«Дар освобождения», курс 18 «Ретрит внутри ретрита», занятие 8

[Speaker 1]
Let's look at the schedule. Today at 4.15, we will start the ceremony. We just walk there from here.

I will walk there. We can walk together. We will have a pee-pee break after the class, some relaxed time.

Then we will walk to this gate. And I will tell you, this is what we're going to do. This is a special ceremony.

I want to tell you about it today. I'll tell you about it today. Then at 6 to 7, you have dinner in your own cottage.

Then at 7 o'clock, we just do some light mantras, nothing heavy. You're going to be tired. We do some light mantras called, who has helped me, contemplations.

So you do mantras, miktsema, migme tseway tar chen, and you think about the people in your life who helped you. That's all. At 8 o'clock tonight, you'll take a little break.

Those breaks, I really enjoy those breaks. I make a nice Chinese tea, and I just sit down in my room, in a chair, not on the floor, because my knees hurt. Then I just enjoy it.

I think about my life. During these three days, think about your life. Maybe there are some changes you want to make in your life.

You decide. So those tea breaks are very good times for thinking about your future. This can change your life.

Many, many people who did three-day retreat changed their life. They took a different road in their life, because they have three days to think about their life. Usually you're so busy living your life, you don't have time to think about your life.

So maybe you want to make some changes in your life. So that's the time. Keep a little book with you.

Write down things you want to change in your life. After retreat, read them, and believe what the guy said, whose mind was more clear. 10 o'clock lights out.

Please be very strict. Oh, you'll do a small meditation before that. That will be golden room.

I'm going to teach you today. Golden room, tonight at 8.30. Then please go to bed by 10. Be in bed by 10.

It's very important in the retreat. This land is very, very big. This land is 6,000 mu.

1,000 acres. But still, because it's so quiet, you can hear your neighbor. If your neighbor is playing cowboy songs, mind your own business, then everybody's going to hear it.

So please be quiet for your neighbors. When you open the door, hold the door, put it back quietly. You can hear everything, okay?

If you're going to have an argument with somebody in your house, then go like that. Don't yell, okay? All right.

Tuesday, I'm going to wake up a little bit earlier. You'll be waking up around the time of the sun, okay? And 7 o'clock we'll start the jor chu, which is the first book in the Three Treasures, okay?

So you can read the jor chu. And then at 7.30, bad seed cleaning meditation. How many parts in that meditation?

Three, good, okay. Yen de, men de, pung de. Okay, nice.

8.15 to 9.30 yoga, okay? You don't have to do yoga. If you want to do something else, some people do tai chi, some people do qigong, okay?

What do you like you can do, okay? Something for exercise. 9.30 have your breakfast. 10.15 free time. 11 o'clock start the Thousand Angels recitation, which is the second thing in your prayer book, okay? Small, it's only a few pages.

And during that time do... The biggest wish meditation means how many parts? How many possible parts?

Seven, and then you decide. Two or three. I still have to teach you two more, I think, right?

12 o'clock, you can do some yoga stretching. That's nice. Just do slow stretching.

It's very nice when your legs are sore, like that, okay? Just some... What do they call it?

Yin yoga, right? Hold the pose for ten breaths or twenty breaths, okay? And that's good for your heart.

Stretch your legs, okay? 12.30, mantras, and that will include who has helped me in contemplation, okay? Every time you do the mantras, think about who helped you, okay?

1.30 to 2.30, walk outside. You're going to take a... If you like, okay?

You can walk inside if you want to walk inside, okay? Don't forget your hat. Don't forget to take some sunscreen, okay?

If you're like Irish person, I'm Irish, okay? If I go outside there, I will look like bright red in 20 minutes, okay? And it's not good for your skin.

So, take some sunscreen. If you need sunscreen, talk to Earl, okay? Take water with you.

Keep a building in sight, okay? Never go where you cannot see a building, okay? And watch for snakes.

Snakes aren't all awake yet. They are just waking up. Somebody saw one yesterday, okay?

So, there's not many, okay? I don't think you will meet one. But where you put your feet, watch where you put your feet, okay?

Just be smart. Don't go barefoot, okay? Wear some good shoes, okay?

They don't want to bite you because you are too big to eat. They don't have teeth. They have to swallow what they bite.

They have to swallow it. You are too big to swallow. They don't want to bite you, okay?

But if you step on them, they don't have choice, okay? Just watch where you put your feet, okay? 2.30, light snack, which is about six yotels. 3 o'clock, bad seed cleaning meditation. So, we will do the whole thing twice every day, okay? Bad seed cleaning meditation.

