«Дар освобождения», курс 21 «Ретрит радости непостоянства», занятие 3

[Speaker 1]
This evening I thought we would go over some of the retreat, the three-day retreat that we're going to do. Most of you have done a three-day retreat here, but maybe some people haven't. Is there any way to project the schedule?

Do you need a copy? I have a PDF if you want. Should I just email it to you, Scott?

[Speaker 2]
We'll get it to you.

[Speaker 1]
There's a special way when you start a retreat. There's a way to protect your retreat cottage. I grew up in America, and we don't believe in superstition very much.

In the beginning I didn't take it very seriously about protecting your cottage and protecting your retreat by asking help from holy beings. But then I started having problems in retreats, and then I thought one day, well, I'll just do what they told me to do, which I don't often do. There's special things you're supposed to do.

There's a special ceremony. You're supposed to get help from special deities who protect the retreat place. You're supposed to ask in a special way, and if your yotels are not good enough, they're not going to agree, so you have to have nice offerings for them.

That's called dharma. Most of you made dharmas before. But so tomorrow, in the afternoon at two o'clock, we'll have a special dharma making together, and we'll teach you, the three retreatants will be in charge of that, and they're going to teach you how to make dharmas.

There's special ingredients and special shape, and there are many, many kinds of dharmas. So they know the correct one for protecting your retreat cottage. So they will teach you how to make the dharmas, and how to paint them and everything.

Then you'll also make a thing called tsampa, which is a special sign that you put on your house. It's nice to have four of them, one for each direction on your retreat cottage. They'll teach you how to make a special tsampa.

These are like a sign for all the Buddhas that I'm doing retreat here, and please help me. They have mantras on them, and the mantras help to protect the place. Then, I don't know, you can think it's superstition, and it's kind of stupid, and it's not necessary, but if you don't do it, you'll have problems.

Like your bathtub faucet thing will break off in the middle of the night, which happened last time. And all the water from all the retreat cabins was flowing out. I know in China, broken water is good luck, but not in America, because we don't have much water.

It's good to do it. It's good when you're doing retreat, just follow the instructions, and everything will go fine. So, that'll be tomorrow at two o'clock.

We'll prepare the tormas together. Tim, you chose who's leading that and everything, right? Torma making, teachers, directors.

Okay. Three-year retreatants. We're very lucky here because we have more three-year retreatants than anybody else in America.

And more than in the world, I think. In my monastery, for example, very few people do three-year retreat. Out of 3,000 monks in Sara, I think there's not 10 people who did retreat, three-year retreat.

So, we have a lot here. We're very three-year retreated. How many?

Raise your hand. One, two, three, four, five, yeah, seven, eight. Me too.

So, it's a lot. So, we're lucky. I've also asked them to lead some retreats in the future.

I thought every time we have a lamrim retreat, we could do a retreat after that, deeper retreat. Many Chinese people, Mexican people, they told me they're interested in shamatha retreat or vipassana. Vipassana is mispronounced for vipashyana.

It's a mispronounced vipashyana. So, we have a very nice system from Tsongkhapa about shamatha and vipashyana. He wrote about 500 pages in his great lamrim.

So, at the beginning of this liberation in the palm of your hands by Pabongka Rinpoche, I thought everyone should understand how to meditate. We didn't start at the beginning. We started at the end, six years ago.

I taught shamatha and I taught vipashyana. We spent, I think, two years on that. I finished it.

Then we started at the beginning. So, you could use shamatha to meditate on lamrim and you can use vipashyana. But a lot of you weren't there six years ago.

So, I talked it over with Michael and Melissa and we were thinking it would be nice after each lamrim retreat, we'll have a deeper retreat. If you want to do shamatha or you want to learn vipashyana, you can use those for everything. It's like cheong yu?

It's like soy sauce. You can use it on everything. All the lamrim, you can use shamatha and vipashyana.

It's like wu jin? Wei jin and cheong yu. You can put it on MSG.

You can put shamatha and vipashyana on everything. Then my plan was, I taught it at the beginning of the lamrim. Actually, you're supposed to teach it at the end.

But I thought, if I teach you shamatha and vipashyana, you can use it for the whole lamrim. The cheong yu and the wu jin. And it will make everything taste better.

But then a lot of people weren't here at the beginning. So, my plan was at the end to do maybe three years of shamatha and vipashyana from Tsongkapa. It would take about three years to finish if we do four times a year.

But then I thought, if you have to wait all that long, it's too long. So I asked Michael and Melissa, John and Connie, we talked about it. So they will lead some shamatha and vipashyana retreats every year.

And you can learn it, how to put the spice on your lamrim. So we'll organize it, I think, for October. We'll start in October.

It's not possible in Mexico because that's a resort. You can't really have your own cabin. I thought to fly everybody up here, but it's going to be like kissing bug season.

And it's too hot here in July. So we'll start in October. So we'll have a special, after the lamrim, you can stay for five days or seven days and do shamatha.

You can learn shamatha and vipashyana. There are many people teaching, they call shamatha, shamatha, or vipashyana. And it's not complete.

It's not the complete thing. And we have it in Tsongkhapa's, very careful about it. He has 500 pages about it.

