands, okay? A real meditator should have at least three pieces of equipment with them. A small cushion, like I prefer, what do you call that stuff?

Buckwheat. You got them, Kathy? Let's do that thing now.

You got a bunch of them? No, okay. We brought a bunch of cushions for you and you can try them, okay, in the break.

You can come over and see which one your bottom likes the best, all right? This is a buckwheat cushion, which is, to me, a little over full. It will stay up kind of high, but some people prefer it.

There's a zipper in here somewhere, hidden, and you can take out buckwheat and experiment with less buckwheat and then your butt will form into it. I like the buckwheat ones because they form to your bottom, okay? You got more?

Can I push up some more? This one's nice. This is also a buckwheat version.

I find it gives my knees more support. If your knees won't come down to the ground, this kind of crescent-shaped one is good. And you can adjust the buckwheat.

You can take it out or you can add more buckwheat. So you might find that you, you can try these during the break. You should, okay?

It makes a huge difference in your meditation if you find the cushion that's right for you. And everybody's different, okay? You got another one?

Let's see. It's some Japanese thing, right? What's that called?

Some guan, guan, what's the name in Japan? I don't know. Is there a special name for this kind?

No. Not in Tokyo. Anyway, it's not a buko or something?

I don't know. Zap? Yeah, something like that.

Zabufon? I don't know. It sounds like an aspirin substitute.

But these are a little more firm. And you might find that you really like it. Some people, the thing is, some people get a cushion, they use it for five years, then they sit on their friends and they realize they used the wrong one for five years.

Don't be like that. Like experiment. Be like Gandhi, right?

Experiment. Try different ones. This also has a nice handle to it.

But it's a hassle to travel with. And some people I know use a little wooden support, an angled piece of wood. I know people who use a two by four, some people use a four by four.

You see what you like. I prefer nothing sometimes. Once you're meditating for many years, you don't need a cushion, okay?

But that's another story. All right, here we go. DMYAM CHAGS KYI CHAGS KYI Everything goes, THEG PO NYID TSE BYAR Join the tips of the thumbs.

Okay, like that. I already mentioned it, but you might want to keep your fingernails short on the right hand. It digs into the left palm and it can distract you.

You see? So cut these short, okay, on the right hand. And then, you know, I tried for years to make the thumbs stand up because I saw everybody doing that.

I found that if I move my elbows forward, they stay up. But it's really distracting. Then after about 10 years, I tried, I just did it like this, okay?

I just let the thumbs flop down. Pronically, it's important that they touch or almost touch. There's a circuit that's closed in your body and it will help you meditate, okay?

So touch them slightly or lightly, okay? But don't like get anal about them standing up because then you'll stop thinking about your meditation object. Because when you stop thinking about them, they flop down, okay?

You can't have any muscle, right? Tensed muscles. Everything has to be loose, okay?

THEG PO NYID TSE BYAR There's a thing in Tibet that is auspicious if it's at the level of your navel chakra. Where is your navel chakra? Be careful.

It's in the back, right? Behind the navel. In the monastery, you get whipped with a rosary if you point to your navel, okay?

Navel chakra is in the back, in the central channel, right? At the level of the, navel just means at the level of the navel. Heart chakra means at the level of the heart.

Throat chakra means at the level of the throat, but not in the throat or the heart or the, in the back, along the spine, okay? So it's supposed to be good luck for tumult, for developing inner heat, if you keep the thumbs joined down around the area of the navel. You can experiment.

Different people's belly buttons were made differently. So don't get all frustrated if your thumbs don't meet your belly button or, you know, your mom did that, so blame her. But just let it go, okay?

People are so funny, you know? My belly button's in the wrong place, Geshe-la. Can I still get enlightened?

Okay. SKAD PA THAMS PA SANGS PA Now the next is the, what? What's the next subject?

The back, okay? The spine, okay? SKAD PA THAMS PA SANGS PA When we say that you should straighten the spine, RGYAL ZIG RNAMS, the vertebrae, vertebrae, should be SDONG TSE TSE PA THEG CAR SDONG TSE means any kind of coin.

