«Дар освобождения», курс 9 «Семь дверей медитации», занятие 5

[Speaker 1]
I wanted to redo the eight powers, because I wasn't satisfied with it, and it's confusing. Je Tsongkapa was confused about it. And so during the copious free time in the break, I rechecked his text, all right?

So I want to do it over, all right? So the original reference to the eight comes from a explanatory tantra on the Chakrasamvara Tantra, De Chok, okay? So Chakrasamvara Tantra, there's an explanatory tantra.

Chodur, Chodur means the abbreviated activities, okay? Then Chakyur, Chakyur means in Je Tsongkapa's time, the translation of the Indian scriptures had not been finalized. The Kangyur and Tengyur had only just been put together, and he preferred some alternate translations.

So by the 1400s in Tibet, the scriptures that had come from India, which got cut off in the 800s, were finalized, and they chose the translations, one translation. Normally the other translations died, and we don't have records of them, but Je Tsongkapa will sometimes quote a translation that he prefers among translations that died out after his time. We don't have the copies of the alternate translations.

So one translation won out over other translations, like the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. So if you took all the translations that exist right now, and you said one of them is the official translation, then in some cases Je Tsongkapa preferred parts of other translations that he thought were more helpful. So we don't have those other alternate translations anymore.

They were never carved, they disappeared. The ones that got into the Kangyur and Tengyur became the standards. But we have his comments on what he thought were better translations of some verses.

So the verse about the eight powers, he chose a translation of Chak, someone named Chak-lo-tsao. He said, GZUGS DRA BA DANG RIGS PA YANG GZUGS DRA BA DANG RIGS PA YANG KHYAB PA YANG DAG THOB PA NYID RAB TU ZAL BA NYID BSTAN PA DBANG CHUD NYID DANG BDOD GUR So that's a verse of poetry. And inside there are the eight powers, and they are hidden in the eight powers, and they're out of order.

So here we go. That verse says, things are, one, subtle. Two, hang on.

Oh yeah, no. Yeah, okay. Things are subtle.

One. Two, they are light, meaning heavy and light, not meaning dark and light. They are light.

Three, they spread. Four, they are attained. Five, they shine.

Six, they are stable. Seven, they are power. And eight, you will get all the things someone could wish for.

BDOD GUR GYUR All right, you got the eight? So those are the code words.

[Speaker 2]
All right?

[Speaker 1]
Now there's an explanation by a yogi named Avalokita Vrata in Tibetan. It's Chenrezig Tulshuk, which means the tapas of Chenrezig, the difficult spiritual practice of. His name was Tapas of Loving Eyes.

And he wrote an explanation of the code, but it's out of order. So it's a little confusing. So what's the first thing you have on your list?

Subtle, yeah. So they have power to emanate the subtle, which means people. So that's okay.

That's the same. All right? Secondly is, what's the second one?

Light as opposed to heavy, right? They have the power to emanate the light, which refers to planets, emanating planets, which are, I guess, not too difficult. Light, bud light, okay?

All right. Here's where it starts to go out of order. What's number three?

They have spread. What's number four? Huh?

Attain. So we have to skip to number four, because number four, attain, means they are able to attain those people and places, meaning they are able to do laya, or they are able to withdraw those places back into them. So number four, it should be three.

It means they are able to withdraw those people and those worlds back into them. For example, if you had trouble with your boss at work, you should be able to withdraw that particular emanation by taking whatever quality bothers you and finding it in yourself and stopping it. Then you would be a yogi who could withdraw a person.

Okay? Or if you didn't like the physical atmosphere at your work, you didn't like the space, you could withdraw it by providing more pleasant spaces to other people. So we consider that more high power yoga than snapping your fingers and a world disappears.

That's no big deal. To withdraw a workplace that you don't enjoy by making places more pleasant for other people is the path of wisdom. And it's the path of power because you can create any workspace you like.

If you don't like the place where you work, that's your fault and you can fix it. You can withdraw it and you can emanate a new one. That's real power.

Not like snap your fingers and Jupiter disappears. Because ultimately you couldn't do that unless you had provided nice places to other people either. All right.

Number three was spend. That means the ability to go anywhere in their body or mind that they wish. The power to go anywhere they wish.

I would like to travel to exotic countries to teach DCI tours, but I only want to go business class. Then you have to help other people to go on a tour. And if you don't, you will never get to go on a tour or you will have to stop going on tours.

See what I mean? That's how worldview works. Okay, that's number what?

Three, which is really number four. Okay, number five. Yeah, shine, rub to self.

