«Дар освобождения», курс 19 «Ретрит благодарности», занятие 7

[Speaker 1]
So, we're going to do the five perfect conditions outside of ourselves, and we're going to do it in an old Sakya tradition, which I think is a very good idea, and my teacher said it was a good idea. This is where you... we're going to do those five conditions, and we will do each one for five minutes.

So, I will have a bell. The bell will ring at the beginning, and the bell will ring after five minutes. Before the bell rings, you can make noise.

The first bell. After the first bell rings, you have to be totally, totally quiet, and don't move. Don't move, don't make noise.

When the bell rings after five minutes, you can readjust. This is the system, Sakya system. You can readjust for half a minute, and then when you hear the bell again, you have to stop.

Completely stop. Okay? Harder.

Okay, you ready? So, the first meditation will be five minutes, that we are so lucky that a Buddha came to this world. This is a little timer that I like.

It's called Insight Timer, and it has a lot of different kinds of bells, but no whistles. Okay, ready? Ready?

Cell phone off, cell phone off. Cell phone off. Don't forget, if your cell phone rings during the meditation, you owe Diamond Mountain $50.

Not Singapore dollar, US dollar. That's going too far. Okay, ready?

Here we go. We are lucky that a Buddha came to this planet. Okay, you can move.

So the idea is you really focus for five minutes, then you take a break. Next meditation is that these holy beings have taught the path. These beings who came to this planet have taught the path.

Venerable Phil, come on. Okay, here we go again. They spoke, they taught.

Okay, five minutes. When the bell starts, straight, it's just five minutes, come on. Somebody over here was twitching.

Somebody over there was smoothing. Just let it go. It's cool, you just let it go and it goes, it's like glue.

It's like glue. You can wash it off later. Okay, really, just let it go.

Okay, you ready? Snuffle finish. Okay.

Did you booyers turn off your phones sometimes? Yes. Here we go.

Okay, five minutes, super focused. Anybody can hang in there for five minutes. Okay, you can move.

What's the next one? Dharma still exists in the world. Dharma still exists.

We have the ACI courses online, 10,000 pages. We have the Knowledge Base, 5,000 videos and audios. And we have ACIP, YCIP.

It's about 20,000 books. Not bad. My Lama used to say, not bad.

Ready? Dharma still exists. By the way, it's not very strong, right?

Most of the countries it's destroyed. Not bad, okay? In most countries it's destroyed.

So we have to work hard, okay? Okay, here we go. Dharma still exists.

Okay. What's the next one? Yeah, we're lucky because we're part of a super cool lineage.

Complete tradition. Next week with the Chinese translator group, Spanish, Russian, German, in Sedona we'll be studying the structure of all Buddhist literature. You will see next week, those of you who come, you will see that Tsongkhapa covered all of it.

And I don't think anybody else did. You will see. It's not just bragging.

It's also bragging. Not just bragging. So you're part of a living, accurate and complete tradition.

It's not just a piece, it's the whole thing. From beginning to the highest secret teachings, everything is pure. Alright, ready?

Here we go. You can hang in there for five minutes. Tell the baby not to kick for five minutes.

Is he kicking yet? Yeah, tell him not to for five minutes. Okay, here we go.

What's the last one? Oh, yeah. Somebody built us a cafeteria and retreat cabin and temple.

Somebody bought this land. So we have good support. In Tibetan, a sangha, when he wrote the Shravakabumi, he called that, GZHAN LA SNYING RJE What's that mean?

GZHAN LA SNYING RJE SNYING RJE Yeah, love for other people. He didn't call it, somebody has a lot of money. He said, somebody cares about us, wants us to have a comfortable retreat center.

He just said, somebody loves me. That's kind of cool. Alright, here we go.

Last one. Come on, you can do it for five minutes. I didn't even cheat, it was all five minutes.

Okay, relax. Relax, relax. Okay, one more meditation.

So this morning, the main thing in the class, I'll teach some, but I would also like people to share their experience from retreat. I'd like to, we call it discoveries. We want to know what is your discoveries.

Like, what did you find out? Something new. I found out the five minute meditation and it helped me a lot.

So I was very excited about it. Because it, then I can do it, and I can focus. Maybe later I'll increase to six minutes.

Like that. So we're going to do a five minute meditation and I want you to think about what did you learn or what did you discover. My discovery is the five minute meditation.

Then what did you discover? Then when I asked people to raise their hand, the same five people raised their hand and the shy people don't say anything. So I have a new idea.

Where's Tim? Yeah, Tim has a list of everybody here. Then he's going to close his eyes and he's going to pick a name.

Then that person is going to tell the rest of us something they discovered. Especially something which will help us. I think this five minute thing will help you for years.

Okay? But tell us something you discovered that maybe will help us. Or maybe just something beautiful or maybe something exciting.

Or some problem you had. You're going to share with us for just a few minutes. Shy people can talk for a few minutes, it's okay.

So I'm going to give you five minutes to think about what you want to say. So you can't say you didn't know. Okay.

Alright? So, five minute meditation. What did you discover?

What was something beautiful? What was something not so beautiful? For example, I found out about animals, hungry ghosts, hell.

I have some of that in me all the time. Like I always want to have more yo chow. Or I get angry.

Or I want things, take things. I'm already, I have some old karma, animals, hungry ghosts, hell. I have them.

I'm not free of them. Lazy deva watching TV. I found out something not so nice.

Discovery. Not so nice discovery about myself. So, so it's possible, not that loud, it's okay.

Not so loud. It's possible the discovery is not so nice, but it helps you. Okay?

Alright, five minutes. What did I learn? What did I discover that I'd like to share with other people?

And don't be shy. If it's something bad, it's okay. People who say, who admit they're bad things are cleaning them.

Okay, here we go. Five minutes. Scott, can you put, can you find the app store, I think it's called Insight Timer.

And can you display it? And then people can get it. It's a nice, you can change the sound of the bell.

You can ring two times, three times. Then you can say, today I'm going to do just two five minutes. Or you can say, I'm going to do five, or three, or one.