It can be a bronze coin or a gold coin. But your vertebrae should stack up like coins, like a stack of coins. They should be aligned on top of each other.

By the way, technically they don't align. There's a curve, there are two or three curves in your back, natural curves in your back. But it feels aligned.

It should feel aligned. It's a kinesthetic misapprehension. They say in ballet, it feels like they're stacked.

And that's how it should feel. They're not really. TSE TSE PA THEG CAR DBANG BAR BYA LUS GRANGS NA TZAD SDONG ZHING This is beautiful.

If your spine and if your torso is straight, your channels are straight. DE LA RGYUD BA'I LUNG BRONG And if the channels are straight, then the prana flows straight. He makes a big deal about it.

Your spine should be straight because when the spine is straight, the channels are straight. When the channels are straight, the prana flows properly. And THEG, and because of that, SEMS LASA RUNG BAR TSUL Your mind will change.

Your mind will become more suited for meditation. Your mind will become more meditative if the prana is moving well, which will happen if the channels are straight, which will happen if the vertebrae are straight. So this is sort of an onion thing.

Have you ever heard about that? Nyingpo taught it this morning in the meditation class. Buddhas are always doing that.

They're setting you up for the talk tonight. So this is the onion thing. If you ever wanted to know where it comes from, this is one of the sources.

So we finished that one. We're on to all the stuff to do with your mouth. Teeth, lips, and tongue.

Count it as one. SO CHUD CHED DU BRTZON PA DANG DANG PA MIN PAR RANG BABS SU BZHAG This is cool. With regard to your lips, your teeth, and your tongue, don't force them into anything.

Let them fall as they fall. Let them fall. Everyone's different.

I have slightly buck teeth that my mom gave me. And it's more convenient for me. When I'm concentrating, my mouth is slightly cracked open.

You might be different. You might have different teeth. Everybody has different teeth.

But the meditation instruction is, let it go the way it goes and don't force it. Don't force it to be more open and don't force it to be more closed than it does naturally. Leave it natural for you.

For some people, that means closed. For some people, that means open. For some people, for me, it means slightly cracked open, like that.

But they say never breathe through your mouth unless your nose is stuffed up or you will suffocate. So in general, you don't breathe through your mouth. But if your nose is stuffed up, you can breathe through your mouth.

But in general, you should try to breathe through your nose when you meditate. DANG PA MIN PAR RANG BABS SU BZHAG RANG BABS SU BZHAG means let them do what they do. What?

The mouth. The mouth, okay. BYAS TSE RGYAL KHYEN LA BRJANG MA If you touch your upper palate of your mouth right behind the teeth with your tongue, lightly, like the teeth are kind of half open.

And if you slightly curl your tongue back and set it on the upper palate, the tradition says you won't get thirsty and you will swallow less. I haven't been able to confirm that 100%, but you see, okay. I've done it my whole life, but I don't know.

The point is if you swallow in a deep meditation session, it will break you out of your concentration. It will sound like a truck passing by. As you get more subtle in your meditation, to swallow is a disaster, okay.

So you hold your tongue slightly touching the upper palate behind the teeth, the front teeth, and that's supposed to keep you from swallowing. Helps keep you from swallowing. KHYEN LA BRJANG MA KHA MI KONG PA DANG NYAMS SHAG THUB PA SKABS When you are very deep in meditation, if you hold your tongue like this, you won't drool, okay.

I tend to do that when I play music. If I play a raga for like a half hour, then I start drooling because the mind just goes into the music. You know what I mean?

So be, or when you're watching a really good movie, sometimes you drool or you're kissing some boy, you'll drool. I know there are times in your concentration where you start to drool. That's a good sign.

But if you hold your tongue up to the top, it won't drool so much, okay. GNAS YOD, crucial point. So he finished the mouth.

