«Дар освобождения», курс 8 «Учимся быть тихими», занятие 1

[Говорящий 1] (0:00 - 9:53)
So, we're in a, this is a, this book, I think, I told people I was sitting in a, having lunch with some friends about a couple years ago, and they're all book readers, they all like to read books, and they were, each person was saying, oh this is my favorite book, you know, this is the best book I ever read in my life. So for me, for me it's this one, okay. And you know, we have these projects to save books, we, like in Russia, we cataloged 130,000 books, it took 14 years with our team in St. Petersburg, and there are about 200,000 great books in Tibet, like on the level of the Bible, or Dante, or Shakespeare, and there's 200,000 of them, but this is my favorite, okay. This is, I think, the most helpful book in the world, maybe. So, it's a complete guide to enlightenment, from the beginning to the end, everything you need is in here, okay. And very practical, good for people in the modern world, you know.

So I'd like you to, I'm going to, I was taught it three times, over a 30 year period, and I'd like you to, I'd like to pass it on, okay, the things that I learned, the deeper things that I learned. And I, here in Arizona, and next winter in Guadalajara, we are going through this book, okay. By the way, these are two versions of the book, I thought I would pass them around, okay.

This one is Tibetan, this is a Tibetan, old Tibetan cloth, hand printed, you know, dots on it. And the paper was made by hand, in Tibet, from a special bush, and then printed on a wood block. And Ken Rinpoche gave me this book when I became a Geshe.

He gave me his copy, and has his notes in it. So, I lost it. I had 50 boxes of books that were shipped from New York, and then I found it last week.

So I thought I'd pass it around and you could see the difference. This one is printed in India, on cheap paper, you know, and this is Tibetan paper. And this will last for 500, 600, 700 years.

So I thought you'd like to see it, so I'll pass it around. The old one you don't have to see, right? But I need someone to take it back to New Jersey.

Maybe I'll ask later. Anybody who's in New York area wants to take this? Do you want to take it back to Jampa?

Okay, that's your problem, don't lose it. So I borrowed that one. But you can pass it around and see it.

So, and I'm not going to rush this text. I planned to take 10 years, but I think it's going to be like 12 or 14 years to finish it. And you don't have to get stressed, okay?

You don't have to, I mean, come as much as you can, but don't go crazy. And I would like to pass it on carefully in the old way. And a lot of times he will mention something that Tibetan monks would know.

His audience was Tibetan monks and nuns. These are actually lectures that were given over a 20-day period in Tibet around 19, in the 1920s. And it was carved.

It was an immediate hit. And then it was carved. And there was a young monk there who decided he would record everything.

Because there were no tape recorders. So he took notes. He took notes of the Tibetan, like perfectly.

And then he spent, I think, about 20 years creating this book of his teacher's teachings. And then that was Thich Nhat Hanh Rinpoche, Kyabje Thich Nhat Hanh Rinpoche, who became the Dalai Lama's teacher and my teacher's teacher. So the Dalai Lama had two main teachers, this Dalai Lama.

And one of them was the young monk who edited this book. And he spent 20 years on the transcript. And it's probably the best example of Tibetan literature in the last few centuries.

It's exquisitely done. And the Tibetan is perfect. Which is unusual, because Tibetans don't spell very well.

So it's just a classic. And a lot of my life has been... I read it now again after 30 years or 40 years, and I realize a lot of who I am came from that.

So I find things that I have been thinking nowadays. And then I realize it was planted 30 years ago or 40 years ago. So it's a beautiful, beautiful experience to go through that book and learn it.

I think it's what... In my mind, it's one of the greatest spiritual books in the world. And if you can learn it, and then pass it on.

So we will have homeworks. And it gives you a structure of what I think is important in the book. And then it gives you the answers also.

So I would like to ask you... We had evaluation sheets from last retreat. And we actually read them.

And so there were a lot. It was hundreds of pages. And I read them all.

Almost all of them. And then a lot of people said they wanted homework. That they missed the homework last time.

Because it gives you a chance to understand what I think is important and what you should remember. So we'll have homeworks. I have three ready.

I need to do maybe two more. And I ask you to do them. It makes your knowledge strong.

And then you can teach other people. And the homeworks give you a structure when you teach other people. The whole book has been translated in three volumes.

By a fellow student of mine. Who studied with Ken Rinpoche for many years. Art Engel.

He was my... What do you call? Rival?

I was jealous of him. I don't know if he was jealous of me. For like 25 years.

But his Tibetan is unbelievable. When he got mad, he used to channel Tibetan. And he would curse in Tibetan.

