«Дар освобождения», курс 14 «Красота учителя», занятие 4

[Говорящий 1] (0:00 - 0:34)
Let's do questions. Any questions? It doesn't have to be relevant.

It can be unconnected to anything. The record, by the way, for spilling cups in a teaching is twelve in one day. The record for spilling cups in a teaching is twelve in one day.

[Говорящий 2] (0:35 - 0:35)
Twelve.

[Говорящий 1] (0:36 - 0:48)
In Michael Wick's house in New York City. In Michael Wooden's house in New York. The day before he kicked us out.

The day... The day just before he kicked us out of his house.

[Говорящий 2] (0:49 - 1:14)
Thank you very much, Geshe Michael. Actually, I bring this question from my friend in China. She has a question with her teacher.

She said, all of a sudden she found her teacher changes. So, he is doing something or saying something against his teaching before and also against Dharma. Then how should she cheat her teacher?

[Говорящий 1] (1:15 - 14:36)
She is asking the question that a friend in China asked her to do. She saw her teacher behaving against what her teacher taught her, doing things against Dharma, that is, behaving not virtuously. So, how should she relate to this?

How should she react to this? So, this is a very common question. We go to a teacher.

We check them out carefully. Slowly. Investigate their life.

Then we feel comfortable. And the teaching seems good. And then we make a commitment to this teacher.

Then, later something happens. They change. They used to have good behavior, now they are doing some bad behavior.

Something like that. Or they used to teach certain things and then suddenly they change and they start teaching something against that. Then what should we do?

Two answers, okay? Number one. It's always good to remember the...

for no reason at all. Okay. It's good to remember that the person is changing because you changed, not because they changed.

The karma to have a teacher is the most expensive karma. Every day you spend with them. It's like when you meet them you have a debit card.

Every hour you are with them you are burning up a lot of good karma. It's karmically the most expensive thing in the world. Like, you can buy a jaguar or you can be with a llama.

Karmically, karmically it's the most expensive thing in the world. You can buy a jaguar or you can be with a llama. It's the most expensive karma.

So just to stay with them for one hour, you use a lot of karma. We had a nice teacher from China came to our university in Arizona. Then we wanted to make him happy.

So all of us, we bought many nice gifts for the teacher. Then he came. Then we offered him all the gifts.

He said, no, no, I don't want, I don't want, I don't want. Why? Don't give me a gift.

Why? Use up too much karma. Why?

So a teacher is like that. Very expensive. And it's easy to use up that karma.

Oftentimes the student will just lose interest in the Dharma. Slowly. Like, first they miss one teaching, then they miss two teachings, then they miss all the teachings.

I would rather watch videos or something. Then they just disappear. In that case the teacher didn't change.

The student's karma finished. Then they say, why am I wasting my annual vacation to go to Guadalajara? Mexico is okay, but Cancun is better.

Then the mind changes. So this is just karma. This is just karma.

But sometimes the change is bigger than that. We see the teacher themselves changes. So I think the first answer is understand that the change is coming from you.

And you should work on making new seeds for teacher. But in the meantime, if the teacher is doing something wrong, or teaching something wrong, then we can excuse ourselves. We can say, I'm sorry, I cannot come to the teaching.

But be very respectful. So how you excuse yourself, you say, I cannot come to the teaching. It should never be angry.

You should never say bad things about them. There's a tantric vow. You have to tell your teacher why you are leaving.

And you must be respectful. And in your mind you must respect them. So it should be something like, I believe you are a Buddha.

But right now what you are doing is not what a Buddha would do. And probably you have some special reason for that. Because you are a Buddha.

But I cannot support what you are doing. I cannot be part of that. So respectfully, until I understand more, I cannot come.

I love you, and if you need something I can always take care of you. But I feel like I cannot stay. So that's a proper thing to do.

To criticize them is very bad karma. You can say, I cannot support this activity. We call it gongpa shu.

Gongpa shu means take your respectful leave. Leave respectfully. And that's okay.

