«Дар освобождения», курс 23 «Защита от жизни и смерти», занятие 2

[Speaker 1]
All right, let's meditate. Before you fall asleep, please start to sit still. No moving.

Mouth is relaxed. Eyelids are relaxed. Stomach is a little bit tight.

Please don't move. Small smile. And please come to your breath.

Try to count ten breaths without thinking of something else. When you're on your deathbed, you are looking up at your family. They are looking down, very sad, very sorry to see you go, very sorry to be without you for the rest of their life.

Even while you look at their face, you can feel cold coming to your fingers, your feet really cold, more cold than snow or ice. It's coming up your arms, up your legs, getting hard to breathe. Your nose is closing.

The nostrils are closing. Hard to breathe. Struggle just to breathe.

Arms are completely cold now. Legs completely cold. Difficult to open your mouth.

Mouth is closing. Dry. No more water coming.

You can see your own hand is white, very white, impossibly white. It's finished. You can't move them again.

Can't move your legs again. Cold is coming to your chest. Look one more time at your family.

You won't see them again this way. Close your eyes. It's dark, completely dark.

You can hear them far away. Somebody is crying. Then you can't hear anything.

Just dark. Then suddenly a loud, terrible sound of rocks falling, mountains falling, as if you're in this valley and the mountains are starting to fall. Very frightening, loud sound of whole mountains falling.

Then you run towards the entrance of that mountain. Suddenly there's a huge tsunami wave, water, and it catches you, carries you away, sweeps you away. You're drowning.

Fighting to come up, and carries you very far out towards the highway. It suddenly leaves you, stranded in a dry place. Then the fire of the sun gets larger and larger in the sky.

Whole sky is fire. Everything around you is fire. Your body is burning.

Still you try to move further away. Suddenly there's strong wind tearing at your body, knocking you down. Dust and sand covering you.

Very loud, powerful wind. Still you keep walking, sometimes crawling. Then suddenly things are getting more quiet and it feels like the world is getting more narrow, smaller, like a tunnel.

And at the end you can see a mirage. More subtle element of earth is dissolving into water. You walk towards the mirage.

Step into the mirage water. Come out the other side and suddenly all around you is smoke. You can't see anything very clearly.

You cannot see the horizon or the sky. Just smoke. Keep walking, straight ahead, through the smoke.

It's all the same. And suddenly there are sparks in the smoke in front of you, behind you, to the side, higher up, lower down. Sparks going on.

Still a lot of smoke. Lots of sparks. And suddenly you can see a light, steady light, far away.

You start walking towards this light. It's a fire light like a candle, but it's not moving. It's perfectly still.

You're walking towards it. The steady candle flame gets larger and larger. Your mind is getting smaller and smaller, more focused.

You come right up to the flame, into the flame with your mind. And then through the flame, out the back of the flame. Start ahead, but on the horizon, some light starting to rise.

And then slowly, a very soft, warm, white light is filling the sky in front of you. And slowly it fills the whole sky. You're surrounded by a soft, warm, white light.

Then on the horizon again in front of you, a deep red light starts to come up like a sunset, covering the sky. Deep, strong red color. You're still walking through the red color.

You come through the red. Suddenly everything shrinks. The red shrinks too, and your mind shrinks too.

Black, total darkness. Nothing there. Go deeper into more dark and more dark.

Deeper darkness. Completely pitch black around you. You cannot see anything.

You cannot see your own hand. Deep darkness like ink. And suddenly a crystal quality to everything, like the inside of a diamond.

And rest here. Stay in the inside of the diamond. Take your rest.

We'll stay here for a few minutes. Be aware of the clear crystal. Feeling inside the diamond.

We'll stay here a few minutes. The mind is very, very small, like a pinpoint. And it's inside crystal.

And please slowly come back to your breath. Three deep breaths. Stay still, don't move.

And you can slowly open your eyes. Take a stretch.

[Speaker 2]
Geshe-la, when you tell us to have the sensation of going down the tunnel, is it going down into the heart, or is it going outward? The movement. Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
You can... In dance it's called kinesthetic misapprehension. You feel like you're going forward.

I want you to try that. Like you're walking the whole thing. Yeah, not down and not in.

But from the mountain collapsing up to the crystal, you are breaking through membranes, visions. You walk up to them, break through them, see the next one. I want you to practice it like that.

At the same time, it feels like you're getting more and more focused. Because actually the gross mind is shutting down. So it's actually, you're reaching what's called lung ser tramo, most subtle mind and prana.

So everything extraneous to that, everything, that normal baggage of your mind is all stripped away. And getting more and more focused on one object. So it's really a very deep kind of meditative mind.

So it should feel more and more restricted. But there's this joke in Tibet that you can meditate that the universe is contained within a single grain of sugar. But you have to get this feeling that you're going into the grain of sugar.

She said, what do you advise for panic of not breathing? I said, get used to it. That's what we're doing.

So you should, there's going to be a part in the Lam Rim where Pabongka Rinpoche is going to go off on, do not be a spectator. Do not sit there and be a spectator. Do not sit in the stands and watch the game.

You're in the game. You're not watching someone die. You are dying.

So it's all got to be from first hand. It's all me. I'm dying.

I'm running. I'm trying to get up in the water. It's not that you're watching Nancy have all these problems.

You are Nancy. So try to, he'll talk about it later, but he says this whole Lam Rim practice, we try not to be a spectator. We try to be, later we're going to practice being an animal for example.

It should be frightening. It should be, it should add to the stress and anxiety you already have. Okay.

It's necessary. And later you'll feel happier. Because your whole life it's been true that you could die any minute and you've been pretending that it wasn't that way.

And for the first time you're living true to yourself. For the first time you're living true to your nature. You will die.

So it's actually, after a couple weeks or something, it feels like a great relief to be honest and to have some kind of a plan what to do. So don't think, at the beginning it's a little uncomfortable, but it's much less uncomfortable than dying without it. It's like when you do Orit's yoga class.

It's very uncomfortable, but later you'll be stronger. That's why I didn't run out of the class. Okay.

Any other questions? Wait, you got to raise your hand and he has to come to you with the microphone. Okay.

Thank you Geshe Michael for teaching this amazing subject. Can you talk about how you can combine the real experience of being the person who is dying and at the same time thinking of applying it comes from me? Like do you toggle that?

Oh yeah, we're going to talk about it next. It's the next subject. So, when you reach the crystal, all the steps from the mountain collapsing to the crystal, you are meant to butter them with emptiness.

And a good start is to practice saying, oh, this is also coming from me. This is also coming from my seeds. And that's why I was joking about a partner who's irritating.

Your partner's not, I know. But generally it's possible in the world that your partner's irritating. And then just to get by day by day, just to not go crazy or be unhappy, it's very useful to start saying to yourself, what she just did was coming from me.

How can I clean it? So that's actually, I'll give you a question. Is it a recognition of ultimate reality that you say, this is coming from me?

Who said no? You're too smart. I'm not counting you in the class.

Okay, you can sit there, but don't say no, it's okay. Why not? Yeah, it's dependent origination.

It's the two sides of the cell phone. This side is gong shing and this side is seeds. Who said that?

