«Дар освобождения», курс 21 «Ретрит радости непостоянства», занятие 2

[Speaker 1]
Let's meditate. Ready? If you have jet lag, you can sleep during the meditation.

But you have to try not to move.

[Speaker 2]
So, first, relax your forehead. Relax your eyelids. Relax the corners of your mouth.

Relax your fingers. Pull in your stomach slightly. Little smile.

Then start to watch your breath. See if you can count to ten breaths without thinking of something else. And please go through the things you've done today.

[Speaker 1]
Think about all the little things you've done since you woke up. Small conversations you had. Even thoughts you were thinking.

Try to remember as many details as possible about what you have done today so far. And we'll stay in meditation for about 10 minutes. So, it's pretty long.

And you will lose the meditation. Then come back and just pick out things you've done or said. I drank a cup of coffee.

Or I said good morning to this person. Or small things that you've done. Not the big things.

What are the small things you did to fill your time today since the time you woke up? And then each time you remember something that you did, or you said, or even a thought you had, then look at that action and think, is that going to help me when I die? Is that something useful?

Will that come to help me when I die? That seed. And then make, in your mind, make two piles on the left side are all the things I did and said and even thought that were helpful for when I died.

They will help me. And then there's another pile on the right side which is things I did or I thought or I ate that are not going to help me. And make two piles.

Even the smallest things that you did today. And your mind will wander. Bring it back.

Think of more things. Check each one, look at each one, and put it on the left side or the right side. This is something that will help me if I die.

And this is something that will not help me. Okay, ten minutes.

[Speaker 2]
Try not to make noise. You're doing really well. Slowly come back to your breath.

Three slow breaths. Don't move yet. Three slow breaths.

Okay, you can open your eyes. Stretch, take a stretch.

[Speaker 1]
So we had six problems that come if we don't meditate on our death. First one is we don't think much about practicing Dharma. And the second one, even if we remember we're going to die, we always think it's going to be later.

And so we don't practice either. And we're on the third one. Sumba, you okay?

Adam? Yeah, good. Sumba drup kyang nam dak mi drup pa ni.

So if we don't do our death meditation every day, then even if we decide to practice, we won't practice very well. There'll be problems with the practice. So even though you're doing your yoga every day, even though you're doing your meditation every day, even though you're studying a little bit every day, helping people, something will go wrong with it.

Something will not be pure. Nam dak mi drup pa means something will not be pure, unless you're thinking about death. Thar ta rang re chu drup pa yin ma.

So don't forget this teaching is a transcript. This lam rim is a transcript that was taken by Khyabje Thichar Rinpoche. Is he there?

No. My teacher's teacher. Who is the teacher of the current dharma?

So he wrote it down. And then his teacher was Pabongka Rinpoche. So he took the notes.

These are his notes. I think it's the best written book in the Tibetan language. There will never be a better written book.

I don't think so. No. So I think it's probably the best example of Tibetan literature there is, is this writing.

Because Thichar Rinpoche was an extraordinary writer. Very, very precise. Very beautiful.

So he says, thar ta rang re drup... All of us sitting here were in Pabongka Rinpoche's lectures in the 1920s. Chu drup pa yin ma.

We're all monks and nuns. They were all mostly monks and nuns. nam dak chik ma chungwa ni.

But what's wrong with our practice? Why is it not pure? tsen di nangshe ma lokpay.

Say nangshe. So that's a dharma idiom that you have to learn. nang...

Let's do a dictionary entry. nangshe. nang sanakana nga nang shraddham shesa she.

nangshe. nangshe means... nangwa means to appear.

This spelling means to appear. And she means to know. So if you don't know the word, you won't get it.

Nangshe means to fall into the trap of what appears to you. It's called nangshe. It's a special dharma word.

It means to fall into the trap of what appears to you. So you're born, you grow up in Mexico, or you grow up in China, everybody's working, everybody's making money, everybody's talking about that. And it's a big TV show.

Nangshe means the TV show of the world. And all the information you get, all the input you get from people is always, did you make money? Did you get a boyfriend?

And it's all what you hear on the TV called life. It's called nangshe. And it means to be fooled by life.

Just to fall for it. You believe that's all there is. Nangshe.

ma loppa, if you can't fight against that TV show, if you can't say, I want something more than that, khyun gyi drubpa te, then you'll have a problem. thosam jepa'ang, because even if you do start to study Dharma, and you start to meditate, khen du drub du du shor, khen du, you know khepa, right? Master, like a master, khepa.

du means, drubpa? Yeah, want, to want. That's du.

So, khen du means, I want people to think I'm a real Dharma expert. You know, khen du. And chak gyur te, Yeah, I want people, I want to be well known.

So, if you don't fight the TV show that you were born with, if you don't fight against it, then even if you start to meditate, even if you start to practice, you're like, maybe I'm the best meditator in Shanghai. Like Stanley doesn't understand, but I'm the best. And then you're hoping people hear about you.

So your Dharma practice gets corruption. You do practice, but if your motivation is not death, if your force that's driving you is not your death, is there's a possibility you'll get corrupted. And then you'll just take all of your neurosis, all your neurotic patterns, all your crazy thinking, you will transfer it from your boyfriend to your Dharma practice.

You will have the same bad attitudes about your Dharma practice that you have about your boyfriend and your boss. And you'll just move them all over to your Dharma practice. The same, and I've seen it hundreds of times.

You take all your family problems, and you take all your emotional problems, and you shift them to Dharma. And then, oh, the teacher is a bad person, and my fellow students are not so nice. You take all your baggage and you just shift it to your Dharma practice.

I want to be the best. Americans love that. It's Super Bowl mentality.

Oh, I'm supposed to do Dharma? I'm supposed to do yoga? I'll be the best.

I'll do the biggest headstand. I will memorize this. Then you just transfer all your bad thoughts to Dharma.

But if you're thinking about death every day, it kills that. It kills that neurotic Dharma, emotional Dharma. If you wake up every morning and your toothbrush says what?

Instead of Colgate, it says, I'm going to die today. You're like... Then all the bullshit is out of your life.

Just clean. You're not doing it for some stupid reason. It's a reality check every single morning.

Okay. DRAG DU DU SHOR, we had SHOR last class. What's SHOR?

Yeah, you will slide into that. Oh, I want to be the best meditator in Shanghai. I want everybody to know I'm a diamond expert.

Like that. You will slip into it. SGOM DE SOGS KYANG SGOM DE is a very beautiful tantric practice.

We do it here. Diamond Mountain was built for tantric practice. You're not there yet because you need lamrim to get there.

But SGOM DE is one of the most important tantric practices. And it's what this... All these houses were built for SGOM DE.

SGOM means meditation. That I am Buddha. I am already.

I just didn't... I forgot. But, oh yeah, I'm a Buddha.

And DE means what? Do you know DE? DE is...

the root gives you a clue. It's Z-L-A. Yeah, duplicate means mantra recitation.

Because you are doing it over and over. OM MANI PADME HUM, OM MANI PADME HUM So the verb is to duplicate. The verb for saying mantras is duplicate, like Xerox.

