«Дар освобождения», курс 20 «Ретрит непревзойдённой жизни», занятие 5

[Speaker 1]
We're going to do the meditations from the book. So this book should become your friend, your boyfriend. It always travels with you.

Okay, and every morning you use it. I like to connect the meditation to the picture. And don't think so much about the words.

So you can put it down there and you can just look at the picture. And that should remind you the meditation. So we're going to do the first seven meditations this morning, because now you've finished all of the first seven.

Okay, ready? Okay, first one is, you ready? The picture.

This is how you trick yourself to do an hour of meditation.

[Speaker 2]
It's just five minutes, but there's seven of them.

[Speaker 1]
Alright, what's this one? Huh? Giving.

[Speaker 2]
Everything I have comes from giving.

[Speaker 1]
By whom? By Joe.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, by Joe.

[Speaker 1]
So when you were a kid, your mom dressed you.

[Speaker 2]
You had food. You had a house.

[Speaker 1]
And you had a mom. Okay, and Joe gave you all of those things. Okay, so understand one thing.

Where we are in the Lam Rim now, is not the same as DCI.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, in DCI, we use Nagarjuna's words, jinpay longchul jing gi de, those seven correlations, connections, to get something in the future.

[Speaker 1]
We are planting money. We are planting nice relationships.

[Speaker 2]
We are planting good health, peace, and a different world. So the focus of DCI is, if you learn to plant these seeds, you can get everything you want in the future.

[Speaker 1]
And we use Nagarjuna's verse as the basis. But what's happening in the Lam Rim? We go deeper, but who can give me a good answer?

It is not what we're doing here today.

[Speaker 2]
Today.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, we are reconstructing what happened in the past.

[Speaker 2]
Using deduction.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, I was born. I had a mom.

[Speaker 2]
I had shoes.

[Speaker 1]
She fed me every day.

[Speaker 2]
We had a house.

[Speaker 1]
There must have been a Joe, and he must have been an amazing person.

[Speaker 2]
Or she. Okay. So, in DCI, we're using karmic seeds to create a better future.

[Speaker 1]
In the Lam Rim, we're trying to figure out what the Joe do before that we cannot see.

[Speaker 2]
Why?

[Speaker 1]
Because in the Lam Rim, we're trying to learn not to waste this chance. He did thousands of good things. He was like Super Bodhisattva in Guadalajara.

[Speaker 2]
And that's why we have a body, and a mind.

[Speaker 1]
We shouldn't waste all his hard work. And it's not just one Joe.

[Speaker 2]
There's thousands of Joe's before him.

[Speaker 1]
So, if you succeed in these meditations, you should start to think, I'm a pretty special dude. Okay, like I'm one in a million. I'm like Frankenstein.

I was created by somebody really cool. Okay, like I'm like Superman.

[Speaker 2]
I'm a very special person. So, not to get proud, but it's true. You are special.

[Speaker 1]
To create your body and mind is almost impossible. Then in Buddhism, so there's no place in Buddhism for low self-esteem. You are sitting in your house.

It was created by one million kind deeds.

[Speaker 2]
You are dressed in clothes.

[Speaker 1]
They were created by one million kind deeds. You take your hand, which was created by a billion deeds of kindness, and you touch your head, which holds a mind, which was created by billions and billions of kind deeds, and you say, I'm not special. I'm not special.

[Speaker 2]
It's crazy. You are super special.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, you are very rare. Say, Udumbara. Udumbara.

It's one kind of lotus. It only opens once every thousand years.

[Speaker 2]
You are more rare than that lotus.

[Speaker 1]
You are unbelievably rare, and you have equipment to change the whole world. So, what you are learning here, you can change the whole world. I was in Toronto.

It's not as cool as Montreal, but it's okay. There's a restaurant, and outside on the wall, like this big, they have written one sentence. It's by an anthropologist named Margaret Mead.

It says, don't think a few people cannot change the world.

[Speaker 2]
It's always a few people.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so you are learning things. What? You are learning things that can change the world.

So, be happy about your equipment. Okay, you are very rare. You are Udumbara.

Better than Udumbara. Okay, ready? Let's meditate.

Everything I have, my clothes, my house, my city, my arms, my head, my mind, were given to me by a person who shared everything he or she possessed. All the time. With great courage, shared everything they have.