Okay? Alright, Mr. Tim. Oh, I'm going to, it's going to be five minutes also talking.

Because we have to do a little bit of class. Who's the first one? He's closed his eyes.

Who? Ben from Vietnam. Give him a mic.

What did you discover?

[Speaker 2]
Good morning, everyone. Actually, three day silent retreat for me is like three year. It's too long.

The most important thing I found out is craving spirit. I can find a lot of things inside.

[Speaker 1]
And the most memorable thing is when I do mantra for my grandmother, my mother, and my family. I'm sorry. I cannot sleep.

I love them so much. But sometimes I forget about them.

[Speaker 2]
That's really, really hard time for me.

[Speaker 1]
And it's very valuable for me when I come back. I know how to treat them.

[Speaker 2]
I know I can do a lot more things. I have all the shocks in my hand. I have a power.

[Speaker 1]
But I have not used it in the right way. Thank you, Geshe-la. You give me a great chance.

Thank you, everyone. Very beautiful. Very beautiful sharing.

Tears are best talking. Tim, who's next? Shen Meng Yi.

[Speaker 2]
My name is Ricky, from Shanghai, and it's my first time to come to Diamond Mountain. Also my first time to do retreat.

[Speaker 1]
It's the first time that I have done so many meditations at one time. I don't really want to share my meditation content, but I want to say that during these three nights, I have been dreaming every day. All those dreams are about my family, my friends.

But when I woke up in the morning, or shocked, and woke up in the middle of the night, I found out that every dream is a bad dream. All those dreams happen among the people I love, my family, my friends. But it turned out that in the dreams, there is some violence in the dreams.

One time I was hit and bleeding by them.

[Speaker 2]
The seeds of violence in my body. It was the first time that I was so close, so deeply touched by them. Even when I was recording the Sixty Books, I was not so deeply touched by them.

[Speaker 1]
I knew them before. Even when I did my Sixty Books during the day, I couldn't fight them. So I want to thank this retreat for giving me this opportunity to allow me to explore these things deeply, and grant me the bravery, the courage to face them.

[Speaker 2]
I was awakened suddenly. And the storm was bigger than I expected.

[Speaker 1]
Then I started to ask myself, what if I die here tonight? Nobody can help me here. Even if I yell to the sky or to everyone, nobody can help me.

[Speaker 2]
At the same time, I also realized that in a very limited life, we don't know when death will come. We should, or for me, take more time, or all the time, to do something higher and more meaningful.

[Speaker 1]
So, while I'm still alive, I should really devote more time, or even all of my time, to do something more precious and higher. Okay. Thank you.

Mr. Tim. Who? Alejandra.

[Speaker 2]
First of all, I'd like to thank everybody for being here. I would like to say that this is the first time I do a solo retreat, and this is my first time in Diamond Mountain. Welcome.

She says she would like to apologize to her roommates because she didn't keep the vow of silence all the time, and sometimes she was disrespectful about that. I realized in this retreat that I am really very lucky in everything I have and I am losing my time and I do not want to lose it and I would like to bring so many people with you, Geshe-la. I would like for everyone to be here, for everyone to have this opportunity to listen to you and to have you.

I want to sow more seeds to have you closer and not just me, everyone. And I also wish that I can be closer to you, Geshe-la, and also have other people closer to you. I want to bring a lot of people and I want to plant seeds to make that happen.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Marianne?

[Speaker 2]
For me it's the first time to be in Diamond Mountain and to do a retreat.

[Speaker 1]
Where are you from?

[Speaker 2]
Germany.

[Speaker 1]
Germany, okay.

[Speaker 2]
And I felt very safe to be there and to be with all the other people around. And the schedule helped me a lot, the schedule and to really keep the schedule. That was, I could go deep into the yoga and into the meditations.

And at home I also do meditation or yoga, but then I shortened, but now I kept it. And during the coffee meditation I felt really, really happy to have it kept. I noticed that during these three days I had nothing to say.

And then I noticed that there's so much useless talk all around during the time. And it was really good to feel that. About this bridge's life, I haven't been aware about that.

I always thought I have a good life and I live in a great place, but really I haven't been aware where it came from and what I could do with that. And what I noticed during the contemplation who has helped me, I had a really long relationship and when we parted, I was suffering. I was really suffering for years.

And now I noticed that he showed me my attachment, the attachment to being with someone, to feel being loved and all that. And that was really, really a gift to realize that. And I felt you, Geshe-la, really close.

I want to thank you for that. And I felt the blessing to have a teacher to open my eyes and to show me and guide me on the path to make the very best out of my life. And thanks all the others for the support.

Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
All right, Mr. Tim. Who's next? Mr. Candy. It's okay. Okay. I don't know really what to say.

But for me, these few days, it's just to experience the whole environment. And it's pretty comfortable. And I enjoy it pretty much.

And I see people around me, they are really doing good. That's it.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Let's do another one. Barbara, what country are you from?

[Speaker 2]
I'm from the United States.

[Speaker 1]
Yay!

[Speaker 2]
Oh, gosh. Well, I hope I don't cry.

[Speaker 1]
Everybody else does.

[Speaker 2]
Well, a couple of things. One thing, I noticed when we did the contemplation on who helped you, I felt myself being annoyed. I thought of some people close to me, and then I thought about how they disappointed me.

And then I started to realize how much they really did help me. And I thought that I didn't have that many people that helped me. And then by the third day, I had all these people that I really, really, truly understood, that really helped me, and that I was really, really grateful for them.

I'm so glad we had that contemplation, because it was, it kind of, okay, this is going to sound goofy, but I was looking at, when I went on my walk, an anthill. And there were, you know, until you get really close, you don't see, like, there are tons and tons and tons of ants. And when I looked at it, I realized, there are tons and tons and tons of people who have helped me in so many ways.

And each one of those ants was kind of, like, somebody that I felt really touched by how they helped me. I had just been obscured by a couple on the first day. The other thing that really was big for me was, sometimes I'd get waylaid during my meditation about an issue that really bothers me.

