«Дар освобождения», курс 11 «Искусство ценить себя и свою жизнь», занятие 8

[Говорящий 1] (0:00 - 1:11:45)
So we've been going through the seven steps that prepare you for meditation. And I want to greet Anton also. Nice to have you here.

How to warm up for meditation. Like when you run a race, you got to warm up your legs. And when you meditate, you got to warm up your mind or you might bust a ligament up here, okay?

So there's a very beautiful tradition. And I can say, I can't say I practice everything very well, but I've done the seven steps for over 35 years before I meditate. And it's extremely pleasant.

It's very, very nice. So I encourage you to learn to do it. And then it becomes automatic, like brushing your teeth or something.

So I really encourage you to do it. It has a big effect on your meditation, but also on your general level of happiness because it's sak jang. Sak jang means, sak means in a few minutes, you collect a lot of powerful good karma.

And in a few minutes, you purify a lot of negative karma. The most important practice of the seven is learning to appreciate yourself and other people that you see doing nice things. So the most important part of the seven is the fourth, right?

Which is learning to appreciate the good things you're doing. And we mentioned that in many churches, for example, and I grew up in a church and I love the church. And I still go to church a lot.

But we grew up with confessionals, right? With little rooms that you go in and you confess the bad things you've done. But we don't have any concept of rejoicinals or appreciationals.

There's no little room where you go in and tell the priest all the nice things you've done for people today. And that's a kind of a reflection of general human culture that we tend to focus on the mistakes we've made or the problems we have. And we don't focus upon all the good things we've done to help others and the nice things in our life.

And no matter how you feel about yourself and no matter how much you beat yourself up about not being a perfect Buddhist, you are a pretty nice person. I can vouch for it, okay? Everybody here is pretty cool and you are doing amazing good things.

And what's amazing is that you don't think so. What's amazing is that you feel like you're not good enough or you're not doing very sweet things. And if you look, Pabongka Rinpoche said, if you look at your life carefully, sort of, what do you call it, objectively, you will discover that you are a very kind person, that you have intense longings to serve the world, to be a hero.

I am planning my trip to see Iron Man 3. So mercy, we got to be in Sedona by three. I found out today I have to be home by three, okay?

Good luck. I give her these headaches, impossible schedule things. And so I was like supposed to be resting in the green room, but actually I was checking out Iron Man preview.

What do you call it? Trailer, yeah, yeah, on my iPhone. I'm sneaking, I laid down under the window where nobody can see if they open, if they look in the window, they can't see me.

And I'm actually looking at my iPhone and check it out, check out the trailer. He goes, blah, blah, blah, blah. I got to save the world.

And he actually says it in the trailer. So every one of you has this deep-seated urge to help the whole world. Everyone here has that.

And you should celebrate it sometimes, okay? The evidence that you have it is that you are, according to Buddhism, if you're in a human body, under a blue sky, living in a comfortable country, surrounded by mostly law-abiding people who don't hurt each other, right? Then you must have done intense good karmas in your past life.

You are living in a time in history which is unequaled. No generation in the history of this planet for two million years of Homo sapiens has been able, for example, to communicate instantaneously with every other person on the planet for free, if you go to Starbucks. And you don't appreciate it.

You just think it's normal. You're flying in the sky in an iron chair. How many people were dreaming of flying in the sky?

How many people killed themselves putting wax and feathers on and trying to fly? They didn't know about steel chairs. And you're amazing.

Your life is a miracle already. So appreciate what you're doing. Appreciate who you are.

I had a board meeting with ACI Phoenix. They're all like, we don't do enough, Geshe-la. I said, I don't know.

You don't sleep. You work all day. You're serving all these people.

You want me to give you another job? You know what I mean? I got kind of irritated.

You don't get any sleep. You're working all day. You're serving other people.

And you need more? They want more. It feels like they're not enough, right?

But you are. So it's very important before you meditate that you appreciate yourself. And that's a very, it's an assignment that the lamas of the lineage have given us.

And you're supposed to honor it, right? And the best time to do it is before you go to bed, as you put your head on your pillow, review all the nice things you did for people today. That's all, very simple.

And the good things you saw other people do. And those seeds will grow, multiply in your mind. And your life will be happy, okay?

I'm telling you the secret to a happy life. Sleep a lot. And before you sleep, think about all the good things you're doing, unless you're on DCI team.

Okay. Okay. So we finished that, then we've gotten through, we're on the sixth of the meditation preparations.

Number one is, bow down to holy beings that you consider inspirational. Second, make them some kind of offering, even if it's only in your mind, because you're preparing for meditation, right? Number three is, clear your conscience.

If something's on your conscience, get it off, because it will block your meditation at a subtle level. Number four, appreciate yourself and appreciate other people. Number five, ask the holy beings of the universe to teach you.

Holy beings of the universe also include your irritating neighbor or co-worker. They will also teach you a lot. Number six, which is what we're on now, is asking your teacher and other Dharma friends to stick around, be close to you.

We are very weak creatures of habit. If we stay around negative people, we become negative. If you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas, ancient saying.

And people don't appreciate that. You think you are independent and you are strong and you're going to be yourself no matter who you're around. It's not true.

Whoever you're close to during the day, you will tend to imitate them unknowingly. If they are creepy, if they're unkind to people, if they gossip, if they're negative, slowly you will shift. Your personality will shift.

You can't help it. You're not aware of it. So consciously review your friends and your family.

Choose people who are beautiful, inspirational, kind, compassionate, and then try to be near them. And in the sixth of the seven meditation preparations, you formally, in your heart, before you meditate, you ask the good influences in your life to stick around and be close to you. And I said it before, but when my mom died, the night my mom died, I remember, I was in college and I came home and I was in a little tiny room on top of a three-story house.

