«Дар освобождения», курс 21 «Ретрит радости непостоянства», занятие 9

[Speaker 1]
I'm just going to go further in the text. We already finished what I'm supposed to do. But you guys are fast, so I thought we just keep going.

It's possible we could finish the nine parts of the death meditation. And then in Guadalajara we just go to San Pancho and get a sun tan. Alright, let's meditate.

You ready? Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Relax your forehead. Relax your mouth. Relax your eyes.

Relax your fingers. Don't move. Tighten your tummy a little bit.

And come to your breath. Start watching your breath. Focus on the exhales.

Long exhale. Long exhale. Then invite your lama to come.

Sit with your lama, knee to knee. Think of something beautiful about your lama, something you would like to learn from them. And in this way, do a mental prostration.

Didn't think about something during the retreat that you did, which was not so good. Probably just thinking something negative about somebody or something. And open your heart to your teacher and let them know you had those thoughts.

And try to be better in the next few days. Then think of something good you did this week.

[Speaker 1]
I think the retreat, three days, we all worked very hard. It wasn't easy. It's a hard place.

It's a wild place.

[Speaker 2]
It's the quietest place I've ever been in. But because it's wild, it's quiet. And because it's wild, it's uncomfortable sometimes.

And be happy that you did a good three-day retreat. And tell your lama you did something nice. Then ask your lama to teach you.

Continue teaching you. Ask your lama to stay. Then we'll do the 14th death meditation, which is when death comes for us, it doesn't matter how strong we are, how healthy we are.

Can't stop it. Doesn't matter where you go on this world. Death will reach out for you.

Whether you're in a very wealthy place or a very poor place, whether you're at home or whether you're someplace outside your home, death will still reach you. So don't go. Difficult to stop.

It doesn't matter how much money you have from medicine or doctors. When the time comes, you will go. So we'll meditate on this for about 10 minutes.

When death comes, there's nothing we can do to stop it. Then take three deep breaths. Take a stretch.

Open your eyes.

[Speaker 1]
You guys' meditation is very good. I think it's the best group we ever had here. Thank you for that.

I think we should give it a stop now. Really, very nice, very quiet. Amazing.

What number are we on? Let me see here. We're on the first part of there's no certainty when you're going to die.

Right? The root or the foundation principle. What was the first foundation principle?

You have to die. Second foundation principle is we don't know when. We're in the middle of the first reason for that.

There are three reasons for each principle. Maybe I can give you a list of those nine. I'll print it for you.

But the idea is, the first reason that death is not... the time is not certain in this world, is that we live in a world where people die at different ages. So we don't know when we're going to die.

On some worlds, in some places people have a fixed life, like 100 years or 500 years, but we don't. In our world, people just die anytime. We don't know.

,GANG CIG ZAS SA, ,MTHO LA NUS DE ZHI BA YOD DE, Some people die in the middle of a meal. Some people die halfway through a Big Mac or Kandaji. Don't eat the American stuff, okay?

Please. No Kandaji, no McDonald's. Very bad.

They kill four billion chickens every year in China. Americans. Don't.

I think you should kick them out. ,GANG CIG ZAS SA, ,MTHO LA NUS DE And I said, I saw a person do that. I saw a person die with a piece of toast in their hand.

It happens. We had a hard time getting the toast out of his hand. ,ZHI BA YOD DE, ,BDE DAG DE'I KYANG, ,DANG PO SRAS KYI MA RDZOGS NAS PHYI YONGS NYAMS PA, That person that I know who died with the toast in their hand, they didn't think they're going to die halfway through the toast, okay?

They were pretty healthy. They had a heart attack. Then when they started eating the toast, they expected to finish it.

They never thought, I'm going to die halfway through this toast. Maybe I should eat faster. They never thought that.

It never occurred to them they would die halfway through the toast. ,MA RDZOGS NAS PHYI YONGS NYAMS PA, ,SEMS KYI SOR LA'ANG MED, SEMS means what? Mind.

SOR is an interesting word. It's the start of dictionary entry. Z-U-R, ZAS GYI GSOS DANG SOR SOR means a corner.

So SOR GSUM is a triangle. It also means X, like KHYEN SOR means ex-abbot. So the SOR corner means like you put them in a corner or something.

So SOR can mean former abbot or former, the former GIKU. What's a GIKU? Debate master.

The former debate master is called GYI SOR. Here it means SEMS KYI SOR LA'ANG MED. SEMS KYI SOR LA'ANG MED.

What? In the corner of their mind, they were never thinking I might die halfway through this toast. It never occurred to them.

There's a Tibetan way to say, it never occurred. They didn't have the slightest inkling, we say inkling, that maybe they'd die halfway through the toast. In the corner of their mind, it didn't exist.

SOGS PA MANG PO'I RGA' ZHIG DU GANG DU YAL RANG GANGS PA'I PHYIN SOGS PA here means, what's a SOGS? It means a collection, but here it means a gathering of spiritual practitioners together. MANG PO'I RGA' ZHIG DU GANG means a temple.

That's the real Tibetan word for temple. They don't say GOM PA or something like that. LHA GANG sometimes, deity house.

But DU GANG means a gathering building, DU GANG. That's the real Tibetan word for a temple. DU GANG DU YAL, they walked into the DU GANG on their own two feet and they came out on a stretcher dead.

Many people, many, many people. Many people walked into a teaching like this one on their own two feet and they were carried out dead by other people. Lots of people died during a teaching.

Especially, those teachings are so long. Many people died in the middle. They came in on their own two feet.

They didn't think, oh, I'm walking in here, I'm going to die during this teaching. But many people died during teachings. RGA' ZHIG DU GANG DU YAL GANG MI MA'I LAM means on the way out, meaning the path down, meaning on the way out.

RO DE GZHAN GYIS, that corpse, RO. RO can mean either corpse or taste. Or it can be a terminated particle after RO.

RO DE GZHAN GYIS, DO LIS means a stretcher or, what do you call those medics take you out on a gurney. DO LIS means a gurney. Try to translate that.

DO LIS. It can also mean a, what do you call it? Palanquin.

DO LIS LA BDEGS NAS, carrying them on a DO LIS, They came out of the teaching on a stretcher. Then the corpse. DPON CHEN PO BDAG KYANG, SRID KYI LAS DGA' MANG PO SA BYAS GRAM NAS SA BYAS is an important word in Buddhism.

And we pronounce the B. It's an exception. We say SA BYAS.

Say SA BYAS. SA BYAS normally means an outline of a major subject. Like the lam rim SA BYAS for the lam rim CHEN PO is many pages long.

And some people memorize it. It's the whole lam rim. All of the death meditations, all of the shamatha meditations, all the vipasyana meditations, all the karma meditations, all the compassion meditations.

