«Дар освобождения», курс 20 «Ретрит непревзойдённой жизни», занятие 15

[Speaker 1]
We're going to do number 18. Meditation number 18. What's the nickname of this meditation?

Yeah, packing your noodles. Just think, in 24 hours you get to have real Shanghai noodles. After we spend three weeks in China, we're waiting to have Mexican food in Phoenix, you know?

Ready? Everybody has the app now? Okay, good.

I'm going to trust that you have it. So what can I do today to protect myself if I die today? I should get rid of my biggest negative feelings and mistakes in my life.

Like, I'm still a little bit angry at my last boyfriend. And I should let it go. If I die, I don't want that.

And what coffee meditation is the best one I can do just before I die? What will I remember about my life if I get hit by a car today? For example, you can say, well, I spent ten days doing retreat, and I tried to improve my inner self.

And if I die, I want to continue that work next time. Okay, here we go. Oops, Lama message.

Hang on.

[Speaker 2]
That's good. Okay, here we go. Three deep breaths.

Don't move yet. Okay, take a stretch.

[Speaker 1]
Next photo. Okay, here we go. What's this one mean?

Be careful with small things. Like, I made a mistake yesterday. In the class I made a joke, but I think it hurt somebody's feeling.

And then if you have a chance to do a little bit of nice thing, to do like make somebody a cup of coffee instead of Taijimba. Don't tell anybody. Then do little nice things.

We think for Dharma we have to build a building, or we have to meditate for three years or something. But many small things are more powerful. I used to be in a diamond business.

We used to process 300,000 diamonds every day. But we did more of that of other gemstones. Like from Japan, from Kobe, we used to do pearls.

Bag like this. Like 10,000 pearls every day. Then I went to Hong Kong, and there's a special stone we call topaz.

In nature the color is a dirty brown. But very, very rare if one topaz sits next to one piece of uranium, it will turn blue, almost like this color. But it's very rare.

Then I was in a gem dealer's office in Hong Kong. Like 25 years ago. He had a big bag of them, like this.

And he was making a lot of money. Then I got suspicious. How did he make so many, how did he find so many rare topaz sit next to a piece of uranium underground?

Then I decided, then I realized he's radiating them. Then I studied it for like six months. You have to find a nuclear reactor, and you have to take a bag of brown stones and put them in the reactor.

Then they all turn super beautiful blue. So we started to do it in Switzerland. We got these big bags of blue stones.

Then I thought, maybe this is dangerous. These are all made in a nuclear reactor. So I called the American government's nuclear regulation.

I said, is it legal to sell these stones? Yes. Will it hurt anybody?

No, one stone, it won't hurt anybody. It has little tiny, you get more radiation from the sun. Then I said, what if I have a big bag?

Then they said, we can't talk about that. I said, what do you mean you can't talk about it? You can sue us later.

No opinion. We don't have any opinion. They are afraid of a lawsuit.

Then I said, okay, privately, is it dangerous or not? Because I have pregnant women in my office, and they are carrying these bags of stones, and I want to know. Tell me privately, is it dangerous or not?

Then he said, one stone, no problem. Bag of stones, problem. If one electron or neutron hits your body, just one, and it breaks the DNA chain in one cell, then cancer starts.

Then it doubles. Every few hours, it doubles. And the cell goes crazy.

It starts with one cell. You can get cancer from sunlight. It breaks one chain of cell inside one cell.

And then it doubles. It doubles very fast. And then you get a tumor.

And then it kills you. Why am I talking about that? Yeah, like one little bad thing, you say to somebody, I have to pack my bag, don't waste my time.

I have to get to the airport. From my Buddhist retreat, quiet, silent. Then it's like one small stone.

But if you keep doing it all day, it's very dangerous. Small. You're not going to go to hell by one big bad deed.

You're going to go to hell by one stone at a time. And then you get cancer. So, it's all the small mistakes we make.

And if you want to become a Buddha, it's not that you do like a twelve year retreat or something. It's many small meditations. Many small five minute meditations.