And I remember there was a tree outside. It was winter in New Jersey. And the tree was hitting the window, the branch, and the wind was going crazy.

I heard Jimi Hendrix singing, Wind Cries Mary. And then I was thinking, I just lost the best influence in my life. I won't have this extraordinary person always affecting me now.

And then something other will take that place. Some other friend, other influences will take that place. And no one's that good, as good as she was.

She would leave the door open all day, all night. People would come in and sleep in our beds. They would eat stuff out of the refrigerator.

She never locked the door. When she got sick, hundreds of people showed up that we didn't even know. I slept in your bed one time.

Yeah, I was wondering who left the gun under the pillow. And now that happened one night. But I'll never find a person like that.

So you have to ask them, not the night after they die. You have to ask them before, please stay in my life. And even if it's, people do it with lamas, but you should do it with your mom and other good influences in your life.

Your good friends, kind friends, good influences. You should actively ask them, please stay in my life. I hope all of you will stay in my life because you keep me out of trouble.

Dhikap. You ready? Dhikap.

Mandala. There you go. Nice.

So we're going to return to the text. We're going to go straight from the text. I enjoy teaching direct from the text.

It's very beautiful. It's very powerful. It's the result of two and a half thousand years of development of these ideas.

Very, very incredible. Dhikap mandala tsom bu ngakod te, dorje chir mu. Dhikap means when you reach this part in preparing for your meditation.

By the way, when you get good at this, you got to keep it moving. The seven steps, you have to keep them moving. When you first start, you will stall on one and it'll be time to go to work and you didn't finish step number three.

So you got to get into a rhythm. And if something's not, the visualization is not going too good, just go to the next one. Otherwise you spend there all your meditation time.

They'll call you for the Olympic race and you're out stretching somewhere. So keep it, my advice, personal advice, keep it moving. If it doesn't come easily, just move on to the next one.

Dhikap mandala tsom bu ngak. You should imagine, you should prepare a mandala plate. Here it's called mandal.

And tsom bu ngak means put five piles of rice. Traditionally it was rose petals. It was flower petals.

They didn't use rice or things. So if you can, get a pizza plate and get a whole pile of rose petals. Nowadays we use rice or something and we do the mandala offering.

But if you ever have a chance and you have enough rose petals, it's awesome to do it on a huge platter and you make a huge mandala. We did it in New York, right? Were you a New York fan?

I think we did it in New York. Everybody got a garbage bag full of rose petals and we got pizza plates and it was awesome. We had to eat the pizza before.

Tsom bu ngak ko de. So put five piles, which is the four continents in the central mountain. Dorje chir mu means pretend it's a diamond throne, a throne made of pure diamond.

De yang sok shing gi tang tsam. You are, at this point, if you are doing the traditional preparation, you are visualizing every important lama in the last two and a half thousand years. That requires a high degree of concentration.

He says, if you're not up for that, if you're up for that, offer as many diamond thrones as there are people in your meditation. In our case, it might be friends who we're asking to stay in our lives or teachers we've had. I like to invite my elementary school teachers, except for Mrs. Butts in the fifth grade. That was the name her parents gave her, not me. But the rest of them are all on diamond thrones and I want them to stay. MA NUS NA THU'I GCIG BU If it's too much for you, just offer a single diamond throne.

SOGS SHING GI THIR KHRIMS PA'I DMOS PA BYA And then imagine that it includes all the thrones of all the other beings in your visualization. DMOS PA BYA CHUNG KHOR KHOR BA'I KHUL BA DANG BDIN GNYIS LA Very, very important step. And then we're going to move on to number seven.

We're really making good progress this week. We might finish the seven, okay? When we finish the seven, we will begin a thing called the Lam Rim, okay?

After three years, we'll be ready to start the steps of the path to enlightenment. So if you're interested, you should try to be here from now on because we're about to start the actual steps of the path to enlightenment. It's a step-by-step idiot's guide to enlightenment that works for everybody.

And I advise you to try to get it. Try to be there. If you can't be here, go online.

But it's not as powerful. It's okay. It's better than nothing, right?

But in Buddhism, we believe that human-to-human transmission is best, okay? MA NUS NANG PHRAD CIG PA BA SOGS SHING GI THIR KHRIMS PA'I DMOS PA BYA CHUNG KHOR KHOR BA'I KHUL BA DANG BDIN GNYIS LA When you do the part about asking your teachers to teach and asking them to stay in your life, GSHEL GYI GSHER PA means DMOS PA BYA. For each one of your teachers, you should imagine that they have, with great pleasure, said MA ZHAG.

Okay? They've said, okay, I'll teach and I'll stay. Okay, you have to really try hard to feel very happily.

They're so happy that you were smart enough to ask. And they're like, you want me to teach? Great.

You want me to stay? No problem. Like that, okay?

So you have to, before you wrap up step five and six, you have to think they agreed. They gave their promise. And I do too.

All right. Number seven. We're on class four now.

BDUN PA LONG BA YIN LAG NI So now we're on step number seven, which is called dedication. Dedication means by preparing for a meditation properly and by doing a meditation properly, you collect a lot of good karma. Now you have a lot of karmic seeds.

You can direct them to certain goals in your life. You can aim them, target them at certain goals in your life. And that's step number seven.

So NGO BA, say NGO BA. NGO BA That's called dedication. Directing the karma to a certain personal goal, or it could be peace in the world.

You choose. That's NGO BA. But it's important, right after you create the karma, to send it to a certain goal.

NGO BA All right, NGO BA YIN LAG NI, BYAS SU NGO BA BYAS PA DI GAL BYAS TE At the end of the seven, it's extremely important that we decide where we will dedicate the karma to. What goal do you want to send the karma to? DE DANG KUN LONG CHOS PA NYID LA If you remember, before the seven, we did KUN LONG CHOS PA.

