«Дар освобождения», курс 20 «Ретрит непревзойдённой жизни», занятие 9

[Speaker 1]
So, I just want to talk about one more word there. THOS BSAM GYI LAS MO So, we said THOS means to listen to teachings in the class. BSAM means think about them later.

LAS MO means pretend. So, he's talking about all the monks in his monastery, Serra Monastery. He says, you know, Joe gave you a good body and mind, and you are pretending to learn and think.

It means he's saying they're not very serious. DE LTA BU'OD DE NA TSUL GYI SGO NAS RANG RES THOB PA'I DE'ANG SBYOR GYI RTEN DU BZHIN DU KHO YIN ZHING NYE DKA' BAR BSAM So, think about those metaphors. Grass growing on your laptop.

Fish coming up once every hundred years. A worm that by accident comes up and goes like that. And try to appreciate how rare your chance is this time, this equipment.

And don't waste it. GSUM PA NGO'O'I SGO NAS RGYAS DKA' BA NAS So, we already talked about two ways in which these things are rare. And your meditation book is divided that way.

The first page, which is called the Recipe of the Perfections, and the second page, up to meditation seven, these are all the causes of your body and mind that Joe had to do. Then this page three, where it says metaphors, there's three, there's grass growing on top of your computer. There's a life ring on top of the ocean.

And then there's a sheep, okay? We didn't talk about him. In the middle.

This is about an English expression. What's that? Yeah, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Then if you're in Guadalajara, you think maybe Mexico City is more cool. Then you go live in Mexico City for a while, you think maybe Guadalajara is more cool. And you go back and forth like that.

Maybe Guangzhou is more fun than Shanghai. Guangzhou is too busy. I have to go to Xiamen for a while.

But maybe Hong Kong is better. And then you go back and forth, okay? In English we say it always looks better on the other side, the grass, on the other side of the fence.

Then it says loding. Near the sheep it says loding. You think somebody else is having a better chance than you.

There's gold under every place. So don't think you're going to be more happy if you move, okay? Outer things cannot make you happy.

If you don't have seeds, it doesn't matter if you get a lot of money or a little money, or you have a beautiful girlfriend or you don't have a beautiful girlfriend, or a big house or no house, there's no connection to your happiness. Many poor people are happy. Many poor people are unhappy.

Many rich people are unhappy. Some rich people happy. So therefore it's not the money.

It's coming from inside. And you have a chance to be happy anywhere. We teach in the prison sometimes.

We teach classes in the prison. Nick and other people. Yeah, right?

He told me, what was that? He said, now the warden of the prison approved them. He's teaching in the prison.

They said they can have a retreat inside the prison now. And you know, then I went to the prison. I went to teach in the prison.

I don't teach as much as these guys do, but I went a few times. Their air conditioning is much better than mine. Food is not bad.

They have lots of time to do it. They have a nice library. They have computers.

I don't know. I was thinking maybe I should do something bad. There was a guy from Vietnam there.

And I talked to him because I brought him the Vietnam diamond cutter. I said, when are you getting out? He said, I hope I never get out.

I don't have to work. Food is good. Nice place to stay.

So anyway, even in the prison, you can be happy. You can meditate. The ground is gold everywhere.

Okay. So we finished rare because the causes are difficult to find. Joe has to do many things.

And rare by metaphor. There are metaphors for rare. Now we've reached the third part.

Its nature is to be rare.

[Speaker 2]
What's that mean?

[Speaker 1]
GSUNGS PA NGON DGOS NA NYID DKA' BA What does it mean to be rare by nature? DE YANG DRO BA MI DGE BA SPYOD PA MANG BZHIN DGE BA SPYOD PA MYUNG BA'I More people are doing bad things to other people than who are helping other people. DE'I NGRO DANG NGAN SGROL NAS PHOS DE NGAN SGROL DRO BA BYED CHEN MANG LA Those who go from good rebirth to bad rebirth, like go from human to animal, and those who go from animal to animal, much more, much more like numerous, yeah.

