«Дар освобождения», курс 19 «Ретрит благодарности», занятие 1

[Speaker 1]
This is going to be your instructions for your three-day silent retreat, so Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, you'll be doing a silent three-day retreat, and this has 40 meditations that you will be doing during the three days retreat, and hopefully for the rest of your life. So, the way we made this booklet is that you have your short explanation of the meditation, but the real explanation is in the book that we are studying, the Lam Rim, Steps of the Path. So, you will, in here, you will be putting your notes from this class, okay?

Chinese people are very good at taking notes. American people are very lazy about taking notes, but everybody should be writing something, okay? Even if you're writing your shopping list for next, you know, pretend you are writing notes, okay?

And because I didn't put all the description of the meditation, that comes in the class, during the class, okay? So, what things you hear in the class that you like, that you want to meditate about, each thing, I will tell you we're on number one, or we're on number two, and then you must take notes, okay? And these are going to be your notes for the meditation, okay?

And if you run out of room, maybe you want to add some more pages on your own notebook, or your own journal. I know Wang Xia is going to make a whole chart, you know, right? From this thing.

So, take good notes, because this is what you're going to be meditating about, okay? From these meditations, nine of them we did already in the last retreat, and I will teach them to you again, okay? Some people weren't here, some people were here, but didn't listen.

So, I'll do them again, okay? We'll review them again, so don't worry about it, okay? You will see that some of these meditations sound a little bit the same, that's because they come from different places.

Some of them come from Maitreya, through Master's Sangha. Some of them come from Nagarjuna, Arya Nagarjuna, and they come from different sources. So, sometimes they kind of overlap, okay?

So, they're not all completely different, and you will notice that. But if you learn them all separately, you will find extra information about each one, okay? All right, so there's a custom in old Buddhist times, and this is a Buddhist retreat, okay?

When I'm traveling I have to teach business, and success, and DCI, and then three times a year I get to do what I want, which is to teach Dharma. The DCI is very good, it attracts people to good ideas, and it makes them good people. Last year 18,000 people came to DCI programs.

This year I think over, maybe over 10,000 already, or, Scott, do you know? I don't know, you figure it out, maybe 15. But it helps a lot of people to do the DCI programs.

Not everybody wants to study Dharma, you know? But they can be successful, and they can be happy, and that's good. And then special people will come to Diamond Mountain and go deeper, you know?

So, you are special people. So, I like, this is the old style Buddhist teaching. I will use the old book on a new paper, but I'm going to teach you from the old book.

This book is called A Gift of Liberation, thrust into your hand, okay? It's nam du lak jang su chupa. It means, here's Nirvana, here's Buddhahood, you know?

And it's not like this, here's Nirvana, here's Buddhahood. It's like, take it! It's like that, you know, you push it in somebody's hand and say, take it, you know?

So, there are some translations into English, not so good, the title, I think. It's not in the palm of your hand, it's not like, eh. It's like, the Lama is like, take it, okay?

And they push it into your hands, okay? So, we've been, my teacher taught me this book for 30 years. He taught it to me three times.

It takes about 10 years each time. And it's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I think it's the best book in this planet.

So, I wanted to teach it in my life, to give the transmission. What's that mean for you? You also have to teach it, okay?

I did my job. You know, each generation has to push it into somebody's hand, you know? So, you have to take good notes and listen carefully, and then you will have to push it into somebody's hand, as best as you can.

We're not perfect, nobody's perfect, but you do the best that you can, okay? So, it's your responsibility to study it, learn it, and pass it on. There's a translation into English, it's a good translation.

There's a Chinese translation, I think it's good, I don't know. But the translation itself is not enough. You need a human being to give it to you, okay?

And then the human being will add jokes and things like that, and it becomes more part of living tradition, okay? So, you should think, I'm getting this gift and I will push it into somebody else's hand, okay? You should think like that.

So, you should take careful notes, and you should try to come to as many of these as you can. We do them three times a year. This is number 19, by the way.

So, we've been going for six or seven years. We're not halfway through. So, it will take another six or seven years, eight more years, something like that.

I have a dessert plan for you from Tsongkhapa's Lam Rim Chom Mo, from the Great Lam Rim, about emptiness and seeing emptiness. So, I think the whole thing will take another nine or ten years, okay? Inshallah?

Do you know Inshallah? The Muslim people say, if God is willing. Insh means Sanskrit for to wish.

Allah is Allah. So, anyway, I hope we can finish, okay? Maybe nine more years, something like that.

One of those three retreats every year we do in Guadalajara, Mexico, because it's so beautiful. They asked me to do it. I said, I don't think so.

Like, four years ago? Five years ago? Then Alhambro did a smart thing.

He gave me a cup, and on the cup is carved Guadalajara International Retreat 2011 or something. So, every morning I'm looking at this, you know? Then one day I was like, why don't we do it in Guadalajara, you know?