And it's very beautiful. And it's very complete. And it's very authentic from the Buddha.

I took a vipashyana meditation retreat when I was 23 with Goenka, with the guy who invented it, in Dharamsala. And it was 10 days silence. So I did it with him.

And it's very nice, but it's not complete. And we have it complete. Tsongkhapa taught it complete.

So I think it will be nice for you guys. And the three-year retreat can help teach us those things. And Scott and Jigme are going to make sure that the first two years of videos are available to those guys.

So you can sharpen up your stuff. So we'll make tormas tomorrow at two o'clock. And we'll make the tsam-to, the sign that you put on your cottage.

The next day at five o'clock on Monday, yeah, at five o'clock on Monday, we'll do a special ceremony in the Tsongkhapa Center. And we will close the boundaries in the four directions. So we will do the closest one, which is what, east, Michael?

This gate, roughly, eastern direction. And I'll close that one because it's easy. And then we have to have people to run to the four corners of the land.

Last time Adam went and he met a few snakes on the way. But he was faster. And we have a very big property.

It takes, I don't know, it's how wide across? Like a mile. So it takes a long time.

But somebody will run to the west side and they will put a special marker. And then the south side and the north side, we'll close the place. Then after that you're not supposed to go out.

If you go out, you have to kind of stay out. So you just have to stay on this property. The property is so big, if you walk for two days, you won't reach the end.

So it's okay. So you try not to leave. We have very brave three-year retreatants.

I think only two or three had to leave briefly. One lady had, she's 75? She had a heart.

What do you call? Pacemaker. Put in.

It took 48 hours and she came back. She left retreat and she came back. So you have to be tough like that.

Shouldn't leave. At six o'clock you eat in your own cabin. If you have any special food needs, you have to tell Tim.

You're supposed to have already made your list. But if you forgot something, like maple-colored bread doughnuts, and you have to have them. Then I went to the Chuderiya in Guadalajara next to the cathedral.

Oh my God. Yeah. Then in the evening, seven o'clock, you'll have a mantra session.

Do you have my bag? You have to have a rosary. If you don't have a rosary, Tim, are they available for sale?

You should get a rosary if you don't have one. You need a rosary. If you're buying a new one, then bring it up here and I'll bless it for you.

So if I haven't blessed your rosary, you can leave it up here tomorrow and I'll bless it. Then you can fight with everybody else over which one is yours. Traditionally, you start with your left hand when you do mantras.

You should use your third finger. This is the best finger for doing mantras. So you count like that.

Then if you're new and you didn't do that before, your finger will get tired after ten of them. Then you can switch to your other hand. That's okay.

And then at the end of your session, go back to this finger. Then we'll be doing jatsangkapa's mantra. What page is it on in the Three Treasures?

Do you guys know?

[Speaker 2]
Shen Tzu?

[Speaker 1]
Ming Mei Tse? Page 179?

[Speaker 2]
Page 179?

[Speaker 1]
Everybody should have this book. If you don't have one, buy one tonight or buy one tomorrow. I'm sorry it's expensive.

It's all printing is color and it's expensive. I'm sorry. I used to pay for them all, but it got too expensive.

The mantra that we'll do is on page 179. You want to practice? Ready?

I'll say, then you repeat. Ready? You got your rosary ready?

Ming Mei Tse Wei Der Chen Chen Re Sik Chi Mei Khen Pe Ang Po Jang Pe Yang Du Pung Ma Lu Jom Ze Sang Rek Dak Kang Gen Khe Pe Tsuk Gen Tsong Krapa Lo Sang Chak Pe Shab La Su Wan Dep Ming Mei Tse Wei means very famous. The name of this mantra is Ming Mei Tse Wei. Tse Wei means love.

Ming Mei means it doesn't see anybody that it loves. The love which doesn't see anybody that it loves. When you become a Buddha and you look at people who are in trouble, you realize that they're also coming from you.

There's nobody out there that you are going to help them who's not coming from you. It's like you had your own kids and you're taking care of them. So when you love people, when you see people, when you try to help people, they are coming from you.

There's nobody not coming from you. So this is called love with nothing and cease. Is there somebody there to love?

Yes. Should you love them? Yes.

Where are they coming from? Seeds in your own mind. How many people out there to love who are not coming from your seeds?

Nobody. So this love is called nobody love. Because everyone's coming from you.

Everybody you meet is coming from you. That's why you can help them. If they exist out there by themselves, then you can't change them.

You can try, but it's difficult. But if they're coming from you, you can change them. You can make them a Buddha.

After you make yourself a Buddha. You may say, wait, derchen means like goldmine. chen re sig means avalokiteshvara.

Guanyin? Guanyin? Yeah.

In Sanskrit, avalokiteshvara means, avaloka means looks down at people with a, what do you call it? In English we say when you have a crush on somebody, you're like, like you see this girl in the high school and you really like her and you're like, so avalokiteshvara means angel with a crush and likes to look at people. So, fell in love with everybody.

Like that. re also means, so re means to look like that. Avaloka means to look like that.

But it also means an old dirty rag. So somebody translate it as Mr. Old Dirty Rag. Super stupid.

