«Дар освобождения», курс 21 «Ретрит радости непостоянства», занятие 10

[Speaker 2]
Relax your lips, relax the corners of your mouth, maybe a little smile, relax your forehead, calm your stomach slightly, relax your eyelids, relax your fingers, and then slowly come to breath. Count ten long, slow exhales. Ask your lama to come sit with you.

Their body is fragrant, even with your eyes closed you can smell the fragrance of their morality. See how beautiful they are and appreciate one thing about them, and that's a mental prostration. Then think about something you did nice yesterday that you'd like to offer to them, a little breakthrough that you had.

Be specific, something nice you did yesterday, or a sweet idea you had. Then admit to them something you did yesterday which was not so nice. Old bad habit, old bad thought.

Be honest. Whenever you do it again, tell them in your mind, at least tell them in your mind, and that will help you stop. Then ask them to teach you, keep teaching you, even if you're not so worthy sometimes.

Ask them to stay in your life, and your future lives. Then put your mind on how many years of life you guess you might have left, and put a number on it. Maybe I have 10 years, maybe I have 15 years, maybe 20.

Try to imagine how many years you have left. So let's say it's 20 years, and I guess about a third of that is spent sleeping. A third or a quarter is spent sleeping, so it's down to 15 years now.

15 years I'm awake, then that's 15 years, about maybe two hours a day is spent cooking and eating. If I take out the cooking time, I'll take out about 15%. I have maybe 12 years left, grocery time, buying groceries, taking showers.

So I have maybe 11 years left, then just working to pay my rent, working to pay for my food. Maybe eight years left, then I have obligations to my family, I have to spend time with parents and other family. Otherwise I'm not a good person, I have to spend some time with them.

Six years left, my friends need some time, just time to talk to people. I can't be alone all the time, I have to have friends, I have to pay attention to their friends. I have to see them once in a while, talk to them.

Four years left, I enjoy some things online, I send some emails, keep in touch, check what's happening with other people, WeChat, Facebook. About two years left in my life, for the whole rest of my life. Real time, free to practice, clear time to meditate, to see emptiness.

I have about two years, that's all I have. So hard to fight to find a few blocks of time, spaces of time, half an hour, 20 minutes. It's so hard in the whole day to find free time to meditate, keep my book, study, so little time.

Let's stay here for a few minutes, and please take three deep breaths, three deep breaths. And you can slowly open your eyes, take a stretch.

[Speaker 1]
Nice meditation, very quiet. Thank you. Really nice, nice group of meditators.

I'll give you a paper, maybe tomorrow, with the nine reasons for death meditation. We weren't supposed to go this far, but you guys are fast. I'll just review them with you right now.

There are three basic principles. The first one is, it's certain that you have to die. And there are three reasons for that.

First one is, the traditional text says, ,'CHI BDAG NGES PAR DBANG BZHIN GYIN GANG GIS KYANG GDOG TU MED PA, The Lord of Death will definitely come, and there's nothing that can stop him at that time. It doesn't matter how strong you are, or what kind of medicines you use, or where you go. Second reason why death is certain is, ,TSE LA NUS PA MED CAN GYIS BYAS PA MA BYAS PA DANG BYAS PA, You can't add any time to your life, and you're constantly losing the time.

The time is dropping every hour. That's the second reason. Third reason, ,GSAN PA'I TSE YANG PHYIR BYA BA'I LUNG MED PA, We just did that one.

What's that? Even in the time you have left, you don't have time to practice. You're just so busy.

To get a few hours of retreat here, it's millions of dollars, and people are working for months. You also have to come from far away. It's a lot of work, a lot of trouble.

I don't know. In the yogic theory of digestion, you eat like a donut, and then it goes down your throat, and the stomach processes it, and takes out the junk, and by the time you get to the essence of a donut, it's like one drop of nutrition. Maybe.

Then your practice time is like that. To get one hour of practice takes like a hundred hours of life. So even in the time you have left, the time you have to practice is very small.

Which means if you get a chance to practice, take it. You're in the airport. We always do yoga in the airport.

We found out the cure for jet lag is to do two yogas in the airport. One when you leave and one when you get there. So when you see a moment, take it.

Somebody asked me, how did you have time to finish the Abhidharmakosha? It took me 12 years. I said it was all in dentist's office waiting for Rinpoche.

I did it all in the dentist's office, waiting for Rinpoche. He had like 50 bad teeth. Second basic principle is what?

You don't know when it's going to come. You know it's going to come, but you don't know when. And there are three reasons for that.

We call them reason number four, reason number five, reason number six, because there are going to be nine total. First one is, PHYIR DZAM PA LING BA'I TSE LA NGES PA MED PA In this realm where we live, there's no fixed lifetime. You don't get a guarantee when you're born.

That's the fourth reason. Fifth reason, CI KHYEN MANG SHING GSUNG KHYEN MYON BAR The things that can kill you are many. The things that can keep you alive are very few.

Sometimes I think the world must be a tantric mandala because there's not enough room to grow all the spinach I have to eat. No, I mean if I eat so much spinach in a green drink, Adriana makes me a green drink every morning. If I have that much spinach, There should be miles and miles of spinach fields, but there's not.

There's very little place on the planet to grow spinach. Most of the places you can't grow it. But the things that can kill you are everywhere.

Now we're on reason number six. We're going to start reason number six. Reason number six, which is the third reason why we don't know when we're going to die, is LUS SHIN DU NYAM CHUNG BA.

The body is fragile. The body is fragile. I love, I don't know about you, you're not old enough, but when I was a kid, it was really cool to have a 1955 Chevy, or those big boxy Chevrolet.

She's real fine, my 409. We had songs about them. Those cars are, how old are they now?

60 years old, something. They're like 60 years old. They're younger than me.

And they all fell apart. All the 55 Chevys in the world fell apart. They're made of metal.