Never hesitated. Five minutes. Three breaths.

You can open your eyes. Stretch. Number two?

What's the second picture?

[Speaker 2]
What is it?

[Speaker 1]
Holding hand. Someone holding a hand. It means every small happy thing you had in your life.

[Speaker 2]
Someone holding your hand.

[Speaker 1]
Someone smile at you. You hear a beautiful song. You taste a churro.

All the happinesses you find in things or people, inside of things or people, were put there by Joe. There's a custom in America and Latin America Easter, on Easter. Christian holiday.

Then the mom and dad, they will paint eggs, special eggs, and they will hide them in the house or outside.

[Speaker 2]
And then the little kids have to come and they have to try to find them.

[Speaker 1]
And it's very exciting time. Then your life is like that. Joe left eggs for you.

Then you turn on the radio, and there's a song, and inside the song you find some happiness. Like an Easter egg. Joe put it there for you.

Okay? Or you eat something, and inside this, it makes you happy. Joe hid those things inside.

So the things in your life are like a cup.

[Speaker 2]
The stuff in the cup was put there by Joe. Then sometimes you don't like what's in the cup. That means Joe did a bad job.

[Speaker 1]
And sometimes what's in the cup makes you very happy. That's emptiness. That's gong shing.

Okay? This is cup is empty.

[Speaker 2]
If it makes you happy, or if it makes you sad, it depends on what Joe did last life.

[Speaker 1]
Your family, your partner, is also like a cup. You know? Sometimes you find happiness inside.

And sometimes you find pain inside.

[Speaker 2]
Same person.

[Speaker 1]
Joe, Joe, the person is empty. Joe put nice things inside, or Joe put bad things inside.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
So all the happiness you have was put there by Joe. Was he nice to people, or was he ...

[Speaker 2]
did he hurt people?

[Speaker 1]
Every time he hurt somebody, he put lousy thing inside the cup called your partner. And every time he did nice thing to people, he put something sweet inside the thing called your partner. Okay?

So we're going to meditate.

[Speaker 2]
Think about all the kinds of happiness you have inside the cups of your life.

[Speaker 1]
And think about how Joe put the happiness in there for you. Joe is like a very good waiter in a good restaurant.

[Speaker 2]
You know, prepare the table, put out all the plates and the cups, then put some nice wine, creme brulee, some nice noodles, and then Joe left.

[Speaker 1]
And you came in. And you get to eat it. Actually Joe became you, right?

[Speaker 2]
Okay, let's meditate.

[Speaker 1]
This is a nice meditation. You're going to think about all the things in your life that make you happy. I like food.

Like every kind of food. But you can think about your partner, music. If your yoga is very good, like Eric, you can think about your body.

[Speaker 2]
Joe put good things in your body.

[Speaker 1]
And because of that, you're flexible. Okay, ready? Come back to your breath.

Three quiet breaths. Okay, open your eyes. Yoga Sutra says, sukshma dirga, the breaths should be long and quiet at the end.

Okay, all right. Wait, don't put the next picture up. That's okay, you can, what's the next picture?

Huh? Yeah, the lady is looking at the ocean. I think the ocean is one of the most amazing karmas, right?

It's so beautiful. Okay, so all the beautiful things in your life. Nature is one of the most amazing karmas, right?

These trees, they have an unbelievable gardener here.

[Speaker 2]
He's invisible.

[Speaker 1]
A good gardener should be invisible. I think I met him once. He's an old, old man.

But you can see he loves this, he loves this place.

[Speaker 2]
And he takes good care of it.

[Speaker 1]
So Joe created this beauty. Joe created the ocean. Joe created the sky.

[Speaker 2]
That's outside beauty.

[Speaker 1]
Then whatever beauty you have in your face, your body, Joe also created that. And the beauty of your mind, Joe created this beauty. I think the beauty and happiness are closely connected.

So the result of the second perfection, being nice to people, is that you find happiness in all the cups around you. And the result of the third perfection, which is what? Don't get upset.

When things go wrong, don't get upset. Until you become a Buddha, things go wrong, okay?

[Speaker 2]
Get used to it.

[Speaker 1]
Sometimes people come to their first Buddhist class, you know. They meditate their first five-minute meditation, you know. Then they think all their problems will finish on that day.

[Speaker 2]
It doesn't, until you become a Buddha.

