«Дар освобождения», курс 20 «Ретрит непревзойдённой жизни», занятие 12

[Speaker 1]
Okay, let's meditate. We're going to do photograph number 15. It's the little boy getting the medicine.

What's the meaning of this photo? It means we're having a very nice ten days here, and we're learning a lot, and we're having a lot of fun, except for the yoga classes. No, also in the yoga classes.

But when you go home, you have to do something. So, it doesn't mean anything if you don't do it at home. Okay, five minute app, and your meditations.

Can I say?

[Speaker 2]
Katie's going to try to cut out all those meditations from the audio, and put them on the app.

[Speaker 1]
Adam? It will be typical husband and wife collaboration. The husband will do all the work, and the wife will get the credit.

Okay, here we go. So, try to, during this meditation, think about Monday morning. The plane to China for 12 hours is very good.

You have a lot of five minutes. So, you don't have an excuse. You can't go anywhere.

You have to sit in that little tiny chair. They built those chairs for Candy and Allison.

[Speaker 2]
Then me and Scott have to sit in them.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, but you can't go anywhere still. Especially if you fly our airline, United Airlines. You'll have lots of time to meditate, because the movies are always broken.

I asked the stewardess, I flew 20 times last year, the movie didn't work once. Are you sure the rest of the plane is working? They're like, yeah, don't worry, don't worry.

Ready? So, imagine yourself Monday. Think about what you're going to do on Monday.

So, I think we're flying at around two o'clock or something. So, probably I'll sit in Rancho Contento, and hang out with Alex and Imelda, and we'll have a late breakfast. Then we'll do a few five minute meditations.

Okay, and then I'll get on the plane. Maybe I'll do one or two on the plane. Then when I get home, I'll be tired.

Then I'll do just one when I get home. Like, make a plan. Okay, so during this meditation, we're going to make a plan.

What's the photo? The kid is going to take the medicine. Okay, ready?

Okay, here we go, listos. Three deep breaths. And take a stretch.

Now there are four meditations from Tsongkapa's verse. Can you show the next picture?

[Speaker 2]
Can you show the next picture?

[Speaker 1]
GYI GNAR He's not doing anything. Lazy bones.

[Speaker 2]
So, after you hear about how precious your life is, how hard Joe worked to make it, all the metaphors for how rare it is, like the turtle, and the Buddha's finger, then you can't just sit there.

[Speaker 1]
You have to do something with it. You don't keep a Maserati in the garage.

[Speaker 2]
You drive it.

[Speaker 1]
You use it for something. So, in this meditation, just think about something valuable you want to do with your life.

[Speaker 2]
People come to me, they say, Geshe-la, I'm going to quit my job and move to Diamond Mountain.

[Speaker 1]
Meditate all day. So, it doesn't work like that.

[Speaker 2]
There's two extremes.

[Speaker 1]
One extreme, you are just working all the time so you can buy a big house, which you never get to see, because the only time you go there is when you're sleeping. Because all day you try to make money to have the house, so you don't have time to see the house during the daytime. That's one extreme.

The other extreme is, you know, sell everything, go to Diamond Mountain, and sit in a retreat cabin.

[Speaker 2]
After three days you will find out, you can't meditate all day.

[Speaker 1]
Also, you will start dreaming about being in the world so you can help people. So, use your current situation, it's okay. I'll be honest, in my monastery, in all of Serra Monastery right now, there's I think 4,000 monks.

[Speaker 2]
In my opinion, many of them are wasting their time.

[Speaker 1]
They're just hanging out. Then we give DCI programs, like in Ukraine, and we ask them, please WeChat us about your daily practice. And they're doing it.

They have family, they have work, and they are doing, I'm sorry to say, but many of them are doing more practice in Ukraine than in Serra.

[Speaker 2]
And they are changing the world.

[Speaker 1]
Last time we were in Ukraine, a group of women came to my hotel room. Scott and Orita and me, we had a meeting with them. And they said, we came here to thank you because of this book, and they had a diamond cutter book.

And they said, we're from Lugansk. We were fighting, we were shooting people in the eastern Ukraine. Then one of our students is smuggling diamond cutter books into the war zone in the trunk of their car.

And they said, we read the book, we decided to change the other side with meditation instead of gun. So, in a five star hotel in Kiev, sometimes you can change the world more. So, this meditation, can you show the photo again?

