«Дар освобождения», курс 18 «Ретрит внутри ретрита», занятие 2

[Speaker 1]
So let's go a little bit more in the book, in the text, okay? From the Tibetan, and then in about half an hour, we'll take a little break. You can go out, pee-pee break, or stretching break, walking break.

And then after that, we will do some question and answer, okay? Then you have to think of some interesting questions. It doesn't have to be about this day.

It can be about anything, okay? That Chinese people, and Argentina people, and Mexico people, and Israel people, will all think it's interesting. Or a little bit difficult question, okay?

All right? All right. So I'm going to continue the text.

And then after that, I thought maybe we just start... There's a mantra that we're going to do during the three days, okay? It's fun to do a mantra.

I did a three-year retreat in 2003, and I will go up on the roof and lay down at night and watch the stars like that, and do my mantras, do like 10,000 mantras. Here you can even see the satellites going. It's very cool.

They're going across the sky, because it's so clear. Little satellite, like this big. So I'm going to start teaching you the mantra, okay?

There's a special mantra, okay? Tsongkapa's mantra. Then you can do it for the rest of your life.

All right. CHOS BSTAN PA Somebody asked me if we'd like to see the text. So if you're interested, you should search for THON PA.

THON PA. There you go. That's the paragraph.

I'm going to start there. CHOS BSTAN PA. Tibetan's pronunciation is worse than Chinese.

But English is worse than all of them. But you can follow, roughly, okay? You can see, okay?

Don't worry too much. It's a little complicated, okay? PHYIR BSTAN PA DE YANG What happens to those scorpions and bugs and spiders after they go into the crack in the ground?

There's more to the meditation, okay? We didn't finish, okay? Something happens to them.

They become THOR MA and LUS. THOR MA and LUS. Good THOR, okay?

The pronunciation is THOR MA. What's a THOR MA? It's that little offering cake, like that.

It's like spiritual churro. Spiritual yojo. It looks like a small mountain.

And then we offer it in the... you saw in the fire puja when we did, there's a small cake, which we offered to the Manjushri, or you could offer to Tsongkapa. When we do the retreat, I'm going to teach you how to do the THOR MA, how to close the retreat fence, okay?

So there will be a special fence, that gate. We call it Two Boots Gate. Why?

Somebody put two cowboy boots there many years ago. And that gate is not our property. We don't own that property.

There's a piece of property that goes into our land. It cuts into our land. So really, we have to ask permission every time we use this gate.

Then I have good news. We bought that property last week. Yay!

And some sponsors from China helped us. So now we don't have to worry that we can't go to our houses now that we own the gate place. I'll teach you how to close the gate with a retreat.

It's a protection, protection circle around the whole, all those houses. We will make a protection circle. I'll show you how to do it.

Then we have to do another protection circle around your house. And I'll teach you how to do that. Maybe the retreatants will help us to do it.

I think we'll have a special class. And they will teach you guys. And I will take a nap.

Because they are very experienced. They did it, I think, ten times or twelve times. I don't know how many times.

CHOS BSTAN PA DE'ANG MTHOR MA So the bad bugs that come out, they become a MTHOR MA. Under the ground. And they become LUS.

LUS is a special MTHOR MA that you make for spirits which are trying to kill you. Spirits which are trying to kill you. You can make a LUS.

One easy way to make a LUS is anytime you eat. If you have a sandwich, take a little piece of the bread, and you smush it in your hand like this. And you can add some water.

And then you squeeze it like this. You just squeeze it in your hand. Maybe in the evening I'll show you with a real piece.

Then you squeeze the top and you make a little thing here. Then you throw it on the ground. And that's called LUS.

LUS means trade. I trade you a small piece of bread. You give me my life.

They are like, okay. That's called a trade MTHOR MA. LUS.

Say LUS. That's a special kind of MTHOR MA. It's very cool.

And there's a long story about that. We don't have time to talk about it. LUS SOGS KYI RNAM PAR GYUR TE They become special offering MTHOR MA.

And SA OG, I think that's a mistake. SA OG RIM PA DON Below the ground there are seven levels. Do you know why?

There are seven stories under you. Like a parking garage. Underground parking garage.

Huh? Yeah, those are the realms of hell. It means there's seven and then there's one more, which is eight.

So there are eight realms of hell. Then in the Abhidharma it says below this earth there's a huge parking garage with eight levels. And each lower one is worse than the one before.

Then the worst one is at the bottom. Those people live for a long time covered in fire. They are covered in fire and they are screaming all day, all night.

They never fall asleep. They cannot die. They're just burning all the time.

That's the level eight. So he says here, after you pass seven levels you will get to level eight. And down there is CI BDAG GZHIN RJE ZHES CI BDAG What's CI BDAG?

BDAG PO? Lord of death. Lord of death.

GZHIN RJE means also lord of death. RJE means lord, right? BDAG PO means lord also.

So lord of death. GZHIN RJE Sometimes your mantaka is called GZHIN RJE ZHES, the one who kills the lord of death. CI BDAG GZHIN RJE LANG MAR BUR NAM PA LANG MAR BUR NAM PA means you can think of him in the shape of a red ball.