3.45, take a yoga break, small yoga break. 4.15, mantras. 5.15, supper. 6.15, biggest wish meditation. Then you have an hour of free time. You can keep your journal, right?

Ideas for the rest of your life, okay? And then 8.15, golden room meditation. And 9 o'clock is optional, but you can go outside and look at the stars.

Dress warm, okay? It's not very cold here, but it's important to keep warm, okay? During meditation, it's important to keep warm.

So, put on a good jacket and go outside and look at the stars, okay? You don't need to walk, okay? Just look at the stars.

The snakes come out at night also, okay? Why? They like mouses.

And the mouses come out at night, okay? And bedtime at 10 o'clock. Wednesday is the same.

Thursday is the same. Let's go to Friday. So, Friday, still wake up early, and then do some of your mantras, any meditation you want.

And then at 7.30, the trucks will be ready to bring you down to here. And we have a snack. And then we will go to this gate again, and we will open.

There's a small ceremony for opening the gate. And then we can start the lam rim again, which we were supposed to be doing, but we did a little retreat. And in the afternoon, we'll start the Wheel of Life from Vasubandhu.

How do you say Vasubandhu in Zhongguan? Su Jing. Okay, he's very famous.

Very great. Very popular in China many centuries ago. He's like number one popular Buddhist writer in China.

And that's all, okay? So, let's practice the golden rim meditation. You'll be doing it last thing at night.

Venerable Jigme is recording these meditations, and if you want, you can get a copy from her before you start your retreat. And you can listen to it the first day or the second day, until you know it. It's on a flash disk.

Try not to use your computers. You can use them for listening to the meditations, but don't watch the internet or things like that. It's up to you how good you want your retreat to be.

If you're doing WeChat the whole time, I'm not going to spy in your room and grab you, okay? But your retreat won't be so good. So, it's up to you.

You are all adults. None of you are kids. It's up to you.

If you want a good retreat, don't use your electronic things, except to listen to the meditations or something. It's up to you. In our retreat, in my three-year retreat, we had electronics for one night, out of one thousand nights.

And we tried to watch a Harry Potter movie for Christmas or something, and the computer broke. Okay, we have a celebration. Three books have come.

You ready? These are very old books. These are 40 years old.

I don't remember. Anyway, these were my teacher's first two books. One is how to offer the mandala offering, and the other is about how to do the thousand angels practice.

They found some old boxes of them, and we have enough for everybody. I'd like to thank Tim for working on that, and Venerable Jigme also. I'm happy to say the Chinese Three Treasures came just now.

Who worked on that, Stanley? You worked on it, and Allison? Okay, I'd like to give them a hand again.

There's a beautiful Mexican lady named Gina, and Pau is going to give her three hugs for us for the Three Treasures, okay? Thank you for that. She worked many hours, many, many hours to finish all the books.

Can we hand those out? Do you have that? We have one more job, and then if you have some small questions we can do.

We're also going to hand out a nice picture of Majesri, because that's going to be inside the atoms in your body, right? That's going to be inside of each atom in your body. Maybe later we can translate those two small books into Chinese.

Let's take a vote. Can I have one Manjushri also? Thank you.

So you can see the sword, and the book is on top of the lotus flower, okay? So when you have the book inside your body, it'll look like that. And then there's the lotus flower.

If you want to be a more calm person, more patient person, make everything color a little bit white, okay? If you want to be a more confident person, more generous person, more outgoing person, make everything gold, like this is gold color. By the way, we never point to an image like this.

Your Lama will hit you, so you always go like this. Tradition, it's tradition. And we never put a book on the floor, okay?

We put something under it, okay? Like you can put a piece of cloth, or your sweater is okay, underneath. Then you can put on the floor, but put something underneath, okay?

This is tradition. And we never step over them, okay? And we never step on them, okay?

This is a tradition, okay? Okay. We can have a few questions, but before that, we're going to do, at 4, 4.15, we will do a small ceremony to close the area. We close the Tsam. We close the border. We close the gate.

This road is owned by the United States government. We cannot close it, okay? Because there's a very, there's a historical place over here.

It's an old fort. So they built, they own the road through our property, and we're not allowed to close the gate. But we are happy because they fix the road every year, and we don't have to pay anything.

Also, you should know that the government, American government, is very strict about environment, ecology of this area, this desert. So all of the land behind the retreat cottages, all of the land that way, that is not our land. That is owned by the government, okay?

And there are rules about using that land. So we are allowed to walk on that land. It's okay.