We talked about KUN LONG CHOS PA a lot in the beginning of this course. That was at the beginning, and now we're at the wrap-up. What's KUN LONG CHOS PA?

Yeah, set your motivation. So as you're sitting down on your meditation seat, you should briefly renew your motivation. Why am I doing this meditation?

If you don't KUN LONG CHOS PA, you will quit after a while. You have to have a purpose in mind. When you sit down, it could be anything.

I want equality and prosperity for the wheelchair people, and I'm going to meditate. That's why I'm meditating. You can have a goal in your mind when you sit down.

But then when you finish, you also have to do it again. Send the karma to the wheelchair people or something for equality and prosperity. Like that, you decide.

But you have to do it at the beginning and you have to do it at the end. DKA' DAM LO SBYONG LAS You know LO SBYONG, right? Developing a good heart.

The teachings on developing a good heart. Generally from a thousand years ago in Tibet, some of the first teachings in Tibet. Nick and Johnny O are teaching some of them in their course.

They're very beautiful, intense, short, exquisite practices for developing a good heart. In the DKA' DAM LO SBYONG, this is of the early Tibetan Buddhists from a thousand years ago. It says, THOG MTHA GNYIS LA BYA BA GNYIS Say THOG MTHA GNYIS LA BYA BA GNYIS THOG means at the beginning of your meditation session.

MTHA means at the end of the preparation. LA BYA BA GNYIS You got two jobs. You got two jobs.

What? In the beginning, set your motivation. At the end of the preparation, send the karma.

LO BA can also be done after the whole meditation session is finished. You can do number seven. To call all seven the preparations for meditation is a little bit deceptive because it's really only six that you do before your meditation.

Then you do your meditation and then you get all the karma and you send it somewhere. NGOS MON NYID SNGA MA'I PHYI MAR KYAB This is a little bit tough. It's a very famous section of the Lamrim.

Say NGO BA, say MON LAM. NGO BA, MON LAM. MON LAM is the Tibetan word for prayer.

Here he just has SMON, that's MON. MON LAM means to make a prayer. It's like, I wish there was peace in the world.

That's called MON LAM. I wish there was peace in the world. I wish this friend of mine who just had an operation will have a successful and quick recovery.

Like that, you make a prayer. Or my friend who was hitting her boyfriend and broke her arm. No, I'm just kidding.

She just fell off her bike. That's the story. But I pray that my friend's arm heals quickly and nicely.

That's a MON LAM. Then we've been talking about NGO BA, which is sending the karma to a specific purpose. Then he's discussing which practice is more extensive, which one covers the other and goes even further.

What do you think? Dedication is bigger than prayer? Or prayer is bigger than dedication?

What do you think? He says, yeah, dedication covers prayer and goes further. Dedication is a prayer and there's more to it than just praying.

Praying is nice. Praying is good. I hope my friend's arm turns out nice.

But NGO BA is one step further. Why? NGO BA LA NGO BYED ZAD YOD NAS NGO BA DGOS You can't do a dedication of good karma unless you just did some good karma.

MON LAM is just a general good wishes. I hope my friend's okay. NGO BA is more specific.

We have just done some powerful karma and we're sending it to some goal. So all NGO BAs are MON LAMs, but not all MON LAMs are NGO BAs. All dedications are also prayers.

You always make a prayer and a dedication, but not all prayers are dedication because in dedication you have something to send. You have some good karma to direct to somebody. That's a famous distinction that's made in the Lam Rim.

DE YANG BLO BA'I SA BCAD GRUG NAS There are traditionally six points that Lamas discuss when they talk about how to send the karma to somebody or how to send the karma to some goal. There are six traditional points that Lamas talk about. Number one, GANG NGO BA NI DGE BRTZA You have to try to keep your mind on these six as you wrap up your meditation session.

This is happening during Shavasana. This is happening at the end of the meditation session. I'm talking metaphorically.

At the end of the meditation session, when you're relaxing, you do your dedication, but there are six things, a checklist. Like pilots, when they take off, before they take off, they go through a checklist. Here's your Shavasana checklist.

And you can also do it during Shavasana in a yoga session. You can dedicate your yoga session to some higher goal. Number one, GANG NGO BA NI DGE BRTZA Review what kind of good karma you just did.

What is it that you're going to send to a higher purpose? Like, okay, I just got tortured by Geshe Michael doing Bob Harper's Yoga for the Warrior to obscure 1960s rock songs. So I have some karma.

I got some karma here. Number two, GANG GI CHE DU NGO BA NI DGE BRTZA MI SRED PA'I CHE Why am I sending the karma away? You have to think about that.

Step two in dedication is, why am I sending the karma away? And he answers his own question and he says, DGE BRTZA MI SRED PA'I CHE DU So that that karma will last forever. So that that karma will last forever.

Karma kept in your karmic pocket will die. It will be used up and it will go away. Karma sent to a higher purpose will last forever.

Karma sent to your friend's arm or something, that karma will last forever. It will never wear out. To protect the karma, send it away.

Number three, GANG DU NGO BA NI LAM MED SROG CAN DUG DANG Ultimately, why are you sending away the karma? Because I want to become a person who can help the whole world. So number three could be what?

Iron Man thought. I would like to become someone. The reason I'm sending the karma away, ultimately, is that I would like to become someone who can take care of everybody in the world.

Number four, GANG GI DUN DU NGO BA NI For whose sake am I sending away this karma? To help whom am I sending away this karma? And the answer is, all living creatures.

All living creatures. From amoebas up to Neil Young, the highest evolutionary form. GANG GI DUN DU NGO BA NI SEMS CAN THAMS CAD KYI DUN DU For the sake of all living creatures.

