«Дар освобождения», курс 8 «Учимся быть тихими», занятие 11

[Говорящий 1] (0:00 - 2:10)
Then we were going to go through a way of visualizing the objects of protection according to a slightly different Tibetan lineage called the Southern lineage. We'll just do it quickly. I don't want to confuse you or add to the confusion.

It's just another way of doing it. It's not very long, so we'll go through it. Then we'll get on to, we said we would speak about guardians of the lamrim.

Okay, so here we go. What's lamrim? Enlightenment, A to Z.

It's a kind of, say again, the complete idioms guide. Yeah, to enlighten. Okay, in one book, all the instructions.

So there are protectors for them, but here we go. Where are you? It's 91A, the last line, 91A, last line, just before 91B.

How do we visualize this different way of doing it? So we see in front of us, we see a rainbow rising from the earth, and then that rainbow turns into like a cloud. Then sitting in those clouds, rainbow, among the rainbow, are large lotus heads, heads of lotuses, and some texts say they are weaving.

They are, what do you call it? Undulating is good.

[Говорящий 2] (2:10 - 2:11)
Who said that?

[Говорящий 1] (2:12 - 13:17)
Yeah, they are like this, okay. Some people say that. In the middle is the largest one, and on top of that is Lord Buddha.

Then on the two, there are two more large lotus heads at the level of the shoulders of that Buddha, so they'd be here. And then there's Manjushri on the left, and Maitreya on the right, of the Buddha's left and right, our right and left. On the Buddha's own left is the Angel of Wisdom, and on the Buddha's own right is the Angel of Compassion on a separate lotus.

SO SOGS KU RGYAB NA DE NI SOGS KU RGYAB NA SAB DGE RGYUD PA'I LAMA RNAMS GCIG RGYAB DU GCIG ALONG BAR BAR THUB BU'ANG LA BAR BA'I TSUL DU GCIG RGYUD PA'I GNYIS KYI LAMA So then, let me see, this is a little confusing to me. DE NI SOGS KU RGYAB NA Behind them, SAB DGE are the two lineages. We call SAB and DGE.

SAB means profound. DGE means far spreading. And those are code words in the Lam Rim for the lineages of emptiness and the lineages of compassion.

They're called profound lineage and the wide-spreading lineage. DGE RGYUD PA'I LAMA RNAMS GCIG RGYAB DU GCIG ALONG BAR BAR I don't understand this exactly. I'll have to check it.

It says GCIG RGYAB DU. Each one is behind the one before them, like they are surrounded by a circle. But it doesn't make sense to me.

I'll check. THUGS PA'ANG LHAG DGOR BA'I TSUG RGYUD But they all circle the Buddha. ZHUGS PA'I RGYUD PA'I GNYIS KYI LAMA BYAS MA NYID BRAL ZAD DRO So I guess there are two circles around the two lotuses to the side of the Lamas who have taught those lineages of compassion and wisdom.

And each succeeding generation is sitting next to the one before them. So usually those generations are about 30 years apart, average over the last two and a half thousand years. There's about 42 generations back to the beginning of the Tibetans.

And we recite their names every two weeks. We know their names and it's beautiful. So they are sitting, each previous generation is sitting next to one.

Normally a teacher is about 30 years older than their prime disciples. SABS SKYES RGYUD PA'I LAMA RNAMS DE DAG KYANG RE RE SHING BSTAN PA'I GO SBYOR GYI BSTAN DU GZHUGS PAR MOD DGOS Then each one of them is sitting on their own lotus. THUGS PA'ANG GI BDUN CHUNG SEMS MA BA In front of the Buddha but a little bit lower is CHUN DREL NGOS THOG GI LAMA are the Lamas from whom, who's CHUN DREL.

What's CHUN DREL? We had it. What's CHUN DREL?

CHUN means Dhamma, DREL like DREN DREL, connections. So CHUN DREL means a Lama with whom you have a karmic connection. And it means someone from whom you've taken teachings, personally.