No anger. No judgment. There's a very famous story in the Lam Rim.

Maybe we will reach it some year. There are three students of a big Lama. Then the Lama called them to his room.

And he said, okay, today there's no class. Then the student, usually when they cancel the class, you have two feelings in your heart. One side you are sorry.

Oh, I have bad karma. I missed the class today. The other side you are happy.

Maybe my bottom and my knees will feel better after that. So, you know, like the teacher, he said, today we cancel the class. But you cannot go home.

I have special job for you. Then they say, what's the job? I need some money.

I want you to rob a bank. Go to a bank and rob the bank. Then two of them are a little bit stupid.

They are like, yes Lama, yes Lama. Whatever Lama say, we don't think about it. We just do it.

Whatever Lama say, we will do. If Lama say to kill their mother, probably they will do it also. It means that student is a little bit stupid.

We call them DEPES BYED DANG. DEPES BYED DANG means they are just following from faith and not from understanding. So they left and they went to rob the bank.

And the third student stayed. He is called RIN PAS BYED DANG. RIN PAS BYED DANG means doesn't follow faith, follows understanding.

This is considered a more intelligent student. And he said, I love you. You are my teacher.

I respect you. I serve you. But I don't believe you really want me to rob a bank.

Because it's wrong. It hurts people. So with respect, I apologize.

Maybe I don't understand everything. But I cannot rob a bank today. But still I love you and I respect you.

Then the Lama is like, Yay! You are the only one that did what I want. So if the teacher is doing something wrong, or the teacher ask you to do something wrong, make them happy.

And refuse respectfully. Okay? It's difficult.

It's a difficult position. When the teacher puts you in that position, it's very difficult. You are like, Should I rob the bank?

I'm not doing rob the bank. They went to rob the bank. I did not rob the bank.

Did I do the right thing? Then it's a difficult position. When the teacher put you in that position, it's very difficult.

But obviously that also becomes a teaching. Okay? Alright.

Bottom line. Conclusion. Leave respectfully.

And always think, still think maybe they are Buddha. Maybe tomorrow that bank is going to loan money to the mafia to kill thirty people. It's possible.

So always think it's possible. Then you don't make a bad karma. Okay.

Other question? Jane, in the back.

[Говорящий 2] (14:37 - 15:00)
Is there a mic? Thank you. Geshe-la, I was wondering if you could talk about collective karma or like karma of countries or groups of people.

Is there such a thing and how is that created and how do you resolve it if that's a negative karma as an individual?

[Говорящий 1] (15:16 - 51:36)
So this is a frequent question and I usually give the same answer. So if you heard this answer before, you can take a nap, a little nap. So is it possible for people to collect karma together?

So the question, usually we start the question, we ask is it possible to collect karma for somebody else? My friend doesn't have money. Is it possible for me to help someone else make money?

I plant money seed in my mind. Then can I just give them to Alejandro? Then the answer is not, completely not possible.

That's connected to a deeper question. I'll tell you half the question then you have half the question. You have to chew on it.

You like Geronimo or Katie, you are not a person. You are a bunch of seeds going off. When those seeds go off they cause more seeds.

A bunch of seeds go off at four o'clock and they cause a bunch of other seeds to go off at four, ten after four and those cause seeds to go off at fifteen after four. There's no Geronimo, there's no Katie. You are seeds going off and that's all you are.

Therefore you cannot give seeds to another person. You have to think about it. And that's a long teaching, but if you think about it you can figure it out.

But is it possible to make karma in a group? And we say what? Yes.

For example, right now you are sitting in a teaching. You spend a lot of money and you spend a lot of your time and it was difficult to come here. You spent a lot of money and a lot of your time and it was difficult to come here.

And in your mind you have a reason why you came here. But together we are talking about the most important things in the world and maybe very few people in the world right now are having this conversation. Together So together we are making a group karma.

And later maybe in another lifetime we will be together because we talked about important things like stopping death. In the future we will be together again and someone will teach us. So there is a group karma.