I'm Xeroxing mantras, like I'm copying mantras. So SGOM DE means what these guys did in the three-year retreat. And by the way, all the cabins here were built by the three-year retreatants with their own money.

And they spent all their money. And they spent more than all their money. I know because I got the bill afterwards.

And they built a cabin. And they knew, from the first day, they knew they don't get to keep it. Legally, you cannot keep a cabin on a church property.

So they built the cabin. And they know after three years they will give it to us. So I'd like the three-year retreatants to stand up, if you will.

And we'd like to thank you. Come on. Yeah, yeah.

And if you have bugs sneaking into your cabin because there's cracks, just tell John to fix it. Just kidding. No, that was a wonderful thing.

And we should never forget how kind they were. They worked so hard. The night we started the retreat, they were still, the government guy was still here checking off the cabins, one by one.

Finally, when he got to the last cabin, he was too tired to walk up the hill. He said, Okay. We were lucky.

Oops, I'm not supposed to talk about that. Okay. So gomde is what we do here.

In retreat, you meditate about I am like a Buddha already. And de means you say mantras to remind yourself. Over and over.

That's the main thing you're going to do later here. When you do your one-month retreat or you do your six-month retreat or you do your one-year retreat, we will teach you gomde. Okay?

gomde sok kyang, tsen di kyang sel sok su sum But a lot of people, when they do dzok, mantras, they are just thinking about I don't have enough money, oh money pay me her. I hope I get a better job, oh money pay me her. I hope the stock market goes up, oh money pay me her.

I hope my uncle gives me some money, oh money pay me her. I hope my parents stop bothering me, oh money pay me her. So then all your thoughts during the mantra is just about these little problems that you have.

They're going to go away anyway. When you die, they all get canceled. Parent problem, kid problem, boss problem, country problem, every problem gets canceled when you die.

So don't worry about it. Just don't let that ruin your mantras. Don't let your mind think oh I have problem with this person, I don't like this person in my company, or this dharma person really bothers me, I don't know why they should be in our dharma group.

And then you poison your mantras. And it's because when you brush your teeth you didn't say I'm going to die today. You think it's important but it's not.

Compared to dying it's not important. Ten minutes after you die you won't remember any of the people who bothered you. So why not just forget them now?

Just forget them now. It doesn't help. Ten minutes after you die you won't remember anybody.

So let it go now. Somebody bothers you, just avoid them. Like there's a cactus here.

You can go sit on the cactus or you can walk around the cactus. It's easier to walk around the cactus. You meet a stupid person, just avoid them.

Come to Diamond Mountain. SEMS SDIG BSGYEN SEL So BSGYEN SEL BSGYEN BSGYEN means literally secondary factor. RGYUD is a main cause.

BSGYEN is a contributing factor. SEL means to clear away. But SEMS SDIG BSGYEN SEL means to try to deal with all the things that are causing you trouble.

So it's called clear the causes. And it means try to deal with all the people who bother you and try to worry about all the financial problems you have. Just BSGYEN SEL.

Don't use your meditation time for that. SOGS PA GSAM MI DANG MI BYAS PA'I BSGOM BYAS NYANG MI DANG MI BYAS The first one is a noun. The first MI is a noun.

The second MI is a negative. What's it mean? BYAS PA means to meet somebody.

MI DANG MI BYAS So the word to meet in Tibetan requires the use of DANG to meet with. So MI DANG BYAS means meet with people. MI DANG MI BYAS means avoid seeing anybody.

Who does that? BSGOM BYAS Big meditators. I'm a diamond mountain meditator.

I'm in my cottage. I'm not going to meet anybody. For one week or two weeks or one month.

I'm a BSGOM BYAS. I'm a big yogi. Then you're sitting in your cabin but young, but DRANG DROD I hope everybody knows what a great meditator I am.

When I did my three-year retreat I was like, probably people will just come in cars and sit outside the fence and just look at us. Maybe they'll come in helicopters and stuff. Probably the people will pay to watch us.

You think, oh, people are so amazed that we're doing this three-year retreat. Actually, nobody cared. SHOR BA SO So DRANG DROD DU SHOR BA SHOR BA You slip into this DRANG DROD.

I hope people are thinking about what a great yogi I am who never meets anybody. NYES SPYIR DANG MA BRAS PA MIN BYUNG It's very difficult to have a Dharma practice which is not mixed up with some negative things if you're not thinking about death every day. Your practice won't be unpolluted.

It will always have some, what do you call that? When you get stuff in your peanut butter which is not peanuts. Yeah, it'll always be adulterated.

Your practice will always be adulterated. If you're not thinking about death every day and you try to practice, even if you try to practice, it will be, what's another word? Contaminated.

It'll be contaminated. Oh, I hope everybody knows what a great yogi I am. Like that.

Yeah, no, number three, round number three. You do practice, but it's not pure. You do practice, but it's polluted with some kind of hope that people will hear about your practice.

Oh, those Diamond Mountain Sriya retreats. Oh, they're so great. I wish I could meet one of them.

You're hoping when you get out there'll be this big crowd of people. We had like six people when we got out. I think three of them were there by accident.

Anyway. ,RJOL CHEN POR, ,TSE DI KHO NA SANGS PA LA BDE BU, ,CI CI ZHUGS PA, This is a very cool sentence. By the way, today we'll do some Dharma class and then we'll have question and answer.

When you start to look sleepy I'll do question and answer. What time we go till? Yeah, okay.

I know the classes are long and I know many people may not come back and I don't care. ,RJOL CHEN POR, means ,RJOL CHEN POR means Lord Atisha. One of the great Indian masters who came to Tibet to teach people 1,000 years ago.

Somebody asked him a question. ,TSE DI KHO NA SANGS PA LA, If we are just in our Dharma practice, if we're really just thinking about this life's stuff, like, oh, people will think I'm a great meditator or I hope people hear about this three-year retreat. I hope we're in the newspapers and stuff.

,TSE DI KHO NA SANGS PA LA, They asked Lord Atisha, if that's your motivation while you're doing these retreats and stuff, ,BDE BU CI CI, what kind of karmic result do you get? If you're just thinking about this life's stuff while you're practicing, what kind of karmic result do you get? And he said, ,BDE BU CI CI, You get what you wanted.

That's all. You get what you want. A few newspapers interview you and you don't get lied.

You get what you want. If you're just thinking about how people are going to think about you, or how cool you're going to look, you get that. He said that.

And that's it. That's all. You waste three years.

You get a few people interview you on their blog for a couple weeks and then that's it. That's what you get. ,TSE'I MDZIS LA, What's TSE'I MDZIS LA?

No, as far as this life, ,'DI' means this life, ,TSE'I MDZIS LA, But then the next question, they asked him another question, ,CI LA BAR CI CI, What's the result in your next life if you waste your Dharma time thinking about how cool you are? ,GNYEL BA CI, Hell. ,YI DAG CI, Hungry spirit.

,DU RNGOL CI, Hungry. Animal. Dog.

Insect. So, in this life you get what you wanted, which is nothing. And next life, because you wasted all your mantras and all your retreat time, you're born in a hell realm or as a dog or something.