And there's this custom in the monastery, like you're too busy. I had 12 main Lamas and you don't have time to go to... There's another great Lama in the monastery but you don't have time to go get teachings from them.

But you'll go to their door one day on a day off, which is not very common. And you will knock on their door and say, could you just teach me for five minutes because I want CHUN DREL. I want a karmic connection with you.

I'd like you to be in my life next time. And they'll just teach you for five minutes standing at the door and then they become CHUN DREL Lama. And then you're like, okay, see you next life.

It's like a shame not to have a karmic connection with them, even if you don't have time to go learn from them. So that's a nice custom. And CHUN DREL NGOS RTOG GI LAMA.

So those Lamas with whom you have a karmic connection are sitting in front of you, in front of the Buddha lower. NYAM LEN BYIN RNAM GYI'U SEMS DANG MI DGOS You can leave out in this visualization the tantric lineage, the one behind. You can leave that one out.

GTAN GYI RNAM GAR BYAR CING GYI SEMS DANG LAMA RNAM GYI DBYE YIN NAS SANGS RGYAS RNAM Up higher in the sky, scattered around the rainbow, to the left and right of your Lamas and the various Lamas of the two lineages are circles of Buddhas. This one is more, it's called, I forget the name. It's like it's a ladder thing.

You're supposed to put them in, they're supposed to be built up vertically rather than horizontally. Do you see what I mean? So there's some word in Tibetan for it.

It's like THO TSEGS. Like you're supposed to stack them. Rather than spreading them out like we did before.

And you can see which one feels better to you. Below them are the Bodhisattvas. Below them are the listeners.

Below them are the self-made Buddhas. Below them are the Dharma protectors. DEN DAG CHUNG SBYANG NGOS THOB KYI LAM MED OG PAD MED DGO CHOG The big undulating lotus flower which is under the Lamas with whom you've had a karmic connection.

PAD MED NAM PAS NA MTSOGS PA'I MA NA MTSOGS PA'I MA is a really strange lotus. It has black petals, yellow petals. There's a whole teaching on it.

In certain directions, red petals. It's not like, most lotuses are either, Utpal is pale blue and PA'I MA is like OM MANI PAD MED HUNG. That one is pink.

So this one is a very strange, and it has a tantric meaning. The different directions have a tantric meaning. Anyway, you can say a multi-colored lotus.

PAD MED NAM PA GSUM There are three. YOD PA'I OM MA NYID DENG GI DENG DU In the middle one, NYID DENG GI DENG DU There's a, NYID DENG means a cushion. Like I'm sitting on a cushion, but it's made of the sun.

Down flat. They perceive the sun as a disk. MAN DAG, MAN DAG LA means disk and they perceive it.

So you're sitting on the sun. DENG DU DE BU CHEN PO'I CHOS DAG Then there's the first of the protectors of the Lamrim. So we're going to have three protectors of the Lamrim.

And they're below and in front of the lamas that you have a karmic connection to. Three lotuses, three new lotuses. In the middle is a NYON ZAD YOD ZHIG DGON PO Say NYON ZAD.

YOD ZHIG DGON PO On the right hand lotus, which would be your left, because right hand always means to the Buddha's right hand, which means I'm left, is PAD DAG DENG DU is a lotus and on top of that is a moon disk. And on top of that, by the way, NYON ZAD YOD ZHIG DGON PO, we'll talk about him, is the protector for the people of higher capacity, people of highest capacity. DGE BU DRIN GYI CHOS DAG NAM SRE is Vaisravana.

In Tibetan called NAM SRE. Sometimes Kubera. And that's the protector of the Lamrim teachings for people of medium capacity.

What makes you highest capacity? Yeah, you're stirring the tea for the old... coffee for the old lady.

And you're thinking, I would like to start a fad that ends up being global. I would like it to go viral. It's very much a viral state of mind.