And then I'd ask Rinpoche, what's he saying? And he said, I don't know how he knows those words. And he's some kind of amazing person.

And he spent I think 20 years translating it. After Rinpoche taught it. So there's an English translation that you can read.

A lot of times the Pabongkha Rinpoche who wrote the text. So the Pabongkha Rinpoche is the grandfather Lama of the current Dalai Lama. And he's our great grandfather Lama.

He also taught my teacher. When my teacher was quite young. So there's a story about that.

But sometimes he'll mention something that Tibetans might know about. And then I like to go to other scriptures and bring you those points. So this is going to take longer than just teaching that book.

It'll probably take twice as long. Because I enjoy going in. If he mentions something difficult, I like to go find it somewhere.

And we have, I don't know, a million pages of text put in. Input by the refugees. Our computer project is 25 years old this year.

So I can go look in a few seconds. I can look through thousands of scriptures. And take some beautiful explanation of something for you.

So I will do a lot of, what do you call those? Detours. Digressions.

Endless digressions. So that we may not get to the homework sometimes. Yeah, footnotes.

Just cool things I think that you should know. So we'll be doing that. And then we'll be doing a lot of meditation.

So I'm going to review just a little bit from the fourth class. We're supposed to finish ten classes by the end of the week. But I don't think so.

We'll just pick it up next time. We've been going through the six traditional steps of preparing for meditation. First one is?

[Говорящий 2] (9:54 - 9:55)
Cleaning the room.

[Говорящий 1] (9:55 - 14:18)
Yeah, cleaning your room. Okay. I was going to ask how many people actually were cleaning their rooms.

But maybe not. But it makes you... I've actually been doing it, which is unusual.

And it's this big struggle. The minute you get up you make the bed. Instead of leaving it for later.

And then you clean up your clothes all over the floor. And then sometimes I sweep the room. Like that.

It's a spiritual practice. It makes your mind clear, clean, orderly, peaceful. And slowly try to throw the junk out of your house.

I'm pretty good at that now. I've been working on it. Mostly moving it down to the storeroom.

But try, okay? Just throw things out. Get them out of your house.

You don't need all the stuff that you have. And it distracts you. And it makes you...

You remember the things you have. Like shoes. Like old shoes.

Like you have 20 pairs of shoes or 10 pairs of shoes. You don't use four or five of them. Ever.

So just throw them out. And then you don't have to have the inventory in your mind. You don't have to be remembering.

Your mind is like a hard disk drive, right? And as you get older it fills up. Because you have memories.

Of your first boyfriend and your second one and your third one. And then those are still there. And so as you get older it gets more and more crowded.

So it's better to dump things if you can. Jettison possessions as much as you can. And then you have less things on your mind.

And your mind will be more clear. So cleaning your room is a high practice. And he went off on this long thing, right?

About Chudapandaka. This guy who became an arhat because he was cleaning his room well. Okay?

All right. So try. Try it.

Second one was what? Yeah, setting up an altar. Probably making some offerings.

Okay? Putting an altar in your house is a statement. That I have a spiritual side to my life.

You have your computer area. You have your eating area. You have your pooping area.

You have your laundry area, right? Then you should have your spiritual area of your house. And then that's just a statement.

And the altar can be very personal. It doesn't have to be, you know. You have images on the altar that mean something to you.

There's no, what do you call it? We're not excluding people who don't have a Geshe Michael picture on their altar. Like that.

You put pictures that mean something to you. And that your own private, personal teachers. It could be Jesus, it could be Moses, it could be Mohammed.

It doesn't matter. But have a place in your house which is dedicated to the higher things. Because in the end, that's the only thing that counts.

You will visit the kitchen the last time. You will visit the banyo the last time. Right?

You will sleep in your bed the last time. And then only the altar matters at that time. So only the spiritual part of your house matters at the end.

So make it nice and don't ignore it. The rest of this stuff is very, what do you call it? Demanding.

Life is demanding. The banyo is demanding. The kitchen is demanding.

The bed is demanding. And you think, oh, I'll leave the altar for tomorrow. I don't have to meditate tonight.

But in the end, that's the only part of your house that matters. So don't ignore it. In the end, you need it.

So prepare now. Get it ready now.

[Говорящий 2] (14:20 - 14:21)
Third thing?

[Говорящий 1] (14:25 - 14:47)
Yeah, you can say it. Offering. It's actually second.

Yeah, like setting up the altar and offering is the second. Third one is? Yeah, just how to sit properly.

And we went through that. How to meditate properly. These are the things you have to do before you do a meditation, right?