That's nice. jong tsu gong shing Okay, one side is seeds and one side is emptiness and they go together. But the way to start to spread the butter during the whole meditation is to say, a mountain is falling on me, I better move.

But I know it's coming from me. And we have to keep thinking that. And later, that will mature into thinking, there's nothing about this which is not coming from me and that's gong shing.

That's emptiness. So good point word. But the way to start spreading the butter on the experiences is to think, oh, this is coming from me.

And the way to start that is to realize that all the people around you, especially the ones who irritate you, are coming from me. Because there's so many of them. So it's a constant reminder.

By the way, the more you think it's coming from me, the less they get. That's an old Shantideva joke. If you start thinking this way, you'll run out of people to practice with.

One more question. Up to Nick. Whoever sang a beautiful song gets to ask a question.

Thank you Geshe-la. I want to ask a question. How much time will we spend in this step?

Yeah, good question. So we're going to be doing a three day silent retreat. It starts on Monday night and it ends on Friday morning.

We're going to be doing, I'll go over the schedule with you today. I'm going to give you, there's five groups of meditations. So I'll say, do group one at ten o'clock.

Do group two at two o'clock. You know what I mean? So we're all doing the same meditation at the same hour.

And the energy will be stronger. My first Lama, Geshe Ngang Dagye, he, I told you many times, but he used to hold up a pencil and he would break it. Then he got five pencils and he couldn't break it.

He said, this is five people meditating together and this is one person meditating. So if we're all doing the same meditation at the same time in the valley and there's a hundred of us, then the energy will be stronger. So I'll give you a schedule and I'll say, spend, I don't know, I would say 15, 20 minutes on this part.

And then we're not going to stop at the crystal. We're going to pause some meditations. You will stop in the crystal and think about four more steps and I'm going to teach them to you now.

Okay? So it's not the goal to do this meditation. It's a way to get into the meditation.

And we're going to pause and do an emptiness meditation. Okay? Alright?

Yeah? Oh, how much we just spent? I think about seven minutes, eight minutes.

You can stretch it out to ten minutes and then you'll go into another meditation. Because this is bardo. Bardo means connection time.

What do you call that in yoga? Vinyasa. This is a deaf vinyasa.

It's connection time to go to the next thing. Next thing could be animal hell or emptiness. We're going to do all those.

You can always slow it down. You can always... But I think five, ten minutes is maximum.

If you try to do one hour of mountain falling on you, no, you'll just get bored. You'll just get bored and you'll start thinking about lunch or Emily or something. Okay?

Alright. I'm going to teach you the four things to do inside the crystal. Okay?

And then we'll start the class. We didn't get to the book yet. Thanks for the...

could become a habit. You got to teach me how to do that. Those jeevanatsas know how to cook.

Okay. I'm going to give you four expressions. You should try to learn them.

People like Nick or Word. Word doesn't have to learn anything. Just remembers.

Try to remember. Very, very, very, very famous in our lineage. Four qualities of emptiness at this moment inside the crystal.

Four qualities. Very famous. And this is tantra.

Higher. Because you came from China so far, I'm sneaking in the higher teaching. Okay.

Don't tell people outside. Like they just show up. Okay.

We say, GAR NAG LEN DE A ZHUGS LA KHOS BZHIN NAM YOG GYIN NAS DRUL RIGS RIGS RIM YI LTAR BA'I SHAMS What is that? Fourth chapter. Anyway, mixed black and white karma.

Black karma, they missed the first half of the class. White karma, they came at the best part. SNANG BA STONG ZANG BA Say SNANG BA STONG ZANG BA Very, very, very famous.

Like a mantra. SNANG BA STONG ZANG BA SNANG BA STONG ZANG BA Okay. And this a little bit relates to the question of do we see emptiness every time we die?

Okay. Someone asked me. Who was that?

Haso. Where is Haso? He's the guy who beat the Geshe in Bangalore.

Him and Orit. I felt bad for the Geshe. They ganged up on a Geshe in Bangalore.

But I was happy about our students. Okay. Say SNANG BA SNANG BA STONG ZANG BA STONG ZANG BA So, while you're in the crystal, what's appearing to you?

The only thing appearing to you is simple, pure emptiness. Simple, pure emptiness. SNANG BA STONG ZANG BA SNANG BA means what's appearing to you.

STONG BA means GONG ZHING. ZANG BA means absolute, pure, total. Okay.

The only thing appearing to your mind at that moment is GONG ZHING. There's no black. There's no of those three impurities, three pollutions.

Oh, it feels a little black. It feels a little white. It feels a little red.

Not like that. Pure GONG. Pure GONG.

Nothing else. What appears to you is pure GONG. And you understand it.

Sorry. So from the object side, what's appearing to you is just GONG. Okay.

Nothing else. Emptiness. Now, second one.

NGES MNGOR RANG BZHIN MED PA I'm sorry. The two words start with NGA. It's like Vietnamese.

Say NGES MNGOR. We don't have NGA. You don't have NGA start a word in Chinese.

I don't think so. Okay. NGES MNGOR There's two of them.

American people can't say it. They say, no, no, no, no. Okay.

If you want to practice, you can hold your tongue and go NGA, NGA, NGA. NGES MNGOR It closes here. NGES MNGOR Okay.

NGES MNGOR RANG BZHIN MED PA NGES MNGOR RANG BZHIN MED PA Very, very famous. It's like a mantra. SNANG BA STONG ZANG BA NGES MNGOR RANG BZHIN MED PA Yeah.

Okay. NGES MNGOR means how do you take it? How do you take it?

What's appearing to you is pure emptiness. How do you interpret it? How do you take it from your side?

Subject side. How do you take it? In perceptual theory, it's called ZIN STANG.

ZIN STANG means... STANG means the gate of a horse. ZIN means to hold.

ZIN STANG means how do you take it? Seiji likes horses' gates. ZIN STANG means how do you...

So this thing is appearing to you. How do you take it? How do you perceive it from your side?

Now, if you have not been trained in GONG ZHING, how will you take it? You don't know what to do. This thing is appearing to you.

You don't know how to take it, how to interpret it. What is this? What's this feeling?

What's this crystal myth? You see? And you won't be able to understand.

So for a trained yogi, in the death process, when you reach the fourth emptiness, you are learning to take it as emptiness. Oh, that's emptiness. Oh, yeah.

That's what Geshe Michael was talking about just before I fell asleep in that afternoon class. How do you take it? So untrained person doesn't have the second one.

The emptiness is appearing to them, but they don't know what it is. They cannot recognize it. Oh, something crystal.

That's cool. Bah, bah. Become a sheep.

Why? Went to eat at Khandaji too much. Okay.

Gender, gender. Okay. Alright.

So how do you take it? NGES MNGOR RANG BZHIN MED PA Say NGES MNGOR. RANG BZHIN MED PA MED PA, sorry.

NGES PA has two meanings in Tibetan. The first one is, it means certainly, certainty. NGES PA Like NGES BZHIN comes from that, renunciation.

But as a verb, it means how do you take it? How do you perceive it? NGES PA NGES PA means to, how do you take it?

