«Дар освобождения», курс 22 «Ретрит безграничной удачи», занятие 9

[Speaker 1]
Okay, let's go to the text. Adam, GNYIS PA GNYED KHOR BA GNYIS Yeah, okay good. So they finished the hot hells.

And we're going to go to a thing called GNYED KHOR BA'I GNYEL BA. GNYED KHOR BA'I GNYEL BA means, these are called the surrounding hells. SANG NYAL GYI SPYIR ROL DU CHAGS RIGS KHOR BA LTAR So, when you do this mandala offering, you're supposed to imagine that this big mountain has, I think it's seven or eight small mountain rings around it.

They're like a target, like a circle inside a circle inside a circle. And those are called the mountains of iron, the mountains of steel. So in Tibetan, when you want to say this shape, circle within a circle, you just say, oh like the mountains of iron.

Then everybody knows what you're talking about. So around the hot hells, like in a circle around the hot hells, is the GNYED KHOR BA'I GNYEL BA means the, they call the, what do you call, surrounding hells. And you'll, we'll get it clear.

You'll understand.

[Speaker 2]
Their names, there's four of them.

[Speaker 1]
And the first one is called ME MA'AMUR. Say ME MA'AMUR. ME MA'AMUR Here it says ME MA'AMUR GYI ROL.

It means, ME MA'AMUR means like, when you burn the fire down and it's just hot coals, with a little bit of ashes on top. It's the best fire for making veggie burgers and veggie hot dogs. Like me and V, we really enjoy going out in the backyard and making veggie burgers and veggie hot dogs.

Then if you make them when the fire is burning, it's no good. They will burn. You have to wait until ME MA'AMUR.

But if you wait too long, it becomes just ashes. So it's all red coals covered with ash. Then RONG NYA GYI DAM is the second one.

It's called the swamp of rotten dead people.

[Speaker 2]
Swamp of rotten dead people.

[Speaker 1]
Third one is called BU GCIG DAM PAS THAMS CAD. Usually they call it BU GCIG DAM PAS LAM, and it means the road of razor blades. We'll talk about it more.

Then the fourth one is called GYUR CIG GI CHU LUNG RAB MED. GYUR CIG GI CHU LUNG RAB MED It means the river with no ford, no place to cross it. By the way, that RAB here is, I think it's misspelled.

Hang on. Oh, it's spelled correctly. So maybe you get confused with the RAB, because RAB usually means what?

Synapse gets ... he hears my words before they reach you guys. RAB means highest, but it also means a place where you can cross a river easily.

Like on a horse. Like the water's not too deep for a horse. So the Tibet is the source of ...

they call the four great rivers of the world. Ganges, Mekong, Yangtze, and something else, Sindhu? I think Indus.

Ramaputra? Okay. Anyway, there's hundreds of rivers everywhere, and they didn't have bridges.

So RAB is very important. Where is the place you can cross on a horse? DE YANG TSA NI'O DU SKYES PA THAG RNAMS ZHIG LAS CHING TSE BSRAB DU SONG BAR Let's do ...

Adam, let's do that word. It's called BSRAB DU SONG. BSRAB DU SONG So this ZAPA means ...

[Speaker 2]
like if you have a new pair of jeans, and they feel a little bit rough, then you wash them like ten times, they get thinner and softer. That's called ZAP.

[Speaker 1]
Got thinner and softer. So ZAP DU SONG means past tense of go, right? It got thinner or softer.

What got thinner or softer? No, look at just before ZAP DU SONG. Huh?

Oh, CHING TSE means little bit, but what comes before that? LAS Karma, okay? Your karma starts to wear out a little bit.

[Speaker 2]
Like jeans.

[Speaker 1]
So you've been in the hot hell. Then your karma starts to get a little bit softer, older. NYAL BA CHEN PO LAS THAR NYAL BA CHEN PO LAS THAR means the great hells are shaped like a ...

what do you call it? Cylinder. And on the edges there are gateways.

And if your karma ZAP DU SONG then after a few million years you can escape through those gateways. But then there's four more hells. But lighter, lighter hells.

So first circle, second circle, third circle, fourth circle. KHOR BA'I NYAL BAR GRO You can reach the surrounding hells. DANG PO NAS DER SKYE BA NYID YOD PA There's also people who are just born there first.

They didn't get born in the hot hell and then their karma ZAP DU SONG and they escape. There's some people born in the surrounding hells directly. TSA NI'EL LAS THAR RIM PA NA When they are ready to get out of the hot hells, SPROS PA'I SANGS PA GNYEN TE Then they finally, after a million years, they think, maybe I could run away from here.

So they run out of the hot hells. They see the gateway and they run. And first they hit the MED MA MOR The soy burger fire hell.

GANG PA BU MO MEN NUD What's NUD mean? Do you guys remember? NUD PA RANG CHOS NUD PA RANG CHOS what?

West. Why? What's the verb?

NUD means to go down. We can say, Adam, put that in your dictionary. NUD means to go down, like the sun going down.

