«Дар освобождения», курс 18 «Ретрит внутри ретрита», занятие 6

[Speaker 1]
Someone told me, Oh, Geshe-la, it must have been so peaceful in the three-year retreat to meditate all day. I said it was peaceful like Iraq war. Okay.

Let's do some more. Let's get your prayer book, if you have three treasures. Let's do page 179.

179. Verse 11. We finished two lines of the five lines, so we have to finish three more.

Let's do it tonight. So, MIG MED TSE BA'I LTAR CAN CAN RE ZIG We finished. CI MA'I KHYEN PA'I DBANG PO BYAMS PA YANG We finished.

Now we're on the third verse. SDUG PA MA LUS BYAMS TE SANGS BA'I DAG In Tibetan language, SDUG means devil or demon. There's a nice book in English.

It's a Christian book. It's called Screw Tape Letters. You should read it.

It's very short. It's from England during the Second World War. There's a young man who's living in London.

The devil assigned his nephew to go to London and corrupt him. Try to get him to drink alcohol or cheat on other people's husband or wife or steal some money or waste his life. Then we see letters from the devil to his nephew.

The whole book is letters mailed to the nephew from the devil. You never hear the nephew's letters. You only hear the uncle's replies.

It's very beautiful. In one of the letters, the devil says to his nephew, We have good times and bad times. We have some successes and we have some failures.

Devil, demon. But the biggest success we had recently was we did a big advertising campaign and now nobody believes in the devil. This is our success.

All the modern people think that's a superstition. Those bad spirits or those demons, they're not modern. They don't really exist.

Those people don't exist. Those beings who can hurt you, invisible malicious beings don't exist. This is a great achievement of the devil that no modern people believe in him.

He's laughing. There are demons in the world. There are devils.

They are real. They're not some superstition from 500 years ago or something like that. They exist.

If you see emptiness directly, you can meet a Buddha. You can see the Buddha directly, face to face. But also you can gain the ability to see demons.

They exist. I'll tell you a story. I met one demon.

When I left college, when I graduated, I had a teacher. He teaches Japanese Buddhism. He's American, but he's a translator of Japanese Buddhist poetry.

He taught me my first Buddhism. Then when I left university to go to live with my Lama, it's only one hour from my university. He had a beautiful race car.

He had a very expensive, like a Maserati. It was a Firebird, red color, very beautiful. The day I left, he said, do you have a car?

I said, no, I don't have a car. I'm going to take a bus. He said, take the car.

He gave me the key. Take it. I'm like, what?

He said, just take it. You're doing such a cool thing. Here, here's my car.

He gave me his car. It was the best car in the university. I was really happy.

One day I was meditating. Me and my Lama, can't remember, we used his car. One day I was meditating and something special happened to me.

I thought I have to buy a diamond. I didn't have any money, but I had a car. I drove the car to the nearest town.

It's called Lakewood. I found a car dealer. I said, I have this car.

I want to sell this car. I have to buy something. Then he said, how much do you want?

I said, I'll take anything you give me. He said, I'll give you $100. That's okay.

He cheated me very bad. I took $100. I gave him the car.

Then I went to buy a diamond. For $100, it's not very big. I brought the diamond.

I have to take the bus home. I didn't have a car. I carried the diamond to the temple.

I put it in front of Chitra Rinpoche's photo in the offering. Then Ken Rinpoche came into the house. He's carrying the diamond.

He says, so you sold the car. I sold the car. I got the diamond.

He said, good, good job. He said, I'll give it to Chitra Rinpoche. He said, okay, okay, thank you.

I didn't say anything else. He just understood everything. Then there was another student there.

The next day he told me, that's our car. This is temple car. We don't have a car now.

I said, yeah. He said, you sold it? I said, yeah.

He said, for $100? I said, yeah. You bought a diamond?

I said, yeah. He said, that's really stupid. What kind of stupid person are you?

What a stupid thing to do. Then I felt in my heart, I met a demon. In that moment, I thought, this guy, he's just a normal American guy.

But I thought in that moment, he's a demon. He's a real demon. He's trying to give me doubt about something good I did.

Then I recognized him. A demon is like that. They don't have big teeth and a horn like that.

They look like your friend or something. Somebody you met. But they tell you to do stupid things.