NGOR means, very interesting word. NGOR NGOR means the face of a wall. This is the NGOR.

Or this is my NGOR. My face. This is the face of the wall.

NGOR means, by the way, what's NGOR RTZA? The face is hot. It means embarrassed.

We're going to debate together tomorrow. I'm going to help you. We're going to do special three jewels debates.

By the time you go home, you will understand the three jewels. Why? They can help you during the death.

Then in debate we say, RTZA RTZA It means, NGOR RTZA Sometimes you go like this, NGOR RTZA It means, you should be ashamed of yourself. What kind of answer is that? Say, RTZA RTZA No, you got to make a face.

RTZA RTZA You can practice, okay? Mr. Wu is coming, our main sponsor, who helped us build the Tsongkhapa Center. I thought, he's coming to Khamla Shila number two, I think.

Sometimes he changes his plans. Then, if he comes, I thought it would be fun to have a debate demonstration with some of you guys. I'll give this group a debate.

I'll give this group a debate. I'll teach you a debate and then you practice it. When my Lama used to come to the monastery, they were, it's like a debate show.

They tell three guys, they say, you debate for five minutes, debate. Then the next group come, like that. Like the Chinese people sang music last night.

So, you have to get ready, okay? You have to get ready. If someone says something stupid, you go, ha ha ha.

You should be RTZA You should be embarrassed. When people get embarrassed, their face gets red, you're like, ha ha ha. That was so stupid.

Okay, RTZA Anyway, so NGO means face and NGO means to the face. So it means to the face of the perception. How do you take it?

This thing is coming to you. How do you interpret it? How do you see it?

How do you perceive it? NGES NGES NGO See, how do you take it? NGES NGO RANG BZHIN MED PA It means by itself, it's nothing.

By itself, it's nothing. RANG BZHIN MED PA means by itself. What part in the DCI teaching of the pen am I talking about?

Yeah, the dog left the room, the human left the room, it's here. RANG BZHIN MED PA Okay? It's not anything yet.

Okay? It's just there. When the human comes in, it becomes a pen.

When the dog comes in, it becomes a cheetah. When Geshe Michael comes in, it's bull. Okay?

But just before that, RANG BZHIN MED PA By itself, it's nothing yet. I like to say nothing yet. RANG BZHIN MED PA Okay?

RANG BZHIN MED PA NGES RNGOR RANG BZHIN MED PA NGES RNGOR RANG BZHIN MED PA Okay? That's the second one. What's the first one?

Go! What? You got half of it.

NGES RNGOR RANG BZHIN MED PA NGES RNGOR RANG BZHIN MED PA Okay. That's the third quality of the crystal. Yeah, okay, so listen.

In tantra, we use a very powerful state of mind to see emptiness. In sutra, in open teaching, we use logic, we use debate, we use scripture, we use understanding, we use wisdom. In tantra, you use happiness to see emptiness.

Heavy, strong feeling of happiness. So it's not like a nerd. It's not the nerd path.

Nerd path is, oh, everything is empty because... And tantra is like, boom. So you use happiness or joy, great joy, because it opens the chakras.

It opens the channels. So the third quality of this emptiness is RANG SEMS means what? My own mind, BDE BA CHEN PO Great happiness, great fun, having fun.

The highest teachings of Buddhism say the strongest power is fun. We were talking about it. Me and Penny were talking about it in Hong Kong.

People want to use apps that are fun. They don't want just logical. They want to do, what's that thing called, Pokemon?

Pokemon. Wait, we have Japanese here. Pokemon.

Anyway, having fun to learn. So in the higher teachings of Buddhism, the state of mind that's best for seeing GONG ZHING is great happiness, great joy. Think of the most beautiful things you can think of, then meditate on emptiness.

Because that state of mind is, that's the most powerful human state of mind. It's fun. Having fun.

You tell someone to do 28 push-ups, like somebody did today. Or you tell them, hit on this drum for the next half hour. Then they don't have any problem.

Same muscles. But it's fun. Then you don't have any problem.

You're not thinking, I hate or, I mean, you're just having fun. Fun is very powerful. Fun is very powerful.

So in Tantra, we use fun. We use happiness. That's why we play music or make jokes.

Shouldn't do yoga like this. Just relax. Jenny Wong, where's Jenny?

She's like, I love you, Ami. Okay, that's the third one. How do you say it in Tibetan?

RANG SEMS DE BA CHEN PO RANG SEMS DE BA CHEN PO Now we go deeper. Now we go deeper. We talked about that maybe if you have good training during death, you can switch over to a Buddha body.

Everything's pushing you to be an animal. Next birth, you're supposed to be a cow or something because you ate too many McDonald's. The karma is pushing you through the death, through all the signs, through all the visions.

Your karma is pushing you. At this moment, you have a chance to jump off the subway. It slows down right now.

The subway slows down. The doors open. If you have training, you can jump out.

If you don't have training, you're going to become a cow and you're going to get eaten by some McDonald's executive. That's number four. Say, DE SNGA'O DE SNGA'O DE SNGA'O That's me.

What? GONG ZHING Very difficult. There's things appearing to you.

GONG ZHING is appearing to you. You take it that way. You turn on your phone and you say, that's the new me.

That's the new me because that's the essence of a Buddha. GONG ZHING is the deepest part of a Buddha. That's me.

New body. I don't want to be a cow. I'm going to be this guy who has GONG ZHING in his heart.

His core is GONG ZHING. That's me. Ah, good to see the mirror.

That's me. That's all. DE SNGA'O Very beautiful.

DE SNGA'O DE means that. SNGA'O means me. Always a period.

That's me. Period. SNGA'O That's me.

Now we have to practice. We'll practice. This evening we'll practice.

We'll practice those four. That's me. That's the new me.

Oh Geshe-la, I wanted to have some arms also. That's automatic. That's automatic.

When you become the core of a Buddha, the next millisecond, you get a beautiful body. It's caused by the GONG ZHING. It's triggered by SNGA'O.

Then suddenly you have a beautiful, indestructible rainbow body. Don't worry about the body. Get the core of a Buddha's personality.

It's reality, truth. That's me. Then you get a new body.

That's easy. That part's easy. That's a Mercedes rental car.

You don't have to take it back. I have this friend in Italy. She rents cars.

What's her name? Graciela. She rents only Mercedes and Rolls Royces.

What's that car? Lamborghinis. Every once in a while somebody steals one.

Got it? That's me. You don't have to take that rental car back.

Just keep it. The rest of all time, keep that body. How do you do that?

What's going to happen? We'll talk about it. We have 10 days.

Don't worry about it. We're going very fast. Now I'm going to start the class.

This is like Orit's class or Dharmamitra's class. Are you warmed up now? Not funny.

What is that? Here we go. GNYIS PA YID We're just going to the Lam Rim, normal Lam Rim.

GNYIS PA YID BDAG GIS SDUG BSNGAL SANGS PA LA When you come out of the crystal, if you're a normal person and you don't know what you're doing, you're going to be born someplace. When you come out of the crystal and you don't know what you're doing, nobody taught you what to do. This teaching you had today already is the most important thing you can tell another person anytime.