It's a very depressing word at the end of the Abhidharma Kosha. Why? When the Dharma disappears.

So somebody asked Vasubandhu, what's the future of the Dharma in this world? And he says it will disappear. So I think it's kind of interesting that a religious leader like Buddha or Jesus will predict the end of his teaching or her teaching.

[Speaker 2]
They say first ideas will disappear from people's mind.

[Speaker 1]
But the Asian Classics Input Project database will still be online. But nobody will be able to read it. No one will understand it.

And then shortly after that, that will disappear. Here, NUD means your GANG PA Your leg. So in Tibetan, we should go to GANG PO, okay Adam?

RAG GAG TU GANG NA GANG In Tibetan it can mean foot or leg. So your foot goes down into the coals.

[Speaker 2]
Up to the knee.

[Speaker 1]
And it burns off the leg from the bone. And then you're running because it hurts so much. You've been there, so you remember.

Some part of you remembers. You're running as fast as you can. You think, oh maybe I can get to the other side.

And then the leg goes down to the knee.

[Speaker 2]
It burns the meat off the bone. Then when you pull out the leg again to take your next step, you are running, full speed. The skin grows back.

And the meat, the flesh grows back. And then again.

[Speaker 1]
So, thousands and thousands of times. You are running. You are trying to cross it.

So this SOS is the same as the first hell, which means get back up. Here it means recover your flesh. DE LTAR GOMS PA RE RE This GOMS PA is without the S, and without the B.

So it has a different meaning. Those of you learning Tibetan, this is, we call voice GOMS PA GOMS PA Say GOMS PA GOMS PA I like to say it's like that lady in the airport at Rio de Janeiro. She's very famous.

She does all the announcements. Flight number 444 leaving. So it's this deep sound in your throat.

[Speaker 2]
Try. GOMS You can also do your eyebrows.

[Speaker 1]
GOMS GOMS Try GOMS GOMS GOMS And then say GOMS. So different word. GOMS and GOMS So GOMS means to meditate. GOMS GOMS means to take a step.

So GOMS PA RE RE Each step, it repeats. Each time you take a step, the leg is burned and it grows back. We're ready for the second surrounding hell.

So it's the next ring out. DE LTAR SDUG BSNGAL CHEN PO'I NAR BZHIN DU DE LAS THAR DU RE BA'I So you're thinking, if I run farther, maybe I can cross these ashes. BLO BUM PHRAG MA MO BUM here means, this is the BUM in, let's talk about it, okay?

Let's add it to the dictionary. This BUM means 100,000. AO BA ZHAG TU BUM MA BUM BUM means vase.

BUM BUM BUM BUM means 100,000. And it just means like, if you say in English, I want to thank you a million times. It doesn't mean exactly one million times I should thank you.

[Speaker 2]
It just means a lot.

[Speaker 1]
So when they talk about the books that one Lama wrote, they call the 100,000 things he said GSUNG BUM, GSUNG BUM. So that became a word to use for all Tibetan literature. It's called GSUNG BUM.

In the case of Milarepa, it's called GUR BUM. GUR BUM So it just means spiritual song. GUR means spiritual song.

So, his spiritual songs are called GUR BUM. It means 100,000 songs, but it doesn't mean 100,000 songs. It means his collected spiritual songs.

And there's not 100,000. It's probably like 100 or something. So anyway, the professor from Princeton, when I got there, translated the 100,000 songs of Milarepa.

Understand?

[Speaker 2]
And that tradition of bad translation goes on in the West.

[Speaker 1]
Really ridiculous translations. And still going on in the universities. But not with Alejandro.

No, I think we're fixing it slowly.

[Speaker 2]
And Stanley has to translate it all into modern Chinese with his team.

[Speaker 1]
Okay? That's why we choose young ones. In Tibet it took 700 years.

Okay, DE LTAR SDUG BSNGAL CHEN POS NA GZHIN DU GZHIN DU is the present participle in English, I-N-G in Tibetan. So, suffering like that, suffering like that from this great pain, THAR DU RE BA you have some hope of escaping.

[Speaker 2]
So, long boom tribe mumble for many hundreds of thousands of years.

[Speaker 1]
This one really is a number. After staying there for many hundreds of thousands of years, RGAL means to cross a river or to cross an area like a soccer field. So you RGAL RGAL, they repeat, running and running to try to cross it for hundreds of thousands of years.

Time is also coming from your seeds.

[Speaker 2]
So it's possible for time to slow down or speed up.

[Speaker 1]
When you are kissing your boyfriend in high school, time slows down.

[Speaker 2]
Sorry, speeds up?

[Speaker 1]
When you are in the dentist's chair, time slows down.

[Speaker 2]
And it's real.

[Speaker 1]
So don't think it's impossible to spend a hundred thousand years running across this hill. NAM ZHIG DE LAS THAR TE And then at some point you actually get out of the embers, the coals. Then you hit the RON YANG GI DAM, the swamp of rotten human corpses.

DER SKAD MAN CHAD NUG You nuke there.

[Speaker 2]
You sink. You sink there up to your SKAD.

