«Дар освобождения», курс 21 «Ретрит радости непостоянства», занятие 4

[Speaker 1]
We're going to start with the meditation, so please get ready.

[Speaker 2]
Cough. Blow your nose. And please relax your forehead.

Relax your mouth. Relax your eyes. Relax your fingers.

Pull in your stomach a little bit. And come to your breath. Follow your breath.

And please invite your nama to come sit in front of you and make them an offering. Something sweet you did yesterday. Even just a single sweet thought, you could pass something you did negative yesterday.

Small thing, but let your nama know. And something you did good. Again, tell them something else you did nice yesterday.

And ask them to teach you. Ask them to stay. And decide you're going to die before sunset tonight, 6 30.

Imagine and picture it. Visualize it. Something unexpected.

And then how would you like to spend your day? We'll stay here for about 10 minutes. Okay, please go back to your breath.

Three slow breaths. And sit down here. You can open your eyes.

Take a stretch. Okay, let's go on the scripture.

[Speaker 1]
BOD DOR BA'I KYANG Yeah, at the bottom. BOD DOR BA'I KYANG, KHABS CAN GNYIS GYI CHEN PO'I MI YONGS GSUNGS BOD DOR was also a Kadampa, early Tibetan Buddhist. And he said, if you take a needle and it has two points, then you can't sew anything.

Like, if you try to sew with a needle that has two points, then it just makes a mess. And you see this quotation in meditation books. And it means you can't hold two meditation objects at one time.

So you have to choose one. Usually, when you're doing your meditations every day, you should probably keep one for two or three weeks. Like, stick to a certain meditation or a series of meditations for two or three weeks.

And then before you get tired of it, you can change it to another meditation subject. But you shouldn't try to do two different meditations at the same time, okay? Two different objects at the same time.

Like, I don't know, you can't meditate about your lama's eyes and then at the same time do a death meditation. You have to choose one and follow it for a while. So they say a needle can't sew with two points.

But here it doesn't mean that. Here it has a different meaning. And it means you can't do Dharma and expect to be famous at the same time.

You got to do either one or the other. If you want to be famous, work on that. If you want to do Dharma, work on that.

But don't try to use your Dharma to get famous, okay? Because when you start thinking about whether people admire you, then it destroys the Dharma right away. You won't have Dharma, okay?

You may be meditating and teaching, but you're not practicing Dharma, okay? So you can't do both. You got to choose one or the other.

CHI BA MA BRER NA TSE LOD LTA BA MIN CUNG ZHING TSE MDE LOD LTA BA MA BYUNG NA GNAS PA BYUNG NA RGA BA MA BYUNG NA MI RGA BA CHI BA MA BRER NA means if you don't think about your death, TSE LOD LTA BA MIN CUNG, you won't be able to give up on this life. TSE MDE LOD LTA BA MA BYUNG NA, if you can't give up on this life, GNAS PA BYUNG NA RGA BA, then if you get something, you'll feel very happy. MA BYUNG NA MI RGA BA, if you lose something, you'll be very unhappy.

DE BZHIN DU DE BA, if you feel good physically, you're in a good mood. If you get a little bit of a cold, you start being mean to everybody. NGAN MI NGAN, if you get a little bit famous, somebody mentions your name on the internet, you feel really happy.

MI NGAN means if people are ignoring you, and no one talks about you, you feel unhappy. MTHOS MED, if people say nice things about you, praise you, you feel good. And MED PA, if they criticize you, you feel upset.

CHOS RGYAS KYI DBANG DU MDZO, then if you don't meditate about death, you will have these eight feelings. And if you have these eight feelings, it means you have to do more death meditation. DE RGYAS MI LUS GRUB KYI, then he's going to give the source for the eight worldly thoughts, and he quotes that verse by Nagarjuna from the Letter to the Friend, Suhalaka.

And we covered that verse already. JIG RTEN KHYAM PA means knower of the world, and that's how Nagarjuna addresses the king. Like, you know the worldly things, but I have to teach you Dharma.

And then NYES DANG MA NYE, get things, don't get things. DE DANG MI DE, feel good today, don't feel good today. NYEN DANG MI NGAN, people are talking about you, people aren't ignoring you.

MTHOS MED, people are praising you, people are criticizing you. JIG RTEN CHOS RGYAS PO, these are the eight worldly thoughts. BDAG GIS YI YUL MIN PAR, they are not worthy objects of your mind.

SGO NYON MDZOD, make your mind level, make your mind steady. BYAS SEMS PA LTAR, then he gives another example of Potowa. Potowa was also an early Kadampa.

YUL PHUL BA'I LO RGYUD BYAR, YUL means turquoise, turquoise stone, and it's very popular in Tibet. And silver is very popular, so some people think they're related to American Indians in this region, Navajo, Hopi, and Apache. I don't know.

But Yul is a very popular stone in Tibet. PHUL BA means, somebody offered Potowa a turquoise, and LO RGYUD means the story. He told us the story about Potowa's turquoise.

Then he doesn't tell you the story, so I went and got the story for you. It's from the Lives of the Lamrim Teachers. There's a two-volume set by one of the teachers of the Dalai Lamas.

NEN GCIG BYIN BDAG GIS YUL GRU MAR CHEN PO ZHIG One time a sponsor gave Potowa, he offered Potowa a large turquoise with a reddish hue, which is more expensive. PHUL BA CHAG TU MA SHES PAR Then he didn't take it in his hand, and he just pointed to the table. He just pointed to his table.

BDUN DU ZHOG GCIG He said, BDAG MDZAD means he didn't even say anything. BDAG MDZAD means he made a gesture that was like, you can put it there on the table. He didn't even want to touch it.

It's very expensive, it's like a diamond, and the guy put it on the table. DNGUL BA LEGS PAR MDZAD Then he did a prayer for the sponsor, for their family and for the sponsor. And then it looked like he wasn't going to take it.

He wasn't going to take it home. SANG NYID RGYAS SHES BU NO RNAMS CHOG GZHAN DUG PAS Then all of their group, the whole group, Potowa and all his students, the next day they left. They went to another place.

BYIN BDAG DE YI MA BYAS PA ZHUGS BSANG Then the sponsor thought, oh, he probably took it. They probably took it at night. So he snuck into the teaching room and he went to the table.

You know what happened. BYIN BDAG DE YI MA BYAS PA ZHUGS BSANG DUG YUL DE DANG DGANG ZHAG TU BDAG PA DANG DUG It was just sitting there. The priceless jewel was just sitting there.

And they didn't take it with them. They forgot to take it. They weren't thinking about it.

RGYAS SHES BU RTOG BA DANG DE'I KHOR THAMS CAD KYANG SANGS RGYAS KYI DNGOS PO GANG LA'ANG MI CHAGS PAR Then all of his, RGYAS SHES BU RTOG BA and his students, they didn't have much attraction to money or to physical things. ZAD LAS BDAG SHA DAG TU BYUNG STE What's SHA DAG? We had it yesterday, but that was a long time ago.

SHA DAG is colloquial. You use it a lot in the monastery. It means 100% or exclusively.

So SHA DAG TU, they weren't interested in money. RNAM PAR LHAG PA DE TZAM YANG THAMS PA RINPO CHE RGYEN DU CHE YOD And then the writer of this biography, who's one of the teachers of the, I think the 8th Dalai Lama, something like that. He said, if you want a real gem, this story is a gem.

That kind of attitude is a gem. So that was kind of cool. Ling Repa is an early Kagyu Lama.

And he has a very famous verse. I'll read it to you. So in Buddhism, we have a custom that sometimes we go to meditate in a cemetery.

So cemetery nowadays is very clean. You want to hear a cemetery story? Yes, anyway.

Dalai Lama's teacher, senior teacher, Ling Rinpoche, he came to America once. And he's supposed to be Yamantaka. He's supposed to be Lord of Death, killer of the Lord of Death.

And so he was, I don't know, he was like 80 years old. And I was 26 at the time. And they got a limousine.

And they said, you're going to drive the limousine. So I was his driver. I told you this story, I don't know.

Anyway, and at the time I was studying Abhidharma. I was memorizing Abhidharma. So I was driving the car.