There's billions more. Okay. They say all the mountains in the world were created by volcanoes.

And then slowly they break down and they turn into flat, right? Because that's the nature of gravity. Rocks roll down for millions of years.

And then the world becomes flat. Karma's the same. It's just natural for people to go down, or sideways.

It's very rare for a rock to roll uphill. DE NYID NAS PHOS DE NGAN SGROL DRO BA HA SBYANG GNYUR BA'I NA So people who go from animal, or hell, or ghost, to go up to human, it's very rare. Then there's a sutra where Buddha said, where Buddha described this.

It's very famous. It's called DU BA ZHI Vinaya Vastu, Vinaya Vastu. It's the most important book on Vinaya.

So in that sutra, somebody asked Buddha, what are the odds to go up and what are the odds to go down? Then, for example, in America not many people believe in rebirth. But the ones who do, I don't know why they assume they're going to be born again as a human.

Like, in my next birth I'm going to get back at my ex-husband. But somebody asked the Buddha in that Vinaya Vastu, what are the odds of going up and what are the odds of going down? Then Buddha licked his finger and he went like this.

There's some small piece of dust here. He said, that many stay human. Then they said, how many go down?

He said, all the dirt, all the dust particles in the whole planet, down to the middle of the planet. That many go down. The ones who stay human are like this.

Then I went to see that sutra. I thought I will read it to you. It's too long.

It's like seven pages. It's too long. I have it in the notes, if you want.

Because he covers each possibility. Hell people who go to hell, hell people who go to hungry ghost, hell people who go to animal, hell people who go to human, then human who go to hell, human who go to animal, human who go to ghost, then ghost to go to ghost, animal to go to animal, hell to go to hell, hell to go up, hell to go down. It's like seven pages long.

We can make a rap song about that. I know that song. Okay, so I'm going to, I'm just going to skip that sutra for you.

I found it if you want to see it. ,'CHOS RUG DROD LA'I MI, ,'GRO BA NI GZHAN DU MYUNG TE, Humans are less than all other kinds of rebirth. There are six kinds of rebirth.

What are they? Start from the bottom. Hell, hungry ghost, animal, human, then my god, and god.

I like to call these pleasure being, and almost pleasure being. I like almost pleasure being because if you're like the vice president of a big company, and then there's another person who's the almost vice president, what will your relationship be? Jealousy.

The almost vice president is always jealous of the vice president. There's always some struggle. So that's how it is with the pleasure beings and the almost pleasure beings.

They are so close to each other that in the Wheel of Life, sometimes they don't put six boxes, they put five. NYAL BA LAS YI DAG MYUNG Hungry ghosts are less than hell beings, population. Animals are less than hungry ghosts.

Then in Buddhism, we talk about we divide animals into two kinds. The ones who live in the ocean, and the ones who live on, we call dry land, which is more. Yeah, in the ocean.

Like billions and billions of tiny creatures in the ocean. Sometimes in ... I used to live in San Diego, you know, surfing.

I was happy before I met Buddhism. And a couple of times a year, there's a special, they call red tide, red tide. And I live on the, in the ocean.

I live right on the ocean. So I can go surfing anytime. So during red tide, you go out, and you jump off the rock into the ocean.

And it's all black. The ocean is black. Red tide means special microscopic creatures.

Billions and billions of them. And if you hit them, they fluoresce. They are fluorescent.

They show like psychedelic, you know. So in those days, we like to, you know, then we go and jump in the rain. And then there's these beautiful these lights, thousands of lights, you know.

Everywhere you touch, there's thousands of lights. Everywhere you touch, there's thousands of lights. So in the ocean, there are billions and billions of little creatures living there.

Those of you who are learning Tibetan, ching, paryatak cha gyi ku chi ma sa ching, ching means the depths of the ocean, inside the ocean. It can also mean Sanskrit root. So be careful.