[Speaker 1]
This is SKAD, neck. Up to your neck. BREN RDOG BYED BREN RDOG means to flip a pancake.

But it also means to like, you're in the water, and you're in the mud, and you're trying to move, but you can't. BOS CHOS NON CHA BA So BOS means like insect. BOS means BOS, means child, BOS Then NGOS means a worm or a small insect.

They're related.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, do you have anything?

[Speaker 1]
Sun and little worm are related. CHOS means the beak, like a bird's beak. NON means sharp.

[Speaker 2]
They are made of steel.

[Speaker 1]
And the CHA BA here is short for SHES BYA BA, means that's their name. They're called steel beaks. And they are like the piranhas in the horror movies.

[Speaker 2]
The piranhas?

[Speaker 1]
Piranhas are small...

[Speaker 2]
You know, the bad guy is choking the good guy.

[Speaker 1]
And they they fall into the river in Brazil, Amazon. The fish come and eat the bad guy. Probably the people who made this movie are remembering something.

[Speaker 2]
So these bugs attack you.

[Speaker 1]
KHAB LTA BU They feel like needles. And when they're done, your body looks like CHOL MA. CHOL MA means sieve, the thing you use for spaghetti.

[Speaker 2]
What you use for spaghetti. And holes, many holes.

[Speaker 1]
And then they... That's how you live in this place. DAG DUNG DE LAS BRTEN RE Then once in a while, people can cross that place.

And after many booms of years, after many hundreds of thousands of years, BYAG GIS SOGS SPYI BYAG GIS SOGS SPYI NON PA LTA BU BYAG GIS SOGS SPYI NON PA LTA BU BYAG means iron. SOGS means the blade of a knife, the sharp part of a knife. NON PA LTA BU Then they are like that, SEMS MO RKYEN DU BSTAN PA They are razor blades, and they are facing up.

[Speaker 2]
And you're trying to run across it. Just razor blades. Thousands of razor blades.

You are trying to run across it. RKYEN DU BSTAN PA means they are facing up.

[Speaker 1]
What's RKYEN RGYUR GYI LUNG? RKYEN RGYUR GYI LUNG That's a famous use of that word, RKYEN RGYUR GYI LUNG Udana Udana vayu, right? Upward flowing wind.

[Speaker 2]
Udana vayu, in the prana.

[Speaker 1]
So we'll study that if we have our yoga boot camp. Yoga philosophy boot camp. I think maybe near the ocean near here.

We call it near San Pancho or San Miguel. We want to have a yoga training camp. And you can learn about all the pranas of the body.

Udana means upward moving wind.

[Speaker 2]
Udana significa el viento que se mueve hacia arriba.

[Speaker 1]
And that's the other famous use of this word, RKYEN. So here the razor blades are upward, facing upward. What's the Udana vayu do?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, speech.

[Speaker 1]
That's a chakra.

[Speaker 2]
Blowing your nose, spitting, anything that comes up.

[Speaker 1]
Connie had a nice Udana vayu yesterday. Okay, I think she drank... Don't drink the water.

Use bottled water. If you're from another country. Don't use the ice, because the ice is made from the same water.

It's not bad water, you're just not used to it. If Mexicans go to China, they will also experience the upward moving wind. Okay.

BSTAN PA'I BA ZHIG GI GANG BA BU JI DANG PAS DANG So it's called the... DANG means a plane, like a long plane. And normally it's called BU JI DANG PAS LAM the path or the road of razor blades.

DE GANG PAR BYED CING PHUGS So those razor blades cut your feet and your legs. And PHUGS means they pierce your legs.

[Speaker 2]
They cut your legs.

[Speaker 1]
SDUG BSNGAL YUL RING DU MYONG STE You spend many hundreds of... thousands of years there. RING ZHIG NAS DE LAS PHYIR THAG PA NA Then after a long time maybe you can cross the third ring into the fourth ring.

[Speaker 2]
Sorry, second into the third, right? Third to fourth ring.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, well I'm going to explain that to you later. This is the second half of the third. Okay, so the third hell has three parts.

The third surrounding hell has three parts. This is called the forest of swords. So if you're able to cross the razor blades, you see some trees.

Like, oh, I'll go relax under those trees.

[Speaker 2]
It's like these mango trees. Okay.

[Speaker 1]
And DER BRJUN SHIN DU SPRUL NAS It looks like a fruit tree to you. And OG TU SPYIN PA You run under the tree. LO MA REL SPYIR GYUR PA RNAMS PLAG This PLAG means fall down.

So the leaves of the tree become swords.

[Speaker 2]
And they drop.

[Speaker 1]
And they pierce you. I have a mango tree outside my room. If you sit there, you'll get hit on the head with some mangoes.

It's the same. LUS LTOS PA Cuts off pieces of your body. Then again, those pieces have their own consciousness.

If they cut off your hand, your hand is still feeling the whole body. YANG SRED PA Then it grows back again. Like a lizard's tail.

Okay. Okay, third part of number three. They are all considered one hell because they all have the same kind of suffering.