The whole SA BYAS for the big lam rim is many pages long. And people memorize the whole thing. So when they're in meditation, they can just go one by one through all the steps.

That's called SA BYAS. Here in this case, it means plans. To lay many plans for grand projects.

So people like Geshe Michael or government people, they have all these big projects in their mind, many complicated steps. SIG GI LAS means, SIG here means, do you know? As opposed to CHOS.

Here SIG means, what do you call that? What's the opposite of religious? Secular.

It means of the world. So like SIG PA'I KHOR BLO means wheel of life. So sometimes SIG means secular.

Worldly lega work, they have big plans, big projects. KYANG, this SPON CHEN PO means these big guys, these big government people. They make five-year plans, ten-year plans.

Then, BYUG BRAL RANG MED, they run out of time to finish them. And you see lots of projects like everywhere. There's a city in China, what's it called?

Inner Mongolia. I almost went there. Not Ulaanbaatar.

Or Odos. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In Odos, they made like skyscrapers.

They made apartments for like 200,000 people or 500,000 people. Then nobody, they didn't finish them. It's just sitting there after five years.

It's just empty buildings. The guy died in the middle, the director of the project. It happens all the time.

Hang on just a minute. I got a Lama phone message here. SNOD MED PA NEN GANG MTHRO CHI BA DANG, SKYES BU DANG PA RGA' ZHIG GIS GSUNGS PUNG Some holy beings.

SKYES BU DANG PA means holy being. SKYES BU DANG PA RGA' ZHIG GIS GSUNGS PUNG What's GSUNGS PUNG? Collected works.

DANG SONG MTHRO SONG MTHRO means to start something or to write something, compose something. So SONG means to compose a work. MTHRO means like a flow.

SONG MTHRO SONG MTHRO is a polite word. You can call it a literary interlude. What's it mean?

It's a polite word for? The guy died in the middle of the book. Who's that guy?

Robert Jordan? Any of you guys know Robert? Yeah.

How many books? 14 books? He wrote a 12 book series.

He died on book 11. Oh my god. Without permission of anybody.

Then some of us, we read the 11 books. Then he didn't finish, he died. Very bad.

We didn't get permission. Nobody, he didn't ask anybody. Somebody else had to finish it.

Yeah, he did a good job. Anyway. There's a polite word in Buddhism for unfinished work.

It's called a literary interlude. There are some of those books in the tenure. The person died halfway through.

ZHES YOD PA RNAMS MI NGAN DOG DKA' BA NGAN DO Let's do a dictionary entry. NGAN DO SANG NYA LTOS NYA NA NGAN MA'ONG DA'O NO DOG DKA' DOG NGAN DO So, DOG DKA' BA DOG means, what's DOG mean? What's DKA' DOG?

Color. Yeah, DOG means color. DOG DKA' BA means, it's an idiom.

It means you color it that way. It means supposed to be. DOG DKA' BA YIN DOG DKA' BA means, yeah, it's supposed to be.

They say. NGAN DOG DKA' BA means, it's just a polite word. It's just a pretty word.

What do you call it in English? Euphemism. DOG DKA' BA means, supposed to be like a nice word for what?

He died in the middle. LAS This is a comparative. It's a nice word, but DON DU, in actuality, DE NYID KYI SONG BCUG DU MA THUB PAR He died.

BYAS CHO LA LUS TE And all he left was this little interlude. KU ZHIG PA What's DE BZHIN ZHIG PA? Yeah, Buddha, SUGATTA.

SUGATTA means gone, right? ZHIG PA means gone. KU Yeah, that's an honor.

That's also a euphemism for he died. The Lama died. We don't say Lama died.

We say, his holy body traveled on. GUS ZHEGS GUS ZHEGS I think he's making a pun. He's using a euphemism about a euphemism.

His holy body passed on. GUS ZHEGS PAR RANG YIN That's really what happened. You want to know what really happened?

RANG YIN In Koloko, we say RANG RE. GUS PAR RANG RE He's a real idiot. RANG YIN means Actually, he just died.

It wasn't some pretty thing. RANG GI YAS YIN LUNG PA'I PHUN DAG SOGS NAS CHE DGOS MO ZHI SONG ZER YANG Then in Tibet, there's mountains everywhere. We talk about...

What's YE and YIN? Right and left. YE and YIN.

PHUN DAG means the highlands and the lowlands. PHOS would be the retreat valley. And this would be the DAG.

PHUN DAG CHE DGOS MO We should learn this word. CHE DGOS MO I know most of you aren't learning Tibetan. I don't care.

You have to listen to this. Next life. I'm preparing.

I will teach you next life. CHA DU MO BYAS KA DU MO DGE MO CHE DGOS MO means so-and-so. So-and-so.

Unnamed so-and-so. CHE DGOS MO means so-and-so. Mr. X. John Doe. CHE DGOS MO ZHI SONG He died. He or she died.

ZER People say, Hey, did you hear? Steve Bergulis died. He was my old friend in Washington D.C. He died like three days ago. He made the first Tibetan computer program with me. We worked on it together. He died.

SHES Then you're like, okay, he died. I never met him. RANG LAS DE LTA BU ZHIG DBANG YAM DU MI SEMS You hear somebody died, but you don't immediately get scared.

Oh, one more person died. Okay. One more person died.

You should get scared. It means your time is coming closer. The guy in front of you died in the line.

You're next. Or maybe you're third in line. Maybe you're fourth in line.

When you hear somebody dies, you should get scared. It should bother you. People who are 80.

Our old lady just turned 80. And you say, why don't you go out with your friends? She says, they're all dead.

I'm the last one. Okay. No, they die one by one.

One dies, two dies. You're like, okay. But after a while, you're like the last one.

She can't call anybody to go out to the movies with because they're all dead. Then you're next. So think about it.

Every time you hear somebody dying, think, oh, maybe I'm next. DE LTA BU ZHIG DBANG SNYAM DU MI SEMS We don't think about it. DE DAG LA BSTAN MO LTA BA Let's start a dictionary entry.

BSTAN MO LTA BA LA LTA LTA LTA LA BSTAN MO PHA'O LA LTA LTA LTA BA BSTAN MO means a show, like a movie or a play or a performance. BSTAN MO A spectacle. It comes from the word to see.

It has LTA in it. LTA BA means to look at a spectacle. So we feel like we're just watching a TV show.

Oh, so-and-so dying. Oh, so-and-so dying. It feels like just watching a movie called your life.

BSTAN MO LTA BA BZHIN Don't look at it as if you're the audience. You're in the movie. You're the next one to die.