Okay, sorry. chen re sig. chi me khenpay wangpo chi me means Vimala.

It's totally pure. chi me means totally pure. Wisdom.

What's not totally pure wisdom? Some stuff comes from me, but the worst stuff is not from me. It's from, it's not my fault.

Yeah. chi me means everything's my fault. Stainless wisdom, immaculate wisdom.

khenpa means knowledge. Wangpo means like king. jangpay yang means Manjushri.

Manjushri, Manju, he has two names, Manjushri and Manjukosha. So Manju means soft. Like this silk is very Manju.

So Manju means soft. And Gosha means voice. So it's always whispering in your head.

You come home, your husband calls you stupid. You want to call him stupid. And then you get this little whisper in your ear.

It's like, It's coming from you. It's coming, man, it's coming from you. It's because you yelled at the kids last week.

That's why he's yelling at you. That's Manjukosha. That's his name.

Mister whispered softly in your head. Manjushri. Manjukosha, same thing.

Manjushri. That's the meaning of his name. Manjushri.

Whispers the truth in your mind when you want to get angry. Like that. SDUG BSNGAL BA LA BYAMS TE SONG BA'I DANG SDUG BSNGAL means SDUG means demons.

SDUG means demons. Like, you can meet a demon at Diamond Mountain. We have a group of them here.

When people start retreat, we let them out. We keep them in a special cave. When visitors come from other places, we let them out.

We send one or two to each cabin. They sneak in the cabin. Sometimes they look like a bear, but it's not correct.

They come in the cabin. When you're just about to do a very good meditation, they will say to you, I wonder if the cell phone tower is close enough to check my emails from Shanghai. Then they will whisper in your ear.

Manjushri is whispering on this side, but the demon is whispering. Let's check the emails. Maybe there's something important.

Maybe my pink shoes with the green inside came on Alibaba. That's a demon. Demon isn't some monster with two heads.

Demon is very friendly. Demon is very gentle. Demon is like, come on, we can meditate tomorrow.

We still got two days left. You can just relax today. You have jet lag.

You should take a nap. Okay, that's a demon. Dupung Marble means, Chomsay means he kills all of them.

Who? Sangway Dhar. It's called Keeper of the Secret.

This is Vajradhara. So when Buddha taught the secret Buddhism, he looks like, I don't know. Anyway, he looks special.

Looks like, I don't know, Jimi Hendrix or something. Like dress very beautiful, or wears jewelry. Okay?

Special. Okay, special, beautiful. Sangway Dhar.

GANG CHEN SKAD PA'I TSUL KHYEN SONG BAR PA GANG CHEN means Tibet, snowy country. SKAD PA means wise person. TSUL KHYEN means the jewel at the top of the crown.

And that's SONG BAR PA. So Tibet had many great lamas for many, many centuries. Nick and me and Adam, on the airplane, we usually try to sit together on the three seats together for like a 12 hour flight.

Then we just we just find all these lamas, names and where did they live and when did they live and what did they teach. You can spend your whole life that way. There are tens of thousands of great lamas from Tibet.

But number one SONG BAR PA No contest. There's no close. I don't care when anybody says to you they don't know what they're talking about.

Honestly, I'm not prejudiced. If you understand philosophy, if you understand emptiness and you can, if you read anything, if you understand any sutras, if you study for six weeks, you can see Tsongkapa's like a zillion years ahead. Unbelievable.

You can't even compare. If you don't understand Kongxing, emptiness, then you can think oh, something else is better or something like that. But honestly, I spent my whole life since I was 20 reading those books and there's nobody's close.

Nobody. Nothing. There's 200,000 books.

Nothing is close. Nothing. So by accident you got in the best lineage.

And I'm not kidding. You can put a gun to my head and say something else. I don't change my idea.

It's unbelievable. If you can read it and understand it, there's nothing like that. Nobody's close.

Lhosa Dharpa is his monk's name. Shabla Suandep means I pray, so help me out. So mantra, main meaning of mantra is help me out.

When you're in trouble and you're a kid, you go, Mom! Mom! That's a jol.

That's the mom jol. Mantra. Mom mantra.

Mom! Mom! Mom!

My brother's picking on me. Mom! Mom!

So main meaning of mantra is you're just calling somebody. Then doesn't Tsongkhapa get irritated if you call him 10,000 times in three days? Okay, I heard you already.

I'm coming. No, you say it over and over. You just say it over and over.

And it does something in your mind. And you know I grew up in America. We don't have any mantras, hang on.

We got a Lama message here. Something happens in your mind if you keep saying it. I didn't believe it.

My Lama said 400,000 times you say mantra 400,000 times something will happen in your mind. I'm like, yeah, yeah. Why not 401,000?

Why not 399,000? What's the big deal about 400,000? But something happens in your mind.

Something changes. If you say mom 400,000 times, it takes a few retreats. You're not going to finish in one week.

But something happens in your mind. If you keep saying the mantra of a Buddha then something happens in your mind. If you keep saying a Buddha's name over and over something happens in your mind.

And I don't understand. I didn't study that in school in America. My Lama told me and I tried it and it worked.

So try it. Mantras are not stupid. Some people say oh, just study philosophy.