But that's mainly for people who have visa trouble. So, not everybody can get visa to America. I'm sorry about our government, but they are afraid.

So, everybody can go to Mexico, every country. You can easily get a visa to go to Mexico, and it's inexpensive there. These retreats cost for food and house.

They cost what a DCI retreat costs for one day, you know? The whole ten days cost what a DCI retreat costs for one day. And we don't charge for the teaching.

So, it's just for the house and the food, okay? And the volunteers are working very hard, and the staff are working very hard, and they don't make much money, and they didn't get paid until a year ago, I think. It was all volunteering.

But they are happy, and they work hard. If you want to see how happy they look, let's give them a hand, yeah. So, I think next, the next one is in Guadalajara in December, and we should, that'll be 20, that'll be the 20th retreat, and we should have a celebration, like a good Mexican celebration.

I mean, not too good. Okay, so let's start. We'll start with the meditation, okay?

So, please get ready to meditate. First, turn off your cell phone, even Geshe Michael. You should make a rule, if somebody's cell phone goes off, they have to pay, what, $50, okay?

[Speaker 2]
You can clear your throat, blow your nose, if anybody need.

[Speaker 1]
When you meditate in a group, it's like much more powerful. My Lama said it's easier to break one stick, than to break a hundred sticks together. So, a hundred people meditating together is very strong.

But also, if you make noise, you disturb 99 other people. Maybe one of them is almost ready to see Amitabha, but you made a noise, and then they didn't meet Amitabha. So, that's a big responsibility, to be quiet, okay?

[Speaker 2]
Relax your face, relax your forehead, relax your eyes, relax your mouth, and make a small smile. Relax your hands, pull in your stomach a little bit, and then slowly come to your breath. Watch your breath.

Pretend you're like a little man sitting on your nose, and he's watching the breath coming in and out, like cars to a tunnel. Especially watch the out-breath. And please imagine that one of your teachers is coming into this room.

Someone who took care of you in your life, who taught you. Could be your mother, your father, could be your school teachers, university teachers, or the person who taught you your job. Could be brother, sister, friends who taught you a lot.

Could be relatives who taught you. Could be children, your children who taught you so much. Could be someone you didn't meet, like maybe a great political leader who taught you, or it could be a spiritual leader from the past, like Lord Buddha, Xuanzang.

Choose one. Ask them to come to this room. If you have a heart teacher, that's best.

If your nose is running, just let it run. Let it drip on your lap. In Arizona, everything dries quickly.

Ask this teacher to please sit down in front of you. Knee to knee. Your eyes are closed.

Their eyes are open. And through your closed eyes, you can see their open eyes. Then we bow down to them in our mind.

[Speaker 1]
Think of some beautiful quality that they have.

[Speaker 2]
If it's your teacher, there's something about them you want to learn. Try to think of one thing you want to learn from them, like their patience, or their kindness, their understanding, their effort, and bow down to that in your mind. Then offer them some gift.

[Speaker 1]
A very famous gift is samantabhadra, to cover the sky with flowers and offer it to your teacher.

[Speaker 2]
This Arizona sky is one of the most beautiful in the world. You can cover it with flowers, offer it to your teacher.

[Speaker 1]
The gift that teachers like the most is if they see you are succeeding in your practice, your meditation, your yoga, serving other people, understanding emptiness, and it makes them happy.

[Speaker 2]
So offer them your practice, daily practice. If you've made some mistake recently, you hurt somebody, you got angry with somebody, you felt lazy, you didn't do your practices, then tell them, open your heart, tell your Lama. Try to make a promise not to repeat it for a few days, a few weeks, and think of some good thing you did in the last few weeks.

That you came here, you took that effort, you spent that money, you took the time to take care of your spiritual life.

[Speaker 1]
That's a very great happiness. It's a great thing to offer your Lama.

[Speaker 2]
It's difficult to come here. It's not easy. To be here is not easy.

But you are special. You are trying to improve your spiritual life, and that makes your Lama happy. And other good things that you did, or good things you saw other people do.

The people who built this place, the people who did long retreats here, the people who are serving this place, all the administrators, the board here, very hard-working, and sacrificed many things to make this dream come true here. And you can be happy about those people, and the staff who work here all year. Many, many hardships, many disappointments, but they are still working.

Then ask your teacher to teach you, keep teaching you, this precious person in your life, who makes you a better person. Then ask them to stay in your life. The karma to keep your teacher is very expensive, very difficult to keep a teacher.

One of the best ways to make that karma is to ask them to stay. My life would be terrible without you. Meaningless.

Then come back to your breath, watch your breath, and slowly you can open your eyes, you can stretch, stretch your arms.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, let's do some text. I like old books. That's why we are working so hard to save them.

28 years, we are inputting the old books. We finished about 20,000 books. We finished all the ancient books from India.

4,600 books. They're free on the internet. We're planning to do more books.

Nicole, where are you? Vigna. She's doing a big project to save 4,600 ancient books from India in Sanskrit language.