I think the Sanskrit root may not have an S. I'll check. Then kathorwa.

Kathorwa means scattered. But in Buddhist geography, it means the animals who are scattered on the dry land. kyang means so the animals on dry land are much fewer than the animals inside the ocean.

And there are more what than them? More hungry ghosts. Even here, there are thousands around us.

And more than them, people in the hell. You cannot see them. So on the surface of the earth, there are many animals I'm sorry, fewer animals than the ocean.

mi chu mi shongway sar means sar means a place. Sar means in a place. shongwa means to fit in a place.

Word, what does mi chu mean? Mi is a noun here. Yeah, great.

Ten humans. You don't need a dictionary if you have word, okay? mi chu mi shongway sar, a piece of ground in which ten people could not sit.

bu sin dong chur bu sin means little bugs. dong chur means a hundred million. So if you go out in this grass, and you have a microscope, and you count all the little creatures there, there are a hundred million in a small space.

That's why Buddhist monks used to do retreat in the summer. yar ne, right? It's called the summer retreat.

Because we don't want to kill insects. So we try to stay in a room, and be quiet, and don't walk around too much. bar zi ba'ang shin tu mang de So, in the Wheel of Life, there's twelve links, right?

People from China know, because I taught it there. Inside that, there's six realms. In the very center, what's there?

Pig? Snake? And a pigeon or a rooster, either one.

By the way, I heard one of my students in China, I heard him give a short talk about Wheel of Life. He heard it from me a few times. Then he started teaching it.

Then I heard one. It sounded like he had ten bottles of tequila before that. It's all confused.

I was a little bit angry. So please take good notes, okay? It's good to teach.

It's good to teach. But you have to teach accurately. Alright, mang te Alright, so what's ...

I'm giving you an examination. This is difficult. There's the six realms.

There's the ... What's on the outside of the wheel? Yeah, Lord Buddha ...

well, Lord of Death is holding the wheel. Lord Buddha is pointing to the moon. Which means you can reach Nirvana, or Buddhahood.

Then there's the twelve links. Then there's the six realms. And in the very middle, there's the three animals which represent our negative thoughts.

Is there anything between the six realms and the animals? Yeah, good. Bardo, bardo, bardo.

Okay? People who died and didn't be reborn yet, who didn't get reborn yet. Some are being pulled up.

Some are being dragged down. So, somebody asked this lama, how many of those? Are they more than the animals?

Are they less than the animals? How many barsis? By the way, the person in the bardo is called parsi.

Parsi. That's the si that means existence. Start dictionary entry.

Parsi. Parsi. Par means in between.

It's short for bardo. Between death and rebirth. Parsi means the person who's in the bardo.

So there are many names. You can call bardo-wa. You can call parsi or parsipa.

You can call shasa. Pishyatsa. Meat eater, or you can call trisa, smell eater.

So how many are there? Shinduman. Billions.

tachik shiway ro la If you just take the dead body of a horse, the minute a horse dies, de ma tar tu bu sin kya to manpo chung na then immediately within one day there are thousands of what do you call those things? Maggots inside the horse. Small worm.

Then suppose a hundred horses die in the same field in one day. Is there any shortage of maggots in all of them? They appear within one day.

So we believe those are bardo people. They're everywhere. And then they're born as a maggot.

So within one day, if a hundred horses die here, they will all be full of maggots. Why did he say horses? I don't know.

If you kill a hundred humans here also they will have that many maggots. tagyak shiway nang bu sin de dang drawa jung chok chok bar si de yang den drawa yin So, mi nang du kye wa ang sang gi Now this is, I like this. This explanation next comes from Abhidharmakosha.

Third chapter. What's the third chapter about, do you know? jik ten gyi ne Yeah, the world.

It's where did the world come from? How did it first form? How did the stars form?

How did the planets form? How did life begin on this planet? Who put water and oxygen on this planet?

And it's very interesting. And inside there, they start to explain time and space. Very sophisticated.