I'm made of bone and skin. It's hard to find a 1955 Chevy that's still, right? It's hard to find.

I bought one a while back. I sold it shortly afterwards. They're just always falling apart.

I had to put oil in it every 10 miles. The brakes don't work in those days. Nothing works anyway, but your body's still going.

Let's talk about that one. Are you ready, Adam? GYUL TZEN GSUNGS PA GYUL TZEN GSUNGS PA LUS BZHIN DU NYAMS CHUNG BA'I SKYANG RNAMS CI LA NGES PA MED PA NI Life is, when you're going to die is not certain, because of the third reason, which is that the body is so fragile.

NYAMS CHUNG BA means fragile. In colloquial Tibetan, NYAMS CHUNG means, let's put that in the dictionary. NYAMS CHUNG means shy.

Or, you know, like that. KHO BZHIN DU NYAMS CHUNG RE means he's really shy. Or he's kind of, what do you call it?

Like bashful. Yeah, that's good, bashful, NYAMS CHUNG. But here it means fragile.

The body is fragile. BZHIN DU NYAMS CHUNG, very fragile. DE LTAR GCIG RGYEN MANG ZHING GSUNGS RGYEN MYONG RNAMS Even though it's true that the things that can kill you are many and the things that can keep you alive are few.

RANG BYAG GI LUS DE SA ZHING PHRAD PA ZHIG YOD NA If our body was like, what's that guy's... It's not... Transformers?

What's that guy, the big one, the nice one? Optimus Prime? Optimus Prime?

If we had a body like Optimus Prime, it would be okay. Like if there were lots of things that could kill us. If the roof fell on us, we'd be like, If we had an Optimus Prime transformer body, it would be okay that there are many dangerous things around us.

But, GCIG RGYEN MANG ZHING, MI KHYEN YONG, SDIG NYID CHUG BA'I BU BA LTAR But our body is like a bubble, like a water bubble in your bathtub, little bubble. Our body is like that. PHRAD MA GSOS PA TZAM GYIS KYANG PHYI BA If you get stuck by a cactus thorn and you're not lucky, it can kill you.

It can kill you. I think Abraham Lincoln's son was killed by a thorn. He just got stuck by a thorn.

He got an infection and he died. Lama Palma, in the first three-year retreat, she fell into a cactus and her hand was swollen for three years. It never cured.

It can kill you. Just one little thing can kill you. So our body is not like Optimus Prime.

GCIG RGYEN MANG ZHING, BU BA LTAR SDIG NYID CHUG BA'I BU BA LTAR PHRAD MA GSOS PA TZAM GYIS KYANG PHYI BA SOGS KYANG CHEN PO MI DGOS PA It doesn't take much to kill a human body. A few germs. You can get them anywhere.

You can get them... What's that nice restaurant at the top of the casino in Singapore? Some French restaurant.

I lost a month's salary there. Anyway, in that restaurant you can get a... What do you call that?

Salmonella. It can kill you. Many people died that way in the nicest restaurant in Singapore.

SA THEG ZHIG RGYEN KYANG MI PHEN TE Even if our body was like Optimus Prime, PHRAD means, by the way, like armored. Or PHRAD PA means super... What do you call it?

Solid. PHRAD PA MI PHEN TE SHES SPRING LAS Because the SHES SPRING says... What's SHES SPRING?

SHES SPRING The letter to a friend. SHES means friend. SPRING like Geshe.

And SPRING means Mitra. Kalyana Mitra. And SPRING means letter.

SA DANG LHUNG PO RGYA TSOG NYID MA BDUN BAR BA'I SRIGS PA'I LUS CAN DI DAG KYANG THAL BA YANG NI LUS PAR MIN GYUR NA BZHIN DU NYAMS SBYOR MI DANG MOD JI RTZA SA means the surface of this planet, the earth. LHUNG PO means the great mountains of the earth, like Mount Everest. And the Gya Tsos, the great oceans of the earth, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean.

There will come a time, according to Abhidharma, third chapter, when the sun will supernova. And that's normal. All stars supernova eventually.

So in the Abhidharma they say, this star that we call the sun, it's burning, right? It's a reaction. And then it will start to fail.

Just before it fails, it will... In the Abhidharma it says NYID MA BDUN. It means it will get 700% more powerful.

The light of the sun will increase by 700%. Suddenly, supernova. And then it gets to, what do you call it?

Well, eventually it's a black hole. First it burns out for a while. So when the time of the seven suns, they call it the days of the seven suns, when our sun explodes, BAR BA, the earth will catch it.

First, it's very sad. It's like first all the trees start to dry out, and then they catch on fire. People die early.

And then the oceans dry up. And then the mountains melt. And then the earth melts.

And then the earth dissolves. And then the earth evaporates. And then it's just nothing.

Dust. Goes back to dust. By the way, SIGS PA'I LUS CAN GYIS BDAG KYANG, if even Mount Everest is going to melt and become THAL BA YANG NI LUS PA, this LUS PA means to be left over.

It doesn't mean body. LUS PA means, even if the THAL BA is not left, THAL BA means dust. If you crush Mount Everest into dust, and then even the dust will evaporate.

THAL BA MING GYUR, LUS PA MING GYUR, there'll be nothing left. SHIN DU NYAM CHUNG MI DANG, then this fragile body, MU CI TZAL, who needs to mention this fragile body? Where will your body...

You have an optimist prime body, then it doesn't help. Even if your body was armored or something, all things on this planet will dissolve. Everything.

Oceans. Mountains. Then your body, come on.

He's like, come on, MU CI TZAL. MU CI TZAL means, who needs to mention? Come on.

Then he has another quotation. It's from the same book. SEMS DE NYON MANG LUNG GI LTA PA'I YID, CHU'I CHUG PAR BA'I KYANG MI STAG NA, DBU NGUG DUNG NYID KYIS LOGS PA LAS, SRED KHOM GANG LA DE NI NGO TZAR BYAS, SEMS DE NYON MANG LUNG GI LTA PA'I YID, Life is full of danger.