Then that good power piles up. And that makes you a Buddha. So, don't think you're going to do one big good thing and that's going to make you a Buddha.

It's every hour of your life. Small good things. So be careful with the small things.

Because the big things are made of small things. And hours are made of minutes. Okay?

Alright. So, we're going to do a meditation. I want you to think of three small good things you did yesterday.

And Joel's going to have a microphone ready. Joel and Harold. And after the meditation I'd like you to share with everybody some small good thing you did yesterday.

What's the smallest of the small good things? Yeah, small good thoughts. You know, you didn't tell anybody.

Oh, Venerable Phil's dance during the Yomantica song, that's cool. Daniel did a good job choreographing. Then you didn't say anything.

It just came to your mind like this. And made a small impression on your mind. But many of those small impressions is like a bag of blue topaz.

Okay? So, three small good things you did yesterday. Including just passing thoughts.

Ready? Then I'm going to ask you to share with us. Here we go.

[Speaker 2]
Three deep breaths. Don't move yet. Take a stretch.

[Speaker 1]
Anybody like to share something? I'll tell you mine. When I got up, I made my bed right away.

Usually, I wait for two hours or something. Then one day I said, Geshe Michael, you are really lazy. Let's see how long it takes to make the bed.

No, I'm very busy. I'm doing very big Dharma projects. Just check how long it makes the bed.

So I started at 8.15. I finished before 8.16. I'm like, see? It doesn't take so long. And the room is much better for meditation.

Okay, go. I had the thought yesterday before the Yamantaka song that I tried to generate a little bit of bodhichitta.

[Speaker 2]
I hoped that the song would plant a seed for people to one day have empowerment and practice properly and purely.

[Speaker 1]
That was the main one. First, I wanted to generate bodhichitta. I wanted to enlighten myself to help everyone.

And also that the song would work as a seed in people's minds so that in them flourished soon an empowerment to start the tantric practice of Yamantaka.

[Speaker 2]
Anybody else?

[Speaker 1]
May I ask you about tapas? Because last night I was in meditation so I saw a big tree growing and there was emerald two keys and at the end a lot of blue tapas. In my mind I saw a lot of blue rocks and I thought, I saw fire.

But in my mind the word tapasio comes. Tapasio, tapasio. In Spanish it's tapas.

So now you tell about the tapas and say, I need to tell Geshe what it means. Is blue tapas also dangerous and be careful to handle? Maybe because I had that vision in my meditation.

Okay, can you tell Alejandro in Spanish? Okay. What's one small good thing she did yesterday?

I chose instead of being worried about things that I usually worry, I chose to focus and come to the class instead. Cool. Anybody else?

Joel will choose. I don't have to.

[Speaker 2]
I don't have to. I located all the water heaters on campus. So in case I'm ever fortunate enough to be back here and there's a problem, I can help.

All the what?

[Speaker 1]
Water heaters. Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
I have a host.

[Speaker 1]
Yay! Applause. Si tengo la fortuna de regresar, poder seguir ayudando con eso.

Two more. Dos más. I was in line for dinner yesterday.

Behind me was a guy with a lot of pimples. I couldn't help but tell him I could help. After dinner, he came to me for dinner.

After dinner, I couldn't find him. I kept thinking about him. I wanted to give him some advice on how to take care of his skin.

[Speaker 2]
Last night before dinner, I was still waiting in line to get the food. I saw a lady behind me and she had pimples on her face. In the end, I couldn't help.

I could not bear it. I told her that I can help you. Later, Candy told her to come to her room around p.m. before dinner, but she didn't go. Now, Candy could not find her, but she kept thinking about her.

[Speaker 1]
She hopes that she can find her and can give her some suggestions on how to take care of her skin. Cool. One more?

[Speaker 2]
I was given a pair of earrings to give to somebody, so I gave them to the girl in the dish room and all the people in the dish room were really happy, so I felt... Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Okay, good. We'll do one more meditation, okay?

[Speaker 2]
Next photo.