And they said, when he gets in the car, don't talk to him. Don't say anything. Because he's Yamantaka.

And I was like, okay. And I practiced driving a limousine with this guy. And I was so scared I ran to a stop sign.

Then, I guess in India the important people get in the front of the car. And I was expecting him to get in the back. And he sat down next to me.

And then I'm driving the car. And there's two high lamas in the back. And I had to drive him for like four hours.

And I was driving and he says, Hey, what's your name? And I'm like, Mike. How old are you?

And I got scared. I said, 62. Then he laughed.

He said, oh, you're going to live a long life. Then we kept driving. And the guy, the lama in the back said, No, Mike knows the Abhidharma really well.

And so he quoted the second chapter. NAB PO'I RNAM NI BDUN BYAS LA BA'ANG PHYIR BZHIN DU RGYUD LA LO He quoted the second chapter. I've just memorized that part the day before.

And I was like, NAB PO'I RNAM NI BDUN BYAS LA BA'ANG PHYIR BZHIN DU RGYUD LA LO He's like, wow. Then we kept driving. Then he saw a cemetery.

And he said, what's that? I'm not supposed to talk to him. And the two lamas fell asleep in the back.

He was like, what's that? I said, that's a cemetery. He says, what's that?

I said, you know when people die, they bury the body under the ground. He says, what? They take a nice park and they dig a hole and they put the body in there and they cover it up and they waste the whole park just to bury a dead body?

I said, yeah. He says, haha, that's so stupid. And why don't they just burn it or give it to the birds?

So we talked the whole way. We had a good time. Anyway, so in the old days in India, a cemetery is very frightening, very bad place because they just put the bodies out on the ground.

We were in Varanasi a few weeks ago, right? They just throw the bodies on the ground. They burn some of them.

We were in the Ganges River. Sometimes you see an arm floating down. Yeah, that was where we were.

And they just throw, if they don't have enough wood, they just throw the rest of the body in the river. that's why I got sick. then in the old days, Buddhist meditator will go sit in that place and the wild animals come at night and they tear up the bodies and they eat the bodies and it's very scary to sit there next to a dog that's tearing up a body.

Then you're supposed to examine your mind. You're supposed to examine your own fear. And then this was a Buddhist practice for many centuries.

People did that. Just to check out your own fear. You can go to the side of a cliff and sit there and check your own, how do you feel about yourself?

These are just ways to check your mind. So he talks about, he talks about a special burial ground, cemetery. ,KHOR BA RNAMS BDOG GI GRONG KHYER NA, The biggest burial ground is in your own mind.

If you want to go to a scary place, go to your own mind. You don't have to go to Varanasi. Just go to your own, inside your own mind.

,RNAMS BDOG GI GRONG KHYER, There's a whole city of stupid ideas there. ,'JIG RTEN PHYIR GYIS RANG RANG RGYUR, And there are zombies walking around in the city. You know, like Z-War, what do you call it?

World War Z. Zombies. I saw it in the airport lounge.

There are zombies walking dead people. And then he says, those zombies, you don't have to go to Varanasi to meet a zombie. You got them in your own mind.

Your mind is full of zombies. What are they? The Eight Worldly Thoughts.

Eight Worldly Thoughts. They are in your mind. In this cemetery here.

,'JIG RTEN GYIS RANG RANG RGYUR, If you need a scary place to go, go to your own mind. Go inside your own mind. And you can meet some scary people there called the Eight Worldly Thoughts.

You want to meet scary people? Go inside your own head. Okay?

,LAM MA ROL NYAM ZHIG ZAD NA, ,DE ROL RDZO, Then there's a practice where a lama can kill a zombie. It's hard to kill a zombie. But a lama can kill it.

And so, they say if you want to go on a zombie hunt, and you want to kill a zombie, then go inside your own mind. Try to find those Eight Worldly Attitudes. Like, oh, if I teach really well, people will admire me.

And then try to kill that zombie. They're hard to kill. Because they're already supposed to be dead, right?

You're supposed to be a Dharma person. But they keep waking up again. Like you think, you think, oh, I'm not so proud anymore.

Then you start to get proud about not being proud. And they won't stay dead. They won't stay dead.

You think you killed it. And then they get up again. So, he says, if you want to go to a cemetery, just go in here.

And that's true. I always have two or three students, they hear about this, they try to go to a cemetery. They get really cold.

They don't get enough sleep. And they come home and watch TV.

[Speaker 2]
So, I got you a bunch of quotes.

[Speaker 1]
There are lots of lamas have talked about that verse. But if I go like that, then I can't teach you all the meditations. You have to learn for the three days.

So, I'm going to skip it. But it's a lot of cool stuff.

[Speaker 2]
By the way, one lama says you should be like a corpse.

[Speaker 1]
Corpses don't get all excited if they get a new girlfriend. They don't get all upset if they lose their girlfriend. You know, that way you should be like a corpse.

You give a corpse, I don't know, a yo-chow, and then you take away the yo-chow. They don't get all excited.

[Speaker 2]
I'm at class three. You can just type class three. Class space three.

Class space three.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, good. Then I said, ,'DI LOD DANG NA, ,DANG NAS BLO BUG CHU LA BSTED So now he's going to go off on something. He doesn't talk about it.

He doesn't talk about where he got it from. But I studied it for a long time. There's a thing called the Ten Riches of the Kadampa.

There's ten ideas called the Ten Riches of the Kadampa Lamas. They're from a thousand years ago. He starts to talk about them.

I would just like to take you through those ten. I'm going to use a different commentary. It's one that I translated about 30 years ago.

[Speaker 2]
They're called the Four Aims, Four Goals, the Three Diamonds, and the Three Promotions.

[Speaker 1]
How many does that make? Ten. So the four aims are, and this is a meditation that you're going to do.

It's called Practice, Beggar, Death, Ravine. Practice, Beggar, Death, Ravine. Ravine means a cliff.

Like this is a ravine out here, this dry place. Practice, Beggar, Death, Ravine. Or a cliff.

What do you call it? Wash. Like this wash here.

Like this empty wash out here. So those are the first four of the ten. These are the Kadampa Ten Riches.

So those four are going to be one of your meditations. Four ideas. Number one.

What was the first? Practice. So this is where you go to a retreat and your mom made you go.

You're not so interested in it, but you want to respect your mother. So you go to the retreat and then maybe you get interested. You hear about some things and you say, oh, that's kind of interesting.

I think I'll try to practice. And then you get serious about your practice. And it takes time to do practice.

And then you want to have a career also. And if you want a career in a real company, like my company, you got to spend time. You got to put time there.

You should go early. If everyone comes at 9 o'clock, you should be there at 7.30. If you really want to become a vice president, and you have to stay after. You have to stay till 7 o'clock or 8 o'clock.

I did it for 19 years, I know. You got to come early. You got to set out the work.

You got to read all the news. What's the economic stuff for today? Then you have to call India.

Then you got to call China before 9 o'clock. You got to do all this stuff. And then afterward, after 5 o'clock, everybody else goes home.

You got to stay. If you want to be a big guy, you got to stay. You look at all the computer reports and figure out who didn't do their work.

It's like 10 hours, 12 hours. You have to, if you want to be like an international VP or something. Then you go to some program and they're talking about meditating every morning and doing your yoga every morning.

Then you got to go to the old folks' home and help the old lady. You're supposed to help the poor people. You're supposed to study, go reading club.

Then it gets to be crunch. It gets to be a conflict. You don't know what to do.

If you meditate and do yoga and study in the morning, you're not going to get to work at 7.30. Or you can wake up at 4. That lasts about a week. You can't do it.

You can't do both. In the Kadampa system in ancient Tibet, at some point, maybe you have to make a choice. I'm not going to be a vice president.

I'm not going to be a vice president. I got to do my yoga. I got to do my meditation.

I want to go to class in the evening. I can't leave at 8 o'clock. I got to leave at 5.

I did it for many years. I had to make those choices for many, many years. I got so much hassle from people.

I got so much criticism from people. Why are you going to India? I have to study.

Yeah, but we have an important meeting. I'm sorry, I got to go. It was always tense.