You want to go deeper? Okay. Alright.

But each person in the group in that future meeting will experience that future teaching in a different way. Some people will be bored. Some people will be excited.

Some people will learn everything. Some people will learn nothing. That depends on your motivation right now.

So there are almost like 200 different motivations in this room. Although we are collecting the karma together. So in that future time when we meet again in different bodies we will all have a different experience of that class.

But we will all experience a class. Okay? So you're supposed to be thinking in your mind right now what?

Yeah, when was the last class? Okay. Why did some of us have to be born in China and some of us have to be born in New York and some of us have to be born in Guadalajara?

What happened? Why did it take us 30, 40, 50 years to come back together again? You have to worry about that.

Then we used to have a project in you say agua? Agua Prieta? Agua Prieta.

Agua Prieta. We used to have a project. Sonora.

Some charity came to me, they said we are doing work in Agua Prieta. Agua Prieta is a very poor Mexican town next to Douglas, Arizona. It's across the border.

Can you help us? We need jobs for young people. So we said, yeah, we will help you.

That was a very interesting project. We took computers there. We taught those Mexican kids to read Tibetan.

And they were typing Tibetan in the ACIP project. Then some gang came and took all the computers. And we have to stop the project.

Then one day I was walking across the border. You have to show all your papers and you walk across the border. So I was thinking, maybe it's cool to have one foot in America and one foot in Mexico.

Let me see how it feels. So I turned sideways. What's that pose called?

Like wide leg pose and you try to hold both your toes. You spread your legs. I'll look it up.

Anyway, so I did that pose. Spread my legs wide. Left leg is in Mexico, right leg is in America.

Then I tried to see, does it feel different? Nope. Feels the same.

Then I said, where is the border? Exactly where is the border? Then I'm looking, there's no line.

Then I had a very strong feeling, human beings made this line. There's no line in the dirt there. This is all imaginary line.

Just made by people's mind. The line is imaginary. It doesn't mean anything.

But on the left side, in Agua Prieta, many people don't have enough food. On the right side, many people are killing themselves by eating too much food. It feels so strange to me.

These people have too much food. These people, some of them don't have enough food. Then obviously something came in my mind.

What is that? How come they don't give the extra food to those guys? I mean, it's karma.

It's karma. Who created the border? Karma.

The people on the right side, in the past, many of them gave food to other people. So they have a lot of extra food. Probably they also hurt other people.

So that food is killing them. Seventy-five percent of Americans are so fat they are killing themselves. My Chinese friends, they come to America or Mexico, they go with me to Starbucks.

They start eating this junk food. And I'm like, don't eat that. Eat like Chinese person.

It's healthy. Vegetable, rice, it's healthy. Don't eat that food.

It will make you sick. Later it will make you sick. Like that, okay?

These people on the left side, they did not give enough food to other people. Did not share their food. The result of those two karmas created the border.

Okay? And there is no other border. Two group karmas made this border.

And in the Abhidharmakosha, it says what happens to a country which makes war on another country especially without a good reason. There is a very beautiful question in the Abhidharmakosha. If an American soldier goes to Afghanistan, because of a mistake, right?

Because of a mistake, the government made a mistake and started this war. If the country government sends an army to Afghanistan, and there is one guy in the army, and he shoots a gun, and he kills an Afghanistan person, do I make karma? I'm sitting in Arizona.

I didn't go to Afghanistan. I didn't shoot the gun. But I'm part of that country.

Do I make karma? The Abhidharma asked a question. The answer is, yes.

How much? 100%. 100%.

Same as the guy who pulled the trigger. Then Vasubandhu, who wrote the Abhidharmakosha, he said, it's worse than that. You don't make 100%.

You make 200%. You make double of what the guy who shot the gun made. Then everybody's like, no, that's not fair.

Why I make double? You paid him to go shoot the gun. You paid the tax.

You gave the salary to the soldier. He's acting for you. He's your employee.