That is those yogis' ability to make offerings outshines other people's ability to make offerings. That's number five. Probably they emanate clouds of offerings in their minds.

And in, what do you call it? In proportion to the zillions of things they're able to emanate in their mind, they get that much karma back. A person who offers a banana to a holy being collects a lot of good karma.

A person who offers a banana and closes their eyes and imagines the whole solar system covered with bananas, offering them, makes that much more good karma. If you understand that, there's no reason why you should have credit card debt. Okay, I'm not kidding, but that's another subject.

What's number six? Stable. That comes last in the commentary of Chenrezig Tulsug, of Avalokita Vrata.

That comes last. And so number six comes after eight, which means they can sustain the worlds that they create and the people they create. It's one thing to create a partner, for example.

We had a lady in Bulgaria. She's a famous talk show host. She does an hour every Sunday afternoon on national television.

And she came to our first retreat in Bulgaria. And she came to dinner with 25 other people and said, how can I get a boyfriend, Geshe Michael? So I said, you should go help lonely people at a nursing home.

So unlike most people, she actually did it. And to hear her talk about the way she met her partner is very beautiful. Because she was walking down the street and saw him at a distance and decided it was him.

And they just walked up to each other and asked each other out. And they got married in July. And she brought him to the second retreat and she was quite proud of him.

So then I have to ask what? Are you still visiting the old woman, perhaps together? And a person who doesn't understand how to sustain or to make it stable would say, I got the boy, I don't have to visit the old woman.

But a person who understands how karmic seeds work would say, I'm still going every week and I'll go as long as I want to keep him. I will keep going. In fact, we'll go together.

Because that's the sustaining of the person you have created. To create them takes one seed. To sustain them takes sustained visits to the old lady.

So that yogi, number six, power number six is the power to make it stable. Meaning the boyfriend is created and the boyfriend or the husband stays in your life because you never stop going to the old lady. In fact, you take him to the old lady and you do it together.

That's sustaining. And there's no other sustaining. There's no magical thing that you can do to sustain a relationship or to sustain a planet or to sustain people around you.

And then, good karma. There's no other way. There's no magic city.

There's no thing described in any scripture, even in the yoga scriptures, that is any different than that. You can't learn to snap your fingers and something appears. There's no such thing.

Everything comes from how you treat other people, period. And there's nothing that doesn't come that way. All right, what was the next one?

Power, yeah, in control. That means what we mentioned, the ability to choose to train someone else in this path or the decision to leave them for the time being because they're not fit to hear it. How can I make more money, Geshe-la?

Give away money. You're crazy. Like there's people like that.

And then you just say, well, I'll see you next year when I come by. We'll see if you're more ready to hear it. I like to compare it to the person who invented farming.

And this person had the courage to try throwing some of his food on the ground and covering it with dirt and waiting three months. Like you're talking cavemen who survived on handfuls of grain and many of whom died because they couldn't find wild plants in the forest. And then one guy figured out that if you throw some of your food on the ground and cover it with dirt and water it and wait three months, you'll have 100 times more.

And of course, when he tried to explain that to the second farmer, at first they thought he was crazy. You're telling me that to get a stable food supply, I should take some of my dinner, which is barely enough to survive on and throw it on the ground and cover it with dirt? Are you crazy?

So I'm sure that there was a disconnect between the first farmer and the second farmer. If you start to use this system, you'll experience the same frustration as the first farmer trying to talk the second farmer out of wandering around the world looking for money. Just plant it and relax.

Okay? All right, anyway. What's the next one?

What was it? Is that number eight? Yeah, you'll get everything you want.

This means the power to use their powers at will. They have power over their own power. They can use it at will.

They don't have to, what do you call it? They are in control of their powers and they can get what they want. They can get whatever they want.

You can apply karmic seeds to everything you want. I had somebody challenge me. They said, I don't want money or I don't want a relationship.

I just want to be happy. I don't want to be depressed. And then you have to go into a long explanation about how the thoughts in your mind are also popping out of karmic seeds within your own mind.

And you are not thinking them, you are hearing them a moment after they are spoken. You are not the speaker of your thoughts. They are popping out of seeds that split open in your mind from how you treated people last week.

If you are depressed, you don't have any choice. Okay, if you're depressed. People ask me, how can I not be depressed?

I said, there's nothing you can do. You have to listen to those thoughts. They were planted last week.

You can't push a tree back into the ground. If your mind is talking depressed thoughts, you have to listen. Because you're the listener, you're not the talker.

The talker is the karmic seeds in your mind popping open. If you don't like what you hear in your own mind, be nice to people this week and maybe next week you'll hear different thoughts. But this week, it's a lost case.

