«Дар освобождения», курс 23 «Защита от жизни и смерти», занятие 7

[Speaker 2]
Good morning. I was going to ask, did you sleep well?

[Speaker 1]
And I was going to say, if you didn't sleep well, you can sleep in the class. Many people do that.

[Speaker 2]
Let's get ready for meditation, okay? Turn off your phone. Geshe Michael.

Blow your nose, Geshe Michael. Now I'm ready. Okay.

All right. Let's go. And please sit still, don't move.

Relax your fingers. And your shoulders. Pull your shoulders back a little bit.

Maybe your hands will come up, your thighs. Eyelids relaxed. And start to breathe deeply, long exhales.

Watch your breath. Then please invite your heart teacher to come to this room and sit with you in meditation. Make it nice.

It's not a picture, it's not a photograph, it's not a painting. It's a real person. Very sweet, happy person.

Happy to be with you. Teachers are always very happy to be with a student. It makes them very happy.

They're very happy when the student asks them to come because they love the student so much. Then think about one nice quality of your teacher, something you admired. In your mind, thank them.

Some quality that you haven't been able to develop yet, but this perfect, ideal teacher has this quality. Just picture them having this quality and giving it to you. Then think of something beautiful you saw yesterday.

Could be the sky. It could be a song that someone sang this morning. Could be teaching that you had.

Could be something nice you said to somebody in the Je Tsongkapa Center. But try to think of a few beautiful things that happened yesterday, small, beautiful gifts for your teacher from yesterday, and offer them these beautiful colors and sounds and emotions, feelings, and try to think of something you did yesterday that was not so nice. Maybe you got tired and said something unkind to someone.

Maybe you just thought about it. Or maybe you saw something unkind between two other people. You know it's coming from your seeds also.

And get in the habit of telling your teacher happily the mistakes you've made. When we look at our mistakes and think about them and let other people know we made mistakes, that's a really good person who can admit their mistakes. Then think of something you did yesterday which was especially nice.

Or something you saw somebody else do which was very kind. I've been enjoying having meetings with Jasmine and other people who are working on arranging the future programs. Michael Dunn, Melissa, I admire how hard they're working.

John and Connie, Scott Marie, to prepare future events for people. Think about, in this group, we have so many people working so hard to help other people. You can enjoy that you have friends like this, such good friends.

Then ask your teacher to teach. Be careful when you ask for teachings. Many teachings come as hard things.

People we don't like. People who say things to us, do things we don't like. You have to remember, if you ask for teaching, maybe those people are sent by your lama to test you, push you, make you stronger.

So ask for teachings today, and be happy whatever form they come. Then finally ask your teacher to stay in your life. Without a teacher, we're alone.

We think we could live without a teacher, but it would be very lonely, and we would make many mistakes. After we die, no one would be there to help. Ask them to stay, even through the process of death.

Stay with us after that, in our next lives. One of the most beautiful things that happens to a person who sees emptiness directly is that they can see that they will be able to stay with their teachers for all their future time. And then please come back to your breath, without moving.

Three deep breaths. Relax. Deep breaths.

Give this good karma to other people on the exhale. And you can slowly open your eyes. Take a stretch.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, that's the way you should start every morning. That's the traditional preparation for meditation. Later in the day you don't have to do the whole preparation.

But in the morning, first meditation of the day, it's good to do that.

[Speaker 2]
Let's do some lam rim.

[Speaker 1]
All right, here we go. We reached the animal realm. I like it, because I feel relieved not to be in the hell realm, or the preta realm.

At least animals, I'm familiar with animals. In my family there were four brothers and one dog. He's the fifth brother.

So we feel, I don't know, I like animals. GSUM PA DON DUR SDUG BSNGAL BSAM PA LA GNYIS So when we think about the suffering of animals, I think we... When I think of animals, I think of dogs or cats or the birds who come to my house and I feed them.

And in the lam rim, how we feel about animals is different. We are no longer spectators. We are trying to empathize with animals as well as people.

So we try to feel... Shantideva, Master Shantideva's big teaching is exchange you with other people. How does Emily feel today?

Or how does Gibson feel today? That's my job, is to think about you. And I put myself there and I put you here.

And I say, how does it feel for them? Is it warm enough? Is it cold enough?

Is it interesting enough? And in the lam rim teaching, we have to learn to do it with animals. So not just look at them like pets or something.

I have a yoga teacher, what do you call him? David and Susan, Jivamukti. They say animals are just another tribe of people.

Like there's Ukrainians, there's Chinese, and there's animals. And they're just another country. They just look different.

But we should respect them as another country, people. So, sangpa la nyi chi du ngel sangpa. We think about the suffering that all animals have.

And then, so-so du ngel sangpa. We think about the sufferings that each kinds of animals have. Special sufferings, okay?