And then this is another, like, dopey thing, that I have to go to my mother-in-law's house for Christmas. And, you know, I have to do this, like, so many years, and I really don't want to go. And during the meditation, you know, it was that I have a sharp mind, and I use it to study and meditate and discover where things come from.

And as many teachings as I've had on emptiness here, I all of a sudden, it popped into my mind. Remember, there was one teaching we had that was, the Nick who was unjustly accused of stealing a book does not exist. And I said, the Barbara who is unjustly forced to go to her mother-in-law's house for Christmas does not exist.

That's about, that was big for me.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. I think about half of people don't want to go where they go on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Maybe more.

Tim, one more, one more. Jesse, let's go. Where are you from?

Taiwan, I think. Taiwan. Okay.

Taiwan people are very organized.

[Speaker 2]
First of all, thank you for the chance to, you know, have good roommates, Uta, Catherine, and especially Jesson and Jinmei is with us.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, I thought it was the aunts.

[Speaker 2]
So they make me feel very safe and then lead me, do the yoga daily. Although I didn't like any guma yoga so much, but I think I like it now. So, and these three days is not as three years long, but it's like three months long.

That's because I had prior experience to have one day silence in Taiwan. So it wasn't too bad. So during these three days I was thinking to take the lay person's vow afterwards because I really do.

And I keep thinking and thinking is that the right time because if you take the vow and then break it later, it will be even worse. So, but I felt that when I was doing the meditation on moment to moment, do not waste time, even the burning one stick time. So, yeah, that was, I spent most of my time thinking about this.

And one day that I was, oh, my cabin is really probably the best one. I'm not sure because I can lie down on the roof to see the stars and the crowds. And it's very pretty.

And one finding is that I usually don't get too involved with things. I will get, let's say that if we're going for camping and I will prepare everything and pack everything and the good equipments to deal with any situation. But I realized when the time comes that I need to use the equipments, I'm afraid to dirt those equipments and do not wish to use them.

And it's like I was wearing my jacket last night and then I was lying on the roof. I feel warm and comfortable, but I want to lie down, but I'm afraid to dirt my jacket. That's the thoughts that come into my mind, is when I'm doing a lot of things that I am there, but I'm not actually so involved in that.

And that is a new finding for me to pay more attention to my involvement, especially for things that is meaningful.

[Speaker 1]
Do you need a 10 minute break or can you go for 40? You can go? Oh, this is where you can download this ringer.

I like it a lot. Then you can start doing five minute meditations. You can take a photo of this.

Then later when you look at your photos you will remember. I like it a lot. And I think it's a good idea to, if you're lazy like me, you can say, okay, I'll just do two five minutes.

I'll do three five minutes. Then you forget and you just meditate for an hour. So I think it's very useful.

Okay, if someone needs to go to the bathroom, please feel free to stand up and go. You don't have to be polite. I know some people have to go.

Me too, but I am the teacher. We're going to start back on the text. I wanted to go over some parts I did before and I made a few mistakes and I want to fix them on the official record.

So it'll be page 155A. Yeah, search for M-G-O space L-A. MA'ONG DGA' NA RGOL NA Okay, these are just some small things, but this is all being recorded for the next thousand years and I want to make sure they're correct.

This says, RGOL NA ME TZA ZHAG NAS, DE RIGS NA SGOM BYAS DU CHUG NA, NA TSE SGOM MONGS MED PA BZHIN YIN The translation I have is mistaken and I wanted to correct it. RGOL NA means on your head. ME TZA is a moxibustion needle, so word knows what that is.

I was translating for some Tibetan doctors for many years and I remember in New York City in a penthouse, they had some rich lady sit down on a chair and they stick a needle in her head and then they wrap it with cotton and then she was like looking more and more, what do you call it? Panic. And then they lit the cotton.

It's a kind of acupuncture. And it hurts. It hurts.

It's called moxibustion. So ME TZA here means moxibustion. So if somebody puts a needle into your head and puts cotton on it and then lights the cotton for medical treatment, DE RIGS NA, for as long as it's burning, SGOM BYAS DU CHUG NA, if the Lama says, please meditate while that's going on.

NA PHYIR BSGOM RLONG MED PA ZHIG You wouldn't be able to. The Lama can be standing next to you and say, while the doctor is working, please meditate on how lucky you are. You won't be able to.

That's an example of if we were born into a hell realm, your whole life is like that. So you wouldn't have a chance to meditate. Okay.

That's the first correction I wanted to make. Can you look up SLA space NGA? SA LA TA LANG NA There you go.

Stop. I also wanted to talk about this, make this more clear. RANG CAG THA LTA NYAL BAR GYUR YOD TSE If you and me were born into a hell, CAG NI LANG NA So I didn't know the word LANG NA and I had to study it.

Do you know Tsampa? Tsampa is the favorite monk's food. I have it every morning because it's already pre-cooked.

It's pre-cooked barley oatmeal. So in the monastery, in the Geshe program, 25 years, you are busy. You are crazy busy all day.

So you don't have time to eat. So every Geshe student carries a little bag of Tsampa and when we have Momon, we mix it with butter tea and we just eat like that. It's pre-cooked Tsampa.

How it's made is, you take barley grain and you put it in a LANG NA. Here's the word LANG NA. And it's a big metal, it's like a wok with two handles of cast iron metal.

And I've been to the Tsampa roasting parties. You build a big bonfire and each person takes one side of the LANG NA and you put the Tsampa inside and you sing Tsampa roasting songs all night. This is a big Tibetan party.

Then the next day you grind up the Tsampa and it's already cooked. So, if you took one of these cast iron LANG NAS, MAR HO RE BA means if it was bright red with heat. And you put a CHI BA.

So I said a bird, but that's a different, it's the same spelling, B-Y-I, means bird. And a small bird is called a CHU. But when you add WA, it changes the meaning to rat, to a rat.

So I told you the wrong, I said a bird, but it's not. It's a rat. So if you threw a rat in the LANG NA while it's red hot.