A lot of tension. Stay late. I'm like, no, I can't.

I got to class. Well, then come early. I can't.

I got to meditate. Well, then what do you want to do? Do you want to be a meditator?

Do you want to be a vice president? At some point you got to make choices. That leads to the second one, which is what?

Practice. You're never going to be as rich as other people. You're not going to be.

You'll never be the $200,000 a year person. You make a choice. If you decide to meditate and do your practice, then you're not going to be super rich.

It's not going to happen. And then if you get really serious, what happens? What's the third one?

Oh yeah, you die. It's like you don't have enough money to even live. In America, if you don't have a lot of money, you can't get to a good doctor.

You know what I mean? My doctor, I have a doctor. I don't like doctors.

Recently I got one just for fun. They're like, here, you need this and this and this and this and this and this. I'm like, that's $500 a month.

They're like, yeah, but you should take them. I'm like, I don't have $500. I can't.

So then you make another choice. Are you going to do all the supplements, the $500 supplements and sign up for Narayana? That's like $500 a month.

You know, at some point, because you did your practice, you don't have enough money to pay all the doctors, and you die. And then, what's the fourth one? Cliff means, ravine means, maybe if you follow that career path, you don't leave enough money behind you for having a funeral.

So they have to take your body and just throw it someplace. Maybe in modern times, this should be a dumpster. Dumpsters have big garbage cans behind the store.

So in the night time, your family will take your body, put it in a dumpster. Because he didn't leave us any money to give a funeral. We didn't have any money for a funeral.

So just throw him in the dumpster. It smells funny for a few days. It's okay.

So, that's like an extreme path. So what is it again? What's the first one?

Practice. If you spend the time to practice, you probably won't have time to be vice president. Less money.

Less money, you can't afford expensive doctors. Die. Die.

Can't afford a funeral. Dumpster. Throw the body in the garbage.

Alright? So if you do death meditation, you make those choices. You make a choice.

You decide what do you want to be. All of my friends thought I was crazy. That goes to the next one, the three diamonds.

Ready? We did four, right? Now we're doing three more.

Three diamonds. First one is... What is the first one?

Put the uncatchable diamond ahead of you. It means if you start to practice seriously, your friends will all say you're crazy. And your family will all say you're crazy.

You waste your time. What do you do every morning meditating? Why don't you go to work early?

Get more money. Or you spend your time doing your... Why are you doing all that stuff?

Why are you studying all day? Why aren't you out and finding a nice boy at the nightclub? Your family will start to say you're crazy.

Uncatchable diamond means just go for it. They will try to stop you. And they will try to say you're stupid.

Or you're a strange person. What are you doing? Why do you spend all your time meditating and reading these books?

Why don't you be a normal person? Then you have to be uncatchable. Like you're running ahead and nobody can catch you.

Your family is criticizing you and you're like... Uncatchable diamond means you're like a diamond. You're strong.

Your mind is, what do you call it? Stubborn like a diamond. And your family is like...

And you're like, yeah, okay. But they can't catch you. They can't pull you back.

Unabashable diamond. Unabashable is a hard word in English. Abashable means I'm embarrassed.

I regret what I did. Like, oh, I went to Arizona. I spent 20 days doing a retreat.

I couldn't be at work. I couldn't be at home. My family said I made a mistake.

Unabashable means I don't think so. So in the Dharma business you have to be stubborn. People will say, well, don't you think you made a mistake going to Arizona for 20 days?

You say, no, I don't think so. Yeah, but you didn't get a promotion at your job. Yeah, but I have to die.

I have to get ready. I have to pack my suitcase. Then your family will say, no, you're stupid.

You don't have to pack your suitcase. Then it becomes a, what do you call it? Tension.

You want to pack your suitcase and they don't even think they have to pack a suitcase. It's hard. You have to be like a diamond.

Then people... I went to a big school, a big university. All my friends became famous lawyers and very wealthy, like head of the Atomic Energy Commission and things like that.

Nowadays they all write me and ask me for help. Oh, I'm going to die. What do I do?

Can you teach me to meditate? They wasted 30 years, 40 years. They wasted their life.

And it's too late. They want to learn meditation. They're already 65.

I said, why didn't you ask me 30 years ago? I was busy. I was working.

I said, well, where's all the money? They said, I left it to my kids and they spent it in like two years. Okay.

So you got to get your suitcase ready. If you think about death, you will be uncatchable. You're just going ahead and getting your suitcase ready.

And you are helping people and you want to become a Buddha. And you're just zooming ahead like a rocket ship and everybody else is like, and you're like, okay, bye. And then you make mistakes in your Dharma practice.

You will make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. And then your friends will say, see, I told you.

You tried that vegan diet and you got a cold. You know what I mean? And then you got to just ignore all the criticism.

People will criticize you. They'll keep telling you you made the wrong choice until they get old enough. Then they'll start asking you to help them.

Almost every student who left this kind of teachings writes me later. I call it the email. I get the email.

And it's like, my husband died in my arms. What do I do? Please do something.

And I'm like, I've been teaching Lamrim for 21 retreats. You didn't come to two of them. And now you want me to do something?

I get the email. I always get the email. They don't come for 19 retreats and then they write me the email.

What do I do? My husband died. I got cancer.

What do I do? I'm like, I just spent 19 10-day retreats explaining to you what to do, but you didn't come. So, get ready.

Don't think the three diamonds mean, oh, one diamond means you keep it at your side. One diamond is future, right? You just shoot off in the future like a rocket shooter.

Don't worry about what people say. About the past, okay, I made some mistakes in my practice. You can criticize me, but that's over and I'm already past that.

I'm on my way. And then in your hand you keep the diamond of super stubborn Dharma mind. All the time with you.

It's called a wisdom diamond at your side. So wisdom diamond at your side means in the present time. Uncatchable diamond means in the future, I'm off.

I'm practicing. I don't care what you think. I'm already on level nine.

And then in the past, yeah, okay, maybe I made some mistakes. Maybe I did too much meditation or I made mistakes in my meditation or my practice. That's okay, but I'm learning.

You can't have a life without mistakes. So just don't worry about it. Unabashable.

Did you make mistakes? Yes. Were you making mistakes in your practice?

Yes. So shouldn't you give up your practice? No.

And then later they'll be asking you, how do I practice? So just leave it, okay? And go, go for it.

That's the three diamonds, got it? Okay? One is future, one is past, one is now.

Future means I'm going. I don't care what you guys think. If you think you're not going to die, that's okay.

I know I'm going to die. I'm packing my suitcase. And then, okay, I didn't have a perfect life, but I'm working hard and I don't regret the time I spent.

It was well spent. Even the mistakes were well spent, okay? And then, I'm stubborn.

You got to be stubborn in the Dharma business, okay? That's why it's so hard for Dharma people to work together. Because they're all stubborn.

Because you can't be here if you're not stubborn. So don't worry about it. If you have trouble working in a group, like Shanghai group is always, then don't worry about it.

You have to be stubborn to be in the Dharma group. Then you put like 20 stubborn people in the same room. It's like stubborn against stubborn.

Shanghai, Singapore, same, right? So don't worry about it. If you're not stubborn, you won't be here.

Because the whole world is telling you you're stupid. The whole world says, why you go out in Arizona and sit there in a little house for two weeks? Well, you're so stupid.

There's not even any internet there. You're like that man. I heard one lady, she said, do you have internet in the retreat?

I said, no. She said, oh, I don't want to go there. Okay?

So don't listen to people, okay? They will come to you later and they will ask you how to meditate, how to do death meditation. They will ask you later for help.

I tell you, I've been there. All my classmates from Princeton University, they all write me now, all of them. My boss in the diamond business, last week, asking me questions.

What do I do? I said, you just wasted 30 years. He's like, yeah, but what do I do?

One of my diamond partners became my student, Yoram, right? We were diamond partners for 20 years. He wasn't interested at all.

And then suddenly he's like, ah, Geshe-la, I need the Dharma. I'm like, okay, okay. Now he's one of the best teachers in Israel.

Okay? So don't be, don't listen to people. They will say you're crazy.

You tell them they're crazy. You're not getting ready. You're not getting ready to die.