Like a very crazy red ball. In my retreat we had a ball. If he's around the retreat, you cannot go outside.

He's crazy. Completely crazy. He will chase you.

He will try to kill you. Then they put him in a fence. The fence is about this high.

Then every day he just jumps over. He's like jumping back and forth. He doesn't care if this fence is there or not.

And we are running from him. And he's like... So you can think the lord of death is like a ball under the ground.

He's there. KHA DANG Say KHA DANG. KHA DANG If you go to the monastery, Serame, the best monastery in the world, and you want to make the kids happy, you can ask Pao where to get those treats from Guadalajara, those little round ones.

She checked already. All the kids like them. She was there last year.

They stole all of her Mexico candies. Then you should learn special words. Say KHA DONG KHA DONG KHA DONG means open your mouth.

Then you throw the candy in their mouth. I'm talking about the little monks. KHA DONG KHA DONG They're very happy.

So I'm teaching you what to say just before you throw the candy in their mouth. You say KHA DONG. So that ball is KHA DONG.

He's like this. His mouth is open. Why?

He's going to eat you. Then Rinpoche, my teacher, he said, don't think Tibetan people are superstitious. Buddhists are not stupid.

We don't think there's a red ball underground. We don't believe that. It's just a picture for meditation.

Where is death? Where is the Lord of Death? He's inside of you.

He's born inside of you. When you are born, he is born with you. He's not under the ground like a ball with his KHA DONG.

He's born inside of you, in your chest. When you come out of your mom, he comes out inside of you. Every day he scratches his way closer to your heart.

Every day he's taking another quarter inch, another eighth of an inch. Then one day he will hit your heart. It will break your heart and you will die.

My mom's heart, she got cancer. Cancer one day broke her heart open. Then all blood, like 10 gallons of blood, come out.

That's the finish. The Lord of Death, he isn't some spirit who's under the ground. He's already, he's built in automatic.

He's an app. APP inside of you. Every day he's taking a little bit more, coming closer and closer.

Sometimes he takes the youngest one in the room first. He's crazy. He doesn't know anything.

Someday he takes the... Then sometimes the sickest person lives among us. We don't know when he will reach.

So we think like that. He's under the ground. KHA DONG.

DER YOD PA'I KHAR BYIN PA'I KHAR BYIN PA means you offer that into his mouth. KHAR means Kharu, into his mouth. KHAR BYIN PA'I KHO NGOM ZHING TSIM NGOM ZHING TSIM We talked about TSIM this morning with Adam, I think.

This is the TSIM, very rare, to be satisfied. So NGOM and TSIM are two words in Tibetan. He's like those monk kids when you throw the candy in their mouth.

KHA DONG. WHA Then it goes PO. Then they go...

Like that. NGOM means he's happy. He's like, hmm, that's nice.

Who's he? Lord of death. This THOR MA, which is the bugs, changed it.

What were the bugs before? Your seeds. Clear, invisible seeds.

POTENTIAL Became spiders. Spiders became THOR MA. THOR MA went into his mouth.

Then he's, hmm, not bad. NGOM ZHING TSIM NAS KHA BAR GOR NAS Then he's like this. He's like this, right?

Comes down. Then he's like, hmm. Then he doesn't want you anymore.

His mouth is closed and turned down. GOR means it turned down. Then he's like, hmm.

Okay, I'll leave you alone. You do your thing. Is it just a metaphor?

Is it just a metaphor? Is it just a picture? No.

If you could really remove all your bad seeds, you don't have to die. If you really remove all your bad seeds, nothing can kill you. You will live forever.

You will become Manjushri. If you do it once, is it going to remove all your bad seeds? No.

But if you do it every day, then maybe your death won't come. Like that. KHO NGOM ZHING TSEN KHA BAR GOR NAS DE SONG SNYAM DU BSAM NA DE SONG SNYAM DU BSAM NA Then you think, okay, he's satisfied.

He's going to stay. CI LUS Say CI LUS. CI LUS CI LUS means...

LUS is a strange ancient word. It means ransom. Ransom means like if somebody kidnapped your family and then you pay them some money, you can get your family back.

That's called LUS. CI LUS means you give something to the Lord of Death, he will give back your life. Right now, what are you giving?

All the mistakes you made in your life. That's a good deal. That's a good trade.

You give me my life, I'll give you all the mess ups I ever did in my whole life. Let's do a trade. All my bad seeds, you can eat.

Then you just don't eat me. Then he says, okay. Then that's CI LUS, means a good deal.

You are buying... ransom your life. That's called CI LUS.

CI LUS means a long life practice. Like Amitabha, Amitabha, Abhidhofu. A long life practice.

That's very famous. You eat a little pill and it keeps your life longer. It gives you a longer life.

CI LUS KYI CHOG CHOG CHOG means what? Like quenchoke. Supreme.

Number one. Number one, best. What?

Long life practice. Don't go to some lama and say, please give me a little pill and I will swallow that and I will live a long life. It can happen, but it's better to get rid of your bad seeds.

Then long life is automatic. Better than going to some ritual and the lama is like ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba and ringing the bell. You can do that, that's okay.

He says CHOG means this is a better long life ritual. You can do it yourself every day. You don't need some lama to do it for you.