I would like my example, my successful example for getting a boyfriend in a new way, by stirring this old lady's coffee, that it should spread. And everyone who wants a boyfriend or a girlfriend should help a lonely person. And everybody who wants money should help poor people.

And everybody who wants to get strong from their yoga first should go to the hospital and help a sick person. Because that's the real cause. The yoga is the means by which the cause expresses itself.

But the cause of yoga making you thin or strong is the amount that you serve the sick. So do yoga because that's the medium or the means through which the karma expresses itself. But if you don't want to get hurt in yoga, if you want the yoga to succeed, help somebody sick before that.

The yoga doesn't do anything. Yoga cannot do anything for you. I went to a class in New York.

I told you I always go to a class, right? So I was in New York. So I just went out to a class at some obscure yoga studio.

And that's how I go to the movies. I go to the movies, I see what's playing when I get there. And I say, I want a ticket for that.

So I see which class is playing when I get to the yoga studio. And it said, what do they call that? Restorative.

And I said, I want to be in the restorative class. It's next. Okay, $18.

And then I said, what's restorative mean? And they said, it's a yoga class for people who got hurt by doing yoga. And I said, do you charge for that class?

Like, do you get them twice? You charge them to hurt them and then you charge them to fix them. But she was kind of angry.

So anyway, why did I bring that up? I don't remember.

[Говорящий 2] (13:20 - 13:24)
Oh, yoga doesn't work.

[Говорящий 1] (13:24 - 29:11)
Yeah, yoga has no power. Yoga does nothing. Aspirin does nothing.

Scriptures don't do nothing. If you have the seed, they can help you. If you don't have the seed, they will bore you and put you to sleep.

Then I can see all your feelings. Scripture has no power. Yoga has no power.

Aspirin, food, they have no power. Vegan diet has no power. Meat diet has no power.

Depends on what seeds you have. If you are kind to others and you pay attention to others, what they want, what they need, then yoga will work. And if you don't, then you'll get hurt and you'll have to go to restorative class.

Anyway, why did we get onto that? I forget. Oh yeah, it was the lady stirring the coffee for the lady.

You have to think, I want to start a global virus, a global fad, a whole globe, seven billion people who understand that aspirin doesn't do anything and that yoga doesn't do anything and that scriptures don't do anything. What's the proof of that, by the way? Because different people have different reactions to it.

Some people die if you give them aspirin. They're allergic to aspirin. There's nothing in aspirin that can help you.

There's nothing in aspirin anyway. And there's nothing in these words that can help you. And there's nothing in an asana that can help you.

If you have the seeds, they will help you. If you don't have the seeds, they'll mess you up. And you've seen that.

Scriptures mess people up. Aspirins make people sick and yoga gets you hurt, some people. That means they didn't have the seeds.

So that idea of spreading that wisdom, which is true, that wisdom is true. And you know that. The fact that aspirin doesn't always work proves it.

For the last headache you had, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work. It means aspirin doesn't have anything in it. It's all coming from you.

Spreading that wisdom would make everyone happy. So there's a protector for those ideas. That they should not get lost in the world.

And people are fighting over whether yoga works better or jogging or golf or pilates or... I heard this new one today, Zumba? It sounds fun.

I want to try it. Maybe that will make me happy. Okay, so it's all...

Somebody's got to take me to it. It was, it hurt you? Or is it like that?

Anyway, I'm serious, sorry. Yeah, okay, I'll come. All right.

So anyway, spreading that wisdom that things don't work by themselves, unless you help somebody else first, is the bodhisattva's mission. That's what they do. That's the highest capacity.

So then on the right hand, meaning our left, of the Buddha is... Well, actually it's in front of the three karmic connection lamas. On your left and the lama's right over here is the protector of the medium capacity.

And what are they interested in? Medium capacity. Yeah, they don't want any suffering.

Like if you offered them, I don't know, a Mercedes Benz, right? Then they would say, can you assure me that it will never break? Or never get old.

You see, like they don't just want something better. They want it never to fail. Then their protector is Vaisravana, one of the four great kings who live on the top of Mount Meru, okay, up here.