Like, down to subatomic particles. Down to the level of mesons. Much smaller than an atom.

And then up to light years. Like, how far away is the nearest star? In the Abhidharma, there's some measurements.

And then time. Like, milliseconds. Very sophisticated.

That's where you get the explanation that each second has 65 parts. But then it goes up to the cycles of millions and billions of years. So, it explains milliseconds.

Then minutes, days, minutes, hours, days, months, years. And it goes up to billions of years. So, he's bringing part of that explanation to us.

mi nang du kyewa-ang Even if you're born as a human. I'm missing something. Oh, where is it?

Oh, okay, good. mi nang du Even if you're born as a human. So, he's just been telling you a human is the fewest of all beings.

If there's a billion hell beings, then there's a million hungry ghosts. And there's a thousand animals. And then there's only like ten humans.

But even if you're born as one of those ten, you still have another problem. sanggye jenpi drun kyal Say drun kyal? Drun means light, like a butter lamp.

Kyal means kalpa. Kalpa is a Buddhist measurement of years. I tried to calculate it when I was twenty or something.

How many years is a kalpa? Unfortunately, it changes. It's difficult to calculate.

It's something, I don't remember, it's something like 500 million years or something. So, in Buddhism, there are periods of 500 million years each. They are called kalpa.

There are dark kalpas, and there are kalpas of light. Kalpa of light means a Buddha came. During that 500 million years, a Buddha came, or some Buddhas came.

And then there are many kalpas where no Buddhas come. So to be born during a kalpa of light is very rare. So if there are, we said there are ten humans, right?

Their chance to be born in a world which has Buddhism is like also one in a billion. mun gyal chi drak mongpo bardur drun kyal re re tsam yin la Among many hundreds of thousands of kalpas of darkness, there's only one kalpa of light. drun kyal re re kap tsuwong And a kalpa of light, it has four mini kalpas.

A big kalpa has four parts. And they are also called kalpa, but they are smaller kalpa. Maybe you could say like quarter kalpas or something.

Then they are called, say, tong, chak, jik, ne. tong, chak, jik, ne. tong means space is empty.

Black space is empty for many millions of years. Then chak gyel means dust will start to form in outer space. And then slowly it will start to move like this.

[Speaker 2]
And that's the shape.

[Speaker 1]
You can see the shape of galaxies. And then the gravity becomes enough and the little pieces start to stick to each other. And that becomes a planet and stars.

So, scientists also say the same thing. After the Big Bang, then things are like this and then they start to collect, and then they form stars and planets. So that's the second part of a kalpa.

First there's nothing. Then there's dust become planets and stars. And then there's nepe kalpa means things stay like that for a while.

Because of gravity. Then jikpe kalpa. What's a jikpe kalpa?

Yeah, destruction. Then the suns, the third chapter of Abhidharma is very beautiful. It describes how the suns will we call supernova.

So every star you see in the sky, it will explode. And then it will collapse and becomes like a black hole. Then what do we have?

We start over again. Everything's empty. And the universe goes like this in billions and billions of years cycles.

So, which kalpa, which of those four parts do you think Buddha comes? During this thing. Yeah, here.

Buddhas don't come when outer space is empty because there's nobody to teach. Then when the stars and planets are forming there's still nobody to teach. Then during this third part there's worlds, oceans, human beings, there's people to teach.

Then they come. Then the Abhidharma kosha describes how this world will end. You want to go deeper?

There will be a nuclear war. And the atmosphere will burn. And all the people will die.

Almost all the people will die. And it's in the Abhidharma kosha. After that, like millions of years after that the sun will explode.

And first it will kill all the trees. Then it will dry all the oceans. And then this earth will melt.

And then it'll just be smoke. It'll start over again. So, each of those four has what we call in-between kalpas.

20, 20 each. 20, 40, 60, 80. So like 200 million years empty.

200 million years forming. Stays for 200 million years. It takes 200 million years to melt.