Just take some aspirin and relax. Because you're going to have to listen to what's... You're going to have to live with what was planted last week.

If you don't like it, then plant something different this week and maybe next week will be different. But it's too late. I can't make a depressed person happy in a week.

It takes a week. They have to put different seeds in their mind. So there was this joke.

Ken Rinpoche used to... People would come and say, Ken Rinpoche, I'm depressed. He'd say, just be happy.

Goodbye. And I used to ask him, isn't that kind of weird advice to give depression? People who are having trouble with depression, just be happy.

And then he would teach them about planting different thoughts to be heard next week. If you understand that, then you have power to have anything you want. That's the final of the eight powers.

Got it? All right then. We cleaned up this confusion.

It's very difficult to find them. They are deep inside of one ancient tantra. You have to read Je Tsongkapa.

You have to read an alternate translation of the original. And then it has to be explained by an ancient author called Avalokiteśvara. And it's nowhere else.

All right. Why are we talking about those? Because the eight lions represent those eight.

Okay. Done? We okay.

We can move on. That's why we're going to take 40 years instead of 12. All right.

I like it. I don't get to teach good, hard stuff. All right.

SHES DZIN PA YIN DE'I RTEN GUS PA'I MA'I DANG RIM PA CHU GCIG STE RGYA CHE CHUNG DANG SPANG BYAS THOR SONG BA SPANG RIM LTAR YOD PA DE'I RTEN GUS means above that, on top of that, what would we... Oh, on top of the throne, right? On the platform is a Padma, a lotus.

Like OM PAD PA'I MA'I MA MA NI PA'I MA'I HUNG Okay. Padma. Then RIM PA CHU GCIG STE It has 11 tiers.

RGYA CHE CHUNG SPANG BYAS THOR SONG BA SPANG RIM LTAR YOD PA It's as wide and as deep as necessary. We'll talk about it. To fit whoever you're going to fit on there.

11 tiers of a lotus. And SPANG RIM means like tears in states. What do you call those things where people sit in a stadium?

Bleachers, yeah. It's like tears of a bleacher. Okay.

Good luck on that Tibetan. All right. BAS BDAG DANG PO BDAG MA ZHIG PA The first tier consists of four petals of the flower.

So on the first level are four petals of the flower. ZHIG PA DE'I RGYUD PA'I MA'I ZIN RGYUD BSTAN RGYUD NOR BU ME SHER LAS GRUB PA'I GNYIS MA'I BSTAN DE'I RGYUD, in the middle of the lotus, is the PA'I MA'I ZIN RGYUD. ZIN RGYUD means, I forget, it's anthers?

The little sticky things that come out of the, is it anthers or stamens or whatever they are. I always look it up and I forget it within five minutes. It's either anthers or stamens, but it's the little sticky things that come out of them.

Those are called ZIN RGYUD. BSTAN RGYUD On top of that is a GNYIS MA'I BSTAN. GNYIS MA means?

BSTAN BSTAN means, the real name for Bodhgaya is? DOR BYED BSTAN The Seat of the Diamond. In Sanskrit?

Vajraasana. Vajraasana. So the real meaning of asana is a seat because you put your ass on it.

And I'm not kidding. It's directly related. So asanas used to be sitting postures.

And then because it was so hard to sit for eight hours or 10 hours, people started to stretch and there came to be a thing called yoga. Seriously, it came from them. The original asanas were half lotus, full lotus, Vajraasana.

All right. DE MED ZIN RGYUD ZHING That cushion of the sun. The llama is going to sit on a sun disk.

The Tibetans and Hindu culture saw the planets as being disks and not balls. So the sun was a disk. What's the Sanskrit word for that disk?

Mandala. Mandala. Means disk.

So anyway, they would sit on that disk. That disk is made of meshel. RGYUD here, the word RGYUD, which normally in 99.9% of the time means cause, in 0.1% of the time means the material from which something is made. So here, RGYUD means the stuff that the sun disk is made from is meshel. So norbu means a jewel. Meshel means a kind of crystal called fire crystal.

And I don't know what it is. Maybe it's a red opal or something, but it's called fire crystal. The point is that it should be warm.

Crystalline and warm. Meshel. DE'I GTENG DU On top of the, what, sun disk is a DA DEN, DA BA DEN.

DA BA'I DEN. Moon disk. It's made of, it's RGYUD that it's made of.

The stuff it's made of is also jewel, but it's CHU SHAL. SHAL again means shell, crystal. CHU SHAL means water crystal.