You give your bad seeds to this creature. He gives you back your life. It's better than tantra.

CHOG That's the best long life puja you can do. Does it mean you shouldn't go when the lama does a long life puja? I didn't say that.

If you do both, it's even better. Which is better? Chocolate ice cream?

Somebody asked me, Geshe-la, you want chocolate ice cream or you want vanilla ice cream? What does Geshe Michael say? I want both, man.

Don't say uh. Go to the lama and do this meditation. Both.

SA SHING YANG SKAD PA SOGS MED PAR Then you have to imagine that the ground heals again. The crack comes back and joins again. SKAD PA means a crack.

SKAD PA MED PA means it comes back and seals. SA SHING BSTAN PA means it seals. The ground seals like that.

It locks together. The ground locks together. SES SHING BSTAN PA RGYUR PA SMOD NA, if you think like that, BSTAN DAL GYI GNAS YOD This BSTAN DAL doesn't mean dependent origination.

This BSTAN DAL means like an auspicious good luck, auspicious thing to do for the future. It means if you do that, things are going to be better in the rest of your life. BSTAN DAL GYI GNAS.

What's GNAS? Yeah, good. What's the Sanskrit?

Good. MA LUS MA HATTA Yeah, okay. They remembered a few things from the last ten years.

MA BDAG PA DRUG PA LA When you do this washing of the spiders and bad things down, you should use DUD TZI DGAR PO You should use a white honey. DUD TZI means a MRTA. Nectar.

A MRTA means A means not in Sanskrit. Not. MRTA means death.

Like mortuary, muerte. What is it? What do you call the day of the dead?

DIA DE NAS MRTA So MRTA comes from Sanskrit. MRTA means to die. A MRTA means cannot die.

In Greek, death is neck. In Greek, to be free is tar, like Tara. So in Greek, a MRTA is called Nectar.

Nectar. MA BDAG PA DRUG PA LA DUD TZI DGAR PO DANG MI SHES PA ZAL BA'I SKABS But when you do the practice, which I'm going to teach you next, to remove your misunderstandings or wrong understandings, the DUD TZI will be MAR SER Not DGAR PO What's MAR SER? Reddish gold.

Russet gold. Like gold color with some red to it. Red mixed with gold.

So when you do the knowledge, you use the color of Manjushri's body. When you do the cleaning, it's always better with white stuff. Okay.

Alright. That's Pabongka Rinpoche. Let's do a little bit more.

I'm going to take you to the next section. Now I'm taking you into tantra. I'm not supposed to teach you tantra unless you have initiation.

To do the Vajrayogini initiation, the best students at Diamond Mountain, they spent seven years learning open teachings. Then they spent, I don't know how many years, two or three years before we did the initiation, Vajrayogini. You can say they studied for ten years.

Hard. They finished all their ACI courses, supposedly. Then you are ready for tantra.

But, when you are doing there's a second practice, Tsongkapa practice, you are allowed to learn a small tantra thing for good luck. For the future. I'm allowed to teach you this cleaning done tantric way.

Ready? Here we go. This is taken out of Pabongka Rinpoche's tantric book called Jintang Yudjombo.

Vajrayogini. Diamond angel. Angel of diamond.

She's a lady Buddha. Number one Buddha in the universe. Best one.

Of course she's a lady. I'm going to skip to the second paragraph. It starts di gong ne.

We're on the second paragraph. Di gong ne means if you use this Vajrayogini method, which is also Vajrasattva method, to do shakpa. To do shakpa.

What's shakpa? Yeah, it's like confession or getting rid of your bad deeds. shakpa chen kap.

When you're doing shakpa in tantra, in tantra, LHA'I SEL SNANG TZAM BRTAN PA LA RGYUN MED DE There are two important ideas in tantra. One is called SEL SNANG and the other is called SNGA RGYAL. Who said that?

God bless you. Say SEL SNANG SNGA RGYAL SEL SNANG SNGA RGYAL SEL SNANG means, well, it's a special tantric word and usually I cannot teach it to you, but we are allowed to teach it to you if you're going to do Tsongkapa retreat. SEL SNANG means when you close your eyes, you think your body is already Vajrayogini.

You are covered with silk and diamonds and your hair is Vajrayogini's hair and your face is Vajrayogini's face and your body is Vajrayogini's body and you are already Buddha. Woman Buddha, already. Also the boys.

Okay? So don't get confused. If you close your eyes, you are already the most beautiful woman in the world, already.

Much Buddha. Buddha woman. That's called SEL SNANG.

And then you have to walk around like that during the day. You have to walk a little bit like I'm Vajrayogini. You can't see it, but I can see it.

To you I look like bald-head Gashi Michael, but actually I'm Vajrayogini. Like that. That's called SEL SNANG.

Then say NA RGYAL. SEL SNANG is how you see your outside. How you see your outside.

NA RGYAL means how you feel inside. How you feel inside. And it means I am her.

I am. NA RGYAL means I am her already. I am Lady Buddha.

So if you drive here from the Tucson airport, if you fly from Beijing to Tucson airport, and then you come to Diamond Mountain, it's so far, you will have to stop at the gas station to do usual pee-pee, not the black scorpion one. Then this gas station pee-pee place is pretty bad between here and Tucson. All of them.