Now he's moving on to the head, position of the head, okay. DGOR DU ME'I OD DU GNOD SANGS BYUNG ZAD DGUG He says the chin is slightly down, like not like this, but he says not totally parallel. Parallel, a chin which is parallel to the ground would bring your head up a little too high.

And they say that causes destruction, okay. If you meditate like this, then you will tend to get distracted. If you let the head fall all the way down, you will tend to get sleepy.

So there's a tradition in Tibet that you kind of move the top of the neck back and you're like, you know, okay. Very slightly down, okay. Now there's an important thing in the text.

It says, say MI'KH, MI'KH, MI'KH. Everybody say MI'KH, MI'KH, MI'KH, MI'KH, MI'KH, MI'KH. Good.

NA SE LA PHAB So this is a meditation instruction which has been in the scriptures for 2,500 years and it has caused endless cross-eyed people. Okay. It says, let the eyes drop towards the tip of the nose.

Okay. And I'm always telling people that's not what it means. It just means put your hands here at the tip of your nose, right.

Then focus on your hands, okay. Focus your eyes on your hands. Focal point is on the hands.

Now we move the hands. See, and you cannot see the details here, right? Because you're focusing at this focal distance, okay.

That's supposed to be perfect, okay. Put your hands on your nose. Look at your fingers.

Focus on them. Then drop the hands. And you are not staring at the nose, okay.

That will make you cross-eyed. And it doesn't help. And many people read that in some book and they're all going around like this, you know.

It means focus the eyes loosely here. Which means if there's letters down here, which by the way are very bad for meditation. If there are letters within sight, your eyes will automatically focus on that.

So bring the focus out of focus so you can't read. You're focusing here, like this, okay. And you're not looking at your nose.

It's just at this level, got it? You got to teach people that. There's so many poor souls staring at the tip of their nose.

Because somebody said that. Where are we? BAB BYED PA NA ZHOG PEN ZIN MTHONG BZAM GYI TSOS DU BYA DGOS That just means focus your eyes loosely in the area of your nose plane.

The plane of your nose, okay. Plane, by the way, is ZHOG. DE LA CINGGOS SPYOD LA'I NAS YOD If you learn to do that well, if you learn to focus your eyes loosely around here, on each side, right, not here, but here, you won't get distraction and you won't get sleepiness.

It will keep you between. Meditation is the exercise of not allowing the car to fall into the ditch on the left-hand side, which is called distraction. And not allowing the car to fall in the ditch on the right-hand side, which is dullness or sleepiness.

Meditation is a constant balancing act. And a good meditator is like this. You know, when you first drive, okay, so I'm teaching this Tibetan kid to drive in India.

Rinpoche told me to do it. We were driving from Serra to Drebong, which takes about 16 hours or something, in an Indian car. And so he was driving, and I said, and then I would say something, and he'd go, what?

You know, I'd go, what? And then we'd go, ah, my gosh. Then I'd pull the thing back.

But a driver, after a year or something, after six months, you're like this, right? Watch your hands sometimes. They're going like this.

And you're not even aware of it. It's just, what do you call it, autonomic. Your hands are moving like this.

A good meditator is doing the same between sleepiness and thinking of something else, okay? Here's sleepiness, here's thinking of somewhere else. And the meditation is going like this.

And it's a constant correction act, okay? So he says, if you focus your eyes loosely around here, it'll be easier to keep the balance, okay? Meditation means keep a balance between those two things, thinking about lunch and having eaten too much lunch, which makes you sleepy.

They both relate to lunch, okay? Okay. Siddhacargo de la ching gu chud la rinpoche.

GAR ZHIG GI MIG PA RNAMS CHE LA MIG MTSUM LAS SDUG PA LTAR DE LTAR MI RUNG ZHING This is a very subtle instruction, okay? He says some people, when they're doing a meditation session, they're done with all their preliminaries. Then they close their eyes tight.

And they build up a lot of pressure here, okay? Like a lot of muscular tension here in the eyelids. And that ruins their meditation, okay?

