«Дар освобождения», курс 19 «Ретрит благодарности», занятие 4

[Speaker 1]
So there are five great things about inside of us, and there are five great things in the outside of us that we have. But there's also eight things that we don't have, which is good luck. So we're going to do the eight.

Those eight are called the eight freedoms. In Tibetan language they're called telwa, sid telwa. Telwa means, I don't know, sometimes you have a nice day and everything is relaxed, and it moves like a nice soft river.

Your day flows like a nice soft day. Just flows, everything flows. It doesn't happen to me very often, but that's called telwa.

Telwa means nice, slow, smooth flow. But the nature of a telwa here is that you don't have a problem that you could have. So this is a list of eight problems that you could have had that you don't have, and that's lucky.

And then we will be meditating about these eight and the other ten during the three days. If we have time, I will give you some more. So these eight are found in your book.

Where are they? Maybe in the beginning, I think. Yeah, page one.

It starts with the pen. So here we go. Adam, look for 155A.

Yeah, good, Dambulla. Okay, here we go. Dambulla dawa don jorpa nyi le So there are eight things, problems we could have had, but we don't have.

Those are called telwa. There are ten riches that we have that we covered already. Five inside, five outside.

Together they are called del jor, delmjor. So that's a big topic in the Lam Rim. Delmjor.

Eight delwas, ten jorpas. Then there are other ones, which are like almost secret, and I'm going to teach them to you. Dambulla dawa don jorpa nyi le, DANG PO NI DE YANG, DANG PO BDAG BA'I RTEN NA NYID PA LEN DOD PAR DOD BYUNG BA LA, DAL BYUNG DNGOS ZINGS PA DGOS KYIS The goal of this week's meditation is that you decide to use the good chance you have.

The goal of this week is to understand that you are so lucky and you have this unbelievable temporary opportunity. Then the goal of this three days meditation retreat is you decide, I don't want to waste that opportunity. I'm so lucky to have all this.

I'm alive. I'm not sick. I have good support.

I have sponsors. There's Dharma. There's a teacher.

I'm not too old. I have to do it now. But you can't do that if you don't know what you have.

You can't make use of your good opportunities if you don't know what those opportunities are. It's like, THABS DO SEMS LAS BYAS KYANG SNGO MI BZHIN NA DGOS PO SO NA GNAS PA What does THABS mean? Method.

What's THABS SKAD mean? Skillful means. Like, I don't know, the teacher give the student cake to do something good.

Like that. That's called skillful means. That's called THABS.

Say THABS. But if you cut the ending off and it's just THABS PA THABS, it has completely different meaning. It means oven.

The oven. Or the stove. THABS DO means in Tibet in the old days when in your meditation cottage you will have a fireplace and there will be stones around it to keep the fire in and the fire doesn't come out and burn your meditation cabin.

Like a little wall of stones. They're about this big. That's called THABS DO.

Then let's say you're a poor person. You have a fireplace. It has stones in front of the fire and those stones inside are pure gold.

Inside. If you broke open the stone you will find a big piece of gold. So the THABS DO, the fireplace stone is inside, is gold.

Outside, little bit of rock. Inside, pure gold. THABS DO.

NGOR MI GZHAN NA But if you don't realize that, you can spend your whole life being poor. You are right next to a million dollars of gold every night, but you don't know. Then you spend your whole life poor.

So if you don't know how lucky you are, you can't get rich. Got it? So you have to know the opportunities you have.

Somebody has to teach you what are the eight. What are the eight? Start dictionary entry.

Start dictionary entry. SO NA GNAS PA SA NA RO SO NA GA'O NA SA NAS SO NA GNAS PA It's a very strange idiom in Tibetan and it means you will stay the way you always were. You will stay the way you always were.

SO NA GNAS PA It's very difficult. If you look up SO in the dictionary it says tooth, teeth. NA means sick.

GNAS means stay. But SO NA GNAS PA means you will just stay the way you were before. You won't change.

You will be poor the same you've always been poor. Because you don't know you have gold in the floor. Like that.

SO NA GNAS PA GZHAN YIN PHYIR Therefore, THOG MA RNGOS ZIN DGOS PA Therefore, we should make a list. What are the eight problems that we don't have? ZHES PA CHOS BYAS PA LA MI KHON PA RGYAS These in Tibetan are called MI KHON PA.

MI KHON PA Start a dictionary entry. KA NA RO KHO MA KHOM KHOM PA KHOM PA means to have time to do something. KHOM DGOS MIN DU I don't have time to go to the store.

Not CHOM LA KHOM DGOS MIN DU I ain't got time to go to the store. ZHES PA LA KHOM DGOS MIN DU What's that? ZHES PA LA KHOM DGOS MIN DU Ain't got time to die.

You don't know this song. So KHOM means to have time. MI KHOM You don't have time.

And in the LAM RIM it means you don't have a chance. You don't have opportunity. So we don't have those eight.