I checked. Yeah, pretty bad. And the people who work there are a little bit Then you have to think when you open the door to that store, you guys are so lucky.

Buddha came to your store today. Then they look at you, they don't see anything. They just see some person from Beijing or something like that.

But when you open the door, you have to think Buddha came to the gasoline store today. Buddha, you guys are so lucky. From Beijing, Jessica, Miss Buddha came to your store today.

Then you're like Okay. That's called NA RGYAL. Inside you feel, I am a Buddha.

When you do this practice of washing, MA DAG CHU, say MA DAG CHU. When you wash your body, temporarily you have to let go of one of those two. Which one?

You have to loosen one of those two. You can't think it. NA RGYAL You have to loosen up the NA RGYAL.

Why? Because Vajrayogini doesn't have scorpions in her. Trust me.

She doesn't have scorpions. She's pure. So you have to let go.

Little bit. During the washing, I need some washing. I'm not Buddha.

100%. Just 80%. Something like that.

SEMS BSTAN PA LA SEMS BSTAN PA LA means if you just hold your selma outside, I still look like Vajrayogini, but inside I'm not so pure. SKYON MED DE means no problem. SKYON MED.

You can hear SKYON MED DE in the monastery all the time. You say, the car doesn't sound so good. You're trying to go to the Bangalore airport and it's going SKYON MED DE, SKYON MED DE.

They say, SKYON MED DE, SKYON MED DE. No problem. In India when somebody says no problem, there's a problem.

SNGAR SEMS PAS There was in Sierra, there was Geshe Thogme joining our Tenzin Kyi. They were doing yamantaka practice, bodhava practice, jik che, dorji jik che. Then the student said to the teacher, they came to the part in the ritual where they're supposed to do the cleaning.

Then the student said, wait, wait, stop, stop. He told his lama, stop, stop, we don't have to do this part. The teacher said, why?

He said, I'm yamantaka. You told me I'm yamantaka. I'm SNGAR BSGAL SEMS PAS, I'm yamantaka.

I don't need to do a cleaning. Then he says, you need to clean yourself. There's a very famous in the monastery, PHYIR RANG LA YOD It means, he said, I don't have any bad seeds because I'm yamantaka.

Then the teacher said, you have. It's very famous. You have.

Did he get yamantaka initiation? Yes. Inside is he yamantaka?

Yes. Outside does he look like yamantaka to himself? Yes.

But when he comes to this part in the ritual, does he have bad seeds? PHYIR RANG LA YOD PHYIR RANG LA YOD You have a man. You got to do this cleaning.

You got to do this cleaning. Like the student, it's a good question, right? Because when they got the initiation, the teacher told the student, now you are Vajrayogini.

Then the student really believed it. Then when they came to the cleaning part, the student said, excuse me, I don't need to do it. The teacher said, you do.

Okay, all right. Say, you do. You do.

Okay, good. You do. It's very famous in the monastery.

Students say, I don't have to do confession. Teachers say, you do. GSUNGS PA LTAR YIN GSUNGS PA LTAR YIN I'm going to skip some of that.

I'm going to skip down to LAS DANG PO BA L-A-S space D-A-N-G LAS DANG PO BA LAS DANG PO BA LAS DANG PO BA means, do you know? LAS DANG PO BA LAS DANG PO BA means tenderfoot. Freshman.

Neophyte. Beginner. Raw beginner.

LAS DANG PO BA means raw beginner. LAS means work, right? DANG PO means first.

BA means er. First worker means a new person. Beginner.

LAS DANG PO BA If you're a LAS DANG PO BA, if you're just starting your meditation practices and things like that, you should do, what's the next word? YIN DE, MEN DE, and PHUNG DE. Say YIN DE, MEN DE, PHUNG DE.

There's the correct spelling of those three. Many lamas have the wrong spelling in their mind. This is the correct spelling.

YIN DE, MEN DE, PHUNG DE If you're starting out, you should do clean from the top, down. It means top is pushing. That's the meaning of YIN DE.

Top is pushing. MEN DE means what? Bottom is pushing up.

We didn't get to that yet. I don't know in China or Mexico if you have this special ice cream, but we have it. When I was a kid in Arizona, it's called push pop.

It has a stick and it has a round part and you have to push the ice cream up. Eat it. It goes like that.

You have to push it up. That's called MEN DE. So later we're going to do push the bugs up.

We pushed them down already. YIN DE, MEN DE. Then we're going to do PHUNG DE.

That's another one. There are three. We only did one.

PHUNG DE RNAMS SPYAD PA MTSO CHE BA That's the main practice you should work on. So we should work on that. We should work on that practice.

We're going to take a break there. Let's start. Are you jet laggers?

That's how I feel every time I come to Taiwan. I feel like that. Then I have to...

Okay. Any questions? All right.

I think elder comes first. In English there's a joke. They say age before beauty.

Let's just talk loud until they figure it out. Very loud. In the book it talks about if we use the Dharma to teach people to pursue, use the Dharma to pursue something good for this life, it's evil.

You are wasting. It's like you make a king to do the dirty work. Okay.