Vimala is saving 400 great Sanskrit books from the yoga tradition. Mr. Wu is helping to save, I don't know, 20,000, 30,000 of the Chinese translations and scriptures. We had a nice meeting in Xi'an earlier this year.

We just had a great meeting in Rome with all the Sanskrit input people from India. Nicole and Vimala are, sorry, yeah, working on that. Ben Gomi also came.

So he's helping with all this project. So I like old books. I think they're great.

New rock and roll and old books are the two best things. I'm going to teach the old way. We'll just go word by word.

I'm sorry if it's boring for you or if your legs hurt. I'm sorry. But I'm not really sorry.

Okay, okay. I will teach you word by word from the ancient book. I think it's a good way to learn, for special people, not everybody.

Okay, so Adam will show the Tibetan here. This book was written in Tibetan. This book is a teaching, I think it was 1921, something like that.

It was 21 days of teaching. This is a record of that great teaching. It's by the teacher of my teacher's teacher, okay?

Pabongka Rinpoche. And I think it's the best book in the world. So I'm going to give you the outline where we are, okay?

,DANG PHYIR DON CHEN NYE DKA' BSAM NAS DGA' BZHANG PHRAG BA DANG, We should think about how important it is that we have a good chance to practice. We have a body. We have a good mind.

We have a strong body. We have freedom to practice. We have teachers.

We have lineage. We have ancient scriptures. People are saving them.

We have a student center to eat in. You know, we are lucky. So in this week we are studying just how lucky we are, okay?

And it's fun, okay? Next time we meet we're studying death. That's a little not so fun, but this week we are studying good luck, how lucky we are, okay?

And if you do a good job this week, at the end of the week you should be very happy, okay? Like I'm really lucky, okay? Like in the whole world I'm number one Mr. or Miss Lucky, okay?

So this is kind of a nice week, you know, very easy meditations about how lucky we are, okay? So we're just going to make many lists about how lucky we are, okay? DEL GYUR, DAL BA means I don't have certain problems, okay?

That's one kind of meditation we are going to be doing. There are eight of them, okay? I don't have certain problems.

For example, I wasn't born as a dog, okay? Or I wasn't born in a place where I'm not allowed to study Dharma, okay? I wasn't, I don't have these problems.

That's called the eight no problems, okay? In India, if somebody says no problem, you have a problem. Okay, that's another story, okay?

GYOR BA, no problems. In GYOR PA means, and we have ten good lucks, we have ten lucky things, okay? And we'll be talking about that.

Five of them are outside of me, five of them are inside me, okay? Like outside of me, I don't know, in my country the economy is good enough that I can come for ten days to retreat, you know? I can pay for the food, I'm not starving, there's nobody bombing us right now, like that, okay?

And that's lucky, okay? And that can change. All of these things can change.

All of these things are created by karma. It's not an accident you were born in China, or you were born in America, and in America there have been terrible wars in the past. Millions of people died.

In China, the same. And right now we have peace in our country, inside our country, and outside we don't have, you don't have to worry someone's going to bomb your house today, or kill your family, and that's rare in history, that we have a peace and quiet time, and economy is good enough to do spiritual practice, okay? That's not normal in the world, okay?

We are lucky, we are living in lucky times, okay? And we can lose them, okay? The karma created that peace, and karma created the economy, and we can lose it.

Every hour that we use it, we are losing it. It's like a candle, okay? And we have to use it while we have the chance, okay?

China had terrible civil wars for 5,000 years, 20 dynasties, and America had terrible wars, many terrible wars, and we are living in a small lucky time of peace, and we should use it, okay? Inside, you know, I have this desire to meditate, I have this desire to learn spiritual things, and that's also made by karma, okay? You have hungry, you feel hungry to do meditation, you feel hungry to learn spiritual things, but you can lose it, okay?

I saw hundreds of people lose it, okay? As time goes by, the karma wears out, and then you're not hungry anymore, you're not so interested anymore, okay? You are busy, you have other things to do, and suddenly you're not coming to the retreats anymore, and it happens all the time, okay?

So inside you have some good luck. Joe did a good job. Who's Joe?

Not Jedi, Jedi, Bolo, Jedi, Joe. Not that one. So, I was in Australia, and there's a very good man there named Salim Lee.

He's from Indonesia, and he's a successful architect, professor. He builds innovative nursing homes. That's why he has a beautiful wife, and two beautiful children, and he's very, very spiritual, super spiritual, like John Foley and Carole.

And I asked him, you know, why are you so special? And he said, it's not me Geshe-la, it's Joe, Joe. I said, I don't know this guy Joe, can you, can you introduce me?

Of course I'm getting a little bit jealous, because I thought Joe is some other teacher. And then he said, no, no, Joe is not alive. He died.

I said, well, what was he like? He said, Geshe-la, this was my past life. Joe gave me all this.

I didn't do anything, you know. I have a good body. I was born in a nice country, you know.