[Speaker 1]
So of course things will go wrong. Relationships will go bad, you know. Something will happen in your country, you know.

[Speaker 2]
Then a Buddhist person has to stay cheerful, okay?

[Speaker 1]
They don't go ...

[Speaker 2]
you know.

[Speaker 1]
Traffic happens, right?

[Speaker 2]
In Mexico City.

[Speaker 1]
It doesn't stop after your first meditation. Then a Buddhist person's like, okay, you know, I can do a five-minute meditation. Okay?

[Speaker 2]
But my feeling is that the karma result of being nice to people, and the karma result of not getting upset, it seems like they're very close, you know.

[Speaker 1]
Like, if you do both of those perfections, because of being nice to other people, you will find happiness inside your partner. And because you didn't get upset, your partner will be super beautiful. Okay?

[Speaker 2]
So they are different karmas, but they seem to come together.

[Speaker 1]
Okay? My job makes me happy, and I work with beautiful people. Okay?

So those two karmas seem to ... they seem to come together in the same cup. Okay.

Ready? What now? We're on the third one, right?

[Speaker 2]
Beauty in your life.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, all the kinds of beauty around you. Don't forget that you have six senses. SHIN CING DMIGS MED NA BA MED NA MED BYED MED LUS MED YID MED GZUGS MED BRTAG MED PHYI MED ROL MED RIGS BYA MED CHOS MED These are the six senses.

MU SHOS ZHANG SHENG RIGS ZHUGS RIGS FU ROL ZHUGS Something like that. So, don't forget beauty which you smell. Smell.

The smell of those roses is unbelievable. Sometimes I go to Starbucks, I just smell the coffee. Then I leave.

It doesn't make me nervous later. Okay? Or things you hear.

The feeling of ... I have my favorite jeans and stuff.

[Speaker 2]
They just feel good when I put them on.

[Speaker 1]
So, Joe put the soft feeling in the jeans. The beauty of the feeling was put there by Joe. Okay?

So, and the beauty of your own mind. People are going to ask you, can Buddhist people be sexy?

[Speaker 2]
You're going to say, yeah, I'm sexy.

[Speaker 1]
Then why?

[Speaker 2]
You know, when I sit in a Buddhist class, and they talk about these beautiful ideas. My mind is beautiful.

[Speaker 1]
There's a cup called your mind.

[Speaker 2]
Inside there, you're having beautiful thoughts right now.

[Speaker 1]
Joe made your mind super sexy. And inside there are some very beautiful things. Okay?

So, think about it.

[Speaker 2]
During this meditation, go through your six senses.

[Speaker 1]
Okay? We, by the way, in the LHOR MED, RNAMS MED, KHYAD MED, LUS MED, YI MED. Okay?

Mind. Go down the ... if you don't remember the six, go down the body.

What beautiful things did you see recently? What beautiful things did you hear?

[Speaker 2]
Beautiful things to smell?

[Speaker 1]
Taste?

[Speaker 2]
Feel?

[Speaker 1]
And think? Where is Ironton? The baby's walking around the parking lot.

I don't know if that's ... I think so. I don't know.

But, maybe if a car goes somewhere. Okay, here we go. That's why I don't have kids.

Okay, here we go. Oh, I forgot the bell. In other words, why is it I have to meditate for six minutes?

Things of beauty in your life. Six senses.

[Speaker 2]
Three breaths.

[Speaker 1]
Long and fine. Okay, stretch. Tell me what the next picture is without looking at your book.

Huh? Yeah, I didn't pick a very good picture. It's supposed to be the guy is feeling super confident.

You have that picture?

[Speaker 2]
Because everyone listens to him.

[Speaker 1]
Like he's the boss of the company, or the meditation group, and everyone's listening to what he says. In his world, everyone is cooperating.

[Speaker 2]
There's no corruption.

[Speaker 1]
Everyone's following the rules which help everybody else. There's respect in his world. And when he gives a suggestion, everybody listens.

So, order? Order in his world. Okay.

Alright, you ready? Who put the order in your world? Singapore is the most ordered place in the whole world.

You know, everybody follows traffic, and people. It's the highest paying of taxes in the world. Highest percentage of people who pay their taxes.

And just, it's more easy to be there because everyone's ... nobody's like driving crazy or like that. It's easy to start a company there.