SNGA MA GSUM GYI RGA BU'I BAR DU SPYIR LA SANGS RGYAS MI CHEN So, Buddhas don't come during those 60 million years. I'm saying million, but it's much more than that. I know.

So, this this third eon, kalpa, it also has 20 parts, right? And during that time, during the beginning of that 20 million years, let's say 200 million, Buddhas don't come. Why?

So, Christian geography says in the beginning of the world, there was what? Jardin. The garden.

And there are two people living there. They don't have to die. Adam and Eve.

God said, if you cooperate, you don't have to ever die. But because they are human, they didn't cooperate. Then, then they had their first kids.

And then violence in the world began. Cain killed Abel. One killed the other one.

Then started killing. So, in Buddhism, we have very similar explanations. In the beginning of that third part, people's lifetime has no limit.

They can stay for a million years, or two million years. Then they, and they also don't, you can read in the Abhidharma, I'll teach you someday if we have nothing to do. They don't have to eat.

So, yoga is much easier at that time. And they don't have any sun at that time. They don't need it.

Why? Because their bodies are made of light. The whole world is full of light because all the trees, all their own body makes light.

Then people start to fight with each other. And their body changes from light to flesh. And then they start to get hungry.

They didn't have to eat before that. And they start to get hungry. But the earth is made of honey and butter.

Miel y mantequilla. I like it. Then, if you're hungry, you just go, you know.

Then some stupid guy say, nowadays there's a lot of, the ground of the earth is made of food. But people also getting more and more, people are becoming more and more populist. Then maybe I should take a little bit extra.

And I need a place to put that. Maybe I'll build like a house. So, he built a house.

He take extra. Then other people saw, oh, he's taking extra. I should take extra.

Then poopoo started. And sex started. Then people put windows so they can close the windows so people can't see them have sex.

And things get worse and worse and worse. The ten bad dates start to spread. And then finally there's a nuclear war.

But the day before, a few people in Guadalajara went to Amititán for a Buddhist retreat. And they weren't home when Guadalajara was blown up. And they survived.

They say some people go camping and then by accident they survive. Then they come back to the cities. It's like that Will Smith movie, or whatever.

And then they're the only person left alive in Guadalajara. Then they see one other person alive. And they're so happy.

Like, oh, how did you survive? I was camping. Yeah, so was I.

And they hug each other. And they say, why did we destroy this world? Then they say, oh, we were doing a lot of those ten bad deeds.

Okay, let's make a deal. We won't never do no killing, no stealing, no sex, you know, like that. And then karma starts to improve.

And the life goes up again. So, if you look at that third kalpa, the lifespan also goes like this. So, then finally it reached ten years old.

Average survived lifespan is ten years. So, where do you think Buddhas like to come? They come kind of in the middle.

We call it ZA'I LO RGYAL PA'I DUS. It means when lifespans are around fifty to a hundred years old. Why not lower than fifty?

It's not really ... there's not enough time to study and get enlightened, okay? Why not more than one hundred?

People are too busy with their cell phone, you know. They don't think they're going to die. So, they don't go to the Buddhist retreat in Amititan.

So, why is he talking about this? Yeah, you weren't born in the hell. But for every human there are billions of people in the hell.

And there are millions of animals and hungry ghosts. And maybe one human. And then, what's the odds of that human being born during this kalpa among the kalpa of darknesses?

Many ten thousands of darkness kalpas. And during the kalpa of light, only a small part when the world is stable. And during that time, only a small time when people are between fifty and a hundred years.

YATOG means the front end of the kalpa is not a good time. ZAD BLO BAG MED THUG PA DANG People live too long. ZAD BLO YAR PHAL GYI DU SANGS RGYAS MI CHUN PAR ZAD BLO MAR DU GYI DU ZHAG LTA LA CHUN PA YIN So, they usually only come when times are bad in the world.

Sickness, war, violence, killing. And during those times, some intelligent people think maybe we should practice Buddhism. DE NA RANG BYAG RNAMS SANGS RUNG DIR BSKYED TSE We were born on this planet.