You can think of a blue opal or something like that. CHU SHAL LAS GRUB PA'I DA BA'I DEN DE NYID YIP SNGA YUL MED PA TSEGS PA LTA BU DE NYID means those two. YIP means the shape, their shape, their outline or their shape.

YIP. Say YIP. YIP YIP.

Okay, you're a YIPY. Okay, YIP. SNGA, there's three meanings of SNGA.

If it's, there's four meanings. SNGA LHO THON, SNGA means I. SNGA with L prefix means five.

SNGA with an S prefix means before. LHA with an R prefix means a drum. This is a drum.

Their YIP is a LHA, is a drum, drum shape, meaning they are not flat, they are two-dimensional. So they still look like an aspirin, but the shape is three-dimensional like a drum. Without the YUA, without the stick.

So drop the stick, just keep the drum. YUA MED means no stick. In Tibet, they have this curved stick, and you hit the drum on it.

MED TSEG PA, you know TSEG because you know GNYIS TSEG. CHUN SBYUNG GNYIS TSEG. What's CHUN SBYUNG GNYIS TSEG?

Yeah, it's Vajrayogini's Paradise. It's the Star of David, shaped like a six-pointed star. In two triangular sections.

GNYIS TSEG means two sections stacked together. So TSEG means stacked. So what's stacked on the top of what?

The two drums are stacked on top of each other, the two aspirin tablets. They're more like Alka-Seltzer tablets. So underneath is the sun disc, and then there's a moon disc.

TSEG PA LTA BU, DE YANG PAS MA NI DAM LAS SKYE DGE'ANG DAM GYI GYUN GYI MA DGOS PA LTAR Okay. DGOS PA LTAR GYI GYUN GYI MA DGOS PA'I NGAN CUNG TZAM BYAS DANG Why is the Lama sitting on a lotus on which there's a sun disc, and on top of that a moon disc? Why do you put your Lama in a lotus?

Because lotus is DAM LAS SKYE. This DAM means mock. Swamp mock.

DAM. There's a famous DAM in scripture, but that's a long story. In the opening lines of the Abhidharma Kosha.

DAM means mock. DAM LAS SKYE DGE'ANG Even though a lotus grows in the mock, DAM GYI GYUN GYI MA DGOS It is unsullied by the GYUN. What's GYUN mean do?

No problem. That is a Tibetan way to say no problem. So GYUN means problem.

MA DGOS means it is not sullied by the mud. So if you really, if you go to India, the best place I've seen if you want to know, if you want to go to find red and blue lotuses is just outside of Bangalore city where the entire untreated sewage of the city flows out towards Serra. Serra is like an hour away, so it's okay.

Hour and a half? But anyway, it's about, I don't know, 500 acres of untreated sewage. And the road goes through it.

And there's wonderful lotuses everywhere. So your first time you go there, you jump out of the car, holding your nose, and you're like, then you see some kid and you say, can you get me one of those? Here's a rupee, go get me one of those.

And they run into the muck and they get you a lotus. And the lotus has the most exquisite smell. There's nothing like it.

It's like the desert after rain or something. It's an exquisite smell. But it comes out of pure poop.

That lotus, somehow it takes its nutrients out of the poop and produces the most beautiful flower on earth with the best smell. So that's why we put the Lama on a lotus. DAM LAS SKYES KYANG DAM GYIS KHYIM MA BRGOS DAM LAS SKYES KYANG DAM GYIS KHYIM MA BRGOS All right.

Those of you who know the Vajragini Sadhana, which you're going to recite tonight, that's a line. He copped a line out of the Vajragini Sadhana and he put it straight into the Lam Rim without telling anybody. Check it out tonight.

DAM LAS SKYES KYANG DAM GYIS KHYIM MA BRGOS It's straight out of the sadhana. And you have to know to appreciate what he's doing. He's playing with you.

Because lotus in that other context doesn't mean, it doesn't mean mud. It has a deeper meaning, which is not appropriate to mention in this audience because some of you don't have empowerment. Quote.

Okay, got it? DAM GYIS KHYIM LAS DAM GYIS KHYIM MA BRGOS All right. GOS PA LTAR KHOR BA'I KHYIM KHYIM MA BRGOS PA But the idea is that beautiful things can grow out of what might appear to be the basest things, if you are skillful.

KHOR BA'I KHYIM KHYIM MA BRGOS PA So the Lama is operating in a messed up world, but they produce beautiful things out of the mess. They take the mess, they process it, and they come out with beautiful things. They make beautiful things out of a messed up world.

That's the point of having them on a lotus. KHYIM KHYIM MA BRGOS PA'I NGES SBYUNG TSUN CES So they actually have NGES SBYUNG. They don't get tied up in the lower things of the world in which they're operating.

