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

[Говорящий 1] (0:00 - 22:46)
I think the foundation of a good sangha is not hundreds and hundreds of people. It's small groups of people. On the way over today, I heard about a group in Phoenix.

It's just four or five people, but they meet twice a week and they have dinner together. And they're each working on four steps to get something. And they help each other and they talk about it with each other.

And that's what that nectar was doing. The capacity or the ability to bring together small groups of people who can support each other in their practice. It's like doing yoga with other people.

It's much more pleasant with three or four people than with a hundred or with one. So, think about that. I think he's spending a little too much time on the bad deeds in the sangha.

But you can do good deeds with sangha too. Just put people together, especially if you're a teacher. I think making little groups in your group, encouraging people to hook up with each other.

When we do programs, I don't know, like in Phoenix or New York, then we require people to do their homework together. And we require in New York, for example, that you do it with someone that you don't know. And then people get to know each other and people hook up.

And great things happen from those hookups. Like big things happen from little collaborations happening. Especially, there are a lot of people here from other countries.

With Russia, Mexico, Israel, and Germany. Yeah. Argentina, Oman, etc.

Poland, France. And it's cool if you hook up with someone from another country. And then you can make some kind of cool collaboration.

I think that's fun. So, he's spending a lot of time on the cleansing. But I think you could spend a lot of time on fantasizing about little cool hookups you could make, like the Moscow-Guadalajara axis.

Probably they're on the other side of the world or something. I don't know. Like that.

Okay, so here we go with more bad stuff. DE NYID PHAG PA RGYUN RIN TSOR BA'I GTAM RGYUD LAS BYUNG BA LTA BU DE So we were talking about little hells on earth. They're called partial hells.

And you don't see a lot about them in the scriptures. But in this scripture, he has a long story about one, which is kind of depressing. Who was it?

Osiris was going to make a movie about the guy, the prince who got caught by the guy who... Yeah, so this one's... I don't know.

Maybe they could be the dark side and the light side. I don't know. Here's the dark one.

So Gendun Tso is Sangha Rakshita. This is an Arya who lived in the time of the Buddha. Sangha Rakshita.

And he told this story. PHAG PA RGYUN RIN TSOR LUS YUL LA TSOR PA'I RNE Are we okay, Nying? Yeah.

He went to the LUS YUL. LUS means Naga. So Nagas are like dragons.

Maybe it's better to think of them as dragons. Maybe they are dragons, I think. They can talk.

They look like dragons. They're very intelligent. They like to hide things and collect things.

They get treasures and they sit on them. That must be a dragon, right? And it's supposed to be they have another place in the world.

And you could go there. You could learn to go there. So Sangha Rakshita was on his way back from Nagaland.

TSOR PA'I RNE RGYA TSOG DRAM NA It's like he gets off his ship. And you can think if you've ever been to like, what's that place where we went to? Goa.

Some place like Goa in India. So you are getting off an ancient wooden ship. You are walking through the water in the waves and you are walking up onto the beach.

And probably your ship didn't have navigation. And you're within like 50 miles of where you're supposed to be. And he walks up on the beach and then he enters a partial hell.

He finds a hell on earth. And it's strange. First he sees a hell being.

They just stand there and they're shaped like a rope. So his body is only a rope. But it's standing up.

A rope which is standing up. And it's a person, a hell being. Then PHRUL BA LTA BU SEMS CAN YANG BA Then he met, next to that there was another hell being shaped like a pot, a clay pot.

And it's a person, but they are a pot. They talk and they live. But they look like a pot, a clay pot.

Then DE BZHIN DU CHAG MA LTA BU Then one like a broom, there's a being like a broom. I don't know, the first time I heard this I was kind of freaked out. I think I was 23 or something, 100 years ago.

And I remember this being, wow, that's so weird. And it was kind of sad and depressing. I saw like an overcast beach and there are these kind of dark beings and one is shaped like a broom, but it's alive.

And then DON LTA BU DON means mortar and pestle, right? So a pestle, the thing that you squash the stuff in. Shaped like that.

DKA' BA LTA BU Then shaped like a pillar that's holding up the roof. And GCIG PA LTA BU One which is shaped like a wall. And then GCIG RGYUD DAL BA LTA BU GCIG RGYUD DAL BA means in like your thigh there are ligaments and tendons and they are braided somehow.

And that's GCIG RGYUD DAL BA, braided ligaments. But just someone looks like a braided piece of wire or something. GCIG RGYUD DAL BA LTA BU SEMS CAN YANG BA SOGS YID DE DANG DE LTA BU LA And they are alive and they are conscious.

And they are in the shape of those objects. NYAM THAG PA'I MA NGAG MA NGAG is a terrible word. MA NGAG means moans of suffering.