Like there's a way to close your eyes and there's a way to close your eyes. Don't close them like that, okay? Because the tension will distract your mind, okay?

The muscular tension right here, look, at the ophthalmic fold or whatever it is. It has to be, this has to be totally loose, okay? Like totally relaxed, like that, okay?

And that's a good meditation. For most people, you should try closing your eyes halfway. Just let your eyelids relax.

It's like you're drunk or something, okay? And it's not closed tight. It's like they don't fall down all the way.

If you really relax the eyelids, they only fall down about three quarters of the way or something, and that's a great option if you can do it. I'll give you a personal note, okay? This is my own thing that I learned over many years.

It's almost more powerful to keep your head straight and you bring your eyes down to the nose level and you let the eyelids do what they want. They're not going to be closed all the way, okay? And if you try doing that, if you try not closing your eyes all the way, which he recommends, but different people are different, right?

You might have to close your eyes or you get distracted. If you want to try the almost closed eyes thing, I suggest you have nothing in sight which can distract you, and no bugs. The cloth on your altar, if you're meditating in front of your altar, should not be paisley, okay?

It should be a solid color. I'm telling you, it's a great meditation tip, okay? If you decide to do this thing, then make sure there's also no magazines, no written material.

Your eye will catch it and it will bring you out of meditation. But I suggest you try it, okay? You can also, instead of focusing on this plane, sometimes if you like, you can bring your mind to the Ajna chakra here and bring the eyes up also.

So that would look like this, okay? And you're not stretching the muscles. You're not straining the muscles.

It's not like you're going, okay? But you're loosely, you're looking up. That can be very powerful.

Try it sometime, okay? I'll give you a clue for that, okay? From many years of experience.

Don't stare at this as if someone has painted a dot on your forehead. Go in like half an inch. Focus on a spot which is half an inch into the skull and into the brain, okay?

Don't focus on the skin. Focus in about half an inch. And the concentration will be very intense.

You'll find, and you can leave your eyes down and focus there also, okay? But I find it helps sometimes to focus on that spot, okay? Try it sometimes.

You can impress your friends. You look like a Halloween, you know, thing. Okay, all right.

DMIGS SUM PA DE LTAR MI RUNG ZHUG ,'GRUB LTAR GZHAN LA DBANG PO RAB, ,'CHUG RGYU LTA LTANG DMIGS RNAMS KA LA LTA BA SOGS ,GSUNGS PA YOD KYANG RANG LUGS LA DE LTAR MI BYA He says there are other traditions in Tibet that recommend going like this. And he says, we don't do that. All right.

Chakpa, okay, we're on to the next one, which is what? Let's try to finish these and then we can take a break. Okay, what's the next thing?

Shoulders, your shoulders, okay? When I was first teaching Lama Christy to meditate, it was very cute because she'd go like this, you know? Some people, when they concentrate, they, I do that, this shoulder's always tense.

As I go through the day, this shoulder's always higher. All my ballet teachers, thank you, and yoga teachers comment on it. Get the right shoulder down.

Some people, when they concentrate, they, you know, it's just a natural thing. And when they're concentrating in yoga, they do the same thing. And when they concentrate in ballet, they do the same thing.

So work on bringing your shoulders back. What are they called in the Anasara? The tops of the, the tops of these bones, what are these?

I don't know. Their back, the, what do you call the scapula in the back? Shoulder blades are pressing towards each other and your chest is puffing out, okay?

That's easier if you're going to do chin mudra. Slide it back on the thighs towards your torso and don't go over the knees, okay? Bring it back and puff out your chest and bring your shoulder blades together a little bit.

And then you can stay for a lot longer, okay? So he says, be careful with the alignment of the shoulders. Don't let one shoulder get higher and don't let them scrunch, okay?

Open up the chest. John Frenzel, I saw him teach in Hong Kong and his demonstrator was that lady from Chandler. What's her name?

I forget. Desiree, who's like one of his best teachers I heard. I don't know for sure, but he really hassled her.