You have to learn to sit properly.

[Говорящий 2] (14:54 - 14:55)
The fourth.

[Говорящий 1] (14:56 - 50:35)
Hello. So the fourth step will be how to visualize the refuge, okay? Refuge.

Refuge means who can protect you, okay? And there's a famous story. Uh-oh.

This is the Lama phone, okay? Only the Lama is supposed to use this. Except Jigme Chit sometimes.

Yeah. There's a story that, you know, Lord Buddha was called Shakyamuni. Shakya was his...

It's not the same as Sakya, okay? Sakya is a Tibetan sect. Shakya is a people that lived in India a long time ago.

Shakyamuni means like leader of the Shakyas. So he was the village headman of the Shakya clan. And then one day they were attacked by soldiers from another part of India.

And they killed a lot of the people in the village. And then a couple of people ran. They said, oh, Buddha lives here.

We have Buddha in our village. He will protect us. And they ran to the Buddha's room, to his cottage.

And then that shawl, that monk shawl, they hid under the monk shawl, right? A couple of them hid under the monk shawl. And then the soldiers came in and they killed them.

Hanging on to the Buddha's legs and arms, they were killed. So then the question in Buddhism is, who can protect you? If you live in the time of the Buddha, and soldiers attack your village, and you can hold on to the Buddha and he can't protect you, then what's your protection?

Who's going to help you when things are bad? And then we say the three jewels, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. But it has a special meaning.

The jewel of the Buddha is not the same as the Buddha. The jewel of the Dharma is not the same as the Dharma. The jewel of the Sangha is not the same as the Sangha.

So who do you go to for protection? Then I always say, your boss yells at you. I was in New York.

I was 20 years in corporate life in New York. The other day I drove to Phoenix from my house. It takes two hours.

And then I drove back. And then I realized I did that every day for 20 years. I did two hours each way for 20 years, to help the monastery.

So anyway, it's like I've been in many, many thousands of corporate situations where the owner of the company, or the board, or somebody is screaming at you. That's your job. In a big corporation, just people are screaming at you.

They want this or they want that. Then they criticize you. I went out to lunch with one of them in Israel.

One of the owners of the company. It was cute. We're still friends, like 30 years later.

But they were screaming at me. I remember she used to scream at me. She apologizes every time I meet her now.

She says, I screamed at you a lot, didn't I? And I say, yeah, yeah, you did. But she was...

So someone's hurting you. Someone's screaming at your work. They're saying, why didn't you finish this order?

Why didn't you get this order done? And why do you have so many employees working for you? It's a contradiction, right?

Why didn't you get the work done? I don't have any workers. How come you're spending so much money on workers so I can get the work done?

And it's like that. It's always like that. So anyway, in this system, we call Diamond Cutter System mainly.

In this system, when somebody criticizes you or yells at you, then you're supposed to think, your reaction is supposed to be, why is this happening to me? Like, what's the real reason why this is happening to me? It cannot be that I'm a bad employee, because I'm perfect.

So it must be something else, you see? It must be that I yelled at someone maybe last week. I was hard on one of my workers.

I was unfair to one of my workers. And now the boss is yelling at me. So then what's the stupidest thing you can do?

Yell back. Human nature is to yell back, and that's why you're human. That's why you were born in this place.

Because you yell back. So it's a cycle. Because you're human, you yell back.

And because you yell back, you have to be human again and live in a world like this, where people yell. It's a cycle. Then supposedly this training, the whole point of all these ten years or fourteen years of this book, the whole point is that can you not yell back?

Can wisdom overcome nature? Can wisdom overcome human nature? Can you, like an animal, like a dog, can you learn not to yell back?

In your lifetime, in your 50, 60, 70 years here, can you learn one thing? Don't yell back. Because then they will yell again.

Can you just learn this one thing? If you go to enough classes, hundreds of classes, can you learn not to yell back? It's like that, right?

And that's protection. And that's the only protection which is offered in this religion, in Buddhism. We don't believe that if you have a photo of Buddha on your altar, they're not going to blow up the World Trade Center or something like that.

It's not going to happen. Or that if you have a Dalai Lama picture, you won't get cancer. We don't believe that.

We don't think they can protect you. What can protect you is understanding where stuff comes from. And stop reacting.

Stop creating more bad seeds. And that's the only thing. It's your understanding which protects you.

And there's no picture or statue or people in red suits that can't protect you. So in the practice of preparing for meditation, you clean your room to make your mind orderly. You set up an altar and you make offerings to make a statement.