They tell you you are crazy or you are stupid. Why do you waste your money to go to, sit in the desert with a bunch of rocks? If rocks ever become expensive, this university will be very successful.

Anyway, that's a demon. In the third line of the mantra, du pung, pung means army. It's related to the word pungpo, which means pile.

But it's a different pronunciation, pung. It means a big bunch of demons, like a whole army of demons. du pung ma lu.

Ma lu means all of them. All the ones in this world. Again, they are not, they don't look like evil beings.

They look like normal people. But they tell you, they make you to make spiritual mistakes. Why you sit there for three days doing nothing?

You are losing a lot of money. You are wasting your time. Like that.

They will tell you things like that. So, jom tse means destroy them. Destroy, jom.

Jom is related to chom. And you know the word drachomba. This enemy destroyer.

So they are related. Jom tse means destroy those. Not one demon, but destroy a thousand or a million.

du pung ma lu jom tse. sangway dak. Sangway means secret.

And dak is short for dakpo. Dakpo means owner or lord. Lord of secrets.

This is Vajradhara. When the Buddha teaches open teaching to normal people, like normal family people, they will show themselves as a monk. And then when the Buddha teaches special people who've had a lot of training, the Buddha will change their form to Vajradhara.

She's a very beautiful angel. And wears a silk and has diamonds and long hair and things like that. The Buddha will change the form depending on the student.

People ask me, Geshe-la, why do you always travel with three suitcases? I say, I have to be a yoga teacher. I have to be a monk.

I have to be a businessman. It takes a lot of clothes. Like that.

When you are trying to help many people, you have to wear many uniforms. Sometimes businessman, sometimes monk, sometimes yoga teacher, sometimes hippie. It just depends who is the audience.

In this case, the Buddha changed into an angel. Body is shining with blue light. Somewhere done.

Then that's the third part of Tsongkhapa. Tsongkhapa is also Vajradhara. Tsongkhapa is Avalokiteshvara.

Tsongkhapa is Manjushri. And Tsongkhapa is Vajradhara. These three.

Next line. GANG CHEN SKAD PA'I TSUL KHAN TSONG KHA PA GANG CHEN GANG means snow. It's the Tibetan word for snow.

GANG CHEN means having snow. In Sanskrit, GANG is Hima. GANG CHEN is Himalaya.

It means land of snow, GANG CHEN. KHA PA means spiritual people. Great, wise spiritual people.

It's called KHA PA. Do you know the Sanskrit for that? You have to turn your tongue back.

Pandita. Pandita. Pandita.

Pandita. Pandita. So KHA PA'I TSUL KHAN.

TSUL means the top of your head here. GAN means a jewel. And it means a crowning jewel.

So it means all those other lamas are good. They're very nice. But he's like the tip of them.

He's like the king of all of them. The king of the Dharma. It's not just...

It's real. It's for real. He really was.

GANG CHEN KHA PA'I TSUL KHAN TSONG KHA PA BLO SANGS BGRAB PA'I ZHAG LA GSUNG BA DE BLO SANGS BGRAB PA means when Tsongkapa became a monk, they gave him a new name. And that's LOP SANGS. LOP SANGS BGRAB PA LOP SANGS means pure mind.

In Sanskrit, pure is SU. And mind is MATI, SU MATI. And BGRAB PA means famous, well-known.

It's Kirti. So SU MATI KIRTI is his name. BLO SANGS BGRAB PA Do you know what his novice name was?

He was made a novice by the Karmapa. KUNG GA Do you know any KUNG GA? Where's KUNG GA?

She's in the kitchen. Tsongkapa's in the kitchen. KUNG GA NYIN PO That was his novice name.

BLO SANGS BGRAB PA'I ZHAG LA GSUNG BA DE ZHAG LA means to your feet. To your holy feet. GSUNG BA DE means I ask you for help.

Please help me. Please help me. So that's the mantra.

You are calling Je Tsongkapa. Then during this retreat, you should do the mantras. When you feel like doing mantras, I'm going to give you a new schedule tomorrow.

Oh, can I do that? For retreat. I'm going to change the schedule I give you.

Just a little bit. Then it's just a suggestion. Everybody likes yoga, like in asana practice.

Everybody's body is different. I like Bob Harper, tough guy yoga. We're going to do it tomorrow morning.