Okay. What the DCI tries to do is to do these things, right? Okay.

Let's talk about it. Max's question is in the Lam Rim book, they say if you use Dharma for this life purpose, like to make money or find a boyfriend or things like that, then it's like you're asking the king to clean the floor. So it's not worthy.

The Dharma, it helps you most after you die, right? So really, the purpose of Dharma is nothing less than after you die. It shouldn't be less than that.

Then if you just teach people Dharma to help to make money or things like that, then it seems like you are wasting this beautiful thing for something small, too small. That's correct. I mean really that's true.

But in the beginning of Madhyamaka Avatara, this is the best book on emptiness by Chandrakirti, Master Chandrakirti, who lived about 13 centuries ago. He said and Buddha said to attract people, to get them interested, we should start with money. We should say if you study this you can make a lot of money.

Like that. If you tell them if you study this you don't have to go to hell after you die, nobody will come to the talk. But if you say if you study this thing you can become successful, then people will come.

So in one way it's a method of attracting people. But also on a deeper level it's not either or. You see what I mean?

You can use it for this life or you can use it for afterlife. Really if you understand seeds you can be successful in everything. And if you don't understand seeds you cannot be successful in anything.

You see what I mean? So if you really understand seeds you should have a successful life. You should have a successful career.

You should have a successful family. Your health should be generally good. Your practice should be successful.

You should be a happy person. It's not like you have to wait until you die to be a happy person. So if you really understand dharma every part of your life should be successful.

Especially if you're going to teach other people. Especially if you're going to go on a tour or something. Then you should be a very happy, stable, moderately successful person.

Whatever your career is. If you're making films you should have some beautiful films to show people. If you're a yoga teacher you shouldn't be really fat.

You should be successful because if you understand dharma you understand life. You should be a happy person. You should be a gentle person and a kind person and a good person.

I had one teacher who was very nervous all the time and they came with me on a tour to teach meditation and they're like this all the time. I'm going to teach you meditation. Then one lady said to her, I was there, she said, I don't know what kind of meditation you are doing but I don't want to learn it.

If you really understand dharma you'll be successful in everything. It's not bad to be financially successful. The people who are helping us here with donations, that's nice.

It's nice to be able to help other people. If there's an emergency like an earthquake in Chengdu area or you know, then what's that group in Taiwan? Good one.

Suchi. Then they are taking all this money and they go to China and help people. That's very good.

It's good. It's okay to have money. It's not a problem.

Then the king is, if the king doesn't have any money he probably has to sweep the floor. So anyway, it's good to be successful in everything. It's not bad.

I don't know why people think I can't be a good businessman because I'm meditating. That's a bad idea. If you want to be a good businessman you should meditate.

If you want to be a good meditator you should have some place to meditate and not always borrowing money from other people or bothering other people or attacking their refrigerator. You should have a life. We should be net givers and not net takers.

To do that you need resources. But it's a good question. It can get out of hand.

If your house is too big you are cleaning all the time or you are fixing things all the time. If your car is too big it's always expensive. Like that.

Everything should be comfortable size. Prosperity can be distracting. If you have an iPhone 6 it's much more distracting than the old Motorola flip phone.

My friends who have Motorola flip phone they have more time in their life than me. Because I'm always doing these things. So we have to be careful.

Prosperity is like fire. You can cook your food or you can burn your house down. The same amount of money can be dangerous.

It wastes your life, wastes your time. But if you are a wise person then more money is better. You can help more people.

Other questions? Stanley had a question. What do you mean?

[Speaker 2]
Holy teacher, so last two retreats you talked about lamas. You talked about how to serve them. How to see them as Buddhas.

My question is I'm trying to do that and it's very difficult. I'm a normal person and I cannot help. I just get distracted by the bad things that I see.

I know I shouldn't do that but it just distracts me. I try to focus on the good side but the bad thoughts just come. But too many people they just see it and it seems like we have to face it to crack open this negativity.

So I don't know how to really balance this part. How to focus on the good side and how to fix the bad side.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, good. Okay, good question. I think I would give two answers.

Because we all have the same problem. When we are studying lam rim they say never see the bad qualities of the lama. Always see the good qualities of the lama.

If you see anything bad you are going to go to hell for 10,000 years. And then you see them pick their nose and you're like you know. And you try to see something good.

And it's very difficult. It feels very artificial. If you see something bad, it's bad.

So Stanley's question is if we see a problem is there some way to fix that problem rather than pretend you don't see it? Are we supposed to be like those horse has a special blindness. They're not supposed to see the I don't know other girl horse or something.

And just supposed to walk like that. Or if we see the bad thing in the lama then is there some way just to fix it? Because to pretend we don't see it is make me crazy.

Of course I see problems. So I'll talk at two levels. First level, human beings we focus more on negative things.

Get a newspaper. Turn on the television. Look at the news.

Bombing. Terrorist. Killing.

Cancer. Famous people doing bad things. Because the news know that people like to hear that.

Of course there's good news, but nobody wants to hear it. So they can't sell advertising if they only have good news. So everything is negative.

People are fascinated by negative. If you have a traffic jam on the highway, if it's a big one, it's because there was a crash and somebody's dying and everybody's like, they're so curious about negative things. And all of us are like that.

