«Дар освобождения», курс 7 «Учимся быть тихими», занятие 9

[Говорящий 1] (0:00 - 13:57)
Okay, so we left it at a visualization that you can do before you meditate. I'm going to teach you that visualization carefully. And I'm going to teach you a more difficult visualization carefully.

And I enjoy that we are becoming global. And I like that. I really like that.

And I like that we are embracing China also, our Chinese friends. And I was scared the first time I went there, and now it's been, I don't know, five years? And there are thousands of students there now, and they are good people, nice people, deep people.

And they have emptiness in their blood. They get it right away. So, and they ask toughest questions.

But anyway, I'm just very proud of what we're doing worldwide. DBYIN PA'I THUGS KA YOD SHES SEMS PAS MDO RJE BYANG DANG So, personally, this visualization is too complicated for me. I don't do it.

But I'm going to teach it because it's in the book. And if you want to try it, you can try it. So, so far we have a Buddha in the visualization who is, in essence, on outer form is Buddha, inner essence is your own personal teacher, whoever it is.

Inside that Buddha's heart is Dorje Chang. Say Dorje Chang. Dorje Chang is Vajradhara.

So Lord Buddha, in his time on this planet, gave three great cycles of teaching. One is called Hinayana or Theravada. And this is mostly basic ideas of morality, which are foundational.

We all follow them. The monk's vows all come from the Hinayana. The Abhidharma comes from Hinayana.

He gave that whole cycle of teachings. Then later, he gave the Mahayana. Mahayana means basically advanced ideas about emptiness and helping the whole world.

Compassion, high ideas of compassion. Then he gave a third cycle of teachings called Vajrayana, Diamond Way, which are tantra, meaning secret teachings. Tantra, the word tantra means secret.

My teacher used to say, somebody would say, what's tantra? He'd say, secret, it means secret. And he was really funny.

So these are secret teachings. By the way, they're not secret because you do them in a dark room and you cut chicken heads off, okay? It's not secret like that.

It means if your heart is on a high level, if you are serving other people constantly, you may have an experience of this room and of these people as being special. In your ordinary life, you might walk into a restaurant and experience somebody else as an angel. And that's supposed to be more frequent the more you practice.

And it becomes a sort of positive, what is it where you think everybody's out to get you? Paranoia. This is the opposite of that.

What? Paranoia? It's where you start to think everyone's trying to help you.

It's a kind of, you could say delusion, but it's not a delusion. It's just that your heart is pure rare. So you start to feel that people all around you are trying to help you.

Even when they do something hard. Somebody hits you on the head or somebody criticizes you and you think, oh, they're trying to help me. There's some kind of plot going on here to make me enlightened.

And then that delusion gets bigger and bigger and embraces everybody. You think everyone's out to get me enlightened. That's why people yell at me.

That's why people praise me. That's why people kill me in the yoga class. Right, Anton?

They're all Buddhas and they're trying to get me enlightened. So that's tantra. When the Buddha taught tantra, also tantra is not some weird stuff.

It's not that. It's sweet. I'm going to serve other people at the homeless center until I start to see them as angels.

And that lady said that, right? The lady who came to teach us how to serve the homeless. She was having those experiences automatically.

Anyway, when Lord Buddha taught tantra, he didn't do it in the form of a monk. He did it in the form of an angel called Vajradhara. Say Vajradhara.

So that angel has long hair. That angel wears silk. That angel wears jewelry.

That angel sings music. There's a different mode of one person, of Lord Buddha. So in this visualization, you're supposed to visualize that version of the Buddha in his heart.

Inside the heart of the bigger Buddha is Vajradhara, who taught the secret teachings. But that's what it means, secret. It means you could shake somebody and say, everybody around you is a Buddha, and they'd say, yeah, yeah, what's for lunch?

They wouldn't see it. They wouldn't get it. Jesus said, let them hear who have ears to hear, right?

And some people just won't get it. You say, look, you're surrounded by beauty. You're surrounded by angels.

Everyone is out to help you. And they just say, I don't like that guy. They don't hear it.

You know what I mean? So anyway, it's a secret that keeps itself. Got it?

Until you start practicing. Dorje, Yeshe Sema Dorje Changdang, Those of you who care, there are special vocabulary for this visualization. There's a special set of words for this kind of visualization.

The main being, the big teacher, the big Buddha, is called, say, Tamsik Sempa, meaning a pledged being, being a pledge. And then the tantric teacher in his heart is called Yeshe Sempa, a wisdom being. Yeshe Sempa.

They don't mention Tamsik Sempa in this text, but it's understood for the big Buddha. And then the one in his heart is a Yeshe Sempa, a wisdom being. They took our...

There's another Buddha inside that Buddha's heart. Inside the Buddha in the heart is another Buddha, in his heart. The Dalai Lama, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, I was there at the Millennium.

We were hoping to spend the Millennium with him and he taught in Bodhgaya. Anybody was there? I don't remember.