Some people prefer Niguma. Some people like acro yoga. It's just everybody's body is different.

So I'll give you a schedule. There will be many things to do. You can follow that schedule.

But if you feel like, oh, I feel like doing mantra right now. Then you can change the schedule yourself, according to your body and your mind. If you feel like doing mantras when you wake up, that's okay.

That's up to you. You don't have to do everything. I love to make a very busy schedule.

My friends know that. But you don't have to. You just do what feels correct to your body and your mind.

You have many things to do. You have the mantra. You have three treasures here.

If my suggestion, in the morning you can, after you do the cleaning meditations, or before, you can do the jorja, the first part of this book, the meditation song. You can sing that. You can recite that.

Just read it through. It's the first thing in this book. Then maybe later in the morning, you can do the second part, which is a thousand angels.

Then in the evening, I like to do lama chupa, the third part of the book. That's a prayer to your lamas. In between there, you do your meditations.

In the morning, I like to do yoga in the morning, but sometimes I like to do it in the afternoon when I feel sleepy. I'll do the yoga in the afternoon instead. Then I feel strong.

Then I can do more meditation. You decide. Or you can do yoga in the morning.

You can do a little bit more yoga in the afternoon. Or you can go for a walk. I suggest you don't walk late in the evening because you might get lost.

This is a very big land. I got lost one day. I live here.

I helped to build this place, but I got lost. It took me about an hour to find my house. Don't go too far.

Try to keep your eye on some building. I think it's very good to walk. It's very good to do walks.

You can do your mantras while you're walking. In the monastery, we do a lot of mantras while we walk. You can walk in a circle in your room, or you can go for a long walk.

Wear your hat, long shirt. If you have sunglasses, that's okay. It should be okay.

In the summer, there are snakes here, but they shouldn't be out yet. Are they out yet? Have you seen any?

No. Okay. Then watch for snakes.

Maybe they will come out for you. Be careful. Be careful where you walk.

Stay on the path. Okay. I thought maybe...

So now you know the five lines. If you look at that mantra, there's one on verse 10, right? There's one before the five.

There's a small one. That's secret. My teacher used to say, that's secret.

You don't need that one this time. That's for people who have initiation. So you don't need that one right now.

All right then. Let's do some more meditations. I mean just from the book.

We don't have a lot of time. We have about half an hour. Tomorrow you're getting up a little bit earlier, and every day a little bit earlier.

We said there are seven meditations to clear away misunderstanding and to gain some knowledge. How many did we finish? What was the first one?

For like very strong wisdom. Hammer wisdom. And we used the holy body.

Second one was for... Yeah, based on holy speech. We used a mantra, miktsema mantra.

And we get very subtle knowledge. The ability to handle many details at once. In Sanskrit they call it shatkarma.

Shatkarma means somebody who can do a hundred things at once. You're like... You don't feel nervous.

You don't feel stressed out. You're like those business people who can do a hundred things at once. And you just feel natural.

You feel smooth. Yeah, do that. No, sell that stuff.

No, build the building. Sell the building. No.

Build, sell. Like that. You feel very calm.

You don't feel nervous. That's the second one. Third one?

Yeah, you're using the seed syllable, Bija. D. And you're going to hear it in your body.

What do you get if you do that one? Being in the body. Being in the body.

[Speaker 2]
Quick decisions. Stop being in the body.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, no more doubts. No more worry about what you're going to do. Anxiety, stress.

You can call it quick decisions. Decisive. Now we've reached number four.

ZHIG PA CHAGS SANG GI SGO NAS Oh, you're at ZHIG PA, B-Z-H-I. ZHIG PA CHAGS SANG GI SGO NAS SA BA'I SHES RAB GDUG PA NI The next wisdom is called deep wisdom. It means ability to see deep into things.

So deeper level of things. Ability to see the deeper level of things. All the time.

When you go back to Tucson to take your airplane back to Beijing or Shanghai or Singapore or Taichung, then, as I said, there are some strange gas stations on the way. You know, what's that place called? Wilcox.

Places like that. Then there are cowboys in those stores. They are like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Some of them still carry a gun. They are our neighbors. It's a long drive.

It's over two hours, I think. So usually I have to go pee pee. So we will stop in the gas station.