LUNG GI LTA PA'I YID, CHUG PAR, CHUG PAR Our body is like a bubble that's blown in the wind. Those kids play with those bubble things and then they start to float. How long do they last?

CHU'I CHUG PAR KYANG MI STAG NA We are more impermanent than that. DBU NGUG DUNG NYID You guys know DBU NGUG DUNG, right? So, yeah, DBU NGUG means to breath, breathe in, and DBU NGUG BYUNG means to breathe out.

DBU NGUG means breath. Say DBU NGUG. I want you to sound like a monkey.

DBU NGUG, DBU NGUG, DBU NGUG Yeah, good, okay. Then, in the Abhidharma, there's a meditation preparation called DBU NGUG BYUNG. It means exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale.

Then countries like Burma and Sri Lanka and Thailand, the only Buddhism that reached there was the Abhidharma. The Madhyamaka Middle Way didn't go there. Emptiness didn't go there.

Mind Only didn't go there. China got Mind Only. China got Middle Way.

But the southern countries, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, they just got Abhidharma and Vinaya. Out of the five great subjects, they only got those two. So, breathing meditation became a big thing in the southern countries.

And then there are systems like Vipassana meditation, which I learned. It was the first meditation I learned, a hundred years ago. All they do is watch their breath.

Then that's not enough. It's not enough. It's a good thing.

It's a good preparation. But it's like warming up instead of running the Olympics. You don't practice your whole life and go to the Olympics and warm up and watch the other people race.

You race. That's just a warm up. DBU NGUG BYUNG is just a warm up.

But it's a good warm up. But it shouldn't be the only thing you do. DBU NGUG BYUNG means watch your breath.

To breathe in and out. Here it means breathe in and out. NYID KYIS BLOG PA LAS After you have fallen asleep.

SRED KHOM This SRED PA, SRED PA generally means to kill, right? But without the BHA'O or without the KHA'O, it means to wake up from sleep. So be careful when you translate it.

It means to wake from sleep. SRED KHOM means to have time, to have the leisure to wake from your sleep. NGOS TSAR BYAS Yeah, it's unbelievable.

The fact that you wake up in the morning is wonderful. I went to Sivananda Center in Bahamas. They had a nice rabbi talking, Jewish rabbi.

He's old and he was very cool. Somebody said, why are you so happy? He said, I woke up this morning.

I didn't die in my sleep. He was so happy. He's like 90.

They're like, why are you always so happy? He says, I didn't die this morning. I woke up again.

So here in the SHES SPRING, Nagarjuna says the same thing. The fact that you woke up this morning is a miracle. NGOS TSAR BYAS That your breath is still going.

Who makes your breath go? Scientists, all the doctors, all the research guys, billions of dollars to figure out why do people breathe. What triggered it?

What made the first breath? We understand karma, right? If you have the karma, you will breathe.

You'll be the only person on the Titanic to survive. If you have the karma, nothing can kill you. Iceberg cannot kill you.

If you don't have a karma to breathe, then you get stuck by one cactus. You will die. We understand.

Scientists, doctors are like, why? What causes the first breath to start? Then he gives a nice explanation of this quotation.

My clock just told me it's Sunday. It's Easter tomorrow. ZHES RANG NYID LOGS PA'I SKABS UG RAGS PA BYUNG RNGUB NAMS DUS When you fall asleep, the gross breath withdraws.

Pratyahara. It comes into the body. DU DE BYUNG BA PHRA MA LUNG RNAMS KYI RGYU BA MA BYAS PAR But, BYUNG BA PHRA MA means the subtle elements of the body.

The subtle wind element still passes in and out of your body. So you sleep, but with a very reduced breathing, unless your husband snores. That's a lot stronger than normal breathing.

But most people, they're just barely alive while they're asleep. The breath is just barely moving. It shifts to a different level of the element of air.

MA BYAS PAR BYUNG BA RAGS PA'I LUNG GI UG BYUNG RNGUB DUS PA SEMS NAS Then for that, what do you call it? Suspended gross breath to reactivate when you wake up. NGO TSA BYAS It's unbelievable.

That you don't die. Because the suspended gross breath, for it to reawaken in the morning is like a miracle. It shouldn't.

It doesn't have to. You could just die. You could just stop breathing in the morning.

But the fact that you keep breathing is a miracle. That you wake up and start breathing again, rough breathing, gross breathing, is a miracle. DE NA RNAMS KYIS NGES MED DI SAMS NAS SU BYED KYI BGRA'ONG BAR NGES NAS RNAMS MONGS CHA MED NAS I like this one.

I always think about this. I don't know why. When Rinpoche taught this, it really struck me.

If it's not sure when you're going to die. So the situation is this. You're sitting in your house.

You're sitting in your... What do you call that? Yurt.

You're trying to meditate in a yurt. And then somebody sends you a message in your food box. It says, someone's coming to kill you in the next 24 hours.

Good luck. Somebody's coming to kill you in your yurt in the next 24 hours. Good luck.

Then you're like, check the bag. There's nothing on the bag. Then you would do something to get the house ready.

There was a movie called Straw Dogs. This nerd puts bear traps. He makes sure the water's going to fall on the guy.

He fixes the house up with all these traps because somebody's going to come to kill him. So if you know someone's coming to kill you, you wouldn't wait until tomorrow. You see what I mean?

Maybe they won't come tonight. I'll wait until tomorrow to get ready. I'll find all the knives in the house tomorrow.

That would be kind of stupid. The minute you get the note, put the note down, look in the house for knives or sharp spoons or anything. Do something now.

Don't hang out. Don't say, oh, maybe they won't come today. Maybe it'll be tomorrow morning.