You're crazy. I'm not crazy. You're eating yotas.

I'm meditating. You're crazy. Okay, the last part of those ten, it's called the Three Promotions.

When you're born, you're born into a group called people. Okay? When you're born, you're born into a group called people.

Okay? Then if you get interested in Dharma, you don't have time to be a big executive. Okay?

Like maybe you have to do guard duty or something like that. You don't have time with your practice. You don't have time to be a super business executive or something like that.

Okay? You don't have time. So you go underground.

That's called dogs. You join the dogs. You're born as a human and then you join the dogs.

Dogs means you have an invisible job. I like to think about... I was going to work in a photo mat.

Photo mat is a little box in a parking lot and every hour some one person comes and gives you photos to develop. This is in the old days. Then you have the rest of the time to study and meditate or like night guard in a warehouse or something.

I like to work at 7-Eleven or Circle K, the convenience store. Everybody thinks you're stupid. That's what I put in the picture.

Do you have that picture? Yeah, there's a lady. She's working in a convenience store.

Everybody who comes there thinks she's stupid. Oh, you're just working for $6 an hour. You must be stupid.

But actually she's a secret Dharma yogi practitioner. She's like practicing very well. In the morning she meditates.

She does her yoga. Then she goes to the convenience store to work for $6 an hour. And she's underground.

That's called dog. She meets a dog. Everybody thinks she's a dog.

Everybody thinks she's stupid. Oh, why couldn't you get a good job? Why are you working in a convenience store?

Why are you such a stupid person? Then she's okay. She doesn't tell anybody she's really smart.

They just say, you're working for $6 an hour. You must be stupid. She's like, yeah, okay.

Do you want matches with your cigarettes? You know what I mean? She's just quiet and she's working on her Dharma in here.

So it doesn't matter what's your job. You can join the dogs. Inside the dogs you will find the gods.

Inside the dogs you will find the gods. It means people who go join the dogs, then they start to see devas. They start to see deities.

They start to see angels. In the convenience store, in the 7-Eleven, Manjushri walks in and starts talking about emptiness. Okay?

Understand? So all those great yogis who met Manjushri or they met Amitabha, it's people who join the dogs. That's where you get to see the angels.

Dog means I don't care if you think I'm a good person. I don't care if you think I'm successful. I don't care.

I'm working on my Dharma practice. Okay? And I don't care.

And that's the only way you can see angels. See? If you think I'm an important person, I'm a vice president, if Amitabha wants to meet me, she'll have to make an appointment.

You know what I mean? Like that, okay? But the people who are voluntarily dogs, they will meet the angels.

Then they will have a real... they can hang out with angels all day in the convenience store.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Alright, got it? Those are the ten riches of the Kadambas. Now, you ready?

You ready? Are you listening? It's all wrong.

It's all wrong. Okay? If you join the dogs, you're going to make more money anyway.

You can't stop it. Okay? If you're meditating, if you're practicing, okay?

If you really understand Dharma, money will come to you and you can't stop it. Who built this two million dollar cafeteria? Who bought this land?

This land is three million dollars. Who made the 30 houses? This is another five million dollars.

There's a ten million dollars in this place in the last few years. Okay? Who made it?

A bunch of dogs. Okay? So if you practice well, if you really understand Dharma, the Buddha said, you will never be a dog.

You will always... money will come to you. You can't stop it.

Okay? So don't worry about it. The best way to get to be a vice president is to do your yoga and to do your Dharma practice and to do your meditation and to help poor people, help sick people, help elderly people, and they will make you vice president.

Okay? Because that's the karma. Okay?

You don't get to be vice president by coming in early. And you don't get to be vice president by staying late. Okay?

You get to be vice president by making the karma. Okay? So the end of the Kadampa Ten Jewels is always the same story.

They always say, you can forget it. All of it. Money will come to you.

Okay? Money will come to you. You want money, it will come.

Okay? If you practice. Okay?

If you practice well, if you understand Dharma, if you understand where money comes from. Because you're meditating, because you're studying, because you're doing your yoga, because you're serving poor people. Okay?

Money will come to you. This two million dollars over here in the kitchen, we didn't have to make the money. It just came.

You see? We didn't have to work. We didn't have to pay taxes.

We didn't have to go through ten years of trouble fighting for money. It just came. Okay?

It's much easier. Okay? Plant the seed.

Then you don't have to do the accounting and you don't have to fight with the taxes. You know, it just comes. Okay?

Because you understand where money comes from. So the end of the story is always the same. Lord Buddha had the karma to be king of the world for ten billion years.

Okay? He had that much extra karma in his pocket, you know, to be king of the world for like ten billion years. And then one day he took all that karma and he said, I dedicate this karma to all the people who spend their time practice, meditate, yoga, serve the poor, and who have lousy job.

I dedicate all this karma to them. And they will never be poor. It's not possible.

They will never go hungry. They will never die and their body is thrown in a dumpster. It's not possible.

So Buddha actually dedicated... He put that karma in the bank. And there's a way to give karma to other people.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
If you're a high person, like a Buddha, there's a way to bank karma for people. And he banked it. And then he said something really extreme.

He said, if any Dharma person goes hungry because they did the Dharma, then I will not be a Buddha. I retire. Then I didn't become Buddha.

Cancel it. He said that. Got it?

So, this whole thing of you're going to have to meditate, you're going to have to spend time doing your practice, and because of that you won't be a big person at work, it's not true. If it was true, you should still be willing to do it. But the truth is the opposite.

Money will come to you. You'll always have enough. More than you want.

Got it? Should you be willing to be poor? Yes.

Should you be willing to be a nobody at work? Yes. Do you have to be a nobody at work if you do it?

No. You'll be somebody. You'll be successful.

You'll be super successful. You have to understand that. It looks like you're wasting two weeks of your time to come to Arizona, but actually you're putting a lot of money in the bank.

You're actually doing something very smart. You're not losing anything. You're making extra money.

It's a good investment. You had a question back there?

[Speaker 2]
Oh, the last three?

[Speaker 1]
Last two. The last three are called the three promotions. So, you are born as a human being.

Normal person. Then if you're... What's a promotion mean?

For me, promotion means two things. Number one, they come to Geshe Michael and say, you're now Vice President of Andean International. You get to be in charge of 10,000 people.

They may give you a promotion. That's one kind of promotion. The other kind of promotion I like is when Scott comes to me and says, somebody paid for you to have business class to China.

You get to sleep the whole way. I'm like, huh? That's a promotion.

So, promotion means you go up, right? So, if you're lucky in this life, you'll get promoted to the dogs. Convenience store worker.

Lousiest job in America. It used to be guest guide, but now you do your own guest. And because you got promoted to the dogs, you get another promotion to the gods.

Devas, angels, deities. Because you're so humble, you can meet them. Because you have humility, you can meet them in the convenience store.

They'll come in and say, where's the Coke? And then they'll say, you want to go to Vajrayogini's Heaven this afternoon? And you say, well, let me show you the Coke first.

Really, that's how it happens. Proud people never meet those people. You see what I mean?

Got it? It's the second promotion is to the gods, after the dogs. But again, and we'll take a break, but never think you're losing money.

I hear people say that. I gave up manager position in my job because I was practicing my dharma. That's wrong.

That's wrong. If you lost a manager position at work, it's because you didn't practice. Understand?

If you meditate well. Wang Xia in Shanghai, she's like a manager at Apple Corporation. That's a good example.

She's balancing her dharma practice and her business. They are making their business their dharma practice and they're mixed together. The dharma practice and the business are not separate.

You don't have to say, I'm going to practice dharma, I don't have time for my business. You shouldn't be able to do both. Because the business success comes from meditating and from helping other people.

If you think your dharma practice is costing you success, you have a problem. There's something wrong there. It will come together.

If you know where things are coming from, success will come. If you don't spend time to learn that, you won't be successful. Got it?

So meditate every day, yoga every day, it makes you more successful. You'll be more successful. Maybe instead of being a vice president in somebody else's company, you will start your own company.

Like that. If you're successful for somebody else, you don't have time to start your own thing. You got it?