Moans of suffering. LTA BU DON They are, the broom is moaning in pain. The wall is moaning in pain on this beach, on this desolated beach.

They are just these weird creatures there. A little pocket of hell on earth. DON PA'I TSE NYAM BA DAG SIGS NAS He saw those, NYID TSE BA'I NYAM BA DAG SIGS NAS He saw those hell beings.

DE DAG LAS GANG GI RNAMS NI YIN ZHES Then he asked them, SANGS RGYAS LA MTHYU BA ZHUGS PAR Sangha Rakshita asked the Buddha, what karma did they do to live like this? Just to be a broom laying on an empty beach, moaning in pain and living and not able to die. The hell beings would like to die and they can't die.

They don't get food, they don't get water, but they live. What's keeping them alive is just karma. And that's actually what's keeping us alive.

It's not food or water or air. That's an illusion. Water can drown you.

You can die from pneumonia, which is an excess of the air element. And people kill themselves with food all the time. Food doesn't have the ability to sustain life.

Only karma. And in extreme circumstances, karma itself can sustain life without food, without water, without air. Just this broom being sitting there on the beach living.

And they can't die. They want to die and they can't die. So Sangha Rakshita asked the Buddha, Lord Buddha, what did they do that they are living like this?

THAG PA DANG PHYAG MA LTA BU SEMS CAN NYAL BA NI NGON SANGS RGYAS OD GSUNG GI BSTAN PA'I MTHUS The being who looks like a rope and the being who looks like a broom, they lived long ago in a previous eon when there was a Buddha named Kasyapa. Okay, GSUNG. That was before this Buddha.

This is Buddha number three of the thousand in this world. Number two, I believe, is Kasyapa. GSUNG GI BSTAN PA'I MTHUS RGYEN DUNG GI CI BYAS BTAG PA DANG PHYAG MA GANG SAG GI MA LENG BZHIN DU LONG BYAS PAS Then they were monks.

They went to the Bicentennial Hall room and there was rope there and a broom there. And without asking, they took it. It was owned by the Sangha.

They took something that was owned by the Sangha. And they took a broom. One of them took a broom and one of them took a rope.

And then the karma ripened as these bodies. These impossible bodies. Sustained only by karma.

So you can be born in between stars. You can be born in the dark between stars. And you can live there for thousands of years, just lonely.

And you don't need air or food or water. And you live. And that's a partial hell realm.

There are beings like that. NAM IN DANG THU BAR LTA BU NI The being like a pot. BANG ZHIG MENG KUL BA NA DGE SLONG RNAMS KYIS MI NYEN PAR MED PAS BANG MENG BANG ZHIG What is that?

BANG ZHIG MENG KUL BA NA DGE SLONG RNAMS KYIS MI NYEN PAR MED PAS DE'I PHYIR NAS THU BAR CHAGS PA'I BRTOS BU He was, how do you say? He was one of the monks who's in charge of like a kitchen. Instead of men, we have a kitchen, big kitchen.

The pots are about eight feet across for the tea. And it takes three monks to have to climb in and clean them. Okay, and we get kitchen duty.

We have to go do kitchen duty. So BANG means he was on kitchen duty. He was supposed to be a cook or servant that day.

MENG KUL BA NA He was... MENG means herbs, medicinal herbs. And KUL BA means he was distilling them by boiling them.

So in the old days, you didn't make chemical medicines. You just got a plant and you boiled it down to some essence. KUL BA NA DGE SLONG RNAMS KYIS MI NYEN PAR MED PAS Then some monks said something unpleasant to him.

And then he was angry. So he broke the pot. DUN BDAG BU NI DGE CIG RGYUR DGE TSUL THAMS SHAGS PAR GOS PA LA DGE TSUL THAMS SHAGS PAR GOS PA LA DGE SLONG ZHIG GIS SDUG MAR GYI'I ZIGS MA DUNG ZHIG BYAS PA LA DE PHYAL BAS CHUNG ZAD NAS BUD LO MED PAS DGE SLONG PHYIR So there was a DGE TSUL, which means novice monk, not a full monk.

The teenage monks. Okay, which are the biggest source of trouble in the monastery. DGE TSUL THAMS SHAGS PAR GOS PA LA In this case, Dhamshakpa means like quartermaster or what do you call it?

Caretaker. Taking care of the commissary. Where are you?

Be careful there. Dhamshakpa. Dhamshakpa means he was assigned to that duty.

DGE SLONG ZHIG GIS BYUNG MAR TSIG MA SDUG ZHIG Then one of the monks asked him to... DUNG means to use a mortar and pestle. So Rinpoche had one.

They're not like those little clay ones. He used a piece of iron pipe, cast iron, that was this thick. Then he had a plate of cast iron welded on the bottom.