SREG PA LAS KYANG When you go to the hell realms, it's a hundred or a thousand times worse than that all day, all the time. It's like the ground is made of cast iron and it's red hot and you run, but there's nowhere to go because it's thousands of miles long. So you can run for days and days and you're on the burning iron and you can't go anywhere.

If you sit down, you hurt your bottom. If you stand up, you hurt your legs. There's nothing else to do.

So people just run. There is such a karma. Don't be sophisticated, modern people.

There is such a karma. It's possible to go to such a place. The Christian tradition and the Jewish tradition described it for thousands of years.

It's very, very similar to the Buddhist tradition. So I think there must be people who saw those places, like great saints who could see those places. They exist.

Don't think they don't exist. So be nice to people. That's the main thing.

Okay. ,'CHUG RTEN LAS KYANG YOD PA'I, ,SDUG BSNGAL NYON PAR BYED, ,CHOS BYAS PA LA LTA ZHOGS, So how are you going to... when you're running on that cast iron ground of the earth there, how are you going to do OM MANI PAS MI HUNGS or something?

You won't even think of it. You won't be able to think of it. ,SDUG BSNGAL NYON PAR BYED, ,CHOS BYAS PA LA LTA ZHOGS, ,CHOS KYI BDAG TZAM MI KHO BA'I RTEN, You don't even hear a single word of Dharma in those places.

Not one word. RTEN. ,SDUG BSNGAL BA'I ZHIG LA YID LA GNOG, ,GNOG NAS SDUG BSNGAL LAS MI'ONG BA'I CHOS MI'ONG, So I was...

the word GNOG is very rare and here it means there's nothing you can focus your mind on except the pain in your body. You don't have time. You can't do Dharma.

Okay. All right. Then there was a long story and I didn't teach it to you.

So now I'm going to teach you this story. It starts with PER NA. DPER DAG PA DANG POS PER NA PER NA MI There you go.

Okay. This is a story about a famous classical doctor, a famous physician. His name was Kumara Jiva which means young master physician.

Do you guys know any Kumara Jiva from China? Yeah. I'll give you a clue.

In Xi'an? Huh? We went there.

We went to the temple. He was a great translator from India. He learned...

He was kidnapped by the Chinese army because they wanted a good Dharma teacher. They went to China and kidnapped him and brought him back to China, kept him in a jail for 12 years, said, translate. If you do that with me, I'm happy.

But then he translated for a long time. I think he translated the Diamond Cutter First Person to translate the Diamond Cutter Sutra. Later, when he got old, he said, if it's true, I've never made a mistake in my translation, then after they burn my body, my tongue should stay fresh in the middle of the fire.

Guess what? His tongue stayed fresh and they put it in a stupa and you can visit the stupa. We visited it.

It feels like a very holy place to me in Xi'an. Anyway, this is not the same Kumarajiva because this one lived in the time of the Buddha. But maybe it's the same.

I don't know. Anyway, maybe there's two. Maybe the second one was named from this one.

Maybe. I don't know. Pernamilkap, when Kumarajiva was a human, Shariputowana, he saw Shariputra.

What famous sutra is connected to Shariputra? Shalidzu? Xinjing?

Xinjing? He speaks the Heart Sutra, right? Am I right or not?

So that sutra is taught by a non-Buddha, right? Then it's not a sutra. We say Buddha was controlling his mouth.

Buddha goes into meditation at the beginning of the sutra. So it's still spoken by a Buddha. Like a puppet.

He's like a puppet. Shariputowana, ,LANG CHEN GYI RTENG DU YOD, Kumarajiva was riding on top of an elephant. ,KYANG THAL BUR SA LA BAB BLONG MED, He jumped off his elephant quickly.

,CHOD PAR BYED PAS BLO MA, and made offerings to Shariputra. This disciple's name was ,MEN PA'I RGYAL BOD SOGS CES GZHON NUS, SOGS CES means jivaka, meaning doctor. Like Jivamukti, right?

Still alive, free while still alive. Person who keeps you alive. Jivaka.

And GZHON NUS means Kumara. Kumara. So Kumara is still a common Indian name in India.

Kuma in Tibetan means thief. So there's a joke when the Tibetans went to India and they met the Indians and one of them said, I'm a Kuma. I'm Mr. Kuma. And they said, ah! But it means young. Kumarajiva.

PHYIS LHA YUL DU SKYES PA NA Later that person was born in the Deva realm. LHA YUL. There's Shariputra, TSUL BSRUNG BAR CHUN KYANG and Shariputra was coming to the Deva realm to give a teaching.

,SHARI PHYI CHUNG BAR CHUN SOGS CES, ,SOGS CES LHA'I BDE RGYIS LA YANG STE, But Kumarajiva was too happy there like having fun. ,BDE RGYIS YANG STE, So Tsubmokya, when he saw Shariputra, he should bow to him and make offerings to him. And he just went like this.

He was like, I don't know, he was gambling or something in the Deva realm. He was like, you know, And then he went back to his games. His games.

,GZHA RIGS PA'I PHYIS SUNGS SANGS MA YIN PAS, And he couldn't get to the place where Shariputra was teaching in the God realm. ,CHOS BYAS BLO DANG, ,GNYEN BYUNG SOGS ZHA MA MIN BYUNG, The problem with people who are having too good of a life is that they're out of touch with reality. So they have a lot of money or they got famous for a while, like a movie star or athletes.

And they're very famous and they're having a good time. Then they don't have GNYEN BYUNG. GNYEN BYUNG means a proper sense of the suffering that the rest of the world is going through.

So while you're being famous in Hollywood or while you're being rich in Dubai, you're not thinking about the refugees in Europe. You're too busy having fun to think that other people are dying right now and other people are cold last night in Europe. And you're just too busy having a good time.

And sooner or later it always catches up with you and all these famous people get cancer. And then they come to reality. So we're lucky.

They say we're lucky to have some problems in our life. It keeps you balanced. It keeps you aware of what's happening with the rest of the world.