They're operating in a world of videos and porn on the internet and wars in Iraq and dirty things. And then they are using their skill to create beautiful things in that world. All right, TSUN CES DANG Now, why is there a sun?

Why is the Lama sitting on the sun? NYID MA NI MA MIM PA MIM PAR BYED PA So in Asian culture, the sun is perceived as the thing which allows crops to ripen, without which you starve. So it's very close to people's hearts.

The sun is the energy which creates food without which all of people die. So that's how the sun is perceived in Asia. It is that energy which ripens that which is not ripened.

Meaning the Lama ripens disciples who are uneducated at the beginning and then trains them and ripens them. And then they get like, what was the famous metaphor? Pimples that are ready to pop.

Okay, that's going to go down in history. All right. I didn't make it up, he did.

LTAR DON DANG BYANG CHUB KYI SEMS RGYUS MIM PAR BYED PA DE'I TSUN TSUN here means it symbolizes. What? The way in which one's mind or heart, RGYUS, is ripened through BYANG CHUB KYI SEMS. PAR BYED PA But not just any BYANG CHUB KYI SEMS, through DON DANG BYANG CHUB KYI SEMS. So there are two versions of PAR BYED PA, right? One is a kind of vision in which this world, through countless trips to Russia, could be transformed. That vision is called bodhichitta. But ultimate bodhichitta is a completely different thing.

What's that? The direct perception of emptiness. What's the indirect perception of emptiness?

When my husband yells at me, he's coming from me. The husband I used to get upset at never existed. That's emptiness.

Emptiness should be something which serves you. It shouldn't be some little philosophical thing that people talk about. How can emptiness serve you?

Oh, the husband who used to complain at me, the husband who complains at me every evening that I thought was complaining because he wanted to doesn't exist. There's no such husband. Is there a husband there?

Yes or no? Yes. Is there a husband there which is coming from your complaining last week at your children?

Yes. Is there a husband there who's coming from his own side, not because you complained at somebody? Is there such a husband?

No. Got it? That's emptiness.

And every other kind of emptiness doesn't really matter. Emptiness is supposed to help you reach nirvana. Nirvana is the permanent ending of your negative thoughts.

If you understood that the husband who's complaining at you from his own side, not because you complained last week, never existed, you could reach nirvana. That's emptiness. And that's how emptiness serves a person.

And every other kind of emptiness that people blah, blah, blah about is just blah, blah, blah. You can forget it. All right.

This is how I get in trouble, right? SEMS CAN DU DANG So anyway, that understanding ripens your soul. And that's why the Lama is sitting on a sun.

That understanding is the sun. Okay, got it? It ripens that which was not ripe.

Who was not ripe in this example? The lady who got upset at her husband because he decided to yell at her through no fault of her own. Okay, that's unripe.

Then she goes to many ACI classes and she gets ripe. Then she says, oh, he's coming for me. Then she stops complaining to her kids and magically the husband stops complaining about dinner.

Okay, he might even cook dinner, but let's not go too far. All right, RGYUD MED PA'I PHYIR BA TZON DA BA NI Now, what's the function of the moon in Asian thought? What does the moon do in Asian thought?

TSA DUNG ZAL ZHING DGOS GAR BA TSA DUNG means, DUNG here means the torment. Okay, physical torment, which the word is often used for overheated, like in Phoenix in the summer. You are TSA DUNG.

TSA means hot. DUNG means tormented. TSA DUNG means tormented by heat.

Especially some people who are from New York, something like that. That's how I felt the opposite when I went there. I couldn't believe anybody would want to live in a place covered by ice.

And I never saw a real tree in, anyway, TSA DUNG. ZAL, ZAL means it clears away. This is not the ZAL in UZAL, which means clear and not spelled G-S-A-L.

When you spell the same sound, the homonym, as S-E-L, it's a verb that means to clear away. This is to clear away the TSA DUNG. The function of the moon is to remove heat from things which are overheated and to supply U, light, which is GAR PO, white.

So they say that if you stand in the rays of the moon, like if you have a fever, it will be drawn out because the rays of the moon draw out heat and replace it with coolness. So they're not like the rays of the sun, which MIM PA BYAS, which ripen crops. Rather, it cools you down.

Like what? BYANG SEMS, BYANG CHUB KYI SEMS, bodhichitta, but KUN RDZOGS, relative bodhichitta, deceptive bodhichitta, which is that vision of a perfect world. If we kept traveling around the world, if we kept telling people about husbands that don't exist, maybe the whole world would be happy.