We pay, John Brady pays his workers, they work for eight hours a day, I guess, but they only work for six hours a day. One hour a day they get paid to meditate. And they get paid to do one hour of yoga a day.

All his workers get paid two hours a day for yoga and meditation. Because he gets more work. He gets more work out of that.

Better work. Got it? So don't believe this Kadampa stuff.

Don't think of it that way. Many people did that. Many people made that mistake.

Oh, I have to do my dharma and I can't be successful. That's a mistake. And Buddha spent...

Here, they spent many pages explaining it. They quoted...

[Speaker 2]
Where is that? Search for the number 60,000. Just command F60, 0, 0, 0.

Yeah, here. This is the story. I translated it for you.

That's it. Yeah, right there. Can you go down a little bit?

A little more.

[Speaker 1]
This is from the Lotus Sutra. Very famous sutra. It's the most famous sutra in Japan.

And it says, if you do any dharma practice, you will never be hungry. Here it says, there will come a day when people trade a box of pearls for a box of flour. Famine.

Days of famine. But people who are meditating and yoga, they will never be hungry. Who said that?

It's a Buddha. It's his own quotation. Got it?

So don't think if I practice dharma or if I go for retreat, I'm going to lose my job or I won't be successful, I won't make money. It's the opposite. If you take time to learn where things are coming from, you can be very successful and have a beautiful dharma practice.

And that's the goal.

[Speaker 2]
Got it? Okay. All right, take a break.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Okay. DE NA.

You okay, Adam? DE NA TSE NI LOD DANG NA BLO BUG CHOS LA STE If you manage to give up this life, then you're mainly focusing on your practice. DE BYAS SU TSOR BA SOGS SBYOR MI SBYOR GYI BSAM PA BYUNG NA Then maybe it's going to cost you some money in the beginning.

Maybe you can't be as successful in the beginning. BSAM PA BYUNG NA LDAN DAG BA MA BYUNG NA'ANG RUNG Then okay, that's okay with me. So the transition to dharma practitioner takes...

It might cost you some career. Later, the career will be much greater than it would have been. RUNG NYAMS PA'I CHOS BUG BRANG LA BSTOD DGOS So you have to aim your dharma practice at BRANG.

BRANG means broke. Broke all the time. Familiar?

Yeah. All right. BRANG Then we're going to skip that whole extra piece I put in there.

BDAG CA GYIS BSTAN PA'I KHYANG B-D-A-G Yeah, keep going. There you go. Yeah, good.

BDAG CA GYIS BSTAN PA'I KHYANG KHYIM NAS KHYIM MED PAR RAB TU BYUNG BZHIN So even the Buddha decided to give up his palace and went out in the forest to practice. RGYAL SRID KYIS SPYON BYUR KUN DOR NAS He gave up all the wealth of a prince. KHYAD NYID KYI CHOS NAS NYES PA'I SNABS SA ZHES PA And he got his clothes out of dumpsters.

Okay, KHYAD NYID means garbage. He took his clothes out of the garbage. And you know, I mean I told you before, but the monk's robes with the patches, nowadays you buy an expensive piece of cloth, you cut it up and you make patches.

In the old days, in the old days you're supposed to take pieces of cloth out of the garbage and sew them together and that's why we have these patches. ZHES PA BLO BUG CHOS LA STE So even Lord Buddha decided it was okay to give up his career for his practice. CHOS BUG CHANG LA STE PA YIN And he also aimed his practice at becoming a beggar or broke.

BYAS RIM PA BYAS KYANG DE BZHIN ZAD And Je Tsongkapa did the same thing. Je Tsongkapa never had a job. Okay.

I mean it sounds easy now, but it was hard at the time. Sometimes they had like $2 or $3 or something. CHOS BUG CHANG LA STE PA BYAS SU SEMS MA NI NAS ZHING BAR MI RGYUR RANG RNAMS PA CHUN NA Let's do a meditation here.

Okay. I'm just trying to get you ready for your meditations.

[Speaker 2]
This will be the fourth one that you'll do in the three-day retreat. Meditation number four. Who is that guy and why is that picture there?

What's he doing?

[Speaker 1]
He's a barista. Good, who said that? Yeah, I think if Milarepa was alive today, he would be a barista.

It means he's not making much money. He's just working in a coffee shop. Okay.

It looks like he's not successful, but the reason he's a barista is in the morning he has to meditate. He has to do his yoga. He has to do his study.

And so he goes at nine o'clock and he opens the coffee shop. And people think he's just a dumb guy who can't get a better job than that. But actually, he got promoted to the dogs so he could see the gods.

Okay, got it? You got it. Here we go.

[Speaker 2]
We're going to do meditation number four. He's a barista, but he looks pretty happy to me. So relax your face.

Relax your hands. Come to breath. Think about your practice.

All the things you do. Hopefully some daily meditation and some yoga practice. Some study.

Keep track of your balance. Help other people. And then think about making money.

And that in the beginning you might not have time to spend a lot of time making money. You might have to give up some of the money-making time for your practice and get used to it mentally. We'll stay here for a few minutes.

And then if it got very serious and you couldn't afford expensive treatments by doctors and if it cost you your life, would it be worth it? And then even if you died and your body was just lying in a house and nobody cared, nobody knew about it, would it be worth it? You can come to your breath.

Watch your breath. Three deep breaths. Then you can slowly open your eyes.

We're going to start at Chupu. Other girlfriend.

[Speaker 1]
chupu dang la tepe jesu sem ma nye ne If you think, oh, I won't make enough money. I won't be able to support myself. shiwa min gyur ram nyampa jung na Maybe I could even die because I don't have enough money to get good treatments and things like that.

chu chu ka che che ne shi na ang shi shed drang phuk shi la te You should be willing to project your poverty to your own death. It's no problem, okay? You should think like that.

phuk shi la te If I do it for my Dharma practice, it's okay. de dang le dang yang chepa tsowa che ne dok dru shiway dang me de dang le dang yang means you might give up on this life in this way, but chepa tsowa che ne dok dru dok dru we should talk about, okay? dok means la ta ta tang nga la tok pa So dok means to be hungry.

tro go tog so means I'm hungry. I'm hungry. tro go tok So tok means to be hungry.

chi means, do you know? chi chi means a knife. So tok chi er on the knife of hunger shiwa to die on the knife of hunger.

It means to die from hunger, okay? dang me dang me means no Dharma person ever died from hunger because they practiced Dharma, okay? tenpa garun chen gyi Our teacher, the Buddha, the teacher of kindness, kor gyur druk chi sunam he had enough karma to be king of the world chi druk chi means 10,000.

druk means six. So 60,000 times. He had enough karma to be king of the world 60,000 times.

rang chak la ngo war dzepa But he ngo war to us, dedicated to us. Do we ever do ngo war? When?

di gyi le wang At the end of class, we always give away our good karma, okay? So Buddha did that for us. Buddha gave us his good karma.

He could have been king of the world for 60,000 times, okay? 60,000 lifetimes. jik ten na mu kye che dang mudik jeway kap So even if in the world there comes a time when you have to trade a spoonful of pearls for a spoonful of rice or something like that, okay?

Famine. jung na. jeng juk suang jeng juk suang druk tur shiwa min jung de jeng juk means follower.

je su jukpa means person who comes after. So jeng juk means follower. druk tur, to die on the knife of hunger, to die from hunger.

min jung It never happened, okay? People practicing Dharma will never go hungry, die from hunger. gom chen tul ma...

Then there's a saying in Tibet. It says, gom chen tul du ma jung ne If the meditator doesn't come out of their retreat cabin, down out of the mountain from their retreat cabin, the food will roll up. Like cupcakes and stuff will roll uphill to them because the karma is so strong of a meditator.

So you don't have to worry that you're not going to have enough money, okay? Give up worrying that if you practice you won't have enough money. Just give it up.

It's not going to happen. Just stop worrying about it. It'll come.

I don't mean you should be a Dharma bum. I don't mean you should stop working and go live in your friend's house and eat all their food, and they're working but you're not working because you're religious and they're not. That's not good.

That's not fair, okay? If you decide to practice full-time, then you take the responsibility for it and you take the consequences of it, okay? But you don't go grubbing off other people, okay?