Oh, Kiev's okay. Maybe they shot the computer. That's an interview with her.

She was a soldier. And she read the diamond cutter. She and her friends.

So, you can change the world in a five star hotel. And to be honest, most of the monks at Serra never heard of Ukraine. So, there is a time to do long retreat.

There is a time to stay in a monastery. But it's also very valuable to be in the world and helping people. We should do both.

I'm thinking, when is that retreat? In Diamond Mountain?

[Speaker 2]
What date? March 11 to March 20.

[Speaker 1]
We will be in Diamond Mountain. The next Lam Rim retreat. It's in Arizona.

You are very welcome to come. We are lucky because there we have about 30 retreat cottages. And in the middle of the retreat, we do three days silent retreat.

And we will arrange to do some retreat before or after. If somebody wants to come for ten days extra, we can do a complete ten day retreat. No talking for ten days.

Just stay in the retreat cabin.

[Speaker 2]
Is that okay?

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Everybody says, I want to do three year retreat. I think I did 21 month retreats before I did three year retreat.

So, you have to start with short one. Then you get used to it. And then you do longer.

Okay, so we're going to meditate.

[Speaker 2]
This week, starting Monday, how can you use this equipment?

[Speaker 1]
Your Maserati body. Maserati mind. How can you use it better this week?

What I mean is, it doesn't mean this week you have to join a monastery. In your own family. In your own job.

[Speaker 2]
In your own life.

[Speaker 1]
With your partners. With your children. With your parents.

How can you use this great body and mind? Ready? Three deep breaths.

Take a stretch. Let's do one more.

[Speaker 2]
What's this thing?

[Speaker 1]
TV, what do you call?

[Speaker 2]
Control.

[Speaker 1]
TV control. Okay? The next meditation is about once you know the potential, in this body and this mind, you can become a Buddha in this life.

What's cool about being a Buddha? You can help somebody on a bus in Guadalajara, old lady, and at the same time you can help an old lady on a bus in Shanghai. With her little dog.

You can even be the little dog. Okay? If she's lonely, you can be, you can avatar, avatar, little dog for her.

And it's you. Then when she has trouble carrying the dog on the bus, you can also come again and help her carry the dog on the bus. So, you can be the little dog to keep her company, and you can be the person, the stranger on the bus who helps her carry the dog at the same time.

And when she puts the window of the bus down because the bus is too hot, you can become the wind that makes her face cool. And then, I don't want to be just the wind. I think I will ride on the wind and I will whisper her dead husband's name in her ears so she will have a little happiness.

So, a handsome young man with hair helped her on the bus with her little dog. When she put the window down, the wind was making her cool. And her husband who died ten years ago, his name is Mung or something, Ming, and you can go, Ming, I love you, I love you.

Then make her happy. And you can do that on a billion planets at the same time. Your mind, your mind has the power already.

Your body could have the power. So, don't sit and look on the internet or YouTube. People send me YouTube videos all the time.

Karate match between two little girls. One of them can kick ten times like this. Then they're like, Geshe Michael, you got to see this.

And I'm like, I don't want to see that. It's just all garbage on the YouTube, I mean except for our videos. Most of it is just weird stuff.

Just don't waste your time.

[Speaker 2]
You have a choice.

[Speaker 1]
You can be the wind Christ Mary with the dog and the old lady, on a billion planets. Or you can watch two little girls karate hit each other on YouTube. But you don't have time to do both.

So, you have to make a choice. If you give up the internet videos, you won't miss it. He took me to Sayulita for surfing.

And he said, I want to take you to the best taco shop in Sayulita. We went with our friends to the best taco shop in Sayulita. And there was a big sign on the door.

He said, no, we don't have internet. Then he said, pretend it's 1968. Then he said, call your mother.

I took a photo of it because I like it so much. So, I don't know, when Janice and I were kids, we didn't have internet. We had to do things like walk in nature, or talk to our friends.

So, don't waste your time. You can use the internet for good things. You can learn Born to be Wild from the videos.

But mostly, waste of time. It makes your mind a little bit sick. Too many of those worthless videos.

So, we're going to do a meditation. It's about TV control.

[Speaker 2]
About TV control.

[Speaker 1]
You have that photo? He already threw it out, didn't he? Okay, that's from Burrito Revolution in Sayulita.