BYAS NI GNAS RDOG PA SOGS LA BRTZON PA You have to do something now. You get a message like that. Somebody says they're coming, but I'm not telling you when they're coming.

Then you should rather get ready first and relax later. RDOG PA SOGS LA BRTZON PA THAG LTAR RANG CHOS BYAS NYAMS PA BYA BA'I CHOS BYAS DGOS MA So you should practice. Do your practice.

If you have to skip something today, skip your WeChat and do some death meditation. And then you can do, if you don't die in the morning, you can do WeChat in the afternoon. It's more logical.

Do your practice first. Take care of your practice first. Then do all your WeChat stuff in the afternoon.

If you do die, you did the right thing. If you don't die, you can still do WeChat. THA LA SANGS PA TZAM DU LAS DGE SBYUG GCIG BDU PA But our habit is to say, I'm working on a project.

I've got a client. I'm writing a book. So I'm just going to schedule it this way.

I will finish the book first and then I'll practice that. I'll do the death meditations after that. It should be the opposite.

Do your death meditations first. If you die, everything is taken care of. Finish the book later.

If you don't die, you can finish the book. It doesn't matter. You didn't lose anything.

Better to prioritize. Do your meditation first in the morning. Get the yoga out of the way.

What's the definition of yoga? That which prevents me from eating breakfast. That which stands between me and my waffles.

It's the definition of yoga. So get it finished. Get all your practice done in the morning.

Then if you die, you're safe. If you don't die, you can do your other stuff later. It makes sense.

YOD PA DE ZIN NAS CHOS BYA SNYAM PA NI RANG GIS RANG LUS PA YIN TE But if you do your WeChat first and you think you're going to do your meditation later, RANG LUS PA You are cheating yourself. You are cheating yourself. Nobody's cheating you.

You're cheating yourself. How late does this class go, Scott? 10, 15?

Okay, I'll take a break shortly. We're going to take a little pee-pee break. BYAS GUNG THAMS PAS Let's finish this one, then we'll take a little break.

LO BDAG BA DI LA DI NANG GIS LAS BYA CHE SOGS TSUL CHE NI LAR TZAM MED CHOS BZHI BYAS SNYAM PA DI THAMS CA'I LUS BA PHUNG BDE He says if you want to meet a demon, there's a big debate in America, does the devil exist? A hundred years ago, everybody believed in the devil. Nowadays, very few people believe in the devil.

And there's a book that says the devil's greatest achievement in the last hundred years was to make everybody not believe in him. Anyway, there do exist devils. There do exist demons.

And he describes one. But by the way, in general, they exist. If you meditate a lot, you can meet one.

You can recognize them. It's scary. They exist.

That's another subject. LO BDAG BA DI LA DI NANG GIS LAS BYA CHE SOGS TSUL So I'm so busy. I have a plan.

I'm going to do a really good retreat next year. And I'm going to start my book next month. I'm just busy right now.

I got a few things to finish up. And then I'm going to really start my six times book again. And do all my death meditations.

I'm going to come to Diamond Mountain and do a one month retreat. Solo, solo retreat by myself. I think, definitely 2017.

I just got a few things to finish up in 2016. And then I'll take care of that. There's somebody coming to kill you in your yurt in the next 24 hours.

It's better to look for the sharp spoons now. Do your death meditation. Do your retreat now.

Take care of your meditation. Do your yoga practice. Then if you don't die, you can do your other stuff.

If you do die, you're ready. Like a daughter or a son returning to their parents' home. You're ready.

You're all ready. Oh, you're going to die. Okay, I'm all packed up.

What time are we leaving? Like that. There's no fear.

If you got ready, there's this weird thing. Then you're like, okay, I'm ready. Okay, let's go.

I'm all ready. Okay, so he says, DJE GUNG THAMS PA GUNG THAMS PA says, if you want to meet a real demon, it's that idea that I will wait till later. I just got a few things to take care of and then I'm definitely going to get more serious about my practice.

[Speaker 2]
You're cheating yourself. What do you call it? You're deceiving yourself.

Okay. One more.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, for this one you have to understand something. I spent 25 years living with my teacher. One of the strangest things that he used to do, he would be watching the news on TV.

He'd say I could come up and watch the news. And he had a tweezers. And he'd be going, because Tibetans don't have beards, okay?

They're so lucky. Like Americans, we have to shave every day. Scott looks like he's been in a war every morning.

Tibetans, they're like... They're so lucky. One day I was in the debate ground.

You're all stuffed together and then some guy's going like this. He's going like this. Then I'm like, what are you doing, man?

He said, I said, there's a debate going on. He said, yeah, but I never saw anybody with hair on their eyes. Okay.

NA MTSAN REG PA'I DI'I ZHUGS ZIN NAS So we think, I'll do my practice after I finish this. After I finish this thing I have to do. Then the same Lama, GUNG THAMS KHWANG CHOG BSTAN PA'I BROS MED said, LAS CHOG MI RGAN DKA' BU BZHIN CHE RGYUN CHE RGYUN BYAS MANG STE The stuff you still have to finish, the projects you didn't quite finish, are like an old man's hair.

Because what happens as you get older, they grow back faster. Those of you who have hair in your ears, you know this. Or in here.

You pull it out, the next morning it's like, bing! Then you just give up. Okay, forget it.

So old man's hair grows really fast. You pull it out, and then it's like, bing! It comes back.

CHE RGYUN CHE RGYUN means you cut it. You keep cutting, cutting. KHYIM means present participle.

You cut, you cut, you cut, and it just keeps growing back faster. What's he talking about? Stuff you have to do before you can do your practice.

It's like old man's hair. It just, boop! Comes back more.

Another project, and then another project, and then another project. And one more thing you have to do. It just keeps growing.

All right, we're going to take a pee-pee break there. Especially me. And then come back in like 10-15 minutes, okay?