This is Atisha's answer. ,SEMS PA LTAR, ,DE'I BRAS BU ZHIN GYIS ,DON CHUNG ZAD GRUB BYING, So you get a little bit of result in this life. You get in somebody's newspaper on the fourth page.

,PHYI MA BDE'I BU NGAN SONG DU, ,BDOR BA GSUM, But next life, the karmic result is you go down to lower realms because you wasted your Dharma time. ,BDOR BA GSUM, ,DE'I SONG NA KHYIM PA DANG, ,KHYIM MA THON PA YIN, If your Dharma practice is polluted because you don't do death meditation and then because of that practice you go to the hells or you become an animal after you die, then how are you different from other people who never heard about Dharma? Because they get the same result.

So then you might as... KHYIM PA means somebody who never studied Dharma. So then you're just the same as everybody else.

You spend three years doing a retreat but the net result was the same as those other people who never heard of a retreat. You're just the same. You might as well save your time.

Go to have a party, drink some beer and post stuff on Facebook all day. Waste your time like other people. If you're going to do it, if it's not going to be pure, then the result will be the same as if you just never heard of Dharma.

CHOS BYAS PA LA MTHONG MAR MTSAN DI LUS MTHONG PA DGOS Okay? Now he says a very powerful thing. Okay?

You ready? CHOS BYAS PA LA If you want to do Dharma, if you want to practice Dharma, MTSAN DI LUS MTHONG you must give up on this life. You must give up on this life.

Give it up. Give up this life. The present life, give it up.

Okay? Give it up. He said first thing.

MTHONG MAR means first thing. You want to practice Dharma? First thing.

Give up on this life. Then everybody gets excited. Oh Geshe-la, I'll do it.

I'll get a divorce. I'll quit my job. I'll move here.

You can support me. I'll just practice Dharma. I'll give up on everything.

DE GRANGS PO BYAS PA LA MI ZER Then he says, Pabongka says that's not Dharma. That's not giving up on this life. It's not GRANGS PO BYAS PA GRANGS PO BYAS PA means become a homeless person.

Give up all your money. Quit all your job. Don't pay your rent.

Stick all the bills on your relatives and your friends. Live on other people's couches. So many Dharma people when they come to other people's houses now, they put a lock on their refrigerator.

Why you got a lock on your refrigerator? I got Dharma people staying here. Really, you get one Dharma person in your house for a week, it's gone.

Everything, all the food is gone. And you're like, could you pay for some groceries? No, I'm a Dharma person.

He says GRANGS PO LA MI ZER MI ZER means that's not what we call giving up on this life. Grubbing off of other people. Giving up your job.

Not making any money. Bothering other people. Being a Dharma bum.

MI BYED MI ZER That's not giving up on this life. That's not what it is. MI ZER DE'I RGANG LUS MA MTHONG BAR Because Dharma bums also have attachment.

They didn't give up on this life. Because that's not what it means. Those people who say, I'm not going to have a job.

I'm not going to have a family. I'm not going to pay my bills. I'm just going to hang out in a cabin somewhere.

Those people didn't give up on this life. Those people didn't give up on this life. Why?

KHYAMS PA'I LO MTHONG DGOS JIG RTEN PHYIR DGE YIN If that's what you think is giving up on this life, you are caught by the eight worldly thoughts. Eight worldly thoughts. LUS MTHONG Give up on this life means give up on eight attitudes.

Then you gave up on this life. It doesn't refer to your job or your family or your kids or your responsibilities. That's not giving up on this life.

You can give up a house and come and stay in a cave here and you will still be a worldly person. You didn't give up on this life. Why?

Because you still have eight negative attitudes. Eight reasons for doing what you do. If you give up those eight and you have a job, I don't know, you're in charge of putting microchips into credit cards for millions of credit cards all over Europe.

If you're in charge of that department like Brigitte is. But you gave up the eight worldly thoughts. You gave up on...you're a yogi. Then you're a real yogi. And you're sitting in a corporate office all day and you're doing computer work for big corporations. But you're a yogi.

And then you just quit all your stuff and you don't make any money and you move into a cabin at Diamond Mountain. But you still have those eight thoughts in your head. You're not a yogi.

You didn't give up on this life. So it doesn't mean what's your address. Giving up on this life is not moving to another address.

It's inside. You can have a big corporate job and be a super yogi. And you can have no job and be a super non-yogi.

You can also have no job and be a yogi and you can also have a corporate job and not be a yogi. Understand? It doesn't depend on your job.

It's a mental state. Give up something mentally. Those eight things.

So we're supposed to go look at these eight things. I went and got them for you and then he went and got them for you from the same place. You want to hear mine or his?

Let's do mine. Okay. So the best presentation of the eight worldly thoughts.

And then we'll take a break. The best presentation is found in Nagarjuna. Arya Nagarjuna.

The greatest emptiness guy in India after the Buddha. Some people call him the second Buddha. Nagarjuna.

Nagarjuna. He lived about 1800 years ago. 1800 years ago.

Arya Nagarjuna. He wrote a famous letter called Letter to a Friend. SU'HER LAS KA SU'HER means SU'HER DU means good heart, means a friend.

SU'HER DU And then LAS KA means a letter. And when the D hits the L you have to change it to L. So it's SU'HER LAS KA And it means a letter to my friend.

And his friend was a king named Udayabhadra. So he wrote a letter to a king named Udayabhadra. And it was very common during the early days of Buddhism that the Dharma people were advising the politicians and the big business people.

And I think it's really cool. Our student was just elected the president of Argentina in December. I think it's cool.

It should be like that. And he should be, he's doing DCI. He's doing Four Steps.

He's recovering the economy very quickly. They just made some big changes in the economy. They just worked out their debt loans with four major hedge funds in America.

It was like a $20 billion problem for the country and he broke it. He fixed it. And so it should be like that.

People say, Oh, DCI is not Dharma. Well, then Nagarjuna is not Dharma. Anyway.

So he said to the king, GCIG RTEN KHYAMS PA NYES DANG MA NYES DANG DE DANG MI DE NYEN DANG MI NYEN DANG DGOS MED CHE RGYIS GCIG RTEN CHOS RGYAS PO BDAG GIS YIN YIN MIN PO DGOS NYONGS BRDZOD So that's the famous verse from the letter to his friend where he talks about the eight negative attitudes. If you give them up, you're a Dharma person. If you don't give them up, you're not a Dharma person.

If you give up your house and your family and you move to Diamond Mountain but you still have those eight in your head, you're not a Dharma person. If you give up those eight and you keep your family and your corporate job, you are a Dharma person. Got it?

You gave up on this life. What are they? NYES DANG MA NYES Say NYES DANG MA NYES.

NYES means you got something. MA NYES means you didn't get something. Like I tried to get a boyfriend.

I didn't get. I'm so sad. Or I got a boyfriend.

I'm so happy. It lasts for about six weeks. I don't know.

Kelly knows. I don't know. It lasts for a couple weeks.

You're so happy for a couple weeks. That kind of happiness is the first one. Oh, I got something.

I got something. I got a promotion at work. I got a new car.

I got something. I feel super happy. And then I lost something.

My boyfriend left. Oh, I'm so sad. I feel super sad.

I didn't get the job. I feel so sad. Alright?