MI KHOM We don't have those eight problems. What are the eight problems that we don't have? He's going to quote ZHES STING ZHES STING ZHES is the ZHES and RGYAS ZHES.

ZHES is the ZHES and RGYAS ZHES. It means friend. RGYAS ZHES means spiritual friend.

ZHES means friend. This spelling, BAO ZHAG LDAN PO'I ZHES SA ZHES It means a friend. In Sanskrit it's called SU HARD.

SU HARD SU means good. HARD means heart. Cardiac comes from that.

Heart comes from that. So SU HARD So good heart means your friend. It means your friend.

Who's your good heart, my friend? SU HARD And then latter in Sanskrit is LHAD DKA LHAD DKA And before L when D means L the D changes to L also. When D means L the D changes to L also.

So this book is called SU HARD LHAD DKA SU HARD LHAD DKA The Letter to a Friend. In Tibetan, SHES THING The Letter to a Friend. Who wrote it?

Arya Nagarjuna wrote it. So the last two lists we had of the inner and the outer good chances that we have, that list was written by Asanga. The list of the eight problems that we don't have was written by Nagarjuna.

Not bad. The two great Aryas from India. Somebody asked me tonight at dinner, how many Aryas do you think are in the cafeteria?

How many people saw emptiness directly? Generally, you're lucky to have one Arya every 500 years. In this world, you are lucky.

There's like three confirmed Aryas. It's like Nagarjuna, Asanga, and Tsongkapa. And then possibly other ones, we don't know.

I don't know. But they are very rare. Extremely rare.

Although we all want to become one. So this Arya said, I will tell you the eight problems you don't have. Here's the poetry.

LOG PAR LTA BA RDZIN DANG DON DROG NYID YI DAG NYID DANG NYAL BAR SKYE BA DANG RGYAL BA'I DKA' MED PA DANG THAG KHOB TU LA LOR SKYE DANG LEN SHING DGOS PA NYID CHE RING LHA GNYIS GANG YANG RUNG BA NI SKYE BA ZHES KYIS MI KHOM SKYENG RGYUD PO DE DAG DANG PHYAL KHON PA NYID NAS NI SKYE BA RDOG PA'I LAS RUG PA'I BAR RDZOD This is the verse. If you have a chance, you should read the Letter to the Friend. Mr. Woo gave me a copy in the place of Kumara Jiwa. The abbot gave me a copy. Yeah, yeah. Letter to a Friend.

Letter to the King. It's a great book. It's almost 2,000 years old.

It's a poem and it's short and it's clear. Nagarjuna, that's how he writes. And that book has two parts.

The first half is like a lam rim. The lam rim grew from that. So that's the ancient, one of the ancient sources of lam rim is this letter.

Halfway through the book he's talking about morality and he says you shouldn't disturb other people's committed relationships. You shouldn't disturb other people's committed relationships. If you have a problem doing that, you should study more GONG ZHING Then you won't have this problem.

You won't have this problem if you understand emptiness. Then the second half of the book he talks about what he really wants to talk about which is called GONG ZHING. Another name for emptiness in Buddhism is what Buddha really wants to talk about.

Everything else is a secondary name. If you say to Buddha you want to give a talk in our Shanghai Reading Club, he says, yeah, okay man. Then you say, what do you want to talk about?

GONG ZHING There's a saying in Buddhism that what the Buddha really wants to talk about is emptiness. Then everything else is just extra. You can feel when you read that book Nagarjuna is waiting for a chance to talk about emptiness.

The first half of the book is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is how to be a good king. Then suddenly, boom.

Rest of the book is pure GONG ZHING. Super cool. Then me and Mr. Wu, we were writing a book called China Love You. So we had idea to follow this same structure. Okay? First half of the book is all here's a Chinese custom, here's American custom, here's a business custom, here's the all cultural, here's the blah, blah, blah.

Then suddenly, GING GANG CING. So we tried to trick the American business people. They think it's a business book.

They read first 100 pages is all about business. Then suddenly they are reading about GONG ZHING. We took that structure from Nagarjuna.

Very sneaky. Okay, so here's the explanation of what he said. SEMS PA THAR MI MA YIN PA'I MI GONG PA ZHI MI MI GONG PA ZHI'O The first four problems you never had relate, I'm sorry, you don't have now.

They relate to beings which are not humans. They relate to beings who are not humans. First four.

The second four problems that you don't have are problems that humans can have. So I'll give you explanation. Now I'm going to give you, we're going to have a question and answer after this section.

Pabongka Rinpoche is going to teach these eight, but they're out of order. He taught them in the wrong order. It doesn't fit Nagarjuna's order.

I was wondering why. Why did he do that? And you're going to tell me your theory, because I don't know.

I'm curious why he taught this mixed up order. There must be some reason. His secretary didn't make a mistake writing down what he said.

These are all lecture notes, right? Not like your notes. These are complete.

Who wrote them? Khyabje Chih-chang Rinpoche. Say, Khyabje Chih-chang Rinpoche.