This is part of my life. And part of my apartment or part of my house is dedicated to my spiritual life. In the way that I have parts that are dedicated to eating and dedicated to Facebook.

I have a desk. I have a laptop. Nowadays our religion is mostly computer.

And all of us have a nice... The computer space is nice. The altar is suffering.

Okay, so... That's the second step. Third step, learn how to sit properly.

Posture-wise. Learn how to sit properly. A lot of sitting has to do with yoga.

Asana, the word asana. A means very much. And then as means to sit.

And I think as comes from that. Okay? I think so.

So anyway, asana used to be sitting postures. The purpose of yoga, the reason to do yoga is to make your... The intention is to make your body strong enough to sit for a long time.

Make your back strong and you're able to sit for a long time. You're flexible enough to sit for a long time. So asana, the first asana is we're all sitting postures.

So you do yoga and you learn to sit. Learn to sit quietly. That's the third.

Now we're on the fourth preliminary for meditation which is going for shelter. Going for protection. Going for refuge.

And to do that we do a visualization of the Buddha. It could be your teacher. Traditionally at this point when you're preparing for meditation you briefly visualize Lord Buddha.

You're supposed to think that on the outside this is the Buddha. On the inside it's my personal teacher. My own heart teacher.

So the essence of that person that you're visualizing is your own teacher. As protection. As protection.

How? Protection. Can you text them when you're in trouble?

It's not like that. When you visualize at this point we're going to be picturing the Buddha. And we're going to think that that's my lama.

That's my own personal teacher. And then you're going to think this person can protect me by teaching me. Not by having a bigger gun than the guy who's...

You know what I mean? That's how we think. He's going to teach me how not to be violent when people are violent to me.

And then that's going to save me. And that's going to protect me. And then violence will end in my world.

Ahimsa pratishtha yam tat sanidha varetyaka. Yoga Sutra. If you make non-violence a way of life, violence will not be done to you.

They teach you that. So at this point when you're preparing for meditation you bring to mind a mental picture of the person who protects you by teaching you not to respond with violence. Like that.

So I will cover the homework questions as we go. This homework you're going to get today I think. But anyway, the first question it has to do with who are they on the outside and who are they on the inside.

If you feel more comfortable with a woman, Buddha, you can visualize Tara. I brought a Tara I think. I gave Rinpoche...

I wanted to know everything about diamonds. So I paid some guy $8,000 to teach me at night way into the night every night how to cut diamonds. We were just dealing in diamonds but I learned how to cut them.

So I sat in the factories at midnight with these guys and I gave Rinpoche all the diamonds that I cut. And then when I went into Sriya retreat he sent me that Tara and he put all the diamonds on Tara. So they're all on the crown and they're not cut very well but they're okay.

So anyway, if you feel more comfortable with Tara or something like that you go ahead and whatever image you want to use it doesn't matter. I think a lot of people feel more comfortable with Tara. There's a great power to the traditional form of the Buddha.

I'll put one up on the projector when we get it in the afternoon. But there's a great power to visualizing the Buddha that was here 2,500 years ago. Sometimes do that.

There's a power to that which you don't know. It's a great power. In the book Pabongkha Rinpoche explains he goes off a lot on the mudras.

Mudra means the hand gestures, right? So we do these hand gestures. In traditional there are hand gestures that mudras that you do.

So he goes off on the hand gestures that Lord Buddha has. And there are mainly two. One is that Lord Buddha is pressing the ground with his right hand.

So you'll see traditional image of Lord Buddha. He's pressing the ground with his right hand like that. And then his left hand is palm up.

And there's a wisdom ball. Some people call it a monk's begging ball. And my teacher violently didn't like that.

Of course non-violently, violently didn't like that. But he said it's not a begging ball, it's a wisdom ball. You can use it for begging, but it's a wisdom ball.

So he's holding a wisdom ball in his left hand. There are symbolism to those two mudras. Those two hand gestures have a meaning.

And they relate to what we call the four demons. So there are four demons in your life. In your time on this earth, you have to overcome, try to overcome four demons.

Those two gestures represent that the Buddha has overcome them already. So how? Then I'm going to read you the text.

So the right hand on the earth, pressing on the earth represents that Lord Buddha has overcome the demon. There's a demon called the Son of the Deity or the Son of the Worldly Deity. Then I freaked out.

I was a very... I was going to seminary before I went to meet the Tibetans. And I thought, oh, they're talking about the Son of God, you know, this is very bad.

It's nothing to do with that, okay? It's just the words in Tibetan are Devaputra, which means Haipu, which means his name, the demon's name. His dad was like an evil spirit who was called Deva, which means like, I don't know, like worldly god or something like that.