Okay, here we go again. What time Scott? 10.30?

10.15, okay. GSUNGS PA LTAR LAS DKA' GCIG BZIN LONG MED PAR BDE NAS YANG LAS DKA' GZHAN ZHIG CHUNG Guess what? Without finishing one project, we start another project.

YANG LAS DKA' GZHAN ZHIG I don't know who they're talking about. CHUNG NA DE'I GZHUGS DU And then we don't have time to finish it. YANG LAS DKA' GZHAN ZHIG CHUNG DE Then projects just come one after the other.

NYAMS PA GCIG RTEN GYI LAS DKA' CHU NYER Let's talk about the word CHU NYER, okay? CHU means water. NYER means wrinkle.

Like NYER MA means a wrinkle. But CHU NYER means ripples in a pond. So projects that you want to finish, they just keep coming one after another like ripples in a pond.

You throw a stone in the middle of a pond and then more and more projects come. They never stop. NYER BZHIN Oh, I was supposed to put this one.

TSAR GYUR CUNG ZAD KYANG MED Impossible to finish all of them. You will die first. GUNG THANGS PA'I Same Lama said, CHOS BYED KYI SANG NYID BYAR GYI BAR CHOS DUS KYI DE RIGS GNAS PA'I CHE The tomorrow when you expected to finish that current project or the moment you die, which will come first, we don't know.

There's a danger that the moment of your death will come. Even if you're on the last day of a project, you wrote the book already, your client's application is all filled out for immigration, and then they just have to sign it and you send it in and then you die. We never know if we're going to finish a particular project.

BDAG RANG DGOS RANG GI MA GOR BA Don't deceive yourself. CHOS BYED NA DE RING NYID NAS GYIS If you're going to do Dharma, start now. Start now.

And it's not a big grand decision. It's not like you announce it in the newspaper and I'm going to start my Dharma practice. You just sit down.

Butt on the cushion. That's all. I found out something.

If you put your feet on your yoga mat, you almost always do your yoga. I mean, one time I put my feet on my mat, I decided not to do yoga. But if you get your butt in contact with your meditation cushion, you're probably going to meditate.

It's not like a big announcement or it's not a big change in your life. Just put your ass on your cushion. That's all.

Once a day, make contact. Your butt says, nice to know you. Nice to meet you.

And that's all. That's all you have to do. Get the butt on the cushion once a day.

That's all. It's not a big... Then you become a Buddha.

It's not like lights are going to go off. It's just contact with the butt on the cushion. In the diamond business, we have cameras on everybody all the time.

It was fun, because I always get to watch the cameras. After like 10 years, we found out something. If they're sitting at their desk, they do work.

If they're not sitting at their desk, they don't do work. It was a big... Wow!

We just try to get them to sit at the desk. Put the butt on the cushion. Then everything takes care of itself.

Just once a day. It's not a cosmic... It's not like the movies where Keanu Reeves becomes Buddha.

You just sit down and start. Now. Do your book now.

Get the book out and do it now. Then that's all. Then you delay the other projects till the afternoon.

It's okay. You can do them in the afternoon. For me, quality time, best time of the day is morning.

That's why I do long classes in the morning. In the afternoon, people are hopeless. First time I went to Shanghai, you weren't there.

You guys weren't there. It was in a movie theater. The whole front row fell asleep.

But they're not like that. They were like... Each one on the next one.

I was going to take the first one and pull him out. Afternoon is bad time. Late at night you can do a little bit of sweet meditation, but you're tired.

So morning is the golden time for meditation. Early morning is the golden, golden time. Before the other people in your family wake up, get your meditation done.

Maybe they never know you meditate. Get it done before the first kid wakes up. And your mind is fresh and clear around dawn time.

Okay. ,DE'I TSAR NAS CHOS CHE CHE BA'AM SANG NYID CHOS CHE CHES SOGS, ,DU DGOS GRIGS NAS LAS RGA MA TSAR PAR, ,THAG DER RING CHI RANGS SONG ZHES PA DE, ,THOB PA LTAR BYUNG NGES, It is definite that death will hit you like lightning when you never expected it and you were halfway through some project. You were focusing on a good project.

And I'll tell you something. You have died many, many times before. It has happened to you many, many, many times before.

And deep inside you know it. And you know it just, it was like that. Somebody was looking that way and the car hit something.

And you've been there many times. You've felt it thousands, millions of times. This sudden bang on your head and you're dead.

You're gone and you're in another place. It's happened to you many, many, many times. So you know it.

Deep down you know it. If you do death meditation, you know how you died before. And it wasn't planned.

And it wasn't like you finished one project and then you say, okay, now I'm ready. It was always in the middle of something. You were going to visit your daughter.

It happened many, many times before. And it was always unexpected. You know, boom.

I almost died a couple of times in a car. And it was so, you're like, whoa. We were coming back with Margie from New York, teaching in New York.

And it was a snowy day. And it was like midnight. And she drives me in this big Lincoln that she won from Amway or whatever.

And we're driving down the New Jersey Turnpike and there's two cars next to us. And we hit a patch of ice. And the car went like this.

You know, like this. It just went in a circle like this, like two or three times. And when we went like this, this other car went, whoosh.

And then when we went like this, the other car went, whoosh. You know, and then I'm like. And then we're just driving.

And I'm like, did that really happen? And she's like, yeah. I said, we almost died twice.

She's like, yeah. It's just like that. We're just having a nice drive.

Anyway, that's how it happens. DE LTAR RGYU MTSAN GSUNGS KYI RNAMS CI NGES PA MED PA SANGS So use those three reasons when you meditate on dying. Now, we're going to practice this this evening.

But before that, you're going to download the app. If you don't have the app, you can't get into class tonight. Afternoon class is Tsongkhapa, right?

That's okay. You don't need the app to be in Tsongkhapa. The Insight Timer app.