You could be the next one in the movie to die. It's not like the rest of the people in the world are in a movie and you're just watching it like you're separate from them. You're not.

You're part of the movie. Somebody died. Maybe you're the next one to die in the movie.

Don't look at it like you're outside. You're in the movie. BSTAN MO LTA BA BZHIN BYAS CING BDAG SDUG BSNGAL CHU DGOS LEGS PAR ZHIG YOD What occurs to us if you're in a monastery and you heard a monk died.

That shawl I had this morning, the outer shawl, that's a shawl from a very high tantrica that my lama gave me. In his time it was old. Then he gave it to me.

How did I get it? He died. The guy died.

Then they're like, here it says BDAG SDUG BSNGAL CHU DGOS LEGS PAR If you heard some monk died and you're another monk, you say, God, he had a pretty nice robe. He had a pretty nice outer robe. I wonder if they're just going to throw it out or what are they going to do with it?

CHU DGOS LEGS PAR ZHIG YOD We don't think, oh, I might be next. You're like, well, he had a pretty good chair in his house. I wonder what they're going to do with it.

LEGS PAR ZHIG YOD DE CHUNG NA BSAM MED ANG YIN BYAS MO Then we think, maybe I could get that chair that she had in her house. Or maybe I could get that robe that he used to wear. That's our reaction to hearing somebody died.

In your family, some older person dies and you're like, I wonder if they left any money. I wonder if I'm going to get any money. Like that.

We don't think, I might be next. Our reaction is, oh, maybe I'll get some money. What time is this class going to, Scott?

11.30. Okay. Now you're great retreaters. I know you can sit still for five, six hours.

BRTAN DE PHYI BA DE NAM ZHIG RANG BSTAN DU'ONG BAR NGES ZHING The death that came to that person is coming to you also, without a doubt. DE YANG RNAMS SONG NGES PA MED TE But we don't know when. Then he quotes a verse.

I found it. I don't think anybody found it before. It's called NGA RGYA MTSOM.

NGA RGYA MTSOM means, do you know? NGA BA, RGA BA, MTSOM. NGA RGYA The collection about aging and death.

Yeah, sickness and death. NGA BA and RGA BA. The book of sickness and death.

I'm sure it's a big hit. If you publish a book called, you know, sickness and death. So that book kind of disappeared, but I found it.

It's quoted from the book of sickness and death. SANG RANG GCIG RTEN PHYI MA GNYIS DNGOS DU GANG'OGS LTUL MED PAS You can't be sure of whether tomorrow or your next life is going to come first. You can't be sure whether...

What's tomorrow? March? Will March 26th come first or will your next life come first?

Tell me. Yeah, I don't know. You have to say, I don't know.

Will March 26th dawn first or will your next life come first? If you're in this class this week, you should say, I don't know. By the way, it shouldn't make you scared.

It should make you free. Finally you do exactly what you want. It's your last day on earth.

To hell with everybody. Some people said, I'm going to buy a bottle of tequila and drink the whole thing. I was a Buddhist for my whole life.

Never drank anything. What the heck? Then you shouldn't be scared.

You should be like, well, I can do anything I want. I'm going to tell my mother what I really think of her. No, you don't want to do that on your last day.

SANGS RGYUN ZHIG DANG PHYI MA GNYIS DNGOS DU GANG'OGS SANGS RGYUN ZHIG LA MI PAS PAR PHYI MA'I DON LA PAS PAR RIGS So don't make plans for tomorrow. Get your suitcase ready. Get your suitcase ready.

Focus on getting your suitcase ready. It means put a lot of great seeds in your head. These last three days were some of the best seeds you ever put in your head.

And we should do it as often as we can. Like, I don't know, four times a year. Those seeds are going to help you when you die.

The rest is all junk. It's all Facebook. I mean, almost.

It's just useless, most of what we do. But the last three days, those seeds are going to help you. They're serious ammunition for your next life.

So don't spend a lot of time getting ready for tomorrow. Get ready for next life. By the way, this quotation also appears in the 5th Dalai Lama's Lam Rim called BYAMS PA SHES LU Yeah, the words of Manjushri.

He doesn't identify the book. He just says his own. By the way, I also found the author's name somewhere.

NGES DUN ZHAG LAS NGES DUN ZHAG LAS If anybody cares a hundred years from now. KHA'O NYAN NA NYAN SVA-THAD PA'I DANG NGOS RTOG NGES DUN ZHAG LAS By the way, Adam, Tim has the updated notes. I think the next class is tomorrow.

The next Lam Rim class. This afternoon we have an emptiness class. BSAM LAS SNGA GROL SKYE BA MANG THONG BA PHYI RTOG KA'I GCIG MTHONG MI RGYUR In the morning we see lots of friends.

In the evening a few are missing. PHYI RTOG SKYE BA MANG THONG BA SNGA GROL KA'I GCIG MTHONG MI RGYUR And those we see in the evening, a few are missing the next morning. DEN PAS BYAS PA DE SANG NYID RANG MI'ONG NGES PA'I PHYIS SHES YOD We really cannot say whether death will come for us tonight or not.

We don't know. RANG BYAG GIS DBANG BAR NGES SHING RNAMS DBANG CHAG MED PA'I PHYI BA LA DRAB SHONG MI BYAS PA But we don't get ready for a thing we know must come and for a thing we don't know when it will come. But we still don't get ready.

DRAB SHONG MI BYAS PA BLO DGE'I DGE'I BAR DU BDOD PA'I NGES PA MED KYANG You can't be sure that you will live to be old. You can't be sure that you will live to an old age. MED KYANG DGE PA'I SKABS KYIS BDOD MI KHYIS SHONG RA But still we focus on IRAs.

Still people put money aside. Oh, this is for my retirement. This is for my retirement.

People put money into an account. What's it called? Social Security.

Then the government spends it to kill people in Iraq. Okay, sorry. The money's gone.

My money's gone. They've been taking my money since I was 16 or 15. It's gone.

That money's gone. You can't count on it. You can put money away.

It's going to be... You might die before you use it. It's better to have a Dharma IRA.

A Dharma retirement account. I told you this story many times, I'll tell you again. When I was in the diamond business, 19 years.

I used to donate my money every six months. Mostly to ACIP. Then the company would write a check every six months for most of my salary.

Then one day the CFO, the financial guy, this is John Espinoza, he comes to me and says, you know Michael, come sit down in my office. I sat down with him. He said, look, he's a very strong Catholic Christian.

He said, what you're doing is so great. You're donating this money every six months for 19 years. This is great.

What you're doing is really great. But as your financial advisor, I have to say, you should put a little money aside in the bank for your retirement. Because you're not going to be working forever.

You got to put money in the bank. You got to get a little bit in the bank. I said, I did put some in the bank.

