«Дар освобождения», курс 20 «Ретрит непревзойдённой жизни», занятие 11

[Speaker 1]
Good morning. Looks like you had good sleep. We'll fix that tonight.

There's a story like that. The guy went to the doctor, and the doctor said, what's wrong with you? He said, nothing, I feel great.

The doctor said, I can fix that. They do that, right Phil? Let's meditate.

Can you put up the photo of the finger? Yeah, great. Wow, that was a lot.

What's this meditation? Yeah, like, you are super special. The whole earth is like normal people, and out of billions and billions of living beings, you reached this meditation moment, and so you are very special.

One out of a billion people, creatures. Okay, ready? Five minutes.

Three deep breaths. Okay, stretch. So if you do the meditation well, you should have two emotions.

One is, oh, I'm so lucky, and the other is, how long will it last? When will Joe's debit card run out? Then a third emotion comes.

Oh, I want to work hard now. Okay, let's do another one. This is the man in the moon.

Who can tell me what's this meditation? Yeah, don't waste a good opportunity. If you go to the Jewel Island, pick up something.

Don't borrow more money. What's the gemstone that you pick up? You can say Nirvana and Buddhahood.

What's it mean to collect the debt instead of picking up gemstones? Well, you hurt people.

[Speaker 2]
So instead of picking up gemstones, you create bad karma for the future.

[Speaker 1]
Instead of profit, you are getting more in debt. Okay. Okay, how much?

Okay, ready? Five minutes. You will find, don't get spoiled by the five minutes, okay?

I don't want to make a two minute meditation for you. So halfway through the five minutes, your mind will start to think about other things. Then don't put up with it.

Don't allow it.

[Speaker 2]
Because you'll get spoiled.

[Speaker 1]
Your mind will get spoiled. If you start thinking about other things in five minute meditation, you'll never do a ten minute meditation. Everybody comes up to me, Geshe-la, I want to do a three year retreat.

Let's start with five minutes. Three years is made of five minutes. Pieces of five minutes.

If you can't meditate for five minutes, you can stay in a cavern for three years, but it will be spoiled.

[Speaker 2]
It will be a strange time.

[Speaker 1]
For a year and a half, you think about when I get out, what will I do? Who was in ... you were in Johobaru, JB.

And almost 2,000 people came. Ben and Kendra were there. They did a three year retreat together, Ben and Kendra.

Then, five minutes before the program, I said, do you guys want to sing a song in front of 2,000 people? Then they're like, Geshe-la, you didn't tell us. It's only five minutes from now.

[Speaker 2]
Geshe-la, you didn't tell us. It's only five minutes from now.

[Speaker 1]
Then they talked to each other, and they said, okay, we have a song. And they did it, and it was very popular.

[Speaker 2]
What was the name of the song?

[Speaker 1]
When I get out. They wrote this song during the three year retreat. It's all about what I'm going to do when I get out.

It means they were thinking about it during the three year retreat. Enough to write a song. So, if you cannot do five minutes, focus.

Then, second half will be, what do I do when I get out?

[Speaker 2]
How do I finish this five minutes?

[Speaker 1]
And the first half will be thinking about earlier this morning. Sometimes I like to do a short meditation to see if I can spend five minutes without thinking once about the object of meditation. We practice this every day.

SA SHI BU GYI RJE SHING LAS Okay. We don't think about it. Just, it becomes automatic.

Okay, so be careful with the five minutes.

[Speaker 2]
It's a big opportunity, and it's dangerous.

[Speaker 1]
If you get a bad meditation habit for five minutes, it'll be very hard to change later. Alright, so focus. I came to the Jewel Island.

I still have two, three days in tequila, and I will get some, I will pick up some diamonds here. I won't do negative things and leave the retreat with less good karma than when I came.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, ready?

[Speaker 1]
Three deep breaths. Okay. Relax.

We'll do one more.

[Speaker 2]
Let's do one more.

[Speaker 1]
Next picture.

[Speaker 2]
What's the meaning?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, don't waste the amount of time that you can drink a coffee. Okay? So, it takes maybe five minutes to drink a coffee, and decide you won't waste that much time.

Then again, you have to be careful with this one, okay? Like, don't be, don't get crazy. You know, like, you're like, alright, you meet Buddhist people like that.

New Buddhists, they get, they overdo it, and they're really nervous all the time. So, it means you should, he's not nervous. It looks like he's waiting for his girlfriend or something.

And he's just relaxed. He's sitting over near the cafeteria. Maybe he's on the grass, and he's enjoying his coffee, and he's looking at all the people, and he's just thinking, oh, you know, there's that guy who helps with everything in the kitchen.