What do you call those Greek and Roman guys? Jupiter and... Who's the guy Thor?

You know, just think Thor. Son of Thor or something like that. I don't know, something like that, okay?

Not a big... It doesn't refer to Jesus, okay? Anyway, his name is Son of the Worldly God.

That represents negative emotions and mainly that would distract you. He gives the example of jealousy. So you can think of that demon supposedly is related to jealousy.

It's hard to find an explanation of that demon. But that demon is related to jealousy. And especially that demon doesn't like it when you get spiritual.

He's jealous of your time. He would rather have you on the internet surfing, safely surfing on the internet, or doing things which are not going to enlighten you. Then when you do something spiritual, he gets jealous and he tries to cause some kind of a problem.

And big problems come. The bigger the problems that come, you should be, what do you call it? Complimented.

It means you're doing some heavy practice. We were in Guadalajara. A thousand people came.

I was like, you know, something bad is going to happen. No, it was like out of hand. They almost had a revolution that night.

I'm like, oh, something is going to happen. And then poop hits the fan. So you...

There are beings who don't like to see things growing and happy and they get jealous. So that's Devaputra. It's called that.

So when you see Lord Buddha like that, he's like, no problem. He's like, squish, squish. He's like that.

You see some mighty warrior. No, he's not responding. This means you can yell at me or you can criticize me, but I'm cool.

Okay, like that. He's just, I'm not going to shoot you back so then you shoot me back. I'm not going to start this.

What do you call it? Salvo back and forth. I'm cool.

Okay, like that. Okay, left hand. In the bowl there are three forms of nectar.

In the bowl there are three forms of nectar. In Sanskrit, what do they call nectar? Amrita.

I don't know where they got this. Amrita and Krishna and Sanskrit. It's Krishna and Sanskrit.

And it's Amrita. And everyone pronounces it wrong, even like yoga teachers from India. It's Amrita.

Mur means the root for death, right? Like mortuary, murder. A means not.

A means no death. Amrita means no death. The Greek nec means necrophilia.

Death. And tar is the same as Sanskrit, tara, to go beyond. So nectar to go beyond death is the same as Amrita.

So there are three forms of nectar in his bowl. What's the first one? And these are the three remaining demons.

First is the demon of they call it Pumbudu. Pumbudu means the body with which you were born. Which is doomed.

The body with which you were born is doomed. Unless you radically change your seeds in your mind, the body in which you were born will just degenerate and fall apart as you get older. So the nectar in the bowl in his left hand represents I don't have that problem anymore.

I have turned my body into light. And yoga is, one of the main purposes of yoga is to affect that transformation of the physical body, flesh and blood into light. So he has that nectar is in the bowl.

And so he has overcome the second demon which is the body you were born in. And the mind. Inside that bowl is also nectar which stops death itself.

And so he has overcome the third demon which is death. Death itself. So the second demon is the condition of this body.

The first demon is like jealous interruptions of your spiritual practice by demons. The better you get, the more difficult situations will come. If you, what do you call it?

If you're cooperative and you just go on the web or spend your days watching videos, you're not going to get any spirits coming and bothering you. We got him. He's all right.

He'll just quietly die. He'll get old and die eating junk food, watching videos. We got that one.

It's when you try to do something important spiritually that then you'll get big problems. So third is overcoming the demon of death. Then there's what we call the nectar of wisdom in that bowl.

And that overcomes the demon. The fourth demon is called nyomo, which is what? Ecclesiastical.

Mental afflictions. Negative emotions. Desire.

Jealousy. Competitiveness. Hatred.

Like that. So he, the fact that he's sitting like that and that you visualize him like that in step number four of the six preliminaries is that you're taking refuge in a being who has overcome death itself. Who has no negative emotions.

Who no longer has a physical body which is going to die and get old. And who has overcome obstacles to their spiritual practice. You're taking refuge in a perfect being.

This being is perfect. In this tradition you're supposed to think, that's my teacher. My teacher is that.

And I'm not trying to be your teacher. Everyone should have a different teacher. Your teacher should be whoever you connect with.

Go through life. Find your heart teacher. That's your job.

I'm just telling you how you should act towards them. In your mind, you should think, this person is the Buddha. This person has come for me.

Out of all the people in the world, this person is here on this planet to take care of me and to get me enlightened. And you should think that way. There's this, what do you call it?

There's this current going on in our group nowadays of oh, we should disagree with our teacher or the teacher is wrong sometimes. I saw a teacher pick their nose the other day or something like that. I don't believe that at all.