Now, question. If you give up those two, are you giving up getting things and not getting things? Or are you giving up how you feel about them?

Yeah, you're giving up how you feel about them. You can't stop. Sometimes you get a promotion.

Okay? I'm sorry. Sometimes you get a new car.

I'm sorry. Sometimes you get a new boyfriend. That's okay.

Sometimes you lose those things. It's hard to control those things unless you're a real DCI four-step person. You can't control those things.

What we're talking about is how do you react? How do you respond? Do you get all excited?

Oh, I got a promotion. Now my life is good. The rest of my life I'll be happy.

I got that boyfriend I wanted. Oh, all my problems are over. You know what I mean?

I lost my husband. My husband left. Oh, I'm so sad.

I'll be sad forever. That's what you have to give up. Dharma person is like, yeah, I lost my car today.

Jigme, she was cool. Somebody gave her a new car. I was so jealous.

You know, anyway. Somebody gave her a new car. She's like, Geshe-la, I got a new car.

They told me to go buy any car I wanted. So I bought this new car. And then a couple weeks later she crashed it.

Completely destroyed it. And then she's like, okay, I lost my new car. She didn't go like, she didn't freak out because she's a nun for many years.

She's fighting this thing for many years. When she got the car, she wasn't all, and then when she lost the car she wasn't all, she's like, I got a new car, Geshe-la. Oh, I just smashed my new car.

Can they fix it? Nope. Okay.

I got my own truck. Cowboy truck. Word knows this cowboy truck.

Cowboy trucks need oil and water checks, excuse me. Anyway, she didn't get all excited. She didn't get, okay.

So it's not that you try to stop never getting, I don't want new cars anymore. Forget it. That's not giving up on this life.

It's the attitude. Oh, I got a new car. Okay.

Oh, I lost my new car. Okay. Then your mind, GON YONG GON YONG means level-minded.

Your attitude is, what do you call? Like, even KYO, it's just equal evil all the time. Oh, I got a new boyfriend.

Okay. They come and go. Oh, I lost my boyfriend.

Okay. It happens. Does that mean you shouldn't try to get a new boyfriend?

Does that mean you shouldn't try to get a new car? No, it doesn't mean that. Plant the seeds.

That's not the eight worldly dharmas. Plant the seeds. Get a nice boyfriend.

Like design one. Intelligent, loyal, affectionate. Good job.

Design, that's not eight worldly dharmas. Giving up all boyfriends is not giving up samsara. I meet so many people, they give lectures.

They're like Dharma talk. They give Dharma talks. They say, all boyfriends are stupid and bad.

And I'm like, you mean you had a trouble with your boyfriend when you were 24 years old and you gave up. But that doesn't mean it's wrong. You see what I mean?

You had a problem. You couldn't keep a boyfriend or you didn't know how to plant one. Don't blame all the boyfriends in the world.

People say, all men are stupid. All women don't know how to drive. It's just stupid.

You can make a good boyfriend, no problem. That's not worldly. You don't give up all men.

It makes you religious. It's not like that. ,'JIGS RTEN GYI MED NYID DU MA NYID DANG, But how do you feel?

Do you freak out? Do you go crazy? No.

You get something? Okay, I got something. You lose something?

Okay, I lost something. But your mind is cool. If you have that cool mind, you can get things you want.

And you cannot lose things. But if you lose your balance and you start going, then you won't be able to plant seeds. Seed planters have to have steady minds.

Those are the first two. I got something. I got my new Prius.

I smashed my new Prius. Right, Jigme? She's like, then she got her new Subaru.

What? Am I not supposed to talk about you? It wasn't you.

Say that again. Say that again. It wasn't my fault.

Okay. DE DANG MI DE I feel good, I feel bad. I feel good, I feel bad.

My Lama told me a week ago, when a woman gets sick, she deals with it and she takes care of the stuff she has to deal with. When a man gets sick, it's the worst disease anyone ever got. And someone should take care of them.

There are certain people, they get a little cold and they turn into a monster. And then there's other people like they break their arm and they're still trying to help you. They're still trying to help you out.

They don't worry about how their body feels. You can't control it much. Cool, chill, chill.

I bet that's hard to translate into Chinese. Just chill. You have a headache, deal with it.

Be a nice person. You did a good yoga practice and you're looking skinny and strong. Don't get too excited.

You'll hurt something next week, don't worry. Don't get all happy. Oh, my diet, my India diet works so good.

I'm going to charge American women $20,000 each. I'm going to take them to Mumbai and tell them to eat all the food on the street. I lost 15 pounds.

Don't get all excited. Don't get all excited. I lost 15 pounds.

Don't worry, you're going to gain it back next week. Don't get all excited. Just deal with it.

I have a headache, Geshe-la. Okay, you're not dead yet. Some people cut their arm off.

You have a headache, which is worse. Deal with it. Just deal with it.

Okay, I feel good, I feel bad. Don't let it change your mood so much. It's going to come.

NYON NAS MI NYON Oh, Geshe-la, I got on the internet, I got in the New York Times. They wrote an article about me. Or Geshe-la, nobody ever heard of me and nobody cares about me.

Okay, so deal with it. I'm super famous. I get into an elevator in Taiwan and six ladies start screaming.

Then I'm like, wow. Or you walk to the... I don't know.

I don't know. You meet somebody and say, I'm Geshe Michael. And they say, what?

Geshe what? And don't worry about it. People think you're a great person or famous or nobody ever heard of you.

Just deal with it. Relax. The people who should be famous are not.

The people who are bad are famous. That's the way it is. Mostly.

The really good people, nobody wrote an article about them. Somebody saved 25 people or take care of orphaned kids for 20 years. Nobody writes a newspaper article about them.

Somebody else kills three people, they get in the newspaper. Don't get excited about newspapers or internet or I'm so famous. It always changes.

It always goes away. Who was that? Yeah, I have a friend, a very devoted yoga teacher.

25, 30 years, extraordinary yoga teacher. Then suddenly they got something in the newspaper. Now everybody hates them.

And they're the same person. So don't worry about it. Don't think about it.

It doesn't matter. It's just stupid. Don't get all excited if your name gets in the newspaper.

Don't get all sad if they don't remember your name. It doesn't matter. Level, gong-nyom, level mind.

Those are five and six, right? No, three and four were feel good, don't feel good. One and two are I got something and I didn't get something, I lost something.

Number one and two, I got something and I lost something. Number three and four, I feel good, I don't feel so good. Number five and six, I got mentioned in the internet or nobody noticed me in the list of names.

My name was left out. I was practicing a song for my brother's birthday. What was it?

It's called My Back Pages. I was so much older then? I'm younger than that now?

My brother found a version on the internet. It's Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and they left out Neil Young's name. He was also there.

He sang a verse and he did a solo but they left his name out. So it happens. Okay.

Last two, du me, say du me. Du means people praise you. Oh, thank you.

Tahiya, you did such a good job to get ready for the retreat. We all really owe you a lot. Without you this place would fall apart.

We all know it. And then gyel se, everybody says, why didn't you get me the right kind of pressure cookers for my rice in my cabin? You know what I mean?

People criticize you or people praise you. Just let it go. It's a little bit different from five and six.