It's called the bank of other people. It never fails. It never goes bankrupt.

That karma is still there. I'm relaxed. I got my Dharma IRA.

I got money. I'm set. And I know, it doesn't matter if the banks fail or the stock market crashes.

My IRA is protected. ,GYIS DU GYI SHOS MA MA MONGS DUG PA DI, ,TSUL NGES PA, It's a big mistake to focus on some kind of retirement money. Put some karma seeds aside.

Put some karma into the bank. Much safer. No one can touch it.

Nobody in the world. Buddha cannot destroy those seeds. Nobody has the power.

If you make seeds, while your working life is strong, while your earning time is strong, give. Give the money. Protect it.

Then you're protected. Then you don't have to worry about your retirement. It just takes care of itself.

Money will come. You can't stop it. When we were in India, we talked about Bhagavad Gita.

Why? They don't believe in Diamond Cutter. Some groups were Bhagavad Gita people.

The night before I gave the talk, five professors took me in a room and said, read Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit, or you cannot talk tomorrow. Then I'm like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then they're like, hey, okay.

Then, I was lucky. Then, next day, Krishna said to Arjuna, don't hope for the fruits of your karma. Don't hope for the rewards of your deeds.

But it means you don't have to hope. You can't stop it. If you give money to people who need it now, and you say, I don't want the money back.

It doesn't matter. They'll still deliver it to your house. You can't stop it.

Nobody can stop it. Oh, I want to let go of this handkerchief, but I don't want it to fall. Ooh, what happened?

Oh, I'm making good karma, but I don't want anything back. Oops. You can't stop it.

Nobody can stop it. If you give it away, it's more going to come. Oopsie, oopsie.

It's crazy. Okay. YIN NYAMS PA'I SANGS DE'ANG DE RING BZANG YIN SOGS BSAM MA NUS NA'ANG SANGS PA DAG CED BSAM NA CI BYAS SU BYAS SU LA BAG MA NGAN SOGS BSAM DGOS DE DE'ANG DE RING BZANG YIN SOGS BSAM MA NUS NA'ANG Even if you can't wrap your mind around, I might die tomorrow, or I might die the day after, maybe you can wrap your mind around the idea that next year in March, you could be dead by then.

Okay, you don't have to go crazy. I might die tomorrow. What is today?

Friday? Yeah, I might die on Saturday. Yeah, there was a big death today, right?

This is the day that Jesus died. The day that Jesus was killed is today. It's good for impermanent retreat.

Because what happened after that? DAG PA'I SANGS DE CI BYAS SU BAG MA NGAN SOGS BSAM DGOS DE DAG PA'I PHYIR BRAL DER YOD PAS MI RNAMS KYANG BRAL GO'AM BRAL SKYES RANG BRAL LTAR BRAL KHYEN SO So in the monastery, there's a very strict rule about who gets to sit in the front. So only the older Geshes and the Rinpoches get to sit in the front.

And then the little Geshes and the little Rinpoches get to sit where Yi is sitting. And then the people back there were... Angelo, I'd like to introduce Angelo Geminazi.

Will you stand up? It's okay, it's okay. Forget it.

They're visiting from the Dharma capital of the world called Guelph. Right? There's a place outside of Toronto that has...

it's got 500 people there and they all practice Dharma. I don't know what happened. I don't know why.

But it's like a Dharma heaven of Canada. I mean, BC is okay too. But his brother Jerome finished a three-year retreat here and he helped a lot.

Their whole family helped a lot. He's the city tree expert. So if you need advice about trees, ask him.

I ask him stuff. We're going to tell, okay? Why did we get into that?

So the big people sit in the front. And then out in the behind are the little baby monks and stuff like that. Okay?

But when death comes, which one does it start with? Yeah, I mean, we don't know. So he said, it could be the big Rinpoches in the front.

It could be the little lamas in the middle. It could be the baby monks in the back. Death is crazy.

Death is random. Let's take this one, this one, and this one. He doesn't like respect seniority.

You just take this one. Oops! Take this one.

Oops! Take this one. In this room, it will be pap, pap, pap.

Take three. ,CHI BA'I ROL RE DANG PO GSOL LA GOR YONG NGES PA MED, We don't know who's going first. It doesn't matter which row you're sitting in.

Death doesn't respect rows or seniority. ,GNES PA MED, ,CHA DIN RTANG BA, When it's time to die, you don't get an announcement in the mail. Your time has come.

Be prepared to die on Thursday. There's no office of death who's writing letters to people. You're going to die on Thursday.

You don't get a pre-announcement? NGON DOR TSUL KHRIMS LTA BA SOGS MI'ONG BAR NYIN CING BLO BO DU THOGS PA PA LTAR So let's discuss THOGS PA PA. THOGS PA PA.

Say THOGS. THOGS means lightning. PA PA means strike.

THOGS PA PA. It's just like you're just standing there and then... It strikes like lightning.

You don't have time to get ready. It's just like that. THOGS PA PA.

Most of the people I know who died just died suddenly. They didn't expect it. They died in a car accident.

Or they got suddenly very sick. Just died suddenly. THOGS PA PA LTAR LAS MCHOG TSAR LAS MCHOG Let's talk about LAS MCHOG.

LAS means work. MCHOG means what was left to do. MCHOG means the work you still had to finish.

Work you still intended to finish. RE LUS PA This LUS PA means left behind. You leave it behind.

All those half-finished projects, you dump on your relatives to figure out. They're like, here's Geshe-la's manuscript, half-finished book. They're like, what do you do this?

I just throw it out. He's not going to finish it now. Then all these half-finished projects, your relatives have to figure them out.

You were halfway to buying an apartment. Then they have to meet with the lawyers and who's going to take the money. It's a mess.

It's always a mess. Everything's half-finished. You owe money to ten people and you didn't tell your husband.

Stuff like that. Then they show up. She owed me $500.

I'm like, I don't know. DRAG KYANG SEMS CAN LA Even DRAG PA DRAG KYANG say DRAG PA. DRAG KYANG Here he just put half the word.

Say DRAG PA. DRAG KYANG When the Dalai Lama says, simple mong, I'm just a simple mong. This is the word in his head.

It's called DRAG PA DRAG KYANG. Say DRAG PA. DRAG KYANG DRAG PA DRAG KYANG This KYANG means single, solitary, alone.

What's KYANGS MO? Where do you keep that stuff? It's somewhere in that little head.

It's all this stuff. This prana channel on the left side is called KYANGS MO in Tibetan. What's it called in Sanskrit?

IR DA This left hand channel. It means solitary channel, alone. So DRAG PA DRAG KYANG means simple monk, hermit monk.