I think it's foolish. If you didn't find a teacher that you think is the Buddha, then you should find a teacher who you think is the Buddha. And you shouldn't have a part-time teacher who is half-time wrong and half-time correct or something like that.

Not really. You won't get anywhere. You won't get enlightened.

You'll be reasonable, but you won't be enlightened. So if you haven't found that teacher, then find them. But when you find them, relate to them as if they were the Buddha.

And not in any other way. And if you didn't find a person that you can relate to that way, then find, then go find, try to find. That's your job.

In this system, how do you find them? You create them. You don't go to India.

I can save you a lot of diarrhea. Don't go to India looking for somebody. Create them.

They'll come to you in the comfort of your own home. How do you create a teacher? Share what you know with other people.

Do your homework. Share the good things you've learned with other people. Whether it's yoga or meditation or things you've heard.

Then share them in a happy, non... What do you call it? Don't go knocking on people's doors.

You have to accept this book. Just like at work, say, look, you don't yell at the boss. He's just going to yell again next week.

Then you're a teacher. Then you became a lama. You're a lama in your office, right?

You don't have to tell anybody. Just help people gracefully, kindly. And that karma will create a teacher.

That karma will create your heart lama. But when they come, I say, and I repeat, don't think of them as a normal person. They don't need psychology.

You don't have to... Either take them or don't take them. But if you take them, don't think of them as a normal person.

Because a normal person can't get you out of this life. Take your time. Be careful.

Choose wisely. But once you choose, don't think of them as a normal person. Because then you'll just get normal.

All right. And I... And I repeat, I believe that.

And I do it myself. I'm going to pick up on the text now from where we were. And let's do...

We'll do some questions and answers in the afternoon, okay? Because that's the time when you're sleepy and it will keep you awake, okay? All right.

So, just for the record, we're on folio 81B, okay? And we'll have the Tibetan up here starting in the afternoon. You can follow the Roman letters, the English letters, okay?

So, there's a discussion. Pabongkha Rinpoche is saying, if you've had many lamas, which one should you be visualizing? And he says Lamrim Lamas.

So, in Tibet, in our monastery, we take a vacation like twice a year and then some big lama will come and teach Lamrim. We don't study Lamrim in the monastery. We study the roots of it, which are the five great schools of philosophy.

And then the Lamrim came out of that. So, twice a year we have visiting lamas. The Dalai Lama might come or one of his teachers used to come and teach Lamrim.

So, if I have been taught Lamrim by many lamas, which one should I be visualizing? And then he says, Rangyula Penchewe Lama. It should be the one who changed your heart the most.

It should be the one who had the greatest effect on your heart and your behavior. Like that. And that should be the lama that you visualize.

Maybe not the one who is most knowledgeable, scripturally, or maybe not the most famous one. But who's the one who had the biggest effect on your life? Then that's the one you should be visualizing.

Your heart lama, if you have a heart lama. If you don't have a heart lama, you should be creating one. By sharing things in a graceful, non-pushy way with people who need them.

And that's how you create a teacher. And sharing your skills, for example, at work, or if you're a good sitar player or something, be generous with your skills and give them away freely. Which is a little scary in a work situation sometimes, right?

I'll teach you how to do everything I do. And the more you're able to overcome that resistance to teaching other people everything you know, the more you will create your heart lama. That's the karma, to create a heart lama.

Even in a business situation, or stuff like that. The pen chen tsoy chen gu. Ye kyi chi la jetsun jampa.

So, there are other lamas seated around your lama. This now gets a little complicated, and it's going to get very complicated. I personally don't do it very often.

I restrict my visualization to just my teacher. I get overwhelmed if there are 48 lamas sitting there. But it's my job to tell you the tradition.

I suggest that you probably want to just start with your own teacher. But here's the tradition. On the right, which in Tibetan scripture means on the lama's right, which is your left, as you face the lama.

So always when you read a Tibetan scripture and they're describing a visualization, you should be warned that it's backwards. We say on the lama's left. They say on the lama's right, because it's on that lama's right, his right, which is your left as you're facing him, or her, is a throne.

And on that throne is Maitreya, the next Buddha to come in this world, who is closer than you think sometimes. CI CHUNG GI THAG KHOR DU RGYA CHEN CHU RGYUD KYI LAMA NAMS KYI KHOR BA Then that lama, Maitreya, has all the lamas in this world who taught the bodhisattva teachings, the teachings on bodhichitta. They are surrounding Maitreya.