,MA GNYEN PA CHOS BLO DANG, ,GNYEN BYUNG ZHA MA MIN BYUNG, ,LHA'I NGA RANG, ,DUR PA'I CHA SOGS KYIS, ,CHOS DRAG DROG TZAM, There is a weird thing in the deva realms. It's called LHA'I NGA. Say LHA'I NGA.

LHA'I NGA means... You had a famous LHA'I NGA. Those people who did seven years of study here, 10,000 pages.

You studied a drum song of the gods. Who wrote it? Never mind.

The student of Moochul. Quicksilver student. You studied a Vajrayogini commentary.

Anyway, LHA'I NGA means there are special drums in the land of the devas that play. When you bang on them, like Adam's going to do. When you bang on the drum, everyone hears some dharma.

Like you go, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. What is that? That's the end of Joe Cocker, right?

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And then suddenly people hear, don't get too attached to your yogurt in the morning. People will hear something.

Or, DRUN PA'I CHA. DRUN PA'I CHA means the birds in the deva realm will sing dharma to you. Okay.

I had a lot of birds. Did everybody else have birds? I had a lot.

I recorded them. Maybe this is distracting. Nah.

Is he saying anything to you? Really? Okay.

Get back to your meditation, Krishna. In those deva realms, even the birds sing the dharma. But, CHOS DRAG TZAM just a little bit LAS RANG RE LTAR SNGA MA'I DANG NGAG ZHIG MUR DUN PA MED But they don't give you the details that your Lama will give you.

So you can't get details from them. They just say, get back to your meditation. They keep saying it over and over.

But they don't give you any details. Alright, we have about 15 minutes. I'm going to start.

We were, this is the seventh of, I forget what it was, of the eight freedoms. This is the seventh of the problems that we don't have. I didn't teach you the whole thing in detail.

Okay. Word, we're at YUL U. Y-U-L-D-B-U-S YANG ZHUGS KYIS YUL NA YUL DANG Uh-oh.

There we go. Okay, so now I'm picking up where we stopped on, what day was it? Monday?

Okay. YUL U ZHUGS SKAD KYANG YID MI ZAL BA'I RNAM PA DANG SNGAGS MI ZAL BA'I GUS PA'ER SKYE NAG NYID CHOS KYI BRTAG CHOS BYIN DAG ZHIG BYAS DGOS MI ZHES ZHING BYAS KHU BYAS KYANG BYAS TSUL GYIS ZHIN MI BYUNG NA YUL U ZHUGS SKAD KYANG Even if you're born in a major Dharma country, is Bulgaria a major Dharma country? Is Guadalajara a major Dharma?

Yeah. Is New York City? No, not really, okay?

There's not much there. There's a small center, but not much. So as far as major cities in the world, Guadalajara, Sofia, okay?

But not so much New York. So you have to think like that. That's the way it is.

Guadalajara has a great team. Last time we taught in Mexico City, there were eight teachers on the stage. I was the only non-Spanish speaker.

All of the rest were from Mexico, okay? There are teachers working very hard. Mr. El Jefe Alejandro. YUL U ZHUGS SKAD KYANG Even if you're born in a major Dharma country, YID MI ZAL BA'I LEN PA But if you are LEN PA, say LEN PA. LEN PA LEN PA means you have some kind of mental... what's the politically correct word?

Challenged or something like that. Like you're retarded. You can't think.

You have Down Syndrome or something like that, okay? Like a medical problem. You have a medical problem.

Or you have... It's hard for me to remember the name. I don't know why, JB.

Alzheimer's. But if you have some like... If your mind is not 100% clear, we call LEN PA.

LEN PA means can't think well. Either you got too old or you have a birth defect or something like that. Then your mind is unclear.

SNGAGS MI ZAL BA'I KHUGS PA Say KHUGS PA. KHUGS PA means like an idiot in the old sense of the word, meaning you cannot speak. Okay?

Then there's something very interesting. The definition of an animal in Buddhism is LEN ZHING KHUGS PA. LEN ZHING KHUGS PA.

Cannot understand language clearly. And KHUGS PA cannot communicate in language clearly. So yes, it's true.

Dolphins can go, or whoop. But it's just like, where's the tuna right now? They can't discuss the Dharma.

Then that's the definition of an animal. And it's not meant to be derogatory. There are many animals who are Buddhas.

I think the red ants at Diamond Mountain are all Buddhas. They're always teaching people. So we don't know who's a Buddha.

It could be a Buddha, but normally the definition of an animal is LEN ZHING KHUGS PA. Cannot speak and cannot understand speech. BDAG GIS ZHIG DGOS MI GZHAN CING So even if you try to explain Dharma to these people, to a person with Down syndrome.

I taught a child with Down syndrome in Oregon one time. And he couldn't speak and he couldn't understand, but he could play piano perfectly. Very strange.

And later he learned. He could do some meditation and yoga. But GIS ZHIG BYAS MI GZHAN CING Even if you explain to them what to do, they can't really understand.

And KHUL BYAS BYAS KHUL BYAS means even if they try to do something, it doesn't come out right. GIS ZHIG MI'I SBYUNG They make some dooboos. There are many normal people like that.

You explain the Dharma to them and it gets distorted and then they do strange things. So, let's do a dictionary entry since we have lots of time. KHA ZHUGS KYI KHUL NA KHUL So KHUL in Berlin or Germany in general means great.

KHUL I can't say it right. How do you say it? Like Berliner, like a Berliner.

KHUL KHUL I can't say it. You say, is that great? They'll say, KHUL KHUL Anyway, in Tibetan, KHUL means it's a hard word.

It means to try to do something but not quite get it right. Here it's J KHUL means you can try to do something but you can, what do you call that? You can give it a shot.

Okay, KHUL but it's not going to come out. Okay, J KHUL or you can pretend to do it or you can imitate somebody doing it but it's not going to come out right. So, it's a difficult phrase in Tibetan so it deserves to be in our video dictionary on YouTube.

KHA ZHUGS KYI KHUL NA KHUL To try to do something, to pretend to do something, to imitate, to take a shot. All right. Now the last of the eight.