Some kind of blade. Something cutting you. BDE NAS THON PA If you can escape the sword trees, then you reach SHAL MA LIS SHAL MA LIS ZHING The trees of SHAL MA LIS It's called the trees of SHAL MA LIS.

SHAL MA LIS SDONG PO SRED CHAGS KYI SROG NUS MANG PO YOD PA DANG BYAS TE They look like a pineapple or something. The skin of the tree.

[Speaker 2]
Or like the thorns on a rose.

[Speaker 1]
But many, many, like a pineapple. DE'I TSE NAS RANG GI DPON DANG SROG DANG SNYING RJE SDONG BYAS DAG GIS DPO PAR THOS TE Then when you approach those trees, you hear your mother or your brother or your child.

[Speaker 2]
They are screaming from the top of the tree.

[Speaker 1]
Help me, help me. Then you're like, oh, I'll help you.

[Speaker 2]
You start to climb up the tree.

[Speaker 1]
And then suddenly all those bumps become knives. And they face down on the trunk of the tree. Then you're fighting your way up because you can hear your mother or you can hear your brother screaming.

So you don't care. You try, try to climb. And those blades are tearing at your skin.

THOS TE DE LA YAR TSEG SREG CHAGS SROG NUS MANG PO YOD PA DANG TSEG THUR So THUR means down. Which vayu? APANA VAYU APANA VAYU THUR means ...

In Tibetan APANA VAYU is THUR ZER GYI LUNG THUR ZER GYI LUNG Facing down. What's the function of THUR ZER GYI LUNG?

[Speaker 2]
KA NI What is the function of THUR ZER GYI LUNG?

[Speaker 1]
It sends things out of your body.

[Speaker 2]
Poo poo, pee pee, menstruation, and babies.

[Speaker 1]
THUR ZER GYI LUNG We had a big philosophical debate at the Diamond Mountain many years ago. Those prana vayus, those winds in the body, they are all the small prana joins together to do something. From the widespread prana.

What's that called? Yeah, so there's prana throughout your body. And then when you have to sneeze, all of them go They all collect and they push out the sneeze.

So we had a philosophical question at Diamond Mountain. Is it possible to have UDANA VAYU and APANA VAYU at the same time?

[Speaker 2]
Then we went to India.

[Speaker 1]
I ate something in one of those roadside shops. And before I reached the ditch on the other side of the road, I got both vayus at the same time. So we proved it's possible.

Okay.

[Speaker 2]
So these are facing down.

[Speaker 1]
Then LUS ZHES This ZHES means it slices your body. BUD PA means it pokes your body. SDUG BSNGAL MYONG SHING SONG SONG NAS Then you fight your way up.

Like to help your mother or something. Of course, when you get to the top, TSE'ER LAS PA NA BYAR GCIG SU RUNG BAR Then there are these big birds, like eagle.

[Speaker 2]
Like the eagle on the Mexican flag.

[Speaker 1]
On the Mexican flag, there's an eagle eating a snake. I think it's from a story that the people from the area of the west coast got a vision that they should walk to the east coast, but when they see the eagle eating a snake, they should stop and build a city. That's what I heard.

And they did, and the city is Mexico City. Like second largest city in the world.

[Speaker 2]
After Guangzhou.

[Speaker 1]
Anyway, in my three year retreat, I saw it happen. There was a big rattlesnake and this eagle came down and grabbed him. He's flying through the sky and the snake is still going like this.

[Speaker 2]
So one of those big powerful birds, when you reach the top of the tree, many come and attack you. They dig out your eyes and you can't stop them.

[Speaker 1]
Then they start to dig out your brain. LEM PA means brain, MIG means eyes. K-L-A-D, brain.

Let's do that one, Adam. K-L-A-D, LEM PA means gray matter. In English we call it gray matter.

Then there's a word in Tibetan, there's a joke called LEM PA BYUNG GU. BYUNG GU means what? Green, okay?

So LEM PA BYUNG GU means green brain. And if someone's not open to new ideas, you call them LEM PA BYUNG GU. They're called green brain.

LEM PA BYUNG GU means LEM PA SOGS DROD This DROD means to dig out, like scoop out from a coconut or something.

[Speaker 2]
So they dig out your eyes, and then they dig out your brain.

[Speaker 1]
YANG SHAMS NAS BOS PA Then suddenly you hear your mother at the bottom of the tree, or someone you love. And they are screaming, help me, help me.

[Speaker 2]
MA RAB PA means you start to climb down the tree. What happens to the knives?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, they go like this. They face upward. Then they start to slice your body again.

TSA BAR LEN PA means when you reach the base of the tree. KAP means when. KYIS You had KYIS RGYEN RGYA'O.

Tell me what's KYIS RGYEN RGYA'O. If you can't tell. Yeah, old bearded dog.

[Speaker 2]
Old bearded dog.

[Speaker 1]
Old dog with long hair. Humans, when they get old, the hair comes out of here like one inch every day.

[Speaker 2]
It's like two inches.