He really embarrassed her in front of everybody, but I guess that's just, I don't know. That's what lamas do. But he kept pushing her, the middle of her, between her shoulder blades and kept telling her to drop it out, bring it out.

And that's helpful. That's really helpful in meditation, okay? I'm going to talk about, thoma mepa, the shoulder should be on a level.

And that completes the, how many? Seven. That's seven points of the posture, okay?

Somebody's got six, you're probably counting the shoulders separately or I don't know. ,DI DAG LA RDZO RIM GYI SRAB NAS BZHIN DU CHE BA YOD KYANG, Here's a very important point in this book, okay? Here's a very important point in this book.

He says all of these posture suggestions are extremely important, extremely important for advanced tantric practice. Okay, RDZO RIM. For second stage tantric practice, all of these suggestions are crucial, okay?

KYANG means what? But, ,DE DAG SHES DU MI RUNG, it would be inappropriate to describe them to a general audience, okay? He's making a statement about tantra, okay?

You don't talk about inner body stuff in Tibet. You don't talk about inner body stuff to an audience who hasn't been trained in it, okay? Or they might think something bad.

They might think something wrong, okay? Because they don't understand it. So it's a tradition in the Lam Rim teachings that you don't speak about these things to a public, to a general audience, okay?

The people should have some training first, okay? Before you talk a lot about inner body. Someone with an honest interest in yoga who's already attracted to yoga, I believe they're already appropriate.

It's already appropriate to talk about it with them because they're already further along in the inner body than most Tibetan monks ever get, okay? Someone who's really interested in yoga and alignment and inner body stuff, I think it's appropriate to talk to them about RDZO RIM in a general way, okay? Because they already are interested in prana and they're already experiencing stuff with their prana and they don't understand it fully.

So, okay. SHES DU MI RUNG LUS NAS DI BZHIN DU BSGAL BYAS BA YIN These are very important points about posture. How you hold your body is crucial for your meditation, okay?

SLO DAG MAR PA'I Who's SLO DAG MAR PA? That's MAR PA. That's his full name, okay?

MAR PA's full name is SLO DAG MAR PA. MOTSAWA He was the student of, sorry, teacher of, and he was the student of Naropa, okay? He was a beer-guzzling businessman from South Tibet, a rather prosperous farmer who got it into his head to go to India and learn yoga, okay, and tantra.

God knows why. But then he taught Milarepa, and that's a long story. We did some of that, right, at Diamond Mountain.

People had seven years of the best education in the higher scriptures that anyone on this planet has ever had. 20,000 pages of translation in the last seven years at Diamond Mountain, okay? And we did MAR PA's philosophy.

We did a lot of his philosophy. Okay, anyway. ,PHOS KYI SGOM THAMS CAD SDOM KYANG, ,SNGA MAR PA LO TSAY, ,DU LUS GCIG PO LA MI DOR, So here's something that MAR PA said.

If you took all of the meditation instructions given by all the Tibetan meditators nowadays in our country, nowadays meaning what? 1026, or something like that, okay? ,MAR PA LO TSAY, ,DU LUS GCIG PO LA MI DOR, It wouldn't be equal to my meditation posture.

All the tantric instructions being given by meditators in Southern Tibet nowadays ain't worth how I sit, how I hold my body in meditation. It's more important to have your body in good alignment than to know a bunch of stuff about prana and all that. Got it?

The way I sit is better than all the way those people talk. How's that? ,GCIG PO MI DOR ZHES GSUNGS PA LTAR LAS, ,NAM NANG ZHES GSUNGS PA NAS, Now he's going on to another subject, okay?

Then I'll give you a break, okay? In about, I don't know, within the next couple hours. Why do we attribute this meditation posture to Vairachana?

There's a Buddha named Vairachana. He's one of the five Buddha families in the secret teachings, okay? So NAM NANG in Tibetan, or Vairachana in Sanskrit, is one of the five Buddha families.