He's my teacher's heart teacher. Heart teacher of my teacher. He's your great-grandfather heart teacher.

Khyabje Chih-chang Rinpoche. Is there a picture here? I don't know.

Is there a picture? Can you hold it up? Yeah, very beautiful face.

He took the notes. He didn't make any mistakes. He's perfect.

So don't blame him, it's out of order. The Lama must have said it that way. Why?

You tell me, I don't know. Okay, here we go. DANG PO ZHI LAS I will give you the first four which relate to problems you don't have that involve non-humans.

Ready? Here's the first one. He starts with number four.

He starts the eight with number four. He starts the eight with number four. In your book he starts with this picture of refugees.

This picture of refugees. It comes after the lady eating pizza. These are refugees in a train station in Europe last week.

Here we go. He starts with number four, which is number four here on this page. It says number four.

Ready? NYAL BA NI TSAR DANG GI SDUG BSNGAL BYAS BA'I CHOS BYAS DU MI KHOM STE People who live in the hell, people who live in the hell have trouble all the time from burning or freezing. There are two kinds of hells.

Well, there's three. There's three kinds of hells. One is hot hell.

You are burning all the time. Like someone has a torch burning your skin all the time. All day, all night.

Then cold hell. You are freezing all the time. Then there's another one.

People don't know. NYI TSE BA'I NYAL BA NYI TSE BA'I NYAL BA means hell on earth. In this world, there are little pockets of hell.

There are little hell pockets in this world. American people always say, I don't believe hell, Geshe-la. Because Christian also teaches about hell.

Why do people from Jerusalem, Middle East, teach about hell? And then from Israel, 2,000 years ago. Then Buddha teach about hell, 4,000 miles away, and they're the same.

Then people say, oh Geshe-la, somebody fell in the water and he held on to a tree and he reached Israel. Maybe Buddha saw those hells and also the people in Israel saw those hells and they're the same. Possible.

So modern people don't believe in hell. They say, no Geshe-la, that's an old idea. That's just some old Buddhist idea or Christian idea.

The Christian monk, the priest made up hell so they can collect money from people. If you give me $100, I guarantee you don't go to hell. No, it happened in Europe.

So people think, oh hell doesn't exist. It's just a story, old story. It's a mistake.

It's a mistake. Then I was watching TV. I don't have a TV.

I never had a TV in my whole life. I'm so lucky. That should be number nine.

Don't have TV. So I never had a TV. But I went to my friend's house and he was watching the news.

There was a war starting in Kuwait. Some army invaded Kuwait and took all their gold and all their things. They were having fun there.

Then American army tell them, go away. We are coming in ten days. Then nine days, eight days, seven days.

They didn't move. Then on the last day, the American airplanes came. Then all of them take a Mercedes.

They all jump in the Mercedes, go back home. But there's too many people, too many Mercedes in the highway. They got stuck.

They couldn't go. Then American airplane very slowly come down. These people invade this country.

They are having good time for several months. Then they are sitting in a new car. In the back they are full of gold bars.

They stole gold bars. They are going home. They got stuck.

Then the airplane came down. They are having a party. They are drinking alcohol.

They are carrying gold in the car. They have a new car. Then the bomb come.

Bomb. Thousands of cars. Fire.

People on fire. Car on fire. All of them on fire.

At six o'clock, they are drinking champagne. They have gold in the back seat. They have a new car.

At 6.15, they are burning. Body is burning. It's possible.

The karma exists. You can see that on the video, on the news. The karma exists that a person is comfortable and happy and enjoying themselves.

Fifteen minutes later they are covered in fire. It's possible. You can see the news on video.

You can see they are covered in fire. They are dying in fire. Don't be stupid.

Don't think, oh, it can't happen to me. Don't think it's impossible. Oh, hell is impossible Geshe-la.

This is an old Buddhist idea. It's not true. Your karma can switch in fifteen minutes.

You can reach a place where you are covered in fire in fifteen minutes. It's even possible in this world. It's even possible here.

It happens to people. It happens to people. They are driving a car.

Their girlfriend sends them a text message. Boom! They are dead.

Just suddenly they are dead. Everybody says, oh, that's too bad. She was so beautiful.

She goes through the windshield and she looks like a hamburger. Really. I saw people like that.

It happens like that. Don't be stupid. Don't think, oh, I can't go to hell.

There is no hell. There is a joke in the Christian church. The greatest achievement of the devil in 20th century is that nobody believes in hell.

They made it unfashionable to believe in hell. You see? Oh, I'm afraid I'll go to hell.

Man, come on, get with it. This is the 2000s. We are not in the Middle Ages.

Why you talk like that? Why you believe that? In the Christian church they say this is the devil.

Recent success. No one believes in the devil. That's what they like.

Are there devils? Yes. Do they exist?

Yes. Did you meet one? You did.

They are like, you want to give an offering to some temple or something and your friend become a devil for three minutes and say, come on man. You were going to buy a car. You don't remember?