And it's for people to use. So anybody in America can go there. They can spend, I think, up to five days camping like that.

And it's for everybody to enjoy. It's American law, okay? Everybody can enjoy that land.

Nobody can live there. Nobody can stay there. And you're allowed to walk there.

But the plants in the desert are very fragile. They don't get much water, okay? Even the flowers, if the flower grows in Shanghai, it will be this big.

If you put the same flower here, it will be this big. Those flowers are how they make babies. Those plants use the flower to make baby.

The flower will send out some powder and people with allergies will suffer, like me. So we never pick the flowers in the desert, okay? Because otherwise, what?

There will be no more babies. So they don't have chance to have babies very often. Only a few times a year.

So the flower means they are trying to have a baby. The boy flower is sending out some powder and the girl flower is trying to catch it. So if you pick it, they won't have any family.

And so, if you see a small flower, even a very small flower, just in your mind, you can offer it to Tsongkapa, or to your teacher, or to your mother, okay? In your mind. But don't pick the flower, okay?

And we are not allowed to change anything in the government land. You are not allowed to take the stones, or take the flowers, or not allowed to take the plants, okay? If they see you, they will give you a fine.

I think $100 or something. But we are supposed to respect this rule, okay? So respect that land.

You can walk on it, but don't change it, okay? They say, when a Buddhist person crosses the land that's owned by the people, it should be like the wind crossing that land. No changes, okay?

Because it's for everybody, okay? It's very strict, okay? It's a good, I like it.

It's a good custom, okay? Alright, when we go to the gate, so we are not going to close the gate with a metal door. We are going to close the gate with a spiritual door, okay?

Then that's stronger than a metal door, okay? So it means nothing, negative things cannot come in. And we are not supposed to go out.

If there's an emergency, you can go out, okay? When I did my three-year retreat, one lady got a snake bite here. One half of the tooth here.

Then we had to take her to the hospital just to check, and then she came back. So that's okay. That's no problem.

But from our side, we should think, I'm going to stay here for three days, or three years, and I'm not going out, okay? I'm not going to go outside. We had a very beautiful retreat in Karen Becker.

How old is she? 80? 74?

70-something. She had a heart problem. She did a three-year retreat.

During the retreat, she had a heart problem. We took her to the hospital. It's a one-hour or something.

She's like, how long is this going to take? They said, well, we have to change something here. She said, well, hurry up!

And they did it. I think she came back in 24 hours. 48 hours.

Then she said, I have to go. I have to go back. And she came back.

She had an operation and came back. So we should be tough like that, okay? So we will close the door today with a ceremony.

Some lamas like to do a ceremony, you know, like that, okay? Then we don't know what they are saying. Maybe they are saying, I like the movies.

I don't know. So, I like to tell you what's going on in this ceremony. So you know what's going on.

Otherwise, the ceremony is a little boring for me. I don't know what they are saying. I don't know what they are doing.

So, I'm going to just go through the ceremony with you. Then later, I will do ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, okay? Alright.

This ceremony is called A Million Blessings of Diamond. A Million Blessings of Diamond. This is a ceremony for closing the door.

It's old. Then there's a list of... We translated this for the advanced course.

You can get it later. But there's a list of things that you need. There's about 20 things that you need to do the ceremony.

Like a bell, special incense, special vase, special yo jau, torma, and things like that. Then there's a traditional... You prepare your mind.

Before the ceremony, you prepare your mind. Mainly, you try to think of bodhichitta. Bodhichitta.

It means, I'm doing this retreat to help everybody in the world. This is what I do. I'm trying to help everybody in the world.

If you keep thinking like that, then one day it will come true. You can help the whole world. DCI is very exciting.

We are going to, I don't know, many countries around the world. We are helping all kinds of strange people. Last month was Arab and Muslim people.

Before that, we were in Russia. Before that, we were in South America. Before that, we were in China, Singapore, Taiwan.

If you keep praying to help all the people in the world, then one day it will come true. So this Diamond Mountain, it's a little place in the middle of the desert. But it is touching the whole world.

We are touching the whole world. Almost all the countries we are touching. So you have to think like that.

This is virus production facility. We are making viruses here. So you have to think about that when we close the gate.

When we close the gate, we are closing the gate so we can produce a virus, spiritual virus, that infects everybody. Then everybody starts to be nice to each other. That's the goal.

So that will be the first part of the ceremony. Then at that time, you have to think you are not just a person from Shanghai or Guadalajara. You are like a world changer person.

You are changing the world. By sitting for three days, or a thousand days, by yourself, here, quiet, you are changing the world. Like that.