You know, everything's like ... everybody's respecting each other. Okay?

Like that. And the cause of that is what? Huh?

Yeah, I like have fun. Yeah, I like have fun. Have fun doing your Dharma.

[Speaker 2]
There's two ways to do your Dharma, you know. What are we going to do next? Yoga.

[Speaker 1]
Oh. Okay. It's like eight o'clock, I have to do yoga.

[Speaker 2]
I like that.

[Speaker 1]
I'm supposed to share this coffee with somebody else. Actually, I want to drink it all myself. Okay, like that.

Okay? Then, have fun.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Alright, play music. Play soccer.

[Speaker 2]
Gently.

[Speaker 1]
You know, have fun doing your ... I think the Mexico team is one of the best in the world for having fun with their Dharma. Americans, we are a little bit, you know, like ...

soccer? You know, like that. We are a little bit too ...

what do you call?

[Speaker 2]
Reserved.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Okay. Have fun doing your Dharma.

So, we're going to meditate about order. People respect each other. What's wrong with driving a car when you're drunk and using your cell phone?

It's the easiest way in the modern world for a Buddhist to kill another human being. So, you know, respect the rules.

[Speaker 2]
There's a reason for them. Not kill other people.

[Speaker 1]
I have friends, they drive really fast, and they're like, they think it's fun. I have a friend, we went to school together.

[Speaker 2]
He's like, watch how fast I can drive this car.

[Speaker 1]
And one day he hit another car. And there was a little baby, like Ayrton's baby, standing in the front seat, holding mom, you know, like this. And the child went through the window, and landed on my friend's car here.

Dead. Then it ruined my friend's life. He never recovered from that.

So, you know, how to find a world where people respect what you say. People cooperate. You ask for five people to clean the temple, immediately ten people raise their hand.

What's the cause for cooperation? Have fun doing your Dharma. Okay?

So, you're going to, in this meditation, think about all the cooperation you see.

[Speaker 2]
People cooperating with you.

[Speaker 1]
People cooperating with each other. Couples who don't fight with each other. You know, all of that's coming from Joe, because Joe enjoyed his practice.

If you're trying to do a practice that you don't enjoy, like Ashtanga yoga or something, then try something else.

[Speaker 2]
If you don't like five-minute meditation, then try a different kind. But find something you enjoy.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, let's go.

[Speaker 2]
All the cooperation I see in my life.

[Speaker 1]
All the cooperation around me.

[Speaker 2]
All the times people cooperate with me.

[Speaker 1]
All the times my friends or my partner does what I ask. Coming from Joe. He was excited about his practice.

[Speaker 2]
Three deep breaths.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, take a stretch. What's the next picture? It's a lady with a cup of, I guess it's coffee, I don't know.

You have that photo? Yeah, she's feeling peaceful. Okay?

I don't know about you, but I have less peaceful moments than I have happy or beautiful. Happy, I have a lot. Beautiful, I have a lot.

Peaceful, I have some, but not that many.

[Speaker 2]
And beauty, right? Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
And I have more moments of cooperation. And I have more stuff. Stuff is giving.

[Speaker 1]
Moments of happiness is I took care of other people.

[Speaker 2]
I was nice to other people.

[Speaker 1]
Moments of beauty, I didn't get upset. What's the next one? What?

Oh yeah, moments of cooperation in my life.

[Speaker 2]
Like with my students cooperating with each other or with me.

[Speaker 1]
I have a lot.

[Speaker 2]
Like super peaceful moments, not as many.

[Speaker 1]
Like sometimes, like in my house when the sun's going down, and I sit on the porch, and I feel a sense of well-being, or like peace, you know. You have those moments?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Sometimes. I don't know, like you're just, you feel like everything's right with the world. Probably it's because we don't meditate so often.

[Speaker 2]
Okay? The cause is meditation.

[Speaker 1]
Okay? So, in the next meditation that we do together, the five-minute meditation, we're going to think about important moments of peace that you had in your life. In that cup called your partner, you had a moment when you're just like quiet.

You're sitting with each other, and you just feel peaceful.

[Speaker 2]
Or you're sitting in your kitchen, and you're just quiet, and everything feels peaceful.

[Speaker 1]
Even in your company, career, you know, there are moments when everything feels perfect. Okay? And then, where did they come from?