You need that money to buy a car. Then you're like, oh yeah, I forgot about the car. Forget the temple.

Like that. Then for that five minutes this person is a demon. Devil.

They exist. They are not like, not like in the picture. They look like a nice guy.

There's a Halloween in America. All the kids dress up like Iron Man or devil. When the devil go to Halloween, he dress up like your best friend.

Very reasonable. Very normal. They don't have like, okay.

They are not stupid. They are sophisticated. Okay.

NYAL BA NI TSA RANG GI SDUG BSNGAL BYAS PA Because the pain, they have pain in those places. When your car is burning from the American bomb and your body is on fire, you are not going to study Dharma. It's not possible.

If you went to that place, you can't study. Sometimes you get a migraine. My friend got a migraine last two days.

Where is she? Maybe she's out having the rest of the migraine. Yeah, I'll pretend it's not you, okay?

She was having a three-day migraine. I used to get those when I was a kid and it was terrible. You can't do anything.

You just lay in the bed and you just wait for the headache to stop. Then somebody come in and say, Hey, let's debate about GONG ZHIG. And you are like, It's like trying to study Dharma in the middle of Kelitan's class.

The pain is so great. It's not possible. Okay?

Understand. All right. DGO LA MED SA ZHAG NAS DE RING LA BSGOM BYAS DU BCUG NA If your head is burning on fire and somebody says, let's do meditation.

BCUG NA NA TSE BSGOM RLONG MED PAR ZHING YIN Then when you have a bad headache and somebody say, come on, let's talk about, let's go to Diamond Cutter Reading Club in Shanghai. Then you're going to say, I'm sorry. I have a headache.

Even if I go there, I can't listen. RANG BYAG THA LTA NYAL BAR SKYE YOD TSE BYAG GIS BLANG NA MA RHO RANG BA'I NANG DU PHYI BA BCUG STE ZHIG PA LAS KYANG If you took a, there was a, in the war in Syria recently, a pilot from the Syria Air Force, his plane was shot and he fell down with a parachute and they caught him. They put him in a cage, this big, like that.

He's in a cage. Then they pour gasoline on him. It's here, same example.

RANG BYAG THA LTA NYAL BAR SKYE YOD TSE If we are born in the hell, BYAG GIS BLANG NA MA RHO RANG BA'I NANG DU and you put us inside of an iron cage and there's so much fire that the iron is red hot. The iron is red hot. NANG DU PHYI BA BCUG STE If you put a bird into a cage like that, ZHIG PA LAS and if you burn that small bird in that cage, iron cage, burn a small bird in an iron cage, YANG RGYUR STONG RGYUR GYI LHAG PA'I SDUG BSNGAL the pain in the hell is a hundred times or a thousand times more than that.

Much more than that. Than that man. And his parents asked those people to let him go because he's Muslim and they're Muslim.

So they said, let him go. And they said, you know, and they made a video. They made a movie.

So imagine that times a thousand. A thousand times more painful. STONG RGYUR GYI LHAG PA'I SDUG BSNGAL NYON BA'I RGYUR BA'I CHOS BYAS PA'I LTA SHOG How are you going to do Dharma at that moment?

CHOS KYI DRA TZAM MI KHO BA'I GTAN You can't even... Someone yelled in your ear, you know, RJES NI RJES NI, BO LO RJES NI, BO LO GSANGS RJES NI You're like, wow, wow. You can't even listen.

DRA TZAM MI KHO BA'I GTAN SDUG BSNGAL BA ZHIG YID LA GNOG NAS YID LA GNOG NAS SDUG RGYUD LAS MI YONG BA'I CHOS MI YONG You can't even... You can't even focus your mind on anything. Just pain.

SDUG RGYUD LAS MI YONG BA'I CHOS MI YONG DE LTAR MA SKYES PA DI THABS LEGS NYAMS PA BYED The fact that you and me haven't been born there is THABS LEGS. Say THABS LEGS. Start dictionary entry.

SA LTA LTAR BA SA LTABS LEGS LA BRTEN PO LEGS SA LEGS But in colloquial, we say THABS YAG. It's the same thing. LEGS LEGS LEGS LEGS LEGS SO LEGS SO Good, good.

YAB PO YAB PO Good, good. Same thing. THABS YAG My teacher used to say this to me a lot.

I don't know how to translate it into English. It's like, great. Like, I don't know.

THABS YAG Oh, RIN PO CHE Today I did my meditation. Oh, THABS YAG Great. Like, yeah.

Like a monkey typed on a typewriter for three days and one word came out. THABS YAG That's great. THABS YAG If you want to insult somebody.

I don't know why in a foreign language people always learn the bad words first. Did you notice that, Dennis? You teach somebody how to say god damn in Tibetan, they remember right away.

I'm not going to teach you. But THABS YAG is pretty bad. THABS YAG Oh, I meditated for 15 minutes.