Because we are like that to ourselves, we always see our bad side more. It starts from how you see yourself. So in Buddhism we struggle.

Before you try to see the good part of the Lama, try to see the good part of yourself. It's very difficult. Coffee meditation, kha fe min shang at night time.

We're supposed to, when we go to bed, when we close our eyes and lay down on the bed, we're supposed to think about all the good things we did today. We are required by Buddhism to do that. When I travel the world, we travel the world, last year we traveled 78,000 miles or something like that.

Many countries. Everybody comes to me, they say the same thing. I have trouble with coffee meditation.

I have trouble. When I lay down I start to worry about my credit card or my wife or my kids or my job. Because you are tired at the end of the day.

You're always tired. That's why you're going to bed. When you're tired everything looks worse.

If the Lama says before you go to bed you're supposed to think about all the good things you did, it's very difficult for us. It's very difficult for me too. I start on the good thing and after one minute I start to think about my credit card bills and things like that.

So, my first answer for Stanley, if you want to learn to see the good in other people, you have to start with yourself. See the good things you are doing. You are doing many, many, many good things.

You can do thank you practice before you go to bed. Just think about all the people you have to thank. Like I tried it last night.

I thanked Tim. He worked so hard. He didn't sleep enough.

I thanked Gina. I thanked Mr. Wu. I thanked Allison and Stanley.

And then I fell asleep. So, you can try a thank you. But think about all the good things you are doing.

You are doing more good things than bad things, but you don't think about it. So, start to think about yourself. It's not pride.

Pride is a different thing. Pride doesn't say, I helped a sick person today. Pride says, I'm better at helping sick people than Luis.

He doesn't know how to help sick people the way I know how to help sick people. I'm a better sick people helper than Luis is. That's pride.

Good coffee meditation is, today I helped a sick person. And focus on that. You do lots of good things.

You drive your car down the highway. You obey the speed limit. You didn't kill anybody.

No, it's a big deal. 300 million people are cooperating. Every moment in the day.

300 million people are being careful not to hurt each other on the highway. It's part of your culture. But you never congratulate yourself.

Oh, good job Geshe Michael, you didn't kill anybody today in your car. There are countries, I've seen countries where people drive crazy. They really danger for everybody.

So we are not like that. Think about the good things. You live in a country that has traffic signs and people are obeying them.

Even bad people are obeying them. Be happy. Generally in the world people are not killing each other.

If someone does that we all feel bad. It means it's a pretty good world. So think about that.

That's my first level answer. Second level answer is deeper. If you see a glaring problem with your Lama, just something that...

This Geshe Michael always exaggerates everything. If the new land is 360 acres, he always says 400. He rounds it up to 400 acres.

He can't control his exaggeration habit. If the audience in Shanghai was 300 people, by the time he reaches America it's 1000 people. Maybe they all have babies, I don't know.

But you see this problem and you say... and you can't pretend you don't see it. You go crazy.

You feel crazy. Is your Lama perfect? Oh yes, yes.

But he exaggerates, doesn't he? Well, then you feel crazy. You're supposed to say no, but you know it's yes.

Then you feel uncomfortable. It makes you crazy. Oh, you're a bad person.

Why? You saw Geshe Michael exaggerate. But he did exaggerate.

So, you feel crazy. You feel like you're going crazy. Then at that moment you have to think where is that coming from?

Why do I see a person, any person, exaggerate? Why do I see that? Then you have to understand the pen.

It's coming from you. It's always coming from us. That's a way to help that schizophrenia about Lama.

Lama schizophrenia. I see some bad stuff in my Lama. Then that's called schizophrenia.

But I shouldn't do that. Then I start to feel crazy. I see but I don't see.

Or I see and I'm a bad person. Then you have to think yeah, you are a bad person. It's coming from you.

You are exaggerating a little bit. Just a little bit. And therefore you see this person exaggerating a lot.

Because karma always grows bigger. So you have to when you see a problem in your teacher you should find the seed in yourself. Or any person, any person.

Then one more thing. If the teacher is doing something wrong, if they are hurting people, if they are stealing things or if they are not respecting other people's partners or marriage or if they are like killing animals or things like that. Is that coming from me?

Yes. Should I just be quiet? No.

Then you should say I don't support that. That's okay. You can do both.

You think that's coming from me? And you have to go to the Lama and say I don't support that. I lived with Tibetan monks for many years.

They all eat meat. Then I questioned them. So you should question.

If you see something wrong, you should question it. Bertha told me a really good story how she questioned a Mexican policeman. That was pretty cool.

Very brave. If you see something wrong, you should question it. So I asked my Lama, I asked them, why are you eating meat?

They said, I didn't kill the meat. I didn't go and kill the cow. I said, okay, so you didn't kill the cow, but you are stealing.

It's not killing. It's not number one of the ten bad deeds. It's number two.

They said, what do you mean? I said, they didn't give you their life. They didn't say, here's my leg or here's my arm.

Then you took it. It's MA RGYUN LEN. In Tibetan, MA RGYUN LEN.

You took the thing which was not given to you. They didn't say, come and kill me. I'll give you my leg.