I will go inside. There are these little bit rough people there. Then now, if you do number four, if you do number four, and you walk into the gas station on the way to the airport to go pee pee or something like that, and then maybe you will see some guy, he is buying a pen.

Some cowboy. Some rough guy. He is buying a pen.

Or he has a knife and he is putting butter on the bread. And he is holding up this butter knife. Then if you have wisdom number four, you will see Manjushri with his sword.

And other people will see what? The cowboys who got butter. Oh, I want some butter.

But if you practice number four for three days, and then you go to Tucson in the car, and you see some guy with the butter and the bread, and he is holding up his knife, you will see, you will see Manjushri. It means you see the deeper thing. That's number four.

You will see deeper things. Which one is real? The butter knife or Manjushri's sword?

Which one? Is it really a pen or is it really a chiton? Which one?

Yeah, it's both. Is there a cowboy buttering his bread? Yes.

Is there Manjushri? Both are there. Both are there, right?

Which one would you rather meet? I like to meet Manjushri. Cowboys are also okay.

But I would like to meet Manjushri. Both are there. Both are there.

I would like to meet Manjushri. If you want to see deeper, into normal things, do number four. Here's how to do number four.

CHAGS ZIN We are using CHAGS ZIN. Say CHAGS ZIN. CHAGS ZIN CHAGS ZIN means something that the angel holds or wears, which is a special sign.

Something that the angel holds or wears, which is a special sign. Hang on, I got to show you something. Page 90.

How is that? It's small for me. 79?

Is it? Is it? What page is that?

77. Sorry, 77. That's Jimi Hendrix.

What's his CHAGS ZIN? Yeah, it's a guitar. Unusual guitar, why?

He's playing it left-handed. These left-hand guitar players are very suspicious. So that's his CHAGS ZIN.

CHAGS ZIN means a special instrument that he uses. What is Manjushri's? Yeah, a sword.

Mostly a sword. He also has a book and a flower. But mostly the sword.

So in number four, we will use one of the CHAGS ZINs of Manjushri. One of the things that they are holding, which is special for them. CHAGS ZIN GYI SGO NAS SRED PA'I SHES RAB GDUG PA NI MA BDAG PA THUG PA SOGS SNGA GZHIN LA Do the white milk as before.

Always start with the white milk. GDUG GIS GDUG PHRA RAB RNAMS RGYAL TE DANG LAS SPANG KHYAD RNAMS PA DANG Then the white milk pushes out all the black things. Then comes the gold nectar out of Manjushri and it fills up your body.

It starts to fill up your body. Inside of each atom is a little sword. Or it might be his book.

The book looks like this one. Like the book which you saw. That Manjushri is holding.

So inside the atom is a sword or maybe it's a book. So instead of using the mantra or the seed syllable or the holy body, we are using the we say akutummo. They are akutummo.

Then that sword gives you that wisdom to see deeper into things. For example, at the gas station when the cowboy is buttering his toast. You see deeper.

Most people cannot. They only see the visible level. They only see the butter and the toast.

You will see deeper if you do this one. The sword gives you that power and the book gives you that power. What do you think is going to happen next in this meditation?

Yeah, light is going to burst out of each atom. Light is going to burst out of each atom. Golden light.

It will go to all the planets in the universe. Each planet has at least one Manjushri sitting there working, helping people. What will it invite back on golden rays of light?

Yeah, swords. Lots of swords. Lots of books.

They will come back and they will join into the atoms. You have to think, Manjushri gave me a sword. Manjushri gave me a sword.

Many Manjushris gave me a sword. Then sit there with the sword and think about it. This is deeper wisdom.

You can think about people you're going to meet when you go back to Beijing or Xiamen. You can think about your job, people at your job. You can think about your partner that you're going to see again and try to imagine what it will be like to see them on a deeper level.

What will it be like if you see your husband on a deeper level? Try to think about it during that meditation. It's fun.

If somebody allowed you to see a deeper level of your husband or your two girls, two young girls, if you see them suddenly in a different way, what do you think it will look like? Then try to imagine while you're meditating. If you want to see deeper, do this number four.

It's very fun to see your children as Buddhists. It's one of the most fun things in the world. Stupid people always coming to me.

Geshe-la, what? Now my life is ruined. What?

My wife got pregnant. Then I say, you are stupid. Now you have a chance to meet the Buddha.