I like that. You know, there's that lady who sang the nice song last night. That was really beautiful.

Then that guy who bothered me yesterday, when he thinks about someone who bothered him, he's like, okay, maybe Joe made some small mistakes. I'm not going to repeat them. I'll fix it.

I won't, I won't irritate other people today. Alright, so during the coffee, this person is meditating.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, sak chung. What's that?

[Speaker 1]
They are making new good karma during the five minute coffee.

[Speaker 2]
And they are cleaning old bad karma during the coffee.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, ready?

[Speaker 2]
Coffee.

[Speaker 1]
This is a different coffee meditation. Sorry, but it's all relaxed, okay? He's not like nervous trying to use every five minutes.

He's, in English they say he's chill, he's chill. What's chill in Spanish? I don't know.

Chill? He's like, he's not trying to use the five minutes, you know? He's like, he's like, that song was so cool!

[Speaker 2]
Okay, chill.

[Speaker 1]
How do you say chill?

[Speaker 2]
Chill. Let's just say it's chill.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, chill. Here we go. Be chill.

Take five. Three deep breaths. Okay, stretch.

Stretch. All right, yes, question?

[Speaker 2]
Preguntas?

[Speaker 1]
Is the point that we should speak about how we're not going to waste any five minutes, or is it that we don't waste that five minutes on like just... Yeah, it's a good question. Can you repeat it?

I'll repeat the question. That last meditation, am I supposed to plan my next cup of coffee in the cafeteria? Or am I supposed to actually do it during that five minutes?

You see, am I supposed to try to use the five minute meditation right now? Or is the purpose of this meditation to think, maybe later today I will be drinking some coffee, or I will be in the car? And this is how I should think during that time.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, it's a planning meditation.

[Speaker 1]
So, you are... whenever you do these meditations, and you start to get sleepy, what are the two big enemies of meditation? Good, chingwa and gupa.

He beat your word, I think. Chingwa and gupa.

[Speaker 2]
Chingwa means you are meditating.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, very slight, you know.

[Speaker 2]
It's not like this, you know.

[Speaker 1]
The mind quality goes down slightly. Then, what's gupa?

[Speaker 2]
Breakfast.

[Speaker 1]
Lunch.

[Speaker 2]
Monday.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, like that. You left the meditation. In chingwa, you're still in the meditation, but the quality is low.

In gupa, you're thinking about what you're going to do when you get back to Shanghai. Okay, so during this meditation, during all of these meditations, if a demon attacks you, what's a demon's name? Chingwa and gupa.

Demon is not like, I'll show you a demon, okay? That's a demon attack you. Okay, they're not like, okay.

When a demon attacks you, bring this picture back to your mind. You have all the photos, okay? Okay, I'll ask you, what's worse?

You're at the airport ready to go home. Is it worse you lose your passport, or is it worse you lose this? This one, okay?

This is more important than your passport. Don't go home without it. If you lose your passport, you can get a new one pretty easy.

This one's hard to get. This one, Joe had to spend, you know, one million years to get this one. Then, when a demon attacks your meditation, then bring the picture to mind.

There's some guy with his coffee like that. Okay, and then you'll remember your meditation. It's easy to bring your mind back.

[Speaker 2]
So, the purpose of this meditation is to plan your future moments.

[Speaker 1]
What does a Buddhist do when they get five minutes break in the day? Sak jang. Collect some good karma.

What's the cheapest, easiest way to collect good karma? Yeah, rejoice. Oh, there's that guy Rick, you know, from Phoenix.

He's helping a lot of people in the prison. Okay, what's the easiest way to collect good karma?

[Speaker 2]
That's cool. That's cool.

[Speaker 1]
That's cool.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, just that. That's cool.

[Speaker 1]
That's cool. You can steal 10% of his good karma. Buddha said so.

Buddha said that. Okay, he doesn't lose 10%. It's just 10% extra is created.

Then he goes to the prison like every week. And he goes to two hospices. He helps dying people.

So, he's doing like three or four of those visits every week. In one month, he's doing like 20 or something. I don't have time to go to the prison.

The prison where Nick was teaching, it takes from our house six hours to go there.

[Speaker 2]
Four hours.

[Speaker 1]
Then I don't have time to do that.

[Speaker 2]
But if he spent 20 hours, and I say, that's cool, I get two hours.

[Speaker 1]
Then it's so cool. You can also think, that's cool is cool.

[Speaker 2]
10%. 10% is so easy. That's cool.

[Speaker 1]
And if you are having a problem in your life at that time, which all of us have, half the emails everybody gets are problems.