[Speaker 2]
Joe, in the cup called your partner, in the cup called your home, in the cup called your job, he poured a little bit of peace, and you get to drink it.

[Speaker 1]
How did he put it there? He meditated. Okay?

[Speaker 2]
He was meditating. Okay? I did a three-year retreat.

Silent for three years, in one room.

[Speaker 1]
And then, on the day that I ... I remember the day that I finished. All my friends came to congratulate me, and they came to my room.

They're like, Oh, Geshe-la. Three years of peaceful vibration. I can feel it, you know.

[Speaker 2]
I said, yes, this room, peaceful, like Iraq war.

[Speaker 1]
Every hour I'm fighting, you know. Fight with my mind, you know. There wasn't many peaceful moments.

To really meditate is a war. Okay? But when you do it, you are making karma for peaceful time later.

[Speaker 2]
Even five-minute meditation.

[Speaker 1]
If it's not a war, you are not meditating.

[Speaker 2]
Okay? You're supposed to think about Joe.

[Speaker 1]
You are thinking about, when I get back to China, I can have some real food. I know, I know. I know because that's what I'm thinking in China.

Okay? So, you have to fight.

[Speaker 2]
The mind went home to Shanghai or Guangzhou, or Poland, or Italy.

[Speaker 1]
We have other people here. Argentina. Then, you have to fight.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Even five-minute meditation should be a fight.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
You're supposed to be thinking about the peaceful moments you had in your life. There was an American president named Truman.

[Speaker 2]
Truman. Once a day he would invite his childhood friend to come to the White House, and they will sit in the Oval Office, President's Office, and look out the window without talking.

[Speaker 1]
I couldn't believe a US president will do that for five minutes.

[Speaker 2]
Terrible. You know? And they're just peaceful silence.

[Speaker 1]
You know? You call it comfortable silence. So, in this meditation, think about ...

for me it's not very many, not very often.

[Speaker 2]
In your life, did you have comfortable moments of silence with friends, or a partner, by yourself in the kitchen? Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Then, think about them, and think about ... Joe mailed them to you from last life.

[Speaker 2]
Okay? And don't confuse the postman with the letter writer.

[Speaker 1]
The peaceful moment with your partner or your friend was sent to you by Joe. The postman was your friend, or your partner. Okay?

So, when something bad happens in your life, don't blame the postman. When something good happens in your life, understand it's coming from the letter writer, which is you.

[Speaker 2]
That's the meaning of attachment.

[Speaker 1]
Is it bad to have a sweet partner? No. Is it bad to be a good monk?

No. But understand the GONG ZHING. Okay?

The partner is sweet because you were sweet last week or last month. Don't blame the postman. Okay?

The partner yelling at you because you yelled at your kids last week. Don't blame the postman. Don't get attached to the postman.

Attached doesn't mean ... when they say, don't be attached to your partner, it doesn't mean you shouldn't love them and want to keep them. It doesn't mean that.

[Speaker 2]
You should love them and you should want to keep them. Okay? But try to understand what you love about your partner was mailed to you last month by you.

If you understand that, you can have a partner who is sweet forever. If you don't understand that, they will change.

[Speaker 1]
Okay? Understand?

[Speaker 2]
Don't blame the postman for good things or bad things.

[Speaker 1]
But you can love the postman.

[Speaker 2]
That's okay.

[Speaker 1]
Make a perfect postman. Okay, so we're going to do a meditation. All of these meditations are the same.

Each one is thinking you're supposed to focus about something good that happened to you. So in this number five, we are meditating about, try to remember some peaceful moment you had in your life.

[Speaker 2]
I have a lot of peaceful moments in Shavasana.

[Speaker 1]
For 55 minutes before that, I don't have many peaceful moments. So think about those peaceful moments.

[Speaker 2]
Think about where did they come from? Who sent them to you? Ready?

Okay, here we go.

[Speaker 1]
Three deep breaths. I'll just be the same as before. Take a stretch.

Next photo. What is it? Freedom.

Nice. Good. Freedom.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Joe gave us freedoms. Not to have freedom is terrible. I don't like it.

I had a job, the boss was really mean.

[Speaker 2]
Always telling me what to do.

[Speaker 1]
I don't have any freedom. Even to have a new idea, I don't have this freedom. The boss just said, no, no, no.