Then you will hear a lot of mantras. A lot of the mantras inside there, you will hear the word khanda rohi. Say khanda.

Rohi. Khanda rohi. Khanda rohi is a very tough, probably Chinese lady.

She is an angel, a special angel, but tough. She is very beautiful, but she is very tough. She is a special Buddha.

Like an angel. She protects retreaters. She protects the retreat.

Her name is khanda rohi. We will do some prayers. You will hear her mantra.

I will sing some songs to her. We will make some offerings to her. We will ask her, please tough lady, stay here for three days and protect our retreat.

Is she protecting us from bears and snakes? It's partly, it's okay. But that's not the most dangerous thing.

The most dangerous thing is in here. Oh, I don't like the food. It's not very tasty.

I wonder if they can get some better food. I'm thinking about, my credit card is really bad. So you are thinking about other things.

She is protecting us from those things. Those are worse than snakes and bears. Those are inner snakes and bears.

Her job is two things. She protects the physical place, and then she protects the mental place. There was a fire here during the three years retreat.

It burned miles and miles and miles. A huge fire. It burned many, many, many miles.

It's reaching this place, Diamond Mountain. Huge fire. It reached all up to the top of the sky.

Many miles. Big fire. They cannot stop it.

Nobody can stop it. So we got ready. We got some cars ready, buses.

We will take the retreatants out of retreat. We told them, be ready to run. We talked to the government.

Can you stop it? No. Then we got ready.

Then you could see the fire from the retreat. And it stopped by itself. Just stopped.

Right there, across that mountain. So, it's good to get to know Khandro-Rohi. The government is like, what happened?

And I'm like, don't worry about it. We will make some offerings. We bribe her with a nice torma cake.

I don't like the taste of torma cake much, but she likes it. We do her mantra. She has a special mantra.

You can learn it later. We make a special blessing water to bless the place. Then we offer, again we offer some torma, or some yau tau to the local spirits.

They are not Buddhas. Khandro-Rohi is a Buddha. These local spirits are just kind of people who died, and they don't know where to go, and they're a little bit upset.

They can bother us. So then we try to give them some cookies and things, the same. They don't eat the cookie.

They eat the intention of the cookie. But they are very hungry because nobody believes in them. So nobody gave them intentions for many years.

Then we came here, and they're very happy. Somebody's paying attention to me. Someone's giving me the intention of a cookie, and that's the food for them.

So they're happy. When we do it, they're happy, and they will help us. They can come as birds or things like that.

We had a couple of birds in my three-year retreat. They're called tau hi. Meep!

Meep! Meep! Meep!

There's a couple of birds. One sounds like a Hollywood movie director. He's like, Come here.

Come here. Come here. Then, really, then one is a tau hi.

I think the tau hi is a dead person who died here. They go, Meep! Meep!

Then we got to know them. They bring their babies to show us their babies. They love us, and we feed them.

Then one day, they are going crazy. They're on the fence, and they're like, Meep! Meep!

Meep! We're like, what's going on? They're like, Meep!

Meep! We're like, what? Then we found a big snake inside.

They were giving us a warning. Those spirits can show us a bird or like that. We have to be nice to them.

Five snakes, actually. That's pretty cool. Then there's a very beautiful prayer about we hope that the energy from our retreat will help the whole world.

Make everybody happy. Then we give away the good karma of the retreat. We decide we are going to give away the good karma.

There are some Buddhas called protector Buddhas. They are like the Mafia. Buddha Mafia.

They are tough guys. They're called the TRO'I WANG PO, TRO'O means tough guy Buddhas. We will invite them.

There's ten of them. It's good to have them helping you also. They are very tough guys, and they can stop any negative things.

There's a little part in here for them. Then the most important part is called DEN GTOB DEN GTOB means act of truth. You should know about it.

There's an old tradition in Hindu and also Buddhist in India. Ganges River is very, very big. If you cross a bridge on the Ganges River, sometimes it's three kilometers.

The bridge. It's unbelievable. That river is unbelievable.

You can stand on the side of that river. A holy person, a good person, they can stand on the side of that river, and they can make an act of truth. DEN GTOB It means they can say like this, If it's true I didn't get upset at anybody for one year, then for one hour this river should flow backwards, and the river will change.

It's a power of truth. You can do that sometimes. If it's true I didn't get upset at anybody for the last one minute, then I should get a nice snack after the class.

Something like that. Do it each day. It's an easy one.