So why do we attribute this meditation posture to that particular Buddha? ,SANGS RGYAS RNAM PAR RNAMS DE, ,GSUNGS PO NAM PAR BDAG PA'I THAG CA THAR ZHAR BA YIN PAS, ,DE PHYAG NAS GSUNGS PA YIN, This is cool, okay? I'm going off on a tangent because it's my pleasure to do so.

I have to dumb down courses all year, and in this course I get to dumb it up, smart it up. There are five Buddha families in the secret teachings. They are very important.

Many of your vows come from the five Buddha families. In the secret teachings, many of your vows come from these five families. Why are there five Buddha families?

In the most ancient teachings of Buddhism, there are five parts of a human being. The human being has five parts. They are called skandha in Sanskrit, or heaps in English, or piles.

,BUNG DANG SKYE DROG RIGS KYI DGOS PHUNG PO SKYE BYAS GANG NA YIN, This is first chapter Abhidharmakosha. I memorized most of the Abhidharmakosha and I have successfully forgotten almost everything. But I remember this line.

,BUNG DANG SKYE DROG RIGS KYI DGOS PHUNG PO SKYE BYAS GANG NA YIN, Why do they call them heaps? Why don't they just call them the five parts of your body and mind? Why do they call them the five piles, or the five heaps, skandha?

And then the Abhidharmakosha says, written by Matsyabhasa Bandhu in 350 AD, he said, it's because each of them has many of its own components, okay? Each of the five heaps has many components of its own. Let's talk about what they are, because this is one of the most important teachings of Buddhism.

We could say the mind-body, what do you call, combination, but we don't. We say five heaps. Instead of saying the combination of mind and body is you, we say you are five piles of stuff.

What are they? Say suk. Suk.

What do you call it? SO SANG SHING ZHIG YI FU RU SHES Right? Something like that.

SAB BU'I KHONG KHONG BU'I SAD SAD ZHIG ZHIG KHONG KHONG ZHIG ZHIG ZHIG SO SANG SHING ZHIG SAD SO SANG SHING ZHIG The five heaps in Chinese, okay? First one is suk, means your physical body is the first part of you. It has lots of components because you have a nose and you have ears, two ears, okay?

Second one is what? Feelings. I feel good.

I feel bad, okay? The capacity of feeling is the second of the five heaps. Third one is du shi sheng.

It means the ability to discriminate between things. This is tall, this is short. This is long, this is short.

This is hot, this is cold. I like him, I don't like her, okay? That's the third of the five pieces of a human being.

What's the fourth one? Du che. Du che is defined in the Abhidharma as du che pungpo shi le shen, means all the other stuff, okay?

That's the best they could do.

[Говорящий 2] (49:54 - 50:01)
You could call it stuff. Well, serious, right?

[Говорящий 1] (50:03 - 51:59)
His name belongs in the fourth one. You see? Michael is in the fourth.

Michael is an idea. And Michael is a name. And it's neither my body or my mind.

It's something that is said to the body and mind, together. Or serious. So that stays in part number four.

Four means all the other stuff. Five is what? Your awareness, your general awareness, okay?

If somebody punches you real hard and you fall down on the, what do you call? The floor of the boxing ring? Your fifth heap is a little bit not working just right, okay?

And frankly, you don't appreciate the miracle of your fifth heap, okay? You are aware. You can be happy.

You can be sad. You can be, people be happy with you. People are criticizing you.

You feel good. You feel bad. Those are all like secondary.

You're aware. Thank God, you know? Like you can see stuff and you can hear stuff and you can think stuff.

And that's all part number five, okay? That's all part number five. Your awareness of the world is a miracle.

And you have it all day. And you don't appreciate it, okay? Autistic people lose a bit of that.

You see what I mean? Deaf people, blind people. But you have it.

You have all of it, right? It's very beautiful. People with Alzheimer's lose part of it, okay?

It's a karma. It's a result of karma. You can lose it, right?

It gets old. Anyway, these are the five parts of a person. Yes?

Can you teach me the five parts? Suk, svarva, dushe, duche, and namshe.