Is that bodhichitta? Yes. Is it ultimate bodhichitta?

No, it's not the direct perception of emptiness. Is it like a relative kind of bodhichitta? Yes.

What's the Tibetan word for that? KUN RDZOGS. What's KUN RDZOGS mean?

Only apparent. It means only apparent. Only apparent.

Does your husband complaining at you exist? Yes. Does he exist DON DAM DU, ultimately?

No. Does he exist KUN RDZOGS DU? Apparently he exists.

In appearance he exists. What's appearance mean? Popping out of your karmic seeds.

Does he exist? Yes. Is he real?

Yes. I mean, he can yell. Is he just apparent?

Yes. What's apparent mean? Coming from my mind.

Why? I have the karmic seeds to see him. Who planted them?

You did. When? Last week.

What did you do? It must have been the same because you don't get figs from thistles and grapes from thorns. You complain to somebody and you planted a seed for a complainer in your life because everything comes from something similar.

All right. BDAG BA NI SA RUNG DANG KUN RDZOGS CAN NAS GZHAN DE ZHES DANG GI SA RUNG ZAL And the relative bodhichitta clears away the heat, the oppressive heat of ZHES DANG. What's ZHES DANG?

You can say anger, okay? I like to call it disliking things. Is it wrong to dislike things?

Question. Is it wrong to dislike being complained at by your husband? Is it wrong?

No, it's not wrong. You'd be crazy not to dislike it. You should dislike it, okay?

Is it wrong to dislike being complained at by a husband who didn't come from you? Yeah, it's kind of wrong, it's insane. There's no such thing.

That husband doesn't exist, okay? But that emotion to be upset at a husband who's yelling at you, who didn't come from you, right? That's ZHES DANG.

That's what they call Buddhist anger, anger or dislike, okay? That disliking is a kind of insanity because the object of it doesn't exist. The husband who's not coming from you doesn't exist.

Should you dislike him? The one who's not coming from you. Should you dislike him?

No, that's like saying, should you dislike the 14 elephants rampaging through this room right now? Do you like them or not? Should you dislike them?

It's a dumb question. They don't exist. I mean, you can dislike them, but it's kind of pointless.

They don't exist. Should you dislike the husband who's not coming from you? Yes or no?

I mean, it's a waste of time. There's no such thing. You might as well dislike, I don't know, automobiles with 12 tires or something.

They just don't exist. Can you dislike a complaining husband? Is it okay?

Yes. Can you dislike the complaining husband who has been created by your complaining last week? You should dislike that one, and then you can change it, but not by talking to him because he didn't do anything.

You did. All right, but still you're going to talk all night. BYANG CHUB SHES DANG GYI TZAD DANG GZAL BZHIN SNGO'I DKA' RWA' DE TZAM The essence of love for all living beings is DKA' RWA, is pure white.

Therefore, he's sitting on a, or he or she is sitting on a pure white moon, a Lama, because that moon represents love. All right. We finished the, what time do I have to stop?

Do you know? Six? Do you mind if we just go straight through?

15 more minutes? It's okay? All right.

By the way, these cushions show up even in tantra, so it's good to know what they mean. This is a nice preparation for later. You're always putting Lamas on these suns and moons and you don't know why.

Like, don't they burn their, okay. All right. DE RNAMS LDAN DU BYAS PA NI, DE LTA BU'I LAM SOGS GSUNGS LA DBANG DGYUR BA RDZAS PA'I TSUN BYAS YIN So in essence, the lotus represents their renunciation.

They involved in the world, but they are not contaminated by the world. In fact, they use the world to produce exquisite things. They use the dirty world to produce exquisite things, renunciation.

They are sitting on a sun disc below, which represents their understanding of emptiness. And on top of that disc is a moon, which represents their compassion and their love for all living beings. Do these three sound familiar?

They are the three principal paths taught in ACI course number one. Hopefully you've been through. All right.

DE RNAMS LDAN DU BYAS PA NI The fact that we create seats out of those three attitudes represents that the person sitting on the seat has DBANG DGYUR BA, those three attitudes. What's DBANG DGYUR mean? Total mastery.

They have total mastery over those three things. Putting your Lama on a lotus with a sun cushion and a moon cushion is meant to indicate that they have mastered and incorporated within themselves the three principal paths. Tired of living in a world of screaming husbands, number one.

Number two, they see that it's their fault with wisdom. And number three, they would like other people to figure out that too, so they teach them. How do they teach them?

What's the best way to teach something? Just be it. There's this joke in DCI, they talk about the person that came up to somebody and went, hey, you want to learn some meditation from me?