Yeah, he was teaching a practice called the Tiglay Chodok, the 16 bindus or the 16 drops of the Kadampa system. That's what he was teaching on the Millennium. And that's 16 levels down, 16 beings in the heart.

One inside this one, one inside this one, one inside this. It got pretty headache, complicated. You're just doing three.

It's the Buddha and in his heart is a Vajradhara and in his heart is a being called Tingyinsen Sempa. Tingyinsen Sempa means a meditation being, a being of meditation. That being is blue.

Then when I say blue, you think of some painting you saw of some Hindu deity and their body was painted dark blue. Don't think like that. When they say this being is blue, it means they are fluorescent.

Then they are shining in blue light. They are made of light. Don't think they are painted blue.

That's just all that they can do on a painting. Somebody should make some new images which are made of glass and shine with their own light. You see what I mean?

Because that's what they are. They are made of light, like the sun, like that. They are giving off, they are radiating blue light.

It's not that they are painted blue. DNGOS PO STE, DER NAG DANG BRAL BA YIN PAS He says, in this case, we are flirting with tantra. We are getting close to tantra.

YIN PAS SEMS PA GSUM TSEG GSAL BDAG DGOS Therefore, you should meditate, call, say, SEMS PA GSUM TSEGS SEMS PA GSUM TSEGS SEMS PA means holy being. BYANG CHUB SEMS PA means bodhisattva. SEMS PA is the sattva in bodhisattva.

It means a holy being. GSUM means three. TSEGS means stacked up like adobe bricks.

Stacked up. Three beings stacked up. I thought you would enjoy hearing, I want to go off on a tangent, and we probably won't return to the text shortly, but there's a really nice discussion of this practice, which is a tantric practice.

This visualization in some of the tantras. And since Pabongka Rinpoche was blabbing about it, I won't get in trouble if I blab about it. I thought you would like to hear a really nice explanation of this practice from another text.

So this is a text, it's from the Bhairava practice, Bhairava practice. So here we go. DE THUGAR BDAG LDAN LA GNAS PA'I BYAMS PA LA YE SHES SEMS PA ZHIG SGRUB PA'I RGYUD TZAM YOD DE When we say that there is a wisdom being sitting in the heart of another holy being, there's a reason why we use that wording, that unusual vocabulary, wisdom being.

He's going to tell you why he's called a wisdom being. DE STONG YER MED KYI YE SHES GZHAN PAS LUNG DANG BYAS PA'I LHA'I DGOS RNAM PAR ZHAR BA'I NA It's a principle of the Buddhist practice of yoga that certain things are happening inside of your body. Yoga in Buddhism is considered secret.

Yoga asana is tantra according to Buddhism. I didn't know that people were doing yoga in my monastery for 25 years because it was secret. And then when you finish a geshe, you're allowed to start.

You're allowed to start yoga after finishing a geshe, maybe 20 years, 25 years. Then you're allowed to start yoga because it's considered inner body work. It's considered transforming the body into light.

It's a high practice. It's considered a very high practice. So my teacher used to say about the popularity of yoga in the West, he was really, really excited about it.

He said, all of those people who are attracted to yoga, they were high practitioners in their past life. Then they got hit by a truck or something. Then they ended up here in America or Mexico or wherever.

But they saw the word yoga on the side of a building and they said, I would like to try. I would like to try. That's attractive to me.

They don't really know why. According to my teacher and according to Buddhism, they were doing yoga before. And then they died.

And now in this life, they're attracted to yoga. They want to be a yoga teacher. All those people who are yoga teachers, they're really lucky.

They are high practitioners from their past life. We believe that. My yoga teacher believed that.

My monastic yoga teacher. So anyway, DE STONG YIN MED KYI G-YES ZHING means wisdom which understands emptiness. The wisdom which understands emptiness.

That was, today we were talking about Thad in the class, the meditation class. So what's Thad's emptiness? He could be nice to you today or he could be mean to you today.

He's a white blank movie screen. Whether you see a nice guy, which I've always seen by the way, or you see a mean guy, it's up to your own seeds. He's a blank screen.

He's just there. Then if you've been nice to other people, he's nice to you. And if you've been mean to other people, he's mean to you.

That's emptiness. That understanding. That's what I want to get into world consciousness.

That's the concept I want to spread in the world. That's all I want to do for the rest of, couple of decades or whatever. Go to places like Guadalajara.

Get people thinking like that. They made a movie. Their group made a movie.

It is awesome. It is extraordinary. It's about seeds.

You should see, it's called Samia, I forget. Dela. Dela.

[Говорящий 2] (13:58 - 13:59)
The Grandfather Seeds.

[Говорящий 1] (14:00 - 57:39)
It's a fantastic film. Like they just did it. You should see it.

We should play it next time. It has English subtitles. And it's awesome.