But in the middle here, we will do an act of truth. I will tell you when it comes. When it comes, you have to think in your mind, If it's true, I'm going to do a three day retreat to help the world.

I cannot keep my motivation pure every minute. It's not possible. Okay?

Sometimes I will just think about how I'm going to tell my friend in Shanghai how cool I am to sit in retreat. Sometimes bad motivation will come. But mainly, we are doing this retreat to help other people.

If it's true that mainly I'm trying to help other people, most of the time, then this retreat should be peaceful. No problems. No obstacles.

Like that. We will do an act of truth in the middle. During the act of truth, keep your mind, mainly I'm doing this to help other people.

I will have many other bad motivations. Not bad, but just little motivations. I hope everyone here's idea is a three day retreat.

Like that. But the main motivation is for other people. I want to help my parents.

I want to help my friends. The world. Like that.

I'll tell you when that comes. Then we'll do a special mantra. It's called OM GSUM PA NI GSUM PA HUNG HUNG When I go like OM GYI GANG NA GYI GANG NA HUNG HUNG When we do that, we are putting up the wall, spiritual wall around me.

So you will know when I start doing this. Three year retreatants know all this. If you want to join me at that time, please.

That's good. Also, one of the three year retreatants, Ben, can you raise your hand? He agreed to stay for three days after the retreat, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

He's going to teach Course 13, some of the course, ACI Course 13. 13 is the course about how to think clearly and how to question with debating. You don't have to go like this.

The really tough debaters, they're like, you think so? They are very cool. They are not like, He will teach you both ways.

If you have time for three days. If you have many questions, you can talk to him. He's a very good teacher.

Coffee teacher. You have coffee together and talk about, relax, eat a yotel, talk about dharma. This is a very pleasant kind of class.

Then we will set up some spiritual fire. Wall of fire. You can't see it, but the negative spirits can see it.

We will start a big fire. It will burn for three days around this place. Nobody can come in.

That reaches under the ground and it reaches over the sky. It's like a bank vault. Protect you.

Protect us. Then when we are almost finished, there will be a separate part and you should do this at your own cabin. At your own cottage.

I will stop the ritual at the gate at this page. Then the rest you have to do in your own cabin. One of them is on your meditation cushion.

For your meditation cushion. Choose your meditation cushion. If you need one, can they borrow one from here?

Rob, it's okay? Bring it back. Bad karma to steal temple meditation cushion.

If you don't have a good cushion, there are some here. You can do miksema mantra. You put your hands on the cushion and you do the mantra.

miksema miksema miksema miksema miksema miksema miksema miksema miksema miksema miksema For this one. Then you will put the marker, door marker, on the outside of your door. Put a lot of thumbtacks.

It shouldn't fall down in the wind. We have very good wind here. It will knock you down.

So, put the marker on the outside. You have thumbtacks, right? Okay.

A lot of tacks to keep it there. Because it shouldn't fall down. We put it on the outside of the door.

It means anybody coming there, if they are Buddhists, they know I can't knock on this door. These people are doing retreat. There are special mantras on that samtho.

They also stop the spirits, negative spirits. So, keep that on your door. You made one or four?

Okay. So you can put in the four directions of your house. Sometimes it's a challenge to find some place to put them.

That's your problem. Okay. Then when you get into your cottage, after you put up the four, okay, then come into your cottage.

You should have a small cup of water. The last thing you have to do is bless yourself. You should bless yourself.

So, you can do the miktsema mantra on this water three times. Say it three times, and then blow on the water. Blow on the water.

Okay, three times mantra, blow on the water. Small cup of water. Then use your ring finger, touch the water.

Then om ah hung, om ah hung, om ah hung. Three times. You can do it here also, it's the same.

Either one. Om, ah hung, om ah hung, om ah hung. Then third time, om ah hung, om ah hung, om ah hung.

After you do that, you should try not to talk for three days. Keep silence for three days, if you can. If you have to communicate to the staff or to somebody else, you can write a note.

So make sure you have some paper and a pen. But it's better if you don't. After you do the om ah hung three times, then that should be the last word for three days.

And that will bless you. That will bless your body. So try not to talk after that.

If you talk after that, you will lose prana. You will lose prana. Chi.

It's up to you. I'm not going to kick you out or tie you up, but your retreat will not be so powerful. So it's up to you.

It doesn't help to whisper also. It's the same thing. I'm not talking.

Yeah, me too. It's the same thing. It doesn't matter.

You might as well yell. You're still losing prana. So for three days, try to keep comfortable silence.