Ninety-three. Oh, 1993. Okay.

I like it.

[Speaker 2]
I like it.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. So, we're going to do a meditation. It's number seventeen.

The picture is a TV control. It could be YouTube. And make a plan for this week what's one worthless thing you can give up?

Then there's some American Buddhist people. In English, excuse me, we always say they have a stick up their ass.

[Speaker 2]
No, no translation. Ask your English friends for translation.

[Speaker 1]
It's difficult in Chinese. Then they are like this, you know. Mm, mm.

Mm, mm.

[Speaker 2]
Mm, mm. Mm, mm.

[Speaker 1]
Mm, mm.

[Speaker 2]
You say you want to go to a movie?

[Speaker 1]
No, no. I'm a Buddhist.

[Speaker 2]
No, no, no, no.

[Speaker 1]
It's a waste of time. I'm a Buddhist. It's a waste of time.

I have to meditate to be happy. I have to meditate to be happy. This doesn't mean you cannot go to the movies.

One time I went to dinner with a very high lama. There were like a couple hundred people there. American Buddhists, you know.

Then they brought the food out. And we are supposed to eat, but everybody is watching the big lama, you know. Maybe he will go like this, ding, ding.

Then we are all, we are supposed to be eating, but we are watching. He's like, that cloth you put here, that's nothing. He's like, he's called Pankhep if you want to know.

In Tibetan language. He's like this. He's like, you know, and everybody is like, you know.

And then finished dinner, and then he said, do you have seconds? Then he's like, then I thought, I never saw someone enjoy food so much. So, if you are a good meditator, then you enjoy your life.

[Speaker 2]
You enjoy everything more than other people.

[Speaker 1]
Okay? It doesn't mean you have to be stick up your ass, you know. You know, like that.

So, not to waste time. It doesn't mean you can't have relaxation time. But plan it.

Plan it. And, you know this nervous YouTube thing, you know, Facebook, nervous Facebook thing, you know. You know, I saw one video, now I need to find another one.

What are you doing?

[Speaker 2]
I'm relaxing.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, look at that video, I know what I'm doing. Then after ten minutes you're all nervous, you know. So, make a plan.

You know, I'll meditate in the after, I will meditate in the afternoon. Then I'll do a top yoga. Maybe I'll ask John Brady to teach a class.

And then after that I'm calling all my friends in Sedona and we're going to go see a movie. We're going to relax. Enjoy each other.

Then when I get home I'll be tired and I'll be full of popcorn.

[Speaker 2]
And, then I'll do a couple of five minute meditations.

[Speaker 1]
And that's okay, that's a good day. Okay? So, we're going to do five minute meditation.

[Speaker 2]
What did he say? He said, we will do five day meditations.

[Speaker 1]
He wants to do five days. And think about something you do which wastes your time and doesn't make you happy. For me, I don't often look at videos on the internet.

It's not very usual for me. But sometimes they catch me. And then suddenly one hour is gone.

And I'm like, what did you just do? And, if somebody asks me what video did you see for this hour?

[Speaker 2]
I don't remember.

[Speaker 1]
I just wasted time. Very dangerous internet.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Ready?

[Speaker 2]
Here we go.

[Speaker 1]
What useless thing can you give up this week that doesn't make you happy anyway? Three deep breaths. Then relax.

Stretch. Okay, let's do a little bit of the book. Okay, so we're going to start at S-P-E-N.

There you go. I told you the story about the splinter. I want to just read the Tibetan for you.

BEL DEN means the Glorious Lama. Gunbawa is his name. Lhasa means his thigh.

This part of your thigh is called Lhasa. YOG SHING means when you start a small fire to cook, you have a little stick to push the coals.

[Speaker 2]
That's called YOG SHING.

[Speaker 1]
Then he accidentally, he stuck it in his thigh. But he was busy doing these meditations. And he's like, I'll take it out later.

Then he did one five minute meditation. He's like, after that, he's like, I was supposed to do something. What was that?

[Speaker 2]
I don't remember.

[Speaker 1]
Then he's like, oh yeah, I was supposed to take that out. But I want to do the second, I'll do the second five minute meditation. After that, I definitely take it out.