When that baby comes out, for 20 years you can see them as Buddha. Everything they do. I tell them, send me a list of the strange things that your kids do.

People send me emails all the time. They tell me cool things. Today the baby held up a butter knife and a book.

Then they're like, get it? Get it? They do very unusual things.

You have to watch for it. Then send me some. I like to collect them.

I collect them. Winston, some of you guys know Winston. He bought this land, 1,000 acres.

He bought this land. He put down his name and he put down his money. He didn't have a lot of money.

I asked him to try to find some land during my three-year retreat. He found this land. Then he put his own signature on the land.

He will have to work for the rest of his life to pay for this land. Then he had a baby. That baby was conceived in a tent at the Vipassana Meditation Society building in Massachusetts?

Very Massachusetts. He and his wife couldn't afford to stay in the building. They're like Jesus in the manger.

They stayed in a tent. They told me later that the baby was conceived in a tent during the diamond cutter course, which is pretty cool. Then they brought the baby the first time to the class in New York.

They said, Geshe-la, you have to see the baby. I'm like, okay. They show me, here's the baby.

The baby goes to me like this. It's only two weeks old. I'm like, whoa.

It can be. That can be a lifetime practice. It's not for everybody.

My Lama, he had two main students. He let me be a mom. He told the other one, you have to have a baby.

That one had an extraordinary life. He's a great teacher now. His baby is 30 years old or something like that.

He learned, his education was baby. My education was monastery. I think we both are very happy.

You can use it for that. You want to do one more? Okay.

We'll do one more. Number five. What you use in number five is the book.

You can use the book in number four, but the sword is better. But number five, you have to use the book. So it's a book.

It's called the meditation of the book. SNGAGS PA LAS SPAM GYI SGO NAS BYAS PA'I SHES RAB SGRUB TSUL NI The text has a mistake. It should be LAS SPAM.

LAS SPAM means a book. The apostrophe AM should be BAM. It's a mistake in the text.

LAS SPAM GYI SGO NAS BYAS PA'I SHES RAB SGRUB TSUL NI This is the one you should do if you want to become a teacher. DCI teacher, ACI teacher. You want to teach other people these things, you should do number five.

Tonight I met Vivian Lee from Shenzhen. You have to do this one. That's number five.

Teaching power. SNGAGS PA LAS SPAM GYI SGO NAS BYAS PA'I SHES RAB SGRUB TSUL NI MA BDAG PA GRUB PA You do the same cleaning with the white milk. Clean out the body.

SNGAGS BZHIN LA BSDUS KYI BDU PHYIR THAMS CAD GANG PHYIR GYUR LAS SPAM GYI RNAM PAR DANG Then the gold nectar comes into your body and inside of each atom is a book. That's the book you want to explain. So if you're going to teach, on Friday I have to teach you Wheel of Life from Abhidharma.

So for three days I should think that Abhidharma book is in my atoms of my nectar. Or if you're in Mexico City and you're going to teach some business people DCI level four, then you have to see the DCI level four retreat manual is in each atom. I'm not kidding.

Whatever you want to teach, SHING CING, CING GANG CING, LTA'OGS LTA'OGS, PHAD CANG LTA'OGS, MING DGOS MING, PHAD CANG MING, what you are teaching, LTA'OGS CING, you see it inside the atom. What book you are teaching, you see it inside the atom. It's up to you.

What you want to teach next. And it will change every time, every week. It's going to be the next class you're teaching.

,'DI'I PHYIR GROL PHRAG RANG THAMS CAD GANG, ,MA'I SPANG GI RNAM PA DANG, ,RGYAL BA ZAD CIG GI, ,PHYI DANG PHRAD DAG PHRAD PA LA, ,THOB PA MED PA'I KHYAD PA SPANG GI LTAR NA, ,SOGS PA'I SNANG GI PHRAD PA ZHES RAB, ,THAMS CAD DGOS DRAG LA LTAG PA, ,MA'I SPANG GI RNAM PA CAN DANG, This time when you send out the yellow light, you invite all the holy books in the universe. All the good books in the universe. There's a lot.

On this planet there are 4,600 holy books from India survived. 990 were spoken by the Buddha. In Shizang there are 200,000 books written from Song Dynasty up to Qing Dynasty.