That's a really bad habit. If you decide to be a yogi and not make much money, then you live with it and you don't go bothering other people. You don't write your mom and say, send me money, I'm a yogi.

If you decide to be a yogi, then be a yogi. But don't bother other people. That's just lazy.

A lot of the people who decide they're going to be a full-time yogi are just lazy and they spend the time on Facebook and watching videos. And then they call their friends and say, I'm practicing, can you bring me food? If you're really full-time dharma, if you're really working full-time in a heavy retreat or something, that's okay.

You can ask people for food. But make sure you're not just being lazy. That's a bad habit.

That's a really bad habit. Dharma bum. Dharma bum.

That's not a good thing and I don't think we should put up with it in our own group. Someone comes to you and says, I couldn't get a job, I'm too busy meditating. You say, okay, keep your hours on your notebook and show me.

You know what I mean? Like that. Show me you're not just watching Facebook all day.

I don't think you should support them. If the person's not really full-time dharma practice, I don't think you should support them. And that also, in my mind, it's true of a lot of monks and nuns in the monasteries, in those big monasteries.

A lot of them aren't doing anything. So just because they have a red robe on, be careful. Someone asks you for money, say, show me what you're doing.

Show me how you spend your day. They say, donate money to our monastery. You say, what are you guys doing there?

Show me. If you're going to donate money to a monastery, then they should show you what they're doing. Because a lot of monasteries, they're just sitting around.

They're not doing anything. There are some people working very hard. Really hard.

And then there are many people not doing anything. So we have to, if you're a sponsor, it's hard to be a good sponsor. You have to be a responsible sponsor.

And you have to say, show me what you're doing. John has a system with his dharma employees that they have to put into Dropbox every day. Every week, what they did.

How did they spend their time? Every hour. How did they spend every hour?

I think you should ask those monks. They say, I'll make a donation to my monastery. I say, show me what you're studying, or show me what your schedule is.

Some of them are just sitting around. And it's bad. That's caused trouble in the past.

Hundreds of years. All right. ,RGYAS SHES BAN GYIS KYANG, ,SNA MI SKAD GROD KHOR GSUNGS SEMS, ,DRA BA LTAR KYANG, ,DRA MANG GSOS MYONGS, This is very hard Tibetan.

It's very hard to translate. ,RGYAS SHES, it means ,RGYAS SHES, right? ,BAN is his name, his personal name.

Maybe he plays guitar too, I don't know. His name was ,RGYAS SHES BAN. And he was, sometimes he's called ,RGYAS SHES BAN JAG MA.

JAG MA means bandit, outlaw, thief, steals things from people's house. And his career before he was a ,RGYAS SHES, he was a thief. Sometimes they call ,RGYAS SHES BAN JAG.

JAG means thief. What's it called? The guy who meets you on the road and points a gun at you.

Not the guy who sneaks in your house. Bandit, like a bandit. Not the kind who sneaks in your house at night.

He's the guy who meets you on Highway 10, stops your car, puts a gun up your head and says, give me your money. Bertha knows these guys. Yeah, she had it with the gang in Mexico.

Anyway, ,BAN GYIS KYANG says, ,GNYIS KYANG means, ,GNYIS KYANG means what? ,GNYIS KYANG means what? ,GNYIS KYANG Gray or pale.

Okay, pale. And in the old days, the word for a layman was, ,GNYIS KYANG white-clothed, white-clothed person, as opposed to red-clothed person. When I used to be a ,GNYIS KYANG, which means, sometimes they say, ,GNYIS KYANG means, sometimes they say, ,GNYIS KYANG it means a lay person who's not a monk.

Before I became a monk, ,KHOR GSUM TSER MA SBYAR BA RTAG, I wore the three, ,TSER MA, ,TSER MA means a thorn, like on a cactus, it's called a ,TSER MA. But in weaponry, it means a spear, arrow, and knife. So he wore a sword, a spear, and arrows.

And ,SBYAR BA RTAG, he had lots of enemies. And ,GSUNGS MYUNG, he had not too many friends. All right.

,SNGAGS SNGON PO GZHAN, ,NYID MO LA SKAD BYAG PA BYAS, So I used to be the guy who would go up alone on the mountain passes and rob people. ,MI GCIG LA GRU GAL ZHUGS SGROL BA'I ZHIN YOD PAS, ,MI TSON NGAS MI ZHUGS GYIS, They used to call me... I stole a lot of people's property and I had a lot of farm income and some people would call me Mr. Rich Farmer. ,ZUD LTAGS, They called me that. ,NYID MO LA SKAD BYAG PA BYAS, In the daytime, I robbed people in the passes. ,TSE MO GRONG GI KUN MA BYAS KYANG, Then I started to get into, what do you call that?

Burglary also. I used to steal things from people's houses at night. ,KUN MA BYAS KYANG, ,BDAG DU ZAD GOS KUN NAS BA LAS MA BYUNG, It got harder and harder for me to get money.

So I expanded my criminal operations, but I got less and less income. ,LTA LTAR NI CHOS BYAS PAS, Now I decided to be a monk and do Dharma all day. ,ZAD DGOS PONG PO MED, And food just comes to me and clothes just come to me.

,BYANG RIGS SHES GSUNGS, And people like me better. Suddenly all my enemies are gone. It means you don't have to worry, you won't have enough money.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Then there's a bunch of stories about him and I don't have time to tell them. ,GZHAN PA MI ROL GZHIN DU SLOG RGYUR NA, ,SDU YIN BYA DGOS GZHIN DU PHYIR MED DBANG, All your desires for things, if you kill them, right? Like, I need more clothes, or I need more shoes, or I need a better car.

Okay? All those desires, if you kill them, kill those desires, then vultures will come. The birds who eat the corpses, they will come.

And that's money and friends. Okay? Got it?

If you kill your desires, the vultures of money and friends will come to you to feed on the corpse. Understand? When you kill somebody, then the birds come to eat that dead body, right?

But if that dead body is your desire, if you kill that desire, then money will come, friends will come. Kill your own desires, and money will come, and friends will come. Like birds.

Like vultures. Servitude. ,RJE TSONGS SKABS TE, ,SOGS DRIN LAS RNAMS KAR DANG NYAMS PA YANG, ,SRED LOD DANG NI CHOS BZHIN GYI BRDZAD LAS CHUNG, The reason why RJE TSONGS SKABS'A's mission in the world was so successful was that he gave up on life.

And he was internationally successful. All the Mongolia, China, Afghanistan, they all became Buddhists. He was successful because he gave up on this life.

Physically he was very successful. The emperor of China asked to be his student. And he didn't have time to go teach him.

He sent the founder of Seren Monastery. So, the reason he was internationally successful was he gave up. He didn't want anything.

He gave up on things. ,BSAGS RGYAL BAR ZHIG GIS, ,BSAGS RGYAL BAR ZHIG GIS, ,JES LAMA DBANG DU, ,'GRUB PA DRAG BZAM NI, ,DBANG DU THAMS CAD KYI RNAMS NAS, ,GANG ZAG PHYIR ZHUGS SU, Then, there was somebody, a BSAGS RGYAL PAR, who saw how successful RJE TSONGS SKABS was in a worldly way. And he said, are you using black magic?

He said, can you teach me the black magic you're doing to be successful? So he thought he was doing black magic. But he was actually what?

He just gave up on being famous and getting attention and things like that. He gave up on those things. He did a lot of death meditation.

And he didn't want those things. He gave up on those things. And that's why he got so successful.

So if you devote your time to meditation, practice, hard study, all the success you think you lost will come more. More will come to you. Much more.

You're not losing anything. ,ZHI BA'I RTZO ROL DOR BYED TSUN NA, ,RGA BYA CHUNG SRED DGOS BZHIN NA, ,RGA BYA here you should learn, okay? ,RGA BYA means box.

Money. A little bit of money. ,ZHI BA'I RTZO ROL DOR BYED TSUN NA, But if I don't make any money at all, what are they going to do with my body after I die?