[Speaker 2]
Then you can do sak jang, right? Jang.

[Speaker 1]
Then like, God, this guy bothers me so much. And I have a real problem with this guy. Then a Buddhist reaction.

So, I will stop doing what he's doing. Okay, like that. Then you're jang, during the coffee.

You're jang, jang ni, sak jang.

[Speaker 2]
You are jang during the coffee.

[Speaker 1]
So sometimes it's difficult to think, oh, Rick is doing such a good job, because you're thinking about some problem. You know, your husband said something, or somebody at your job did something. Then you can do, instead of sak with Rick, you can do jang.

Oh, this guy really causing me a lot of trouble.

[Speaker 2]
He's always complaining.

[Speaker 1]
So, I think I'll fix him today. I'll stop complaining. Okay, that's how Buddhists fix people.

And don't waste five minutes.

[Speaker 2]
How to waste five minutes?

[Speaker 1]
Oh, her song was so nice.

[Speaker 2]
I think people like it better than my song. That's the opposite of rejoicing, right?

[Speaker 1]
Jealous. Oh, that guy complain all the time. Next time I see him, I'm going to tell him, you're so stupid, you're complaining all the time.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
That's the opposite of cleaning your bad karma. You are making new bad karma.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
So, jang is ... Oh, that guy complains all the time. He is in my world.

That means he's coming from me.

[Speaker 2]
And that means I'm complaining too much. So, I'll get rid of him. I will stop complaining.

[Speaker 1]
He will move to Oaxaca. Okay. I cleaned out my company.

In the diamond company, I had 800 people in the building. I cleaned out every bad person. They all moved to Florida.

I'm like, hee hee hee. Really? Okay.

Let's go back to the book.

[Speaker 2]
Good question.

[Speaker 1]
You are planning your next coffee. In psychology, they call it role playing. You are visualizing your next coffee.

And the next time you have a coffee, because of the meditation, when you see the coffee, it will trigger those ideas in your life. You will ... Oh, Rick.

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Cool guy. Like that.

[Speaker 1]
Andriana's song. Oh my God. Really cool.

[Speaker 2]
Everybody who complains around me. Florida, Florida. Florida, Florida.

[Speaker 1]
Okay? You will remember because of the ... because you did the meditation.

And that's the purpose of Lam Rim meditation. So it does ... You are not trying to develop deep concentration on wisdom or something.

[Speaker 2]
You know, where you stop breathing. Okay? That's a different meditation.

[Speaker 1]
There are hundreds of meditations. There's 24 in here. Okay?

[Speaker 2]
And that's a different meditation.

[Speaker 1]
But if you do half hour meditation on shamatha or vipashyana, it's ... the half hour is made of six five minute pieces.

[Speaker 2]
Okay? So if you practice in five minute pieces, then the half hour of vipashyana will come.

[Speaker 1]
Vipashyana. It will come.

[Speaker 2]
On emptiness.

[Speaker 1]
And emptiness takes like half an hour. But if you do five minute pieces, then half an hour is easy. If you do strict and focused five minute pieces, half an hour is easy.

[Speaker 2]
If the five minute gets sloppy, the half hour will be super sloppy.

[Speaker 1]
Okay? So you don't start with three hour meditation. Check your mind, can I do five minutes?

And this timer goes up to, I don't know, three days or something. You can do six minutes and build up like that. One of my first yoga teachers, he said, uttanasana, bend over and touch your toes.

[Speaker 2]
And I was like ...

[Speaker 1]
Then he said, okay, he got three or four books, a phone, telephone book.

[Speaker 2]
He said, touch the telephone book.

[Speaker 1]
Then, okay, I touch the telephone book. Then he tore out one page and he said, now touch the book. And then he said, every day you tear out one page.

After, I don't know, three years, it's okay, it's okay, you can touch. So meditation is like that. Don't start with three hours.

You can sit for three hours, but your mind will think about everything. So make the five minutes super pure. And then maybe once every two weeks, add a minute.

Okay, all right, let's go to the book. CHUN GYUG LAS Are we there, Adam? BYA'I Do you know BYA'I?

Adam, BYA'I. BYA'I is a good book. It means brother.

[Speaker 2]
BYA'I means brother.

[Speaker 1]
You can search for B-K-L-A Oh, there we go, in the middle, yeah. Okay. CHUN GYUG LAS What's CHUN GYUG?

[Speaker 2]
Yes, CHUN GYUG.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, he beat you, Nick. Don't get jealous. Don't be like Geshe Michael.

Yeah, Master Shantideva's How to be a Bodhisattva. We did that in the ACI courses.