Everybody has to die. Help them out. Help out your family.

Now you know. Help them out. They say, where did you waste your time for two weeks?

You're like, let me tell you something. Let me tell you how it's going to go. You can really, really help people.

Why are we doing three-day retreat? You got to do it again and again and again and again. Then you can teach it.

You can help other people so much. Everybody has to die. If you love them, teach them how to die.

My mom got cancer. I was studying with these lamas in India. I said, what should I do?

They said, bring her here. We'll teach her how to die. I'm hoping they will say, oh, we will do some ritual.

She won't die. They're like, get her here quick. We'll teach her how to die.

They did. I brought her to India. She was very, very sick.

They spent many hours with her, these great lamas. They teach her how, what's going to happen first? What's going to happen second?

What's going to happen third? When can you jump off the subway? You see what I mean?

It was very beautiful. She was really happy. Then she died.

Here we go. This is one of, if you don't jump off, you're going to have to go, what's that subway station in New York? All of them are the same.

It doesn't matter. Stinky, dangerous, Fourth Street? Fourth Avenue?

Fourth Street. All of them. Stinky, dangerous, cold.

Here's one of the bad subway stops. It's called YI DAG. Say YI DAG.

YI DAG means a spirit being. Hungry spirit. I think you have one, Adam.

You have a photo. Yeah. Somewhere.

He's going to show you a YI DAG. Okay, just before you show it, all the stuff in this book you will find in movies. Because movies are made by people who went through this a billion times.

Okay? Got it? So pay attention to movies.

Really. They are coming out of the mind of people who died a million times. Ta-da.

He's coming slowly. NYIS PA'I YI DAG GI SDUG BSNGAL BSAM PA LA What does that subway stop look like? Spirit, hungry spirit.

Do you want to stop there? Let's find out what it's like. Okay?

That's not some movie. That's the real thing. That's what they look like.

It's exactly what they look like. What's his name? Gollum from Lord of the Rings.

Okay? They look like that. They really look like that.

In America, there's a thing called haunted house. House with a ghost. House which has a ghost.

And then you buy the house and you stay there for one week and at night you hear this, RANG RANG DANG PHRAD PHRAD PHRAD RANG RANG DANG PHRAD PHRAD RANG RANG DANG PHRAD PHRAD You know? Those are real. Those stories are real.

Somebody bought that house before you. They died in the house. They couldn't keep the house.

They got upset. Just before they died, they think, I'm going to lose the house. Then they become a ghost in that house.

So it's a ghost. And they're real. Don't think they're not real.

They're real. People very attached to something, then die. Then they can't leave that place.

They will get stuck there for a long time. That's called PHRAD PHRAD. PHRAD PHRAD in Sanskrit called PHRAD PHRAD.

In Tibetan called YI BDAG. You can say hungry ghost or spirit. All right.

BYAMS PA'I GZHAN LUNG LAS Then the word of Manjushri. What is the word of Manjushri? It's a lam rim by the, who's also called the Great Fifth.

The Fifth Dalai Lama, about 400 years ago, wrote this lam rim. It's a famous lam rim. SDUG BSNGAL DANG BAR GSUM PA NI They teach about animal realm before they teach about spirit realm.

So when you teach the three lower realms, what are the three lower realms? You can say spirit, animal, and hell. Spirit, animal, and hell.

So the Fifth Dalai Lama, he teaches animal first. Everybody else teaches spirit first. Why?

GSUM PA NI, SDUG BSNGAL LAS YI BDAG SHES RAB CHE BA'I RIGS MTHO He considered that the spirits are higher because they have some intelligence. Gollum can talk. Gollum can think.

I have a problem in my house. I have a garden. I built a very expensive fence.

It's this high. Two and a half meters high. Why?

Deer. The deer can jump over. If it's this high, they can jump over.

So I built a very expensive fence. I paid these robbers money to build the fence. Then I met the squirrel.

Squirrel just climbed up the fence and climbed up. And then eat everything. Eat everything.

So I put a trap for him. It's a live trap. It doesn't kill them.

It's a box. I put some... They like peanut butter, okay?

If you need to know later. Or you can put Nick's almond butter that he gives you. He's like, Geshe-la, how come you eat so much almond butter?

Put almond butter in the trap. And they come. And they walk on the trap and it closes.

And I take them away. Then it takes them like two weeks to find their way home. It's like two, three miles away.

Five miles away. They will find their way home. The same one will come back.

Then he will look at the trap. And he sees the almond butter. And he's like, eh.

Then he gets caught again. They are so stupid. They do the same thing over and over.

There's a new DCI joke. Why do I have to see somebody else do the same thing over and over? The pretas are smarter than animals.

Animals, they just will make the same mistake over and over. But spirits are smarter. Hungry spirits are smarter.

Therefore, this Dalai Lama taught animals first. Lower. Consider them lower.

,RGA ZHIG LA CHOS BSTAN NA, ,KHO NUS PAR YOD CING, RGA ZHIG means some pretas, you can even teach them Dharma. They can understand. There are pretas, spirits.

If you learn to talk to them, you can teach them. That's what we are doing last night. They can come and you can say, look, we're making tormas.

We're going to stay here. We're going to do meditation. It's nice.

And they can understand a little bit. You can't see them, but you can talk to them. ,CHOS BSTAN NA, ,KHO NUS PAR means they can understand it.

,DON DOR LEN GZHING MONGS PA'I RTEN MA LA, But the definition of an animal is the LEN GZHING KU PA. Say LEN. LEN.

GZHING. KU PA. KU PA.

Generally, cannot speak and cannot understand what you say to them. You can say to the squirrel, don't eat the peanut butter. You'll get caught.

And they're like, they can't understand. Okay, some horses, they will understand. Some dogs are smart.

Some whales are also smart. But 99.9999999% of all insects, animals, they don't understand anything. And they suffer all the time.

They cannot learn. They just suffer. LEN GZHING MONGS PA.

RTEN MA. RTEN MA means not a good body to, not a good subway to stop. Not a good subway stop.

RTEN means body that you can take after you die. So don't choose this one. Don't choose an animal body.

It's even worse. If you have a choice between animal or a predator, go for predator. At least you can learn some Dharma.

Here we go. SPYOD LA BAR SPYOD SPYOD LA BAR SPYOD YID BDAG LAS BYAS BA'I SDUG BSNGAL SDUG BSNGAL DANG POR BSTAN PA YIN ZHING So the obstacle to learning Dharma is more serious for animals. They cannot learn.

You can tell them about GONG ZHING all day. They can't understand. SDUG BSNGAL SDUG BSNGAL DANG POR BSTAN PA YIN So generally we teach the suffering of animals first because they are lower.

NYUR LAM LA'I YID DAG DANG POR RDZAD PA NI But in the Lam Rim called Quick Path by... I think you're right. I mean, you're always right.

Second Pooncham Mama. Anyway, he said, let's do hungry ghosts first. Let's teach about hungry spirits first.

Then they say, why? GCIG RGYAL means in general, SDUG BSNGAL LAS SDUG BSNGAL BYAS BA They suffer more than animals. So which is worse, animal or Preta?