Like DRAG PA DRAG KYANG, I just have my robes. I just have my begging bowl. That's all.

I don't have anything else. That's called DRAG PA DRAG KYANG. Simple life.

Super simple life. DRAG PA DRAG KYANG MTSON CES Even down to those DRAG PA DRAG KYANGs, they might have a little bit of tea in their house. In Tibet, you got to have some tea.

In the tea, you need some mar, butter, and you need Sampa. Here's the spelling in Sampa. Anybody cares?

RA TZA TZAD TZAM MA TZAM PA That's the real TZAM PA. Normally, those super simple monks, if they die, the only thing left in their house is CHA, MAR, and TZAM PA. Some tea leaves, some butter, and some TZAM PA.

TZAM PA YAN DANG THA NA THUB PA THUNG ROL MTSON CES And half a bowl of soup left over that they didn't have time to finish. So there's people whose legacy, all they leave after them is some tea, some butter, some TZAM PA, and half a bowl of noodles because they didn't finish them. THUNG ROL In Tibetan, you don't say eat soup.

We say eat soup? Eat some soup? They say drink some soup.

They use the verb THUNG. THUB PA THUNG Drink some soup. MTSON CES LUS LUS means left behind.

It doesn't mean body here. It means that's all they left behind. LUS NAS TSE BAR DOG DROD RDI RNAMS CI NGES PA MED PA'I LTA RE The fact that people leave half a bowl of noodles in their fridge after they die is another sign of impermanence.

Not just half-finished books or half-finished projects. They leave half-finished bowls of soup, half-finished bowl of noodles. Go clean out a dead person's stuff.

It's very depressing. It's really depressing. Oh look, half a bowl of noodles.

What am I supposed to do with that? Why didn't he just finish it and wash the bowl? I can't believe I got to wash the bowl for him.

Jeez. RDI RNAMS CI NGES PA'I LTA RE LO MANG POR DU RGYUD DANG ZIN GYI PHYI KHA BAR LUS TE We are deceived until the moment of our death by the belief that we will live a little longer. We are deceived by the belief up until the moment of our death that we have a little more time left.

NYIN GCIG BDAG CI RANG SONG ZHES PA ZHI'ONG And then death comes and says, it's your turn. THE RING CI KHYEN GYI GNAS PA'I KYANG THE RING MI CHI NYAMS PA ZHIG LAS MI CHAR Even people sitting there on the bed with cancers that the doctor told them you're going to die in six months and it's seven months already. They say, not today.

Not today. I won't die today. They believe it.

RGA SHI RGYIS SKYEG RTOG LAS PA NA LTA LO CI MYONG NYAMS PA So in Tibet there's SKYEG RTOG means bad year. What do you call it? Like bad luck year?

Like Je Tsongkapa had one when he was 61, I think. Different people have different SKYEG RTOGS. If you want to know what year it is, go to some astrologer, Tibetan astrologer.

I don't know. You have a bad year. So everybody has them.

Every 20 or 30 years you have a bad year. And the astrologer can tell you 2017 is going to be a bad year for you. It's like, just stay in bed the whole year.

Probably the ceiling will fall down. You know. It's called SKYEG RTOG.

And great lamas have had them. You can read in their biographies. And they really are like, everything goes wrong for a whole year.

It starts on New Year's and it goes until the next New Year. Just everything goes wrong. That's called SKYEG RTOG.

So when somebody tells you, you have a SKYEG RTOG coming up next year, then people do think, maybe I'll die. Maybe it will kill me. NYAMS ZHIG BRTAN MOS SKYEG RTOG MING YANG BLO GCIG NAS RGYA'I BAR LO DI BLO MI PHYIS ZER BA'I BLO MED But whether or not it's a bad year, even if you live a hundred years, every year is a possible die year.

Don't be worried about good years or bad years. People die every year. So you can forget going to some stupid fortune teller.

That's such a waste of time. If you want, I'll take half the money you pay to a fortune teller and I'll tell you your future. If you make good seeds, you're going to have a good future.

If you make bad seeds, you're going to have a bad future. Okay, give me half of what you pay to a fortune teller. They can't tell you anything else.

The rest is all lie. It's all fake. Just forget it.

Don't waste your money. If you want to have a good future, do nice things. If you want to have a bad future, be mean.

Forget all the other fortune telling. DPER NA BLO NYID RGYAS LUS PA LTA BU DI BLO PHYIS NAS BYAS BLO DI LA DI DANG, LA DIN DAG CI DUG PAS No matter how old you are, let's say you're 27 years old. I can barely remember this.

Okay, next year is 28. Then when you're having your birthday, you're 27, and you just had, like your word, you just had your 28th birthday, right? Then ask yourself on the day of your 28th birthday, do I know anybody who died when they were 28?

Because if you can say yes, then maybe you can die too. Don't think you're different. So those young people, like, I don't know, Stanley or Allison.

Oh, I'm safe. I'm only 22 or something. Whatever.

But I can give you a whole list of people who died when they were... My brother died when he was 22. I can give you a list.

You can't say. We don't know. It's no protection to be young.

If you don't believe it, then ask me. I'll give you a list of people who died when they were 22 or 35 or 43. I have a whole list.

DIN DAG CI DUG PAS SRED BSAM DGOS You should think like that. RANG RES DI BLO NGES PAR MI CHU BA NA GZHIG RGYUR If your children come to you and say, Mommy and Daddy, can you promise us you won't die this year? Can you...

NA RGYUR Say NA, MA'O NA, or NA RGYUR RGYUR means to make an oath, take an oath. Can you swear, mom and dad, that you won't die this year? Like, I'm planning to have my children this year.

Can you just hang around for another year? Can you just sign this paper that says I won't die this year? Nobody does that.

Why? You can't. You want to tell your children, your daughter says I'm pregnant.

Mom, can you just stay until the child is born? You can't. You can't promise.

Nobody asks that, right? Nobody says, mom, just sign this paper that says nine months. I want you to see my child born.

Then you can die. Then mom, there's no such thing. Because nobody can guarantee.

Nobody can make a promise. I won't die until your child is born. Oh, you got pregnant last week.

Okay, I promise I won't die until your child is born. Nobody can. There's no such thing.

NYAL GO ZER NA DE MI NUS PA Nobody can do it. DE MTSAMS LO DKA' BA ZHIG LAS ME It's just, everything's in doubt. How long you're going to live is in doubt.

Maybe you die four months to the child's pregnancy. Maybe you die the day before the child is born. We don't know.

DE MTSAMS It's all up in the air. It's all in doubt. When am I supposed to stop, Scott?

Oh, hee hee. You guys need a break? No, I don't need a break either.