And they're like, I don't know what kind of meditation you're doing, but I don't want to learn that one. The person's all nervous and cranky. So, if you figure out that your husband's coming from how you complained last week to the kids and then you change your husband by using seeds instead of fighting, then you can teach.

Then people will, they'll say, you look like a happy person. You don't look like you belong to the smilish clan. Can you, I don't know what you're doing, but you can teach it to me, okay?

Rather than, I can teach you about meditation, okay? You know, like that. I memorized all the nine levels and I can recite them to you.

You're like, yeah, but you don't seem so peaceful. You'd rather someone's glowing and happy and they say, I have a special practice I'm doing every day. And you say, well, tell me.

What is it? Because I want to do it too. It should go this way, not this way.

All right. And that's bodhichitta. To be a living example is bodhichitta.

Because people will ask you, what the heck are you doing? I'll have what she's having. All right.

What if Sally met Harry? She's faking an orgasm over dinner to prove to him that ladies can fake it. But the lady sitting next to them thinks it's something in the food and says to the waiter, I'll have whatever she's having.

Okay, you get the point. All right. DBANG RGYUD BAR MTSON SBYAS YIN DE NA BAS MA SKYE BU CHUNG SDIG DANG NYIN DE CHEN POS BLAM YANG MTSON You can also say YANG MTSON.

You can also say that the symbolism goes as follows. MTSON means symbolism, right? BAS MA, and he's used the instrumental, so the BAS MA is going to be the subject of the sentence.

The lotus represents the steps of the path for people of lesser and medium capacity. Okay, the lotus represents the steps of the path for people of lesser and medium capacity. And the sun and the moon represent the steps of the path for people of greater capacity.

Mahayana, Mahayana. Okay, cool. How does that work out?

Oh, so it means that renunciation, what do people of least capacity want out of life? They want to die. When they die, they don't want to go to hell, basically.

That's least motivation. What's medium motivation? I'd like to be happy myself.

I'd like to reach nirvana myself. And then what's highest motivation? I want to help everyone else do it.

You cannot help everyone else do it unless you've already done it yourself. Because they will look at you and say, they've obviously haven't done it. Why should I ask them to teach me?

When they want to teach me all their psychosis? You know what I mean? So it goes naturally in that flow.

Obviously this person is not trapped in the normal traps like fighting with a husband who's complaining. They have renunciation. And they obviously got out of their own problems because they...

And they're an example, right? That's bodhichitta. And they got out of their own problems by studying emptiness.

The emptiness of a complaining husband. What thing is not there when you talk about the emptiness of a complaining husband? What's the GAC CHA?

Yeah, a husband who did not come from how you acted last week. And there is no such husband. And there never was.

And there never will be. But that's the husband who has created every wrinkle on your face in this lifetime. You can count the wrinkles.

You know the partners. That was partner number one. That was partner number two.

But those partners didn't exist. The ones who made your wrinkles didn't exist. That's the tragedy of life.

They never existed. NYIN DAG CHEN PO'I BSLAM GYI DE LTANG DU RDZO BA SEMS BDEBS DGOS ZHING DE LTANG DU means, okay, on top of all this stuff, the three things, you have to SEMS BDEBS, which means visualize. DGOS means have to.

RDZO BA What's RDZO BA? What's LAM GYIS RDZO BO RNAMS SU? He's making a pun.

Those of you who get it. What's RDZO BO? What's LAM GYIS RDZO BO RNAMS SU?

LAM GYIS RDZO BO Three principal paths. The word in Tibetan for the central figure of a visualization is also RDZO BO. He just got through saying that the three cushions represent the three RDZO BO paths.

Now he's saying you should put the RDZO BO on top of them. It's an inside joke. By the way, he quotes, I forgot to say, he quotes the Vajrayogini sadhana, which we're going to do tonight.

He quoted it. He said it grows from the lotus, but it's not contaminated. The lotus grows from the muck, but it's not contaminated by it.

Who wrote your sadhana? Pabongka Rinpoche. Duh.

Who's the author of this book? You guys know that. DE YANG LAM MA CHOD PAS RDZOGS SHING GI RDZO BO GANG YIN BYAS NA Then he says there's lots of RDZOGS SHING.

Every Lam Rim has its own RDZOGS SHING. Every Lam Rim has its own central figure that you could focus on. Let's do the RDZO BO from the Lama Chod Pas.

Let's do the RDZO BO from the Lama Chod Pas, which is very nice for us because we practice that a lot. In our lineage, the Lama Chod Pas is the single most practiced ritual of all. The offering to your teacher.