[Speaker 2]
How many courses?

[Speaker 1]
Three, ten, eleven, and twelve. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Please finish your courses.

[Speaker 1]
Finish your courses. Some people say, I want to work for DCI, or I want to work for you. I like it.

But get your courses finished. That's minimum.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, eighteen courses.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. LUS KYI DI DAG BYAS PAR BYA ZIG SAM SBYOD PA'I CI ZHIG GRUB ME BYAS BSLAB PA TZAM GYIS NI GNAS PA LTA LA PHAN GYUR RA'AM This is very famous. LUS KYI DI DAG BYAS PAR BYA You should, what do you say, practice with your life.

ZIG SAM SBYOD PA'I CI ZHIG GRUB What are you going to... Where are you going to reach if you just talk? ME BYAS BSLAB PA TZAM GYIS NI If the doctor gives you a prescription for medicine, like Dr. Yohai gives you some prescription for medicine, then you're like, oh, take three times a day. This one one time a day. I think I'll memorize it. Take this three times a day.

Take this one time a day.

[Speaker 2]
Take that one time a day. Take this one time a day.

[Speaker 1]
And burn incense also. Take this one time a day. Take that one time a day.

You know? But you don't take the medicine. Then whole religion forms around this.

Oh, take this three times. They will build a temple. Three times a day, one times a day.

Take this one time a day. Take this one time a day. Then you don't take it.

You're just chanting it. So, he says, GNAS PA DAG LA PHAN GYI RAM It doesn't help. It won't cure your sickness to recite the prescription.

You have to understand the prescription. Then you have to use it. So, is it bad to sing the Heart Sutra in Chinese?

[Speaker 2]
No, it's beautiful. Then Buddha is singing in your mind all the time. And it will change your behavior because Buddha is singing in your mind.

[Speaker 1]
So, it's good to sing the prescription.

[Speaker 2]
And then you can use it.

[Speaker 1]
So, which one is better?

[Speaker 2]
Sing the prescription or use the medicine?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, both. Both is good. ZHES GSUNGS PA LTAR LAM MA DGE BA'I GZHAN YIN GYIS THAR PA DANG THAMS CAD KHYEN PO'I GRUB PA'I LAM JI LTA BA GZHIN TEN KYANG RANG GI NYAMS SU MA LANG NA So the teacher can teach you the Lam Rim for twenty retreats.

RANG GI NYAMS SU MA LANG NA But if you don't practice it when you get home. MEN PA SKAD PA MEN MONGS DU DER YONGS NAS PAS MA GSOS NA It's like a doctor who is a very great doctor and gives you some medicine. MA GSOS NA NAS SU MA GSOS MI NUS PA And you're not going to get cured if you don't take the medicine.

[Speaker 2]
If you forget the Lam Rim when you get home from the Lam Rim retreat, then it's not going to help you.

[Speaker 1]
LAM MED DANG SNGAGS BSTAN PA RNAMS DE CI BZHIN MI GRUB NI RANG GCIG PO LO RAG LAS PAS NA So, whether you take the medicine or not, the doctor cannot come to your house and watch you all day. I don't like doctors. For many years I didn't go to a doctor.

You know, I don't know, a few years ago, usually my friends give me some money and they say, this is for the doctor. I don't know, so two years ago I went to a doctor. She's an MD and she's a naturopath, both.

She has both. She gave me like sixteen pills. Supplements.

Vitamin D, vitamin C, vitamin B. What's that stuff called? Cholesterol?

Cholesterol? Cholesterol?

[Speaker 2]
No.

[Speaker 1]
It's the, anyway. She gave me sixteen bottles. Then I took them home.

I have a cabinet full of bottles.

[Speaker 2]
People give them to me.

[Speaker 1]
Then I don't take them. So, then it cost me a lot of money and the doctor cost a lot of money. Then I went back to her after six months.

And she's like, you know, how are you doing?

[Speaker 2]
It's good to see you.

[Speaker 1]
Did you take the medicine? She looked in my eyes. Then I said, no.

[Speaker 2]
Did you take any? No.

[Speaker 1]
Then she's like, she just looked at me like, you know, like, get them out of here. Then, I don't know, last six months I took them.

[Speaker 2]
Every morning.

[Speaker 1]
And I feel great. I feel really great. Yesterday I went, Don Jesus gave me checkup.

[Speaker 2]
He says, you're perfect.

[Speaker 1]
I'm like, yeah, I know. So, just try.

[Speaker 2]
The doctor begged me, begged me, just six weeks, please just take for six weeks.

[Speaker 1]
And finally I did it. And I feel great. So, try.