Number five, GCOL JI LTAR NGO BA NI How should I send the karma? What kind of thoughts should I entertain in my mind as I send the karma off? And he says, he quotes the NGON RTOGS RGYEN.

What's NGON RTOGS RGYEN? Abhisamaya Alankara. Say Abhisamaya Alankara.

48 pages and it takes 12 years to finish. In the monasteries, the first 12 years of the Geshe course. Four pages a year.

And you're working 10, 12 hours a day on it. It's that intense. Who wrote it?

Maitreya. The next Buddha. The coming Buddha wrote it.

GCOL JI LTAR NGO BA NI RGYEN LAS So he quotes the Abhisamaya Alankara. It says, THAB DANG MI MIG PA BDAG GIS Through skillful means and through MI MIG PA MIG ME DE BA'I DE CAN CAN RE ZI What's that mean? Love with nothing it sees.

Love with nothing it sees. In yoga, what's it called? NIR ALAMBANA What's a NIR ALAMBANA SHIR SHASANA?

But NIR ALAMBANA, unsupported. Dharma Mitra. NIR ALAMBANA means no hands, no support.

ALAMBANA means support. NIR means none. We have to love NIR ALAMBANA.

What's that mean? You have to realize that the people you're saving are coming from you. The people that you are trying to save with all this meditation are coming from you.

Does that mean they don't exist? No. That's the only way they could exist.

Does that mean you're just living in your head and you are six billion different people? No. They are coming from you as people separate from yourself.

And that's real. They are really separate from yourself. They have separate lives, they have independent lives, they think, they eat, they poop, they do everything.

And that's not inside your head. But your perception of that is coming from you. How you see them is coming from you.

So never think that anyone you meet, uplifting, inspiring, or irritating, they're all coming from you. That's why you can help them. Because you change yourself and then they change to fit you.

Got it? That's the only way you could enlighten everybody anyway. So that's called, this is cool, Khor Sum Mi Mikpa, Khor Sum.

We had it this afternoon. The three elements in any action or the three components of any action. We were giving the example of, well, you can give the example of patience, right?

I meet a person who irritates me. I meet a person who irritates me. There's already three elements there.

I, the irritatee, a person, meet a person, the irritator, who irritates me. The fact that I bumped into them. The fact that our lives crossed this afternoon.

There are three things going on. They're there, I'm there, and our paths crossed, our lives crossed. And I created each one of those three.

Each one of those three is coming from me. That's called Niralambana. That's like not thinking that those things are coming from their own side.

They're coming from me. Where did this irritating person come from? The same place that every other irritating person you ever met came from.

Where? Your own mind. And your actions of last week.

It's coming from you. It's very sad, right? It's a very disturbing thought.

I mean, most irritating people, it's okay, but a few of them, there should be an exception. One or two, I can think of. So the people who irritate me are coming from me.

Who put me here? Who put me in their range to irritate? I did.

Who set up the meeting? Who arranged the meeting? I did.

I arranged the meeting. I arranged them to be there, and I arranged me to be here. And that's the khorasum.

He says, khorasum mi mekta sok tap she sung drel. Say tap she. Sung drel.

Tap means method, right? She means wisdom. Method means love.

Wisdom means understanding that they're coming from me. And every time I send karma to someone, I should think, I love them. I love you.

And I can help you because you're coming from me. I can make you a non-irritating person simply by not being irritating myself, which is the terrible curse put upon us. If you don't like anything in the world, stop doing it yourself.

Then you're like, dang. All right. She says sung drel means in tandem.

Sung drel means in tandem. You know sung juk. It's related, sung drel.

Sung drel kyi lu, loje dze la den shen kakpa You must stop your mind from believing that the things you are sending away, that the karma you are sending away came from itself. You must always understand that it's coming from you. The person you were nice to was coming from you.

The thing you did to them was coming from you. And the fact that you were there to do it was coming from you. Every good karma you ever send away is coming from your seeds.

And by sending it, you're just multiplying the seeds. Got it? So never think that they are coming from their own side.

If you have a question, make it loud so everybody can hear it. Go. He said, if you're sending karma to somebody, shouldn't you ask their permission first?

Or shouldn't you confirm that they want this karma landing on their head? You can generally... No, I don't think so.

It's like a secret good wishes. There is a thing in Buddhism where if you know someone's particularly irritated with you, you should not go offer them a coffee. Because you're just going to irritate them more.

I mean, be sensitive to the fact that some people don't want to see you. And that's okay. But this is like a secret gift.

You're like leaving a coffee on their desk five minutes before they get to work. They don't have to know it's from you. Like that.

That's okay. That doesn't hurt them. Okay.

So NGO BA'I RTZE LA, BRTAN SHING RGA TE NGOR Number six, right? We had five things to keep your mind on. They overkill.

In Buddhism we overkill. We have list after list after list. The point is, if I give you six things to remember, you might remember one.

And that's okay. That's okay. Do a meditation on three ways of appreciating yourself.

Proof that you must have been good in the past. You are healthy right now. You must have served thousands of people.

The things that you remember doing good. The goodness that's going to come. Because you did good, it's going to become a habit.

There are many divisions of appreciating yourself. The reason they give you six divisions or whatever is so that you at least remember to appreciate yourself. There were six ways I was supposed to appreciate myself.

I can't remember any of them. But you already talked about appreciating yourself. You see what I mean?

It's a trick. It's all a trick. NGO BA'I RTZE LA NI DE TZAM NI SRED PA'I BRTAN PA'I SEMS PA'I DGE BA RDZOGS CANG GI RGYUR RGYUR BA'I SEMS PA ZHIG LA BCAD PA'I NGO BA'I RTZE LA NI NGO BA'I RTZE LA By the way, those of you learning Tibetan, say NGO BA.

NGO BA NGO BA NGO BA So in Tibetan, the tone with which you say it changes the meaning. NGO BA means to send away good karma. NGO BO, low tone, means the essence.