[Speaker 1]
But dogs get it here. So anyway, there are dogs, big dogs, German shepherds at the bottom of the tree. GEN GZAN means wild, generic name for all dangerous wild animals.

[Speaker 2]
So like tigers.

[Speaker 1]
They are waiting at the bottom of the tree. You're trying to help your mother.

[Speaker 2]
You're trying to help your mother and all these wild animals are waiting for you at the bottom of the tree.

[Speaker 1]
GANG PA NAS YAR SA BAR They start eating your legs and they work their way up. So you have a choice, the knives or the dogs. And I think there must be some connection to the karma of putting people in a situation where they can't succeed.

Like if they go this way, they fail. If they go this way, they fail. You put another person in a situation where they cannot be happy.

You give their life two choices and both are bad. Then I think this hell must be connected to that because you have to choose between the knife and the dog's teeth. LAS MA ZAD PAR DU BAB RTZEGS BYAS PA'I SDUG BSNGAL MYONG CHO And you keep going up and down this tree until your karma finishes.

DI MTSAN BYAS GNOD PA BAB PA GSUNGS GCIG TU RDZIS DGOS GSUNGS The last three parts are all the third hell. Together they are the third surrounding hell. Because the way the suffering is delivered is the same.

[Speaker 2]
First one, razor blades. Second one, swords. Third one, those thorns.

Yeah, those.

[Speaker 1]
Got it? So those three are, together they are number three. So first one is soy burger embers.

Second one is like poo-poo swamp.

[Speaker 2]
Dead corpses. Rotten corpses.

[Speaker 1]
I went to Varanasi to study Sanskrit. I stayed there for two months. One of the teachers told me you should go swim in the Ganges River every morning.

You have to put your head under the Ganges River every morning at dawn. Then there are submarines everywhere. You can feel them.

Then one day I was out there and this arm comes by because they burn their bodies there also. Then the guy will cheat the family who burns their mother or something. They take the money for the firewood and then they cut off as much as they can and just throw it in the river.

So anyway, that's like the second hell. I stopped doing it. I think it's a stupid idea, personally.

And then the third hell is those three kinds of blades. Now, before you go to the fourth hell you have to take a break. Maybe we'll finish this part soon.

If it hurts you just to hear it, think how it feels to do it. Take a break. Let's do the last circling hell and then we can do some questions if you like.

So Pachi, please have microphone ready.

[Speaker 2]
Pachi, turn the microphone on.

[Speaker 1]
DE DAG LAS THA'IM NAS If you are able to escape from the trees ZHU LUNG RAB MED KYI RNAM DU LAS PA NA If you reach the ... it's called the river of no form. And here the spelling is RAB BA RTZA RAB So I have to check it, okay?

I think somebody's wrong here. RNAM DU LAS PA NA RGYUR BYED KYI CHU'O You reach RGYUR BYED KYI CHU'O CHU'O means river. RGYUR BYED means changer.

Changer. Something which changes other things. I had a hard time with this word and then this morning I figured it out.

[Speaker 2]
It means salt because it changes the taste of everything.

[Speaker 1]
So the point is that the river is made of salt water. I think that's the meaning here. Made on RGYUD PA'I RNAM DU but that water is also mixed with fire.

RANG LUS SEMS MA CHUG KUL DU LTA PA LTAR SEMS MA means beans. Frijoles. So you are like a frijoles and they throw it in the boiling water.

The beans they throw in the boiling water. ZEGS ZHING ZEGS means your body is burned by the fire and your body is what do you call that?

[Speaker 2]
Boiled by the water.

[Speaker 1]
SDUG BSNGAL YOD RIGS MYONG DGOS BZHIN Then you have to experience this pain for a long time. RANG RIGS RNAMS SA NYOD DE RNAMS SU SKYES CHOG CHOG LTA BUR YOD PAS All of us here in this room, we are on the edge of being born there. We are like right here.

[Speaker 2]
We are very close to being born there.

[Speaker 1]
THA LTA NAS, DGE DAG MI SKYE BA'I THABS DGE SDIG BLANG DOR LA BAS PA GAL CHE So we should work hard that we don't go to that place. So try to stay alive until tomorrow afternoon. And we'll talk about how to block that karma.

Those of you studying Tibetan, there's an important phrase here. Adam, you can add it. It's called, say, BLANG DOR.

BLANG DOR Up there it's BLANG DOR. BLANG DOR BLANG DOR is a famous expression. BLANG means LEN PA.

It's the form of the verb LEN PA. What's that? Like DONG LEN.

To take. DOR And DOR means to give up. So BLANG DOR is a noun that means what to take and what to give up.

And it means to make the correct decisions about how you live your life.

[Speaker 2]
Take up or do what you should do.

[Speaker 1]
And give up the things you shouldn't do. And that's the way you avoid going to this place. Okay, a few more sentences then we'll do questions.

So we reached the third main part of the hells.

[Speaker 2]
There are four main hells.

[Speaker 1]
First one was all the eight hot hells together. And then there were all the four surrounding hells, which are really six if you count the third one into three. And now we reached the third main part of the hells, which is cold hells.