But what he said here, RANG GCIG BU LA RAG LAS PAS NA means, it just depends on you. You have to make the effort to take the medicine. Even, that doctor is unbelievable.

She's MD, took her like 12 years of study, and she's a naturopath, took her 10 years of study. But she cannot force you to take it.

[Speaker 2]
You have to take it yourself.

[Speaker 1]
And Lama can't do anything.

[Speaker 2]
So, I lived with my Lama for 30 years, in the same house.

[Speaker 1]
And I saw hundreds of students come and go. Like Shanghai high-speed train. And some people did what he said, and some people didn't do what he said.

And I saw both. I saw hundreds of very happy people. And then sometimes I meet the ones who quit.

I was in Chicago or something, and some guy came, he said, I want to talk to you. And I met him. And he said, do you recognize me?

And I say, I'm like, no, no, I don't remember you. He said, I started with your Lama the same year that you started. And I didn't take the medicine.

Now, after 30 years, you are teaching 20,000 people every year. And I'm just alone and I'm unhappy. I'm very unhappy.

And we got the same medicine in the beginning. And he was so, what do you call it? It was like a tragedy.

You know, it was very sad, because he obviously he's not had, he didn't have a good life. Okay, so take the medicine. SEMS SBYUG CHUD LA BRAL NA BRAL MCHOG DON BSTAN BYA BA LA BAS GSUNGS For the rest of your life, however much we have left, we don't know how much we have left.

But use it.

[Speaker 2]
Take the medicine.

[Speaker 1]
It will make you happy. Okay, BDE NAS RGYAL SHES DANG RGYONG TSUL DOR BSTAN LA Then he, RGYAL SHES, say RGYAL SHES. Let's start a dictionary entry, Adam.

RGYAL SHES. RGYAL BA'O SA, KA TA'I DKA' YATA RGYAL LA RGYAL means again. There's a shorter word called LAR, or LAR YANG in colloquial, but this is the scriptural word, ancient scriptural word.

RGYAL, okay. Then SHES PA means to SHES PA or SHES PA? To explain.

It's probably related to cut in the sense of cutting up the words. So RGYAL SHES is an important pedagogical term in Buddhism. Pedagogical means how to teach people.

And RGYAL SHES means every time you're teaching somebody something, you should repeat it two more times. So if I teach you this don't waste five minute meditation, yesterday, then I should make some excuse to teach it briefly again today. And I should mention it again on Saturday.

That's a Buddhist educational custom which is two and a half thousand years old. You give a long explanation on the first day. Then on the second day you have the student do just like five minute meditation about it.

[Speaker 2]
Then the third day you mention it.

[Speaker 1]
And that's called RGYAL SHES.

[Speaker 2]
Repeat three times. The student should look at it three times before the next class.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so today if I teach you this meditation, do you have the next photo? What's that photo? It took me a long time to find this photo, okay?

What's that?

[Speaker 2]
He's taking the medicine.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, it means if you don't ... I don't think he likes it. But if you don't take it, it won't help you.

Okay, so from your side before this afternoon class, you should try to think about this picture three times. Even just while you're cleaning your room or sitting in the important thinking place. From your side, you're supposed to RGYAL SHES some.

You're supposed to think about it three times. Okay, RGYAL SHES. So the Lama did RGYAL SHES KYONG TSUL DOR BRTEN LA and he summarized how to practice these meditations.

Then he said when you are doing these meditations, you can imagine that your Lama is sitting here. Little, little Lama. Your Lama shrinks down and is sitting here.

If you imagine the big Lama, it will hurt your neck. There's just a little version of whoever is your Lama, whoever you feel close to. Then at the end of the meditation, when the bell rings, you can ask your Lama, please help me to remember this meditation.

You can bring them down to inside your heart. Then during the day, when you feel scared, or you're not sure what to do with your life, you try to control yourself, but you cannot. You can ask, you can look in your heart and say, come on, help me out a little bit.

And it's a very strong, very mas fuerte. They can help you a lot. So keep them here.

Like golden room meditation, and when you have problem, sudden problem during the day, or suddenly you feel sad, or suddenly you feel not sure what to do, or you start to get angry and you can't stop yourself, or the boys are almost ready to look at pornography on the computer. Which is a big problem. Then you just check in with your Lama.

I need some help here. I don't think I can control myself. So can you help me out?

And then it will help. Alright? KYONG TSUL DOR BRTAN NA, JI BU LAMA LA SOGS PA'I DEBS Ask your Lama for help.