So he's playing with you. He wants you to learn tones in Tibetan. NGO BA'I NGO Say NGO BA'I NGO NGO BA'I NGO NGO NGO NGO NGO NGO NGO means the essence of...

What is the essence of dedication? DGE MTSA'I MI SRED PA'I DUN PA'I SEMS PA'I DGE BA Here's the definition of dedicating your karma. It's like a definition.

DGE MTSA'I MI SRED PA'I DUN PA'I With the desire that your good karma should never end, but should float around the universe forever. With that desire in your heart, DGE BA RDZOGS CANG GI RGYUR BA'I SEMS PA ZHIG Think about how you would like this karma to cause you to become someone who could help people on countless worlds. Ultimately, this karma should create an angel who can serve people on countless planets.

And you should have that in your heart. That's the essence of dedication. Ultimately, that's the purpose of dedication.

Does that mean you can't send your karma to your credit cards? Huh? No, it absolutely means you can send your karma to your credit cards.

If you can become successful in this life by observing the laws of karma, people will copy you. What are you doing? What's your secret?

And then you will tell them. And then they will try and it will spread. And that's bodhicitta.

And ultimately, you will become a Buddha and they will become a Buddha because you got rid of your credit card debt using these ideas. Got it? It's not contradictory that you are happy in this life and in the next one too.

It's okay. You can be an ultimately blissful paradise being and pay off your credit cards also. It's not a problem.

Don't think there's some problem there. Do Buddhists pay off their credit cards? Yes.

They pick credit card money from the sky and send it to the credit card company. It's called namkazu, the treasury of the sky. They don't even do the e-payment.

They just go like this and it's paid. You see what I mean? Really.

So don't limit yourself. Don't say those are worldly goals or something. That's so dumb.

There's no paradise, Buddha paradise, where there are credit card debts also. So get comfortable with that idea. You're going to be completely happy in every possible form.

I hope it doesn't make you uncomfortable. DGE BA RDZOGS CANG GI RGYUR GYUR PA'I SEMPAD ZHIG LA BCAD PA'I YIN DE NA MNGON NAM DI RTOGS SHIN DU BYAS BA NI Therefore, make your prayers, what do you call it? Say nam kha pang.

Nam kha pang. In Tibet there's an expression. Nam kha pang means jump across the sky.

Jump across the sky. We went to ballet class in Paris. It was worse than Anton's class.

I mean harder, if there is such a thing. At the end they said, okay, let's do jumps, which I hate. I'm doing these three-inch jumps off the floor and the teacher's like, no, no, you must jump higher.

Then when he turns around I just stop jumping. But in Tibet they say, don't think small. Don't do three-inch jumps.

If you're going to jump, jump from Kansas to California. Don't be a wimp. So here, MNGON NAM DI RTOGS SHIN DU BYAS BA NI If you're going to make a prayer, go for big time.

Make it big. BAR NA DON PAS MNGON NAM GYI THU LAS I'd like to have something to fidget with. Can you listen?

No. BAR NA DON PAS MNGON NAM GYI THU THU is an interesting word. If you're going to learn Tibetan, THU is a nice word.

M-T-H-U. Where is that? There we go.

Without the M it's a kind of cheese, so we're not talking about that. THU means mystical power. THU means mystical power.

THU RGYAL means to curse someone, to do voodoo on somebody. It's called THU RGYAL with a doll and everything. This THU by itself means holy mystical power.

It's different than DBANG. DBANG means power, right? But THU means mysterious, mystical, cool power.

It's a nice word. I like the word. So the Buddha, before he became a Buddha, did MNGON NAM.

Do you remember? Je Tsongkapa did the same thing. He offered a rosary to another Buddha.

Our Buddha offered a simple little rosary to a previous Buddha. And he did other things like that. But during that time he said, I don't want to just be a nice person or I don't want to just be happy myself or something like that.

I want a whole planet. He's a kid. He was a child.

And he was offering a rosary to a Buddha. And he made a prayer. When he let go of the rosary and the Buddha took it, our Buddha said, I want a whole planet.

I want to take care of a whole planet. Not just a few people. Not just a couple of families.

I'm going for a whole planet. I want to be a Buddha on a whole planet. He's a little kid.

He's like seven years old. And he made this prayer. In a past life.

DGE BA SMON LAM GYI MTHU LAS And because of the two of that prayer, because of the mystical power of that prayer, DA LTA RANG CAG GCOD KYI MI PHUNG PA Because of the power of his prayer, DA LTA means in modern times, in our times. RANG CAG means you and me. GCOD KYI MI PHUNG PA means we are not Dharma poor.

We are not Dharma poor. We are rich in the Dharma. In this world, there are thousands of Buddhist books.

There are thousands of teachings by Lord Buddha still exist after all the wars and political changes and revolutions and violence. 4,600 books still remain from India. 900 of them taught by Lord Buddha himself.

We still have. Thousands have been lost. But we are rich in the Dharma.

We're trying to catalog them. Me and Jigme spend many hours trying to catalog their names. Just the names.

Much less read them or study them. We spend five, six years just cataloging their names. Translating the names of those books.

We are rich in the Dharma. Why? Because when that little guy handed that rosary to a Buddha in his past life, he said, I want a planet.

I want to be Iron Man of the whole planet. I want to be Superman who takes care of the whole planet. He made that specific prayer.

So you should do the same. When you're sending away the karma, after you do your meditation, don't think small. Don't think, oh, I want my boss to be nicer to me.

If you get the whole planet, your boss will also be nice. So go for the planet. In DCI, the programs we do, we were talking in the car that it was one of the most moving moments in my life.