Then I had to sit there for hours with this big cast iron pipe. He would say, let's make pepper for dinner. Erma, it's called erma, red Tibetan pepper.

If you make momos, it has to have erma in it. It takes many hours to crush erma. He would give me a handful of erma and say, go outside and crush it on the sidewalk.

Don't break the sidewalk. You just sit there for like an hour and a half. You say, could we put this in the blender?

No, just crush it. Then after I got my job in New York, I came home one day and he was eating momos. I'm like, Rinpoche, who made the erma for your momos?

He said, I did. I said, well, you spent an hour and a half with the dung making erma. Who would waste their time like that?

I used the blender. I'm like, okay. He swore it didn't taste the same.

Anyway. You think you have it bad, people helping me. You don't know anything.

So drumar means like, you take til, you take sesame, and you put your student on the tingko, and you tell them to smash the sesame into a paste. It's like that coconut oil that you use on your fingers. It's a paste that you use for cooking vegetables and things like that.

That's called drumar. DUNG ZHIG BYAS PA LA DE PHYAL BA'I CHUNG ZHIG NAS BU LO ZHIG MED PAS Then the novice monk was busy because he already got 23 things to do. He said, I'm just a little busy, but as soon as I can, I'll do it for you.

Then the gelong chok, the full monk got angry. KHO BA DON LA REG DU RUNG LA KHYOD NI DON LA CHUG NAS DUNG NAS NUS NAS DRUM BAR GYI TSIG MA LTAR CING ZHES If you little ass could fit in that pestle, I would smash you in there right now and crush you into, and I would make some paste out of you. He said something really unpleasant to the novice.

DUNG ZHIG, NGES MED KYIS BRAL BU BSTAN Then he was reborn in that hell, on that beach. He was reborn on that beach. DKA' BA DANG SRID PA LTA BU NI The ones that...

This is an important part of scripture. It sounds like just some old wives tale, but it has an important lesson. That karma is what sustains life and not anything else.

You can get into any kind of bad situation with karma. If the karma is strong enough, some kind of really bad, strange situation can go on for a long time that doesn't make any sense at all otherwise. So we have to be careful.

We have to be really careful. The more you know about the karma, the more paranoid you are. And then you see other people who don't know anything about karma and you're kind of jealous of them because they can do just about anything.

And then you're always like this. So anyway. ZHIG PA LTAR Where was I?

Oh, ZHIG PA LTAR The wall and the column. RGYEN DUNG GYI SU LA GANG LA CHIL NABS KYI MA RUNG PAR BYED PA'I BRAL BU In Tibet they don't have Kleenex. And typically a person will blow their nose just like this.

You try to get some, what do you call it? Projectory. So it doesn't end up on your robes.

And people just go like this. And there's a joke in Tibet. They say only rich people wrap their snot carefully.

Poor people are more free. They just get rid of it. But rich people have to wrap it up and keep it.

And then they have to wash that cloth. So anyway. These monks were doing that.

And then sometimes you get some on your hand and you're like this and it won't get off. And then you wipe it on the wall. They wiped it on the wall of a monastery.

And they were reborn as a wall, as a column. CHIL NABS KYI MA RUNG PAR BYED PA'I BRAL BU BCUG GIS KYI BRAL BA LTA BU DE SKYES PA BZHIN DU BRAL BA NI The one that looked like twisted tendons. And he explains it.

He says, in this case that means a waist like an ant has. You know what I mean? Like they have those tiny little waists.

SKYES PA BZHIN DU BRAL BA NI ZHAL LTA BA ZHIG GI RGYEN DONG GI SDONG DGOR YOD DUS KYI MTHO NAS DON DUS KYI SDONG DGOR PHYI BA LTA BU There was a person in charge of handing out the supplies, the monks' supplies. And there are supplies for seasons. You see, there are supplies.

So the quartermaster of a monastery is supposed to open up the winter storeroom and hand out the stuff that's winter stored in winter. And that would be warmer clothes. You get a special cloak for the winter and then you have to give it back and like that.

So he had supplies, food supplies for the winter and he had food supplies for the fall and the summer. So during the summer, he went and opened the storeroom for the fall and he started handing out stuff from what was supposed to be used in the fall. So he reduced the supplies that the monks would have in the fall.

So he got that. SDONG DGOR GNAG CHAL BAR BYAS PA'I NAMIN DU GSUM PA LTAR So when fall came, the monks didn't have enough to eat because he had unwisely used the supplies that were meant for the... Sorry, yeah, for the fall instead of the summer.