Preta is worse if you talk about suffering. Animal is worse if you talk about can they learn Dharma? You see?

So if you say, who suffers more, hungry ghosts or animals? You can say hungry ghosts. But who's more lucky can learn Dharma a little bit?

Hungry ghost is more lucky. So you can teach it either way. When you teach your own students, you can teach it either way.

So we're going to start with the general suffering of these golems. What's the general suffering? And then we'll have specific problems.

But to understand that, you have to go to the bathroom first. So take a ten minute break so you can learn about suffering without suffering. Okay.

Ten minutes. All right, here we go. GYI RGYUD LA GNYIS So when we talk about the problems that spirit beings have, there's two sections.

First section. YI DAG GCIG RGYUD NA It's the general trouble that spirits have. SA BA, DRANG BA, BRTZE PA, BSGOM PA, SNGAL BA, GCIG PA There's six.

First one is they feel hot. DRANG BA means they feel cold. BRTZE PA means they feel hungry.

BSGOM PA means they feel thirsty. SNGAL BA means they feel tired. GCIG PA means they feel afraid.

SDUG BSNGAL BSAM PA STE So there's six. And then we can talk about each class or each type of spirit has their own problems. So there's problems that they all have and then there's specific problems.

DANG PO CI SDUG BSNGAL BSAM PA LA, DI LTAR BSAM DGOS When you do your meditation about being born as a spirit because you didn't get off the subway during the crystal, here's how you can meditate. Here's how you can do that meditation. BSAM DGOS You must do it this way.

SNGAL BA MA SKYES KYANG I was lucky. I'm lucky. I've been attending Dharma courses.

I heard the pen a lot. I'm not going to go to the hells. I know that.

But, YUD DAG GZUGS SKYE BA YOD NA But suppose I get born as a spirit being. SA DANG PHRAD BSGOM SNGAL GCIG GI SDUG BSNGAL There's the suffering of too hot, too cold, hungry, thirsty, tired, and frightened. Sixth.

SDUG BSNGAL GZUGS SKA BA Very difficult to live that way. GNAR NAS PHYIR RJE RGYUD LTA BZHAG Forget studying Dharma. Impossible.

It's like trying to meditate when you have a toothache. Not possible. Or you just had a fight with your partner.

Then you go meditate. It's like hopeless. PHRAD DO BSAM PA MTSAMS YANG PHRAD MI THUB KYANG They can't even have a straight thought.

They are just totally distracted by pain. When you're in pain, you can't think about Dharma. PHRAD PA MI THAR RE LAM NAS DKA' RIN GYIS Right now, because of our Lama's kindness, DER MA SKYES PAR We didn't get born there this time.

We're human. Because of our Lama's kindness in the past. PHRAD BYANG CHUB KYI LAM RIM PAR BSGOM KHUL TZAM BYAS GYIS CHUNG BA'I DI SA RNAMS RE BYED We are very lucky to be pretending we are practicing Lam Rim.

People say, are you practicing Lam Rim? Yeah. Oh, you're lucky.

Because most people are not even pretending. They never heard of Lam Rim. They don't care about Lam Rim.

You want to go to Lam Rim? No, I'm busy. I was going to go to McDonald's or something like that.

Okay. BSGOM KHUL Those of you studying Tibetan, the K-H-U-L, KHAR BSHAD PA'I KHUL LA KHUL KHUL in German means it was bought at Kadave. Kadave.

Cool. But in Tibetan, it's a bad thing. It means pretend to meditate.

BSGOM KHUL BYAS PA means you pretend you're meditating, but you're not very serious about it. You are a dilettante meditator. You are not a serious meditator.

BSGOM KHUL BYAS BYAS RGYUD CHUNG BA'I DI SA RNAMS RE BYED But still, we have really good karma that we can pretend that we are meditating. A lot of people don't know any meditation. They don't care.

Are you a meditator? No. Are you pretending to meditate?

Yes. You have good karma. Okay.

RE BYED RTABS LEGS RTABS LEGS In the colloquial, I taught it to you like ten times. No, but what's the colloquial? RTABS YAG Oh, Rinpoche, I saw a purple light while I was meditating.

RTABS YAG Oh, that's great. Wow. My Lama used to love this word.

He used to say, Rinpoche, I just built a new debate ground. RTABS YAG Wow, you're really cool. So it's kind of sarcastic.

RTABS YAG So don't say it to people. ,'OD KYANG RANG RES RGYUD LA DER, ,'PHAN CHAD KYI LAS SAGS LA MA NYAMS PA, ,'THOB RTEN MANG PO ZHIG YOD, But, ,'OD KYANG RANG RES People like you and me, ,RGYUD LA In our mind stream, in our mind, ,DER PHAN CHAD KYI LAS What's PHAN CHAD KYI LAS? Yeah, shooting karma.

There's two kinds of karma. PHAN CHAD KYI LAS is like an arrow. Shoot an arrow.

And it shoots you to your next life. It decides where you go next life. So PHAN CHAD KYI LAS makes you an animal.

Or PHAN CHAD KYI LAS makes you a spirit. Or PHAN CHAD KYI LAS makes you President of the United States. That's PHAN CHAD KYI LAS.

Then RDZOGS CHAD KYI LAS is what? Finishing karma. Like, will you be tall?

Will you be short? Will you be fat? Will you be skinny?

Will you have brown eyes? Will you have blue eyes? This is called detailed karma.

It's like the painter. PHAN CHAD KYI LAS is like the person who draws the general whole painting. Then the other person come and put in the colors.

So PHAN CHAD KYI LAS here means the karma which shoots you to a place. ZAG LA MAN YAM ZAG means RDZOGS. Yeah, you have assembled all the necessary karmas already to be a spirit.

You're lucky right now you're human, you're pretending to practice. But during this life, and mainly because of food, your attitude towards food, you know, I want, I want, I want ponchi. I want churro.

I want donut. Okay? I want, yeah, churro.

I want. Then we already collected many karmas. They are ZAG and they are not YAM, MAN YAM.

Nobody took care of those karmas. So you made karmas already to be, to shoot you into the next life to be one of these spirits. But you didn't fix them.

You could work on them. You could defuse them with the four powers. You could have defused them.

You could have stopped them from opening. But you didn't. They are ZAG and they are not YAM.

They are, you collected them, but you didn't damage them. They are nice and seeds inside you, all ready to open. And you don't care about them.

You don't know about them. You're just waiting to become a spirit, a golem. So you should work on them.

How do you know you have one of those seeds? You have cravings for things, like cappuccinos, or sweets, or you eat too much. You have cravings for things, alcohol, or tobacco, or things like that.

You want things. That means you have those seeds. So you have to work on them.

LAM MA NYAM PA RTOGS BSTAN Those seeds are collected. Those seeds haven't been damaged by the four powers. And they are RTOGS BSTAN.

They have a lot of power. They are strong seeds. They are not small seeds.

They are big seeds. RTOGS BSTAN MANG PO You have a lot of them. ZHIG YOD PAS Therefore, DE DAG MA ZHIG TSUN LA Before you die, ZLAG MED DU SBYONG You should clean them until there's none left.