BAR GYI KHUL PA SANGS RGYAS CHUN PAS SKABS KYANG And there's only a little pocket of time when there's Buddhism who came here. SANGS RGYAS SNGA MA NYANGS NAS DE'I TSUL BRTAN CING DE'I BRTAN PAR GNUB NAS SANGS RGYAS CI MA MA CHUN PAS BAR DU SKYE NA But suppose we are born in the time that one ... So there will be like a thousand Buddhas in this period.

But there's a lot of time between Buddhas. He gives the number for he gives the number for Maitreya. It's not correct, but I will tell you what he put.

Four billion, nine hundred million years until Maitreya comes. That's not true. Buddha, Maitreya's coming in less than five hundred years, okay?

DE NA RANG BYAG RNAMS SANGS RUNG So we were born in this little pocket. And it's possible to be born between Buddhas. This Buddha passed away and his teaching also disappeared.

And this Buddha didn't come yet. So it's possible to come to this planet in time when there's no Buddhism. DE TSUL BRTAN CHENG DE BRTAN PAR NUS NAS SANGS RGYAS PHYI MA MA CHUNG GI BAR DU SKYE NA NYID RNGUB PA GAL TEN SKYES PA'I Then there's no difference.

If you're born between Buddhas, you might as well be born in one of those kalpas of darkness, because it's the same thing. So inside the kalpa of light, there are very many, very long periods of darkness. Then darkness in the world doesn't mean night time.

It means hopeless. Nobody's talking about the pain. Nobody's interested to meditate.

They just watch YouTube probably. That's called darkness. To me, the whole internet is darkness.

99% darkness. There's nothing useful there that I can see. It's like darkness.

If you just spend your time on that, you will die and at the end you will say, what did I do? I'm so sorry. What did I do?

BSTAN PA'I RNGUB NAS RGYAL BA BYAMS PA MA CHUNG GI BAR DU From the time that this Buddha's teachings disappear and up to the time of the next, the fourth Buddha, which is Maitreya, coming Buddha. He says sungpa. Sungpa means they say four billion, nine hundred million years.

It's sooner than that. But, DE LTA BU MNGON PA'I BAR DU'ANG MA SKYES But we didn't have the bad luck to be born during that darkness time. THAG PA SANGS RGYAS KYI BSTAN PA YOD PA'ANG LING DI KHO NA YIN PAS DER NI SKYES And in the earth, only certain places Buddhism comes.

DE'I SNANG NAS BSTAN PA LTAR BA'I YOD And then you have to think about countries. So like, as far as I know, Buddhism never came to Africa, for example. But even in the countries like Asia, continent like Asia, then it came to some countries and it didn't come to other countries.

And the countries it came to, it disappeared from many of those countries. Then he's talking in 1920s. And he says, PHOS DANG SOGS PA SOGS YUL CHUNG ZHUG DGA' LAS MED PA Even in our time, he's talking 1920s.

Buddhism exists just small places. PHOS means what? Tibet?

What's Sokyong? Mongolia. And he says, YUL CHUNG ZHUG, we are the smallest countries in the world.

So if you're lucky, if you come to Tibet, or you come to Mongolia, or China when Buddhism is strong, it's just little places. RANG BYAG CHOS BDAG BA'I ZHIG ZHIMA PHUN DIR BSKYED But we were born in Tibet. And there's Buddhism.

Correct Buddhism. Do you want to keep going? Do you want to keep going?

Okay, I know we don't have much time. All the causes are here. The metaphor is rare.

And by nature, it's rare to be here. DE NANG NAS PAR NA RGA' BZHUGS KYANG SANG ZHES PAS NGE'AM DOR BRTAG SHI GYIS NA Then he quotes one Lama. He lived in Tibet.

By the way, if you ever care, it's misspelled here. The D-E-D should be N-G-E-D. Anyway.