GSUM PA LTAR DE NA RGYUN DUNG GI TSOG BZHIN LTA BU NAS MA RNAM BAR TSOG BZHIN LTA BU NAS MA RNAM BAR YOG ZHIG TZAM LONG BYAS KYANG GNYIS BYAS PA'I NYAL BAR NGES PAR DU SKYE Therefore, in our monastery, they have... We cook with firewood. We didn't have gas.

When I started, there wasn't any propane. We couldn't afford it. We just had firewood.

And big trucks would come and then we had to chop firewood for many hours. So then you're supposed to stack it near the kitchen and then people take it to cook with. But he's saying, Pabongkha Rinpoche is saying, don't take a single...

What do you call a small stick? Splint? Twig.

Bigger than a twig. Branch or... It's a kindling.

Don't take a single piece of kindling from the sangha's woodpile. So woodpile is a big deal in an old monastery. Everybody needs wood.

People would sneak over to the kitchen and just take a few pieces home. Gendun, if you do that, you would without doubt... They probably had a problem with people stealing firewood in his monastery the week before he gave the talk.

But he said anyone who does that is definitely going to go to the beach hell. It's probably worse than Coney Island or something. Okay.

Gendun na koro dhapani. Now he's on to another one of the negative deeds, which is disrespecting or dissing, bad-mouthing the sangha. Bad-mouthing the sangha.

Koro dhapani. NGOS DANG GCOGS CI RIGS PAR MING NGAN NAS BRJOD NAS ZIG TSUL MED PAR KOR BA BDAG PA YIN So it means to refer to a member of your spiritual community with a word which is unpleasant.

[Говорящий 2] (22:47 - 22:47)
Okay.

[Говорящий 1] (22:48 - 52:42)
Whether it's directly said to them or whether you refer to them when they're not there. So I've had students do that. Around me they will refer to some other student with a bad word, unkind word.

They'll call them some name or something. And then this is a very serious bad karma. To speak unkindly, especially nicknames, bad nicknames.

In the monastery there are thousands. I don't know why. You want to know mine?

I have two. One is SHING GI PHAG PA, that's the main one, which means tree bark. The guy who has hands like tree bark, complexion like tree bark on his hands.

That was granted to me by Rinpoche. Oh, I have three. One is JATI MI, which means Mr. Red Eyes, Chicken Eyes. Because he worked me so hard on the accountants. I never got any sleep and my eyes were red all the time. So he called me Mr. Chicken Eyes. And what was the third one? PIK PIK means Mr. Jello. Because during my pre-geshe exam I was so scared my legs were shaking and people could see my robes were going like that.

Okay, so anyway. But those are given in affection, really. And they're terrible.

They're really bad. You should hear some of them. But one guy we made...

Rinpoche and I used to go deliver my money and the other people's money. We fed the monks for 20 years. So the money from my company, a part of it would go to feeding the monks.

So we would go over there and we would make a big party and then give them all the money. One time we went to Sara to give them all the money. And they were really hungry all the time.

They didn't have enough food. So we would make momos for everybody. What is that?

Not momo. Shapale. Shapale is better.

Momo is a meat dumpling, right? It's the Tibetan national food. It's like a churro or something.

Or something, I don't know. Enchilada, I don't know. But everyone loves momo.

Then if you have enough money you make a flat momo and you fry it and that's called shapale. So we made shapale for all the monks. Then they were so happy.

They didn't get shapale for years. They were so happy. Then they were going to have a big, what do you call it?

Debate demonstration to make Rinpoche happy. So each class would make a debate after dinner. We'd be sitting there picking our teeth and they would get up and show how good they could debate.

And one of them, he goes, Instead of saying, for the reason that he said shapale. Because he was thinking about shapale. And then that night he got his name for life.

Until he died he went shapale. Hey shapale. So anyway, you don't want to be in a monastery.

So those are affectionate names. I had them in my college. My roommates, we had very bad names for each other.

I can't say them. But they were with love. And that's a good karma.

And then these are with a bad karma. You say, you refer to some other students in the group with a derogatory word. ,BDZIN NA MI NGES NAM GYI'IR BYUNG BA'I GSOS DGOS DANG, ,BRTZOS PA ZIG GSUG NGO DGOS DAG PA YIN, ,ZIG GSUG NGO DGOS DAG PA YIN, ,THAMS CAD ZHES BU ZERGYA ZHES BYA BA'I, So now he's going to get into a story of a THAMS CAD.

Tamsay means like a Brahmin, a Brahmin, a high caste Hindu. Tamsay is Shebu Serkia and his name was Shebu Serkia, light yellow Shebu. Shebu can mean hair.

Maybe his hair was lighter than other people. But Shebu can mean Shiva. It's a corruption of the word Shiva in Tibetan.