That's the idea that I would like to see spread. If you want to be happy, if you want financial, what do you call it, security, if you want to be healthy, if you want a good relationship with a man or a woman, then serve other people. Serve lonely people.

Serve sick people. Forget going out and buying lipsticks or don't go to Sephora and stand there for half an hour and try to decide which color is going to work. It doesn't work.

If you've helped lonely people, any lipstick will work. If you haven't helped lonely people, none of it will work, right? I want to spread this idea.

Anyway, that's an appreciation of emptiness. In Buddhism, the higher teachings of Buddhism say, you will understand that more easily if you are in a state of, what do you call it? If you are in an elevated state, you will get those ideas more easily.

How do you get into an elevated state? Serve other people or do yoga or meditate, especially with a partner. In the higher teachings, Lord Buddha himself got enlightened.

On the night of his enlightenment, he meditated all night with a partner, with his spiritual partner, whose name is Tilottama. So it's a practice and it's always been a practice since Lord Buddha, he invented it. So he said, if you match the male and female energy and then you put your mind on these ideas, you will grasp them faster.

And he encouraged that. So why am I mentioning all this? Because in this text it says, for you to have these high ideas, your mind must be in an elevated state.

By service of the poor, by meditation, or by the blessing of your teacher, or by the blessing of your partner, your mind must be in an elevated state. That state of mind must ride upon prana. All movement of thought occurs in a human being as the prana moves.

As prana moves, like a horse, great ideas ride upon its back. Prana flows through the body and then great ideas have a foundation to move through your mind. All understanding of life is riding upon prana in your body.

This is tantra. This is the higher teachings. Therefore you must do yoga because you must increase the flow of prana in the body and your mind will change because that's where mind and body meet.

Thoughts are carried upon prana. Prana is stimulated by yoga. Then they say, cinnam tabla tsoy vet, right?

It means you can get at the prana by working with the mind, by meditating, or you can get at the mind by working on the prana through yoga. And which is better? It's an old trick question in the monastery.

They'll say, which is better, yoga or meditation? And a good student will say, don't give me dumb questions. Don't give me dumb choices.

It's both. We should do both. We should do yoga and we should meditate and we should serve the poor and the hungry.

Okay, like that. Because that makes the prana flow. That makes your ideas flow.

This is cool. The prana, the inner wind on which the highest realizations ride appears as a wisdom bean. That's why they call it a wisdom bean.

The guy inside the guy's heart, the tantric teacher inside the guy's heart is a wisdom bean. Why? If you could take a bottle and bottle the prana on which the highest understandings are riding, right?

And stuck it in a bottle and you looked in, it would be like him. You would see him, okay? It always manifests as him or her, as that being, okay?

It's very cool. If your asanas were really good and the prana's flowing and you could see that prana, it would look like this being inside your heart, okay? That's why we call him a wisdom bean, okay?

Got it? That's a long answer. I like it.

,GZHAR BA'I NA, ,DE LTAR BYOD PA YIN PA'I PHYIR, That's why we call them wisdom bean. ,DE THUGS CAR NYIN RDEN LA GNAS PA'I HUNG YIN LA, ,LTING NGAN ZIN SEMS PAR BSHAD GYUR PA'I RGYUD TZAM YOD PAS, In the heart of the wisdom bean, we said there's another being called, what kind of being? A meditation being.

Yeah, he's blue. He or she is blue. That being never takes the bodily form of a person.

They take the bodily form of a letter, okay? It could be V or it could be something, okay? In this case, the letter happens to be HUNG, like OM AH HUNG, okay?

OM MANI PADME HUNG It's an important syllable, HUNG, okay? By the way, it's not HAM or HUM. It ends with an NG.

Say HUNG, HUNG, okay? Everybody mispronounces that. Then it doesn't work.

Okay. ,DE THUGS CAR NYIN RDEN LA GNAS PA'I, In the heart of the wisdom being is a disk, the sun. And on top of that is another disk, which is the moon, okay?

Sorry, cancel that. Only a sun. Why do we call that?

Then I'll stop. Okay, I'll give you a break. Hang in there.

We're almost done. I mean, then you can go home and do your emails and stuff. There's a, he says, why do we call that HUNG letter a meditation being?

Why do we give it that name? Why do they call it that? He says, ,DE LA DMIGS NAS BSGOM PA'I LUNG THAMS CAD NYIN GYI, MI SHIG PA'I THIG LAS Have you ever heard of MI SHIG PA'I THIG LAS?

When? This morning. Okay?

The indestructible drop in the heart, okay? Here it is in the text. Here it came in the text, okay?

,DE LA DMIGS NAS BSGOM PA'I, If you meditate on high spiritual ideas, ,LUNG THAMS CAD, all of the prana in your body, ,NYIN GYI MI SHIG PA'I THIG LAS LA THIM, will dissolve into the indestructible drop inside your heart. We talked about it this morning. Here it comes by pure coincidence.

Here it is. Okay? That's the storehouse of karma, right?