Hee hee. Okay, let's do a meditation. How's that?

These cheerful meditations.

[Speaker 2]
Relax your forehead. Relax your eyelids. Freeze your body like a stone.

Come to your breath, very slow breath. Ten slow breaths. Long exhale.

We'll do a ten minute meditation about why your life is like a candle When you are born, they light the candle. When you are born, you have a debit card. Every day it costs you money.

Every day it costs you karma. Every day your account gets less and less. So imagine your life is like a candle.

A lot of it has burned down already.

[Speaker 1]
How much is left? No one can say. Could be one day.

[Speaker 2]
Could be ten years. Could be thirty years, fifty years. We don't know.

So ten minute meditation about your life is a candle. It was lit on the day you were born. And it has burned down.

How much is left? We don't know. One day it must go out.

Ten minutes here. Go deep. You're ready.

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

[Speaker 1]
We'll do a little bit more of the text. Maybe half an hour. ,DE NA RANG CHAG GI MA SANGS PA MA STOG, ,DU DE CHEN PO DANG, ,MI TSOG CHEN PO'I GRONG KHYER DU DE NAS, ,YI LA GOR NA, To think about death is not very difficult if you live in a place like a town, like Village of Oak Creek, or if you're part of a Dharma group, a large Dharma group.

There's always somebody dying around you. It's not difficult to hear news that somebody has died. ,DU DE CHEN PO DANG, ,MI TSOG CHEN PO'I GRONG KHYER DU DE NAS, ,YI LA GOR NA, ,SPYING BA MI RTAG PA NI, What's SPYING BA MI RTAG PA?

The impermanence represented by death. ,BDAG MED PA'I DON LTA BU'I GO RGA BA, It's not like it's like emptiness. It's not like GONG ZHING.

It's not very difficult to understand. Death is not like GONG ZHING. It's not like emptiness.

It's not like you have to be some great philosopher to understand it. GO RGA BA means difficult to understand. ,MI KYI MTHONG, You can see it all around you.

You can see it on the news every night. ,MI KYI MTHONG BA DANG, ,BLAG PA'I REG, You can touch it. You can touch dead people all the time.

It's not like invisible or GGOG RGYUR, extremely deep, profound thing like emptiness. It's around you all the time. You can touch it.

You can see it. ,DE NA BDAG GIS BSKYAB RGYUN LAMA RIN PO CHE, Therefore my Lama, and he says BSKYAB RGYUN LAMA RIN PO CHE. He doesn't say my teacher.

He says my savior and protector, my precious Lama. This is a tantric vow. That you address your teacher with high words.

You don't say Joe or Mary. You say, oh my precious holy teacher. Something like that.

But it should be out of affection. It shouldn't be out of obligation. Oh, I have to call my teacher Geshe Lao Tzu.

If I don't say Geshe Lao Tzu, I'm sure everybody will think I'm a bad person. Not like that. It should be, oh, I have a crush on you, Lama Rinpoche.

Like that. It should be like happy and affection. Oh, you're my sweet teacher.

His teacher's name was BDAG PO BYAMS PA'I SON DU RIN PO CHE He lived 1845 to 1919. And he wrote the... GYOR CHOS Good.

That long prayer at the beginning of your prayer book. He wrote that. That's why this Lama, Pabongka Rinpoche, spent so much time on teaching the GYOR CHOS.

BDAG CIG BDAG NYID MA BZHIN NA SKYE BA PHYI MA'I BDUN GRUB PA DANG BLO CIG BLO NYID MA BZHIN NA SKYE BA RTEN GYI SDUG MA GDUG BZHIN MA RNAM SHU His Lama, Pabongka Rinpoche's Lama said, we should have the attitude that if I'm lucky enough to live another month or two, I'll take care of my next life. I'll get my next life taken care of. I will have a good next life.

If you know you're going to live another month or two, in your mind all the time you say, if I can just live another month or two, I'll collect enough good seeds that my next life is going to be cool. And if I live another year or two, I'll take care of my enlightenment. That should be your attitude.

If I can survive another month or two, that's enough time for me to take care of my next life. I'll get everything ready. And if I don't die for a year or two, I'll take care of my Buddhahood.

I'll get it done. BSTAN GYI BDUN MA Let's talk about that expression. BSTAN GYI BDUN MA BSTAN means like, it's related to words for firmness, although it's not spelled the same.

And BDUN MA means hopes or aspirations. And BSTAN GYI BDUN MA is a famous expression for your ultimate dream. Where does it occur?

BSTAN GYI BDUN MA GNYUR DU GRUB ZHIGS PO It's the last line of the Three Principal Paths. Tsongkapa says to Tsakwat Lombok, achieve your ultimate dream, my son. BSTAN GYI BDUN MA GNYUR DU GRUB ZHIGS PO MNGON NAM ZHUG ZHES LUNG BRTEN DANG BDAG When he taught us that, Pabongka's Lama, when he taught Pabongka that, he also quoted a lot of scriptures to back it up.

GSUNGS PA BZHIN BSAM DGOS We have to have this kind of attitude. Okay. We finished the first reason for why death is...

why the time of death is uncertain. We finished the first reason. What was it?

The nature of this world where we live is that there's no fixed time. There are places where you do have a fixed time. It's like a contract.

This is not one of those places. People die here at random, unexpectedly. There's no logical order to why people die here.

Now we're on to the second of the reasons why it's not sure when you're going to die. The second reason is called there are many things around that can kill you. There's only a few things around that can keep you alive.

If you count the things that can kill you in the world, there's millions. If you can count the things that keep you alive, like spinach or soy milk, there's only a handful. GYIS RTEN GNYIS PA'I GCIG RKYEN MANG BZHIN GSOS RKYEN MYONG GCIG RKYEN means things that can kill you.

Literally, death factors. GSOS RKYEN means things which can keep you alive. Or literally, living factors.

MYONG BA'I KYANG RNAMS CI LA MED PA NI Therefore, again, when we're going to die is uncertain because the things that can kill you outnumber the things that can keep you alive. Therefore, we don't know when you're going to die. THA LTA RANG RES RNAMS NGON GYIS SMOS RNAMS DANG GSOS RNAMS DANG SANGS RGYAS KYI THUB BYED KYI BSKYAB PA Right now, the people in this room are protected only by your past karma.

Mostly what you did in your past life. Your prayers, RNGON RNAMS, your SON NAMS, your karmic seeds, and the compassion of the Buddha are KYAB. They are protecting you right now.

That's the only reason you're still alive. The only reason you're still alive is not what you eat. It's not your mom gave you some genes or something like that.

It's just your past karma, your past good prayers, and the compassion of the Buddhists. Those are the only three things keeping you alive right now. CI KHAN SHIN DU But the things that can kill you are countless.