About 200,000 books. That's in this world. But there are many worlds.

So all of those books are coming into you. There are many, many books. All of them are coming into you.

And there are nice books from other traditions. The Koran, many parts of the Koran are very beautiful. Bible, Old Testament, these things.

You can invite them. Come into your body. Cool.

And then that power. Stay with that power. Hold it.

Think about it. And it's improving your ability to teach. It's changing your mind.

I used to go to... What's that place? Bahamas.

There's a center, Shivananda Center. They are very good about inviting all other religions to come and talk. Their lama, 50 years ago, Vishnu Devananda, he started to invite people from other religions to come.

There was one guy. He's a black Christian minister from Bahamas. He used to come to give a talk.

He was 95 or something. When I met him, he was 95. He was still doing headstands and stuff like that.

The swami taught him how to do headstands. He never has any preparation. He just gets up and he gives a talk.

Very beautiful talk. He never has any papers. Then I asked him, how do you give those beautiful talks and you don't have any notes?

How do you prepare your talk? You probably sit in front of the mirror at home for three hours and practice and then you put the paper down and run to the ashram and give the talk. He said, no, no, you don't understand.

I just pray for my lord. His lama, a Christian lama. I just pray to my lama.

Put something in me tonight. I don't know what I'm going to say five minutes before. I just know how to ask the lama.

I just know how to ask for the blessing. Then I don't know what I'm going to say. Then when I get up, something happens and it comes to me.

Like that. He also studied for 60 years. That also helps.

Teaching is not something you can plan. It doesn't matter. You prepare many books.

You study many things and like that. It's all seeds. Just plant the seed.

How do you plant the seed? I have many, many students who became teachers. Many of them are very good teachers.

They asked me, Geshe-la, what's the seed to become a teacher? What do you think is the seed to be a successful teacher? What do you think is the way to have many students come to your class and listen to you?

Help the other student to advertise their program. Help the other people to... If you are in Shanghai, help the Guangzhou team.

If you are in Taipei, help the Beijing team. Like that. Help the other teams to have successful program.

That's the only way. You have to plant the seed. All the Chinese organizers, they know this.

They are always cooperating with each other. It's very nice. It's not like that in America.

You are the best, as usual. The China people are helping each other. The teams are all helping each other.

Then all the programs are successful. Like that. That's the seed to be a successful teacher.

To help other people's programs. All of my students are running around. They are doing the advertising for the other students.

They are paying the rent at the Three Jewels in New York. Other people can come and teach. Things like that.

This meditation will help. We have about five minutes. You are very sleepy.

You had a long day. You made a lot of dharmas. Tomorrow you have to make the boundary markers.

Earl is going to help you. I decided to change the boundary. Because many of us are staying in the campground.

It's not good to make the boundary at the opening of the valley. We are going to make the boundary at this gate. Of the Diamond Mountain Gate.

The front gate. That way all of us will have protection. All of us will be inside of the boundary.

We will have the boundary ceremony at the front gate. That way all the people in the campground are covered in the Tsam. Then Adam, some crazy young man or woman, is going to run up Tara Mountain.

How long does it take? It takes you about an hour, right? Take me six days.

He will go to the top of the big mountain. He will put a protector marker. Then somebody has to do this little mountain, which is Makala Mountain.

This one in front of here. Then I will do the one at the front gate. I will walk all the way.

Then we need somebody. Somebody will put one near the two boots gate. Then that will be the...

These are the four directions of our trapezoid. Jerome will explain it to Earl. We will have four big boundary markers.

Then you will have one on your door. Any questions for the three-minute question? I told Mark he could ask me one.

Is it that one? Go ahead. Then I will get the other one.

Regarding what we were discussing earlier, I was wondering whether or not there was a difference in the karma that you are purifying that relates to a habituated pattern or some sort of an addiction versus a one-time occurrence in your life. Yeah, good. When you are cleaning a bad seed, there are two kinds of cleaning.

One is to clean the bad seed which you remember you did. I remember what I did when I was, I don't know, 20 years old. I remember.

I can clean that seed because I remember I did it. I did some bad things. Then I remember them and I can clean those seeds.

That's cleaning a seed which you remember. You can also clean a seed which you don't remember. I don't remember how I planted it.