So even if you're not killing them, you are stealing. Then they're like, okay, like that. So you should question.

If you see something wrong, you should question it. If it's wrong and they're asking you to do it, you should say no. With respect, you say, Lama, I see you doing this.

You know, you are cheating on your taxes or something like that to get donation. You are doing some, in English we call it monkey business. You are doing monkey business.

I love you. You are my teacher, but I cannot, at my level, I don't understand what you're doing. I cannot do it.

I cannot support it. Please don't ask me to do that. Like that.

So it doesn't mean, is it coming from you? Yes. Should you stay quiet?

No. You should say, I see this thing. And if you have to, you have to say, I cannot do that.

I cannot follow you. In that thing, I cannot follow you. If you don't say that, you are doing a bad deed.

Understand? If you keep quiet when you see something that's not moral, then you are also doing a bad deed. Next question.

Anatole always gets good answers. There you go. A little bit loud.

We have a microphone. Geshe-la, I want to ask a question. If I know that's my family lineage, if someone, they are died, they died for suicide.

Yeah. Now I know, if I knew that, it might be coming from me. How to clean the karma.

Okay, good. Also if I see some family member, they are kind of depression. Yeah.

Maybe it's some connection with that. That's the question. Okay.

My brother also killed himself when he was 20. So I know about it. There's two questions here.

So I have family member who's depressed. Okay. Why do I see that?

It's because I made somebody sad in the past. That's why I see that. But I'm not making them depressed to themselves.

That's not my fault. They are depressed to themselves because they made people sad before. So it's not your fault they are depressed.

It's your fault you have to live with them. Or it's your fault that it's in your family. But it's not your fault they are depressed.

It's coming from them. They made other people sad. Or they hurt other people and they killed themselves.

So that's not your fault. You don't have to go crazy about that. Those things which you see other people in pain, other people depressed, other people want to commit suicide, you are not making them do that.

They are making themselves to do that. They did something in the past. The reason you have to see them, that's your fault.

You made people sad in the past a little bit. Then you have to live with this person in your family or like that. That's your fault.

The reason they are in your family is your fault. The reason they are sad is their fault. It's not your fault.

You are not responsible for them being depressed or committing suicide. It's not your fault. You are not making that.

But you are making them in your family. For that, you have to try to make other people happy. Then you send that karma to your brother or your sister.

When you do your sleeping meditation, when you do coffee meditation, you think, today I made a child happy. I said, KHA DONG and I threw that candy into their mouth from Guadalajara and they were happy. Little thing.

I send that seed to my sister or my brother or my mother, whoever is sad in your family. You send them the seed just before you fall asleep. Then all night long that seed will grow.

You cannot give them a seed. But you can dedicate the seed to them. Then you won't see that kind of person in your family.

Cool? There was another part to that. Yeah, suicide.

Suicide is a bad karma, very bad karma. If you take good care of your body and if you take good care of your mind, if you do meditation, if you do yoga, if you study, you can become a Buddha. So this body is very precious.

You are a future Buddha body. That body is very valuable. So to hurt it is a very bad karma.

To hurt your body is a very bad karma. You have to take good care of it. Like that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It will help them.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Both.

Good. Okay, one more. I think one more short question.

Who has a short question? Raise your hand. Rasha.

Okay. I'm wondering if traditionally people bowed at the end of lectures. Somebody told me that it's actually inappropriate at the end of a lecture to bow, so now I'm confused.

Okay, good. Good question. So we bow down.

We do prostration before the class and we do prostration at the end of the class. But if it's the last class for a while, like the last class of these ten days, the tradition is don't bow down. Don't prostrate.

You just stand up like that. You know, like you don't know anything. You don't show any respect to the Lama.

And it means it's considered good luck. In Tibet we call tendrel, right? Tendrel tsukpa.

And it means we have unfinished business between us. So like, I don't know, if we're playing some Monopoly game or something and then it gets late and we say, let's continue tomorrow. We didn't finish the game.

What do you call that game in Go? If you're playing a game with somebody and then it gets very late and you say, let's finish this tomorrow. You don't wipe out all the pieces.

You say, just nobody touch it. Keep the dog in the bathroom. And then tomorrow morning when we get up we will continue.

So that's a tradition at the end of our teaching week or something like that. The very last time you see the Lama you don't bow down. And it means the game's not finished and we have to continue the game.

And it's good luck. We have ten minutes. I'm going to teach you a small thing.

A big small thing. Or a small big thing. Say MIG MED, ZE BA'I, DER CAN, CAN RE ZIG.

Okay, MIG MED, ZE BA'I, DER CAN, CAN RE ZIG. This is the first line of Tsongkapa's mantra which you will do for three days. It's in your book.

179. Verse 11. Verse 11.

179. Verse 11. That's a very beautiful painting of Tsongkapa done by my grandson.

I want to invent a new way of painting Tsongkapa. Not this boring thing. MIG MED, ZE BA'I, DER CAN, CAN RE ZIG is the first verse here.

I pray to loving eyes, treasure of love, with no one it loves. Very confusing. MIG MED, ZE BA'I, DER CAN, CAN RE ZIG.