There's three things keeping you alive. There's millions of things that can kill you. What are they?

RANG LA SHA LUS LA SBYANG MA KHOR BA BZHIN If you take a piece of rotted meat, like an old Big Mac hamburger, and you throw it in the desert, then in a few hours, they'll be covered with flies. SBYANG MA means flies, right? CI KHAN RGYAS GRIG STONG DAG RGYAS BYAS There are 80,000 death factors around you all the time.

There are 80,000 different things that can kill you at any given time. And they are swarmed around you like flies around a piece of dead meat. Those death, what do you call them?

Killers. Things that can kill you are always surrounding you like flies on a piece of poop. They're just like buzzing around you all the time.

Anytime one of them can kill you. There are 80,000 of them. You can't see them, okay?

If you could see them, you'd go crazy. There are always 80,000 things around you all the time waiting to kill you. Death threats, good.

RGYAS GRIG means obstacles to your life. DI RNAMS SHIG SA NUS PA DANG, UK LEN NUS PA They're always thinking, they have minds. They are spirits.

They're like, when can I have this one? When can I take his last breath? They have minds.

They're like some kind of spirit. They exist. They're like, this one looks tasty.

When can I get this one? GNYIS RTEN TE GZIR NAS GZIR NAS means they press on you closely. Literally, GZIR means to squeeze.

GNAS DE YOD LA GNAS RIGS SHIG YANG SA ZHIG There are also 404 classifications of illness. There are 404 classifications of illness in Ayurveda. SNA BON THIB PA BZHIN They surround you like fog surrounds a building on a foggy morning.

You are wrapped inside of this. SNA BON means fog or mist. THIB means to envelop, like a building or a tree with fog.

But those 404 kinds of sickness are waiting. You're always wrapped in them, like fog. BRTZON RIGS GSUM RGYAL GRUB CHUNG There are also 360 kinds of, what do you call it?

Dangerous spirits that surround people. 360 dangerous spirits. They're called Dön.

CI BAS DON CHEN CHUNG NA There are 15 dangerous spirits which are especially attracted to children, to small children. So you hear these stories of children who just die. They get born, the birth goes well, the mother is well, the child is well, and then two weeks later the child just dies.

These are 15 kinds of spirits who are attracted to small children just after they're born. So the first year of life is very dangerous. And there are special spirits who take the life of those babies.

In Mongolia they put them in a pot sometimes. If the child is sick, small baby, they put them in a pot and everyone pretends they're dead. Everyone says, oh, it's too bad the child died.

Then they take them out after a month or something. YAS GROG GSUM RGYAL GRUB CHUNG There are 360 spirits who just cause unexpected accidents. Like a tree falls down on your head in a storm or something.

Or you're trying to choose the next song on your iPhone and you crash into a wall and you die. That's an iPhone spirit. You can see on the road, very dangerous.

In America more people die from iPhone than alcohol. No, more people. You can see.

I hate them. I'm waving at them in my car. My llama gets mad.

Don't get mad. I said, they're going to kill somebody. They ran into my llama.

They destroyed her car. Just somebody destroyed her car. She almost died.

It's crazy. These are some kind of spirit. They distract you and then boom, you're dead.

RANG GI TSE SOGS LA SNGAM SNGAM PA is a nice word. RANG SNGA TA SNGAM PA SO SNGAM PA SNGAM PA means to hunger for something. They are looking at your life and they're like, mmm, yummy, yummy.

That's SNGAM PA. Yummy, yummy. DE YOD DE YOD means they are hanging around you all the time.

They never leave you. From the moment you're born till the moment you die, you are surrounded by spirits. That's why some people go crazy.

They can feel them, they can see them and it makes them crazy. Life is very dangerous. Life is very dangerous.

Some people sense it and they go crazy. Fifteen more minutes. CI KHYEN BDE LTAR MA ZAD BRUL ZHIG GNOD CIG TU MNYAM DU BCUG NA GANG RDOG CHE BA DE GZHAN NAM SA BA LTAR Those are outer spirits and forces that are waiting to kill you all the time.

Don't get paranoid, okay? Get free, get free. The purpose is to get free.

Okay, I'm going to die today, so I'm doing the most important stuff. Then you feel... You don't feel paranoid, you feel free.

The result of death meditation should be some kind of joy. I'm free of all the crap that I used to do. I'm just focused on the cool stuff.

I'm free. I don't care about the rest. Throw me in a dumpster.

I don't care. I'm free. Call me dumpster.

Geshe dumpster. I like that. CI KHYEN BDE LTAR MA ZAD Those are outer factors.

Inside your own body are other things waiting to kill you. Inside your own body many things are waiting to kill you. They are like BRUL ZHIG GNOD CIG TU BDE BCUG If you take a basket and you throw in four poisonous snakes and you close it.

Like one rattlesnake, one cobra, one king... What do you call this? Poisonous.

You take four nasty snakes, different kinds. My brother did that once. We had a crazy family.

I know nobody else does. We had a parakeet and a pet rat. He was crazy.

One day he said, I wonder if you throw the rat in the parakeet, who can kill who? So he put the rat in the parakeet cage and closed the door. Then there was a...

Then the parakeet's neck was broken. It took like one second. There was this big blur.

It's the same thing. You take four super poisonous snakes, different kinds. I wonder which one can come out on top.

You throw them in a basket and you close it. What's the basket? Your own body.

Your own body. What are the four snakes? The four elements.

SA CHU ME RLUNG Your body has inside, like Chinese medicine, Chinese traditional medicine. In your body, SA CHU ME RLUNG Earth element, water element, fire element, wind element. You have four powers in your body.

If the... And they are always fighting with each other. There are four powers, like snakes thrown into a basket called your body.

Inside your body, the day you're born, four elements are thrown in. If the earth... So I translated for two of the most famous Tibetan doctors for years.

It was very interesting. If the earth element gets stronger, you get tumors. Tumors form in your body.

Because check, the function of earth element is too much cohesion. Things get too stuck together. Then you get tumors in your body.

SA CHU If you get too much water, then you get pneumonia and you can't breathe properly. ME Too much fire, you get fevers. If they don't stay in balance, the four elements, if they cannot stay in balance, if one starts to...

what do you call it? Dominate the others, then if the fire element dominates the other three, you get fevers and you die. And then wind elements are especially dangerous related to mental illness.

Like you get lung. You get like cuckoo. And you die that way.

So those four elements are installed in your body upon manufacture. Normally, in a healthy human being, they are fighting each other equally. They are fighting for dominance and nobody is dominant.

Then if one gets dominant, you get tumors. Or you get colds and phlegm. You get colds and pneumonia.