So I'm not sure which one it is, but he was called Shebu. SANGS RGYAS U SON GYI RGYEN DU RNAMS NA SIGS RDZUGS KYI GOS BTAB PAS During the time of Kasyapa, the last Buddha on this planet, he said something to the monks, Buddhist monks. He used bad words towards Buddhist monks.

RGYEN DU GYI GOS BTAB PAS CHU ZIN NYAR RIG CHEN DU SKYE BA'I LO RGYUR LTAR RE Then he was reborn as a sea monster, like a whale, as a sea monster. That's a very famous story. That story is very, very famous.

He's going to tell you the story. I don't know, the Lam Rim is different from philosophy. We teach philosophy.

I go through philosophy books with people. Lam Rim sticks in your head. You're cooking a squid or something.

You're like, hey, that reminds me of the story about the sea monster. You know what I mean? The Lam Rim has this power.

There are weird stories. You'll be on a beach in North Carolina. You'll be sort of deserted and you'll see a stick of wood and you'll be like...

And you remember these things. They stick in your head. They sound stupid and crazy, but they will become part of your life.

They will help you. That's the reason to tell them. So here we go.

DE'I MDOR DU ZHES NA He says, I'm not going to tell you the whole story, but I'll give you a quick synopsis of the story of the sea monster. MUN PHAG YUL GYI CHU LUNG YONG DEN LA NYA PA SNGABS SKYE NYA RGYA' CHUG NAS So, PHAG YUL means, what's PHAG PA? Aya.

Someone who has seen emptiness. What's YUL? Land or country.

So what's PHAG YUL? Land of the Ayas. Which is a way in Tibetan to say India.

It's a Tibetan word for India. Because so many people saw emptiness in India. So in the PHAG YUL, there was a CHU LUNG.

There was a river called YONG DEN. I looked it up. It's a Sanskrit river called VALGU MATI.

NADI. VALGU MATI. There were 500 fishermen.

NYA RGYA' CHUG NAS And they put a net in the river to try to catch fish. NYA DANG RUG PA'I SOGS BRDZIN PA And they would catch fish and turtles. NAN GCIG NYA RGYA' CHU ZIN NYA'I RIG PONG TSUL CHEN PO ZHIG SPYOD DE One day in the fish net, a huge sea creature was caught.

SPYOD DE. RGYUN CHOG ZHUGS SONG BA NA And he was carrying the nets downstream. NYA SPA SNGABS RGYA'I GSUM MA THUB PA The 500 fishermen all grabbed the net and tried to pull it back, but they couldn't.

This creature was more powerful than 500 people pulling on the net. MA THUB PA CHUG RGYI DANG CHUG RGYI means cow herd. RGYI means a herder or a watcher.

What's a BU RGYI? What's a BU? BU is a bug or a child.

So BU RGYI is a babysitter. BU RGYI Je Tsongkapa's teacher Umapa was a LUG RGYI. He was a sheep herder.

He lived on the mountain. He didn't have any books. He didn't have anything.

But he did a really good sadhana and he could speak with Manjushri directly. But he was just a LUG RGYI, just a sheep herder. So you have to be careful.

CHUG RGYI DANG SA SHING THUB PA And people, what do you call firewood collector people? There's a word in English. Like woodsmen or axemen.

People who cut down trees in the old days. Woodsmen or someone who sits there with an ax and cuts like an ax. Like a lumberjack.

But much poorer. LAM DUG KHO PA SO And then there were just some people who were walking down the road at the time. And they all ran over to try to pull the net.

MI RGYA STONG DU What's a thousand hundreds? Hundred thousand. Yeah, okay.

Hundred thousand. Many hundred thousand people pitched in. DEN means they lent their efforts.

DE'I KHAM LA CHUNG BA NA They were able to drag the sea creature onto the dry land. CHUNG BA NA DE LA DGO BCOB RGYAS The sea creature had 18 heads. MIG SUM RGYUD TZAR DUG Which means 36 eyes.

YOD PA MTHONG BA'I And they saw this huge, like a whale. But stranger than a whale. DER SOGS CHAGS RGYA STONG DU MA DANG MUD DE'I LTUNG PAR DUG SOGS DE MO LA DU SO So thousands of, hundreds of thousands of, many hundreds of thousands of living creatures, not just people.

They all came to see this creature. They were all like, it became a big deal. And MUD DE'I LTUNG PAR DUG SOGS Even the six great teachers of the non-Buddhist sages came to see this sea creature.

DE MO LA DU SOGS SANGS RGYAS NI SIG PA'I THUL LA MI YUL BA LAS KYI RGYU BA LUNG BRTAN CHOS Then the Buddha saw, the Buddha wasn't there. He was living in a different place. But he saw, oh, here's a great opportunity.

Here's a, what do they call that? Politicians. They're waiting for a chance to be on TV or something like that.