CAN RE ZIG in Sanskrit is Avalokiteshvara. Avalokiteshvara. Ava means down.

Ava means down. Ava. Loka, lochena means to look.

Loka. It comes from the word droch, which means light. So Loka.

And then the world is the shining orb, so it's called Loka. So Avaloka means when you're really like when a mother looks at her child, she's like, she looked down like that. She doesn't look like that.

She's like, that's my... They always come to me. Every mother in every country come to me.

My baby. I don't know why, it's just strange. It's like the most intelligent one I ever saw.

Like that. Then they believe it. They're like, I can't take my eyes off of you.

Like that. That's Avaloka. Avaloka.

Ishvara means lord. Ishvara means lord. Ish means to wish.

Ish and inch means to wish. Like when a Muslim says, if God wills it, how do you say? Inshallah.

If it's the wish of God. Inshallah. Vara means best.

So Ishvara means lord. Because the lord or the king always gets the best piece of meat or the best cookie or the best churro. They get the best thing.

So Ishvara. They get their wish. Wish comes from Ish.

So Ishvara. This angel's name is the lord who's looking down at all of us with big love. That's Avalokita.

Ishvara. Then when A means I, it has to change to E. Avalokiteshvara.

The Tibetan is chen re sik. Chen means I. Honorific, high word for I.

Re means to look down. Sik means to look. So chen re sik, looking down with love.

Re also means cloth. So I saw some Western translator said the angel who looks down with a rag in their eyes. I swear.

I won't tell you who. So that's Avalokiteshvara. Chen re sik.

I call that in English loving eyes. Loving eyes. That's the translation of chen re sik or Avalokiteshvara.

Treasure of love. You Adam and Nick were working on dern dzur, right? So you had this word this week.

They were working on a list of books called the der. Der means any kind of treasure. Especially under the ground, like a deposit of oil.

Oil deposit or gold deposit. Those are called der. What do you call a sacred book that was discovered underground?

It's called a derma. Derma. Derma means love.

So der means treasure. Especially like hidden treasure. It's called der.

Then here comes the hard part. We only have four minutes to do it. But I can do it.

Say mik me. Mik me means with no one it sees or with no one it loves. So the highest kind of love in Buddhism looks at people and sees nothing.

The highest kind of love in Buddhism looks at people and sees nothing. That's called mik me. What's that headstand, Anatole, that you don't use your hands?

Near alambana. That's the Sanskrit for mik me. Alambana means a stand for perception.

A support for perception. So when you do a headstand with no arms, it's called near alambana, meaning there's no support. But the object supports the perception of it.

So it's the same word. Near alambana. No object.

This love doesn't love anybody. What's that mean? Can you see this pen?

Are you sure? Are you looking at a pen? Now, question.

Is it necessarily a pen? No. The dog sees something to chew.

So pay attention. Can you see a pen which is coming from the pen? No.

There's no such thing. Can you love a person who is coming from the person? No.

We say no. What's that mean? Can you love your husband when he's yelling at you in the kitchen?

You are so stupid. There's too much salt in these noodles. Can you love them at that moment?

If you understand them, you can. If you don't understand them, you cannot. If they are migme, if you understand there's no husband complaining about the salt who is coming from the husband.

If you understand that, you can love them even when they are complaining. Because you understand that they are not coming from themselves. They are coming from you.

The person who hurts you is coming from you. If you understand that, you are available to love them because it's not their fault. It's your fault.

Everything is your fault. Every bad person you ever met was coming from you. But we're going to look at the good side.

Every nice person you meet here is coming from me. Good job Geshe Michael. Like that.

Focus on the good side. It means some people are harder to love than other people because they are not nice. They are not nice people.

It's easy to love nice people. It's difficult to love people who are not nice. But it's not difficult to love people who are not nice if you understand that the person who is not nice is coming from me.

Then you just feel like you made a boo-boo. I made a boo-boo. You're okay.

I love you. I'm sorry. I have to see you complain about the salt tonight.

That's my fault. I complained to the kids yesterday. Tonight I have to see you complain.

I still love you. I still love you. You seem irritating tonight but I understand it's coming from me.

The highest kind of love in Buddhism is to love with the understanding of the pen. That's called love with nothing it loves. Understand?

Don't get confused. It's not some kind of hippie drink a beer and don't see anything. It's not like that.

It doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean you are mystical. I don't see anybody.

It's not like that. I see you. Yes.

You are complaining about the salt. Yes. Do I still love you?

Yes. How can you love me when I'm complaining about the salt? So stupid.

Because you're coming from me. Then that's real love. That love never change.

That love will never change. It can love everybody. It can love bad people also.

Then that love is the best love. It will never change. It doesn't depend what the other person does.

That love will love everybody. To love your children is easy. To love your husband is easy.

To love your own country is easy. It's difficult to love your enemy's country. It's difficult to love other people's children.

This kind of love loves everybody. No difference. Like that.

And it's the only love which loves everybody. So that will be the first line of the mantra. Every day we're going to try to do, I don't know, 500, 1,000?

There's a song you can sing also. We'll try to do it. When I teach you the whole mantra.

There's a little song you can do. It's a nice song. All right.

I need Daniel. Okay. Thank you.