Do you remember the question we asked about the eight on Monday or Sunday? Huh? Yeah, it seemed to be out of order.

He seems to be explaining them out of order. So he just explained number seven and now he's going to do number one. Everybody had some nice theories about why it was out of order.

He's going to give you a clue here. Ready? LOG LTA BYAS NI CHOS LA SBYUG PA'I DGE'I BYAS SHES YIN PAS To have a wrong view is the greatest obstacle to practicing Dharma there is.

Number one is the worst of the eight. Number one is the worst one. What is it?

The pen is coming from the pen and the pen is not coming from me. And the husband who makes me go to New Year's or Christmas with his mother is coming from his side and not from me. So if you want to practice Dharma, that one misunderstanding is the most serious obstacle.

It's interesting because he says, what he's saying is it's worse than going to hell. It's worse than being an animal. It's worse than not having Dharma in your country.

It's to think that things aren't your fault. That all the irritating people you ever met weren't coming from you. And that's a bigger obstacle to spiritual development than being an animal.

CHOS LA SBYUG PA'I DGE'I BYAS SHES YIN PAS ZHES SPRING LAS KYANG LOG LTA CHEN DANG PO GSUM That's why Suharlekha mentioned it first. What is Suharlekha? The letter to a Suhard, good heart, your friend.

Letter to a dear friend. Who wrote it? Arya Nagarjuna.

DA LTA'I GANG PHYIR LTA BU YIN NA Then he says, if you were born like some kind of culture where you never heard about the pen. If you were born in some country where nobody ever explained the pen. LTA BU YIN NA CHOS RING PO ZHIG BDE'I KYANG You can have a long life.

You can live for 90 years, 100 years. KYANG, but MA NI TSAR GCIG BRTAN PA'I DGE RTZA YANG MI SOGS But you don't have the karma to do OM MANI PADME HUM one time in a hundred years. You don't know enough to do one RDZO BLO BYED DI BLO BYED DI BLO BYED DI BLO BYED DI BLO SEMS BYED DI You don't even have to do one time in a hundred years.

SOGS PA'I DIG THOB SDUG BSNGAL YIN That's like the worst of the worst. So start a dictionary entry. SDUG BSNGAL SDUG BSNGAL RGA LTA LTAR ZHUGS KYI SDUG BSNGAL SDUG BSNGAL SHANG ROL SHOS PA Say SDUG BSNGAL SDUG BSNGAL SDUG BSNGAL SDUG BSNGAL is the comparative, superlative form in Tibetan.

So YAG PO means good. What is YAG BSNGAL? Best.

Best. You see? YAG RGA is better.

YAG BSNGAL is best. So the comparative is ER is SDUG like ha. And the superlative, meaning best, is EST in Tibetan is SHU.

SDUG means... Okay, it's not my fault. My teacher told me not to use bad words when I teach Dharma.

But I went to a Christian church recently. I go sometimes because I grew up there and I enjoy it. And the priest kept using the word it sucks.

It didn't sound so good. I think my teacher was right. But anyway, SDUG means it sucks.

So SDUG BSNGAL means like crappy, lousy, crummy, it sucks. Worst of the worst. SDUG BSNGAL ZHIG YIN So that would be the worst if we were born in a place nobody ever taught the pen to anybody.

We didn't even hear about it. SDUG BSNGAL ZHIG YIN DE'I PHYIR RANG CHAG LA BDUN GAL BYUNG RGYAS GRUB DU YOD NA YANG So people like you and me, if someone gives you a to-do list and says there's eight things on the list I'd like you to get done, could you take care of it for me? It's difficult.

If you work at Diamond Mountain, if you're one of the volunteers here or one of the staff and they say there's eight problems with that Bertha's cabin. Bertha gave us eight problems of her cabin. Could you take care of those eight problems of the cabin?

If someone gives you a little to-do list. By the way, you're supposed to give us a list of problems with your cabins, okay? Don't forget.

Tim has passed out or is passing out a form because the staff here, they don't stay in the cabins for three days because there's too many cabins. So you stayed in the cabin for three days. You found some problems like, I don't know, my toilet has some problems.

First of all, it doesn't flush. We had a fun problem last night. The bathtub blew up and the water was shooting out like a geyser.

Oh man, we had a... Tim had a fun night. And I apologize.

I'm very sorry. I'm sorry we have a cabin like that. Please excuse.

Anyway, if someone gives you a list with eight things and says, can you fix these eight? It's hard to finish the list. It takes a long time.

DUG DKA' NA, BTAB LAS ZHIG SER DGOS PAS DON GAL CHE LA But if you finish it, you say, BTAB YA. Oh great, I got it done. BTAB YA SER DGOS PAS DON GAL CHE LA And you feel good if you accomplish all eight.

But you already have these eight. What are the eight? The eight problems you don't have.

NI NI What is that? What's the third one? DON DO NI You don't have those eight problems.

You never had those eight. You don't have those eight problems. BTAB YA, WA'I ZA'U'I That's a 1969 language.

Frank Zappa, WA'I ZA'U'I I mean, you're so lucky man, WA'I ZA'U'I. DGE MTSOMS NA If those eight good lucks come together, CHE BZHIN DU CHE BZHIN DU, SUPA BTAB YA SUPA BTAB YA LAS PA CI CHEN MIN Why not? Okay, of course it is.

All right. Now, then we finish the five conditions outside. We finish the five conditions inside.

Yeah, let's do that. Okay. NYID PA DON CHE BAR Are you guys okay?

DON CHE BAR Go up two lines. Stop. There you go.

Okay. We're going to start at NYID PA DON CHE BAR. Okay.

You okay? Got it? NYID PA DON CHE BAR BSAM PA LA GSUM So there's three parts to thinking how cool it is that we have these opportunities.

Okay. Number one, GNAS SKABS LA DUR TE DON CHE BAR Just in an immediate sense, we're very lucky. THAR THUG LA DUR TE DON CHE BAR As far as the ultimate mission of our lives, we're also very lucky.