I was talking to Christine Walsh. We were saying it was one of the most moving moments in our life when we're sitting in Guadalajara due to the incredible team there. And we get to see former Communist Party members of China up there crying, singing songs with Mexicans and Bulgarians and French and Israelis and Germans and Americans.

It was intense. It was really intense to do flamenco with Communist Party ladies. That's our first trip out of China.

We're doing flamenco together and the Bulgarians are like, Da, eto horosho! And the Chinese are like, Kwai le, kwai le! It was like the United Nations, but a real United Nations.

It was awesome. It was like a big moment in my life, in everybody's life. So don't go for some small goal.

Go for something big and it's within your reach. It's not impossible. It's not out of the question.

These ideas are spreading to all the countries. It's very weird. It's supernatural.

Somebody must be praying big time. Okay. I think that's good.

I think we have about 25 minutes left. John Foley gave me a fortune cookie. This seems to be significant for our future together.

Let's see what it says. Next week at this time, something good is coming your way. Saturday night.

I have to remember. Send me a... Yeah.

Thank you for asking. Here we go. ,GZHA RIG POS ZHIG RAB CHEN, ,GYIS CHOG TU GYUR PA YANG, ,RUNG MUN SOGS KYI MTHIL YIN, I didn't have time to tell you honestly to research all the rest of this, tonight's talk.

So I'm just reading the text and if I get some extra time, which never happens, I will go back and research all the stories for you. But we'll just read the text. ,GZHA RIG POS is a Shariputra.

You know him from the Heart Sutra, right? He does the talking in the Heart Sutra. Or does he?

,ZHIG RAB CHEN GYI CHOG TU GYUR PA, He was known to be extremely good in his understanding of emptiness. ,GYUR PA YANG, ,RUNG MUN SOGS KYI MTHIL YIN, ,CHOG TU GYUR PA YIN, Here the TU has an S on it, which means by that mystic power or through that mystic power. So he made special dedications of karma and he made special prayers.

And because of that, he was born as a disciple of the Buddha who had a high degree of Dharma intelligence, understood emptiness quickly. I don't know the full story. I'll look it up for you.

,SKYE BA LTA DANG, ,MAN LAN SAB DANG, ,DRA TSUL DANG, So if you think about it, the good deeds you are doing are like a horse and then your prayers are like the saddle or the, what do you call it, stirrups that direct the horse. So it's not enough to do good karma. You have to water it and you have to direct it.

How do you water it? You be happy about it. You appreciate yourself.

Many, many, many people around the world, they come to our DCI programs, thousands. I think last year 10,000 people came to our programs. We don't have time to go back but every year or 14 months.

Right now we're about 14 months, something like that. We can't go back to a certain city for 14 months. We're just too busy.

So it's kind of a good schedule because when I go back, they should have had some change in their life if they were doing everything right. And there's two categories of people. Guess what they are.

Well, there's three. There's some that don't show up again. I don't know what they're up to.

There's some who come and tell me wonderful stories. And I could tell you like 10 stories tonight. Weird success stories of husbands who were created and riches that were gained and health problems.

Or babies. Somebody wanted a male baby by November and they got it. Just like that.

And then there's people who didn't do anything. Nothing happened. They come to me and they say, they say, oh, you were here 14 months ago.

I say, yeah. And I say, how are you doing? They say, same, just the same.

Then they asked me, what should I do? And I said, I don't remember. What did I tell you last year to do?

And they say, oh, you told me I should put my head on the pillow and think about my good deeds and then that would make them more powerful and that's like watering them. And then I'll say, well, did you do it? And they say, no.

But what do you think I should do? I'm going to hire a bouncer. I had this guy in New York, right?

I'm thinking of hiring him just to come around with me and I'll just go like that. Take this person, pick them up like an MMA fight. Pick them up, take them to the door and throw them out the door.

It's so frustrating. Nyingbo says I shouldn't do that. Nyingbo says, Geshe-la, just get one of those little tape recorders and put it in that...

We have a pocket that Lord Buddha designed here. He says, put one in that pocket. And when they come and ask you what to do this year, just play back what you said last year.

And then indefinitely, every year, you can just play the tape again and again. So don't be like that, okay? You need to water your karmas.

It's not enough to be a good person. You must, before you go to bed, think about the good things that you've been doing or this system will not work for you. And I will have to call the bouncer.

And don't frustrate me and don't frustrate yourself. If you want this to work for you, the most important thing you have to do is appreciate yourself and the nice things you are doing. And if you don't, then just leave me alone.

Stop torturing me. Every dream you have will come true if when you put your head down on your pillow, you think about the good things you're doing. That's all.

Period. End of story. NGOS NGAN GYI CHOG TU YIN DER MA ZAD PA'I NA RGYUR ZER NGOS LTA BU LHA GUR GZHANGS SAM NUS DU CHOS SO BA'I BYAS LAS LA RAG LAS PA LTAR Not only that, but when you have a lump of gold or you have a bar of silver and you wish to make an image, a Buddha image from that, or if you have a pile of beads, weechel beads, it's like the most extraordinary Buddha that I've ever seen.

I keep it in my bedroom and we've been talking a lot. It's very beautiful. Then I just wonder who thought of doing that?

Who thought of the design on the back especially? It's different. Each side is different.

Anyway, gold or silver is like the raw material, but it depends upon an artist. There must be an artist. Your prayers and your dedication are the artist.

Your good karmas are the silver and the gold. It's not enough to have silver and gold. Someone must craft it into an image that you will become.

You need that. Which are your intentions. What are you going to do with your gold and your silver?

Then you have to shape it with your intentions. What do you want? Something big.

I want to plant it. I also want to plant it. GOS ZHING SEMS DGE BAR YANG BRAL BU CHOG MED GANG TU RGYUR NGO MON LA RAG LAS TE Then how your good karmas are shaped in the end depends upon your intentions, your dedication at the end.