Then he spent the whole day like that. He just so, meditation is so cool, he doesn't have time to take it out. SAM TSUL PA DON LONG MA BYUNG BA Oh, sorry, the PEN MA there, PEN MA is a very rare word.

It's a kind of strong tree called tamarisk in English. DON LONG MA BYUNG BA He didn't have time to take it out. BSGOM RDZAS PA So, he was too busy doing his five minute meditations.

And BDE'ANG RGYUR DON CHEN NYES RGA'I RTOGS PA SKYE BA YIN GSUNGS Then that was the RTOGS PA'I TSE What's that? That means these meditations start to affect his mind. Like, I don't have time for this useless stuff.

I have to focus on my meditation. Okay. Now we reach the new part.

Those of you studying Tibetan, there are special marks. There are double SHES and there's a GAN. There's a special Tibetan mark here.

And the next word says SNYING BCUG PAR Say SNYING BCUG PAR.

[Speaker 2]
SNYING BCUG PAR SNYING BCUG PAR means on the tenth day. What's that mean?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, this book is a teaching that a Lama gave, I think for 24 days. I think so. So far, it took us 205 days.

He just reached day 10. Okay? So they used to have teaching like 10, 12 hours, 15 hours.

But we're not like that. So now starts the tenth day of his teaching. Then on the, when you start a class in Tibet, you start with some inspiring quotation or something like that.

So, JI KHAS DU KHYAD DU CHEN PO RGYEN DON TAN ZIN GYUR TSUL Then he's quoting a Lama who lived around 1870 and 1875. His title is Amdo Shamar, the Lama from East Tibet who had a special red hat. DGA' BSTAN TSE MA'I NYON KHO YIN GYI RANG TSUL BRDZUN CHOS DE MA YIN The Dharma you are learning here, is the real thing.

NYON KHO means the, what do you call? Jugo Naranja? Jugo Naranja?

[Speaker 2]
What is that?

[Speaker 1]
Naranja? Orange juice?

[Speaker 2]
Naranja.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Jugo?

[Speaker 2]
Jugo de Naranja.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, okay. This is the Jugo del Jugo. This is the juice of the juice.

NYON KHO NYON KHO means the juice of the juice. It means the cream of the cream. You are not learning RANG SO.

Say RANG SO.

[Speaker 2]
The teacher didn't make it up.

[Speaker 1]
Sometimes I go to a yoga class in just a new place. And the teacher is like, oh, close your eyes. See a purple ball here.

[Speaker 2]
It moves to your left foot.

[Speaker 1]
you should feel some heat in your right nose. Then I'm like, where does this come from? Oh, I made it up yesterday.

I had a really good breakfast. Some huevos de rancheros. Huevos de rancheros.

[Speaker 2]
Huevos rancheros.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, yeah. And I felt so good. I felt all these things, you know.

That's called RANG SO. RANG SO means the teacher just made it up. They didn't have any training.

What you are learning here, and I'm not criticizing other traditions. I'm not doing that. But this one is super strict.

It wasn't changed for two and a half thousand years. And it's it's pure, it's authentic, and it's cool. So, ZHING LTA PHYED RNAMS SHES ZHUNG YIN GYI RLUNG PO NGAG GRUNG DE MA YIN This is the teaching that is followed by people who want to help the whole world.

RLUNG PO NGAG GRUNG means it's not the talk of an idiot. It's not that kind of blah, blah, blah. SKAD DU DAM PA'I NYAM SNYOM YIN GYI SA SRID KHRUN DANG DE MA YIN And it was confirmed by the actual experience of thousands of people for about a hundred generations.

LAM NAS BYANG CHUB ZHUNG LA YIN GYI NYAM NGA'I YANG SAG DE MA YIN It's a path which leads to enlightenment. It's not the road that leads to the clear. So, BRTAN PAR MDZAD NI means that's how the Lama opened the tenth day of teaching.

CHE BYED CHOS KYI CHE BYED DANG BRAL BA'I KUN MONG CHUD SU MTHONG DU ZHIG SEL TE Then the Lama told us remember your motivation. Like today in John's yoga class, it was very sweet. At the beginning of the class he said, think of someone you know who's having a problem and try to do this class for them.

Many yoga teachers start the class like that. During that time I usually check my pants. They are talking some blah, blah, blah, blah.

Check my shirt. When they start, I start. Then I caught myself.

[Speaker 2]
Well, John's asking us to think about a person who's in trouble.