Photo op. It was like a photo op. Like Buddha said, if I go there, I can give a good teaching about karma.

So he also walked to where the sea monster had been pulled up. LAS KYI RGYU BA DU LA'I MI YUL BA means his sight is not covered by time. He could see the causes for the creature.

So he came to the beach in order to tell people about karma. DGE SLONG GI RGYEN DU MANG POS KHO NA'I ZHES PA LA Then he came to the side of the river accompanied by many of his monks. ZHES PA LA MA THEG PA BDAG NI There were those who mocked the Buddha.

In his life there were thousands. He was the target of many assassination attempts during his life. But there were many people who mocked him.

So they said, DGE SLONG RGAL THA MA DE MO DANG PHRAD LO ZHES It means, I guess Galtama doesn't have anything else to do. He doesn't have... DE MO means, nowadays it would be TV.

He doesn't have anything else to waste his time on than to come look at some big fish. They were criticizing him. ZHES PA DE RONG SO ZER RO So they said that.

THEG PA BDAG NI Those with faith said, SANGS RGYAS DE MO DANG PHRAD LA'ANG DE LA'I TZAM DE SKYE BA'I TSUL DANG NGO TZAM MED DU BYUNG BA'I PHYIR BSTAN PA ZHES DO It may be true that the Buddha has no other shows to watch. They accept that part. But if he took the time to walk here, it must be that he's going to give some amazing teaching relating to this sea creature.

ME RUNG means PHYIR BSTAN PA ZHES DO ZHES DO means, ZHES means, those of you who care about the Tibetan, ZHES means he deigned to teach. He was kind enough to teach. You don't say in Honorary Tibetan, you don't say the Lama taught.

You say the Lama deigned to teach or the Lama was kind enough to teach. Like that. Anyway, ZHES ZER DE NAS STON PA GOR GYI U SU DE'I SBYAMS PA LA ZHUGS NAS Then the Buddha went amongst the crowd and they put down a cushion for him to sit on.

SBYAMS NAS ZHUGS And he seated himself. CHU ZIN NYAY RIGS CAN GYI MUNG GI SKYE BAR DRAN CING MA SHES PAR CAN GYI BSLAB NAS Then he went into meditation. And in the meditation, he gave blessings to the sea monster that the sea monster would be able to remember his past lives and that he would be able to speak.

So he sat down in meditation at the side of this huge monster, much bigger than him, right? Like many stories high. And he went into meditation and he blessed the sea creature to remember his past lives and also to talk.

CAN GYI BSLAB GYUR ZHES BU ZER GYUR YIN NAM Then the Buddha asked him, are you ZHES BU ZER GYUR? Are you that guy ZHES BU ZER GYUR? DE DAG ZER GYUR LAGS SO I am.

KHYOD LUS NA YID KYI NGES PAR BYED PAS RNAMS NI MYONG NGAN Are you experiencing the karmic result of things you did and things you said and things you thought? MYONG NGO I am. KHYOD KYIS MI DGE BA'I GZHAN YIN GZU YIN Okay, this is interesting.

GZHES GZHES means DGE BA'I GZHAN YIN GZHES is an abbreviation of DGE BA'I GZHAN YIN DGE BA'I GZHAN YIN means spiritual friend. But the Buddha asked the question to the sea monster, who is your MI DGE BA'I GZHAN YIN? What's MI mean?

MI is negative. Who is your sin teacher? You see what I mean?

Who is your bad karma teacher? Who is the one who taught you to do this bad karma? DAG GIS MA LAGS SO My ma.

That's the only word that's the same in Tibetan. My mother. My mother was my MI DGE BA'I GZHAN YIN.

My mother was the one who put me on the wrong chart. DE'I GAR SKYE And that's why... Oh, DE'I GAR SKYE Where is your mother now?

NYAL BA In the house. KHYOD GANG DU SKYE Where were you born? DUN ROL I was born as an animal.

DI NAS SHES NAS GANG DU SKYE When you die on this beach, where will you go? NYAL BA I will go to the house. SHES GZHAN NAS NGOS SO He started to cry.

The creature started to cry. DE NAS GOR DE DAG CHOG TU NGO TSAR SKYE Then all of the followers of the Buddha were, wow, they were like, this is heavy. LUNG GI SKYE BAR DRAN CING MI SKYE DU MA BA'I DE'I TSUL YIN KUN DGA'O KUN NAS ZHUGS PA'I Then they all went to Ananda, which is one of the close disciples of the Buddha.

And they said, could you ask Lord Buddha, since this creature can remember his lives and since he can speak human speech, would you mind asking Lord Buddha if he could ask the sea creature to tell us the story of what happened so we don't do that? See what I mean? THON PA'I DIN NI NGON SANGS RGYAS UR SUNG GI DU And then Lord Buddha started to tell the story.