Not like police. It's a happy silence. It's like the first time you went with your boyfriend or girlfriend to the movie in Shanghai or Buenos Aires, at some point you stop talking and other things are happening.

And if you talk, then it's strange. Hi. Wait, I'm kissing you.

Just be quiet. So retreat is like that. It's a time for happy quiet.

Happy quiet. When you're having really close to another person, you don't need to talk. You can just sit together and enjoy the nature and the trees and the ocean and things like that.

When you're very close, you don't need to talk. If you don't talk, you will hear many things. You can hear the birds talking.

You can understand their language a little bit. Like that. You can hear things in the wind.

Maybe you will hear Buddha in the wind. If you talk, then you can't hear it. I encourage you not to talk.

That's all. At the end of the retreat, before you come down to get in the car to come back here, then you should offer another small dharma. You can use cookies or anything you like.

Something you like. Put it in a small cup. Take it outside.

It's a thank you dharma. Thank you cookie. We call it dang rak.

Dang rak means thank you cookie. Who are you thanking? Who are you thanking?

Kendra Rohi and the ten mafia Buddhas. You are thanking them. Thank you.

I had a good retreat. Please come back next time I come to Diamond Mountain. Please help me next time.

It's important. When you meet the mafia and they do something for you, you should leave them with a good relationship. Because maybe you need them again.

Thank you very much. I love you. I appreciate you.

When I come back, please help me again. Then take off the tsam tos from your house. Take them off.

I like to keep them. I have many of these in my house. I like to keep them in my house to remember the retreat I did.

For me, it's a very happy time. I like to keep those around. Make sure you take them off and take them home.

What happens if you don't take them off? When the spirits are trying to move around, there's a wall. There's a spiritual wall.

They hit their head or something. Really. It's funny.

They say that when a human being is born, it's the same. Bardo, you know bardo? The spirit between death and birth.

After you die, you're a spirit for a while. That spirit can go anywhere. Nothing can stop that spirit.

That spirit can travel through the earth. That spirit can walk to another planet. Very easy.

Nothing can stop that spirit. Except one small wall. It's about this big.

It's a karma wall. It's called their mother's womb. When they hit that, they cannot move.

Then they have to stay there and then they get born. There's only one small area they cannot... When they hit that, they cannot pass through.

Then they have to be born. So if you leave your tsamto up on the wall, you are making a spiritual wall. All the spirits will be irritated at you.

I can't believe he left his tsamto. He's supposed to take it back to Shanghai. Now you created a wall in our place.

Like that. Four. Attach them strong.

For a strong wind or rain. Then take them off. Take them off.

All right. We're going to do a prayer. Any emergency questions?

No.

[Speaker 2]
Good.

[Speaker 1]
Oh yeah, oh my gosh. Okay, we have to do that. Sorry.

Okay. You have to decommission it. Okay.

Decommission it. Decommission means you do a prayer that this is no longer offering. Okay.

Then you throw it away. In other places you can feed it to the animals or something like that. But in our property we found out that if we feed the animals a lot of food, it causes trouble for them.

They come here and then we had one nice bear came here to eat the tormas and then the government caught him and killed him. We don't want that. So you do a prayer.

Now this torma is not holy food anymore. And you wrap it up and you throw it in the garbage. We have to do like that.

Okay. Usually you can leave it out on a tree or like that. But we had a problem here.

We don't want to kill those bears. Okay. Okay.

We'll do very quick because my leg is also hurting. ,'DUG PA RANG GI'I KHO NA GONG NAS TSUL PA SHES RAB ,'DUG PA NI The sixth meditation is called the Wheel of Knives. Wheel of Knives.

And that's a long story. Someday I'll teach you about it. Wheel of Knife.

You know like in the engine there's a fan and it's going, or a helicopter? That's a wheel. If you put your hand in there you will lose it.

That's a Wheel of Knife. ,THAMS CAD NGAR BZHIN LA Do everything as you did before. It means clean your body with the milk, and then bring in the golden nectar.

,DUG CI PHRA RAB NA REL TU KHO LO ,DE BA REL TU SO NYID MA RGAN DU DRANG BA YOD YER KA LTA BU ,DUG CI PHRA RAB NA REL TU KHRO LO ,DE BA REL TU SO NYID MA RGAN DU DRANG BA YOD YER KA LTA BU Then create many, many small knife wheels. Like helicopter blades. and it has 32 blades, which matches one of your chakras.

Okay, 32, yeah, okay. RTA BU NAS THOB PA'I RANG GYI RGYU ZHING. And then it's spinning like that, dangerous, like a fan, okay.