Only superstitious people do mantras. OM MANI PADME HUM It's not true. You should do both.

And then the mantra will work for you. So it's very powerful. And it changes your whole mind and strange things happen.

So just trust it. Usually in Buddhism we say I have to prove to you this is true. But I can't.

You have to try it. You have to use mantra, say many mantras and something happens in your mind. Like you walk outside and some kappa is standing there.

Did you call me? Did you run out of doughnuts? Weird things happen.

Special things. So while you're doing retreat do your mantras and then watch for special things. Sometimes an animal will talk to you like a bird will talk to you or a tree.

Buddha can move a tree. So be open to special stuff. It's not superstition.

It's a result of mantra. So just be aware and have your open heart and say, being made serious, please talk to me in Tsongkhapa. Please give me a sign.

But if you're not watching for a sign you won't see it. Like he'll be waving the tree in front of your house nothing else is moving and you're like... Okay, so you have to be open.

Watch for something special. Even little things. Like we had ants.

In my three-year retreat we had ants and then after a while you think the ants are talking to me. We had a lizard that lived in our house for, I don't know, six months. And when I meditate he's sleeping in my hand because it's warm.

And lots of special things. We had a wolf come every night. A coyote.

Every night it comes inside. One day I made a... Every year one time I make a Bajajogini birthday cake.

And they never come in the daytime. They're a night time creature. They sleep in the day.

So I put the cake outside and he came and ate it in the daytime. And his tongue is like this long. He's like...

So you have to be open. Okay? And watch for special things.

Alright. So that's the mantra. And at seven o'clock on Monday you'll also be thinking who has helped me in my life.

So that's a gratitude meditation. It starts at seven o'clock. On Monday.

So you're doing Tsongkapa Mantra. Okay? You have the schedule up there.

And think about people who helped you in your life. Okay? Start to make a list in your mind.

If you want to, you can keep a list on a piece of paper. Okay? And keep a list of people who helped you.

So in the beginning you think, oh, it's probably like five people helped me. But after three days you will find like a hundred or two hundred people who helped you in your life. Who helped you with your job?

Who helped you learn to talk? Who helped you learn to dress? You know?

Who helped you in your life? And that's a very strong meditation. Very powerful meditation.

Alright. Okay. And then 8.30 to 9.15 Generally in retreat the sessions get shorter and shorter because you get more tired. So the evening session only 45 minutes. And you do some more meditations. Then on Tuesday, oh, by the way, you'll have a book of, I think it's 14 meditations.

Yeah. And everybody should have this book. If you don't have one, talk to Tim or somebody.

And these are the death meditations that we'll be doing. So I will finish teaching them to you before tomorrow, before Monday. And then we'll be doing these meditations.

So at 7 o'clock on Tuesday morning you're going to do the Djordha which is, I think, the first thing in the book. Yeah? Is it, Phil?

Yeah, okay. It's the first thing in the book. And that Djordha means a ritual to do before you meditate.

So you'll be starting with that. And you just say it, you can say it out loud, okay? And you just go straight through, read it straight through.

Then that will prepare you for meditation. That's a half hour. And then around 7.30, it's good if everybody tries to keep to the schedule, because we will have the same energy. So everybody in the retreat will be doing Djordha at 7.30, okay? If you do it at 8 o'clock, it kind of changes the energy. It's like if people are doing yoga in the same room but they're not doing the same asana at the same time.

It's a little strange. So try to keep to the schedule. If you have a problem, if you don't sleep well, if you have jet lag and you couldn't sleep, or there was a spider crawling on your head all night, then just rest, okay?

It's more important that you rest. So don't go crazy. Like if you don't feel well, or you didn't sleep well, then take a nap, okay?

Don't worry, it won't mess up the rest of us. So if something is not going well, just take a break. That's fine.

It's important in retreat not to push too hard. If you push too hard, you get tense. And it's like you break the sitar string.

So don't push too hard. It's better to be lazy than to push too hard. Okay, alright.

If you push too hard, you get, we call lung. You get a thing called lung. Lung means you start to feel nervous, your hand shakes a little bit, your chest feels tight, you have trouble breathing, you feel scared, you get nervous easily, you worry about too many things.

That's a sign, it's called over-meditation, too much meditation. Then just relax, take it easy. If you feel nervous like that, then just relax, take a walk, eat some heavy food, like big bowl of noodles, okay?

Or eat some heavy food, it helps a lot. Something with a lot of grease or oil. Some people even put butter on their skin.

You can do like that, okay? If you feel nervous, then slow down. So you have to, if you get headaches here, we call kham kham, it's called a dry headache here.

If you feel like some headache here, then slow down, take it easy. If you need help during retreat, they're going to go down to the... Okay.

So every neighborhood, every group of cabins has a special cabin, and there'll be an experienced retreat in there. And if you have trouble, you just go there and talk to them. I think there'll also be some massages if you need, if you feel really...

Right? Emergency massage. Tim will give you.

Okay. Okay, 7.30 on Tuesday, you start the 14 meditations, you do the 1, 2, and 3. So far we did only 1 and 2.

Okay? You want to do number 3 right now? Okay, let's go.

[Speaker 2]
So relax your forehead. Relax your mouth. Relax your eyelids.