[Speaker 1]
What's this one mean? It took me a long time to find this one. What is this?

Yeah, it means if some small things waste your time, then just let it go. There's a lama who got a splinter in his finger. His leg, right?

How big was that splinter? It's about this big. Then he's like, oh, that really hurts.

I have to pull that out. But I only have five minutes, so I think I'll do a meditation. He didn't have time for one whole day.

He's doing other Dharma things, he didn't have time to do this small thing. So, in this meditation, for five minutes, think about is there something you do every day that you can cut from your schedule? Like, I don't know, I decided, I saw Fernando play guitar.

Then I was like, oh, I really want to learn to do that. Then I found a classical guitar teacher. I bought a guitar.

I arranged for the classes by Skype. Then after about three classes, I decided, look Geshe Michael, you don't have time. You are translating Tsongkapa and things like that.

You don't have time to do this. It's a very nice thing. It makes people happy.

It's also relaxing for me to play. But let's be honest, you don't have time. So I just cut it.

So, during this meditation, is there something you can cut so you have more time for your meditations? Then after the meditation, we'll ask some people if they'd like to share what they are thinking about cutting. People like us, we are not like, I don't know, gambling in the casino or things like that.

We don't have to choose between good things and stupid things. People like the people here, you are doing many good things. They're all good.

Then you have to make tough choices. What's higher good? What's lower good?

And then sometimes you have to cut the ... There are good things, but they are not as powerful to help people as other things. And to be honest, like a daily yoga practice, it's maybe a pretty high priority.

And then it's possible ... I don't know. What's something good that ...

Oh, you tell me afterwards. I don't know. Like, I like to teach at the prison.

But for me to drive to the prison, it's about three and a half hours each way. Then it's a very good thing to teach meditation and yoga at the prison. But I just don't ...

Honestly, I don't have the time. In that six hours, I can help other people more. Okay, so we're going to do this meditation.

And then afterwards, please share with us something you're going to cut. And that thing will be like Geshe Gunpawa's splinter. Ready?

Here we go. This is the last meditation this morning.

[Speaker 2]
Three deep breaths. Please don't move yet. Okay, stretch.

Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Anybody like to share something they're planning to cut? Like, what's your Gunpawa splinter? For me, this thing has a ton of apps on it that are absolutely useless.

In particular, this is one app that basically shows you pictures of people. And if you like them, you swipe right. And if you don't like them, you swipe left.

And if I think about how much time I spend on those kind of apps, I'm like, wow, that's at least five minutes a day. So maybe I can do a meditation and think about how to really find a partner and think about rejoicing in all the people that I help who are lonely and rejoicing in all the successful partnerships that I see.

[Speaker 2]
Cool.

[Speaker 1]
Lately, I'm very focused on maximize the use of every part of the day, but I still waste some time. And I was asking myself, like Geshe Michael says, what about all the good things that I do? What of the good things that I do I can't stop doing that are not so good?

Don't help a lot of people. And Geshe Michael gave an example about the guitar. And I said, I could stop playing guitar.

And I thought, this is a diamond deal and I saw my attachment to it. Then I thought, I do many good things during the day, but I wake up very late. Then I thought, if I wake up earlier, I can do that and other things.

My splinter is to sleep late and to sleep in. So I just have to wake up earlier and do that and more stuff. But learn guitar, because guitar makes many people happy.

[Speaker 2]
Nick, when you're finished, when you're finished, okay?

[Speaker 1]
I also try to do many things, so I try to focus a lot on maximizing time because I have so many things to do. So it was helpful to do this five minute meditation on it. And I think I realized something that's almost like an addiction or compulsive.

It's just spending so much time talking. Like we talk a lot. And I talk to my friends a lot.

And I realize probably like 60% of it or 70% of it is not necessary. So I can try to cut down. I normally like to watch a movie in the evening, but then I realized that maybe 90% of them is just bullshit.

Hey, I want to learn this word. Nah, just make it up. All right.

It's just literal translation. So maybe I can do something more. Maybe I can try to watch a movie every three days.