,ZHES NA, ,ZHI BA'I RTZE YANG RJES BDAG BYAS NAS, ,ZHI NA'ANG ZHIG ZHES ZHI BU ZUD ROL PO, So you should be willing to push your poverty to your death and you should be willing to push your death to some empty place in the desert where they throw your body. Okay? Dumpster.

Dumpster behind the thing. What's the thing? It's a gas station between here and Tucson.

They say they have a monster inside. You have to pay $10 to see it. If you see it, you're not allowed to tell anybody.

I'm sorry. But they have a garbage can in the back that nobody looks at. ,ZHES BA'I RTZE YANG RJES BDAG ZHES NA, ,ZHI NA'ANG ZHIG ZHES ZHI BU ZUD ROL PO, ,RTOGS PA LA BDE PA SOGS, ,GA DANG PHUGS NOR CHU, PHUGS NOR CHU means the ultimate ten riches.

There's the Tibetan for it. PHUGS NOR CHU. PHUGS means long term.

,TSUL RGYAS PA GSUM, ,MI LAS KYANG, Who's MI LAS? Yeah, Milarepa. So Milarepa is a very famous meditator from, I don't know, 800 years ago.

,ZHI NA NGOS MI MED CING, ,ROL LA GOR MI MED NA, ,SAMS PAR RDZOGS PA GSUM TSUL, My hopes will be achieved if when I die there's no one to cry for me. And if there's nobody standing around the bed, then my practice is complete. ,RANG GI ROL THOR BA'I NGOS BYED DGOS NYAM YANG, ,GNYIS TSOGS GYUG SBYOR TE, ,NYOD DU BUG THAB BYED PA LAS, ,ROL MAL SAR LUS SBYOR BA'I RTOGS PA BSTAN NAS MI DGOS, You don't have to worry that you have to leave a lot of money behind for a nice funeral because nobody likes a corpse anyway.

And they're going to get rid of you as fast as they can. So don't think, if I don't leave enough money for a nice funeral, I'm not happy. Because the only thing your relatives want after you die is to get rid of your body as fast as possible.

,GYUG MTHONG means it's disgusting. The corpse is disgusting. ,GYUG MTHONG means makes you want to throw up.

,GYUG SBYOR TE, ,NYOD DU BUG THAB BYED PA LAS, They will get rid of you as fast as they can. ,ROL MAL SAR LUS SBYOR BA'I RTOGS PA BSTAN NAS MI DGOS Don't worry about how you're going to look on the deathbed. You won't be there very long.

,DE LTAR CHE RGYAS LOD DANG STE, ,BLO THAG CHE THOS PA BYUNG NA, ,JIG RTEN GYI DE SKYI NYAN GSUNGS PUNG PA BZHIN DU NGO, If you give up on wanting to be famous and you just devote yourself to your practice, you will get famous by accident or by karma. And if you try to be famous, you won't be. Got it?

So if your practice is really pure, then DE SKYI NYAN means happiness, joy, and fame. They will follow you. If your practice is good over a long period of time, then you will get famous anyway.

You can't avoid it. If you try to get famous and that makes your practice dirty, then you won't. You'll just always be trying to be famous.

,DE SKYI GSUNGS PUNG PA BZHIN DU NGO, ,DE NA JIG RTEN GCOD KYI BDUN DU NYE BAR NI, ,JIG RTEN PAR YIN LA, ,SEN GYI LOD DONG PA SPYOD PA YIN TE, How do you decide if somebody is a Dharma practitioner or just a normal person? What's the division? Is it the robe?

What is it? Yeah, it's the eight thoughts. If you don't have them, you're a real monk.

If you do have them, you're not a monk. It doesn't matter what you're wearing. ,RTOM PA YIN TE, ,RGYAS SHES PO LTO BA'I DROM BSTOD NA, ,RGYAS SHES PO LTO BA said to Dromtunpa, Kadampa Lamas, ,CHOS DANG PHYIN MA YIN PA'I RNAMS TE, ,GANG RAGS SHES ZHUGS PA, He said, what divides Dharma people from other people?

How do you draw the line between Dharma people and other people? It's called THIG PA. THIG PA means when you do a mandala, when you do this sand mandala, you have to snap lines.

You hold the string on this side, you hold the string on this side. Colored string with colored powder on it. Two people hold the string, and then one person goes like this, THIG.

It's called THIG. I used to do it for a carpenter for three months in the summer every year. You just snap lines on carpentry.

So anyway, how do you snap the line between a Dharma person and a non-Dharma person? What's the line between them? ,GANG RAGS SHES NYON MONGS PA'I NYON POR ,GRO NA SPYOD YIN, If something makes you a nicer person, it's Dharma.

,MIN GRO NA SPYOD MIN, If it doesn't make you a nicer person, it's not Dharma. That's all. Pretty easy.

,JIG RTEN PA KUN DANG MIN SPYOD PA SPYOD YIN, ,GRO NA SPYOD MIN, If your viewpoint matches that of the general population, you're probably not doing Dharma. If your viewpoint doesn't match the viewpoint of the general population, you're probably doing Dharma. Your viewpoint is going to be different.

What you think is important is different. I took care of my Lama for 30 years, and people told me all the time he was taking advantage of me, and I was naive, and I was stupid, and he was taking advantage of me. And it's the opposite.

I got... He saved my life. I got everything from that.

So don't listen to people. It's not true. I did it for 30 years.

I'm very happy. Extremely happy. Extremely grateful.

,CHOD DANG JI RTEN RGYAL RGYAL BA'I NAS, ,DE YIN GYIS, ,GA DON CHE RGYUD DANG, ,ZHI'I GANG RGYONG RGYU GYI, ,GNYIS DKA' ZUS KYANG CHOG, ,CHOD DANG JI RTEN RGYAL RGYAL NAS PAS, That's what makes Dharma people different from other people. That's why it's opposite Dharma person and other people. ,GA DON CHE RGYUD DANG, ,ZHI'I GANG RGYONG RGYU GYI, ,GNYIS DKA' ZUS KYANG CHOG, How are you ever going to have time to study Dharma deeply and take care of a large house and many things?

You got to make a choice. You won't have time to feed a large house and lots of possessions and do all your Dharma practice. You won't have time to do both.

You can never have time to do both. CHOG means have time. Do you know MI CHOG MED?

Yeah, there's a certain meditation stage you have to reach to see emptiness directly. And it's also called MI CHOG. MI CHOG MED Hang in there.

We got 15 more minutes. I know you're tired. I don't care.

,RANG RES CHOS RGYAS LA, ,THUGS DAM GYI GAL TU BYAS PAS, ,LUS CHOS PA'I GZUGS NYON TZAM NAS, ,GZAM GYIS BSTAN GYIN PA DANG, ,GYIS MED PA BDUN BYUNG, ,CHOS RGYAS LA THUGS DAM MTHIL DU BYAS PA, THUGS DAM MTHIL DU BYAS MTHIL means your... What do you call this? Palm.

THUGS DAM MTHIL means to make something your main practice. THUGS DAM means your heart practice. So what do you make your heart practice?

MTHIL DU BYAS PA ,LUS CHOS PA'I GZUGS NYON TZAM NAS, If your outside appearance is very... What do you call? Monk?

You look like a monk outside. You have red robes and you're always like this. But GZAM is GZIGS BSTAN.

GZAM is... What do you call it? All wrapped up in the world.

Then GYIS MED PA BDUN BYUNG. Then you're just a worldly person. So it doesn't matter what you look like outside.

It matters what you're doing. TSE LUS STANGS NA SPYOD NAMS DAG YONG THOB GYI MTSOR SPYI BA MI LTAG PAR BSGOM PA DE YIN What's the main way to prevent getting wrapped up in this life? It's SPYI BA MI LTAG PAR.

Yeah, death meditation. TSE DU'I LUS MA STANGS NA If you don't give up on this life, SPYOD GANG SPYOD TSE SDIG PAR GZHOR DGRO BAS all your thoughts will be about this life. RANG GI SNGON NAS JIG RTEN GCOD DBYE'I SGO NYAMS So from our side, we have to try to level out those eight attitudes.

[Speaker 2]
RTOG DGOS BSTAM GSUM RTOG Food.

[Speaker 1]
What's the next feeding? What is Geshe Michael going to have for lunch and Rihanna? RTOG DGOS What should I wear today?