Pull in your stomach slightly.

[Speaker 1]
Then try to think about the best Dharma practice you do. Some people I know have a good yoga practice every day.

[Speaker 2]
Some people are very good in their meditation. Some people I know keep a book very well.

[Speaker 1]
One of our German students in Hamburg wrote me that she kept her six times book for ten years without missing a day.

[Speaker 2]
And she sent me an email on the tenth year. Then some people are very good at service of poor people or older people. Some people are good at doing tours or doing talks, teaching people.

Some people are good at writing things. Everybody in this room is doing something. A lot of translators here translating Dharma.

So think about some of the things you've been doing. Maybe the best things. Nobody's good at everything.

Some people are better at meditation. Some people are better at yoga. Some people like to give talks.

Try to think about the thing that you're really good at. The practice that you enjoy the most. Then is that practice pure?

Did you give up this world? It means is any of your practice infected by the eight worldly thoughts? I think those of us who do a lot of touring and we go to many countries and we teach many people it's very easy to have a bad attitude about it and I would like to be famous or I want a lot of people to come to my talk or I hope the newspaper writes something good about me or I hope on Facebook everybody likes my picture many times.

Then did any of your practice get infected by these kinds of thoughts? With your yoga practice suddenly you can do a pose that you couldn't do before. Or do you start to feel better than other people?

Or if you can't do a pose do you feel sad? Because you're comparing yourself to other people. And when the meditation is going well and you feel some kind of bliss in your body do you feel happy?

[Speaker 1]
And then when it's not going well you feel depressed and you think you're not such a good person. How much of your Buddhism Dharma practice is infected by other thoughts? So I'm going to be quiet for ten minutes.

I'd like you to go over your practice. How's your breath? How's your meditation?

How's your yoga?

[Speaker 2]
How's your service of other people? How's your teaching? Go through the things that you enjoy in your Dharma practice.

And if I tell you somewhere in there there's something which is not pure.

[Speaker 1]
There's something you're doing which is not pure. If I say, oh, I have a clairvoyance I can tell in your practice there's just one thing you do that's not pure. Can you find it?

So try hard to find and to admit and be open that there's something in your practice which is not pure. Can you find it? Because when you see it you can take it out.

And if you don't see it you can never take it out. It's like a tumor. So comb through your practice.

Look through your practice. See if there's any lower motivations. Like pride.

Competitiveness. Desire for attention. And see if you can find anything.

So we'll be quiet for ten minutes. Check your practice.

[Speaker 2]
See if there's anything that is not so pure. Mixed in. You don't have to stop it today.

But you have to find it. Okay, here we go. Ten minutes.

Okay, then come back to your breath. Three short breaths. And slowly open your eyes.

Take a stretch.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so that'll be the third meditation. Tuesday. 8.15. Stop at 8.15. I'd like you all to get a...

Do they have their phones? They can use a phone as a mom clock, doesn't it? You're not taking all the phones away, right?

Okay. Scott, do you have that slide for insight timer? There's a very nice meditation app.

You should get a copy. It's free. It's called Insight Timer.

And I like to do my meditations in five or ten minute pieces. So I turn on the app. It makes a ding.

And you can make it louder or softer. It's a nice app. It's free.

You can get it online. Put it on your phone. I like to do...

Nowadays I'm doing like five or seven minute pieces. So if you have three meditations and you have 45 minutes, you can do each one like three times. So do number one once.

Then do number two once. Then do number three. Then start with number one again.

And I know you go to retreats and I know you spend six hours in meditation and I don't believe it. And I've been meditating for, I don't know, 45 years. If you can focus for five minutes, it's amazing.

If you cannot think of other things for five minutes, it's amazing. Those of you who tried to count to ten, you know. If you're really honest.

I don't know if I ever got to ten. And I'm a good meditator. I meditate well.

And I work hard at it. But if you think you're doing more than ten minutes, I think you're just spaced out. You don't really know how to listen to your mind.

And I don't think it's helpful to sit for an hour or two hours. I don't think it's possible. So I suggest you do five minutes, ten minutes, okay?

And time it. And be very very strict with yourself. Don't let yourself wander for five minutes.

And you'll find it's quite difficult. And if you try five minutes, you can do it. If you practice, you can do five minutes.

And then you really meditate well. And it will change your heart. Five minutes of really strong meditation is better than an hour of wandering around.

You won't get anywhere. It won't change your mind. Your mind will be the same after five years.

So if you can really focus on your death for five minutes until the bell rings. One time the bell didn't ring. Chai.

I suggest chai five minutes. And then when you go home to Shanghai or Guangzhou or Guadalajara, you know, you can do five minute pieces. It's very nice.

You can do in the morning if you're busy, do three of them. If you have more time, do ten of them. And it's not hard to do an hour.

You can do it with focus and it changes your mind. That's the purpose of meditation. Your death meditation will get very strong.

I suggest you do five minute pieces. You can try an hour. I think you're just going to wander around and five years later you'll find you haven't changed much.

All right. 8.15 Yoga You don't have to do yoga if you have some other practice, tai chi, qigong, it's okay. Do something to stretch.