There's a famous monastery of Tsongkapa's lineage in East Tibet. It's called TASHI KHYOD. He said there's a few thousand monks here.

And then he made a joke. In this monastery, several thousand monks, there are 500 Geshes. About 500 Geshes.

And there are 500 businessmen. He's talking about monks who sell things. Monks.

He's criticizing the monks. In my monastery there are 500 Geshes and there are 500 businessmen. Then there's 500 people lazy.

They're not doing either one. So you start with all the beings in the world. Cut out the hell beings.

Cut out the hungry ghosts. From the hungry ghosts, cut out the animals. And you get this many humans.

Those humans who were born during the time of a Buddha, this many. From this many, who were born in a country where there's any Buddhism, and a time in history when there's any Buddhism. That many.

Born in a Buddhist country, active Buddhist country. From the ones in an active Buddhist country, this many trying to be Buddhist. From the ones trying to be Buddhist, this many not businessmen.

Now he came down. Then he came down to us. RANG RES KHYIM CHIG LA BUN CHU YOD NA So if there's 10 people in one family in Tibet, CHUG BAR ZHUGS PA GNYIS SU MED MED only two or three, even in a very, very, very Buddhist country, only two or three will enter monastery or nunnery.

DE'I RNANG NAS From all those who entered the monastery, how many really practicing lam rim well? SHIN DU DGOS Super rare. Super rare.

SHIN DU DGOS Then you and I don't have this problem. We are practicing lam rim among all the Buddhas in the country and in the world where there's a Buddhist country. In the world where there are many other countries.

In countries where there are many other continents like Africa. During the time that the planet is here, and a Buddha came, and we are not between Buddhas, and the world didn't blow up yet, but we got to have a world. But we have a world.

Okay? Like impossible. You are super impossible.

Then you know, my lama, Ken Rinpoche, American people are always complaining, I feel low self-esteem. Geshe-la Rinpoche, I'm not special. Then he like takes his rosary and hit them.

You are so stupid. Out of the billions, there are five billion people in the world. How many are studying lam rim right now?

One hundred maybe. You are one out of a hundred million people. Oh, I'm not special.

Then he gets angry, he's like, shut up! So forget the low self-esteem, okay? If your karma got you into this room, you are one in a hundred million people.

You are, I like to say the bullet is brushing the paper. Your whole many lifetimes is like someone shot a bullet at a target, and the people in this room, your bullet is touching the paper. You are that close to Buddha.

You just take one more you become Buddha. The bullet is touching the paper. Oh, Geshe-la, I'm not special.

Okay, special people should go take a break, okay? Take a pee-pee break. Okay.

So it seems like the description in the Abhidharma of the creation and destruction of every galaxy, it sounds like it's self-existing. Is that because it's a lower explanation? No, even the Abhidharma, the next chapter, the opening of the next chapter says these motions of the dust, the formation of planets and stars, the destruction of them, lele jikten na sakye.

First line of the next chapter says it's all coming from what people do to each other. Okay? Yeah.

And then it teaches the whole karma, the whole chapter on karma, fourth chapter. So the next chapter is one of the best presentations of karma. And DCI is based on that chapter.

Other question? Another question. Hello.

[Speaker 2]
So Geshe-la, I have a question about the fortunate aeon.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
I hear about it sometimes, but I've never heard of a scriptural reference of it, or at length, all the different Buddhas that will come, and so on and so forth. Can you talk about that a little bit?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. It's a sutra. There's a whole sutra.

And I just looked it up for you. It's one of the first sutras in the collection of sutras. It's 548 folios, meaning it's 1096 pages.

And it explains the whole thing. And it's called it's called in Sanskrit, it's called Badra Kalpika Nama Mahayana Sutra. Badra means like Badrasana.

Badrasana. Badra. So Badra means good.

Kalpika means the book of the good kalpa. So you can, there are big quotations from it in the Abhidharma and things like that. And it's very beautiful.