And SA BYA'I BRAM Say SA BYA'I. SA BYA'I SA BA'O BYA DAG BYAS SA, SA KYANG When you're jorlok, when you're spelling out loud and it's a single letter, you can say SA KYANG. SA KYANG means SA by itself.

And then BA BA BYA DAG BYAS BYAS means to. And the pronunciation of this one is different. We pronounce the prefix letter on the second syllable.

So what is it? Yeah, SA BYA'I. We say SA BYA'I.

And SA BYA'I is very important in Buddhism. And every Lama does it when they write a book. They will, at the end of the book, inside the book, they will make an outline.

So this is a this is a SA BYA'I. Okay? So this teaching takes ten days and many hours of talking.

But this is a SA BYA'I. It's an outline. All the teaching we are doing for ten days, it's here.

And that's called SA BYA'I. Okay? People memorize the SA BYA'I to these lamrims.

And they learn how to sing them. And then when they're meditating, they don't have to use the book. So if you are ambitious, you can, it's very, very cool to memorize the pictures in order.

What's the first picture? Two pairs of shoes. And I'm guessing there's a kiss up above.

[Speaker 2]
What's the second picture?

[Speaker 1]
Two people holding hands. Then see if you can bring up twenty-four pictures. Then the SA BYA'I is in your mind.

[Speaker 2]
And you can do it everywhere.

[Speaker 1]
When you're taking baths, you can do the SA BYA'I.

[Speaker 2]
Okay? It's very cool to have it in your mind.

[Speaker 1]
What's the next photograph?

[Speaker 2]
Holding hands.

[Speaker 1]
What's the next photograph? Looking at the ocean. And then that's a very cool way to learn the SA BYA'I.

GONG ZHING BSGOM PAS RTOG PA SKYE BA'I TSE NI So if you do all these practices on these meditations, RTOG, SKYE, RTOG PA'I TSE RTOG PA'I TSE TSE is the start of dictionary entry, okay? TSE. SA DA'I TSE TSE means it's related to TSE MA which means pramana, like in the Yoga Sutra.

Pratyakshanama. Pramana means perceive. How do we understand things?

[Speaker 2]
What's the most famous book about pramana? Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Pramana Vartika. We spend 75 months of our training on Pramana Vartika.

[Speaker 2]
How many years?

[Speaker 1]
That's six and a half years.

[Speaker 2]
How to understand things.

[Speaker 1]
So here, but here, but it comes from the root to measure. What's the Sanskrit root? MA MA What's the English card name?

Measure, meter, okay? Why am I talking about that? Here it means what's the TSE of the DOG PA?

And in a debate you have to say KASA. What's that mean? KASA.

RATATATANA RTOG KASA. Why do you have to say that in a debate?

[Speaker 2]
Huh?

[Speaker 1]
Because there's two words DOG PA. Okay? DOG PA without S.

[Speaker 2]
Spell without S. It means wrong idea. DOG PA with S means correct idea.

[Speaker 1]
So when you're debating, what's DOG PA'I TSE?

[Speaker 2]
What's DOG PA'I TSE when you're debating?

[Speaker 1]
Your opponent will say are we talking with the S or are we talking without the S?

[Speaker 2]
Because the sound is the same.

[Speaker 1]
Sometimes in Shanghai you can see people say, go like, you know, they are showing their character because the sound is the same. So this DOG PA means with a S means what?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, to understand. What's DOG PA'I TSE mean?

[Speaker 1]
TSE. Good, I think you got it. What?

Good. CHAG RTZA LA. LAS TSOR, LAS TSOR.

SIDDRA, SIDDRA. How do you know when you got it?

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
You take this home to, I don't know, Cordoba. You take this home to Cordoba, Argentina. You know, you are working on it every day.

Geshe-la, how do I know when I success? What's the sign that I succeeded in these meditations?

[Speaker 2]
What's that called in Tibetan?

[Speaker 1]
DOG PA'I TSE.

[Speaker 2]
DOG PA'I TSE.

[Speaker 1]
How do I know I got it?

[Speaker 2]
Ready? This is important.

[Speaker 1]
Geshe Potowa, Geshe Potowa said, DE'ANG PHYIR NYES PAR BKA' BA'I GO GYUR NA If you understand how, if you do all these meditations, 24 meditations, how do you know you got it? BYA BA BLO DER GDOD PAR GA LA SRID Two things. Number one, you feel very uncomfortable when you do something wrong.

Like you lie to somebody.

[Speaker 2]
Then right away you start to feel super uncomfortable.

[Speaker 1]
Okay? And BLO DER GA LA SRID means you can't hang out without doing anything. BLO DER means, you know, you're like, hey man, you know, you can't have a coffee without trying to do SAC CANG.