You don't have to stand on your head. You don't have to do Earl. Earl's not coming to your cabin.

You can do something that just gets you moving. Then it's a light breakfast. When you eat it should be light.

After eating you can't do anything in a retreat. You might as well just lay down. Because you'll be sleepy.

Generally after eating it's hopeless to meditate. You can try, but you just waste your time. At 11 o'clock there's a Thousand Angels practice in here.

I think it's the second thing in here or the last thing? Second thing? It's called the Thousand Angels.

It's a short prayer to Je Tsongkapa. You can find it in your Three Jewels book. That's why you need a book.

If you're like totally broke and you don't have any money at all take a book and I'll pay for it. But you got to have a book. Then take a break.

Do a little stretching. Then do mantras. The 12.30 mantras. Again, thinking who has helped you. Gratitude meditation. You can walk around your cabin if you want.

In the monastery when we do mantras or we memorize a book we always walk around the room. You can't memorize a book sitting in a chair. It's not possible.

You just pace the room. You go back and forth. It's like seeing a swimmer go to the edge of the pool and then flip over and come back.

You just see monks going like this. I went to Shravasti to see where Buddha taught the Diamond Cutter Sutra. They have special ramps.

They're just ramps and you're just supposed to walk to the end and then walk back and walk to the end and walk back. 2,000 years ago they were using them. If you feel sleepy get up and walk around your room.

If you get dizzy go the other way. Then 1.30 is to go outside and take a nice long walk. I don't think there's any snakes out yet.

There are. Here? Deers don't bite you.

Be careful for snakes. Look for snakes. In the desert you watch where you put your feet.

You don't step over a piece of wood or something if you cannot see the other side. Watch where you step. We have rattlesnakes.

They will bite you. They have poison. If you get bit by a snake go to your local cabin and they'll take you to the hospital.

We only had two people bitten in 16 years. In 16 years. But we all came close.

Last year I almost stepped on one like this far. You will hear some and they warn you. They don't want you to step on them and you're too big to eat.

They won't bite you unless you really bother them. You have to really bother them. Some stupid people like to bother them.

They're very hard to see. They look like the ground. You have to be careful.

If you hear the chk they will go chk. They have a little rattle. If you hear one, just go the other way.

Don't wave. Don't say, where is that? Just turn around and go the other way.

In 16 years we had two people got just one got bit here with one tooth and not much happened. But it's possible. And you have to be careful.

Take a hat. We are high up. That's why the stars are so clear.

So we are like 1600 meters high here. There's not much oxygen and you can get some spots on your skin. It will hurt your skin.

Nice Chinese skin. Don't mess it up. Then wear a hat.

Because it will make a mark on your skin. And take lots of water. Yeah, if you need a hat.

Get a big one. Now, if it's too small it doesn't help. So get a big one.

I'll wear one tomorrow, you can see. And you should have a good one. And take water with you.

You never walk in the desert without water. Never. Just carry it with you.

Carry some water bottle. Everybody has a water bottle. And put some sunscreen on.

And then you don't get all these freckles. And it won't hurt you. These are very serious.

You have to cut sometimes. You have to cut them off. It's not fun.

Some of us are doing it nowadays. So be careful with the sun. The sun is very strong.

It's also very healthy. To get a little bit is vitamin D. Right, Orit?

It's a special vitamin you cannot get in Shanghai. It's vitamin D. It's very good for your skin.

Good for your body. All right. 2.30, take a little snack. Maybe a piece of fruit. 3 o'clock, do the next three meditations. I didn't teach you yet.

I'll start tomorrow. 7, 8, 9. Sorry.

Yeah, 7, 8, 9. Then at 3.45, take another break. 4.15, more mantras. 5.15, dinner. 6.15, thousand angels. And then at 8.15, you're going to do your three more meditations. At 9 o'clock, if you want, go outside, sit on your porch and look at the stars. And do your mantras and look at the stars. There's a joke in Tibet about a guy, he's from India, about a frog.

Frog? Yeah. He lived in a well.

And then he was the biggest thing in the well. And he owned all of the water in the well. And he was very proud.

He was like the king of the well. And then there was a crow who used to come and sit on the side of the well and talk to him. And they became friends.

And then the crow understood that the frog is getting, what do you call it? Conceited. I'm the biggest frog in this, I own the whole water here.

So the crow thought, I have to make him a little bit more, break his pride a little bit. So he said, I'm going to take you on a ride and I'll show you, you want to see some big water? And the frog says, yeah, but I don't think there's any bigger water than my water.

The crow said, just crawl on my back and I'll take you for a ride. So the crow flew to the Indian Ocean in Goa. And he said to the frog, don't open your eyes until I tell you to open your eyes.

And then he put the frog on the Goa beach and he faced him towards the ocean. Then he said, okay, open your eyes. You want to see some big water?

Open your eyes. And the frog opened his eyes and then his brain exploded. He died right there.

Why am I talking about that? We are not the only world. We are not the only planet.

In every inch there are a billion planets. In every inch of sky there are a billion planets. A billion, like this.

And it's good to go out and look at the stars. So do your mantras. I used to lie down and just watch the stars.