Let's say, for example, I have an addiction to alcohol or television or cell phone or pornography or anything like that. Let's say I have an addiction and I don't remember what I did to cause that addiction. I have a, the result of the seed came to me.

I have an addiction to one of those things. But I don't remember that I made someone else addiction. I don't remember none.

Then in this case, you have to use detective work. You have to be, use logic. I have addiction to alcohol or I have addiction to food.

Then it must be I hurt somebody in the past with alcohol or food. I encouraged somebody. I had a terrible, terrible, terrible thing happen to me.

My friend, I know one guy, his name, I won't tell you his name. I know him since third grade. We were in third grade together.

We were nine years old together. Now we are 62 or something. That was 53 years ago.

We met each other 53 years ago. We went to the same schools, high school, elementary school. Then I was doing a retreat in Flagstaff and I asked him, I sent him a message, could you buy me some groceries because I cannot go out and I forgot something.

He wrote me. He said, yes, sure, I'll be happy to get something for you. He brought it to me.

He drove a long way from Phoenix and he brought me this thing. Then we were talking and I said, how's your life been for the last 50 years? He's like, not so good Geshe-la.

I'm like, well, what happened? He said, this year I lost my wife. I lost my house.

I lost my job. I said, what happened? He says, I have addiction to alcohol.

I lost everything. Police took my car. I had many accidents.

Then my wife got tired. She left me. I have to sell the house because she said I want my half.

Then I said, when did it start? He said, it started in high school when we were friends. It was in high school.

I had my first drink in high school. I said, where? He said, Geshe-la, you gave me my first drink.

Then I felt so bad. You see, that's a seed for addiction. I gave him the first drink.

We were 16 years old or something. I was in a party. I said, here, have some beer or something.

I felt so terrible when he said that. In that case, if I have an addiction to food or something, I know why. I know when I planted the seed.

I can work on that seed. I can clean it. But if you have an addiction and you don't remember that you gave somebody a beer at a party, you don't remember anything.

You can use logic. That's why we debate. That's why we study logic.

If I have an addiction, I must have done something much smaller and I must have encouraged someone else to have an addiction. Maybe I gave them a lot of alcohol or maybe I gave them bad food or like that. You don't have to remember how you planted the seed.

With logic, you can see that planting as clearly as you can see it with your eyes or your memory. In Buddhism, we say there's no difference between remembering giving someone their first drink and deducing logic. You must have given someone their first drink even though you don't remember.

We say watching yourself giving someone their first drink, whether you remember it or whether you figure out you must have done it, the perception of that first drink is the same. They're both equally valid. Both correct.

You can work on a seed that you have in your mind with these three days of meditation even if you don't remember that you planted it because you must have planted it. That's the long answer to a short question. I think we only have negative two minutes and Serbia should ask a question.

Okay, Marina. Then we'll go home. Tomorrow you wake up half an hour earlier and every day it gets worse.

[Speaker 2]
I have a question. We learn so many different meditations here and we have so many tools. I'm just wondering, after we're back home, what do you think is the best thing to do?

Use the meditation based on the need that we have and the problem that we work on or is it good to switch them so often or should we maybe practice one and get good at it and then go to something else? I like them all and I can see myself wanting to use them all but I'm not sure if it's like a weekly basis, daily basis or how do we spread out that?

[Speaker 1]
Good question. You have to balance between two things. One is you get bored if you do the same thing every day.

You will get bored. You'll say, I'm tired of doing this one. The other extreme is you keep changing it all the time and you don't get good at it.

These are the two extremes. One is you keep doing the same one every day. You get tired of it.

You stop thinking about it. It becomes boring. It becomes rote.

You are not thinking about it anymore. It's like knowing one song and playing it over and over again. Then the other extreme is you try to learn ten songs every week and you don't learn any of them.

You keep doing that week after week. These are the two extremes. You have to be somewhere in the middle.

I usually tell people, I think one month is a good amount of time to do one kind of meditation. Stick to one object for one month until you get pretty good at it and then you can switch to another one. That's generally a good way to do it.

It's like yoga, asana. It's better if you can do it with other people. Other people will support you.

When I came back from my first time in the monastery, I came back to my family home in Phoenix and I said, I'm going to meditate every day at four o'clock. My goenka taught me how to do. The second day I stopped doing it.