All your seeds stay there. But at some point, if your yoga asana is really good, then the prana will all go, it sucks into the heart chakra and sucks into that tiny little spot called the indestructible drop, okay? What happens then?

I don't know. Let me see. ,YI SHIG PA'I THIG LAS LA THIM PA'I, ,'OD SAL LA SOGS PA'I THING YIN ZHIG BSKYED PAR CAN SKYE, Then you get what's called OD SAL.

Say OD SAL. OD SAL means what? Clear light.

Clear light. It's a synonym in the secret teachings for emptiness. Is it light?

No. Is it clear? No.

It's not physical. It's just a metaphor. It's like diamond.

Diamond is close to OD SAL. Clear light. Is it made of light?

No. Is it clear? No.

OD SAL sort of describes, that's a long story, let's leave that. ,DE DAG GCOD PA YIN PA'I PHYIR, Long story is when you see emptiness directly, you have an experience of prana flowing out of your heart after that. After you come out of that experience, you experience a flow of prana directly out of your heart, which is directly connected to loving every single living being.

It's the peak experience of prana in your body. If you do your yoga well, it triggers a unique experience in your heart where you have a love for every single living creature. And at the same time, you see all their faces directly as if they were sitting in front of you.

Not talking 200 million people, not talking 6 billion people, talking every living creature on this planet from amoebas to whales to giraffes to humans, and not talking this planet only, talking endless planets. And in that moment, you can see the faces of each of them directly at the same time. And you love them.

You have an intense love for them. And you know you will serve them. You ask.

That's a real clear line. Anyway, that's a prana thing that is brought on by good yoga practice. So it's cool.

It's cool that we have so many good yoga teachers who help us. ,THEG CEN KHYAD PAR CAN KHYAD BA'I RGYUD ZIN GYI, ,DE DAG BCOS PA DE, That's why we call that person a meditation being. Because they are, that matter, hung, is a reflection of the clear light in the deep state of meditation, in the area of the heart.

Okay, got it? We're not done, okay? But I think you need a break.

Now he's going to talk about how to do the three levels in the text. This is all a side thing, okay? I like to do this kind of thing.

Again, it's only possible because the Tibetan ladies have been typing the scriptures for 25 years with your donations. And that's where all my business money went. I'm a, what do you call it?

Broke now. But we got eight million pages done. Okay, so, and then you can just say, where do I have a good explanation of the three beings?

And it will take you through eight million pages in less than 10 seconds. And then I can give you this talk because they are typing. They are still typing, okay?

They are, they will be going another 150 years at this rate, okay? I think it's a good example of how we should put an offering on the altar. And you don't think you have something else to do.

You see what I mean? I think the essence of tea ceremony is you are just to stay your mind there, keep your mind there. You don't think I have to send an email this afternoon.

You just relax and you surrender to the ceremony. And I think when we offer things on the altar, it's the same. Or I like to, I cooked for my Lama for, I don't know, eight years I was his only cook.

And to cook with some kind of mindfulness, right? To serve your teacher a meal or something. It's a great practice.

It's a great meditation. I'm going to finish the sumtek, semba sumtek, the three being practice, okay? We'll finish that.

First, I wanted to acknowledge the people who finished this course or got most of it done. So we kind of decided to graduate you. I still have one homework to write for today's class, but we'll send that to you online.

But the people here came to the classes and finished the homeworks that they got. And we'd like to recognize them. Some of these are from the last class, okay?

For me, the certificate means, I know that you're not, you know, I don't think you're going to go back to Mexico City and put it on your wall. But for me, the certificate means I trust you to teach this thing to other people, okay? That's the main thing.

At the beginning, we said that in this tradition, when you listen to a teaching, it's a grave responsibility, you know? You never come to a teaching in the monastery lightly. You, by coming, you are agreeing to pass it on.

And this instruction that you're getting here has been passed on for two and a half thousand years, right? It's about 82 generations. Okay?

And you have, now it has come to you. And I always ask people, are you going to be the schmuck to break it after two and a half thousand years? Are you going to be the person who doesn't pass it on?

You know? So those of you who are here, I don't have time to teach this again. I have other things to do, countless things to do.

So it's a unique opportunity to learn, I think, the greatest spiritual book on this planet for 10 years. And I'm very proud of the people who finished. And if you didn't finish and your name's not called out, then you should finish, okay?

I'm just going to name the names, then I'll give the certificates back to Nicole. Okay, let's finish this Semba Tsum Tse thing. Semba Tsum Tse Tsukyepa Ni I'm still in the other book, okay?

Secret book. Semba Tsum Tse Tsukyepa Ni How do you do this practice? BYANG SHI DANG CHOS TUN GZO YANG YOD TE DAM GZHIG SEMS PA NI RNAMS KYI LUS RAB PA DANG CHOS DON So the three beings correspond to something in your normal life, okay?