Then in your body there are many of these spinning, okay, spinning. These knife wheels. If 32 is too much, you can do six, okay, there are two ways, okay.

Then that, those knives, which way are they spinning? Clockwise or counter-clockwise, okay? Are they spinning like a clock, or are they spinning opposite?

What do you three retreatants think? They are spinning to the left, counter-clockwise, okay? All right.

Of course it always depends on whether you're looking from the top or the bottom, but I won't tell you, I won't tell you that, okay. You are looking from the top, okay. From the top they are spinning to the counter-clockwise.

If you go under, they will be clockwise. Sorry. Okay, NYON NGANG KHOR BA'I PHAS DGOS KYI GNOG RTOGS KYI MI LTA BA'ANG MI LTA BA'ANG THAMS CAD BYAS PA LA THOB PA MED Then what is the purpose of this wheel of knives, okay?

What goal are you asking for? The goal is, when I'm trying to help other people, please give me the power to be very persuasive, very convincing, to speak the truth, okay? Sometimes you're on a bus, or you're on an airplane, and you're sitting with somebody, and they will say, you know, what do you do?

And sometimes you will say, I'm a Buddhist, you know. I'm coming from three-day retreat, you know. I just did three-day retreat, you know.

Then they'll say, oh, you're a Buddhist, right? And you say, yeah. Then they say, oh, you believe in karma, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then why bad people get rich? You know, why do those bad people get rich?

They will ask you, okay? Why do those bad people get rich, okay? Then if you don't have this wheel, you won't give a good answer, and they won't believe you, okay?

You won't have the strength of mind, or the power of mind, to give them a good explanation, and they won't believe you, and they won't listen to you, okay? So the purpose of this sixth meditation is to develop the power to answer questions well, okay? To give other people good answers to their questions, okay?

And when you talk to them, they go home and they say to their wife, I met this Buddhist lady from China on the airplane, and she said she's doing a retreat. I said, how come bad people get rich, you know? She gave me such a good explanation, you know?

She said, that's an old seed. They gave a little bit of money to somebody else. That seed doubles every 24 hours, and because of that good seed, now they are rich.

Then they are a bad person. They are planting new bad seeds, and next year or two years from now, that's going to cause a bad result. Good seed cannot make good result.

Bad seed cannot make, sorry, good seed cannot make bad result. Bad seed cannot make good result. She gave me such a good explanation on the airplane, okay?

Like that, all right? So if you want that power to give a good explanation, and to answer people's questions clearly, and gently, and respectfully, and kindly, and truthfully, okay? Then do number six, okay?

And your words will change. Sometimes you give a good explanation, and they say, that's stupid, okay? Sometimes you give a bad explanation, confuse them.

One Buddhist teacher told me, he said, Geshe Michael, the secret to teaching people is to confuse them. Just say anything, you know? Confuse them.

Then they will think you are very smart. I'm like, okay, you know? So whether people believe you or not, it's up to your seeds, right?

It's up to your seeds. So here you are praying for good seeds, okay? Sometimes people believe things that are completely untrue.

Everybody. And then sometimes people believe what is true, okay? That depends on yours.

It's coming from you, okay? All right, number seven. And then we'll stop, and we'll take a little break.

SDOD PA LEG REL GNYIS KYI SGO NAS MTSOMS PA'I SHES RAB DU TSUL NI GZHAN SNGA BZHIN LA This is called using the book and the sword. Using the book and the sword. The book is on top of the lotus in the picture, okay?

It's a Buddhist book. And the sword is in Manjushri's right hand. So you're using the book and the sword.

Then you do the same white milk cleaning. You do the same golden nectar fill up. In every atom there are both, a book and a sword.

Then what happens? Yeah, the light goes out of each atom, goes to all the Manjushris in the universe, all the Tsongkapa's, and then again comes more swords, more books, okay? Into the atom, okay?

Each atom. CHEN DANG NI BSTAN PA'I GANG TSOM PA LA MANG MED MI SHES PA THAMS CAD KYANG SHES RAB DU BYAS TSOM PA LA THOB MED KYIS YIN SHES RAB BSKYED PAR CHEN THOB CHUNG NYAMS PA BYAS For this you will become able to write books very well, okay? What do you call?

No writer's block. Just you sit down and you write a book like that, okay? In one airplane ride you can finish a book, okay?

It just comes in your mind, okay? So, no effort, effortlessly. THOB MED means, what's the Sanskrit for THOB MED?

ASANGA, ASANGA, okay? ASANGA means like a hot knife to butter, okay? Just, you want to write a book, okay, okay, then send it.