Five and six are you get famous or you get ignored. Seven and eight are you get praised or you get criticized. Then just let it go.

I have a friend who's a yoga teacher. She teaches great classes. We're always begging her to teach us classes.

She's getting to be a really famous yoga teacher. Then the other day some guy got mad in her class and walked out. She's like, oh.

I'm like, look, get used to it. Just get used to it. It doesn't matter how good you are.

It doesn't matter how famous you are. It doesn't matter what kind of class you teach. You're going to get criticized once in a while.

So get used to it. Don't freak out. Some people say you're just stupid.

You work for somebody for ten years or twenty years and then they turn around and call you stupid or I don't like you anymore. Then just let it go. Just let it go.

If you spend time thinking about how they called you stupid, you are proving that you are stupid. Because you're wasting your time. Somebody calls you stupid and you can't forget it for three days or three weeks or three years.

Then you are stupid. You deserve it. So just let it go.

You can let it go in two years or you can let it go in two hours. You must let it go in two hours. Because it's going to come again.

If you're going to be a teacher, you got to be a little bit tough. Just help people. If you're going to be a publicly minded person, charitable person, then you're going to get some hard times sometimes.

Don't freak out about it. Don't quit. Oh, nobody likes me.

I was translating 20,000 pages then somebody didn't like it. Then let it go. Just let it go.

That's called gonyam. Gonyam. If you give up those eight, you gave up this life.

Okay? So many, many, many people made a big mistake. Oh, I have to quit my job.

Oh, I have to live in a mountain somewhere. I have to never meet anybody. I shouldn't have a family.

I shouldn't make money. I shouldn't... That's not giving up the world.

Giving up the world is in here. It's those eight. Give up those eight, you gave up the world.

Where you put your body doesn't matter. If you still have those eight in your head and you go stay in a cabin for three years, it's useless. Then you're still in the world.

The last time I saw Rinpoche before my three-year retreat, I went and I said, I knew I was leaving in five minutes. I'm like, Rinpoche, give me the one advice I need for my three-year retreat. Just tell me the one most important thing.

And he said, keep your mind in your cabin. Bye. Keep me out.

Keep your mind in your cabin. It's very hard. All right?

Make your thoughts slow. You cannot control the world. I mean, slowly you can with seeds, right?

But bad stuff is going to happen. Good stuff is going to happen. Make your mind like a crystal lake, right?

Just calm. And bad stuff will come, and good stuff will come. Don't get too excited.

Don't get too sad. When your mind is calm, you can see where stuff is coming from and you can change it permanently. But if you get off balance, you won't be able to see where stuff is coming from.

So keeping your mind in balance is not the ultimate solution, but it allows you to see the ultimate solution. And if you lose that, you'll never see emptiness. So the reason you give up this life is that you can see where things are really coming from.

If you don't give up life that much, you'll never get out. Because your mind will be too shaky to see where things are coming from. All right, let's take a break.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Yes, she's there. Oh, they don't have to be about anything.

They can be anything, okay? I don't care. Any question.

So how do you... We know that rejoicing makes seeds so much more powerful, especially with something like meditations or helping other people meditate or realizations or whatever. So how do you have that rejoicing to make your own enlightenment come quicker without that, like, I'm so special?

Yeah, okay, good question. So it seems like the most important part of the four steps of planting a good karmic seed is number four, which is coffee meditation. When you come home, be happy about the good things you've done.

And many, many people have trouble with that. They have a lot of trouble with being happy about the good things they're doing because, correctly, they are afraid of pride. They are afraid, I will become proud.

It will destroy me. If I think every night about what a good person I am, then it seems very dangerous because then maybe later I get very jealous of other people and like that. So the difference between the two, when they teach it in the Abhidharma, it's like, be happy about the good things you're doing without pride.

And then if you know what pride feels like, if you role play pride, if you pretend you have pride, and then see how it feels, and then try to do the same rejoicing without pride, you'll see the difference. So pride would be, oh, I helped an old lady at the nursing home. I have my Mrs. Hancock, right?

And when pride comes in, you feel competitive. You start to feel competitive. So you're like, nobody can take care of an old lady as good as Geshe Michael takes care of an old lady.

I know other people try and everything, but my old lady is the happiest old lady. You saw that Norway, Oslo video, the guy at the end is bragging about how the old lady is like him the best. In Norwegian, he's bragging.

So I think if you catch yourself being competitive or jealous of other people who are doing, like when you hear about other people are doing nice things, instead of being happy you feel jealous, then that means you're rejoicing is a little bit thick and you have some bad attitude mixed in. But if you hear about other people doing similar good things and you feel very happy, like you're on the same team with them and you're all helping old ladies and you're the old lady helper team of the world and it's all a big team, then I think that's healthy. So signs that it's unhealthy are competitiveness and jealousy of other people doing the same thing.

But it doesn't mean that you should give it up. You see, if you detect some pride then clean out the pride but don't give up rejoicing because rejoicing is absolutely necessary. I would say that between people who feel pride about doing good things and people who don't feel enough happiness about doing good things, the second are much more dangerous.

To not be happy enough about the good thing you're doing is extremely common. 99% of people have that problem. So I'd say it's better to go a little overboard.

I had a Lama Geshe Keldin, Nolan Keldin. I had another student of my Lama that I was competing with him all the time. And one day this other Lama called me in and he said, you're so lucky you have art to compete with.

And I said, what do you mean? He says, you're so jealous of him. Half the stuff you do is out of jealousy.

Half your studies, the reason you drive yourself so hard is because you notice that you're jealous of art. And I said, oh, you noticed it? He's like, everybody knows, except you.

Then I said, well, I'll stop it right away. He says, no, no, don't stop. It's making your Tibetan so good.

Keep being jealous and then later on you can give it up. Give it up later. Be as jealous as you can.

But anyway, I think more people fail to appreciate the goodness they have in them. We go to DCI, I don't know, we're going to 36 cities this year or something, 20-something countries, and it's all over the world. People have the same problem that they can't be happy enough about the good things they're doing.

Everybody has this problem. And it ruins your karma. Then karma grows really slow.

So I'd rather you keep the jealousy for a while and be happy. Anybody else? Nick's going to choose, then nobody gets mad at me.

[Speaker 2]
The difference between emotions and feelings. You just explained that the Eight Methods are not about dealing with this world, but dealing with the eight emotions. My understanding of emotions is that it's an action.

Emotions are a noun. It's more stable. You said that we need to stay in a very calm state.

When we get to this point, I'd like to clarify my understanding of calmness. What does calmness mean? For example, if someone praises or slanders me today, I immediately tell myself that I need to stay calm.

Or is it that this calmness is dead? Or do I need a more living calmness? I can be emotional, but I don't need emotions.

[Speaker 1]
I have a question. I wanted to clarify with you these two words. One is affection, like feelings, and the other is emotions, like emotional thoughts.

I think for feelings or affection or this kind of thing, it would be a statement. It's a statement. It's very stable.

But for emotional thoughts, it would be an action. It's short. It's temporary.