Who are the three beings? The big Buddha that you're visualizing, the tantric teacher in his heart or her heart, and then the concentration being or the meditation being, which is the latter, inside of the smaller Buddha, okay? What do they represent in your normal life?

DAM GZHIG SEMS PA NI RNAMS KYI LUS RAB PA DANG CHOS DON The pledged being, which is the big Buddha, okay? Corresponds to your gross physical body, okay? It's flesh and blood body, okay?

YESHES SEMS PA NI GNYUD MED LU LUNG SEMS NGO YOD MED DU GNAS PA'I YAG YANG THUG GYUR PA'I LUNG DANG CHOS DON The wisdom being, which is the little tantric teacher inside of the other Buddhist body, right? That being represents your inner body, especially your prana, okay? It represents your prana, which is kind of indivisible from your thoughts because your thoughts travel on your prana.

That's why we really push people to do yoga during these programs. If you do yoga in the morning and then you get a difficult teaching in the evening, you will understand it better, okay? You'll also be in a better mood.

So we push you to do yoga. I know it was a kind of a grueling schedule, but I think it's worth it. We had a couple of people last night were telling me it's a little too much for people, but I don't think so.

Twice a year? Come on. Four times a year?

This is the schedule in the monastery for 25 years and you don't stop. And you can do it for 10 days. I mean, I think it's okay.

Anyway, that's the being in the middle is your prana, represents your prana. ,SKYE NGAN CAN SEMS PA NI, ,GNUS MED LUNG SEMS, ,'GO YOD MED DU GNAS PA'I YANG YOD DU GYUR PA'I SEMS DANG, ,CHOS DON PA, Now, the HUNG letter in the middle, the meditation being represents, if the middle Buddha represents your prana, then the inner letter represents your mind in the indivisible combination of the mind and the prana moving through your body. When you're doing yoga and the prana flows, and then after you come out and you feel more clear for four, five, six hours, it represents that clarity of mind.

That letter in the middle. So I don't want you to just visualize something and not know what it means. ,CHOS DON PA YIN PA'I PHYIR, ,SEMS PA GSUM ZAS SU BSKYED PA NI, ,LAM GYI MED DGAG DANG CHOS DON PA YANG YIN TE, You can also draw correspondences between these three beings and your practice of Buddhism, your Buddhist path, the path.

,DAM GTO'I SEMS PA NI, ,BDAG MA BDAG GIS RGYUD MED KUN NYID, ,PHUNG PO RAB PA LA ZHUGS NAS, ,RAG PA'I GRUG GI BRDZIN PA DANG CHOS DON, As you become, as you practice yoga more, as you study more, as you meditate more, the mortal body transforms into a body of light. And the grossest form of an enlightened being's body is called dukkhu. Say dukkhu.

So dukkhu means nirmanakaya in Sanskrit. It means the body that an enlightened being sends to earth to talk to people. That's called dukkhu, nirmanakaya.

So Buddha doesn't live here, but Buddha will send a body here to show to people. That's called dukkhu. So nowadays in a monastery, high lamas are called dukkhus.

And you've heard the word dukkhu or... It's dukkhu, I say. Turn your tongue back, dukkhu.

You talk like that. If you want to talk like that, you only have to turn your tongue back. Turn that tongue back and then say dukkhu.

That's a dukkhu. So the Dalai Lama is considered a dukkhu because he's a reincarnation. So anyway, that's dukkhu.

The outer Buddha, the big Buddha, represents the dukkhu. The body that they send to earth. ,YES SHES SEMS PA NI, ,DE THUGS KYI RGYUD MI DGOS NYID DANG PHYI THUN, How should we say that?

RGYUD MI DGOS NYID DANG PHYI THUN Then there's a thing called an illusory body. The inner body of an enlightened being. The inner, the pranic body of an enlightened being corresponds to the second Buddha.

The second, the one inside the heart. ,RTZIN GYI RTZIN SEMS PA NI, ,DE THUGS KYI RGYUD MI DGOS NYID KYI THUGS RGYUD KYI, ,DE STONG YIN MED KYI YESHES DANG PHYI THUN PA, ,YIN MED PHYIR, Then the Hung Letter represents the wisdom of indivisible bliss and voidness inside the third Buddha. Okay, got it?

That's the path. On the level of the path, the tiniest one represents wisdom. The second one represents your inner body after you get enlightened.

And the outer one represents the body you show on earth. All right. Last part.

,SEMS PA GSUM BSAD SU BSKYED PA NI, ,BDE BU NAS SKABS DANG PHYI THUN PA YIN TE, You can draw a final correspondence between the three beings and how you will be at the end. When you get enlightened. That's one of the coolest things about Buddhism.

When you're talking about it with new people, you get to become God. The point of Buddhism is that you become Jesus. There's not one Jesus.

Everybody has a Jesus seed inside of them. And if you practice well, you become an enlightened being. And then you become the Spider-Man on this world.

You become the superhero on this world. I think it's beautiful. Everyone, according to Buddhism, has a seed within them to become an enlightened being equally.