Then he tells a kind of a sad story. BYAMS SE LAS GRUB PAR SKYE BA LEN PA'I RGYU In past times, there was a person who had done many good karmas in this life. They were going to take birth as a brahmin.

It's called a brahmin of the six deeds. A brahmin of the six deeds. I have to look them up.

I don't remember what it is. A special kind of brahmin, high priest. In India, that's the best birth you can take.

It's like being, I don't know, a levy or a current in Judaism. It's like they were the ruling class, like brahmins were the ruling class. BYAMS SE LAS GRUB PAR SKYE BA LEN PA'I RGYU He was supposed to take birth as a special kind of brahmin and something happened.

This story always bothered me, but we have to think about it. On his deathbed, he looked out the window and he saw an elephant walking by. And he admired it.

And then when he died, he was born as an elephant. He was born a special elephant. There's a mythical elephant, which is the elephant upon which the Hindu deity Shaka rides.

That elephant can carry as much as an 18-wheeler truck. Okay, Daniel? You don't need trucks.

You can just get elephants like that. They're kind of slow though. RGYAL CHEN GYI GZHAN PA'I LANG CHEN SA LA RAB BSTAN His name was Sa La Rab Bstan, which means incredibly firm on the earth.

SKYE BA LTA BU YIN And he was born as this elephant. What it means is, a passing thought at the moment of death can shape your karmas into something weird and useless. And you shouldn't let your other good karmas get treated that way.

You should consciously shape your good karmic seeds into the goals you have in mind. And if you don't, something weird might happen. If you just leave it to good luck or what you might feel like at that moment, you could end up as a big elephant.

Something like that. It means become a master of your own fate and be more conscious about how you shape where your karmas are going to. Direct them or send them to certain goals that you have in your life.

And don't leave it to chance. And don't leave it to good luck. Take control of where your karmas go.

MIN LAM RANG LAS TE SA LA RAB BSTAN KHO BA KYANG, PHYI BA, BYUNG ROL SKABS NAS, BRTAN PAR RIN CHEN CHAL GYI MA RGAS PA This is a prayer, famous prayer. I'll give you the whole prayer tomorrow, or you want it now? Nah, tomorrow.

It's a common child's prayer, like, now I lay me down to sleep. It's a child's prayer in Tibet. But it's like, may I become a Buddha and may I help everybody.

You know, like that. It's a common child's prayer in Tibet. KHO BA KYANG NGAR People like you and me, who's Pabongka Rinpoche talking to?

A couple of thousand Buddhist monks. People like you and me. PHYI BA, BYUNG ROL SKABS NAS When we were small children, we said that prayer, may I help all countries.

May I bring the Dharma to countries which haven't got it. Like, it's a specific prayer. ZHES SOGS KYIS MIN LAM ZHAG LTAG PA'I Because our parents made us say this ridiculous little prayer over and over again, THA LTAG PA CHEN YIN SEMS PA MED PAS BRAL BA CHEN Because of that prayer, now we are some of the few people in the world who can sit in Dharma teachings almost all the time.

Because when we were little kids, we said, may I bring the teachings to the places that don't have them. Like, it's just a child's prayer. But Pabongka Rinpoche is crediting that prayer with all the monks in the audience being able to hear the Dharma so constantly.

Then he says the funniest thing. It's so funny. You can see it up there.

DE'I TSE Do you have DE'I TSE? DE'I TSE, DBANG MED RGYUD ZHUGS DU GRUB PA'I TSE GCIG BYAS KYIS MIN LAM LA MA LTAG PA'I PHANG Let me get this straight because it's really funny. It's a shame that as little kids praying at the side of our beds, our parents didn't teach us rather to pray that we could be born in a quiet little corner somewhere in the wilderness where we could do some serious practice.

I think he's criticizing the... The Grubpa monasteries are very chaotic. Those of you who have gone, it's not like they sit around like this all day.

It's very busy. It's very demanding. It's very stressful.

There's a high level of anxiety and stress there because it's so difficult and it's so packed. The debating is very stressful. You are attacking people for three, four hours at a time and they're attacking you.

You're learning to strengthen your mind and your body and your wisdom in the face of extreme challenges. Those who survive become really great teachers, but many people don't survive that process. It's very stressful at the monastery.

So he's saying, I wish my parents had taught me some prayer about being born in a place where I could just do some quiet practice in a quiet corner of the wilderness or something like that. It's a very funny joke in Tibetan. MAN NAM YANG TSE NI DE'I KYIS BYAS RUNG MI NGO NGO MA BYAS NA GONG DU SBYONG DRO BA YIN Okay, we have eight minutes.

It's a good chance to discuss one of the main benefits of sending your karma away. Here it goes. MAN NAM YANG One more thing about that prayer thing and that dedication thing.

TSE NI DE'I KYIS BYAS RUNG MI NGO Don't waste your intentions on I hope I get a Mercedes Benz or I hope they play songs on the radio all from 1968 or something like that. Don't... Okay, that's a big prayer.

Brooks is saying that's a major prayer. I think it is. Then he says, then he gets into a very serious subject.

I think we can finish it before our little book party. You don't have to stay for the book party. We're just going to stand around and drink grape juice.

But it's kind of fun. And we're not going to do anything actually. Every time we plan something, it doesn't work out.

So this time we're trying just not to plan anything. Buddhists are not very good at parties. I don't know what it is.

NGO BAR MA BYAS NA GONG DRO SBYONG DRO YIN If you don't immediately send your good karmas... How did you make good karma in this case? You just finished the meditation session.

And before that you did the first six steps. So if you don't immediately give that karma away, it can be destroyed. It can be destroyed.

If you leave it undedicated in your mind, it can be destroyed. How? GONG KHRUL By anger.