Oh, THABS YAG, THABS YAG Great. That's really good. So, we weren't born in a place like that.

Our body's not covered with fire. Don't think it doesn't exist. Don't be stupid.

Those places exist. Where are they? Wait, I'll give you a clue.

Where are those hells? Where are they? Where is the heaven of Manjushri?

Where is Amitabha's heaven? It's here. It's right here.

You don't have to go to those hells. The system of bardo is wrong. The system of bardo is not correct.

Do prayers for seven weeks. Wait for your relative to be reborn. It's not true.

It's lower system. It's Abhidharma system. It's not true.

Do we do it? Yes. Did I do it a hundred times for people when I'm in the monastery?

I did. Is it true? No.

How long? It doesn't take seven weeks for your karma to change. It doesn't take seven weeks.

It takes one sixty-fifth of a second. You can go to hell in one sixty-fifth of a second. You don't have to wait seven weeks.

It's a change in your mind. It's a change in your seeds. Where do you go?

Where is hell realm? Abhidharma says two thousand miles under Bodhgaya. It's not true.

This... Okay? Understand?

Is this a dog's room or a human's room? Which one? If you have dog seeds, this is a dog's room.

If you have human seeds, this is a human's room. In the same room. If you have hell seeds, you are burning next to the other person who's very happy.

Don't think you have to go somewhere. That whole system is just for people who didn't study. Okay?

All of the do the prayers and burn incense. It's all for people who didn't study. You are now...

Now you have one bad luck. You learned the truth. Okay?

You will go to... If you go to hell, it takes less than one second. Because it's just a seed change in your mind.

How long it takes for your arm to become dog? Do you have to go to dog factory in West China and bite dog's body and put the soul inside? It's not like that.

Your karma change. Your seed change. Watch my hand.

Ready? Let's do again. Let's do one more time.

How long did it take to change my hand? One second or something. Okay?

Is that change coming from me or from you? Yeah, coming from you. Okay?

What change? Your mind picture change. 65 pictures coming out of the seeds in your mind.

Okay? You can go to hell in... One second from now.

You can go to the hell. Okay? Everybody who went to the hell went to the hell that way.

They didn't get a ticket from orbit travel. Okay? They just...

The seed change. And then the next second they're in hell. Oh Geshe-la, I don't remember that.

Do you remember coming out of your mother? No. Well, I guess you didn't come out of your mother.

Okay. Alright. Dog cannot remember they used to be a human.

Okay? They cannot. Okay?

Cannot do.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
You don't... Okay, so anyway, we don't have this problem. We don't have problem number...

Four. Good. We don't have problem number four.

Now we go to the next one. Don't forget you're going to explain to me why he put them out of order. I don't understand.

Okay, number three. YID BDAGS SU SKYES NA BRAL GOMS CHE BA'I CHOS CHE DANG MI GOMS TE This is the lady who's looking at her computer and uncontrollably eating pizza. I think it's a pizza.

Okay? I like it. Yeah, that's nice.

Okay, this one. So leave it there. It's okay.

So there's a word in Buddhism called, in Sanskrit, it's called preta. Preta. In Tibet, it's called YID BDAGS.

I don't know what you call it in Chinese. Hungry ghost. Hungry ghost.

Okay. So it means in this life, as a human, they couldn't control their appetite for food or sex or money or power. They couldn't control themselves.

They got addicted to that thing. Okay? Have to eat more.

Are you hungry? No. Why are you eating?

I'm nervous. Okay? Just that.

Then that makes a special seed in your mind. After you die, you become invisible person who wants more, more, more, more, more, more, more, and more, and more, and more, and more. You know that song?

Yeah. We did it in Guadalajara, right? So this is special kind of bad rebirth.

In America, there's a tradition. They say haunted house. Haunted house.

There's an old house and there are ghosts inside. They are invisible. You cannot see them.

Everybody thinks it's like a joke or something like that. But in Buddhism, we believe there's such a person. We believe there's such a person.

You want to hear a cool story? Okay. Maybe I got the characters' names wrong.

I'm just telling you. But I think I got it right. So the two great disciples of Buddha were Maudgalyayana and Shariputra.

Shariputra spoke the Heart Sutra. He's the... Shalidze?

Yeah. That's Shariputra. Okay.

His mother's name was Sharima. Putra means son. Son of Shari.

Maudgalyayana was the... These are the two great disciples of Buddha. They are a sung.

Yeah, sung chok. They are the Supreme Pair. They're called the Supreme Pair.

Okay. Buddhist monk in the morning supposed to go to the houses and ask for food. We are not supposed to keep food in the refrigerator.

Okay. Because then in your meditation we'll go into the refrigerator. So Buddhist monk supposed to go to the house.

Just... They will open the door and you say, give me anything you have. Then people ask me why those Tibetan monks, some of them, eat meat.

Okay. And some of them say, we cannot refuse what the sponsor give us. If the sponsor...

You give your bowl at the door. If they put hamburger in that, you have to eat it. Okay.