You pay the tax. Your representative send the army. He shoots a guy.

He's a young man. He's like 17 years old. 17 year old young man doesn't know anything except girls.

But you send him there. He will do what you say. He think, oh, I'm like, I'm like, what do you call that?

In the movies, I'm like Rambo. Yeah. He get excited.

In the beginning they are excited. Later they lose their leg and they're not so excited. But in the beginning he's very excited.

And you paying his salary. So you get extra 100%. You get 200%.

What will happen to all the people in America from this killing? Four flowers. Their country will become more dangerous.

Their country will become more dangerous. They will start other wars in other countries like Iran. Everybody around them will start doing dangerous things.

And after they die, they will go to a place where people are killing each other all the time. As a group. As a group they will all go to the same place.

Like we are in this place. Same thing. Last thing.

So now you're scared. All the Americans are scared. All the Canadians are relaxed.

I don't know why, but the Canadians don't get in trouble like this. They don't have this habit. Somehow they are peaceful all the time.

So now all the Americans are a little bit nervous. What can I do? I don't want that karma.

You just have to say, I don't agree. That's enough. Send a letter.

We sent a letter a few years ago. Everybody in the class, all the Americans, we wrote a letter to the government. We said, we don't want this war.

It's like the Lama question. I love my country. I love the government.

You're a great country, but with respect, this thing I cannot support. Then you don't have karma. Then you don't have karma.

So, according to the law of your country, following the laws of your country, which are different for each country, tell somebody, honestly, I cannot support. I love my country, but I cannot support this. In the proper way for your country.

In the proper and appropriate way for your country. Okay. We'll have more questions later.

So, we're going to push the schedule a little bit because it's in Mexico. 5.15. We will have an old bad karma cleaning ceremony. So, you have a break of about what time we said?

5.30? What did I say? 5.30?

5.15. No, it's 5.10. Let's say 5.15. You have, before 5.15, we will come back here at 5.15. You have two jobs. Number one, three. Number one, go to the bathroom.

Number two, sneak some coffee somewhere. Number three, get a small piece of paper. Write down your old bad karmic seeds that you want to short circuit.

That's a good word. Because you cannot destroy them. Especially any bad seed about your teachers.

Who are your teachers? Mother. Father.

School teacher. Person who taught you your job. Your kids, because they teach you a lot, right?

And your spiritual teachers. So, any teacher which you hurt them, or you made some mistake, or you disrespect them. Write them down.

Then we will meet at the fire, is that okay? Right here. 5.15. We will burn the papers. Then we will release an animal who was supposed to be killed. This is a very nice custom, especially in China. People do it a lot.

We don't have this custom in United States, Mexico I think. I think it's the first time in Guadalajara. Did you have question?

Let's say for example you came last year here. And you wrote down some bad karma which you did. And you burned the paper.

Then you don't need to do it again. It's finished. Part of the four powers, after you finish them, you must think, that's finished now.

Old, old story. It's an important part of karmic purification that you believe that that story is finished now. I have all these students.

Many, many students. They had some problem when they were children. Mother did something bad.

Father did something bad. Something bad happened to their family. After 30, 40, 50 years they are still holding on to this thing.

In the Buddhism we say, clean it, just clean it. They say, if you are cooking some food in a pot and the pot has been on the stove for a long time, then you forgot that the stove was on. And you grab the pot.

It's hot! It's hot! What?

What happened? It's burning! It's burning!

It hurts so bad! Let go! Let go!

Drop the pot! What? What?

It hurts so bad! Still hurting! Drop the pot!

Drop the pot! What? I forgot to turn the stove off.

Drop the pot! Thank you. Let it go!

Let it go. Finish. Something happened when you were 15 years old in your family.

It came from a bad thing. Burn it today. Then for God's sake, let it go.

Don't keep ... Something your father, mother did, or your brother, or something, when you were 15 years old. You're going to let it ruin your whole life?

Will you be unhappy for your whole life? Then let it ... Sometimes you have to let it go.