You get halfway down in the coffee and you realize you didn't have any Buddhist thoughts in the first half of the coffee. You weren't happy about Rick's work and you didn't try to fix the irritating, the complaining, the complainer person.

[Speaker 2]
Then you feel uncomfortable.

[Speaker 1]
I wasted this coffee. This half a coffee, I wasted. I just spaced out.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
If you feel uncomfortable, your meditation is going good. Okay? Got it?

When you waste time, you feel uncomfortable. Like if the whole day goes by, you didn't do any meditation, you didn't look at a scripture, then you just feel, you feel like uncomfortable. You know, you're like, something's wrong.

Then, what's wrong? Oh, I didn't do my five-minute meditation. I didn't do any five-minute meditation.

[Speaker 2]
And you feel uncomfortable.

[Speaker 1]
Then the meditation is working. Okay, here's Je Tsongkapa. NYE DKA' RIGS NA He talks about four different steps of the Lam Rim.

And he tells you what's the RTOGS PA'I TSE. This is a letter that he wrote to somebody. The letter is called DRIN GYI'IG PEN DE BZHIN ZIN.

That's a long story. A letter about how to be happy. NYE DKA' RIGS NA, KHYAD NAR BDOD THAB MED If the meditation about how rare your life is is going well, especially these first seven meditations, how rare the causes are for Joe to do for me to have this life.

Then, KHYAD NAR BDOD THAB MED Say KHYAD NAR. KHYAD NAR KHYAD NAR is an ancient, archaic word, even in Tibetan. If you say it to a modern Tibetan, they don't know what you're talking about.

KHYAD NAR is this, okay? Just waste your time. You wasted a coffee.

That's called GYI NAR. So GYI NAR means just hang out. Okay?

GYI NAR means hang out. So if you realize how valuable your equipment is, you won't be able to do this anymore. You start to feel uncomfortable, like I'm missing something.

Did I forget to put sugar in this coffee? Oh no, I forgot to think about Rick's good work. You see what I mean?

[Speaker 2]
So when the Starbucks lady comes over, what would you like? I'll take a coffee.

[Speaker 1]
Do you want milk and sugar in that? Yes, and can you throw in some rejoicing also? I'll take two spoons of rejoicing.

Okay, alright. That's the first one. Second one.

DON CHEN MTHONG NA DON MED BDAG BA BAM Once you understand the potential of this life, in finance they call it leverage, right? Leverage. It means you have some business opportunity and if you do the right thing you can turn this into 200 times more.

Okay? Hey, I could leverage this equipment into a Buddha body. This is a good financial opportunity.

I got a human body. I could leverage, if I do the right thing I could turn this over into a Buddha body.

[Speaker 2]
You see the potential.

[Speaker 1]
And then you don't want to waste your time.

[Speaker 2]
You just keep leveraging all day. CI BA SOMS NA If you have a good awareness of your death, your death is coming.

[Speaker 1]
We're going to study that later. But what it will be is you wake up, you make your bed, you go in the bathroom, you pee-pee, you brush your teeth, you comb your hair, if you have hair. If not, you can just go like that.

Then you look you look in your own eyes and you say, dude, if you're Alejandro you say, dude, wait, you're going to die before the sun sets.

[Speaker 2]
You're going to die before the sun sets.

[Speaker 1]
So, what are you going to do today? How do you choose to spend this day? The last day of your life.

Then we're going to study that meditation. So, it's not like a depressing meditation.

[Speaker 2]
It's like super cool meditation.

[Speaker 1]
Maybe you quit your job that morning, I don't know. If I'm going to die today, what would I like to use this time? CHI BA BSAM NA, PHYI MA DROD CHAGS DROD CHAGS BYAS So, I want to teach you the word chap.

Say chap. This is KHAR DAG TU DRA BA SA CHAGS Start dictionary entry. KHAR DAG TU DRA BA SA CHAGS CHAGS means it comes after the verb and it means to get ready to do that thing.

So, what's DROD CHAGS mean? Yeah, get ready to go. Pack my bags.

There's a Steve Miller song. It starts out Pack my bags. What's it mean for a Buddhist?

Yeah, get ready to go. Like, you know, if you're going to go to Mexico for a ten day retreat, put ten packages of noodles in your suitcase. I always bring ten I bring ten protein bars.

If I can't eat the dinner, I have a protein bar. So, what's next after death meditation? I got to get ready for afterwards.

[Speaker 2]
If I take my big trip today to the next life, I got to pack a lot of noodles. What kind of noodles? Good seeds.

I got to pack some good seeds for my trip.