You don't want to kill animal. You don't want to eat meat. But they're supposed to give you what they don't want.

So if they have extra McDonald's hamburger put in your bowl, you're supposed to eat it. And you're supposed to say thank you. Okay.

So that's why people started to eat meat in the monasteries. In my monastery they had a vote several years ago to stop eating meat. Everybody.

And it was cool. 3,000 people stopped eating meat in one day. Okay.

I'm afraid there's a little black market in hamburgers. I don't know. But...

Not much. Okay. Almost everybody is keeping it.

So I'm very happy about that. Okay. So Maudgalyayana went to the person's house and there was a man sitting with his wife having dinner and their baby was sitting on the husband's lap.

So husband and his wife and the husband is hugging the baby on his lap. And they were having dinner. Some fish.

They were eating fish. And then Maudgalyayana knocked on the door and they opened the door and he said, you know, please give me something to eat. This is the old tradition.

And you're supposed to finish before 12 o'clock. And then you meditate the rest of the day. So he put his bowl out.

In that time there's a dog in the house and the dog jumped up on the on the lap of the wife to try to get the fish. Then the wife hit the dog. Then Maudgalyayana asked for food.

Just very polite. Please give me something to eat. And they said, get the hell out of here.

Go away. We don't want to give you anything. So he said, thank you very much.

And he left. Then Shariputra saw that. He was watching.

Then he went to the house and he knocked on the door. And they opened the door. And he said, you know that guy who just came here?

Yeah, yeah, he's some monk. No, he's not some monk. He's Maudgalyayana.

Who's Maudgalyayana? Buddha's number one disciple. Okay?

Yeah, we don't care. If he wants to have dinner in another galaxy, he can go there in five minutes. Okay?

He can fly past 10,000 planets and have dinner somewhere if he likes to. He came to your door to bless you. You are so lucky he came to your door.

He doesn't need your food. He has miracle power. Maudgalyayana had special powers.

Most famous student of Buddha who has special powers. Okay? Then Shariputra says, you made a mistake.

Then the guy said, now you get the hell out of here. We don't care about these miracle powers and like that. He said, okay, okay, don't get mad.

I'm leaving. But I just want to inform you that something strange is going on in your house. And the guy said, what's strange in my house?

What's going on in my house? He said, last year, do you remember your father died, right? Yeah, yeah, my father died.

And your mother also died? Yeah, how do you know my mother died? Well, do you remember your father used to enjoy fishing in the lake behind your house?

And he used to catch the fish all the time. And then your mother, she was very attached to this house. And then she died.

Oh, you remember your neighbor whose name was, I forget the name, okay? Like, I don't know, Sam or something. Okay?

Do you remember your, do you remember anything unusual about your neighbor Sam? And then the guy, the husband is like, what do you know about Sam? He says, I know everything about Sam.

So, the wife doesn't know the story. What happened is, there was a neighbor named Sam, okay? He fell in love with the guy's wife.

They were having an affair, okay? Then the husband murdered him. Husband killed him.

So, last year, three people died. Mom died. Father died.

And quite secretly, he killed his neighbor. The wife doesn't even know. But Shariputra knows.

Because Shariputra can read his mind. So, he says, do you remember your little friend Sam? He says, what do you know about Sam?

Oh, maybe something, you know? And then there, he's like, why are you talking about these people? They are dead.

They are gone. He says, they are not gone. Your father was born as a fish in the lake.

You caught him yesterday.

[Speaker 2]
You are eating your father.

[Speaker 1]
Okay? You are eating your father. And you just hit your mother who was attached to this house, so she was born as a dog in the house.

So, you are hitting your mother and you are eating your father. Then they are like, wow. And then he said, okay, you asked me to leave, I'm leaving.

I'm going. Oh, just one more thing. The baby in your holding, it's Sam.

Because he's attracted to your wife. So, after he died, he was born inside her womb. So, he says, he's leaving.

He's walking away. He says, isn't it a strange world where someone is hitting their mother, eating their father, and hugging the man who had sex with his wife? Bye.

It means, why do we talk about that? Geshe Michael is always wandering. That's a yidak.

That's a preta. If you are attached to your house, then after you die, if you are very, you know, I had a neighbor when I was a small kid. They have more money than us.

We are a poor family. They have a big house. I like their house because the carpet is this thick.

I like to roll on the carpet. And the couch is bigger than my bed. But the mother is so attached to the carpet, she covers it with plastic.

So, it's very uncomfortable to walk on it. And you can't see it also. And then the couch is covered with plastic.

One day I just, my pen broke in my pocket. All the ink went on the couch, under the plastic. I was a little bit upset, but I was also happy.

So, if you have strong attachment to things, this is my special table. This is my special couch. This is my special carpet.

Then after you die, you are born as an animal or a ghost in that house, and you will stay there. Sometimes you go to a hotel or house and it feels uncomfortable, and you can hear some... These are ghosts.