The ritual known as making offerings to your teacher is the most practiced ritual of all of our lineage. We do it twice during every Prescott retreat because you don't have to have an empowerment to do it. It incorporates elements of the secret teachings, but we are allowed to do it with people who haven't got an empowerment.

In fact, lines from the Lama Chod Pas appear in SHING RGYAS, SNGAGS RGYAS, VAJRAGYAS TZAD NA. He took lines out of the Lama Chod Pas and put them in the VAJRAGYAS TZAD NA. SHING RGYAS SNGAGS RGYAS, PHYI RGYAS RGYAS, RDUG GYI RTZA ZHIG.

Anyway. LUS KHAMS. Anyway. LAM MA CHOD PAS RDZOGS SHING We're going to use the central figure from the Lama Chod Pas here in our visualization.

GANG YIN TSE NA. He said TSE NA means let's do it that way. TSE NA means sort of being accommodating.

Okay, let's try that. TSE NA. RGA ZHIG GIS BYAS RIM PO CHE YIN ZER RGA ZHIG means some people.

ZER means ZER, not ser. Say ZER. ZER.

ZER. ZER. ZER.

ZER means gold. It was what the roots of the tree were made of was ZER. Now he's saying ZER.

RIM PO. They claim. Some people claim.

What? What do they claim? By the way, if you want a nice explanation of the use of ZER, go to the final chapter of the Abhidharma Kosha because he constantly uses ZER throughout the text.

Why? Why does the author of one of the five most famous books in Buddhism keep saying they claim? He doesn't believe it.

He's reporting when somebody else taught him, which he realized was wrong, and as an act of confession, he wrote down their system with a lot of ZERs in it. Okay, all right. ZER.

Some people say the central figure is J. Rinpoche. Who's J.

Rinpoche? J. Tsongkapa.

J. Tsongkapa. The founder of our lineage.

The teacher of the first Dalai Lama. RGA SHI GYIS RANG GI RTZA BA'I LAMA Some people claim it's your RTZA BA'I LAMA. Your root Lama.

Your heart Lama. Your heart teacher. Heart teacher doesn't have to be a Buddhist person.

Doesn't have to be a monk. Doesn't have to be gray-haired or no-haired. They could be your sister or your mother or your high school girlfriend.

Whoever strikes you as your life's teacher is your RTZA BA'I LAMA. RTZA BA'I LAMA. YIN ZER Some people say it's J.

Tsongkapa. Some people say it's your heart Lama. RGA SHI GYIS BYAS LAMA SPYOD PA BYA BA YIN ZER NA Some people say it's a Lama called J.

Lama SPYOD PA which means the Lama of the Lama SPYOD PA. The Lama of that ritual. YIN ZER BA NA MTSOGS MA NA MTSOGS MA means people say different stuff.

NA MTSOGS means different stuff. YANG KYANG but DIN NI but the central LAMA SPYOD PA'I TSOGS SHING GI RTZO the central figure in the LAMA SPYOD PA is none other than... Here we go.

Please repeat. Very important. Maybe the most important thing we do this ten days.

Say LAMA LOS SANG THUB BANG DOR BYAD CANG LAMA LOS SANG THUB BANG DOR BYAD CANG When am I supposed to stop? Wow, wow. It's 5.59. I'll say it's four different people in one. The central figure of this meditation is four different people combined into one. The first one is LAMA, your own heart LAMA. The second is LOS SANG, which refers to Tsongkhapa.

The third one is THUB BANG, Shakyamuni. The historical Buddha. I almost said hysterical, but he's never hysterical.

And DOR BYAD CANG, Vajradhara. When the Buddha teaches tantra, the secret teachings, he appears as a divine youth named Vajradhara in silk and jewels and long hair. And when the Buddha teaches the open teachings, he appears as a shaven-headed monk in traditional robes.

And LOS SANG is Tsongkhapa. And LAMA is your own LAMA, whether it's your mom or your favorite dog who changed your life. It doesn't matter.

So the central figure in this meditation is going to be the combination of those four people. And it's very profound. That's a lesson in itself.

And he's going to discuss it. He's going to spend a lot of time discussing it. And he's going to relate it to a step in the secret teachings called LUS BWEN.

LUS BWEN. Say LUS BWEN. Which I can't talk about, but I'll talk about it as much as he does because then it's not my fault.

The transcendent body. It's a step in the movement of prana within your body through practices such as yoga or working with a partner, which brings you to very high realizations. He's going to compare that.

He's going to tie that to why there's four people in one. So maybe you want to cook that until tomorrow. Why would that have any relevance?

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
All right then.