This was a person who lived in the time of another Buddha named Kasyapa. RGYAL PO'I GUR GYUR RGYAL SRID BYED PA NA Then there was a king named, the Tibetan spelled it GUR GUR and there's a theory that it might have been Kirpan in the Chinese scriptures. It's called Kirpan, which makes more sense, which means merciful king, good king.

YUL GZHAN NAS THAMS CAD DGOS BA LTAR CHUNG MA NA Then there were some non-Buddhist sages came from another place who wanted to debate. Debating is a big deal, right, in ancient India. The Baptists would debate the Lutherans before the king.

And if the Baptists win, all the Lutherans have to become Baptists. That was the rules. Those were the rules in those days.

It was big stakes. So they showed up and they wanted to debate. CHUNG MA NA, THAMS CAD SER KYA ZHI BA ZHES BYA BA'I GZHAN GYIS MA BA Then there was a Brahmin named Ser Kya Zhi Ba.

GZHAN GYIS MA BA TZAR BYAS PA'I He was able to defeat all the other debaters. RGYAL BUD RIGS DRAG ZHIG DE LA RGUL BA'I LANG CHOD DU BYIN NO Then the king, as a reward, gave that big debater, the best debater, gave him a RIGS DRAG. RIGS DRAG means a hermitage up in some rocks, like on a cliff or something.

Normally in Tibet, Tibet is all like cliffs. Pabongka had a RIGS DRAG, up above Sera. It's to build a little hermitage, usually around a cave.

People will start staying in a cave and then people will start, what do you call it, upgrading the cave. Then pretty soon it's going to be this big house with a little cave in the back. That's a RIGS DRAG.

RGUL BA'I LANG CHOD DU BYIN NO DE LA BU REL PA ZERGYA Then that person had a son named Golden Dreadlocks. He had Golden Dreadlocks. YOD PA ZHIG TSE PA TSE PA means, it's an ancient word for was born, was born to that man.

And they gave him the name ZHIG BU ZERGYA, which means yellow locks. ZHIG BU ZERGYA, ZHIG RTAG SO DE YID GYIS SOGS LA BYANG BA'I KHYAD PAR GYUR He studied how to read and write and he studied scripture. GYUR TE, he became a master.

GZHAN GYI MA BAR TSAR BCOD NUS PAR GYUR TO He was able to defeat other sages in Tibet. DE PA ZHIG There's a mistake in the Tibetan. It says B-A-S at A-M-S.

It should be B-A-S space M-A-S. It's tricky. Because that's a word.

Sam is a word. So when they miscarve, it's really nasty. The miscarving is logical.

But it's wrong. Got it? BA'I MED Because his father died, ZHIG BA'I MED, his mother DGUL BA'I LONGS SPYOD GZHAN GYI MTHOGS DOG NAS His mother was afraid that someone else would come and take the hermitage away because the father who earned it died.

BU LA MED PA She said to her son, GYUR KYIS MA BA THAMS CAD TSAR BCOD NUS SANGS I'm just checking with you, my son. Are you able to defeat all other debaters? Because you better be because we have to keep the hermitage.

And then he said, DGUL BA'I LONGS SPYOD GZHAN GYI MTHOGS MTHOGS means except for the GZHANs, the monks of Kasyapa, the Buddha. Not this Buddha, but the last Buddha. I can defeat anybody except the Buddhists.

DE DAG KYANG TSAR BCOD GCIG Then she said, well, just beat them. DE MA LA GOS PAS Out of respect for his mother, SONG BA, he went to defeat the Buddhist monks in debate. DANG RGYAS RLONG ZHIG DANG PHRAD NAS He ran into a monk walking down the path.

DE'I ZIG RJE'I GCIG GI DON SPYI PA NA The monk asked him about the meaning of a verse, a verse of scripture. DON SPYI PA NA LEN GYI SPO PA DANG BRAL NAS He was, what do you call, at a loss. He couldn't give an answer.

He was too scared to answer. NAS DE That DE is probably a mistake in the carving, but I wouldn't change it yet because I don't know what it is. The carving is bad.

The carving is wrong. It's probably S-D-I-D, but we're not allowed to change things till we're sure. RLONG ZHIG DE'I KHYIM DU SONG BA DANG He couldn't answer even a simple question from the Buddhist monk, and then he went home.

ME MED PA And his mother said, DGE SBYONG LDAN DAM SAR BYED DAM Were you able to defeat the monks, Buddhist monks? YUM SU BO NA Those of you who are learning Tibetan, SU BO means to be, what do you call that? Impartial.

It means impartial. SU BO MED PA means impartial. But here it means, if I was to tell you the truth, SU BO YUN NA Mom, if I was going to tell you the truth, what?