You know what it's got? It's free, okay? Don't whine about it.

It's not like Waffle Breakfast. It costs you $500. Okay?

It's free. I'm going to make a better app when I have time. But this one's pretty good.

It's really good. It gets better. They work hard on it.

It's a meditation app. Please, if you have a smartphone, download it before tonight because we're going to practice together. We're going to practice using it tonight.

If you don't have a smartphone, God bless you. All right. So use those three reasons why you never know when you're going to die.

THA LTA NAS GCIG RTEN LAS DGOS BYAMS KYI ZHAG I like BYAMS KYI. BYAMS KYI means all that stuff you got to do in the morning. You wake up and you're like, I got to check my emails.

I got this thing now. My Lama says, are you all right? I said, I got to check my emails.

Can you wait like an hour? No, I got to check my emails. But does it matter?

No, it doesn't matter. Can you wait? No.

I got to check my emails. BYAMS KYI ZHAG means take your goddamn emails and let them sit for an hour. Just don't check your WeChat.

When you wake up, say, I love you WeChat. You're so cool. BYAMS KYI ZHAG means just say, okay sweetie, you wait for an hour.

I got to do my meditation. Can you wait for an hour? Then BYAMS KYI means peacefully, in a friendly way.

See you in an hour. I'm going to check all your emails in an hour. Just be quiet.

You sleep for an extra hour. Daddy's got to do something. All right.

BYAMS KYI means don't be violent. Don't say, just say, I'll get back to you in an hour. SANG BYA NANG BYAR MA SONG BAR Don't wait till tomorrow.

Don't wait till the next day. CHOS BDAG DE NYID DU BYAS PA THAG BYAS Decide you're going to do your practice every morning, first thing. First thing.

You'd be late to work maybe. They get used to it. They fire you or they get used to it.

I did it. I know. Nineteen years.

They're like, you're ten minutes late. I said, sit down. Just sit down.

This is my boss. I said, last week, every day, you kept me late for two or three hours every day. Today I'm ten minutes late.

Is that fair? You're going to fire me, fire me. You know, I was doing something important.

Okay? You can get fired a few times. You get used to it.

Okay. Finally you meet a boss who understands you. DE YANG SLOB NYER BA'I SOGS CHUD LA PHYIM BRAL ZHAGS NAS RIGS BU DU BRAL MI DGOS KYIS This is very important.

Okay? This is very important. He says, there are people in the audience today who are already have a pretty good life.

They have a family. They have a good job. They have a nice meditation practice in the morning.

They're doing yoga like Uta. You know. They have a nice...

They got their act together. They got the job. They got the family.

They got the morning practice. Everything's good. He says, you're cool.

I'm not talking to you. I'm not talking to you. Okay?

He says, I don't want those people giving up and running to Diamond Mountain and moving into a little... that little cabin that's falling down and saying, now I'm really going to practice. Okay?

He says, I'm not talking to you guys. Okay? I'm not talking to the people who have integrated their practice into their life.

They're doing a nice daily practice. Their life is a practice. Daniel was talking to me about that.

There's a tantric practice where the job is your practice. You know? I'm Vajrayogini typing for my boss.

Okay? Like, okay. Alright.

Okay, you can do that. Okay? So he said an important thing here.

Lama Pabongka, he said, I'm not talking to the people who have a pretty good... they got a pretty good balance, going, I'm not talking to you. I don't want you to quit everything and run to Diamond Mountain and go stay in a little house for the rest of your life.

I'm not talking about that. You guys are doing the right thing. You guys are good.

But. GYIS. Okay?

GYIS means but. At the end of a sentence, GYIS always means but. THAG PA CHE BZHIN PA'I CHOS DE CHOS SU RGYUR DGOS PA YIN But make sure the Dharma you're doing is Dharma.

Okay? Okay? The practice you're doing in the morning, make sure it's Dharma.

Okay? Check the practice you're doing. You got a good balance in your life.

Make sure the practice is pure and clean and hard and that you're making progress every day. Like yoga. You got to push yourself every day.

It's hard. And meditation, you got to push yourself. Okay?

Don't get complacent. Don't stay in the same place. Okay?

Push a little harder each day. DPER NA MNGON CHAD ZIGS TZAM BSTOD PA LA BYAS NA Let's just talk about the prayers that we recite. Okay?

This is Pabongka talking. SANGS RGYAS PHYIR DANG RDZOGS KYI MTHONG RNAMS LA BYANG CHUB BAR NUS DANG NI BYAMS SU YIN CI Okay, here it is. SANGS RGYAS PHYIR RDZOGS MA is the name of that prayer.

When you name a prayer, you sometimes take the first two or three words and you add the word MA, which is feminine. Like the real name of the Heart Sutra is the Lady of Conquest. CHUNG LDAN DE MA Okay?

So really powerful prayers should be feminine. Should be ladies. Okay?

So we always add the word MA, which is feminine ending in Tibetan. So we take the first few words. SANGS RGYAS PHYIR DANG You got that, Adam?

SANGS RGYAS PHYIR DANG SANGS RGYAS PHYIR DANG RDZOGS, right? And then you add the word MA. And that's the name of the prayer.

SANGS RGYAS PHYIR So what's the Tsongkhapa's mantra called? MIG TSE MA Okay? YANG STONG TSAR TZAM BSTOD TSAR MOD You must have done it a thousand times, right?

SANGS RGYAS PHYIR DANG RDZOGS KYIS BYANG RNAM LA BYANG CHUB PA'I DUS DANG NI BYAMS SU YIN CI RDAG GIS DRIN TSOR GYIS PA'I GSOS RNAM GYIS SBYOR NA'ANG PHAN PHYIR SANGS RGYAS PHYIR PHYIR Okay? SANGS SANGS RGYAS Misspelled. Yeah, SANGS RGYAS LAS PAR BSTANG So those of you who already have a daily practice, you already have a pretty good balance in your life, keep it up, but turn up the volume.