You need Dharma friends. You need Dharma friends. You are lucky you are here with other friends.

Then get together at least once or twice a week. If you're near Stanley or near Allison or other Jessica, Vivian from Guangzhou, then meet with them. Meditate together two times a week, something like that.

Then you can keep a good habit. It's like asana. Your yoga you should try to do with other people twice a week or something like three times a week if you can do it with other people.

Then on the day that you feel lazy, if I'm doing it with Bertha, then on Tuesday I'll say, I don't feel like doing it today. On Tuesday she feels like doing it. Then she will say, no, you have to do it Geshe-la.

Then on Thursday she say, I don't feel like doing it. Then I say, no, I feel like doing it. Then she will have to do it.

Then if you have a friend, it's better to work together. Do your meditation with somebody else. Find other people.

Nowadays you can also Skype. You can do practice by Skype together with people. It's okay.

There was a big problem. When was that? 800 years ago.

People started to print the book. The Jingang Jing is the oldest printed book in the world. The Chinese edition of the Jingang Jing, I think it's 878 AD, 1200 years ago.

It was the first book printed with a woodblock. Then many people got upset. This is very bad.

This woodblock printing, it's very lazy. We should write our books. Everyone should write their books.

This is so stupid. This modern thing, woodblock printing, it's so lazy. It's not good.

People said that. Now everybody uses the printed book. Everybody.

If I say, please copy this book by hand and bring it tomorrow, you'll say, well, you're crazy. Skype is the same. Teaching Dharma by internet is the same.

It's okay. Your children won't use paper books at all. I tell you that.

They will think you're crazy. Mom, why are you using this paper book? It's such a waste of time.

Just use Kindle or something. So don't be old fashioned. You can use Skype, it's okay.

It's better in person. It's better. But if you don't have a chance, then do with other people.

Try to do something with other people. Jigme is teaching the people in Taiwan, I think once a week by Skype. That's fine.

If you don't have a local teacher, then okay, later you'll become the local teacher. We don't need Jigme. Then she and me can retire.

Last thing. Last thing. But, there's a but.

But, you will never be a good meditator. You will never be a good yoga practitioner. You will never be a good Buddhist if you are not a tough guy and you do it yourself every day, in your home.

The kids are screaming, it's too hot, the air conditioner broke, you are very tired, you couldn't sleep last night, and you just say, I'm doing it. In the end, you have to come to that place. Don't depend on anybody.

Stanley said, I'm quitting Buddhism. I got offered to be a movie star. Could happen.

Then you say, okay Stanley, good luck. But I'm doing my practice every day. I don't care.

If everybody around you quit, everybody around you say you are crazy, you are tired, you are sick, your life is a disaster, your husband left you, you lost all your money, you broke your leg, get up, do your meditation. Next morning. Nothing can stop.

In the end, finally, you have to be like that, or you will never be successful. Start with other people. Start with support group.

Use the support group for your whole life, if it's available. But in the end, never miss your practice. Doesn't matter.

If other people don't do it, say, I'm sorry, I have to go. We were in Singapore. I heard this beautiful song by Jackie Chan.

How does it go? Endless love. But how does it go?

Anyway, I love this song. Chi Peng taught me this song. Then he said there's a movie, Geshe-la.

Then I said, oh my god, I have to see a movie. What's it called? The Myth.

It's not such a good movie, but I love it. Then I made a plan. All of us will take a two-hour break on the tour.

We will have a big breakfast together. We paid the hotel for extra room. We paid for extra breakfast.

Scott got the video all prepared. I said, everybody be here at 10 o'clock. Everybody came and we enjoyed.

We saw the movie. It's a very deep movie. It's a Dharma movie.

But Kendra didn't come. Where's Ben? He's not come either.

I'm praising his wife. Tell him later. She didn't come to see the movie or have breakfast.

Then I was a little bit upset. What's wrong? She said, Geshe-la, I'm sorry, I had to do my yoga.

She didn't come. She said, I have to do my yoga. All the teachers and her teacher went to watch a movie.

She said, I'm sorry, I have to do my yoga. In the end, we have to be like that. In the end, you will have to be tough and independent.

On the way, you need to have a group. You need to have support from other people. To get that habit.

Good? That's my long answer. Stanley, will you do this thing?

Ready? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Bhūni dharmāja Okay, good.