You want me to write another one, okay? Then that book will sell one million copies or something, okay? It's a power, it's a karma, okay?

So you have to. The sword gives you wisdom that the book is intelligent. The book gives you the power to write the book, you see?

So you need the sword and you need the book both, in each atom, okay? So now we have seven goals. Let's summarize them.

Through the holy body you're going to get very powerful wisdom, number one. Number two, through the mantra, sorry, yeah, MIG MED, you're going to get very sharp, clear, they call it clear wisdom, subtle wisdom. You can say subtle.

Number three, through the bija, through the seed syllable, which is BDHI, okay, you're going to get wisdom which cuts quickly through doubts, uncertainty, don't know what to do with your life, not sure what to do, okay? You can say that, but mostly doubts, uncertainty about your life, okay? Cut it.

Fourth are the akutamo, yeah, deeper wisdom. Where are you going to use it? Where are you going to use the deep wisdom?

Yeah, at the subway or the gas station, okay? What does it mean deeper? Yeah, maybe the guy, the cowboy who's using the butter knife, you're going to see Manjushri, okay, that's deeper.

Both are gender, both are true. Which one you'd rather have in your life, Manjushri or old cowboy? Okay, okay, then you, number five is a book, you bring the book into you, then you become a good teacher, okay?

You become a good teacher. If you do number five, you become a good teacher. Number six, rao ti, it's called the sword, but it means a wheel made of many sorts, okay, like a helicopter blade, okay?

[Speaker 2]
And with that you would see the little wheel on the right.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, it's always spinning, not like, it's spinning, yeah, to the left, and then with this you can give good answers to people. You cut their doubts, you know? Okay, they say, I don't, I like the idea of karma, but I, my friend, she was very generous, she gave money to people for 20 years and nothing happened.

Okay, then if you have that sword in your heart, you will talk to them about coffee meditation, okay? Like that, okay? You will have a good answer ready for them, okay?

Why do you remember the answer? That's karma, okay? That's a karmic seed.

You planted it during the three days, okay? Sometimes you know the answer, but you think of it the next day. Oh, I should have told him that, you know?

And if you plant the seed now in the retreat, the answer just pops in your mind. It's so cool. If you do this very well, you know, people ask you a question, you're like, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, and then you go home, you say, I don't know how I, how I said that, I don't even know.

Somebody else was using my mouth, you know, like that, okay? That's better than next day you remember what to say, okay? Okay, seventh one, Lekrel Nikigone, you use the book and the sword so that you become a good author, okay?

It might be a newsletter, it might be a Facebook post, okay? Really, it might be an email, or it might be a major translation, or it might be a small book about yoga, onion skin theory, or something, okay? But you don't have any problem to write it.

It's clear, it's beautiful, it's sweet, okay? If you plant the seeds now, this week, okay? Good?

Okay, good luck seed planting, okay? And the most important thing is the same as yoga, keep breathing, okay? Don't go like that, okay?

Just keep breathing, okay? Breathe long, exhale. When you're with your girlfriend or your boyfriend, you're not like, you're like, just relax.

The main thing is relax, okay? If you get tight, you failed in the retreat, okay? If you feel like, you know, you just saw a Walt Disney movie, what's her name?

I'm going to see it after retreat, Cinderella, you know? Then you feel like, oh, that was nice, you know? You should be like that, okay?

When you come out of retreat, you should be like, oh, that was nice, like a good sleep, okay? Sleep enough, okay? If you don't, if for some reason you're not sleeping well, then you can sleep in the afternoon.

I'll tell you a secret. All those Tibetan Buddhist monks, 3,000 monks in Sera, the monastery is very quiet after lunch for two hours. Everyone says, what time you wake up, Geshe-la?

Four o'clock. But then, try to find a monk between 12 o'clock and 2 o'clock. Everyone's asleep.

They're all taking a nap, okay? That's how come they can get up at four o'clock, okay? So, you need sleep, okay?

I asked my teacher, Rinpoche, teach me how not to sleep. He said, no, there's no way. I said, I don't want to sleep.

I want to work. No, you have to sleep, okay? Okay, Alison, you have to sleep.

So, my teacher said, forget it. You need seven hours, eight hours in sleep. If you don't get enough sleep, if you can't fall asleep, then take a nap in the afternoon, okay?

And you're still a good person. Maybe you're a better person, okay? Because you have wisdom, okay?

To get enough rest. Get enough rest is a good good yogi, good meditator, okay? Get enough sleep, okay?

Without that, you can't do anything, okay? All right.