[Speaker 1]
We're supposed to keep them in mind during the class. Then I was like, oh, maybe I should do that. So a little bit late I chose a person.

Then he came back to it second time and third time. That's how we're supposed to listen to the lam rim. When you're walking into the class you're supposed to think first thing usually is think about your father and your mother.

Your mother and your father. Mine are both passed away already. But even then I'm supposed to think maybe I can find them.

[Speaker 2]
If I, if these meditations are successful I can find my dead mother and dead father and I can help them.

[Speaker 1]
And then everybody else. So the lama on the tenth day he did kun long chu. Kun long chu means get your motivation up like John did in the class this morning.

Then NGON DU SA BCAD JI LTAR SANG BA RNAMS GSUNGS BAR TSAD SA BCAD He remembered from this morning. It's this he repeated what he covered in the last ten days, nine days. Just those pictures.

Then SNAM GYI RTZA BA GZHAN YIN RTEN TSUL GYI MCHOG BA'I RTEN TSUL YIN LA RGYAL SHES ZAD Then he just reminded us what is the beginning of all Buddhist practice. What is that?

[Speaker 2]
Find a real teacher. Find a real teacher.

[Speaker 1]
Even like yoga, if you have a really good teacher, your yoga becomes fantastic. And if you try to learn yoga from YouTube, it won't be very good.

[Speaker 2]
In this tradition, you need a good living teacher.

[Speaker 1]
Like Dharmamitra. Great teacher in New York. You have that picture?

No, you don't have that picture. Let's see if you can find it. But he he's 75 now?

76. you can see he's an amazing yoga teacher. When you see a yoga teacher like that, you know they had a great teacher even if you don't know the story.

Okay? When he was 70. When I look at that picture, my head hurts.

And so, if you want to do yoga, find a great teacher. Find a great teacher who when I was very young, I met some very, very high lamas. And I said, I want to study.

You know, what should I do? You know, and they said, oh, you go study with this lama. And then came the ultimate test.

I was living in Del Mar, California. It's like Sayulita.

[Speaker 2]
Better.

[Speaker 1]
Beautiful surf place. And I was very devoted to surfing. Not internet surfing.

Wave surfing. Then I met the high lama, you know. And I said, can you, I live in America, can you tell me a good teacher in America?

And they said, Geshe Lobsang Tharchin. He's in America. Then I said, where is he?

[Speaker 2]
New Jersey.

[Speaker 1]
New Jersey has a nickname in America?

[Speaker 2]
It's the armpit of the nation.

[Speaker 1]
The stinky part of the country. they make all the gasoline in America there. And actually, the north part of the whole New Jersey stinks.

Then I'm like, what? New Jersey? Then I have to make a decision, you know.

Will I give up my surfing and go to New Jersey or will I give up the lama and keep surfing? So, I spent 30 years in New Jersey. And I hate that place worse than any place in the world.

But the lama's there. So, Khyer Shek said, tun sam suk shin yin ten sok gi jorway ten sok yen la khyer shek tse So he talked again about why you need a good teacher. Then he said, tun sam suk deng jor kyi chuk kor tunpe pe cha tsor tar Then, if you are doing these meditations, between meditations, if you have spare time, you should read the book again.

This book, about this part. Then, I grew up in America. I did American education and the way you read a book in America, you start on page one and you read.

When you reach the end, you put it on your bookshelf and you tell your friends, yeah, I read that book.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, I read that book. A Buddhist book becomes a lifelong friend.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, and you keep it next to your bed. And, like, you're going to go to bed and you just open it up, read a few pages. Then you read that, you read that, I read, I learned this book for thirty years.

My Lama taught it ten years, three times, ten years each. And, you don't finish this book.

[Speaker 2]
It's part of your life.

[Speaker 1]
And you keep reading it. And every time you read it, you find something new. So we don't read a book and then we leave it.

Okay, DE LTAR BSTANG SBYOR DON CHEN GNYEN GAG BSAM LAS RTEN DE LA SNYING PO LEN DUG PA SKYE NA SKYE BU GSUM GYI So, we had a long teaching about using your equipment. Then, if you want to use it the best way, SKYE BU GSUM GYI LAM GYI RIM PAS BLO BYANG BA STE Study the steps on the path for the three kinds of people. So the structure of this path, it has three parts.