I have a good mind. I didn't do anything. I was born this way.

Joe gave it to me, okay? So Joe means your past life, okay? Or Josephine?

Somebody, your past life worked very hard, you know. You think you're smart, you think you have a good body, you think you have money. You didn't do anything, okay?

If you have to live on the karma you made in this life, you're in trouble, okay? Joe was working hard, okay? Joe was working much harder, and he gave us everything, okay?

Or she gave us everything, okay? So these things we have inside of us, we have a good mind, we live in a good country, you know. These are given to us, okay?

And we can lose them anytime, okay? We can be a dog tomorrow. Anybody here can be a dog tomorrow, you know.

Don't complain about the animals at Diamond Mountain, okay? Maybe tomorrow you are one of them, okay? It takes a few minutes, okay?

We are lucky, okay? Okay, nye kar, think about it. DON CHEN means it's really useful.

NYE KAR means hard to find. I'm not there yet. I didn't go there yet.

I'm reviewing something. BSAM NAS, DGA'A LHAG LHANG BA. By the end of this week you should be like totally happy about how great you are.

Then we're going to do CHU BA MI RTAG PA. CHU BA MI RTAG PA means we're going to think about how fast it can end, okay? That's in Guadalajara.

So don't come to Guadalajara if you're already depressed, because we will make you more depressed, because you can lose it all in a few seconds. CHU BA MI RTAG PA means you can die anytime, okay? CHU BA MI RTAG PA BSAM NAS, SDUG BSLHANG SLHANG DBANG PO'I ZHIG BYED.

Then you should, in Guadalajara our goal is to get depressed, okay? Together. DEL LA GSUNGS, DAL SBYOR DNGOS GSUNG BA.

DNGOS GSUNGS means we have to identify the 18 good lucks we have and the freedoms we have. 18 kinds of freedom and good luck, okay? BDUN BYED PA SANGS PA means we have to think about how precious it is, those 18.

GNAD DKA' BA means we have to think about how hard it is to get the karma to have what we have already. That karma that Joe did was hard, okay? Joe probably volunteered at Diamond Mountain for, on some planet, for 30 years or something, okay?

Joe did a good job. DANG PO LA BDAG BA DANG GNAD DROD PA GNYIS, so we're going to cover the eight freedoms we have. We have eight kinds of freedom, like freedom from being an animal.

And then we're going to do ten kinds of good lucks we have, okay? DROD PA, they're called riches, freedoms and riches, okay? In the middle of the ten riches, he starts talking about other lists, of similar lists from other books by Maitreya and Nagarjuna, and so I added those and we're going to, I'm going to teach you all of them, okay?

So, he just mentions their names, like the four great wheels, or the seven things I was given by my past life, and then I'm going to go to those other books and give you all of them. And then that will give you 40 different meditations to do during the three days, and we built a schedule into the three days. If you follow it, you can finish all of them, okay?

Alright. By the way, the schedule is very busy, it's a hard schedule. If you can come to everything and do everything, that's very good, okay?

So, put yourself, okay? If you're tired, say, I can sleep. My boss in the diamond business, he has one mantra, one mantra, he says, you can sleep on the plane, you know?

Then he gives me so much work, you know? I have to work until two o'clock in the morning every night, and then he says, don't worry, you're taking a trip next week, you can sleep on the plane, you know? Then he comes to the airport and gives me extra work for the plane, you know?

So, just work hard, okay? But, if you find you are overwhelmed, or you are getting nervous, or, you know, exhausted, then take a break, okay? Take a break.

In English we say play hooky. Play hooky means you tell your teacher, oh, today I don't feel so good, you know, I have a cold, you know? One guy called me one morning, my phone rang at like five o'clock in the morning, you know?

I'm like, hello? He's like, oh, Joe, I can't come to work today, I don't feel so good, you know, I'm sorry, I can't come, I can't come today. I said, I think you have the wrong number.

He says, then he's like, oh, I'm sorry. So, but if you really need a break, then take a break, okay? The schedule is, that's called play hooky.

Play hooky means like fake reason, but if you, if you need a break, just take a break, okay? If you need to take a morning off, or you need to take a day off, then just take a day. You can enjoy the nature, okay?

You can eat a lot. There's a good taco truck in Wilcox, they sell real good tacos, real tacos, Mexican food. You know, if you need to take a break, take a break, but try not to, okay?

But take care of yourself, okay? Take care of your mind, and your heart, okay? If you're having a hard time, then take a break, okay?

Don't, don't hurt yourself, okay? So it's a balance, okay? Push yourself as hard as you can, don't hurt yourself, okay?

Okay, here we go. Now we're on the real class. Adam, we're on NYID PA SBYOR PA LA.

GA'O NYA RGYUD KYI GNYIS SA NYID PA G-N-Y-I-S-P-A. So if you search for G-N-Y-I-S-P-A, and then I would apostrophe B-Y-O-R, and you should hit it. NYID PA SBYOR PA.