Okay, this is my boss. The first year in my job, I have to stay every night until one o'clock in the morning. Then I live two hours away.

I stay in a monastery. So I have to come at six o'clock in the morning.

[Speaker 2]
I have to leave my house at six o'clock in the morning.

[Speaker 1]
So if I finish at one o'clock in the morning, I get three hours of sleep. Then if I come at five minutes after eight, they'll go crazy. They keep me six hours extra.

If I'm five minutes late, they're like, then I don't have freedom. And I think freedom to create what you want to create. Like Gina is very creative.

[Speaker 2]
Then if someone tells you, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it like that, don't do it like that, you feel terrible. You want freedom to create something.

[Speaker 1]
And Americans are, we are spoiled.

[Speaker 2]
Generally we have a lot of freedom.

[Speaker 1]
You don't have, you can, it's Christian country, but you can be Buddhist, nobody cares. They just think you're crazy. You are crazy, but you are free.

So all of those freedoms, and especially freedom from your own negative thoughts, they are not controlling you like a bad boss. We have to be jealous right now. Don't be happy, we have to be jealous now.

That's also a bad boss. So the main freedom here is freedom from a negative mind. Anger.

[Speaker 2]
Jealousy. Desire. Addiction.

[Speaker 1]
Freedom from that. Who gave you all your freedoms? Joe.

What did Joe do to give you freedom? When Geshe-la goes like this, you have to, you are expecting something, right? Thinking about the pen.

The karma of understanding where everything comes from, that seed created all the freedom in your life.

[Speaker 2]
To do what you want without outside people telling you what to do.

[Speaker 1]
And to think what you want without a bad mind telling you what to think.

[Speaker 2]
For example, when you try to meditate for five minutes about all the freedoms in your life, and you start to think about what you're going to do this afternoon, you lost your freedom. See?

[Speaker 1]
Someone's telling you, you cannot think about freedom, you have to think about what you're going to do this afternoon. And how to fix that? Should you get a different kind of meditation cushion?

Should you put the left foot up first instead of the right foot?

[Speaker 2]
Should you open your eyes or close your eyes or halfway open? It doesn't matter. Think about the pen.

[Speaker 1]
Understand where your partner's coming from, where your friends are coming from, where your family's coming from, where your country's coming from, and then that seed plants freedom in your life.

[Speaker 2]
And the meditation will be good. It doesn't matter what leg you put up. Okay?

[Speaker 1]
But you should put your left foot up first.

[Speaker 2]
Is that a contradiction? No.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, you have to think about it. Okay, here we go. Geshe-la, when are we going to have class?

[Speaker 2]
You are having class.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, here we go. What are all the freedoms you have in your life? And all the freedoms you have within your own mind.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Joe, for thinking about the pen.

[Speaker 1]
Three deep breaths. Okay, stretch. Okay, one more meditation.

Because there are six perfections, and an extra one. Seven. In English the word is integrate.

What's the glue that brings all these things together? Yeah, love, amor. Okay, I have things, I own things because Joe was sharing everything he has.

[Speaker 2]
I have moments of happiness because Joe was nice to everybody. There's beauty in my life because Joe didn't get upset.

[Speaker 1]
There's moments of, what do you call it? What's number four? Oh, cooperation and respect in my life because Joe is having fun about good things, not bad things.

Okay. And then I have moments of peace in my life because Joe meditated. And what's the sixth one?

[Speaker 2]
I have freedoms in my life because Joe's thinking about the pen.

[Speaker 1]
But what keeps those all together? What keeps those experiences together? What created a thing called Michael to have those experiences?

How can I become myself by giving up myself, by loving everybody? Okay, and then that glues all those experiences to me. That causes the experience of me, of Michael.

Love created Michael to have those experiences.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, that's very deep karma.

[Speaker 1]
That's a very deep idea. Okay, and then you have to think about it. Okay, you have to think about it.

Who made Candy?

[Speaker 2]
Who made Jasmine? Who made Gina? To have all these nice things.

And that was Joe. And that was love.

[Speaker 1]
What is love?

[Speaker 2]
Buddhist love has two parts. Number one, I don't want other people to have problems. If necessary, I will eat your problems.

[Speaker 1]
I'll give you an example. I like this example. My Lama thought that telephone service in America is free.