And they are protectors for the world. That's one of the protectors. Yen Mar, on the other, on the left hand lama, which is your right as you face them, Yen Mar, NYIN DANG GI STENG DU, on top of a, on top of a, again, a sun disc, is SKYE BU CHUNG DU CHOD DAG, the protector of the lamrim steps for people of lesser capacity, is SHIN RJE, SHIN RJE, SHIN RJE ZHES.

Okay, the full name is SHIN RJE ZHES. They just said SHIN RJE. SHIN RJE means what?

I think you know. Lord of Death, okay? SHIN RJE ZHES.

DE GSUM LA SKYE BU GSUM GYUR CHOD DAG TU SBYOR PA'I RGYU BRTZEN NI. So I'm going to cover why they call them the three, why are these three beings the protectors for the lamrim? They go into it here, okay?

And what do you do with a protector? If you're having a problem, like you're trying to teach the lamrim and there's some kind of obstacle, you can ask them for help. If you're trying to master the lamrim internally and you're having trouble, you can ask them for help, okay?

They protect the teachings and they protect the people who are learning them and trying to meditate on them. If you're having trouble with the idea of impermanence or death, then you could ask one of those protectors for help. Okay, like that.

NYON RDZE YESHE GUM PO The first one, which is, right I said NYON RDZE YESHE GUM PO. NYON RDZE means acts fast. NYON means fast.

ZE means acts. NYON RDZE YESHE means wisdom. GUM PO means protector.

What's the Sanskrit? It's extremely obscure. It's Kurukulla, okay?

And Lama Zopa has this fixation on Kurukulla. I never understood it. It's a really obscure tantric deity.

But now I understand. Last night I was like, wow, that's why he called this Boston Center Kurukulla, right? So anyway, that's the protector of the bodhisattva part of the lamrim.

Okay, Kurukulla. YESHE GUM PO RGYAL KUN NYING RJE RANG GZUGS This angel is the embodiment of the compassion of all the buddhas and is in essence Chenrezig or Avalokiteshvara. When you can pronounce Avalokiteshvara, you know you're a real Dharma student.

Okay, it took me like four years. I remember in India I'd be like Avalokiteshvara. You could break it into pieces, okay?

AVA means down. LOG KITA means looking down. And ISHVARA means Lord, right?

So Avalokiteshvara. ISHVARA. You could say it small like that.

Avalokiteshvara. The Tibetan is Chenrezig. Chen means eyes.

Re means like this. They say the way Aura looks at her baby. You're like, loving eyes.

Chenrezig. The Dalai Lama, right? Okay.

Chenrezig NGOS YIN PAS DI NYID CHOS KYANG DU BRTEN NA If you ask this person for help, this being, SKYES BU CHEN PO'I SKABS, then when you are studying the parts of the Lamrim that relate to people of greatest capacity, BYAMS NYING RJE SKYE NYUR BA LA NYE BYAS You will be able to achieve compassion and love more quickly. So quickness is part of even his name, right? NYUR BA LA NYE BYAS.

So that's an important thing. Why are they protectors for the Lamrim? DRIN GYI KHAB.

I know enough not to trust the projector. DRIN GYI KHAB means when you are studying the steps for a person of medium capacity, the subjects which are most important are the three trainings, which are morality, meditation, and wisdom. LHAG PAR TSUL KHRING GI BSLAB PA TSOR The most important training is morality in the people of medium capacity.

Why would that be connected to the goal anyway? Yeah, okay. Why would that be connected to the goals of a person of medium capacity?

A person of medium capacity doesn't want to suffer anymore. So morality is most important for them. The practice of morality is most important for them.

TSOR NYAM TSUL LEN DGOS RGYAL CHEN RNAM TU SRED KYIS And the great king called the protector named Vaisravana. DE NAS GSUM LAS protects the three baskets and especially the Vinaya, which is the teachings on vowed morality. Some people translate it as monk's vows or something like that, but it's not really.