After that we're going to do the ... they're called hell on earth.

[Speaker 2]
There are some hell on earth.

[Speaker 1]
GSUM PA BYA BA'I NYAL BA'I SDUG BSNGAL BSAM PA LA So here's the meditation on the cold hells. BYANG NYAL means BSAM NYAL DE DAG GI THEG KA BYANG CHOG SO YOD So there are eight cold hells, I think. And they are at the same level as the hot hells.

So the easiest cold hell is the same depth under the earth as the top of the hot hells.

[Speaker 2]
So they are and they are said to be to the north of the hot hells. So the first cold hell is at the same level as the first hot hell.

[Speaker 1]
BSAM NYAL DE DAG GI THEG KA THEG KA means they line up. THEG KA means they line up. Number eight is called number eight is at the same level, number eight, seven, six.

THEG KA BYANG CHOG SO YOD DE PHYIR RANG BYAG GI SANGS RGYUR GRANGS NAS CHE BA BYUNG BA YIN That's why our country has such cold weather. What country? Tibet.

Buddhist geography. GRANGS means cold, but CHANG GNAS means cold weather.

[Speaker 2]
Cold climate.

[Speaker 1]
CHANG NYAL NAMS BSTAN BA'O DU BAG TSE GNYIS STONG NYID STONG GYI CHOS CING GNAS SO The distance from the bottom of one cold hell to the top of that cold hell is 2,000 YOD JIN NA, 3,000 miles. Sound okay? No.

Why not, Phil? Venerable Phil. Yeah, good.

The hot hells are 4,000 YOD JIN NA from bottom to top. YOD JIN NA means one ancient mile.

[Speaker 2]
It's called YOD JIN NA.

[Speaker 1]
I calculated at one and a half miles. So, what Venerable Phil said is correct. We said the hot hells are 6,000 miles from the floor to the roof.

Now they said the cold hells are 3,000 miles from the floor to the roof.

[Speaker 2]
But they also said they line up. So, there's a problem. Okay, here's the answer to the problem.

[Speaker 1]
DBO NA TZANG NYON NAMS BAG TSE GZHI STONG GYIS ... mistake in the carving. GYIS GYIS CHOS CING GNAS PA'I TZANG NYON NAMS DANG THEG KA MI GRIG NYAMS NA So, if you think there's a problem here and they can't line up, TZANG NYON NAMS ZA ZHIG NAS ZA ZHIG PA RIG PAG TSE GZHI STONG RE YOD LA You're correct.

Because the floor of the hot hell to the ceiling of the hot hell is 6,000 miles. TZANG MYUR GYI GANG RIG PANG GZUGS PAG TSE NYID DO RE YOD PAS PHYIR But when we say the cold hells are only 3,000 miles, in height, we mean to the top of the highest mountain in the cold hells. And there's still 3,000 miles above that up to the next hot hell.

Okay, so no problem. All right. TSE NYID GYIS By the way, the verb GYIS SPYOD PA means the set apart by.

Like the SPYOD PA is the SPYOD PA and DOR JE SPYOD PA. Meaning separated, cut. DE'I RGYAL BA NA ZHI KHAR RE BYA GRANG BA ZHIG BDOD NAS DE LAS LA ZOS BTAB When you are close to dying and taking birth in that cold hell, ZHI KHAR means ZHI KHAR LA ZHI KHAR LA means at the moment of death, in the hour of death.

It's like you must be in Phoenix or something in the summer.

[Speaker 2]
And you're dying.

[Speaker 1]
And you say, damn, it's hot in here. And you say, I wish the air conditioning would come on. ZOS BTAB ZOS BTAB You got to remember this word.

It's very important, because it relates to tomorrow. It relates to how to block the karma to go to the lower realms. To get your DEN, to get your guarantee.

[Speaker 2]
You have to mess around with the ZOS BTAB.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, the lottery. What was her name? Vanessa Williams or something.

Vanna White. Vanna White does it. She comes out in a mini skirt and she takes the lottery number on the TV.

So that moment is very crucial. So that's why you have to let people die peacefully.

[Speaker 2]
Nice average temperature in the room.

[Speaker 1]
Nobody screaming, nobody crying.

[Speaker 2]
If you're going to cry, go in the next room.

[Speaker 1]
But the death should be like a good birth. Like how you have child in the warm water and very pleasant, you know. The place of death should be very beautiful, like a garden.

I mean, you know, last night I saw a beautiful garden, for example. Because if they have some very violent thought at that moment, they may pick the karma to go to the cold hills, for example. BAR DO MI LA MI PA BZHIN DU MYONG NAS So you are in the BAR DO and it's like you're in a dream.

Then GNYIS BSAD PA What's BSAD PA mean?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, you wake up.

[Speaker 1]
Literally, your sleep is killed.

[Speaker 2]
GNYIS BSAD PA GNYIS BSAD PA means literally that it kills your sleep.