To fit three different kinds of people. Lowest one. This person just wants, after they die, they don't go to a bad place.

That's the lowest motivation. Okay? When I die, I don't want to be an animal.

I don't want to be a hungry spirit. I don't want to go to hell. I want protection after I die.

At least I want to come back human. That's the lowest motivation. Second one, I want to escape all pain myself.

I don't want to die again. I don't want to get sick. I don't want to lose my mother, father, friends.

Okay, that's the second one.

[Speaker 2]
Third level, Mahayana, I want to save the whole world.

[Speaker 1]
I don't want to see anybody suffer. So those are called the three levels.

[Speaker 2]
If you study how to do those three, you used your equipment well.

[Speaker 1]
,LIM BAS BLO BYANG STE, ,DE'I GSUM JI TZAM BLO BYANG PA SRAS NA, ,RIM BZHIN SNYING PO CHUNG RING, ,CHEN PO DE TZAM DU LON PA YIN, So if you study from a good teacher about those three, and then you can practice them one by one. ,RANG CAG SANGS RGYAS KYI GO SPANG ZHIG THOB DUS NA, ,LAM SNGA MA SNGA MA NGON DU SKYE BA DGOS KYIS, ,DE MA SKYE BAR PHYI MA PHYI MA MI SKYE BA DE SPER NA, Here starts a nice section. My lama used to get mad if I say that.

Oh, the last section wasn't nice? No, no, the last section was also nice. These meditations and the ones I gave you last time, if you didn't come to Diamond Mountain in October, you can get the file from Jigme.

[Speaker 2]
Jigme can give you the files.

[Speaker 1]
She can send it to you by email. There's another book before this one. Then you're supposed to do them in order.

[Speaker 2]
You start with one, and you go to 24. One by one.

[Speaker 1]
Because they build on each other. So, actually you need the other meditations which she can send you. If you ask her, she'll send you the file.

So, you have to study and meditate and reach the attitude one by one. So, the first one here was understanding that all the things you own in your life were sent to you by Joe. Who's Joe?

[Speaker 2]
Your own past life.

[Speaker 1]
You were born probably in a city. That city already had roads and telephone wires and cars and people. Why were you born there?

Who sent Shanghai to you or Xiaomin? Joe did. Your past life.

So, you're supposed to meditate about that until you get that feeling. You have to get that feeling. Thank you Joe.

I appreciate it. I wish you would have sent me more hair. Okay.

Then he gives an example. So, to get to this retreat center, what do you call it? Casa Saliciana?

Saliciana? Casa Saliciana. If you want to go to Casa Saliciana from Guadalajara, you can do it.

First you have to go to Rancho Contento.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Past the airport. And after that you will reach Amitabha?

[Speaker 2]
After that? No, it's just a little before Amitabha. No, Amitabha is there.

[Speaker 1]
Give me a town between here and Rancho Contento.

[Speaker 2]
La Venta. La Venta.

[Speaker 1]
So, I want to go to Casa Saliciana. I'm in Guadalajara. So, first you have to get to Rancho Contento.

And then you have to continue to La Venta. And you go a little bit farther, you can reach Casa Saliciana. Or if you want to go to Beijing from Guangzhou.

[Speaker 2]
Or from Hong Kong.

[Speaker 1]
Maybe you have to go through Guangzhou. And then you can go to Shanghai, Ningbo? Shanghai, Ningbo, Beijing.

[Speaker 2]
Shanghai, Ningbo, Beijing.

[Speaker 1]
So, the lam rim is this thing. To get to big motivation, I'm doing these meditations to save the world. You can't get there unless you go through the first two towns.

[Speaker 2]
What's the first town?

[Speaker 1]
Protect yourself from bad stuff after you die.

[Speaker 2]
Take care of that first. Take care of that first. Then go to the next town.

What's that? No more suffering for myself.

[Speaker 1]
Then you can reach the third town.

[Speaker 2]
What's that?

[Speaker 1]
That's a little dog on the bus in Shanghai and the wind, and the handsome young man. That's a Buddha. I became Buddha.

But you have to go this way. Then I have many students, they're like, Geshe-la!

[Speaker 2]
Geshe-la!

[Speaker 1]
Do I have to do all this stuff? I want to go directly to secret tantra. This is also so many things.