Much of it is vows for lay people. I think tonight some people are taking those vows, right? These are Vinaya vows, lifetime layman's vows.

No killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying, and no booze or drugs. Those five are lay person's vows, lifetime vows. You take them for your life.

And like that, that's the beginning of the Vinaya. And then it goes up to fully ordained people who have NI GANG RAB TU SA GSUM. The boys have 253 vows and the girls are more naughty, so they have 364 vows.

So you start with five vows and you work up to 364 if you're a naughty person. LHAG PA GSUM NAS, TSUL KHRIMS KYI LHAG PA'I PO'I GSUM BAR BSTAN PA'I By Shravana, of the three different trainings, agreed. BSTAN PA'I CHEN NGA'I, which means at the foot of the Buddha.

These beings are like heavy duty, powerful beings who can move galaxies, but they came to the Buddha and they knelt before the Buddha and they swore to protect the teachings. There's this deal they made. I don't know where, I must be on some other galaxy or something, and a zillion years ago.

And they said, okay, planet earth 2012, I'll take care of the people of middle capacity. Buddha says, you promise? And they say, yeah.

Okay, you're on. Probably we should make a movie about it because there's no other, you know, I don't know where it happened or how it happened. It's always like they made a promise on their knees to Lord Buddha and they don't tell you more.

BSTAN PA'I CHEN NGA'I, CHEN NGA'I means before the eyes of the Buddha. GZHEL GYI ZHES means they promised. DIN NI CHOS KYONG DUG LDAN NA And if you ask this person for help by Shravana, it will help you to gain the lamrim parts of medium person faster.

Okay, let's go to the third protector. Now we got to talk about people of what capacity? Lowest capacity.

Okay, tell me when if you guys are ready. CHUG YAL SHIN RJE, Lord of Death. Why would you choose the Lord of Death to be the protector?

These are divine forms of these three beings, okay? So it's not the usual Lord of Death. It's like an angel whose name is the Lord of Death, okay?

And traditionally they say that, I don't know, it's similar in Christianity but in Buddhism they say that when you die, and particularly if you go to the hell realms, you will be met by the Lord of Death. And he will explain to you why you're there. Like he will explain the karmas that you did.

So they say MI RTAG PA LTEN. They will teach you about impermanence and they will teach you DGE'I DIG DANG DZIN LEN GYI GYI RNAM YIN means they will give you a lecture about good karma and bad karma, okay? That's their job, okay?

So LTEN PAR PO YIN PAS RIN NYID CHUG KYONG DU BRTEN NA. If you ask them for help, they will help you learn the teachings of the lowest capacity, which are based on the fact that you're going to die. The teachings of lowest capacity are founded on death meditation.

What is death meditation? It's not like some kind of weirdo depressing thing. It's not that, okay?

Death meditation is you get up, you walk over to the sink, you grab your toothpaste, you put the toothpaste, sorry, toothbrush, put toothpaste on it, put it in your mouth, brush, look at yourself in the mirror and you say, I'm going to die today. Okay, okay? Then you spit out the toothpaste, wash your mouth, and you can throw out the toothbrush, okay?

All right? That's a real death meditation. Every morning when you get up, like, okay, I'm going to die today.

What am I going to do with my last day? How will I spend my last day? And then you don't waste time.

And it's a very very profound meditation, okay? You're going to learn it, okay? But if you want to learn it well, you ask for the help of the lord of death, okay?

Very powerful being who kills all living beings, right? Can you help me appreciate the fact that I will not see tonight? I will not see the sunset tonight, okay?

Then the lord of death will teach you not to waste your time, because you've only got one day left. And that's a very profound meditation. If you do it, you're going to get all kinds of projects done, and then your life changes.

You become like a really intense person, and your life becomes more rich and more beautiful, very intense and beautiful. Utta.

[Говорящий 2] (29:52 - 30:11)
Yes. Okay, good. Good job.

Thank you.