They are real. And they are always hungry, and they are always thirsty. They are always hungry, and they are always thirsty.

So, yidak su khena ni, if you had been born as a ghost, de kong cheway, you'd be hungry and thirsty all the time. chu che du mi kom te, you don't have a chance to practice Dharma. You are just trying to eat something.

rang chak shun du de shing, duk pa shik kap su, nam ta bu ga zhig kyi, chu la gul yang, dang por sa tun du, du ni nyurwa la chu che du mi kompa shing yin, If you are really hungry, like you didn't get dinner tonight because Tim made you clean the toilet, thank you for cleaning the toilets. I'm very grateful. I will do some more American bashing.

You know what American bashing is? Picking on Americans. So, when I got here Friday, I asked Tim, how's it going?

He said, the American volunteers didn't show up on time. Some of them. I asked them to be here last night, and they're still not here.

It's the afternoon. I said, I'm sorry. Then some Chinese people came in and they said, can we clean the toilets?

I'm like, yeah, good for you. Anyway, thank you for that. yi dak su khen na, if we were born like that, if we are really hungry and we didn't get dinner because we were cleaning the toilets, and the Lama says, come over, we're going to have class.

Then you'll say, okay, I'll come in a few minutes. Let me finish some food. Just that much hunger can stop your dharma.

Then if you're born as a spirit, you're hungry your whole life. Their mouth is this big. If they find food, they cannot put it in.

The digestion is faster than what they can feed. Like that. de tak na, yi dak su ma kye pa yang, THABS YA The fact that you weren't born as a ghost is THABS YA Great job.

Very good. Very good. You weren't born as a ghost.

Good job. Number three is finished. We did number four and we did number three.

Why is he going this way? You're going to tell me. Let's do one more, then you tell me.

SDUG BSNGAL SKYES NA NI, LEN GZHING STI MOG PAS CHOS BYAS DU MI GOMS TE If we had been born as an animal, they are, by nature, they are a little bit stupid. STI MOG means they can't understand anything. PAS CHOS BYAS DU MI GOMS TE You can, I saw in my retreat, when I did a three-year retreat, I live in the real desert, empty desert, small house, like 21 steps across.

I did it many times. 21 steps. That's all.

I can't go anywhere. It's three years. Then we have cows.

We have some cows. We are on a ranch in the middle of empty desert. Then in this Arizona system, it's old.

150 years old. Very cruel. Very bad system.

They will take the cows, dump them out of the truck in the middle of the desert. Half of them will die. No food, nothing.

No water, nothing. Then six months later or one year later, they come back. Who survived?

They collect them and kill them. There's no fence. There's no system.

In this part of Arizona, it's legal for the cow to come here to Diamond Mountain and walk around and try to find food. It's legal. Because this state was invented by cattle ranchers.

This state was made a hundred years ago. It's new. It's the newest part of America.

In my three-year retreat, I like to feed those wild cows. Then I will get extra Cheerios from Jigme. I didn't tell her.

I said, I need more Cheerios. That's strange. Geshe-la is eating a lot of Cheerios.

Then every morning I put a small bowl and I push it under my fence. I have a fence, so I cannot see anybody. There's a cow waiting outside and I give him some Cheerios every day.

Very cool system. They will punch the ear and they will put a plastic number here. They'll put a hole here with a gun and they put a big tag here.

They have a number. What was my number? 26?

What was my cow's number? I had cow number 23. She liked me.

She waited outside. Every morning I feed her. She's just looking for food.

Then she got fatter and fatter. I was happy. Then she had babies.

Two babies. Two small babies. I watched them grow up.

I feel like Papa. 23, we did a good job. Two babies.

She really loved them. They were always drinking from her. Then one day they came and the two babies had this tag and it said terminate.

A black letter. Terminate. No number.

Just terminate. Kill them. Kill them.

Soon. On that tag. This one you can kill.

Then I think why. Later I learned when you have a milk, what do you call? Milk farm?

Dairy farm. Half the babies are male. Half the babies are female.

You kill the males. Within a few weeks you kill them. Then they made a special word called veal.

Special kind of meat. It means baby boys meat. Especially Austrian veal.

It's an old system from Austria. So you can kill the boys. You just need one or two boys to have sex with the mama cow every few weeks.

They have to be pregnant all the time. Otherwise they don't give milk. You see?

You have to keep them pregnant for six years, ten years. Every day. They have to be pregnant.

Otherwise they don't give milk. These two are boys. I didn't know what's the meaning of this tag.

I found out later. Then after a few days she came back. She's alone.

She was alone. I put the food under the fence and she won't eat. The fence has a big pole.

There are several big poles and a wood fence. She starts to go like this. She's hitting her head on it.

She's crying. She's crying. She's hitting her head on the pole.

She just wants to die. They have a feeling. They have a feeling.

They love their children also. But the way they kill them, when they kill her, when they kill her, they will drive a truck onto the desert and they get a big box of carrots. They throw the carrot out the back.