[Говорящий 2] (51:59 - 52:15)
Duche, what's that, rupa, vedana? I don't remember, sanskara, san, what is it? What?

I don't think so.

[Говорящий 1] (52:16 - 58:20)
Anyway, vedana, duche. It must be sansnya, you're right. Yeah, sansnya, then sanskara, then vijnana, okay?

These are the five, okay? Why did I bring that up? We were talking about why we call these eight parts of meditation posture vairajyana, okay?

So each of the five dhyani buddhas, or each of the five buddha families in the secret teachings, they relate to one of the five heaps, okay? And get this, they represent the purification of one of the five heaps, okay? When your body goes from mortal to immortal, you have done the vairajyana thing.

When your physical body goes from flesh and blood to light, you are vairajyana. That part of you is vairajyana. The eventual purification of your physical body is vairajyana, okay?

Got it? Got it? So why would that be the name chosen for a meditation posture?

It means your physical body is in its best position, okay? You're almost purifying your physical body, okay? How do you go from a mortal body to a light body?

It has to do with your chakras, okay? It has to do with your chakras. That's a long story.

You have knots in your body, and around those knots in the womb forms bone. The skull forms around two of the chakras. The C7, the major bones of the upper back, form around the throat chakra.

The ribs form around the heart chakra. And then manipura, the lower part of the spine, svarishthana chakra, the large bones of the pelvis, hips, and then what's that last one called? Muladhara.

That also contributes to the hip bone, which is the largest bone in the body, heaviest bone in the body. So these are, the bones themselves are created because of knots in your channels. Then flesh and blood form around those.

And you are born out of your mother's womb as a mortal being, which must die, which must get old. The only way to escape that is to untie the chakras, is to untie the channels. So yoga in Tibet is considered a very high practice because it's a direct attempt to untie the knots.

And if you're trained in yoga properly, it could contribute to your body changing. It's very beautiful. Yoga is very important for Buddhists.

All right. And you're lucky if you're attracted to it from the beginning. You know what I mean?

I wasn't. I had to work on it. But if you're like someone who's always been attracted to that stuff, you're lucky.

We would consider you advanced. Unexpectedly advanced. Unaware, advanced.

Okay. But then it's easier to pick up the other stuff. Okay.

So anyway, now you understand why it's called svarishthana. Aren't you going to ask me what's the purification of the other four heaps? No, but I'm going to tell you anyway.

And then we'll stop. We'll take a break. Svārupuṇḍambhārthārpa.

Okay. The purification of your feelings, where they become perfect equanimity and compassion towards all beings, right? That's expressed as a yellow Buddha whose body is, by the way, svarishthana is white because he combines all other colors.

Okay. Or she, he or she. There's lady svarishthanas also.

Anyway, ratnakāra. Rinchenjungne. Ratnakāra.

Ratnakāra is the purification of your feelings. The purification of your discrimination is upāgme. Upāgme.

Somebody got refuge today and her name is Ugyel. U means light. The Sanskrit is bahā.

It came into Greek as photon or photography. The P-H-O came from the Sanskrit B-H-A. So anyway, amitabha, amitabha, limitless light is the purification of your capacity of discrimination.

And that's red. That's a crimson color. Then dvijekhi-pumbo is, what is that?

Dhunya-drupa, okay? Amoghasiddhi, which is a green color. And then the purification of your consciousness or your awareness is akshobhya or mikyapa.

And that's blue, okay? So that's why, anyway, that's a very long reason why they're called the meditation posture of Vairocana. Now you know the whole family, okay?

Now you're familiar with the whole family, all five. There are specific vows to each of the five, okay? And when you get the advanced teachings, you will learn those vows, okay?

One of them has to do with the requirement to have a spiritual partner, okay? One of them has to do with the requirement to have a spiritual partner. You are required by your vows of the five families to have a spiritual partner, whether it's imaginary or physical, you are required, okay?

So anyway, I'm just saying that. All right, let's take a break.