It's 156B, about two lines in. Yeah, there you go. Okay, we're there.

The Tibetan, some of it sounds, it's spelled like it sounds, and some of it isn't, so good luck. Okay, so NYID PA SBYOR PA LA. So we reached, we finished the eight freedoms.

We'll talk about them more, I'll review them for you, okay? But we're also starting on the ten good lucks. So you have ten kinds of good luck.

NYID PA SBYOR PA LA. Literally the word SBYOR PA means riches, okay? Riches.

You are rich, okay? Sometimes in Tibetan it's called CHUG PA. CHUG PA also means SBYOR PA.

It means rich, okay? And CHUG PA means cow. CHUG means cow.

CHUG PA means cowed. It means rich, because you have many cows, okay? Before money.

Buddhism started before money, right? So you have a lot of cows. I knew a Tibetan guy, he was a refugee.

He told me, I'm not just a stupid refugee, I was rich. I said, how rich? He said, I had 200 sheep, you know?

So SBYOR PA, you can divide into two kinds, RANG SBYOR NA and GZHAN SBYOR NA. And I'm going to ask you to repeat some Tibetan words for good luck, okay? Say RANG SBYOR NA GZHAN SBYOR NA RANG SBYOR NA GZHAN SBYOR NA.

Okay, good. NA means five. And RANG SBYOR means inside of you, you have some precious things, okay?

Inside of you, you have precious things. GZHAN SBYOR means outside of you, you have precious things. Five precious things inside of you, and five precious things outside of you.

And all of us have them, okay? What time I'm supposed to stop, Scott? Because you got to tell Geshe Michael these things or he just doesn't stop.

10.30, okay. Then he's going to quote Maitreya, okay? And he's going to quote Maitreya's secretary.

Who was Maitreya's secretary? Master Asanga, okay? Master Asanga.

So Master Asanga took notes from Maitreya. How he met Maitreya is the story of the dog. I'm not going to tell you again, but that's how he got the job to take dictation for Maitreya, okay?

And then he wrote, Master Asanga wrote a famous book called NYAN ZA. NYAN ZA means the levels of the listeners, or the levels of the students, okay? Very famous.

Shravakabhumi. And very, very famous. Huge book.

Very, very great book. My friend translated it recently. I think you can buy it.

It took him like 15 years. Art Engel just translated this book by Asanga. So very famous.

In that book he lists the five precious things inside of you. He gives the list. So this is Maitreya and Asanga.

They give you the five important things inside of you. Ready? Say MI NYID.

Say it better. MI NYID. Good.

U KYE DBANG PO TZANG LAS THAR MA LOG GNAS LA BDE Okay, these are the five, okay? Very famous. These are very famous.

MI NYID U KYE DBANG PO TZANG LAS THAR MA LOG GNAS LA BDE Very famous, okay? All the kids in the monastery have to learn it, okay? We'll do it again.

MI NYID U KYE DBANG PO TZANG Say MI NYID U KYE DBANG PO TZANG LAS THAR MA LOG GNAS LA BDE Okay? And you can try to memorize it if you have time. I'm not going to explain them.

We'll just go through them, okay? I'm not going to tell you what the poem means, okay? By the way, his book, The Levels of the Listeners, is part of a bigger book called NAL SBYOR CHOS PA'I SANG, which is Yoga Charya Bhumi, okay?

Very, very famous. And it's very famous in China, okay? It reached China and it became one of the most important books in China, okay?

By Master Sangha. Yoga Charya Bhumi, which means the levels of people who practice spiritual practices, which is yoga in Indian, but it's not yoga exercises. It's yoga meaning spiritual practices, okay?

So the levels of people who practice spiritual training, something like that. NAL SBYOR CHOS PA'I SANG And there are different sections of that book. There is a Shravaka Bhumi, there's a Bodhisattva Bhumi, for different levels of people, okay?

And it's huge. It's in the Tengyur and it's, I don't know, something like a thousand pages, okay? Very big.

Okay, DANG PO MI NYID YIN PA GNYIS Are you with me, Adam? Okay, DANG PO MI NYID YIN PA GNYIS Here's the first one. The first precious thing inside of you is that, oh, and you should be making notes on your papers.

Page five, okay? Page five at the bottom. There's a lady with her hand like this and she's thinking, okay?

This picture here, okay? Is it on page five in the Chinese also? Six, okay.

Page six. In the Chinese version, page six, okay? And there's a lady.

And in our notes there we say, I have been born as a human being, okay? I have intelligence and capacity to study the path and to reach freedom for myself and others, okay? This is the first precious thing inside of you, is you were born as a human.

DANG PO MI NYID YIN PA GNYIS BYIS MA'I DUS GRUB PA LA BYIS MA'I DUS GRUB PA means, BYIS MA means later things, to achieve later goals, okay? It means the big goals of spiritual practice is after you die, you will go to a good place and try to reach nirvana and try to reach Buddhahood. So there are three different goals later on.