So they're all the lamas in history, like Master Shantideva, or Master Asanga, these great lamas who taught about bodhichitta. What is bodhichitta? Bodhichitta is the desire to save the world.

It's the desire to save the world. And I like our business, right? What do you call it?

Our activities are global. And they are without border, I think. And I think you see it here.

We have England. We have West Indies. We have Israel.

We have Russia. We have a lot of Mexico. We have Chile.

We have Vietnam. We have many... The borders are...

I think our activities and our... What do you call it? The teaching is universal.

Everyone has to die. Everyone has problems with their boss. You know?

These teachings are truly without border. They are for everyone. And they fit everyone.

So bodhichitta is the desire to see those useful things spread across the globe without regard to borders. And it's happening. And it really does happen.

So these are the lamas. On the teacher's right are all the lamas who taught that kind of thing. And you are those lamas.

You are those lamas. We were looking for someone to come to Singapore. We were short one person in Singapore.

So we called Alejandro in Guadalajara. Guadalajara, you know? So like Guadalajara is going to Singapore.

Okay? And that's the way it should be. It should be like that.

Bodhichitta is global. Universal. Not just this planet, but let's stick to this planet.

Okay. YUN GYI PHYI CHUNG LA BYED TSUN BYAM PA'I YANG On the lama's left, meaning your right as you face them, is another throne. And on that throne is Manjushri.

Manjushri is the teacher of wisdom. The wisdom tradition. Manjushri is teaching the pen.

And Maitreya is telling you how to use it to get a boyfriend. So that you can be an example for everyone else who wants a boyfriend. Which is bodhichitta.

Okay? It's that simple. BYED TSUN BYAM PA'I YANG GONG SHIN SA MO DAG GYUR GYI LAMA NAM GYI GOR BA And then, as I mentioned before, that Manjushri is surrounded by all the lamas in history who have mainly taught emptiness.

Like Arya Nagarjuna, or Je Tsongkhapa, or lamas who have taught the pen. DAG GYUR GYI LAMA NAM GYI GOR BA YAB GYI PHYI CHUNG LA Then there's another throne, smaller throne. So far we have three smaller thrones, right?

On the lama's right is Maitreya. On the lama's left is Manjushri. You can remember left, because left is the woman's side.

And wisdom is the woman's thing. So Manjushri is on the left. And then in the back is all the tantric teachers.

Okay? The teachers of the secret ninjas. Which are Dorje Chong.

In the middle is Bajradhara. So when Lord Buddha teaches secret teachings, he doesn't look like a monk. He looks more like a yogi.

And he will have long hair and silk clothes and jewels. So that would be behind your teacher. It's the Buddha as he came to teach the secret teachings.

NYAM LEN CING LAG GI GYUR GYI LAMA GOR BA Then there's a lineage Say GYA CHEN GYUR GYUR SAD MO TA WEG GYUR And then NYAM LEN CING LAG GI GYUR So these are three great streams of Buddhism that have come down through the last two and a half thousand years. And they are represented in this visualization. So there's Maitreya teaching love.

I will get a boyfriend using this system so that everyone can learn how to do it. Okay? Manjushri who's teaching emptiness.

The only way to get a teacher is to create them. Don't go looking around India. You can go to India but first share the things you know.

Then go to India. And you will find them. Like that.

Or go to Guwahati. It doesn't matter. Then behind is a NYAM LEN CING LAG GI GYUR NYAM LEN CING LAG GI GYUR means the lineage of the blessing of deep practice.

And that refers to the secret teachings. The lamas of the secret teachings. So, so far we have three great lineages represented in the visualization.

CHUNG LA RANG GI TSA WEG DUNG GI CHI CHUNG LA RANG GI TSA WEG LAMA DE NYI. Then in this visualization you can also add your own personal heart teacher on a smaller throne in front. Isn't your heart teacher already there?

Yeah, as in the form of Gautama Buddha, in the form of the traditional Buddha in the center. So on a small throne in front of that and lower so that you can see the main guy is your personal teacher in their form, in their own form. Okay?

Not looking like an Indian from two and a half thousand years ago. Okay? So really now you have two of your lamas there, maybe, maybe more.

SHEL JAL DUG GI RIM PA NAM PA CHEN They are in the form that you see them when you meet them from day to day.

[Говорящий 2] (50:35 - 50:35)
Okay?

[Говорящий 1] (50:35 - 56:56)
However they normally look, then on the throne in front is your own personal teacher. CHEN SHARWA THABU KHYUN YUNA KHYUN DE SEL MI DAP If they have some physical deformity you don't have to visualize that. Like a bald head or something.