Okay, one more. After. Anybody else?

You choose. Thank you for welcoming us this weekend. We weren't here the whole weekend, but we have learned a lot these past days, so we're very happy.

And something that I learned in this meditation that was very, very good was that I, unlike my partner, I think that instead of sleeping more in the morning, I have to sleep earlier. And, unlike Hasso, I have to go to bed earlier. Yeah, so my little girl goes to bed at 8 and wakes up at 6, but I'm a late night sleeper.

I go to bed at like 12, 1. And so nowadays, I get very few sleep, and I'm like a zombie the whole day. You thought about one thing, and like 5 came to me.

Cell phone is a big waste of time. And many projects in my social enterprise is also a waste of time. I just have to focus on one project.

Yeah. I was thinking I was thinking, everybody's like, Geshe-la is like, he spends every second of the day thinking about things to help others, and I'm very far from that. Apart from, it's not that I have to choose between virtuous projects.

There's parts of the day that I don't do anything virtuous. I waste a lot of time over consumption of information. Like I read news from all the world, and websites of technology, and this and that, and I just like to eat information.

So I think I cut that and use it for more virtuous things. I tell Geshe-la that Geshe-la thinks he's doing virtuous things all day and he's choosing. He says, I'm not going to play the guitar because it helps, but I'm going to do something that helps more.

I'm very far from having that level. There are many parts of the day that I'm not thinking about helping other people. I'm doing things for myself.

Like consuming information. I like to learn, but I consume too much information. I go to a lot of websites, and a lot of news, and statistics, and everything.

I take a lot of information and I could use that time for more virtuous things, and think more. Not just to cultivate myself intellectually, but to really help. Cool.

Okay. We have like 15 minutes. Let's do ...

He asked me to add an extra class this morning. But I have to do a report for a friend of mine. So my idea is we'll take a big break in 15 minutes.

Like 45 minute break. I can finish this report for my friend. And then we'll have another class.

Okay? But let's do 15 minutes of the book before that. It's enough time for two coffees I think.

Alright. Rang chak. Let's see.

Let's try kolok. Oh, you got it. Very nice.

Very good. We should give Adam a hand for doing all this. Wow.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
It's very nice to have it ready. Okay. RANG CHAGS JI BSTAN NA BLO RGYAL SKYES PA DU KHO LOG TU SONGS So, after our diamond business was pretty successful, we bought a building in New York, 12 story building.

And there were 800 people working inside the building. And 10,000 people in other countries. And I helped to start that company when we only had three people.

Then sometimes I sit in that building, in the middle of that building, and I watched 800 people working whole day like a really big powerful machine. Like 300,000 diamonds. We have an agreement with FedEx that we dig under the building's special garage.

And the FedEx trucks are just coming in every two minutes. And we throw the boxes and the diamonds in the FedEx truck, and next truck, like that. There's a bunch of guys standing there with, you know.

Then one day I said, how come I cannot do this with my Dharma? Why can't we have a building with 800 translators? FedEx truck is coming up.

The new translations are throwing in the truck. Take them to other parts of the world. You know, why with my worldly work I can think so deep and so many ideas?

And then when it's time to do my meditation, I'm like, Tomorrow. Tomorrow. So, we all have this habit.

We put a lot of energy and a lot of creativity into our worldly life. And then the Dharma life is boring and lazy and not very exciting. Who taught this?

That was Nick's subject. Let's try to switch it. Let's have a big Dharma business.

We have a team at the nursing home is helping the old ladies. Gina's team is designing 500 new books every month. Like that.

Why don't we have this kind of energy? So, kolok tu song means we have it backwards. Lo na tungwa means we think small in our Dharma business.

In Guangzhou. I don't know, first year we had like 50 people there. Last year I went to Guangzhou.

Vivian put us in a hotel. I remember, it was raining. And I said, where do we have to go for the talk?

And she said, you know, I arranged a little place. Here's an umbrella. We just have to walk across the street.