One is to go to a good place after we die. One is to reach nirvana. Nirvana is not Buddhahood, they are different, right?

Nirvana means what? Anybody got that SEMS BSKYED YANG DANG RDZOGS PA'I BYANG CHUB DUS? Okay, he quoted it.

Who are you quoting? Maitreya, okay? Maitreya, Maitreya said nirvana means SEMS, sorry that's SEMS BSKYED.

What? NYON DROD MA LUS PA'I DBANG PAS SO SOR GTANG GO Okay, NYON DROD means all your negative thoughts. MA LUS PA means all of them.

DBANG PAS means you got rid of them. SO SOR GTANG GO means because you saw emptiness directly, okay? Which we say is the only way to get rid of anger permanently, or jealousy, or desire, okay?

So that's the meaning of desire. So two goals so far. One is, I don't want something bad to happen after I die.

Number two, I want to stop my negative emotions in this life permanently. Then number three, two is nirvana, three is Buddhahood. They are different.

Nirvana is just one step to Buddhahood, okay? Then Buddhahood is you know everything in the past, in the future, in the present. You can show bodies on countless planets.

You can help countless people at the same time, okay? That's different. Okay, PHYIS MA'I SDUG BSGRUB PA LA, to reach those goals, DRO BA GZHAN LAS MI SKYES BU DU BAG PA YIN TE, rather than other forms of life, a human life, is superior, infinitely.

SKYES BU DU BAG PA means infinitely superior. Infinitely superior, okay? A dog can't do those things, okay?

A dog, dogs are nice. I like dogs. I love dogs.

I had three brothers and one dog my whole childhood. I liked a dog better, okay? Dogs are nice, okay?

And of course I love them, but you can teach a dog for ten years and they can't learn anything, okay? My lama had a dog. Her name was Tara.

She was plasa apso, shi tsul, you know? And he was very patient because he kept me also. He kept me and the dog.

He didn't kick us out. He said, watch, I'm going to teach the dog how to do OM MANI PADME HUNG. So I said, Rinpoche, there's a problem.

He said, what? He said, the dog's teeth, you know? He said, I can do it.

I said, you can't do it. He said, I'll bet you I can do it. He said, okay, you try.

Not only do OM MANI PADME HUNG, she will do prostration also. So, I said, okay, then you show me, you know? It took about five years, okay?

Every day, three times a day, every time she eats, he's like, show the food, you know? And he's like, get up, get up, and she's like, then she can't balance, you know? She's sitting up, then he said, OM, and she's like, OM.

Then he goes, OM, OM, OM, OM. OM took about one year, okay? OM, OM.

Then he's like, sit up. OM, OM, OM, OM. Then he said, after one year, he said, okay, I got OM.

I said, but you can't do PADME HUNG. I don't think so. Then he did it.

He did it. Then finally, he was like, jaw, you know? And she'd get up and go, OM MANI PADME HUNG, OM MANI PADME HUNG.

It took about, I don't know, three, four years, you know? Then I'd look at her, you know? Sometimes he'd hit her, sometimes he'd give her extra food, you know?

Sometimes he'd pat her, sometimes he'd comb her hair, and I thought, he's tricking her, you know? First he'd hit her, then he'd give her extra food, then he'd pat her. Then one day I realized, he's doing that to me, you know?

I said, oh, he's doing the same thing to me, you know? OM MANI PADME HUNG, OM MANI PADME HUNG. But generally, it's very hard to teach a dog, okay?

It takes too long. They don't have time. She died after that.

He had four taras. We call tara number one, tara number two. He outlived four dogs, you know?

So, they can't learn. They are beautiful, they have deep instincts, they are very special beings, but they can't learn dharma, okay? It's not possible, okay?

SKYES PA DU BPAG PA, that word BPAG PA is very nice. What's the Sanskrit? Arya, okay?

So we say Arya Nagarjuna, Arya Sangha. This means, in Buddhism, Arya means somebody who saw emptiness directly is called Arya, okay? Someone who saw kongshing directly is called Arya.

Very difficult, but if you can do it, then there's a chance to become a Buddha, okay? If you can't do it, you cannot become a Buddha, okay? So, we're going to talk more about that at the end of the week when we study Je Tsongkapa, okay?

We will study his book on emptiness, okay? That's dessert. If you survive the three-day retreat, you get to have dessert.

So Tim, that book they don't get, where is Tim? They don't get that book till like they finish the three days and don't run away, okay? So, don't give them that book, then you have to stay, okay?

So, we'll talk about emptiness, alright? We'll spend, we'll go deep, okay? So, parpa means Arya, but here it's interesting because you see the word used in its original meaning, which means vastly superior, highly superior, okay?

On a different level, okay? Someone who saw emptiness is working on a completely different level than normal people, okay? They are working 500 years ahead.