[Speaker 1]
BYANG NAL DU SKYES So it's like you woke up and you're suddenly in a cold hill. By the way, the main thing we're going to study tomorrow is just confess your bad deeds.

[Speaker 2]
Tell somebody before you die.

[Speaker 1]
This custom of a Catholic priest coming to take your confession on your deathbed is extremely intelligent and good custom. And intelligent.

[Speaker 2]
And very intelligent.

[Speaker 1]
If someone close to you is dying, then if they believe in Catholic Church, then bring a priest. Have a good priest ready. If they don't believe, then you encourage them to tell you the big mistakes they were hiding their whole life.

They didn't tell anybody. And you yourself, if you did some big stupid bad thing to somebody, then don't hide it even to yourself.

[Speaker 2]
Tell somebody.

[Speaker 1]
You can be on a bus and just turn to the person next to you and say, I'm really embarrassed to tell my friends about this. I did all this sexual bad stuff. I had an abortion when I was young and stupid.

Tell somebody. If you're embarrassed to tell your friends, then go to a church or something.

[Speaker 2]
Tell somebody. And don't delay. So we're spending ten days here together.

[Speaker 1]
Hopefully it's going to change your life.

[Speaker 2]
If the only thing you do is to tell somebody your worst stuff that you kept secret all these years, then the ten days was successful.

[Speaker 1]
Don't say, I'm going to do it two weeks from now. We paid a big truck to run over one of the retreatants.

[Speaker 2]
It's waiting in the parking lot. It's waiting.

[Speaker 1]
So maybe you will be the one. So don't wait until the retreat is finished. Somebody, the truck is going to run over one person.

We agreed already. Tell somebody today or tomorrow. You can even tell somebody in the retreat that you don't know them.

Are you from Mexico? No, I'm from Paraguay, but I'm living in Leon. Where are you?

Can I tell you all my bad stuff? Enrique, can I tell you all my bad stuff? You live in another country, probably you won't put it on Facebook.

Okay, like that.

[Speaker 2]
Tell somebody in the next few days.

[Speaker 1]
Don't wait. Maybe you don't have time. And you will forget.

After this retreat, you will forget. DE NI NI BYANG RIGS BAG TSE BDU MA RE YOD PA GANG RIGS GANG RIGS means a snow mountain. BAG TSE BDU MA means many miles high.

Maybe Alfredo and his son are going to decide to climb this mountain. I don't know. Okay, it's higher than ...

they are planning to climb some ... he did some high mountains. Okay, so after you do the one in Peru, is it?

You can do this one. Just visitor, just visiting. NYIN DE SNANG BA DANG MED YOD SO MED PAS By the way, we're not going to have time for questions.

I'll do them in the afternoon. Those cold hells, one terrible thing is they are dark, completely dark. There's no sun, there's no moon.

There's no ... even there's no kind of fire. You cannot light a match there.

LHAG PA RKYEN KUN Even if you stretch your arm out, you can't see ... you can't see your arm straighten out.

[Speaker 2]
RKYEN LO And you also cannot see your arm come back. KUN PA What's the most famous RKYEN KUN in Buddhism? Robert E.

[Speaker 1]
Oxford. Okay, wow. Give other people a chance.

I'm just kidding. Yeah, she stands with one leg RKYEN and one leg KUN. You want to demonstrate?

Okay, good. Looks like Chinese dancer. So, very, very famous RKYEN KUN in Vajrayogini.

But in the cold hell, it means that when you reach out your arm, you cannot see yourself straighten your arm. You cannot see yourself bend your arm. It's so dark.

MI MTHONG BA'I MUN PA LNAG PA The darkness is that thick. SAR SHES KYAG ROM KYAG ROM means ... KYAG PA means ice.

What's KYAG PA mean? This is KYAG PA. KYAG PA means poo-poo.

So, you have to learn to pronounce Tibetan correctly. You might go to a restaurant and ask for poo-poo in your lemonade.

[Speaker 2]
Let's practice.

[Speaker 1]
That's why so many, when you try to speak Tibetan, people are like, You sure you want KYAG PA in your lemonade?

[Speaker 2]
Say, KYAG PA is poo-poo.

[Speaker 1]
KYAG PA is ice. You have to be careful. KYAG ROM means the floor of the hell is frozen solid.

THING NAS BU YOD TSUL And it's always ... so below is frozen hard, and above there's always a snow blizzard.

[Speaker 2]
Like in Guadalajara in July.

[Speaker 1]
BAR NAS LUNG PHRAG PA So, from above is coming this blizzard and snow, and from below the ground is frozen.

[Speaker 2]
And PAR means in between the snow and the frozen ground.

[Speaker 1]
LUNG BYANG MO DANG. LUNG means cold wind.

[Speaker 2]
DANG here means rise, rises.

[Speaker 1]
CHO BA'I THABS, then all the things you used to do to try to stay warm in this world, CHUN ZAD KYANG MED, not even the tiniest one is there.

[Speaker 2]
Like NYI MA, ray from the sun.

[Speaker 1]
KHOS means jacket.