MI THUB NA If you don't do it, THA STE KHA STAB GYIS ZHING How do you know you still have those seeds? THA STE KHA STAB You can tell from your present life. You can tell from your present life.

Are you happy? Do you have cravings? Do you want things?

Do you have small addictions? You can tell from your life now if you have those seeds. And you have to take care of them.

If you have a problem with, what do you call it? Like small addictions. You want things too much.

You feel unhappy. The thermometer to tell if you have the sickness of bad seeds is you feel unhappy. If you feel unhappy very often, you have lots of those seeds.

And they will shoot you to spirit. That's the temperature. How's your happiness level?

If you feel unhappy pretty often, you have lots of bad seeds. It's time to clean them up. All right.

DER MA ZAD Not only that, PHYIR NA GCIG SKAD SEMS DE GZHIN TU GAL BYAS TE The state of mind at GCIG KHA is crucial. What's GCIG KHA? The moment of death.

Who said moment of death? Nice Venerable Phil. GCIG KHA The state of mind at the moment of death is especially important.

Pay a lot of attention to that. Because the fifth set of four in the four by four is... Yeah, which seeds have priority?

You want to do it again? Okay. So you know the four sets of four, but we added another one.

And it's which seeds are going to open first? How do you know which seed is going to open first? First one.

Yeah, which one is stronger? Did you kill somebody or did you call somebody stupid? The kill seed will open first.

What's the second one? Which one is close to death? Which one is closer to death?

If I told a lie to my mother, but I told the truth to my Lama, something like that. Which karma is going to open first? The one which you did closer to your death.

If within two or three days of your death, those karmas open first. So we have to be very careful when a person's dying. When you're in a room and a person's dying, don't make noise, don't cry, don't grab at them.

Make sure it's not too cold. Make sure it's not too hot. Make sure it's peaceful and they can die peacefully and quietly.

Because any random thought they have at that time could shoot them to a... Like if they say it's cold in here, they could go to a hot hell. You see what I mean?

So the second, after severity, after gravity of karma comes, how close are you to your death? Are you within two or three days of your death? Because those seeds are more powerful.

They can cancel seeds that you did before. They can push to the front. So be careful.

That's why it's very good to do confession before you die. That's a Christian, big Christian custom. Very good custom.

Take the confession just before you die. Get rid of those seeds just before you die. Third one?

Yeah, which one is a habit? If you used to tell your mother the truth all the time and then you lied to her, which one will open first? The truth one, because it's a habit.

Okay, so one time you made a mistake, but 500 times you did the right thing. Then the 500 times is more powerful. What's the last one?

Yeah, first in, first out. In accounting, they say first in, first out. The earlier karma, generally, if it's not close to death, the earlier karma will open first.

Okay, so, CI KHA'I SEMS BZHIN DU GAL CHE, the state of mind with which you die is very important. Very important. Crucial.

Because it's second in priority, right? It can move up. It can move in front of the other.

You did good karmas your whole life, then just in the last day you got very angry at your mother. That karma will open first. That will shoot you to the next life.

You should know. MTSA'I MDZIR BDEG PA CHEN PO CHE PAS BDEG CHEN YANG GCIG RGA'I SEMS ZHA DAG GI SNGAG NAS CI NA If there's a person who was bad their whole life and did bad things their whole life, but at the moment that they die, they suddenly have a lot of compassion or love, that seed will open first. There are many stories in Buddhism, and Christian also, of people who were bad for a long time, then suddenly they got scared.

And they say, oh, I'm so sorry. I should have helped people. I should have given more money.

I should have done nice things. I'm sorry. Then that karma will open first.

So that's a really good thing. GCIG RGA'I SEMS ZHA DAG GI SNGAG NAS CI NA SNGON GYIS DGE BA'I LAS ZHIG LA GSOS BDEBS LA If they have that feeling at the end, oh, I was bad my whole life. I hurt many people.

I'm sorry. Then that power goes to the last good thing they did and the good thing opens. It's called GSOS BDEBS.

Say GSOS BDEBS. It's a special Buddhist word. You cannot find it in dictionary.

English dictionary or Russian dictionary. So GSOS BDEBS means the karma lottery at the point of death. It's called GSOS BDEBS.

The karma lottery at the point of death. You close your eyes, you reach into the bowl and you pick out a karma and that decides where you go. So if at the last days you apologize to everyone, you call all the people you had fights with, especially your ex-husband, your ex-wife.

Call them out and say, look, I hate you, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm dying now. I don't want to die with that.

I apologize. It's all your fault, but I'll take the... It was also my fault, a little bit.

I'm sorry. I wish you have a good life. I'm dying now.

That change of heart picks the next karma, GSOS BDEBS. It selects the next karma out of the karma bowl. So it's very cool.

Just before you die, try to apologize to everybody. I heard in Japan, it's a big custom to apologize all the time, even if you didn't do anything. That's a good custom.

In karma, this is a very good custom. Just take all the blame. I'm sorry, everything was my fault.

That's why our marriage failed. See you next life. GZHIG LA GSOS BDEBS, SPYOD PA BDAG KYANG GCIG RGAR GONG DROL SOGS KYI SNANG NAS Even if you're a SPYOD PA, that's a nice word.

Dharma person. Dharma-ist. Dharma-er.

Dharma-er. Even if you're a person who practice a lot, you go to all the lam rims, you go to the GONG DROL reading groups and study groups and take classes from Jasmine and Vivian. You're a Dharma person.

SPYOD PA Even if you're a SPYOD PA, but if you get angry just before you die, then you will go to a bad place. MI DGE BA'I LAS LA GSOS BDEBS The karma lottery will choose a negative karma. Even if you tried for many years to be a good person, you did one week retreat, then you did six month retreat, then you did three year retreat.

Ani Palma did six years, right? She did six years so far. She's too shy.

Even if you did six years retreat and you have a lot of good karma in your mind, but on the last day you get very angry at somebody, the lottery will pick that one. The lottery will pick a bad one. So you have to be very careful at the end.

ZHIG LA GSOS BDEBS SPYOD PA BDAG GIS GCIG RGA RGYUR GANG SGROL GYI NGANG NAS CI NA, MI DGE BA'I LAS GSOS BDEBS GYUR ZHING DE YANG PHAL CHER Let me check something. We'll do one more part, then I'm going to talk about your retreat. DE YANG PHAL CHER TSEN GYI RLOG GANG LA GONG PO CHE BA DE PHYI KHA YANG SNGON DU GYUR BA'I For most of us, what we did every day during our life will open.

That karma will open. What was our usual way of life? Did we do our yoga every day, even if Orit was teaching or Kili Tan from Singapore?

You're not teaching this week at home. So anyway, you did your yoga every day. You did your meditation.

You tried to do your Dharma. Then that's what you're used to. GONG CHE BA means that's what you're used to.

PHYI KHA YANG Then usually that will come up when you die. What you did usually in your life will come up. RANG RES BDAG TU MYONG MONG THUGS GSUM LA GONG ZHUGS CHE BA'I Most of us have been doing the three poisons as our irregular practice.