[Speaker 1]
That's the third one. LEN DE BSAM NA BAG MED NAS LEN DO LEN DE means after studying death meditation, we're going to study karma. And a person, what's the RTOGS PA'I TSE of a person who studied karma well?

Yeah, they are super careful. Super careful. Like, you know, they have a problem with somebody and they decide, I have to talk to them.

[Speaker 2]
I got to be super careful.

[Speaker 1]
I don't want to say anything negative. I mean, it's okay to correct them, but I don't want to get mad.

[Speaker 2]
So, a person who really understands karma, before they talk to somebody they don't like, they like get ready.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, I want to tell him that, you know, it wasn't really cool what you did in our business yesterday. That's a good karma. You know, what you did with our business yesterday, it wasn't so cool.

[Speaker 2]
But if they start to get defensive and then they start to get angry, and then you start to get angry, the good seed becomes a very bad seed. So, a Buddhist person who studied karma, they like get ready before they meet the person.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, today I'm going to talk to them. I'm going to tell them about this mistake they're doing. Probably they'll be defensive.

[Speaker 2]
Pretty good chance they might get angry at me. And I'm going to keep my cool. A person who thinks like that studied karma.

[Speaker 1]
Because everything they do, they're like super careful.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, last thing.

[Speaker 1]
They're still talking about RTOGS PA'I TSE. Then, if you come to Diamond Mountain, if you're very lucky, you can get the cactus blessing. Okay, like sticking your arm.

We had a nun in the first three retreat. Her name is Pelma. She fell into a cactus.

And she got like ten cactus pieces here. And they stayed for three years.

[Speaker 2]
She couldn't get them all out.

[Speaker 1]
So, you have to be careful. So, there's a story here about a lama named Gompawa.

[Speaker 2]
And he fell into a cactus.

[Speaker 1]
We'll talk about it later. What do you guess was his RTOGS PA'I TSE? Not be careful around cactus.

the whole day he didn't have time to take it out.

[Speaker 2]
It hurts.

[Speaker 1]
And it only takes about, I don't know, ten seconds to take it out?

[Speaker 2]
He's like, I'll do it later.

[Speaker 1]
I got to work on meditation number eight. Then he finished the meditation. Then he's like, it hurts, you know.

But I got to do it later. I'll take care of it later. And then I have to do the next meditation.

Then for like one week, he didn't have time to take, just to go like this, he didn't have time. Okay? RTOGS PA'I TSE He didn't have thirty seconds to do something that wasn't connected to his practice.

[Speaker 2]
He just ignored it.

[Speaker 1]
We were talking about who was I? We were talking about taxes.

[Speaker 2]
I hate taxes.

[Speaker 1]
I like to pay them, but I hate all the papers. In America, by April 15th you have to pay your tax.

[Speaker 2]
Then April 10th, I'm like, I'll do it tomorrow. April 11th.

[Speaker 1]
I'll do it tomorrow. Then there's a special letter you can write to the government. I couldn't do my taxes.

Can I have one month extra?

[Speaker 2]
Then you have to pay the interest.

[Speaker 1]
So every year we do that, right Jigme? Then all the little stuff not connected to your Dharma practice, treat it like your taxes. Really, I should do my laundry today.

Starting to smell a little fresh. In the monastery there's a word they call ya, ya. If you wear your jeans for many days it gets a little bit shiny.

It's called ya. There's a word in the monastery. Hey man, you got ya on.

Your robes are shiny because you didn't wash them for three months. Then you're like, ya, ya, I know. But, you know, I was just concentrating on these meditations.

So, if that comes, it's okay, it's okay. Delay all the meaningless stuff.

[Speaker 2]
That's okay.

[Speaker 1]
For a Buddhist, keep delaying it. My boss in the diamond company hired the secretary of Warren Buffet. Then he said, you know, Warren Buffet's so busy, how do you handle your correspondence?

Then she said, Warren Buffet has a system. He has, in the office he has three big cardboard boxes. The first time you get a letter from somebody, he throws it in box number one and every night they throw that out.

Second time the person writes. They throw it into box number two.

[Speaker 2]
That box they throw out every week.

[Speaker 1]
Third time the person writes, it goes to box number three and Warren Buffet reads those letters.

[Speaker 2]
So, if you have some meaningless thing you have to do, delay it once. Delay it twice. Then you'll forget about it.

And then meditate. Use the time. Then that becomes forgotten.

That thing which was so important. Oh, I have to buy these new shoes. Okay, delay it once.

Delay it twice.

[Speaker 1]
Then you're going to forget about them. Then you save yourself like two hours. Okay?

Okay, let's go.