Slow. They drive very slow. Then all the cows come.

Oh, free carrot. They will follow the truck into the fence. They keep throwing carrots out.

Then like a hundred cows come with them. Then they drive inside. Then they lock the door.

Then they start to kill them. One by one they kill them. Why I talk about that?

Animals cannot think they are killing me. They cannot understand what's the plan. If they can talk, they say, what are they doing?

I don't know. What's the carrot thing? I don't know.

It's good. You think there's any danger here? Nah, just eat the carrot.

Let's go inside. Oh, what's happening to those other cows? Oh, they are cutting their throat.

You think any danger there? No. You think it happened to me?

I don't know. They cannot understand they are all going to die. Even they see the other one dying, they cannot understand.

They are too stupid. This is the animal's life. Why are we talking about that?

You are not like that. You are not like that. You are different.

Your mind is different. You have different seeds. Understand?

You have different seeds. So you are lucky. You didn't get born as a cow.

Number 23. Or 24. You are different.

MA NI These animals, MA NI TSAR CIG SBYONG DANG GYUR LTA LTAR TSANGS RGYA BZHIN MED KYANG If you went up to one of these animals and said, if you can say one OM MANI PAD MI HUM I will make you a Buddha. KYANG SGO TSOR GCIG YANG MED They are like, what? What?

They can't understand. THA MA NI MA NI GCIG KYANG BRAL BA'ANG MI SHES NA They can never learn to do one MA NI except my Lama's dog. PHYIR BZHIN GANG NAS SHES Then how are they going to learn emptiness?

How are they going to learn bodhichitta? How are they going to learn morality? They can't even say one MA NI PAD MI HUM.

Not possible. DE BZHIN DONDRA RANG RANG GI SDUG BSNGAL KYI SNA NAS CHOS CHEN NAS MI KHONGS PAS DE DAG TU MA RGYAS PA YANG ZHIN DU BTABS LAS ZHIN DU BTABS YANG What? Super lucky.

You are so lucky. You didn't get born as an animal. Super lucky.

You are super lucky. Now, I'm going to tell you the other ones and you're going to tell me why he mixed up the order. If you tell me correctly, you can go to bed.

So far we have number four, number three, number two. What's the next? How do you know that?

Who figured it out? Yeah, the next one happens to be number eight. The next one is number eight.

In the picture, it's a guy sitting on the couch looking at the TV. We talk about it tomorrow. It means DE BA.

DE BA Like very, very rich person. Has lots of time. Doesn't have to work.

And just waste their life looking at television. You are lucky you didn't take birth like that. So far we have hell, hungry ghost, animal, DE BA.

Next. Next he did number six. These four are not human.

Okay? These four are not humans. So now we're going to have four problems that humans have.

These four are not human problems. Now we have four human problems. First one, number six.

You were not born in a country where nobody ever heard of Buddha. Okay? Especially Chinese people.

Friends. Everybody in China heard about Buddha. I don't know how many in America know about Buddha.

Maybe half? I don't know. But you weren't born in that country.

Okay? That's number six. On the picture I put, which one is number six?

Huh? Yeah, like this guy looks like wild man.

[Speaker 2]
I made a mistake?

[Speaker 1]
Right? Oh, what's number six? Oh yeah, that's okay.

You were born in a country where on the internet you can get knowledge. I'll talk about it tomorrow. Okay, number five.

I should say it differently. I'm sorry. Number six means you were born in a place that has no Dharma.

Number five is you were born in a place where Buddha never came. Number seven is what is number seven? What's the picture?

Yeah. Where is that? That little girl has a special mental disease called Down Syndrome.

Okay? She looks pretty but she has Down Syndrome. She cannot speak.

She cannot understand anything. In her life she won't be like that. So we are not like that.

We are not like that kind of mental problem whole life. We are not like that. Last one, number one, good, is that nobody ever taught you the pen.

Okay, you don't have this problem because you heard the pen. Poor Jasmine, she heard it like 800 times already. My American students who come on DCI tour, when I hold up the pen, they fall asleep immediately.

Then when I finish talking about pen, they wake up. It's like a miracle. I go like this.

They go... Then I put it down, they go... You know.

So, you guys don't have this problem. Okay? They say it's jet lag.

I think it's the pen. Okay? So, let's talk about it tomorrow.

Okay? Let's rest. But that's your homework.

Like Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible. If you choose to take this mission. Okay?

And why did he mix it up so bad? Okay? I'll give you the order again.

I'm just going to say numbers. You tell me, what's the first number? Four.

What's the second number? Three. What's the third number?

Two. Good. What's the next number?

Eight. What's the next number? Six.

Six. Yeah, six. Then the next number is five.

Next number is seven. Last number is one. Why did he mix it up so bad?

What's the purpose? Wait. Tell me tomorrow.

I'm too tired to think about it. Okay? Tell me tomorrow.

You decide. Okay? Try.

Try. Please try. Don't just blow it off.

Try to figure it out. Okay? All right.