They should have lots of hair. And then... Or...

Like you should visualize them as... The example they give here is a lama who had an eye problem. Okay?

Whose eye was... One eye had, what do you call it, cataract or something. Then you shouldn't visualize your lama with defects.

Okay? It's bad luck to see any kind of defects in your lama. Okay?

If you see defects in a lama then go find another lama who doesn't have defects. Okay? But don't sit there and think about your lama's defects.

This is a way to have a lousy life. All right. THABU KHYUN YUNA KHYUN DE SEL MI DAP CHAG YE So physically we shouldn't visualize them that way.

But the point is that mentally we shouldn't concentrate on problems that we see in our lama. If you have a lama who has problems, maybe find a different lama who doesn't have problems. You see what I mean?

But don't dwell on things you see, which are coming from you anyway. Okay? All right.

SHEL DU KHYUN NAMPA CHEN NA CHEN SHABU THABU KHYUN YUNA KHYUN DE SEL MI DAP CHAG YE CHOD CHE The teacher in front, your teacher, the right hand is in this gesture. Okay? This gesture, mudra, is the Dharma teaching gesture.

This gesture means teaching the Dharma. Okay? Teaching spiritual knowledge.

That's the right hand. Okay? YUN NYAM SHAG GI TENG DU NYAM SHAG means the meditation posture.

The left hand is in meditation posture, which is palm up. Okay? And again there's a THUNG ZE, a sage's bowl with nectar in it.

So your lama, your personal lama, is sitting like this. The Buddha is sitting like this, right? Behind him.

And then your teacher is like this. Okay? Why?

This is really beautiful, so it's probably a homework question. Uh... DE NYIN NI SANG MO RTOG NYIN LA NAM PAR SHAG SHIN DU CHUD DUNG PA DE SANG GI NYIN YIN PA'I DA Those of you who are studying Tibetan, uh...

Do you know Mingde Shaktam? Anybody know Mingde Shaktam? What is that?

Mingde Only exists in names and signs. Only exists in names and signs. This is the way in the highest teachings that we describe dependent origination.

The people around you exist only in names and signs. And the word for sign here is DA and it's very unusual. Okay?

Mingde Shaktam. DA. DE is the instrumental.

Through science they exist. What do you mean stuff exists through science? It means the stuff around you consists of tiny images popping out of karmic seeds in your own mind.

Okay? Everything around you. I don't like the heat in this room right now.

It's too warm for me. Okay? Where is that coming from?

Who made it warm in this room? You did. Okay?

Where is the warmth coming from? It's not coming from the atmosphere of the earth or the sun. It's coming from your own mind.

Okay? How? There's a karmic seed ripening in your mind right now.

That seed opens and then an image of warmth comes out of that seed and you feel warmth. Okay? That's called Mingde Shaktam.

It's just mental images. Okay? The person sitting next to you is a quarter inch mental image in the back of your head.

If you don't like them, you can blame yourself. If you like them, you can... I like you.

Good job. You made a lot of nice people. You know?

Okay? So those are little tiny images coming out of your mind. Anyway, the word for image, the ancient term, is Da.

Okay? But here the word Da, I love it because if you're trying to learn Tibetan, the word Da, as it's used here, is there's a Da for why the Lama is like this. So here Da means it's a sign of something going on.

So Da here means that's a sign of something going on. What? He's teaching and at the same time he's in deep meditation on emptiness directly.

Okay? The left hand is in meditation gesture. We're not talking about the bowl now.

Just the left hand palm up on the lap means he's meditating. And this means that the chest gesture means he's teaching at the same time, which only a Buddha can do. Only a Buddha can be in meditation on emptiness directly and engaging in normal activities at the same time.

So that's a Da. That's a sign that the person you're visualizing is enlightened and is a Buddha. So it's very beautiful.

The fact that your teacher is going like this is like, you know, I'm a Buddha. Okay? It's like that.

They're trying to say I'm a Buddha. I'm not personally a Buddha. But that's what the visualization is supposed to be.

You're supposed to think, oh, they're trying to give me a Da. They're trying to tell me something. Duh, I'm enlightened.

Okay? I'm teaching and I'm in meditation on emptiness at the same time. Okay?

So there's a reason. And you often see Je Tsongkhapa, I think, right? He's often in a similar gesture.

There's 15 different hand gestures he can be in. But that's the one. So that's a beautiful...

I like, I really like that. I like that explanation. Okay.

So we'll stop there. I want to say a few words about the retreat in general. You want to take a shot?

[Говорящий 2] (56:58 - 57:57)
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