The pig, the snake, and the chicken or pigeon. Good. Those are the three poisons.

They're called the three poisons. What's a snake? How do you say?

PHANG PHAN NUS PHAN NUS It's the snake. Anger. Pigeon?

Desire. I need YOD KHYAL. I need YOD KHYAL.

The pig? I don't understand. I don't think about anything.

I don't care. Those are called three poisons. Most of us are doing those three as our daily practice.

MYONG MONG THUGS GSUM LA GONG ZHUGS CHE BA'I We're very used to it. PHYI KHA YANG MI DGE BA'I LAS GSOS BDEGS PA THAG SPYOD THAG SPYOD means so it's definite. It's already decided what's going to happen.

We're going to pick a bad karma in the lottery when we die. Because all day long we were angry at people, or we tried to get things away from people, and we didn't understand that things were coming from me. We've been practicing those three negative thoughts our whole life.

So naturally, when the lottery comes at the last day, you're going to pick a bad seed. DE NA GCIG RGAR SA LTUNG LA YI BYUNG NAS DE SMIN YANG MI THOS PA ZHIG BYUNG NA NYAMS PA LTA BU SOGS CHA STANG GANG RUNG GI YI LAS SKYE RGYUR GI LAS LA SOS BDEBS NA Therefore, if at the moment of death, somebody offers you a smoothie, green smoothie, and you're like, even without dying, I'd go like that. I don't want that.

Give me some cappuccino. So when you go like that, or someone tries to feed you when you're sick and you're dying, someone gives you food and you're like, then that can be a cause to be born as a spirit. ZHIG BYUNG NA NYAMS PA LTA BU SOGS CHA STANG Why?

Because you hate that person at that moment. You're like, I don't like you. I don't want that.

You are not thinking, oh, that green smoothie came from me. I'm so sorry. I'm just kidding.

YI LAS SKYE RGYUR GI LAS LA SOS BDEBS So that kind of feeling on the last day when someone offers you something to eat or something to drink and you feel angry and you don't want it and you say, go away, then that will pick up bad karma from the karma lottery in the lottery. SKYE RGYUR LAS LTA BU YID NA GYI NEN YIN DU MI SKYE BA'I NYES PA MED CING So in this case, there's no guarantee that even people like us cannot go to become a spirit after we die. We all have this stuff.

PHAL CHOS SKYE BAR THAG CHOS In fact, you can say it's probably we're going to be born that way. Probably we're going to be born that way. I'm going to stop there and I want to talk a little bit about your retreat schedule.

So try to find your schedule. Do you have your schedule? Retreat schedule?

If you don't have a schedule and you want a schedule, is Tim here? Yeah. Okay, but Tim can get you a paper copy afterwards, if you want.

Or you can just take a picture of it on your phone. Okay, so tomorrow, Sunday, at two o'clock, we will make tuomas. Tuomas are little special offering cakes that we make before we do a retreat.

Then we offer them to the spirits around here. Please don't bother me. Please don't give me toothache.

Where's John and Connie today? Connie got a big infection here and she had to go for surgery. So we make tuoma cake to the dentist spirit.

Please don't give me toothache during these three days. If you do three day retreat or three year retreat, you still make a tuoma before. So tuoma means a special offering to all the spirits and we're only going to make one.

Am I right? So that can also be for the holy spirits in this place, the good spirits, all the Buddhas. All-purpose single tuoma.

So we're going to teach you how to make a tuoma because you have to know. Okay, first time I did a retreat, my Lama told me, do this, do this, do this, make tuoma, put the sign on your door, TZAM MTHO, retreat sign, OM MA HUNG. Yeah, you must do it.

Then I'm like, I'm American, we don't believe superstitious. Then I don't tell my Lama bad thing, but I think it. I'm like, yeah, okay Lama, I'll make a tuoma.

I'll spend two, three hours making this little cake. Then I'll make the OM MA HUNG, I'll put it on my door. First time I did retreat, I didn't put the sign on my door because I thought, oh, that's a superstition.

Then I had spirits come in the room. I saw them. Very scary.

They're like black and they're in the room and then they leave the room between the wall and the roof. Then I'm like, I said, I thought I saw something. Then I start to feel weird in the retreat.

Then I saw another one. Then I'm like, I think I'll do the OM MA HUNG. Then I never had a problem after that.

I told you, you can stop a fire, forest fire, it will go over the house. I believe in it. I'm still American.

I don't like superstition. But it's not superstition. It works.

If you're going to do retreat, you should be serious about your dharma. Make them nice. Spend the time.

We put two hours there. Maybe it's going to take longer. If it takes longer, I will start the class later.

It's not waste of time. It's necessary. It's like putting gasoline in your car.

You've got to make and put a lot of your heart into the DHAR MA. Say, I'm making especially sexy DHAR MA. All the Buddhas will like it.

All the spirits will like it. Don't think it's a waste of time. Don't think it's like a superstition or some Buddhist stupid thing.

It's not like that. It's very serious. Take care to make the OM AH HUNG correctly.

Last time they had some kind of outline made for people. I don't like it. Forget it.

Throw them out. Get some blank paper. You learn to draw OM AH HUNG.

Just watch the other person and try to do it properly. Buddha doesn't mind if it's a little bit ugly. Buddha's a very cool guy.

Oh, okay, he's trying to make an OM AH HUNG. What is that? It's like when I speak Chinese.

Stop, boy. Come on, come on, boy. Say something.

Just come on. Everybody's like, Oh, you're speaking Chinese. Buddha's like, Oh, is this an OM AH HUNG?

Yeah, okay, I protect your house. Do it. Throw out those pre-made OM AH HUNG.

That's lazy. All right. Then I'm going to talk about the schedule.

On Monday night, sorry, Monday at five o'clock. You see the schedule? October 17th.

At five o'clock. We will do a ceremony in the Je Tsongkapa Center. We will face the border.

It's called Tsam. The border is called Tsam. That's the border.

Nobody will come in the Tsam unless they are important for the retreat. Once you close the border, other people cannot come in. We can make exception when we do three-year retreat, for example.

We make a list. A doctor can come in. A guy who fixes toilets can come in.

We have a list. Word's going to do that. You can have a list of people who can come in.

So five o'clock, we will close the border. After that, you have to try not to leave for three days. You are stuck here.

You cannot leave. Just forget it. When I did three-year retreat, my tooth broke in half after two weeks.

I didn't leave. I got some super glue. Every few weeks, I put super glue on it.

It's okay. I didn't leave the retreat. She didn't leave.

We'll do a prayer. We'll ask for help. There's a special angel named Khandro-he.

Khandro-he. DUM KHYAD MA She will help us. So we ask her for help.

You're ready with all that stuff? I'm trusting you. Get the list and make sure everything's there.

Last time, Gyelse forgot the plumber or something. Then we'll go to your cottage, cook something, and then you start your mantras. So main, one of the big practices during retreat is the mantra.

SBYOR Mantra means, please help me. That's all. SBYOR means please help me.