DOR NA SKAD PHYI'I MA RE RE LA'ANG DON CHE BAR BSAM PA'O And in summary, we shouldn't waste even a single moment of the life, of this temporary life. If you're like me, you're counting the days until you get home because your refrigerator is there. But it's so hard to get everybody here.

It's so hard to build this place. It's so hard to get everything ready. And we should use every moment we have.

DANG PO NI, PHYI MA NGAN SONG DU MI SKYE BAR BSTAN DO LHA MI GOS PA'ANG BRJUN DANG ZHIG SDOD KYANG DI GRUB NUS TE PHYI MA NGAN SONG DU MI SKYE BAR Even if your goal is that you don't go down after you die. Geshe-la, I don't think I can become a Buddha in this life. I don't think I can reach Nirvana.

But I just don't want to go down after I die. I don't want to go to hell. I don't want to be an animal.

I don't want to be a ghost. At least can I stay as a human. At least.

I don't want to be a red ant at Diamond Mountain. DANG PO NI, PHYI MA NGAN SONG DU MI SKYE BAR BSTAN DO LHA MI GOS PA'ANG BRJUN DANG ZHIG At least I want to be a human or like a worldly deva. SDOD KYANG DI GRUB NUS TE You have in your hand the eighteen causes to do that.

You have the opportunity. With a body, with the Dharma, with a good mind, with good friends, with good sponsors. You have everything you need not to go down after you die.

So it's good to take care of that. It's good to take care of that. There's a, what do you call it?

Safety switch. If you find it in this land, you never have to go down again. So whether you believe...

I had a really cool boss from Israel. His name is Ofer Azraelon. Azraelon.

In the diamond business. He used to help me with all of my projects like ACIP, YCIP. I built a school for the children.

All this stuff. I will go to him, I'll say, will you give me like $50,000, $100,000? Yeah, yeah, okay, here you go.

There you go. I made him $200 million. So sometimes he would give me $10,000 or $20,000.

But one day I asked him, I said, why do you always give me money when I ask you? You're Jewish, you're from Israel, I'm Buddhist. Why are you always helping me?

He said, you never know who might be right. So, are you going to go down? Is there hell?

Can you be reborn as an animal? Even if you're not sure, it doesn't hurt to cover yourself. It doesn't hurt to...

We'll talk about it this afternoon. We have an advanced class this afternoon. When I was in Guadalajara with all those amazing advanced Dharma yogis, they said, Geshe-la, can't you teach something more difficult?

Then I said, yeah, okay. Más difícil. So, we're going to do two difficult classes.

One today, one tomorrow. Yeah, one today, one tomorrow. Just for dessert.

In that class I'll teach you, there's a place if you reach it in this life, you get a written guarantee from the Buddha that you will not go down after you die. You don't have to pay anything like in some religions. So...

Okay? You're just... There's a place you can reach where you don't have to go down anymore.

Whether you believe it or not, it's good to take care of it. Why not cover yourself? Just in case the Buddhists are right.

Just in case the old Christians are right. Cover yourself. So, how to do that?

You have all the equipment you need. You have five inner, five outer, eight problems you don't have, etc. You have it.

You have the equipment to reach the safety switch. If you don't take care of it, that's your problem. It's my problem too.

Anyway, SNGON THOR BSTAN GRUB PA LA TSUL KHRIMS DGOS LA The main thing if you want to keep in a human birth after you die, the main thing you have to do is be nice to other people. You have to be nice to other people. GRUB PA LA TSUL KHRIMS DGOS LA DE YANG RTEN GYIS THOG NAS GYIS THOG NAS GSUNGS NUS You have a body and mind that can be nice to other people.

You have intelligence. You know how to take care of other people. You know how not to hurt people.

You have a body. You can take care of other people. You can reach a human life if you want to because you have the equipment.

SNGON THOR LONG CHOS KYI RGYU BRTZIN PA YIN PAS Specifically, if you want nice material circumstances in your next life. You would like to have a comfortable life in your next life. The main practice is giving.

Share things with other people. Share things with other people. If you live in a country that's rich, share things with the poor countries.

BRTZIN PA YIN PAS DE YANG RTEN GYIS THOG NAS And giving is something you can do with this body and this mind. You have hands. You have money.

You have intelligence. You know how to go to GoFundMe online. You know how to put your credit card number in.

You have the capacity. If you want to take care of your next life, be nice to people and share what you have with other people. All right.

And that whole book I gave you, the whole booklet which you must bring this afternoon. Adam, we have to prepare the Tibetan. Bring that book, okay, with Tsongkapa on the front.

And we're going to teach that this afternoon. All right. Not the whole thing.

It will take about five years. KHOR BPON TZAM TSOR PA'ONG BA'I RGYUR ZOS PA DGOS SHING What are the seeds for leadership? Or to have people...

DCI level 8, the next DCI level is about leadership. Or how to get people to do what you ask them to do. Sometimes you have lots of money and you can't get anybody to do what you want.

Sometimes you don't have any money and everybody does what you want. There must be some karma. That karma is ZOS PA.

What is ZOS PA? Don't get angry. ZOS PA means don't get angry.

When you should get angry, your bathtub plumbing blows up and sprays the whole room. Then you should get angry. Those stupid Diamond Mountain, they can't fix their bathtub.

If you don't get angry, when the time is proper to get angry, then that's the cause in your next life or even in this life, people will listen to what you say. You say, can you go get me a pizza? They'll say, yes Geshe-la, I'll be happy to.

Then they come back, it's not gluten free. Oh, I'm sorry, I wanted a gluten free. Oh, yes Geshe-la, I'll go get you a gluten free.

What's the other result of patience? Extreme beauty. Great beauty.

So, like I was half patient in my last life. Okay, next. DE YANG RTEN DI LTA BU BSGOM DGOS PA'I NA You have the body and mind to understand what it is to be patient.

You understand how not to be angry. DNGOS MTHO LHA MI LUS RTEN DANG DE SBYOR BYIN DAG ZHIG SGRUB NYAM YANG So basically, the body and the mind that you already have is good enough to achieve anything in the next life. Anything you want.