Any intense feelings of anger have a special ability to destroy all good karma. Good karma left in your own mental stream is vulnerable to being destroyed. If you send it away to some higher purpose or to some other person, it's protected.

It's safeguarded. This is a very famous principle of Buddhism. CUN GYUG Then he quotes CUN GYUG.

What's CUN GYUG? The Bodhisattva's Way of Life. Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life written by Master Shantideva.

Then there's a verse he quotes from Master Shantideva. RGYAL PA STONG DU SOGS PA'I JIN DANG DE SHES SPYOD LA SOGS NA'I PHYIR GANG YONGS DE KUN KHYAM KHO NUS GCIG GI SBYONG BA BYAS You can do good deeds for a RGYAL PA. These are millions of years.

You can be generous. You can make offerings to the Buddhas, etc. You take all those good karmas that you may have done in that amount of time and they can be destroyed by a single instance of severe anger.

By a single incident of severe anger you can destroy millions of years of good deeds. By the way, that's an exaggeration. Not exactly.

But it has to be anger towards a high level bodhisattva or something like that. Just so you know, don't freak out. But still it's better to bank it, right?

Put it in the bank. I like to call it putting it in the bank. The best way to put your money in the bank is to give it to somebody else that you protect.

I had this guy in... I told this story that John Esposito was our CFO in our diamond company. And every six months he had to write a check for most of my profits went to the refugees.

And then one day he sat me down and he said, you know, Mike, I have to talk to you. And I'm like, okay. And he said, you know, I like you.

And I said, I like you too. And he said, you know, this charity thing, it's very noble and I appreciate it and I like to give money to my church. He was Catholic.

And I said, I also like to give money to the church. But look, you're not going to be here forever. And you got to put some money away for yourself.

You got to... We got 401K program and we got these other retirement programs. You got to put something away.

You got to invest something or you won't have anything when you get older, when you leave the company. And I said, I am investing it. I am putting it in the bank.

And we had this long talk about it. It was very nice. To put your 401K money into projects which are virtuous, that's a real retirement plan.

That's the retirement plan, if you want to know. Give it to someone who really needs it and don't hold it. Give it to someone.

And that's banking it. Because money you put into stocks or 401K or property, that can be destroyed. And that can disappear in a week.

But money which you offer to some holy project like the Wee Chul Solar Project, that money is safe. That money has been put in a safe place and it will come back to you with interest. It's very cool.

If you know that, you can feel, what do you call it? Security? A sense of security?

I'm not worried about my future. I will always have enough money because I keep giving it away. I keep putting it in the bank of people.

The bank of people. So anyway, this says, be careful with your good karmas. Bank them.

What? Send them to somebody else. Then he quotes, jukpa.

What's jukpa? Entering what? Middle way.

Okay, jukpa means entering. What is it in Yiddish? Juk.

Roach. Okay. That was my nickname in the dharma.

Hey, juk. ,GAL PO MTHONG GI DGE TSAR BYAMS PA DANG, Then he quotes Chandrakirti's root text and says, you can destroy a thousand eons of good karma by anger, with anger. Then he quotes another.

He quotes again. I'm sorry. That quotation was from Shantideva again.

This quotation is from Madhyamaka Avatar. ,GANG PHYIR RGYAL ZAD NAM MA SPROD PA YID, ,BYIN DANG PHYIM CHUNG DGE BA RGYAL PA RGYAL, ,SAGS PA SKAD CIG GIS BYAMS TE'I PHYIR, ,MI GZIN LAS GZHAN GDIGS PA YOD MA YIN, There is no negative deed which is more serious than losing your temper. There is no negative karma which is more serious than losing your temper.

Why? If the person you lose your temper at happens to be a bodhisattva. But we're safe, right?

We know that. We never get angry at bodhisattvas. Just regular people.

Right? I don't get angry at bodhisattvas. I just don't have a lot of bodhisattvas in my life.

Just regular people. My friends. Right?

,BYIN DANG PHYIM CHUNG DGE BA RGYAL PA RGYAL, Whatever goodness you've done through acts of generosity or keeping your morality for a hundred eons, ,SAGS PA SKAD CIG BYAMS PA DE'I PHYIR, whatever karma you accumulated is destroyed in a single instant of anger at a person who happens to be a bodhisattva, even if you didn't know they were. Because you usually don't know. They don't get certified.

They don't wear little name tags, you know, bodhisattva certified level two. You never know who's who. You never know.

We just don't know. So to be safe we should not get angry at anybody. Before that we should send our karma somewhere safe.

Invest it somewhere. Then if then if like Shrey or Summer turns out to be a bodhisattva, we're safe. Okay.

,ZHES RGYAL PA RGYAL SAGS PA'I RGYAL PA RGYAL PA GSUM PA, ,KHOR DU CHE KHYEN DANG BYA YOD NI, ,RTOG PA THO MEN GYI BSKYED PAR GYI RGYAL PA RGYAL DANG, ,RTOG NA RGYAL SAGS BYAMS PA STE, Then how much good karma is destroyed depends on the relative spiritual level of the person who's being angry and the person they're being angry at. So there are degrees depending on the spiritual level of the person you get angry at. And we never know.

We never know. It's possible that if a person loved you enough they would pretend to be born into your family and they would live with you for 50 or 60, 70 years so that on one occasion for five minutes they could really help you advance in your spiritual life. It's not at all a bad idea.

A bodhisattva doesn't have trouble with the idea of pretending to be a normal brother or sister or father or mother or child of yours or dog for 70 years if they can get five minutes to affect you. So, yeah. Okay.

On that note. Okay, Aura. I always tell her there are only 20 years left to go.

But then I think of Mrs. Hancock. Well, I mean people I know who have children who are 60 years old and they're still getting headaches from them. So, anyway.

That was nice. Ram. Mr. Ram.

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