Turn up the practice. Make it more intense. Don't let your mind wander.

SANGS RGYAS PHYIR So do the prayers you're doing, but stop wandering in your mind while you're doing them. It's hard to do. If you do a prayer every day, RGYAS BA NI RGYAS DBANG PO GSOS RNAM YOD ZHIG RDZOGS RDZOGS CING Do you have any more coffee left over there?

No, she's like, what? I got it. I already got the coffee.

LAS PAR BSTANG NAS SANGS RGYAS KYANG LTON DU GAM DE DAG CHOS KUN PA Say CHOS KUN PA CHOS KUN PA CHOS KUN PA The word CHOS means big. When you add an S on it, it means very. CHOS And KUN PA means?

Like KUN CHOG? Rare. Rare, yeah.

To find a single person in the whole group who's focusing on that prayer when they say it is CHOS KUN PA Very rare. SANGS RGYAS BYAS DANG MTSAMS KYIS BYANG LA LA RGYAS BA NI RGYAS DBANG PO GSOS RNAM YOD ZHIG People start wrapping up their books and stuff. RGYAS BA NI RGYAS I hope I can be first to breakfast.

Okay? Like, those of you who already have a pretty good balance in your life, you already have a pretty good practice, now turn it up. Tune it up.

That's what he says. You don't have to run away in Diamond Mountain and give up everything. People who do that always fail.

If you want to know the truth, they always fail. People run away. I saw it when I was 20, 22.

One of the people in Rinpoche's group in New Jersey, he said, I'm going to be like Milarepa. He ran away across the street. There was a lot, an empty lot with trees in it.

He ran away. He got a sleeping bag. He stayed there for three days.

Then he quit. You're going to practice Dharma in your life, in your situation now, with your friends, with your family, with your work. You got to learn to practice Dharma there.

You can't go somewhere else and practice Dharma. You can't stay in the desert here. You can try.

You will fail. You will quit. You got to learn to practice Dharma where you are.

Even if you're in Guelph. DE NA TSONG DANG ZHING GI SONG NAM LA BRTZON PA SOGS NI CHOS SU RGYUR BU MED KYANG It's difficult, although it's possible, to transform your daily work into Dharma practice. Tantra is that.

We'll learn it later, in the proper place, which is at the end of the Lam Rim. RANG RES RAB TU CHUNG BA RNAMS But you people already have training. You've already studied Dharma.

You have training. RAB TU CHUNG BA RNAMS PHYIS BZHIN PA SDIG PA RANG CHOS SU RGYUR DGOS TE So you have to take that training and use it. It's not like you need more training.

You have training. 21 Lam Rim retreats. 210 days Geshe Michael blah blah blah already.

If you weren't there, go on the Knowledge Base, listen to the ones you missed. There's 21 10-day retreats. There's, I don't know, 600 classes.

Then listen to them. They're free. They're on the Knowledge Base.

Jamie is working very hard. They're there. So you don't need...

It's not like you have a shorter practice. You just have to tune up what you have. And try to focus.

So for the next two, three months, do your death meditations. Do those death meditations. You have 14 on the paper.

We're adding more now. I think we'll get to the nine great death meditations by tomorrow. I think we'll be able to finish.

Because you're so fast. SDIG PA RANG CHOS SU RGYUR DGOS TE RANG RES PHAL CHER GRUB PA'I PHUNG PA MA STOG MA SHES PA GCIG PU PHUNG PA MIN GSUNG You have a shortage of practice, not a shortage of training. He said it, not me.

But I should have said it. You don't have a shortage of training. Many of you have been to many retreats.

You just have a shortage of practice. You got lots of stuff to practice. It's like a big candy store.

You have hundreds of meditations. You go to a yoga class with some guy for six months. They do the same meditation over and over again.

It drives me crazy. But you have like a hundred meditations. You can pick.

It's like, do I feel like chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream? You have hundreds of flavors to choose. You got so many practices you can do.

The hard thing is to choose one. We've reached the third basic principle. We have eight more minutes.

I'm going to use the time. We have eight more minutes. We've reached the third basic principle.

What is the third basic principle? First one is you have to die. Second one is you don't know when.

Third one is the only thing that can help you the minute the car hits your head is any dharma you did in your life. Any retreats you came to, meditations you did, the rest is all canceled. The rest is all canceled.

All the family stuff you did, all the projects you did at work, they are canceled in that moment. The only thing you can take with you is your dharma practice. The only thing that sticks in your head is your dharma practice.

Here we go. You lose the rest. Immediately.

They fade. They fade in 24 hours, 48 hours. So all the problems you had at work are gone the moment the car hits you.

All the years you spent being angry at your boss and being jealous of your co-workers, it's all canceled in that moment. It's just wasted time. Disliking other people is a waste of time.

Just wasted time. You can't take it with you. You just lost the time.

If people bother you, just avoid them. That's all. If you can't avoid them, pretend they're not there.

Don't waste your time. In Tibetan they say, I wrote a new book. I'm halfway through a new book.

I hope I can finish it. It's called, The Ten Biggest Mistakes in Your Life. The third one is called, dukri tenyi, dukri yangyar numpa.

Say, dukri dukri yangyar yangyar num So me and this Muslim guy, famous Muslim teacher, we are writing a book together. It's called, The Ten Biggest Mistakes You Can Make. He's doing ten, I hope.

I'm doing ten. Number three is, dukri yangyar ma num. It's called, Don't Smell a Fart Twice.

In Tibetan, okay? In Tibetan it's called, Don't Smell a Fart Twice. So like you're on the train, right?

And then suddenly there's this... You're like... So you should turn your nose this way.

[Speaker 2]
But we go like...

[Speaker 1]
Okay? Like, give it up. Okay?

Somebody hurt you, give it up. You know? Don't say...