We all have, even dogs and cats and birds, they all have this seed. And it's inevitable that you will become a Buddha. It cannot fail.

You will become a Buddha. Every living creature will become a Buddha. It's just a matter of time.

Some people will get there first. Some people get there later. But we'll all become a Buddha.

And I like that. I like that you get to be the Buddha. You get to have your own planet and take care of that planet.

Sometimes it's a hassle. But I like that. It's very beautiful that each person, each living creature, your rabbit at home has a Buddha nature and they will become a Buddha.

Inevitably. Cannot be stopped. I like it.

Okay, anyway, here's the correspondences after you reach that. Here we go. DE BU RGA DU GCOD DUNG PA'I YANG YIN TE RIM PA BZHIN GCOD KU LONG KU GCOD KU GSUM DANG RNAM PAR BRTUN CING So the outer Buddha, the big one, represents the body you will show on this planet.

The Buddha inside that Buddha's heart represents, say, LONG KU? LONG KU? LONG KU means the body you have in your own paradise.

So when you get enlightened, you will have a physical body made of light which lives within its own paradise. You probably need a GPS to know where it is, right? Right?

Say no. Okay, no. Where is Buddha paradise?

You always think I have to go in an Apollo spaceship. Probably I'd have to modify an Apollo spaceship to get to my Buddha paradise. But where you are now will transform.

There's no separate Buddha paradise. If you're sitting in my car, my previous car, 1980 Volvo with no air conditioning and works half the time. If you're sitting in that car and you get enlightened, where's your Buddha paradise?

It's in the Volvo. Okay, got it? There's no other place.

There are many realities going on in the same location. Physics is just getting to that. We gave a talk at Princeton recently.

It was called A Better History of Time. And I invited Stephen Hawking's publisher with there. And I said, here's a more comprehensive explanation of physical reality.

That still agrees with Stephen Hawking's but mostly. And we had a wonderful time talking about that. But they're just getting to the concept of multiple realities in the room.

So that's the idea. LONG DGOS, BCU GOS SUM BCU GOS means your mental state when you get enlightened. It's represented by which of the three do you guess?

The inside one, the innermost one, the HUNG letter. BCU GOS SUM DANG RNAM PAR DANG THUN ZHIG DE LTAR BSGOM PA LA BRTEN NAS If you keep practicing this threefold Buddha, KUS SUM GYI SGOS PA RNGON DU RGYUR PA'I GNOD PA KHYAB PA CAN SBYOR PA YIN PA'I PHYIR It plants a uniquely powerful seed in your mind to achieve those three bodies. If you do this visualization with three Buddhas, one inside the other, like those Russian eggs, Faberge Russian eggs, then you can reach that.

It's just practicing it in your visualization will make it happen. It's very beautiful. So we'll come back to this text and then we'll stop.

We have about five minutes. There's more on that subject. I don't want to overwhelm you.

I could go into the Sanskrit for all that and there's a unique explanation of it, but let's save it for some other day. We'll come back to the text. DBOS NA LAM RIM BSTOD PA'I LAMA This is my final thing and it's important.

It's maybe the sweetest thing in this whole 10 days. DBOS NA LAM RIM BSTOD PA'I LAMA MONG PO YOD NA GANG ZAL ZLAB NYAM NA RANG GI LA PHAN CHE BA'I LAMA DE TSO BAR BYED DGOS So this is the last big point. If you have many teachers, who should you visualize?

Who is your heart teacher? So like in the monastery, we have many teachers. I have 12.

Over the 25 years, I had 12 major teachers. 12 teachers spent years with me, teaching me. Those are, in the monastery, they're called Pecha Gergen.

Say Pecha? Gergen. Pecha Gergen means your scripture teachers.

They're like your college professors. Like you have a close relationship, but it's not like Lama. They're your...

And each one teaches you a different subject. Oh, this is my logic teacher. This is my emptiness teacher.

This is my compassion teacher. And they teach you from these books. So you have a lot of Pecha Gergens.

Then you have Kangten Gergen. Say Kangten? Gergen.

They're your babysitter. They're your house mom. Geshe Lothar is one of the best in the monastery.

He was my house mom. Because a lot of people get to the monastery at age seven. You're allowed to enter at age seven.

Luckily, there's a custom that you're not allowed to become an ordained monk until 21. We're not allowed to ordain a monk You're allowed to ordain a novice monk, but you're not allowed to take full ordination until you're old enough to know what you're doing and until you're old enough to decide to quit. So they ask you.

You enter at seven or you enter at 12 and then you feel lonely. Your parents come and drop you off and that's it. Maybe you get to see them a couple times a year or something.

Then the first few days are really traumatic. Your mom just dumped you in the monastery. To soften that, they turn you over to a khansen gergen.

That means you're a house mom. They are the sweetest. They like to cook.

They're usually chubby. They make your bed for you. They make your robes for you.