Or you get mental disease. Or you get SA CHU ME Fevers. NYAM DU CHUG NA RTOGS CHE BA DE GZHAN NAM SA The stronger snake will eat the other three.

LUNG PHYI BAS CAN Say LUNG PHYI BAS CAN These are the basic elements of Ayurveda. These are the basic elements. Tibetan medicine is very interesting because Chinese medicine is very advanced.

Chinese medicine is 5,000 years old. Indian medicine is 5,000 years old. In Tibet, they mix together.

It's very interesting. The best from China and the best from India mix in Tibet. LUNG means the wind element.

PHYI BA means the bile. And BAS CAN means the phlegm. So when you study Tibetan medicine, these are the three great forces.

LUNG means wind element. PHYI BA, bile, BAS CAN, phlegm. Cooling, heating, sorry, what do you call it?

Motion and movement. And then PHYI BA is heating and BAS CAN is cooling. SOGS DANG BYUNG BA ZHIG And the four elements.

CHUNG SRAS BYA MA NYOMS NA If one of them becomes dominant, BYA MA NYOMS means if they get out of balance. SOGS MTHROGS NAS They kill you. PHYI CAN So the elements inside your body which keep you alive will kill you if they get out of balance.

The same elements which keep you alive, the warmth of your body, the coolness of your breath, your, what do you call it? Adrenals. If they get out of balance, they kill you.

The parts of your own body are dangerous. The elements in your own body are dangerous. If they get out of balance, they kill you.

You don't need a car accident to kill you. You just need the wind element to get too strong. Inside.

So, now you can be more paranoid. Outside, all these demons want to kill me. Inside, my own elements are fighting all the time for dominance.

One is trying to be dominant. Then he quotes a book called Rinchen Tewa. Who wrote them?

Ratnamala. Arya Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna wrote a very beautiful book in poetry called Jewel Mala, Jewel Rosary.

CI BA'I RGYAS NI MANG BA STE The things that can kill you are many. SEMS PA YID NI MYUNG ZAD GCIG The things that can keep you alive are only a few. DE DAG THAMS CAD CI BA'I YANG DE BA'I BDAG TU DRUN ZER GCIG They're all going to kill you sooner or later.

Inner or outer factors. DE BA'I BDAG TU DRUN ZER GCIG So you should spend your time practicing Dharma. CI RNAMS KYI CI KHYAM MANG BA MA ZAD Okay, if you're not depressed enough yet, here's more.

We got five more minutes. CI RNAMS KYI CI KHYAM MANG BA MA ZAD Not only are there many things outside of you that can kill you and inside of you that can kill you, but... Where was that?

SON GYEN YANG CI KHYAM DU SDOR BA MANG STE The things that people invent to keep themselves happy and healthy also kill you. The things that people make to keep themselves happy and healthy also can kill you. For example, GANG PA BDIB Lots of people got killed by the houses they built to protect them in earthquakes like Chengdu, right?

Or in Taiwan. Many people get killed by the... They spend a lot of money, they build a beautiful house and then it falls down and kills them.

Many people got killed by their house. Many, many people. THU ZHIG CING PHU PA People build luxury liners and then they sink and kill everybody.

We bought a building in New York on 5th Street. It's still there. People are still doing practice there.

There's a temple. Many years ago, we started a temple there. It's a nice brownstone in the village, nice building, four-story building.

Then we bought it and then somebody said, do you know what this building is? I said, yeah, it's just a brownstone. They said, no, no, no.

There's a church next door. I said, well, what do you mean? They said, this was the parish house for the church.

This is where all the people in the church used to come to have their morning breakfast together or to do their prayers together. This is the church building. Then I said, well, why did they sell it?

They said, you really want to know? I'm like, yeah, tell me. They said, one day they all went to a picnic on Staten Island.

They all got in the ferry, the boat, to go to Staten Island. How long does it take? Half an hour.

Halfway to Staten Island, the boat sank. Every person in the church died. Everybody.

The whole congregation, the parish, everybody died. They sold the church. Then I'm like, oops.

We bought a bad luck building. Then airplane. People make airplanes so they can get from Shanghai to Bowie, Arizona.

But those airplanes, they are supposed to take you to nice places. Sometimes they fall down and they kill you. The plane which was made to take you to Thailand, to the beach for the December Lam Rim, that plane in Malaysia, right?

Many Chinese people on this plane. They were on vacation. Some of them were on Dharma vacation.

Plane fell down. They didn't find it, right? They still didn't find it.

DE'I GYUR ZHING DAPA DE'I GYUR means horse throws you. GYUR means to throw. So horse throws you and DAPA then kicks you, crushes you.

[Speaker 2]
Your transportation kills you.

[Speaker 1]
Nowadays it would be a car. Your nice car kills you. NYIN RDOG GI LUS PA Your friends or your relatives cheat you out of your money.

Your friends for many years, your relatives for many years. And then just suddenly they cheat you and you lose all your money. The business partners who are supposed to help you get rich make you poor.

They cheat you. Many, many happened, many times, right? Countless times.

SEMS MA GRIP PA While enjoying yourself in New Delhi, India, you have a very nice Indian dinner which almost kills you. Last week. Not funny, it was terrible.

We were in the most expensive hotel and we're like, we can eat this food. Do you remember? He couldn't get on the plane.

We had to leave them in the fancy hotel room. Somebody had to pay for it. I don't remember.

We had a nice, nice, nice dinner. We finished a nice program. We came home.

And the hotel, very expensive hotel, they agreed to cook something for us and it was bad. He almost died. Erin said she threw up so much her muscles here got all sore.

I won't tell him about the rest of it. So, DUS MED CI GYAN BYAS The things that are supposed to keep you alive kill you. The things that are supposed to give you enjoyment kill you.

DE NA RANG RE'I TSE SOGS NI LUNG BAR NANG GI MAR MED DANG CUNG STE Our life is like a candle in a hurricane. Our life is like a candle in a hurricane. That day, the first day when Yi Yi's house blew away, can you imagine you go out and light a candle and hold it out there?

How long can it stay? Our life is like that. Light a candle on that day and hold it outside.

Then it will blow out in a few seconds. Who said that? LUD DU Arya Nagarjuna.

Same book, Rinchen Chenwa. CI DAG RGYAS NI NANG NAS PA LUNG BAR NANG DUG MAR MED BZHIN We spend our lives surrounded by death. We are like a candle in a windstorm.

That's Nagarjuna. All right. All right then, after this cheerful news, we'll stop there.

Thank you for being so patient and sitting so nicely. It's a pleasure to teach you. I'm always hoping to have some hard core people.

Tough ass people. You are tough ass. I like it.

Thank you.