When you were talking about having eight worldly thoughts, and you were also mentioning about having a level mind status. Does it mean that if I am, like if I get something, that I should feel nothing, or can you clarify this kind of levels? It means don't, we call spike in English.

You shouldn't spike like this. I got something. I'm very happy.

I lost something. I'm very sad. Like this.

It can be, I'm happy. That's cool. I lost my priest.

Okay. Just more common, less extreme, extreme feeling. It's important to say that and that's not the goal.

Gonyam, level mind, is not the goal. If you have a level mind, you can plant seeds. If you don't have a level mind, you won't remember seeds.

It's just a method, fang fa, to remember to plant seeds. Because if your mind is like this, you never think about seeds. So, it's not the goal itself to have a level mind.

You can have a level mind and die and you go to hell. It's that keep a level mind and then you remember, I should plant, next time I should plant better. Or next time I should plant a better Prius seed.

So, level mind is just a tool. It's not a goal. And many kinds of Buddhist teachers teach you the goal of Buddhism is to keep a level mind.

And they are cheating you. They are cheating you. You will die with a level mind and you'll be born as a dog or something.

You see what I mean? It's not the goal. Follow your breath, vipassana, don't think too much, just be happy, don't worry, be happy, you know, don't think too much.

It's not a goal. It's just a useful tool to go deeper. But don't let some teacher tell you the goal of Buddhism is to never worry or something like that.

You should be worried. Okay? Any?

[Speaker 2]
Miss Prius. I came in on the end of a very interesting sounding conversation about emptiness and I was wondering if you could tell the rest of us about it.

[Speaker 1]
I forget what the end... About the fountains, Stanley? Yeah, okay.

In Taiwan, when we're doing level seven, which you should try to go to level seven. I think the next one is in Singapore? Singapore in August.

Very, very, very, very, very important. Don't wait for Shanghai to get to level seven. We might die before that.

in level seven, DCI, we just talked about practical steps to see emptiness directly, gong shim. And it's very, very beautiful. And we took all the information about practical steps to see emptiness and we put it in one manual.

It's nice. You should hear it. One of the questions that comes up in philosophy of Buddhism is that gong shim never changes.

It never changes its quality. It is always constant. So if you drew gong shim on a chart, it would be like it's always completely empty.

It doesn't change. It never changes. But the mind that you have to use to see it is changing every second.

Then the question is, like suppose you have a telescope outside last night and you are looking at the moon. Suppose the moon never changes. But the telescope is going like this all the time.

Then how can the telescope which is changing all the time hold the moon which is not changing? How can a mind which is changing instant by instant, how can it hold gong shim, emptiness? How can you see emptiness?

It's like the rider never moves but the horse is always moving. So how can you do that? How can the rider stamp the horse?

If the horse is going like this and the rider is just... How can they connect with each other? If this computer cord is always changing and this is never changing, how can you plug them into each other?

How can the mind which is changing like this see a thing which doesn't change? Then we were talking about... That gets into the question...

Okay, I'm sorry, this is complicated. Is every object you see coming from your karmic seeds or not? Yeah, every person you ever meet, good or bad, every experience you ever have, is coming from seeds in your mind 65 per second.

Seeds are opening. But how can seed make emptiness which never changes? How is that possible?

Then I like to give the example of a fountain. I went to this... What's it called in Rome?

Trevi? Trevi Fountain. It's supposed to be a very famous fountain.

If you go there, you're a good tourist. I think it's because they collect the coins. You have to throw a coin in the water and you make a wish and then people collect the coins at night.

But the fountain shape never changes. It always looks like a mushroom. But the water is moving all the time.

But the outline of the fountain is constant. So it's... The content of the kong shing is coming out of your karmic seeds, but it doesn't change.

It's always steady. So it looks like one thing, unchanging thing, and that's okay. So then you can see it.

The changing mind which is creating that kong shing which is not changing can see it. Because the shape of it is the same. It's always the same.

Okay? You have to cook it. You have to go to Singapore.

Okay? I get a commission, right? Come to Singapore.

Because it's difficult to understand just in five minutes. If you come for three days or five days, you will understand much better. Okay?

Because we start from the beginning. Okay, other questions?

[Speaker 2]
I am very grateful that you taught us the way to make our dreams come true.

[Speaker 1]
And I'm proud of you. I've been practicing to plant small things in my life and I do believe that if I plant seeds then I can make my dreams come true. But when I am planting seeds for very big goals, then I just wonder the seeds can I plant to make the dream come true?

Okay, good. I think... I had a very interesting man came to my talk in Bulgaria and later in Moscow and he's a Muslim.

And he's very, very famous. He wrote 40 million books. He sold 40 million books.

I didn't sell one million. Okay? And his name is Mirza Karim Norbyakov.

He's very famous in Russia. He's like one of the top five writers in Russia. And he came to some of my talks and then afterwards he came up to me and he said, let's do a book together.

Do you want to do a book together? So I said, yeah. We already have a book tour.

It's in June? We're going to Central Asia to... May, oh my God.

To talk book tour. And then Russia. We're going on a book tour together.

And I finished half of my part. He didn't even start yet. But we agreed on the name of the book.

It's called, The Ten Biggest Mistakes in Your Life. Because we're both over 60 and we made so many mistakes and we thought it'd be nice. You could save younger people trouble if you tell them, you're going to make this mistake.

But the biggest mistake is younger people don't pay attention when you tell them they're going to make this mistake. But anyway, the first mistake in my mind when they interview older people in the nursing home and they ask them, what is your biggest regret in your life? And they say, I didn't try to do something big.

I wanted to do something big. I was thinking about doing something big. But then I got discouraged.

I thought, I can't do something big. And so they didn't try. And when you interview people over 80 years old or something, they say, my biggest regret in my life is, you know, I really wanted to marry this guy or I really wanted to get this job or I had to do this project but I was afraid I would fail.

So I didn't try. And now I'm too old and I will never have a chance to try. that's my first chapter.

I tell the story about a guy in... the guy in Argentina. I was there, I don't know, three years ago.

And at that time he was the mayor of Buenos Aires. And they invited me to talk to the mayor and his cabinet secretly, because they don't want people to know. I'm not supposed to talk about it but I can't stop.

So I gave them a whole day teaching. And after we finished he pulled me into his office. And he said, I have a dream.

I said, what's a dream? And he said, look out this window. You see that?

It's a pink colored building. In Argentina they call it the rose house. The pink house.

Instead of the white house, it's the pink house. And I said, well, what's there? He said, the president of the country.

And I don't like her. And we live, we work within three blocks of each other for years. And she has never come here and I have never gone there.

We hate each other. And he said, I want to be president. So tell me, what do I have to do to be president?

I want to be this president. And I said, well, there are four steps, right? Number one, I want to be president.

Number two, find another person who wants to be president. Number three, help them. He's like, what?

I said, you know who you have to help? He said, who? I said, the lady over there in the pink house.

You have to help her. No, no, you don't understand. I want to be president.

No, you don't understand. Help her. Then you become president.

He's like, this is crazy. I said, just try it. He got elected in December.

He's the new president. Then, it sounds crazy. So you can make the karma to be the secretary of the vice president and type letters all day.

Or you can make the karma to be the president. But it's the same work. It's the same four steps.