To try to figure out what they're doing is impossible, okay? They might seem strange, okay? They're working 500 years ahead, something like that, okay?

They saw what will come in 500 years and they are working towards that, okay? And they seem strange to people who are just thinking about what's for lunch, okay? They are different, okay?

So Arya, here he said a human being compared to animal is Arya, okay? Meaning very special, very high, okay? Okay, SKYES BU DU PAR PA YIN TE RANG CHAGS THA LTA MI GNYIS YIN PA NI THE TSUL MED This is, he makes a very funny joke, okay?

RANG CHAGS THA LTA MI GNYIS YIN PA Okay, so you and me are human beings, THE TSUL MED, there's no question, okay? No doubt about it. You're human, I'm human.

But, MI DGOS MA BYAS PA YIN, but we're not, what is that? But we're almost not human, okay? Are we human?

Yes. Are you sure? Yes.

Are you really sure? Well, you know, it means we are not using it, okay? So yeah, am I human?

Yes, I have a head, I have two arms, I have two legs. But are you a real human? Are you using the human that you have?

No, I'm just using him to eat, you know, and to watch TV, and to do emails, and WeChat, and Twitter, and you know, I'm wasting, I'm almost not a human, okay? That's what he made a joke. He said, are you human?

Yes. Are you sure? Well, I don't know, because I'm wasting the time, okay?

I'm wasting my chance, okay? I'm a human, but I'm not using it. So he said, there's a start dictionary entry, okay?

You ready? Sometimes when I reach a nice word that's going to be difficult for people to understand later, I will do a, we are doing a video dictionary on YouTube, okay? We are putting up 10,000 YouTube videos called a dictionary.

So when I get to a cool word, I'll explain it on the video, and Adam is putting them on YouTube for free, and it's a dictionary. So you can put 50,000 little videos on YouTube and call it a Dharma dictionary, okay? So we got, I don't know, how many are up?

30, so we only have 9,970 to go. Okay, here we go. By the way, it's misspelled here, Adam.

Where are you? GO CHOS PA. Yeah, it's misspelled, okay?

It should be G-O-M-A-C-H-O-D, okay? It's misspelled, okay? They miscarved it, because CHOS PA with the M is a very common word that means offering, and the typist saw CHOS PA, but it's MA CHOS PA, okay?

It's misspelled, G-O-M-A-C-H-O-D, okay? G-O-C-H-O-D means, okay, start the dictionary entry now. G-O-C-H-O-D.

G-O-C-H-O-D. G-O-C-H-O-D means, let's say you need to fix your screen door at your retreat cottage, which might happen to you if things crawl in, and you need a screwdriver to tighten the screw, but you don't have a screwdriver, but you have a small coin, you know, with a sharp edge, and if you're smart, you can take the coin and you can use it to screw the screw. So we call screwdriver LA GO CHOS PA.

So how do you say that in English? The coin will GO CHOS PA for a screwdriver. Stand in for, what?

Huh? Yeah, you can say suffice, or stand in for, or work as good as. It means that, so good luck translating it.

I have no idea. It means it can substitute, okay? It can substitute for a screwdriver.

It's good enough to substitute as a screwdriver. It will suffice as a screwdriver, okay? And he used it here, he said, are you a human?

THAD SONG MED. There's no doubt, yeah, you're a human, but if we really are honest, you just GO CHOS PA for a human, okay? So what's that mean?

You're just like, you're close to being human. I mean you're almost working as a human, you know? You waste your whole day on WeChat and YouTube, except for the Dharma on YouTube, and you'll do as a human, almost, okay?

He's making a joke, okay? That was a long joke, okay? So end the dictionary entry.

GO CHOS PA. GO MI CHOS PA means you don't really make it as a human. GO MI CHOS PA means you don't really count as a human, okay?

You're not functioning as a human. That's what he said here, okay? You're not acting like a human should act, because a human should spend most of their energy on being kind, on developing their heart, you know?

Meditation, serving people, okay? Then you can say you're a real human, okay? Not just a coined screwdriver human, okay?

Got it? Difficult word, okay. Okay, I want you to take a five minute, ten minute break, okay?

[Speaker 2]
Okay, we're going to start again. Please get ready to meditate.

[Speaker 1]
Recently a student of mine met a Tibetan Lama in China, and he said, that Lama says he knows you. And I said, what's his name? And they said, Jampart.

So in our monastery, when you become a monk, you get the name of the abbot, and the abbot usually stays for four years. So for four years everybody gets called Jampa, who's made a new monk, but that abbot stayed for 12 years. And so we had 100 Jampas in our monastery.

So he said his name is Jampa. I said, I have no idea who this is. There's so many Jampas.

And then he said, no, no, he said he was a kid when you built the elementary school inside the monastery. So inside the monastery, I built an elementary school with a Christian group, United Church of Christ. We split the cost, and they're still using it for all the children in the monastery.