It takes them about a week to teach you how to fold, how to put on these robes without them falling down unexpectedly. They're very complicated to put on. So they just babysit you like that.

It's very sweet custom. It's a very pure and sweet custom. Nobody gets paid.

Nobody in the monastery gets paid. So they have to scrounge for your robes and they have to scrounge for your food. Your teacher, once you are accepted by a teacher, the teacher pays your expenses.

You don't pay. They pay for you. If I take you as a student, I have to arrange your food, place to stay, and your robes, and things like that, your education.

It becomes my responsibility. Then there's a, what do you call, symbiotic relationship. As the teacher gets older and the students grow into maturity, as they become geshes, at age 40 or something, 35, then they start taking care of the teacher.

Because the teacher by that time is old, is elderly. So there's this sweet synergy that goes on in the monastery. So you have your peche gergen and you have your khansen gergen.

Then you have other, like your Vinaya master, say, ney lama. Ney lama means your mentor, your personal mentor. You are assigned one in the monastery.

So that's called your mentor. They're like Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor. If you have a problem, they take care.

So like if you feel depressed or, I don't know, you're sick or something, or you have a, they watch all, they are your, what do you call it, personal sponsor in the monastery and they take care of you. That custom is 2,500 years old. You are required to have a ney lama.

We started that custom at Diamond Mountain. Each person had a ney lama, meaning someone they can go to when they have a problem. Like if they feel sad or they feel confused or they need some support.

Everybody was supposed to have a ney lama at Diamond Mountain. Then 35 ney lamas went into three-year retreat and the whole system kind of collapsed. So I'd like to repeat my request to Rebecca that regular students be encouraged to find a ney lama.

That means somebody you trust in this group that you can go to for help. If you feel sad or you feel like you're not sure about what you should do or anything, they kind of are your AA sponsor. So I'd like to encourage you to talk to Rebecca.

I like it that she has a list of who's the ney lama for everybody. Then if someone's having a problem and I can go to the ney lama and say, what's their history? Have they been depressed for a while?

What's been done about it? What else do we need to do? Like that.

It's just a backup. It's a spiritual backup. Your ney lama is not necessarily your heart lama, which is called tsawe lama.

Say tsawe lama. Tsawe lama. So tsawe means root.

This is your personal spiritual teacher, tsawe lama. He kind of defines them here. Are you ready?

I brought this up because of the question that's raised in the text here. The text says, which of my lamas should I visualize? My pecha gergen?

My kansen gergen? My ney lama? Or my tsawe?

Who should I visualize? Which one? Because any monk or student who's regular, they have like 10 or 15 teachers.

And those teachers sometimes contradict each other, which drives you crazy. Your head splits open and stuff starts to leak out. Like one teacher says, you go to one teacher in the monastery and they say, you should never do this.

And then you go to the other teacher and they say, you must do this. And then you go like crazy. You feel like your head's going to explode.

Two of your dearest teachers are telling you to do opposite things. Then in our tradition, the student is required to decide which is correct by examining which is more helpful for other beings. You see what I mean?

This lama told me I should do yoga. This other lama told me I should never do yoga. This lama ordered me to have a spiritual partner.

This other lama told me I can't have a spiritual partner. So what am I supposed to do? And then the viewpoint in the monastery, or the viewpoint in Buddhism is that you're supposed to think they are in collaboration.

Whether they are or not, I don't know. Mine always were. You're supposed to think they are in collaboration.

They planned to mess with your mind last week. They made this grand plan to mess with your mind. Then you're supposed to...

Jetha Kapha, the founder of our lineage said, then you're supposed to think it over what would be the kindest and most compassionate course of action for other people. Which instruction should you follow depends on which one would make you a better person and a kinder person. It's the student's responsibility to decide.

In the end, you have to decide a course of action based on what you've learned. A lama will typically teach you for years and then they'll put you in a tough position of having to decide what's the best course of action. It's a test.

It's a very typical scenario. They teach you. It's called the Rob the Bank teaching.

Okay, that's the last thing today. So then you go to your class. You go to your Perfection of Wisdom class at Geshe Tutor Rinchen's house at 2 p.m. in Gombo Khamtsen. You walk in and he says, okay, everybody sit down. I got something special today. You all sit down.

You sit on the floor, by the way, and the teacher teaches on their bed. He says, today I have a special teaching. I want all of my students to go out and rob a bank.

This is called the Rob the Bank teaching. There's a historical story. The teacher told the students to rob the bank.

Then there were three students of that teacher. Two of them went and robbed the bank because you're supposed to do what your teacher says. Then the third one said, but the scripture says if your teacher asks you to do something wrong you should refuse because it's a test.

Then so the third student said, I love you, you're my teacher, I believe in you, but I cannot do what you ask. It's immoral. It would be harming someone and I think you don't want me to do it.

Then of course that student got an award. They probably got an extra cup of butter tea or something. Okay, like that.