Okay, don't live a whole life like that. Somebody hurt you. Very bad thing.

We had a very bad thing in our university two years ago. Confess it. Let it go.

Don't live with it forever. Because you cannot move on. You did many terrible things in millions of lives.

You let those go already. This one's not much, okay? Please let it go.

Don't spend your whole life unhappy about something happened when you were a teenager. It has to be a very good question. Everyone's tired, and everyone has to go to the bathroom really bad.

Okay, quick, quick, quick. Yes. You will get a sign.

You will have a sign. When it's clean. There are two signs that come.

Number one. You will have a small disaster in your life because the watermelon seed on the brick opens slightly. You will get sick.

Sudden sickness for two, three days. Then it's finished. After you get sick, or you have a bad headache, or drop a glass on the floor, then after that you will feel light, lighter.

I have this bag. People help me carry it. This is, my whole life is in there.

There's an electrical converter for every country in the world in there. Then if you carry it all day, you forget you have it on. Then sometimes you're like, somebody says, why don't you take off Geshe Michael's bag?

You don't have to carry it all day. You take it off. It feels so light.

It feels great. So if the karma is finished, you will have a small disaster. Then you will feel very light.

Ah, you know. Suddenly I feel happier. If you burn your paper well today, maybe by the evening, you will feel much lighter and happier.

Then you understand. I was carrying that backpack for twenty years. And I got used to it.

And I forgot I am carrying it. Then you burn the paper. Then suddenly tonight or tomorrow you're like, I don't know why I feel so happy today.

Oh, I burned my old bad karma yesterday. I feel ten years younger. Okay?

Like after Paz's yoga class, I felt like that. Quick, quick. If I see some bad things during my meditation, is it possible to purify it with this ceremony?

One of Je Tsongkapa's greatest breakthroughs he said, your partner coming from you. The grass is coming from you. The tree, even though it was planted before you were born, you planted it.

And millions of years ago you created a karma which caused this mountain which you are not going to see for millions of years. All of those things coming from you. Then Tsongkapa made one more breakthrough.

Not only all the things you see, not only all the people you meet, but every thought you hear in your mind is coming from past karma seed. Those thoughts are opening out of seeds. You are not thinking them.

You are hearing them. You are just a witness. If you have depression, plant some good seeds in your mind.

Next week you won't have depression. But he made a breakthrough. He said meditation is also coming from karma.

If you try to concentrate on the blue sky but you are always thinking about a hamburger, that's coming from a karma that you interrupted other people who are trying to talk to you for the last few weeks. You interrupted other people. Then your meditation is always interrupted.

Meditation is also coming from karma. So definitely you can, we should, if we know we are having the same problems in our meditation, like I feel sleepy whenever I meditate. That's because you talk too loud in the hallway in the dormitory after ten o'clock.

Then you can confess it. And you can write it down and you can burn it. Then you won't get sleepy in the meditation.

So it's a very good question. One more over here, then I really have to go to the bathroom, really bad. Okay, good.

I'm going to say your question. How shall we think when we burn the paper? How shall we think when we burn the paper?

Burning the paper doesn't do anything. It's not that easy. With the paper you must make a commitment.

I will not do it again. You must make that promise. And make a time limit until Sunday afternoon.

After ten p.m. I will not talk loud in the hallway. And before eight o'clock I will not bang my door. I will close it quietly.

I promise. You have to make some kind of promise. That gives the fire its power.

That promise gives the fire the power. Make some kind of promise. Make a time limit.

Monday I will disturb everybody. Up to Sunday I will be polite.

[Говорящий 2] (51:40 - 51:41)
That's okay.

[Говорящий 1] (51:41 - 52:27)
That's okay. Burn the paper. So when you throw the paper in the fire you must think, I will not do this again for three days or five days or the rest of my life.

Otherwise the fire doesn't work. Because of the questions we are going to move the ceremony to 5.30. But they were very, very good questions. Thank you for asking them.

Okay.