STAM Yeah, our people are saying, LUS STAM Give it up in your mind. DE'I MTHONG PA'I TSE KYANG How do you know you gave it up? RGYAL DBANG GAL SANGS DANG PHAN CHEN MO SANG YOD SHES BTAG PA'I DE So there are two Dalai Lamas he mentions here.

One is RGYAL DBANG GAL SANGS GAL SANGS RGYAL DBANG is the Tibetan word for Dalai Lama. They don't say Dalai Lama. They say RGYAL DBANG.

RGYAL DBANG means King of the Buddhas or something. RGYAL DBANG One is GAL SANGS GAL SANGS. Seventh Dalai Lama.

Very great tantric practitioner. And then PHAN CHEN MO SANGS YOD SHES who you know. These two great Lamas.

RGYAL DBANG GAL SANGS KYI MDO RDIR DANG PHYUD DGOS RNAMS SUNGS NAS RANG GI YIN YANG PA GZHAN MED GSUNGS Somebody asked that Dalai Lama, how much stuff do you have? He said, I got three things. I own three things.

They said, how much stuff you got? They have a palace, right? Potala Palace.

1,050 rooms. And they asked him, how much stuff do you own? He says, there's only three things that I own.

My bell, my vajra, and my robes. If I think, what do I own? What's mine?

It's just those three things. My robes, my bell, and my vajra. That's all I own.

PHAN CHEN MO SANGS YOD SHES LA NGUL LTA MI'I MA RGYAL BU BA LA'ANG MA NYE MTSO Then this PHAN CHEN Lama, this older PHAN CHEN Lama, somebody offered him a hundred ingots of gold, bars of gold, silver, sorry. And he got upset. He said, what am I supposed to do with that?

How can I carry this stuff around? He said, take it. Get rid of it.

MA NYE MTSO RANG RES RTOG DGOS DAM GSUM GYI GZHAN PA LAS RGA SHIG NI GZUM KHAS GZHING BA YIN So you have to judge which of the RTOG DGOS DAM GSUM you have a problem with. Some people have a problem with one of them. Some people have a problem with two of them.

Some people have a problem with all three of them. Like I have RTOG but I don't have DGOS so much. But, I'm always thinking about what the next meal is going to be.

But I don't care so much about what my clothes are. DAM, I like it a lot. I like to be be in the public and like that.

So I have two of the three. Then you have to check which ones you have. Do you have a food problem?

Do you have a clothes problem? Stuff problem? Or do you have want to be famous problem?

Which ones? He says that some people are GZHING BA by one. Some people are GZHING BA by two.

And some people are GZHING BA by three. What's GZHING BA? Huh?

GZHING BA. That's GZHING BA. GZHING BA.

GZHING BA means handcuff. What do you call it? Chain.

Some people have chain to their food. Some people chain to their clothes. Some people chain to want to be famous.

So which one do you have? You have to decide. Some people have all three.

DE GSUM GYI SNANG NAS KYANG Which of the three is most difficult to give up? What do you think? STAM.

Yeah. I want people to talk about me. Desire to be famous is the hardest one to give up.

SPANG RGA SHOD means most difficult to give up. STAM. It's a desire for recognition.

KHYAD TSUN LTOS BSGOM GZU YIN KYANG STAM YIN DGOS PO'I DBANG YANG So many great practitioners, many meditators, many Dharma people, the one they had the most trouble with was number three. I hope people notice I'm a great meditator. I hope people see how generous I am.

I hope people understand how many Tibetan words I know. DGOS PO'I DBANG YANG RGYUR DRO BA'I DGON POR TSE'I SDIG KHYAD TSUN GOMS CAN YANG TSE'I SDIG KHAS LO BRTZON LO DOD TZAM BYAS YAR THAMS YID GYIS PHYIS MI DANG MI PHRAD GOMS CAN YANG TSE'I SDIG GOMS CAN ZANG LO BYED DANG So there was a lama named RGYUR DRO BA'I DGON POR and he said TSE'I SDIG KHYAD TSUN GOMS CAN YANG Even people who are great scholars of Buddhism or they are great monks or nuns or they are great retreaters, they're hoping that people heard that they are great scholars and great retreaters and great meditators. Deep in their heart, they feel really happy when people hear, oh, he did a three-year retreat.

They're like, ha ha, don't tell anybody. I mean, yeah, you can tell a few people. You know, like you meet somebody.

I met this guy, where was that? Oh, in India. I met him on the stage.

He came up on the stage to sign a book and in the time it took to sign the book, he told me three times that he was a championship boxer 20 years ago. And we're like that. We're like, what would you like for breakfast and what's the news in the Middle East and did you hear I did a three-year retreat?

Like that, you know. You're hoping somebody will tell somebody. MTSAMS RJE'I YATA'I MI DGE'I PHYI People put the retreat marker on their door, MI DANG MI DE GOMS CAN YANG and they decide not to meet anybody.

But, SEMS DE GOMS CAN SANG LONG DU but they're hoping everybody heard about it. Oh, I put a marker on my retreat door. I'm in deep retreat and I'm not going to meet anybody but I hope everybody finds out.

Okay, BYAS PA THA NA KHO'I RDZOGS SPYOD PA RE BYAS KYANG MI YID MTHONG DU RES It even gets so bad that when we put an offering on the altar of a little cake or something, we're like, we're hoping somebody will see that we made a nice cake and we're putting it on. Look at the nice flower I offered to my mom. And then you're giving them the flower and you're like...

And we all have it. If you think you don't have it, you're stupid. I have it.

You have it. We all have it. Don't think you don't have it.

I have it. We all have it. If you know you have it, you're smarter.

Everybody has it. Everybody. It's better to know you're stupid than to think you're smart.

Okay, THA NA KHO'I RDZOGS SPYOD PA RE That should go down in some kind of quotation mark. BYAS KYANG MI MTHONG DU RES YANG PHRAD ZAL TE, GANG PHYIR BSGOM CHEN DANG, GRUB THOGS Two more minutes. GANG PHYIR BSGOM CHEN DANG, GRUB THOGS TU LONG BZHING, RTOG DGOS LA BYAS KUR TE, MED TOG DANG, DU BYUD LEN SOGS, GANG PHYIR LA MTSON YANG, STIG NAS DANG, DU BYUNG ZHIG, RE MED PAR GANG It's very rare to find a person who doesn't have any desire to be well-known by other people.

Even people who go into... who make a big deal about fasting or being in deep retreat. They live off of MED TOG, means flower essences.

They can live off little pieces of flowers for six years or something. I met two guys who did that. They decided, they're from Europe.

I don't think they're from Germany, but maybe, I don't know. But they heard that you could live off pieces of flowers and called DU BYUD LEN. BYUD LEN means the inside of the flower, those little things.

It's supposed to be, if you make little pills from that, you can eat it and you don't have to eat for like three years. So they did it. And they looked terrible.

They looked like they didn't eat for three years. And they were so like, look, we did it. And I'm like, no, if you really do BYUD LEN, you're supposed to look great.

If you really know this magic practice, you're supposed to look great. Your meditation sustains your body. You're supposed to look really healthy.

You're not supposed to look all skinny and half dead. BYUD LEN SOGS DKA' BYAS LA BRTZON YANG So they're trying very hard to do fasting and not to eat and live off these little pieces of flowers. But SDING NAS, SDING NAS means deep down inside.

SDING means deep down inside. SDING NAS STAM They want people to say, oh wow, he's not eating. PHYIM SRAS RE MED PAR KUN To find anybody who doesn't want that is KUN.

KUN, very rare. That's the KUN in what? KUN CHOG Very rare to find somebody who doesn't want it.

And we all have it. And it's better if you know you have it. And then you can control it.

It's like you have an addiction to alcohol, or pornography, or you have addiction to food. It's better if you know you have it. If you try to pretend you don't have it, then you have a problem.

It's better to know you have this addiction to wanting other people to say you're cool. And then you can deal with it. Then you can manage the addiction.

But if you don't admit it, then you have a problem. We all have it. All right?

[Speaker 2]
Thank you. And you have to fight with it.