So why go for small things? You see what I mean? Why?

You have to do the four steps to get a small thing. And you have to do the four steps to get a big thing. So why not just start with the big thing?

Who wants to be the secretary of the vice president if you can be the president? It's the same work. They're the same.

It takes as much work to make a million dollars as it does to make a billion dollars. It's the four steps. It's the same being.

So, just do the four steps. And the biggest regret that people have is they didn't try. And he tried.

He said, okay, I'll do it. He promised me before I left his office. He said, I'll try.

And he did it. So to get a small thing and to get a big thing, you have to do the same four steps. So why not do a big thing?

It's the same. In the world, if things are caused by other things, then a big thing is harder to get than a small thing. If big things and small things are both created in your own mind, then it's the same.

The work is the same. So go for something big. It's the same work.

If it's outside, if to become president you have to do these five things outside, then it's harder to be president than to be secretary. But if the president is coming from your seeds and the secretary is coming from your seeds, then it's the same. Then go for something bigger.

Okay? It's the same. If it's coming from you, it's equal.

All right, one more.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Geshe-la. Thank you, Nikita. I want to continue Joe's question.

So how to compare the thought, the mind, memory, emotion, yeah, that kind of words about our feeling.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, okay.

[Speaker 2]
And the second question is one day when I do meditation and in fact my mind is very crazy and I try to make some voice like, and I feel calmed down and focused especially when I do the Junkapa Nazca cleaning thing. And I feel it's really focused and clean and empty inside. Is it good to make some voice when I do meditation?

Is it right? Yeah, that's all. Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, okay. I heard my own mind answer that recently and a person said something like that, I make a voice in my mind, I make a hmm sound, then it's much easier to, the meditation is much clearer and more successful. And in my mind came a answer, I don't care if it's successful, you weren't doing it right.

I don't care if it was successful, you weren't following the instructions. That's a stupid thought of mine. If something works for you, do it.

And that's right. Work is more important than right. So, if something works for you, maybe your mother used to sing to you when you were a baby and maybe when you'd make the noise it makes your mind remember something.

If it works for you, and if it's not some bigger problem, like, I don't know, somebody might say, I always kill a chicken before I meditate. I always have a better meditation. That's a mistake.

But, if you try something and it works for you, then go for it. That's the goal. It would work for you.

As far as emotions, I think it's important to understand like your husband is coming from seeds in your mind. So, when you come home and your husband is in a good mood, you should congratulate yourself. Good job.

And when you come home and your husband is being a donkey, then whose fault is it? Yeah, then it's your fault. So, that's easy to understand with the husband because he's outside.

It's easy to watch him. He's in a good mood. He's in a donkey mood.

It's easy with the outside things. But the thoughts you hear in your mind, you know, what you hear your mind say is also coming out of karma seed. You see what I mean?

So, you are not talking inside your mind. The seeds are talking. Words are coming out of the seeds.

I'm not happy today. I feel sad today. They are coming out of the seeds that you planted last week.

Then you are not saying them. You are just hearing them. So, it's the same with the eight worldly thoughts.

You see? I have a problem with jealousy. Somebody tells me, Geshe-la, you'd be so happy, we met a great Buddhist teacher.

Oh, really? He probably doesn't know Tibetan grammar. Like that.

And then you hear your mind say some negative thing. It's coming out of seeds also. those extreme reactions, Oh, I lost my boyfriend.

I'm going to shoot myself. Or, Oh, I got a new car. Now I'm going to be happy forever.

Those extreme reactions, eight worldly thoughts, they are coming out of seeds. You see? If you help other people to level out their mind, usually when we are not level, we don't know.

You see what I mean? It's hard to tell that you are not being level. Somebody says, are you level-minded?

You say yes. But yesterday you were screaming at somebody because you didn't get a cappuccino. I'm like, really?

You need Dharma friends. That's why it's good to be around them. They can tell you, your mind is not so level.

And you need Dharma friends. Because what you think about your own thoughts is also coming out of your own seeds. So, extreme reaction, very happy, very sad, is coming out of seeds.

And then making it level. Really, it comes from helping other people to make their mind level. You see what I mean?

So, all the emotions, hatred, anger, jealousy, desire, compassion, love, they are all coming from seeds. So, I think if you think about it, you can deal with the difference between emotion, and feeling, and thoughts. They are actually all coming from the same place.

So, think about that. And I think it will help you. Same.

How you remember things is coming from your seeds. No, the thoughts are coming from seeds. All coming from seeds.

Also memory. And they change. Your memories change.

You know? I was sitting with my brother last week, and he said something about our father, and I was like, no, no, he never did that. And we have completely different memories the same day.

You see? So, memory also coming from how you treat other people. So, memory, thoughts, emotions, strong emotion, smooth emotions, they are all coming from seeds.

So, really the only way to give up the world is to help other people give up the world. Okay? Different.

Mind is general awareness, and thought is what the general awareness hears in the mind. But we can study it someday. There are 52 psychological functions in the Abhidharma.

And we can study it sometime. It's great. Very interesting.

Very interesting. We can, you know, if we don't want to finish this for 25 years, we can do that. Okay, I'm going to go back to the text just for 10 minutes.

Okay? ,'DI DANG BRAS NA, Adam? ,'CHOS MIN PAS ,'DI DANG BRAS NA means if you mix it up, if you mix up your practice and the eight worldly thoughts, ,'CHOS MIN It's not Dharma anymore.

You can meditate, that's Dharma. But if you meditate and think about how other people think about you meditating, then you just ruined it. It's not Dharma anymore.

The same activity, meditation, if it's done without worldly thoughts, it's Dharma. And if it's done with, oh, other people are going to say, I'm sitting so still, then you just ruined the meditation. You can sit for six hours, not moving, it's not Dharma.

If it's infected, it's polluted. ,MIN PAS GNAL SBYOR PA, ,PHYAG TU CHOG So, PHYAG TU CHOG is a student of Lord Atisha. He spent five years as Lord Atisha's student.

After Lord Atisha passed away, he became a student of Atisha's student who was ,RDOM DUN BYAS And they helped found Radjang Monastery. Then he went to Atisha and he asked a question. Ready?

Maybe you heard this question. ,SNYID DGOS MANG SHES NAM ,RE DGONG RE SHES DAM ,SHES RE RIN PAS ZHUGS PA Yeah! Pretty successful teacher.

And I was wondering, should I spend more time on tour? Or should I do more retreat? Sometimes I think I should just concentrate on tours.

It's helping thousands of people. But sometimes I think I should concentrate on retreats because that's what gives me the energy to go on tours and help people. And then sometimes I was thinking I should split my time 50-50.

Like two weeks on tour and two weeks in retreat. And then he asked Atisha, which one is better? Should I be on tour all the time?

Should I stay in retreat all the time? Or should I do 50-50? And Atisha said one sentence.

Give up this life. He wouldn't say anything else. Okay?

He wouldn't give any more answer. Give up this life. What's it mean?

When you meditate, you're hoping everybody will think you're a great meditator. When you go on tour, you're like, is everybody happy? Geshe Michael.

And when you split your time, half the time you're proud about your meditation and half the time you're proud about your tour. So, I don't care what you do. Give it up.