So I went to the opening ceremony, and I was supposed to give a talk, and I asked the children, there are like a hundred children there, and I said, what's the difference between a human and a dog? And they were listening, and talking, and giving ideas. Then finally one kid said, I know, I know.

I said, what's the difference between human and dog? He said, kushula, kyi la jungway yupa dar. Dogs have tails, humans don't.

So we're going to do the difference between a human and dog meditation. Okay, I don't want you to think about tails. Okay, so this is one of the forty meditations.

Okay, and it's, you're going to think about, during the meditation, you think about how are you different from an animal, okay, or dog, or something like that. Then you think you're lucky that you weren't born as a dog. Okay, so you're human.

I'm a human, or almost, gochupa. I'm practically a real human. Okay, and then you have to think how lucky you are.

Okay, and be creative. Okay, it takes about ten seconds to think about, I'm not a dog, but you're going to be meditating for 15-20 minutes. Okay, then you have to think carefully, what's the difference between me and a dog?

How lucky I am that I wasn't born as a dog. I'm a human, and a human can practice Dharma. Okay, a human can understand the pen.

You can explain the pen to a dog for ten years and they don't understand it. Okay, they will still try to chew it. Okay, and I'm not like that.

So think about the pen, think about the difference between you and a dog. Number one, you are lucky. Number two, Joe gave you that, you didn't do anything.

Okay, you are wasting it. Okay, Joe worked hard, and you are wasting it. You are watching videos and, you know, wasting your time.

Okay, and then three, it's easy to lose, any moment, any moment. Okay, you can die. Oh, I'm not going to die Geshe-la, I'm sitting in the retreat at Diamond Mountain, how could I die?

Everyone who dies thinks they're not going to die. Okay, everyone who dies, everyone who dies today in the world, they thought they're not going to die today. Okay, everybody, and I don't know how many people will die today, maybe a hundred thousand or something, and everyone thinks, not me, not now.

But you could die tonight, you know, we could be doing a memorial service for you tomorrow here. Okay, no, you laugh because you think, oh I'm too young Geshe-la. It can end, the karma can end quickly, you know.

My niece was 21, very high university, she got into a high university. My brother's daughter, and she's a beautiful singer in a choir, and a great student, and a beautiful person, and keep our family together, like the most important person to keep our family together. Then a couple years ago she told my brother, you know, I don't feel so good, I have a headache, and she laid down and she died, like that.

Okay, just die. What do you call it? Aneurysm, you know, just like that.

And we're all like, like that, you can't believe it, you know. She's so beautiful, so young, just got accepted to a big university, you know, and just said I don't feel so good, and laid down, and just died like that. Don't think it can't happen to you, it can happen to all of us, okay.

So it's precious. Somebody worked hard to make you a human, you are different from a dog, you can lose it anytime. Okay, you ready?

So you can make it a nice long meditation. By the end you shouldn't be worried, okay, you should be happy. I'm a human, you know, I can, I can practice.

I'm going to use it, okay. How lucky I am to be human. When people come to me, Geshe-la I'm depressed, I can't sleep, I'm a bad person.

I said, I said, listen, you're human, okay. You can't say you're not human, you know. You are lucky, okay.

I don't have money, you're human. I'm not so smart, you're human. I'm not so pretty, you're human.

I'm depressed, you're human. Okay, all right, you're lucky, you're so lucky, okay. You're so lucky to have a body and a mind and to be here, you're so lucky, okay.

Think about that, okay, ready? Here we go. Okay, clear your throat.

Make sure your telephone is off, you don't want to lose $50. I'm not talking pesos from Mexico, I'm talking dollars.

[Speaker 2]
Relax your shoulders. Pull in your stomach. Relax your eyes.

Relax your hands. Come to your breath, watch your breath. Focus on the out-breath.

Count ten long out-breaths. Count ten long out-breaths. In the first part of the meditation, how am I different from a dog?

So you have to think of a dog that you know. Maybe you love the dog, but they can't learn meditation, they can't learn the pen. And where did this human life come from?

Who gave it to you? Did you earn it in this life or was it given to you by Joe? Who brought you to this world?

Who gave you hands and feet? Who gave you such a good mind? What will happen if you lose it?

[Speaker 1]
Where will you go?

[Speaker 2]
What if you lose these hands, lose these feet, lose this mind, lose yourself, and make a decision in your mind? I will use this body. I'll take good care of my body.

I'll do my yoga. I'll eat well. I'll make my mind better and better.

I'll be kinder and kinder to others. I won't waste this body. It will be a temple.

My body will be a temple. And be happy.

[Speaker 1]
You are doing, right now, you are doing the best thing you can do with a human body. You are not wasting your time. Hard to come here.

Hard to be here.

[Speaker 2]
You are using the body very well. You're a very lucky, special person. With this body I will help many people.

My hands belong to other people. I will help them. Please come back to your breath.

Watch your breath. Three long exhales. And slowly you can open your eyes.

[Speaker 1]
Stretch your arms.