I used to climb on top of my yurt and lie down and just watch the stars and do your mantras. If you watch carefully, you can see satellites. It's cool.

It's very good for your mind. I'm not the only people in the world. There are other people.

There are other worlds, many worlds. Because when you become a Buddha you need to take care of all of them. And it's countless.

So relax, lie on your sheets practicing. It's good. And just watch the stars.

It's very good for your mind. If you feel uptight or nervous or you are getting some kind of meditation overdose, then it's very important to look at the sky. Also during the day, blue sky.

Alright, 10 o'clock, try to put your lights out at 10 o'clock. Try to turn all the lights out because everybody will be together. You can see the other cabins.

Try to schedule your day that you can turn out your lights at 10 o'clock. It's just nice for the other people. 15 more minutes, don't worry.

The same schedule for Wednesday and then Thursday same schedule. And then on Friday you will wake up at 6.30. Do a little bit of light Tsongkapa mantras and meditation. And then at 7.30 we'll be coming down to the campus here. Do you want to turn the air on? Do you want it on? No.

Okay. Alright. Do some morning mantras, just for good luck.

We always do a few before we leave the cabin. Then come down in the shuttles. We'll have a little snack here.

After the snack we'll open the retreat boundaries. Then you can go to a major city called Bui. I think there's one store there, I don't know.

Then we'll start the classes again. At 11.30 on Friday we have a group photo. Don't forget on Friday if you want to be beautiful wear something nice for the photo.

Then in the afternoon on Friday I'll start some emptiness teaching from Je Tsongkapa. That's extra dessert. It's like ice cream.

Dharma ice cream. We'll be studying some of his book on emptiness called Gompa Rabso. I'll give you pieces of his book.

I translated about 350 pages of that book. I used to give it out but then I noticed nobody was reading it. So now it's just online.

Adam has it online. I'll show you on Friday. But I'll give you some sexy parts on the paper.

You can read it on the airplane. 3.30 on Friday if you never took vows before, if you want to take refuge vows, if you want to have a Buddhist name and you want to keep vows for the rest of your life, like no killing, no stealing, no stealing other people's partners, no big lies and no alcohol. If you're interested to take this vow then you can do it on Friday.

With some of the older than me monks. And then in the evening on Friday we'll have a Vajrayogini fire offering. That's a homa.

Then it comes from very old custom. Custom is about 5,000 years old from the Vedas. And you can help do the fire offering.

Most of you did it before, I think. Okay. Oh, and then we'll talk more about the other stuff.

Any questions about the retreat? Yes, please. If you're in a cabin with other people I suggest you negotiate before you start.

So, you talk it over with the group that's in your cabin. Okay? And you talk with each other and see if people would rather recite it quietly.

So, it's important that you make an agreement with the other people in your cabin. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, okay, it's a good question.

[Speaker 1]
Mainly you're asking him for jinlapa. Jinlapa means because you asked for his power he does something from his side and your dharma capacity goes to a higher level. So, mainly you're asking for help.

Just like, help me be a better person. Help me be kinder. Help me be stronger.

Help my meditation. Help me become a Buddha faster. And because of asking something changes.

It's that weird thing. What was it? Some guy came to Jesus.

He was blind. And he said, Rabbi, help me. I'm blind.

And Jesus said, why are you asking me? He says, you can do it. You can make me see.

And Jesus said, okay. And then he spit on his hands and he got some dirt and he put mud on his eyes and then the guy could see. And then the guy said to Jesus, Oh, thank you.

I was blind my whole life and you did a miracle. And Jesus said, I didn't do anything. You have faith.

Your faith made you see. I didn't do anything. You asked me.

Because you asked me, I had the power. But if you don't ask, I don't have the power. So, it's the same with Tsongkhapa.

If you ask sincerely during the mantras, you know, help me, jinnap means change my ability. Make me like ten times better than last week. He can do it if you ask and if you believe.

And that's not outside the laws of karma. The karma of believing creates a special seed and he can change. But if you don't ask, nothing will happen.

Yes?

[Speaker 2]
Do you go outside as a retreat?

[Speaker 1]
How do you go outside? Generally, in a retreat, you're on your own. Generally, in a retreat, you're on your own.

And it's a little bit scary and it's a little bit lonely and it's good for you. So, if you are walking during the walking period, Diamond Mountain custom, if you see another person, you just look down. You don't go hide in like that.

You just pretend you don't see them. And it's not unfriendly. It's just that in retreat you should be in your own mind.

You have to stay in your own mind. So, it's better. After this week, next week we'll do another retreat and we made that more strict.

We have only one person per cabin, generally. And that will be a more strict retreat. So, later when you do your own deep retreats, you should do them alone.

We don't have 100 cabins here. But we will later. After you build your cabin.

Yes, Jasmine?

[Speaker 2]
It's about If you are walking in a certain direction, you should be careful that you don't walk in the direction of your feet.

[Speaker 1]
is very important.

[Speaker 2]
It's about the direction of walking. It's about the direction of walking.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, there's two answers, okay? Generally, also when you do the fire offering, you should face to the east. Okay, so that would be that way.

Where the sun comes up, you face to where the sun comes up, okay? It means the sun isn't moving, right? The earth is moving.