Give it up. It's not going to help if you do more meditation because you're so worried about how other people think about you. And it's not going to help if you're touring all the time because you're so worried about how other people think about you.

And if you split 50-50, it's still going to be the same. So, give it up. He just said, give it up.

That was Atisha's answer to Chakri Chok. He always gets picked on in the Lam Rim. I'm sorry.

JI LTA RGYIS ZHUGS PAS He said, well, what do you want me to do? JI LTA'I LOD PONG Give up the world. I don't care if you're on tour and I don't care if you're in retreat.

Give up the world. Then it doesn't matter so much what you're doing. RGYAL MA BA'I CHOS KYI GNYEN MED NA GCIG MA GRUB KYANG KHYON NYID CHOS PAR BLO MA RGYIS MA LOD CHOS KYI BRTAM BO SEMS DIS LOD THONG PA RANG GI RGYUD LA BDUG PA MI RDUG BRTOD So there was a Kadampa.

Kadampa means the first Buddhist in Tibet. They're very similar to you guys. They were like the first Buddhists of their generation.

He was a student of Togme Sombo who wrote a great commentary on Master Shantideva. He said, RGYAL MA BA'I SEMS CHOS KYI GNYEN MED NA GCIG MA GRUB KYANG All you guys, you didn't do any Dharma. Nothing.

You didn't get anywhere. No realizations, no meditations, no helping people, nothing. You didn't do anything.

KHYON NYID CHOS PAR BLO MA But you think you're some Dharma person. You think you're some kind of great Dharma person. The word LOM PA is very interesting.

Start dictionary entry. RANG LA LTA LA NA RO LOM PA LOM PA LOM PA means delusion of grandeur. I'm a great yogi.

That's called LOM PA. LOM SEMS It's a very specific word. It means delusion that you are some great Dharma person.

Oh, I'm a great yogi. GNAL SBYOR PA'ER LOM It's one of the tantric vows. GNAL SBYOR PA'ER LOM To think you are a GNAL SBYOR PA is breaking a tantric vow.

Oh, I'm a great yogi. LOM PA SKYE MA LUNG means you are ultimate stupid man. SKYE MA LUNG means you are like stupid number one.

SKYE MA LUNG CHOS KYI DAM PO TSE RGYAS LOD THOB MA The very the very first part of all Dharma practice is did you give up on this life or not? Did you give up on this life or not? RANG GI RGYUD LA GDUG DANG MIN GDUG BSTOD Check your heart.

Did you give up on this life or not? Then you can say I'm practicing Dharma or not. Did you give up on this life or not?

What's the key to giving up on this life? Death meditation. If your death meditation is good, you are a powerful Dharma practitioner.

If you never heard of death meditation or you are scared because it sounds like you are supposed to imagine your teeth fell out or something, then you are practicing for the wrong reason. So just a healthy death meditation. I'm going to die today.

Okay, so cancel the appointment with the lady who irritates you. And don't go see the movie which is not that good. Okay, and focus.

And then they won't be distracted by the eight thoughts. Okay, they cut the crap in your life. Okay, every morning look in the mirror and say I'm going to die today.

Okay, all right. Last one. Okay, we have one minute left.

I'm going to use it. ,DOD LUNGS PA'I GZHAN ZHIG LA CHO'O, ,RDZIN PA LTAR BA YANG SANGS TE, ,DE BA'I KYANG CHOS KYANG CHOS RANG GIS GSUNGS PA LTAR, ,DOD LUNGS PA is a Lama, another Kadampa Lama. His name was Rinchen Nyingpo.

He lived 1032 to 1116. Anyway, he said to another person, ,CHO'O, Generally, ,CHO'O means what? The Lord, which is Lord Atisha.

But in this case it just means hey man, hey brother. ,CHO'O means hey brother. Hey brother.

,RDZIN PA LTAR BA YANG SANGS TE, You know, you are so generous. You're always giving stuff to other people. Your time, your money, your things.

You are giving stuff to other people all the time. You're just so open-hearted and giving people stuff. That's great.

,DE BA'I KYANG CHOS RANG GIS, And it would be so much cooler if you did any Dharma at all. Get it? What was the guy doing wrong?

Yeah, he's hoping everyone heard about Genesis. Like, did I get in the newspaper for that last temple I donated? Did people understand I gave 2.3 million dollars?

Was it in the newspaper or not? So this guy, he was very generous, but he was hoping everybody would hear about it. And then his Lama said, it's great that you're so generous, but it would be so nice if you did some Dharma.

Okay, got it? It's a difficult sentence because of the RGY. Those of you who are studying Tibetan, G-Y-I-S, which is normally the instrumental.

But it's following NG. It's following a NGA. It's illegal after NG.

It should be G-I-S. G-Y-I-S cannot come after NG. So what it is here is an ancient, it's an ancient, what do you call that?

Emphatic. Emphatic, you should do. It's an ancient verb called RGY, which means to do.

So that's, you got to figure it out. RANG RGY means, if you had done Dharma, that would have been so much better. SEMS PA LTAR CHOS NA JI LTAN RGYAL RGYAL YIN BYA BA YANG DI LA SROD PA YIN Okay, last thing.

In the Kadapa tradition, which the Lamrim came out of, they used to say, you can either serve the world or you can serve the Dharma. But you can't serve both. Make your choice.

Decide which one you want. You can be good at the world or you can be good at Dharma. But you can't be good at both.

So you decide. You got to be really good at stock trading and whatever. Are you going to be the expert in economics or computers?

Or are you going to be the Dharma expert? Because you can't be both. You don't have time to be both.

Make your choice. Be a super Dharma practitioner or be a super, I don't know, stock broker. But you got to make a choice.

One or the other. But you can't be good at both. Can you?

Yeah, you can. So don't believe the way I said it. You can be good at both and you shouldn't be good at both.

And if you're a super Dharma practitioner you will be the best stock broker. But what's he talking about? You can't have them both.

You can't have both. What's he mean? Yeah, you can't have this pride about your giving.

You can't want to be famous for giving temples, building temples, and be a Dharma person at the same time. That you have to make a choice. You can be proud about how many donations you're giving or you can be Dharma person.

But you can't be both. You have to choose. If you want to be famous for making donations then you're not going to be a Dharma person.

Or you can be a Dharma person and you don't care if people heard about your donations. But you can't have both. Can you still be the biggest donor in Shanghai and be a Dharma person?

Yeah, but you can't want everyone to know how great you are. Because then you ruin your Dharma. You can't do both.

You can't have both. Got it? It's a little tricky because some people heard this teaching and they said it's wrong to be donor.

Or it's wrong to help other people. Or Atisha said don't give things to other people. He didn't say that.

He said don't give it with pride. You should give it. Don't get confused.

Some people say, Geshe-la, I'm not going to do anything. Atisha said don't do anything. I give up the world.

I'm just going to sit in my house and do nothing. Really, some people think that. Very big mistake.

Big misunderstanding. There's whole countries where people went and stayed in caves and watched their breath their whole life and didn't do anything. That's a mistake.

Okay? My Lama used to say rabbits watch their breath their whole life. Okay.