So what this text is saying, this line is that of course you will have different teachers in your life. Sometimes the instructions you get from those teachers, even in yoga class, right? I go to one class and they say, your hands are too narrow.

Then I widen them up. Then I go to the next class and the teacher says, you're going to screw up your shoulder. Make them closer together.

According to our tradition, in the end you must make your own decisions. The teacher's job is to make you independent decision maker. The teacher's job is to teach you many, many years and give you the information that you need.

In the end, it becomes your responsibility to decide what is a good thing to do and what is not a good thing to do. That's the purpose of the training. It should be a moral decision.

It should be based on, will this hurt other people or not? Shall I do this thing or not? Is it a good thing to do?

Is it a clean and pure thing to do? So, out of your lamas, one will rise, right? One will become closest to you.

One will become your heart lama. Tsawe Lama means heart lama. He says, how do you define heart lama?

Phen cheway lama. Say rangyula. Then we'll stop, okay?

Rangyula. Phen. Cheway.

Lama. Which lama do you have who has, most taught you kindness and made you a good person, right? Taught you to serve other people.

Taught you to be kind to other people. The lama who taught you that the most is your heart lama, okay? That's all.

Okay? The one who taught you kindness and to help other people, to be kind to other people, serve other people, be gentle to other people, that's your heart lama. And that's the one you should visualize, okay?

That's a good place to stop, huh? That's a nice place to stop, okay. All right then.

I'll see you in August and we will do the other half of this subject. We're halfway through this subject, okay? Which is what?

George should do the six practices that you should do before you meditate, okay? The six practices that you should do before you meditate. So that's the final class.

There's a tradition in Tibet, okay? When I got to Damsala in 1973 or something like that, I walked into my first class. I got off the bus, this dirty Indian bus.

I walked into my first class. All these people were bowing, all these Westerners were bowing down to Geshe Dargye. I freaked out.

I said, oh my God, now finally I saw people breaking that commandment. You shall not worship. What does it bow down to?

I was always wondering, also church school, I never saw anybody break this one. Lying, I saw lots of people break that one. I was like, ew, they're all bowing down to...

I felt uncomfortable and I refused to do it for like a year. Then they taught, he'll teach about it. He'll teach about how you do it.

In Japan, it's a very beautiful custom, right? People still, and there's degrees. Like I've seen in the airport, it'll go.

It's a beautiful custom. It's a very beautiful custom. It's not some cult thing and it's not some weird thing.

It is the way in our lineage that people show respect for a teacher. If you see other people doing it, don't feel like you have to do it. It's not American, it's Tibetan.

If you want to do it and it's fun for you, you're welcome to do it. I don't care if people think it's weird. It's proper and it's a healthy thing.

That's okay. But if it feels weird to you, you don't have to do it. If you see people doing it, you can just sit on the chair and say, that's nice.

You don't have to do it. Then he will teach us how to do it. It'll be in the book.

Why am I bringing this up? In the last class of a series, you're not allowed to bow down to the teacher. You're not allowed to bow down to the teacher.

Why? It means you have unfinished business together. That means you must meet again.

It's my honor to see you all. I love you all. It makes me really happy to teach this text.

It makes me really happy that somebody wants to learn it. I can't enjoy teaching if I don't have anyone come. For me, I'm very grateful that you come.

I'm grateful that you have courage to try to follow this path, even when there are obstacles. I'm grateful for the chance to teach you. For me, it's a pleasure even to read this book.

Of course, you work a lot harder, right, Anton, when you have to teach a class. You would never work so hard for yourself. But if you're going to sit up in front of other people, you work a lot harder.

Last thing, please teach it, okay? Please pass it on to others. You don't have to learn the Tibetan and the Sanskrit and the Chinese and all that.

But you should get the main ideas and you should pass it on to other people. And make a class out of it and do a collaboration. Maybe someone from Tokyo says to somebody from Hamburg, let's do a class.

You come to Tokyo and let's teach Lam Rim and then I'll come to Hamburg and I'll teach there. Make some kind of cool collaborations about teaching. Everybody can teach this.

You can teach it in yoga studios. It's a pleasant subject to teach people. How do you meditate?

How do you prepare for meditation properly? Everybody in a yoga school wants to know. And this is the authentic transmission of it.

So please pass it on. Don't be shy. Invite yourself to a yoga studio.

Usually they close at 8 o'clock. People do a 5.30 class. Usually the yoga studios are free after 8 o'clock.

And say, look, I'll come from 8 to 9. I'll do a free class. Or you can charge and I don't get any money.

Which is my usual custom. And then start like that. Start in yoga.

Teach the eight-point posture. All right? Mazal?

[Говорящий 2] (57:40 - 57:40)
Mazal.

[Говорящий 1] (57:40 - 57:44)
Okay, all right. We'll do final prayers. Dorothy, you ready?

[Говорящий 2] (58:27 - 59:19)
Meditate. Okay, thank you.