First, these very rare lotuses come. And then the sky is raining jewels. And Lord Buddha is giving a teaching.

People say, what's going on? Then he starts to explain what is this kalpa of light. And we can read it someday if we don't have anything else to do.

But it's a, you can find descriptions of it inside the Abhidharma. In the fourth chapter. And we're on Buddha number three of one thousand.

Buddha number three just finished. Buddha number four is coming. Very close.

Up to Joel. Geshe-la, in China there's an egg. An egg?

Egg. In China, there's an egg? Tea egg.

Tea. Ah, tiger? Tea of drinking?

Yeah, tea egg. So the taste of the tea is completely in the egg after the cooking process. Then my question is how can we imbue love into our daily work?

Like the tea in the egg. Like, I feel like we have so many chances to do Dharma. But after Nick's class yesterday, I figured out many of my actions are not out of love.

I feel like I waste many chances to practice. So, can you give us some practical advice? So, my lama had many students and we lived in a small Mongolian monastery in America.

And they were like, I don't know, when I first went there, 15 monks. The youngest one is 75. Then some Americans came to study with my lama.

Then there's one named Art. His past joe was an unbelievable monk, I think. So his Tibetan was, in three months he learned Tibetan perfectly.

When he gets mad, he curses in perfect Tibetan. Then my lama said, who taught you that? And he's like, I don't know, it just came out.

And then, so I was very jealous of him. who translated this book, three volumes. Then, I was super jealous of him.

So, I worked very hard because I want to be better than him. Then one of those old Mongolian lama, his name is Geshe Gelden, which is really Kelden. He had tuberculosis before.

He had his lung cut out, part of his lung. But he was a great scholar. High Geshe.

He taught me some of the Abhidharma. Then, I fixed his room for him. I rebuilt his room for him.

Then he's like, oh yeah, you did a good job. You can't breathe very well. He's like, just sit down a minute, Mike.

Sit down just a minute. I'm like, what? And I said yes, and he says, I got to tell you something.

He's like, what? You're really jealous of art. Usually we don't tell people their bad qualities, right?

You're really jealous of this other student. That's really great. That's great.

Because you are learning so much because you want to be better than him. You are working night and day. Your jealousy is driving you.

That's very great. But maybe after you become better than him, maybe you can give it up, okay? Then he told me the nature of Dharma.

Once you get in the Dharma business, the Dharma business will fix you even if you have a bad motivation. Like, you can teach the ... Many people came to me and said, Keshla, I can fix you.

I taught ACI course. Then I'm like, yeah, now you reached a new level of hypocrisy. Now you are teaching every day what you're not doing.

You reached a new level. But slowly your mind ... If you keep teaching it, your mind will change.

So, I believe that. I believe the Geshe-Gelden theory. If you keep studying Dharma, you keep doing take five.

Even if your motivation is lousy, I want to be better than art in Tibetan language or something. The Dharma is super powerful. It will change your mind by accident.

So, I personally believe that if you do a little bit of study and meditation every day, you will learn to love people. And you may have a lot of pride while you're doing it, but it's like poison. It will get into your blood.

You cannot stop it. And someday it will become love. So, I personally very much believe that.

Just keep meditating every day. Study a little bit every day. I think you can't avoid it.

You will get love. There are many other methods, of course, like lojong. I think just tur sum, right?

Study and think about it. And it works. I'm not like ...

I don't know how to say. My lama is very compassionate. They see like a child.

Like Tara. Then just loves them. Like, whoa!

Then I'm like ... I'm like ... But we can learn.

Just keep trying. I don't think there's anything that will give you love in 15 minutes or something like that. So, on one side, if you are practicing Buddhism, the other side is samsara.

You will see lots of suffering in the world. Nothing can protect you from that. Money or power.

You will see people killed suddenly. You will see people lose the person they love the most. Sooner or later, if you keep exposing your mind to Buddhism, all the suffering you see, someday it will change your mind.

That's all. We have to stop there, but we can do more questions tonight.