What's he going to say? They got wiped out. They beat me.

SU BO YUN NA BYAS PA Sorry. SU BO YUN NA BDAG TENG GNYIS DU TSAR BYED DO Mom, if I had to tell the truth, this morning I got wiped out. Not just in general, they can beat me, but just this morning on the path, this guy wiped me out.

BYAS DO BU LA DE LTAR NA SANGS RGYAS KYI DKA' THOG ZHIG Then the mother said to the son, you should go and swipe the Buddhist knowledge. You should go swipe their knowledge. That happened a lot in Tibet.

Before Buddhism got to Tibet, there was a kind of shamanism called the Bunpo. There was a native shamanism a thousand years ago. It's still there and people still practice it.

But what they've done is they've taken the Buddhist stuff. They made their own kangyur. They made their own tengur.

They copied a lot of the Buddhist stuff. My teacher's roommate for many years in the monastery was a Bunpo master who was spied. He came to the monastery to steal scriptures.

He was going to become a Geshe and then go back home. They take all the books and they rewrite them with their own, it's called Shen, I forget, Shen something, I'll check. Their Buddha is called Shen Chen or something.

So they were going to rewrite. But anyway, he stayed for a few years. He's going to stay for a few years and then take all the books and go back home.

But then he got converted and he never went home. He and Khenropoche passed the Harambe Geshe, highest Geshe in Tibet at the same time, on the same day. Then he went and taught an Italian named Tucci who started modern Tibetology in the West.

Anyway. Okay. Why did I bring that up?

Oh yeah, you go steal from them, okay? Karthokshi, Kimbala Mitteno, they don't teach their deeper stuff to lay people. You have to be a monk.

Rabtu Chul, well so become a monk and go learn it and then Chilpo, then you can just disrobe. It's okay. Like that, Chilpo.

By the way, sometimes the spelling is THOB. Either one makes sense. I think T-H-O-B-S makes more sense.

But anyway, the carving seems to say THOB. ZHIG BYAS MED NEN GYI DGOS PA So his mother insisted that he should cheat the monks. Then Rabtu Chul, he did go and become a Buddhist monk.

DE NUS SUM LA KHYAD PAR GYUR TO He became a master of the three baskets of scripture. YANG MED DGE SBYONG DAG SAR BYED DANG Then she asked him, so now are you able to defeat the Buddhist monks? YUM DAG NI LUNG TZAM DANG LDAN LA Mom, I know the books.

DE DAG NI LUNG DANG RTOGS DANG DANG But they know the books and they've had the experiences, the spiritual experiences. I know the books now, but they know the books and they've had the real experiences. They've seen emptiness directly.

They have bodhichitta. They're not just book people. They have the real inner experiences also.

LUNG RTOGS DANG LDAN PA'I TSAR CHOS MI NUS SU So I'm not going to be able to defeat them. BUD GYUR GYI CHOS JI TZAM PA BSTAN PA NAS DGOS BA NA TSIG GI BSTUN TSUN THOB GCIG You just go and fight with them about the wording of the books. You challenge someone to a debate about the wording of the books.

THOB NAS DE DAG NI NYES PA'I GCIG Make some really radical accusations of them. DE DAG NI NYES PA'I GCIG They will be afraid to respond to you because they don't want to say bad things. BYANG MI MA BA So they will be quiet.

They will stay silent because they don't want to make a bad karma. SKYE BO RNAM GYI TSAR CHOS DO Then everybody who's watching will think you won the debate. So she suggested this.

You make statements so extremely wrong and impolite that they can't say anything. And then everyone will assume you won the debate. TSE CHO DO SEMS PAR GYUR DO ZHES MED PA'I ZER GYUR DE BZHIN DU BYED So he did it.

DGE LO RNAM GI DGOS BA NA And he debated with the monks. DE MI SRID PAR BYED SKYER TE LAM PO CHE DGOS CANG GYUR GYI CHOS SAM CHOD MA YIN PA CI ZHES DANG He wasn't winning the debate. So he said to the other monks, You dull, elephant-headed, stupid people.

Do you understand the Dharma or don't you? He called them stupid elephant heads. Is it, you getting the picture?

Okay. MA YIN CI SHING DE BZHIN DU BDAG DGOS Later he called them horse heads. Then he called them camel heads.

Then he called them donkey heads. Then he called them cow heads. Then he called them monkey heads.

Then he called them lion heads. Then he called them tiger heads, et cetera. 18 different words.

ME SO DE GNAS PA'I CHU ZIN NYA'I RIGS DGOS And that's why he, now the Buddha is wrapping up. That's why he's been born as this creature with 18 heads. DE SO ZHES LUNG BSTAN PA'I LO RGYUR SU I think that's a good place to stop.