For 30 years, we didn't let him see a phone bill. We always intercept that envelope. He never saw a phone bill.

He's like, oh, America is so cool. There's no charge for the phone.

[Speaker 2]
Then one half of love is to eat other people's problems.

[Speaker 1]
Like intercept the telephone bill. He never sees it. Just other people's problems, you take them without even telling them.

Take away the things that cause them pain. Like a telephone bill causes pain. What's the second half of love?

[Speaker 2]
It's like tong len, right?

[Speaker 1]
What's the second half of love? Yeah, it gives them the things they enjoy. When I went to Singapore, then I invited this monk called Jampa to come to Singapore.

We lived together for many years. After I started my business, I couldn't take good care of my Lama because I was gone all day. So he came to live with us and he took care of my Lama during the day, like babysitter.

Then he's like perfect nice person.

[Speaker 2]
Then my Lama has a lot of people visiting him to ask questions, ask advice.

[Speaker 1]
Then we built his house and the house was built to make it easy for him to meet people.

[Speaker 2]
And we designed it that way.

[Speaker 1]
So he lives up here in this two-story house. The only way to get there is to go through the kitchen. The only way to get to the kitchen is to go by the attendance room.

You have to go near the attendance room to get to the kitchen to get to him. So our job is to get the people from the front door, put them in the kitchen, hold them until they can reach his room. Then he trained us.

[Speaker 2]
And Jampa trained me. It's called watching people to see what they like.

[Speaker 1]
So a new person comes in the front door.

[Speaker 2]
We put them in the kitchen, kitchen table. Then Jampa taught me, watch their eyes.

[Speaker 1]
So a new person comes in.

[Speaker 2]
Their eyes are like this. They're just looking around the room. They didn't come here before.

Then we will put many kinds of things on the kitchen table. There's a coffee pot, tea thermos, cookies, fruit. Then watch their eyes.

[Speaker 1]
They stop on the coffee for just a second, like a beautiful girl. Then the eyes move again. Then they stop on the cookies.

[Speaker 2]
Then they sit down.

[Speaker 1]
Then you're like, would you like some coffee? Yeah! I think, would you like some cookies?

Yeah! And they don't know you are spying on their eyes. That's the second half of Buddhist love.

[Speaker 2]
Find out what people want. Find out what people enjoy.

[Speaker 1]
And also find out what's good for them. And then give it to them before they ask. There's a book by the founder of Sony.

What's his name? Akira Morita. You can look it up.

You can tell me. He passed away already. That's why Sony company got worse.

But somebody asked him, what's your philosophy of business? He said, I design the product that people want before they know they want it. Akira Morita, yeah.

Then a Buddhist should be like that. Give the person what they want and need before they know they want and need it. And that's the second part of love and that's the seventh meditation.

Joe created Michael by having love. Joe intercepted people's problems before it got to them. And Joe gave them what they want before they know they want it.

Okay, ready?

[Speaker 2]
Last meditation. Then we start the class.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, am I already over time? He he. Okay.

We have to cut into the yoga class. He he. Scott's really upset.

Don't worry. You can do another one in the afternoon. He he.

Okay, where is that? Ready?

[Speaker 2]
Okay. Who made Michael to have the happy moments?

[Speaker 1]
To have the beautiful moments? To have the peaceful moments? To enjoy freedom?

It was the love that Joe had for other people. Intercepting their problems and giving them what they want before they know they want it. Three deep breaths.

Take a stretch. The purpose of Lam Rim meditations is to change your attitude. So if you do these five minute meditations, I'm not telling you every day you have to do five.

I'm not saying that.

[Speaker 2]
When you have a few moments free, do one.

[Speaker 1]
No schedule. Don't do it at the same time every day. Don't sit in proper meditation posture.

Just when you see a small five minute space in your day, of course your phone is in your hand all the time. Just hit the five minute meditation thing, and bring one of these pictures to your mind.

[Speaker 2]
You don't even need the book.

[Speaker 1]
Just, oh, yeah, okay, I'm thinking about that lady who's looking at the ocean. And then do a five minute meditation. And your attitude will change.

And you'll be grateful for your life. And you'll see the beauty, and the freedom, and the peace, and the happiness in your life.

[Speaker 2]
Then you'll feel lucky, and that will make you happy.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. HOMA