Don't like go into the details of it. Okay? Just give it up.

Put your nose that way. Okay? I hate that when you're on a plane and some guy next to you is like, boop, boop, boop, boop.

They should have a rule in business class. The more money you pay, the people with the farts have to go to the back. You know?

Something like that. Okay. So the only thing that's going to help you is the Dharma.

There are three reasons. They are seven, eight, and nine. Right?

We're treating all three, three, and three together. DANG PO NOR GYIS MI PHEN PA NI It doesn't matter how much money you have. The moment you die, it's meaningless.

And all the work you did to make the money is meaningless. And people I know who are getting older, they say, Geshe-la, I'm making money for my kids. I'm going to give it all to my kids.

Listen, listen, listen. They will blow it in six months. Okay?

30 years of money that you collect, they will take it and waste it in six months. 90% of kids waste all that money in six months. Don't fool yourself.

Don't deceive yourself. Okay? You're working an extra 30 years to give the kids a house or some money.

They will sell the house. They don't want to live there anyway. They want to live someplace else.

How many people build a house for their kids next to their house? How many times the kids actually stay there? Never.

And they'll sell it and they'll waste the money. Okay? Your daughter's husband will buy a boat that they will never use.

And that's that extra 25 years you worked for your children. All right. So, the moment you die, all that's canceled.

Okay? Even what's left behind is wasted. The kids waste it.

Okay? Believe me. SANGS PA RGYA' BYIN DANG KHOR RGYUR LTA BU YIN PA CI BA'I TSE YOD PO CI KHYER RING CI SANGS MED You can be president of the world.

There are special Hindu gods called SANGS PA. Who's SANGS PA? Brahma.

Brahma. Okay? Brahma.

Correct pronunciation. Brahma. Okay.

Somebody named a cabin Amrita. Please. It's Amrita.

I-R. I don't know. I'm not going to spell it right.

Amrita. RGYA' BYIN means shakra. Okay?

Shakra. RGYA' means a hundred. This BYIN means to destroy.

Okay? KHRA means to destroy in Sanskrit. SHAD means a hundred.

Shakra. And then KHOR RGYUR means president of the world. Okay?

Chakravartin. RGYUR here means empowered by the Khorlo. KHOR RGYUR LTA BU YIN KYANG When you die, you can't take any of them with you.

I was reading the Indian newspaper. I don't know why I bothered. But they're like, such and such, a guy who used to be the prime minister of India died this afternoon, but luckily the servant who stayed with him for 25 years was able to make him a good cup of tea before he died.

That was in the newspaper. You know? okay, this guy's been making tea for you every afternoon for 25 years.

But the moment you die, all those people are fired. Okay? I used to hire people at my company.

I hired thousands of people. And it's so sad. They say, oh, I was...

I say, well, why do you need a job? My old company closed. Why?

The boss died. The owner died. You know?

And then we all had to go find a new job. All those people taking care of you, all those... they will just have to go find somebody else.

Okay? I have somebody who takes care of my garden when I'm on DCI tours. Then I'll just die one day and she'll have to go find another...

some place to work. Like that. Okay?

You cannot take one with you. All the help you have, you cannot take anybody with you. GYUR NA'I RDZAS NAS BYIN GYANGS KHYER BA'ANG MED PA Nobody has the power to take with them a single tiny thing that they bought or they earned or someone gave them in this life.

Okay? Your favorite things. You can't even take your laptop.

Okay? You can't even take your iPhone. Okay?

Somebody else will... There's a joke in Tibetan. It goes, BDAG PO GZHAN DAG CI TSE GYUR LAS DA Your iPhone will go looking for a new owner.

Oh, I need a new owner. Anybody want me? All your stuff will have to go looking for a new owner.

Okay? Will you take care of me? Oh, yeah.

I love taking care of my girl. GYUR NA'I RDZAS NAS BYIN GYANGS KHYER BA'ANG MED PA DE'I DUS MI PHAN Useless. They don't help you at all.

If it's an iPhone 6 or 5 or 6s, it doesn't matter one minute after you die. Okay? One more sentence.

YUL KHAMS KUN NAS DBANG PHYIR BA'I RGYAL PO YANG YUL KHAMS KUN NAS DBANG PHYIR BA'I RGYAL PO YANG You can be the governor of one of the... 14 provinces of China? 19.

How many provinces? 20? You don't even know.

Okay. We'll count them. 31?

31 provinces. See? They don't even agree.

Okay. Okay, look. You can be the governor of the province that makes all the rice in China, but the minute you die, you cannot take one piece of rice with you.

One piece of rice. You cannot carry it with you. PHYIR RIM NA'I RDU TZAM RDU TZAM means one grain, right?

By the way, the word for a letter in Tibetan, if you want to put this in the dictionary, AAO BA RA TA DA ZHUGS KYI DRU DRU means a grain or a kernel. But the word in Tibetan for a letter is YING RDU. YAG GIS KYI RGYU DKA'I YIG RDU So it means a kernel of letter.

It means a letter of the alphabet. A, B, C, D are called YING RDU. TZAM KHYAD DU MED NA BYANG PO CHAL MED DU SKYE BA'I DPER GANG YANG ZHAG NAS DROL TE Even a homeless person who's walking around with a sleeping bag for five years or 15 years, when they die, they have to leave the sleeping bag.

The governor of the state cannot take one grain of rice with them. The homeless person who has one thing they always carry around, they're also going to leave it. It doesn't matter, rich or poor, you leave what you have.

DPER GANG here means, in Tibet, homeless people used to carry a stick. Why? Dogs.

If you take a walk in Rimrock, Arizona, you better have a stick with you. You know that? You got to hit the dogs.

They have some wild dogs around there. You got to wave. You don't hit them, you just wave the stick around.

So beggars in Tibet always have a DPER GANG. DPER GANG means a stick. We'll stop there.