[Speaker 2]
BSTAN means something to put under your seat when you're sitting in a cold place.

[Speaker 1]
DE LTA BUR DRANG NYAL LA RGYAS TE, there are eight cold hells. RIM BZHIN DRANG PHRAG NAS So, if I give them to you in order of less cold first. CHU BUR DGE BA, sorry, CHU BUR CAN is the first one.

It means it's so cold that you get blisters all over your body. Then colder than that, DE LAS GRANGS RAY, is CHU BUR BDUL. CHU BUR BDUL means those blisters break open.

Like a flower. PHRAG DANG CHU ZER ZAG, then blood and... what do you call it?

CHU ZER is lymph. Lymph? Fluid?

[Speaker 2]
The yellow fluid in your body. And PUS comes out of those blisters.

[Speaker 1]
DE LAS GRANGS DU SONG NAS, when you go colder, RDO LTAR RENG TE, your body freezes hard like a stone.

[Speaker 2]
BSGOM GYUR MI NUS PA, you can't move.

[Speaker 1]
Or you're frozen like this, and you're going like... So the name of that hell is... The Tibetan sounds like...

Well, the Tibetan is A CHU. The sound is A CHU, A CHU. They can't talk much.

TZAM LAS GZHAN YANG GANG YANG MA MI NUS PA And you can't say anything else.

[Speaker 2]
You can just go, You can't say anything else in that hell. You can only make that sound.

[Speaker 1]
MI NUS PAR BDOD PA DE LAS KYANG GRANGS, if you get to the colder than that, you can't even make that sound. GEN means palate, top of your mouth.

[Speaker 2]
Freezes to the bottom. You can't make any sound.

[Speaker 1]
KHYOD HE ZER BA'I DGRA BCOM LUD TZAM BYIN PA Then you can do some kind of...

[Speaker 2]
In Tibetan it's called KHYOD.

[Speaker 1]
DE NAS BDAG DE YANG BYIN MI NUS PAR Then you get to a place which is worse than that, and you can't make any noise.

[Speaker 2]
But if you come close to that person, very close, you can hear this.

[Speaker 1]
You can hear the teeth. It's called chattering. If you go colder, the body is like a dead body.

It cannot move anything. And then the skin starts to split open, like a dead body. Like a banana or something.

With a blue color. Cold. SPOD DE BYED TE And we call it UD PA'O THAR BSKYED PA UD PA'O THAR BSKYED PA means split open like a blue lotus.

Then if you go colder, LUS ZHAO MA PO That very sensitive young skin splits open like a red lotus, which is much wider. SPE MA THAR BSKYED PA DE LAS KYANG MANG BA'I KHAR RGYAL DANG STONG DU SPE MA THAR BSKYED PA And then the eighth hell is called a grand lotus, and it splits into hundreds of pieces, the body. Okay, that's a cheerful place to finish for us.

I never felt this, what do you call it? Panic about these places. Because I always thought, I have my lama close to me, my whole life, since I was about 22.

I stick close to my lamas. And I never felt this panic. I thought, I'll just try to do what they say, and I'll be okay.

And I think that's true. So you should be scared but not panic. You should be concerned.

[Speaker 2]
But for example, in Guadalajara, you have a great sangha. It's a great attitude, great feeling, and I think it's one of the best we have in the world.

[Speaker 1]
So, you don't have to panic, I don't think. It's dangerous. What's coming is dangerous.

[Speaker 2]
But if you have a good sangha, a very nice community here, people are helping each other, and you have teachers to push you through the ACI courses.

[Speaker 1]
So that's okay. What he said before is, don't try to do something extreme. I will quit everything and go to India and get enlightened.

Many, many people went to my monastery, Seramei Monastery.

[Speaker 2]
They stayed there for three or four weeks.

[Speaker 1]
One guy stayed for 24 hours.

[Speaker 2]
Then he came back. He said, this sangha is better. This is my country.

[Speaker 1]
I have all my friends here.

[Speaker 2]
We are supporting each other. We have nice classes. I don't get diarrhea every day.

[Speaker 1]
So really, you can try something extreme, like give up everything, go to Himalayan mountains. Or you can go to my monastery.

[Speaker 2]
But I'll tell you honestly, you will not find this kind of teaching there.

[Speaker 1]
What you already have in Guadalajara. So, just work together. Visit your old ladies.

Study. Do yoga together. Meditate together.

[Speaker 2]
You are so lucky to have a group of people.

[Speaker 1]
And if you keep up that steady progress. I met with some of Guadalajara's sangha last night. We had a meeting.

And I was very impressed by their level of happiness. It's going higher and higher. And you don't see it like I see it.

I come once a year, I can see the progress of the group. So I'm very happy about it.

[Speaker 2]
It makes me really happy.

[Speaker 1]
Especially, I'd like to thank Alhandro for that. So, I'm not too worried about you guys. You are doing the right thing.

You have your families. You have your work. And you have your study.

You are serving people. And you are meditating. And you are doing yoga.

Everything's cool. So, I'm not too worried about you. Alright.