RGYAL TE RGYAL TE BAR, RGYAL TE BAR SANGS RGYAL TE BOD DE SO HA Please help me. DBONG BZHIN NA DE RGYAL NA BAR DU BZHIN NA BA'O RGYAL KHO HA'ANG Please help me. Like that.

Mainly, mantra is please help me. That's all. You say your Lama's name.

You can do a name mantra. I will give you a mantra to do, but you can also do your name mantra of your Lama. OM Then Lama's name.

Like, I don't know, Jasmine. OM, Jasmine, AH HUNG That's enough. When I did three-year retreat, I just did my Lama's name.

I didn't do anything else. OM, Jasmine, AH HUNG That's all. You need those three extra syllables.

OM, AH HUNG Here you put Lama's name. That's enough. If you want to do that way, you can do.

Whatever is your Lama's name. Some people, their mother is their Lama. That's fine.

My mother's name is Elizabeth. OM, Elizabeth, AH HUNG You can do one million. When I did three-year retreat, I just did my Lama's name, and it worked.

Something good happened. All right. 10 o'clock is bedtime.

Please go to bed. Sorry? OM, Lama's name, AH HUNG HUNG Not HAM.

Not M. It's NG. HUNG HUNG Okay.

Try to follow the schedule. If you feel too tired, then rest. That's okay.

But if we can all do the same thing at the same time, it's more powerful. In the retreat valley. So try to keep to this schedule.

Try to turn off your lights by 10 o'clock. You know, I know, you can see all the lights in the valley. I know when Jigme's up late, sending in my taxes.

Turn off your light, close the curtains, and have a secret flashlight to read science fiction books under there. 6.30 wake up. Even if you don't usually wake up that early, try during retreat.

You will have a nice experience. Then tomorrow I'll teach you all the prayers. You need one of these in your own language, okay?

You need one of these in your own language. Then I'm happy to say Russian team, German team, Spanish team, Chinese team, they all translated them, I think. So if you don't have one, talk to Tim.

They get more expensive every day. So try to get it now. It's expensive to print.

It's a lot of color pictures. I like, Dharma should be expensive pictures. They should all be.

Don't make cheap Dharma stuff. Use the best paper, use the best photos. Okay?

Don't make cheap stuff. Where's that red folder I asked? So I really want to thank our translator teams.

They did a big amount of translation in no time because Geshe-la is always late. So I just got this translation yesterday. I'm very happy about it.

SA BROS SHEN LA YOD ZHIG CHEN GYI BKAG PHRAG GI SKHA BA'I TSAL BA'I ZHIN GZHIG PA DAG YANG NYAN The Russian translation of the Tsongkhapa book. So, yeah. It's Maria Kondratieva.

Thank you. It's a very, very difficult book. Most famous book on emptiness.

Best book on emptiness. So I'm translating it slowly because I have to do other stuff. So anyway, it's very difficult, very important about emptiness.

So I asked the translators to translate it and one of them was listening. So thank you for that. If you have a Chinese translation team in your spare time, you should translate it.

Very important. Very important for future generations. Never been translated correctly.

Okay. Then first we'll do one of these prayers. Then you'll do the protection meditations part one.

Part one means I will tell you, probably Monday, which meditations are in part one. Then you do your own yoga. Have breakfast.

Take some free time. Free time is as important as the meditations. Dharma person who does a retreat, these three-year retreats, they found out you must learn to relax.

You must learn to goof off. Meditation important. Study important.

Mantras important. Goof off important. How to relax.

You must learn. If you... RU GOG FANG SONG WU WU SHES If you don't have FANG SONG, WU FANG SONG BU FANG SONG WEN TE WEN TE You're going to have a problem if you don't learn to relax.

You have to learn to relax. Very important. If you're like this whole retreat, you will fail.

You'll get sick. Something will happen. You must learn to get on the bed.

Just relax. Very important. Then we do some more prayers.

You don't have to do or read yoga every day. In the afternoon, when you feel tired, there's two choices. Three choices.

Number one, you can take a nap. Number two, you can eat chocolate or drink cappuccino. Number three, you can do some headstands or something.

Do a little bit of yoga. Just five minutes. Just five minutes.

Just stretch. Do some easy yoga. And you feel great.

It's better than coffee. Almost. Then we're going to do some mantras.

I'll teach you about it tomorrow. Then at 1.30, you can walk outside. Wear a hat.

Put on sunscreen. You have to. Otherwise you get these spots.

You are so beautiful, Chinese people. You don't want all these spots. Put on the hat.

Put on the sunscreen. Maybe sunglasses. Protect your eyes.

If you don't have a hat, if you don't have sunglasses, if you don't have sunscreen, talk to the work-study. They will get it for you. If you don't have money, I will pay.

Seriously. You need a hat, sunglasses, sunscreen. And you must take water.

I grew up in Arizona. My dad took us camping. Every month he took us for three days camping.

For many years. And you do not go outside walking without water. Never.

Nobody. Ever. Watch for snake.

The snake season is almost finished. Nobody saw a snake this week, I think. But they are here.

Some are still awake. They are too lazy to go in their hole. If they bite you, you have to go to hospital.

It causes you trouble and it causes us trouble. You probably won't die. They are not so poisonous.

But it's very hurt. It will hurt. So wear good shoes.

Did I? It's okay? Please.

Even you go to the pee pee, the snakes are also there. Use a flashlight. Walk slowly.

Don't be scared, but watch. Be aware. Where you put your feet, just watch.

You can't do a retreat in Tucson or Beijing. It doesn't work. It's worse than snakes.

You need an empty place. You need a quiet place. This is one of the best places in the world to do retreat.

Tonight the star guys are here. You're going to see stars tonight. They're going to teach you how to see the stars.

You can't get that anywhere in the world. This is the best. Diamond Mountain is the best.

It's the most quiet. But then there's animals here. I'm sorry.

You can have animals and quiet, or you can have noisy and no animals. They also live here. What else?

It's good to walk. You can walk when you do mantras. When you do your walking, take your rosary and do some mantras.

Look at the sky and relax. The worst thing you can do in retreat is to like, I didn't do enough mantras today. I'm a bad person.

That's the worst thing you can do. Just fang song. Just relax.

Do what you can do. Just relax and be happy. Don't be like those yoga guys.

Be like Geshe Michael. They're always like, do this, do this. I'm like, next time.

Relax. There's an app for looking at the sky. I don't know if they're going to, are they going to talk about it?

Do they talk about it? These guys? There's an app called Sky Guide.

It's really nice. Wherever you put it, it shows you the name of the stars. You can hit the star and it will tell you the story about that star.

How did that star get his name? Like that. It's very cool.

It's called Sky Guide. I think it's like $1 or something. I like it.

I like it a lot. You can see what's the name of the star. Is it a planet?

Enjoy the stars. When I did my three-year retreat, I would go out and lay down on the roof of my cabin and I would look at the stars and do my mantra. It's very, very nice.

Very, very cool. Very good for your mind. In the morning, try to have herbal tea or something.

Try not to drink coffee or caffeine. Try not to drink. Try to eat healthy food.

Not too much sugar. It will make you nervous. Mantras I will explain tomorrow.

That's about it, I think.