I want to go to highest tantra. Then what he says here, you can't get to Kasa Salicyana without going through those other towns. You can't walk out of your house in Guadalajara and jump to Kasa Salicyana.

You have to go town by town. LAM MED PAR BGROD PAR DE YON NAS SBYOR BA SBYOR BZAG CHUNG RGYAG GYI YONG THABS MED PAR DANG THAMS CHUNG RGYAG means jump. MED PAR You can't do it.

You have to go through, to reach highest tantra, you have to start with these meditations. This morning we talked about a cool practice while you are spending five minutes drinking some coffee. You are looking at, you are in the Starbucks.

Shimbaka. Not the Kandiji, okay? No Kandiji.

[Speaker 2]
It's Kandiji. It's Kentucky Fried Chicken, right?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. I don't like it. I don't like Kandiji.

Then you are drinking, right?

[Speaker 2]
Don't waste your time.

[Speaker 1]
Your mouth can drink while your mind is thinking. It's okay. You are drinking and you are looking at Mark and say, that guy is so cool.

[Speaker 2]
He is doing a lot of cool stuff.

[Speaker 1]
Then we said maybe you go to the movies.

[Speaker 2]
You see the Martian.

[Speaker 1]
How do you not waste your time in the movies?

[Speaker 2]
Be suspicious.

[Speaker 1]
Dharma paranoid.

[Speaker 2]
Paranoid. Maybe he is a Buddha.

[Speaker 1]
It looks like he is just watching the movie. But he's got that bracelet on his hand. I saw a Buddha picture.

The Buddha had one like that. I saw a picture of Saraha. Nagarjuna's teacher.

He had a beard just like that. Maybe he is Saraha.

[Speaker 2]
I don't know. Use the time. That's tantra.

[Speaker 1]
That's tantra. But you have to ... somebody has to teach you about it.

You have to learn to drink the coffee well before you can go to see the Martian well. Martian movie is two hours and two minutes. Shimbhaka cafe is five minutes.

First you have to learn the small meditations.

[Speaker 2]
And then you'll be ready to see a movie.

[Speaker 1]
So you cannot jump from one to the other. One by one. And I taught thousands of people.

I saw many people, and I watched my teacher for 30 years. He taught thousands of people.

[Speaker 2]
And after many years I realized the people who try to skip some steps, go directly to tantra, they fail.

[Speaker 1]
90% fail. And the ones who go like one Lama, what's his name? Swami Shivananda.

[Speaker 2]
Swami Shivananda.

[Speaker 1]
He said, you should be like a burro. Travel the path like a burro. Burro is just like that.

He keep walking. Then I used to be the boy scouts. We went into the mountains in Arizona.

So I got to know burros. Worse than my students. You put everything on them.

Then you're like, let's go. And they're like, they kick you. Then you never stand behind them.

Then you're like, let's go. And they don't go. Then you take a big stick and you go, bam, whack.

And then they go, okay. Like that. They never go fast.

Swami Shivananda said you should be a Dharma burro.

[Speaker 2]
Just keep going step by step. First lam rim, second lam rim, third lam rim.

[Speaker 1]
Do the twenty-four meditations.

[Speaker 2]
One after another.

[Speaker 1]
And suddenly you reach Nirvana. Okay? It never works to jump to Nirvana.

[Speaker 2]
Okay? Just keep going.

[Speaker 1]
There will be many, many problems. Many disasters. We also had many disasters.

Our group, all of us, we had many problems. And some very serious problems. But we just go like a burro.

And somebody hit us. Yeah, yeah, okay. Oh, big problem.

Yeah, okay.

[Speaker 2]
Big problem.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. And then suddenly you reach Nirvana. Okay?

So be like burro. One by one. Don't try to skip.

And if somebody tells you you don't have to do all that, you can have pay me $300, I will hit you on the head, I will ring a bell, and you will reach Amitabha's heaven. Just say, it's okay, I'll meet you there. Okay?

Don't believe it. It takes hard work. It's like yoga.

Just do your practice every day. Then one day you can do some strange thing. If you try to do it the first day, you will break your leg.

If somebody tells you, I can teach you a special way, you don't have to do yoga every day, you pay me $300, your leg will go up. I think I'll go this way. I can enjoy the trip.

Just a little bit every day.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
That's an old man's direct experience.