It's the Guangzhou Convention Center. Bigger than the Super Bowl Stadium. Then I'm like, what's going on?

Geshe-la, this year we have over a thousand people. Then she said, but you're not talking right away. I said, why not?

Then she said, just something we arranged. Then there's a hundred beautiful yogis. All in a pure white outfit.

And they got up on the stage. And then they do this. You know?

All exactly together. And a thousand people are like, wow, wow, wow. Like that.

That's a logya kyepa. It means think big. We started in a small hotel space.

Then she thinks big. She and Jasmine think big. And they also have every week, they have people going to the nursing home.

They have DCI classes every week. So try to reverse your priority. Put all the passion you have for your life business into your Dharma business.

chu jindak shik kyang min drupa mi si nyam du And don't think anything is impossible. Okay, let's do a dictionary. Dictionary entry, mi si.

Say mi si. So, si is an interesting word. S-R-I-D saratha sagyika siddhasi It means possible.

And it means to exist. So what's the real name of the Wheel of Life? Sipe korlo.

The same word. Sipe korlo means the Wheel of Existence. But in spoken Tibetan, mi si means impossible.

Here it says don't think it's mi si. mi si Don't think it's mi si. Nothing is impossible.

My friend in Buenos Aires, she's like, Geshe-la, why don't we just buy a thousand yoga mats and have a class? That will be the new record because in Medellin they had 800 people in a yoga class. Okay, so think big.

Don't think anything is impossible. Then say, I'll give you a new word, okay? Nying ru Let's do it later.

We'll do that word later. Nying means heart. Ru means bone.

So, nying ru is a special word in Tibetan. It means, in English we say guts. Guts is like courage?

Courage, yeah. But it means it comes inside like your stomach. Deep down inside.

The place from where Don Jesus takes everything out. And you got to be like those sumo wrestlers. Then you have inside some deep power.

It's called, in Tibetan it's called the heart, the bone inside the heart. Okay, dub na mikor chik la long dar du gopa miyong Each meditation, like kick ass. Yeah, I'm going to master this meditation.

Splinter, Gompawa splinter meditation. And I will become ruthless. If Geshe Michael tries to waste Geshe Michael's time, Geshe Michael's like cutting, you know.

If Geshe Michael tries to waste Geshe Michael's time, Geshe Michael will be relentless. Every time Geshe Michael has some new idea to waste time, let's look at a little YouTube video. You know?

Okay, alright. That's the next meditation I see. Okay, we'll talk about it more.

Geshe Kamawa. There was an early Geshe named Kamawa. He was born in 1057.

He died in 1131. 300 years before Columbus, okay? And he said, don't tell me there's some Dharma thing you didn't have time to do.

Oh, Geshe Kamawa. You know, I tried to do the Gompawa splinter meditation, but I didn't succeed. I'm still getting up at 1030.

Then that meditation didn't work for me. Then Geshe Kamawa is like kind of a smart guy. He says, you know, 24 hours is made of two parts.

There's the waking time, and there's the sleeping time. And I've been watching you. During the sleeping time, you're asleep.

I understand you're not doing anything. During the waking time, you're on the internet all day. Okay, there wasn't any internet a thousand years ago.

But it's called YEN YENG CHE. Say YENG YENG CHE. YENG YENG CHE means, oh, what should I do this for?

Oh no, I'll do this for YENG YENG CHE. No, I like to do that. No, maybe I'll do that.

You're just always like splitting your attention through many worthless things. Even a thousand years ago. Probably 15 minutes you're checking your yak.

15 minutes you're looking at your barley crop. So he said, don't tell me you tried to meditate and you didn't succeed. Don't tell me that.

There's 24 hours in a day. I saw you sleep for 10 hours and the other 14 hours you were looking at your yaks and stuff like that. So don't tell me, Geshe Kamal, I tried to do my meditation but it didn't work.

Don't tell me, Geshe Kamal, I tried to do my meditation but it didn't work. You didn't spend any time meditating and that's why it didn't work. Okay?