You're riding on a very fast car, I think it's going 25,000 miles an hour or something, okay? Then the earth is spinning like this, and it affects your brain, you know? Like if you're on a train and you have to sit sideways, you feel a little bit uncomfortable.

If you're facing the front of the train, you feel more centered. So generally the earth is moving very fast. We are traveling right now towards the east at, I don't know, it's 20,000 miles an hour or something.

You're going very fast. And if you're facing the front of the car, generally you will have better meditation. So if you can face east.

If you're not sure where is east, get up at six o'clock. And wherever the sun comes up, that's east, okay? But in a Vajrayogini practice, you can face the western, Amitabha's paradise.

Western paradise. So if you want to try, if you feel connection to Amitabha, you can face west, okay? So wherever the sun sets, face that way.

So if you want to feel a special connection to Amitabha, then west. Otherwise east, okay? And you don't have to change as the day goes on.

You don't have to change. Generally when you put your meditation cushion down, you should do a prayer and you shouldn't move it after that. For the three days, don't move it.

All right, any other question? Yes, ma'am?

[Speaker 2]
We're going to walk home.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Okay. And we won't go too long.

If there's more questions, I'll answer tomorrow. Okay. When we're out walking and we're saying our mantras, we should perhaps be a little bit quiet so we don't disturb other practitioners?

Yeah, that's a good point. So how loud should your mantras be? You get extra karma points if the spirits can hear your mantras.

Okay? So if you go... They're like, what?

Okay. They're spirits all around you all the time. So they say, try to say them clearly enough that if someone's sitting next to you they can hear clearly.

So you know, say them slow. You see these lamas going... Then, you know, Avalokitesvara's like, what?

Okay, like my mama used to say, just do it nice and slow. MIG MED TSE BA'I THER CHEN CHEN RIN GZIG PHYI MED KHYEN PAS DBANG PO BYAMS PA'I YANG Got it? DUS BU'I MA NUS Okay, yeah.

Like, just say it very clear. You don't go to your mom and say, MA MA MED MED MED MED the brothers hit me, RA RA RA Okay, then It's true, if you're walking by other people, it's probably more polite not to be very noisy.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Any other questions? One more, and then we'll do the rest of them tomorrow.

[Speaker 2]
Also about the mantras, is the pronunciation important? Because what you're saying that spiritual hear you, or it's more, and also it's the Tibetan language is important, or it's like if you translate it to your own language, can have the same. And also, well, if you can give detail about it, like it's also not like self-existent, right?

So the intention and where you're thinking, but also one thing you say that it is more helpful if spirits can help you, like where is the middle way between self-existence and essentially working and so on.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, good question. Generally, this lineage came from Tsongkhapa. He spoke Tibetan language.

Tibetan language is very strange, okay? Honestly, it's not connected to any language in the world. Nothing.

No word is connected to any language in the world. Some people say it dropped out of the sky. I believe it.

It's not connected to any language. It's very strange. It's like it just came from some other world.

So I think there's a big blessing if you say it in Tibetan language. If you mispronounce it, I don't think Tsongkhapa will get upset. It's okay.

He knows you're not Tibetan. And you're going to talk a little bit strange. It's okay.

Okay, he's like... He doesn't mind. Then, yeah, he knows your intention.

Some people say it very clearly in Tibetan and they are too proud about it. Then Tsongkhapa's like, Ew, ow, ew, you know. Then somebody's heart is very pure and they're trying to help everybody and they're like, ma-ma-pfff-wa-wa-pfff.

And Tsongkhapa's like, Oh, that's so cute, you know. Okay, so yeah, it's your intention. But I do think there's a power to the Tibetan.

But if you want to, you can say some in your own language. It also affects your mind. So you can do some in your own language.

But I think the other language is holy. Sanskrit is very powerful. So if you want to do some Sanskrit mantras, that's also very nice.

One last question. Then we go to Ben.

[Speaker 2]
Jason. What if you're camping and you have no refrigerator and no way to cook food? What do you do on retreat for these three days?

[Speaker 1]
I didn't have a fridge for three years. You just deal with it. I didn't have a toilet.

I didn't have running water. I had one gallon of water a day. No electricity.

So I would get some food that doesn't have to be cooked and put it in boxes that animals can't get into. Don't worry about it. It's not so important.

Just pretend you're on a three-day camping trip. I eat a lot of protein bars. It's okay.

It's okay. Buy some things that last a long time, like apples. Plan your meals.

The first meal you can have a salad. The second meal you can have spinach. And then the last day you're not going to have any greens.

Cucumber. Something like that. You just have to plan it.

I've done it. There's some beautiful canyons up near Sedona. There's a place called Sycamore Canyon.

It's like 30 miles long. It's hidden. It has water.

It has a lot of caves. Someday we can go there. It's a very beautiful place.

You can only do as long a retreat as you can carry your food in. I think about six, seven days is about the limit. The longest I ever did there was seven days because that's all the food you can carry.

You just have to plan it. It's important to time it. Spinach lasts longer than romaine.

Cucumbers last longer than spinach. Avocado lasts longer than... You can do it.

The last couple of days you're having freeze-dried stuff. Okay. All right.