Whatever happiness you want. Whatever pleasure you want. Even in this life, if you understand karma properly, you can be financially independent.

You just have enough money to do everything you want. You can have a beautiful partner. You can have beautiful health.

You can have inner peace. If you just understand karma. You have all the equipment you need to do it.

But MTHO, MA RGYUD PA MTHO It's just that you didn't do it. You know the four steps. People ask me for...

Geshe-la, can I have five minutes private talk with you? I have a special problem I can't mention in the class. It's your husband, I know.

So, any problem you're going to ask me about, I'm going to say the same thing. Jasmine knows. You can do like a mudra, okay?

I'll teach you a mudra. ARGAM PADE PUSHPE DUG PAS ALLOKE GANDE NUDE SHABDA AND Geshe-la, my husband bothers me. Four steps.

Geshe-la, I don't have enough money. Four steps. Geshe-la, I have a special problem.

What's the special problem? I'm confused. I don't know what to do with my life.

Four steps. Number one, decide what you want. Number one can be I want to know what I want.

That's okay. Okay, number one. Number two, choose someone else who wants something similar.

Number three, help them for one week. I'm sorry, once a week for one hour. How long do I have to do it, Geshe-la?

Until you get what you want. Duh. Duh.

My Lama also told me, don't say duh in the class. Duh. Then number four, you have to put, you have to water the karmic seed.

Lots of people do nice things and don't make $200 million. They didn't put water on the karma. What is water on the karma?

Show me the mudra. Before you go to bed, think of the nice things you're doing for other people. And that joy in yourself puts water on the karma.

And if you don't do it, the karma may take a thousand years to grow. Then I got this weird complaint. It was probably in Russia.

I'm sorry, Masha. It's not difficult enough. It's not difficult enough.

You just, this is all I have to do? Yeah, it's all you have to do. I'm sorry it's so easy.

Did you ever notice that the things that work the best are the easiest? And if something's difficult, you're probably doing something wrong. Okay, all right.

So before you ask Jigme for any of my time, if your problem can be solved by the four steps, don't ask her for my time. I have a Dharma bouncer. I have a big strong guy, Gyorgy Kadyrov from Bulgaria.

He travels with me. He sits next to me. I have a special problem, Geshe-la.

Okay, Gyorgy, come on. His arms are this big. Then they say, oh, my husband yelled at me.

I don't know what to do. If the answer is the four steps, he will pick them up and throw them out the door. There's a lady here.

She asked me the same problem for 20 years. She told her friend, Geshe-la doesn't give me a good answer. Why?

He just keep repeating the same thing over and over. What is he saying? He said do four steps.

I don't know. Okay, anyway. MA TOG GRUB NA PHRAD MED TZAM If you just use the body and mind you have, you can accomplish anything you want.

With the four steps and the body and mind you have, you can do anything. PHRAD MED means there's no doubt. You don't have to doubt it.

PHYI MAR TZAM PA RGYA BYING DANG KHOR RGYUR GYI LUD DANG ZHIG BRDOD NA'ANG GRUB TU YOD Even if you want to be, okay, say KHOR LUS RGYUR BA'I RGYAL PO Say KHOR LUS RGYUR BA'I RGYAL PO There's a song. Everybody wants to rule the world. Even if you want to be president of the world next life, there's a karma to be president of the world next life.

There are four levels to this karma. The best one called gold wheel level. It's like a United Airlines platinum card.

Was it? 1K. I didn't get into business class on United Airlines.

I was like, I fly all the time. What do I have to do? They said, you don't have enough miles.

I said, but I'm on the plane half of my life. They said, you need more than that. What's a gold level world king, world president?

You can do that even if you want to. If that's what you want, you can do it next life, you can be. The gold level world king doesn't have to have an election and he doesn't have to threaten anybody and he doesn't have to cheat on the vote.

He can say, I don't want to be king of the world. They're like, oh please, please Geshe Michael, be king of the world, please. Your karma is so good that people are begging you to be king of the world.

All right, all right. Then he gives other examples. Sangpa is Brahman.

Gyajun is chakra. These are very powerful worldly gods. They can smash the earth like that.

They can go like this and smash the earth. They are powerful. Powerful dudes.

Better than a world king. Even if you want to do that, you can do it with this body and this mind. Okay, one more sentence and we're finished.

And then I get to go pee pee. Okay. DER MA ZAD NA MIN YON TAN GYIS LDAN DANG MTHO ROL YON TAN DON LDAN GYI LUS LDAN THEG CHOG KHO LO ZHIG LDAN SANG YANG SGRUB GNOD We also have additional lucky things.

There are three groups. Number one, NA MIN YON TAN GYIS There are eight things that were given to you by your past life and came to you through karma. Most of the things you're proud about about yourself, you didn't do.

Like I was always good in school and I always thought I'm so cool. I'm always number one in the school. Geshe-la, you didn't do anything.

That was Joe. That was your past life. So there's another group called the eight things that Joe gave you.

Your past life. Sometimes women are very beautiful. They're born very beautiful.

And they're like, I'm so beautiful. You didn't do anything. Joe was very patient when students were irritating about the four steps.

That's why you were so beautiful. You didn't do anything. Think about it.

It's not like you worked very hard and it made you beautiful. You were born beautiful. That's not...

Don't be so proud about it. Somebody else did that. All right.

YIN TE RGYAS DANG MTHO DU YIN DANG DON means there are seven nice things about human life and you meditated on them already. And then THEG CHOG KHOR LO ZHI There are what's called the four wheels, the four great wheels of the higher way, Mahayana. So there are eight things your past life gave you.

There are seven great things about being human. And there's four wheels. That's all.

He doesn't mention them. I mean, he mentions them. He doesn't tell you what they are.

Then he goes on. So I went and got them for you. So next class that we do Lam Rim, I will take those from other ancient books and I'll teach them to you.

That's why it's going to take 25 years to finish one book. All right? So I'm going to go to other ancient scriptures and bring them for you.

All right then.