Here's the general sufferings. There are five parts of the general sufferings. DANG PO LA GCIG LA GCIG ZA BA Say GCIG LA GCIG LA GCIG GCIG LA GCIG ZA BA First suffering is they eat each other.

They live off each other. And we're at the top of the food chain. We can eat everybody else.

Many years ago we were not on the top, like lions could kill us and bears could kill us. There are bears here, okay? They visited some three-year retreatants.

But generally, we don't have to worry that word might eat Nancy during the class. Like, she's not nervous to sit next to her. But animals, they can't trust anybody.

GCIG LA GCIG ZA BA That's the first suffering. Second one is called LEN ZHING STI MUG PA It just means that they don't have intelligence the way we have intelligence. And I know they have a special kind of intelligence.

Like, birds have a special kind of intelligence. And dogs have... Dogs are more friendly than most people.

So they have good qualities. But in general, I wouldn't want to have a mind like them. I couldn't study.

I couldn't meditate. I couldn't understand emptiness. Try to explain emptiness to a dog.

And they're just like, Many people that I explain emptiness to. But I would rather have my mind. I would rather have a human mind.

Then they suffer a lot because they can't figure things out. I had a... In my three-year retreat, I had lots of animals.

Many snakes, many birds. I had a pet rabbit, wild rabbit, come to my house every day, knock on the door, and say, I want cookie, you know. If you don't talk for three years, then the animals trust you.

It's interesting. But anyway, mostly I don't have any big animals every day. But I have ants.

And I will go outside and sit with the ants. And then they would... There was a little...

There was a stick across their road. So they will go to the stick, and then they will go to the end of the stick and come back and then keep going. Then I thought, I can help these guys.

You just climb over the stick. You can save like an hour. And I like touch them, and then they're like, just go over this stick.

And I tried to teach like three ants, and it doesn't work. They can't understand. So they will spend one hour to go there and come back.

And that's animal. They don't understand. Not like us.

Humans do a lot of bad things with their intelligence. They kill each other. They bomb each other.

But still, I would rather have the intelligence. You can do bad things with it, but the intelligence is a good thing. Alright.

Are you hot? No. Can you turn on the thing?

Geshe Michael likes it cold. I'm sorry. Third suffering, sadang, sadang.

When it's hot, when it's cold, they don't have choice. We had a Diamond Mountain meeting. Melissa and Michael were there.

We were talking about the future of Diamond Mountain. Many years ago, this was a forest. A beautiful forest.

Oak tree. Very beautiful old trees. Oak tree.

It was covered with oak trees. Then there's a valley next to here, Wilcox. That's a big valley and it has lots of grass.

So, first people who came here, white people, they start to grow cows. Then they built a railroad from here to Chicago to carry the cows. So, the whole economy of this state, Arizona, was cows.

Because there's no refrigerators. So, you can send a cow on the train to the east coast where many people live, like China also, right? Then they will kill the cow there.

Then there's no refrigeration, so the people eat the cow within one or two days. So, the railroad was where this highway is. The highway you came on from Tucson used to be a railroad.

The railroad needs wood. Understand? They cut every single tree.

They didn't leave us one tree. It's empty. Then the soil gets dry and it became a desert because of people.

Then they put the cows out here now. It's legal. Our neighbor has a cow rancher.

He has a sign on the highway that says, eat beef. Eat cows. And when you drive from the town to here, it's about 12 miles, it's legal for him to have cows there.

Many of our students hit a cow at night. So, go slow. One person almost died.

Who's staying in Captain Bill's cabin? Yeah, the guy who's in charge of your cabin hit a cow and he broke all his bones here. So, go slow there.

In this state, it's illegal. Sorry, it's legal to put the cow anywhere. So, they have to stand in the desert all day in the sun.

They just let them go. If they die, they die. If they survive, they collect them and they kill them.

So, they just stand in the sun all day. They don't have choice. It snows here sometimes.

That's why we have Lam Rim in October and not January. And then they just stand in the snow. They don't have choice.

That's the third suffering. They just stand in the sun and they stand in the snow. DE BZHIN BSGOM PA means they're hungry, they're thirsty.

Most animals spend the whole day looking for food or water. That's all they do. Five, I think this is the worst one.

The fifth one is the worst. KUL ZHING SPYOD PA'I SDUG BSNGAL People use them. People use them for food, for clothes, for leather.

They are slaves. They are the biggest slaves in the world, these animals. I have bees.

I have a beehive. It's very interesting. Bees and cows, chickens, pigs, for 50,000 years, human beings breed them.

They pick the most calm one and they have babies with them. And they kill the wild ones. So if there's one cow out of ten is very friendly and oh, you want to kill me?

It's okay. Then they will take this cow and make babies. And even bees.

For 50,000 years, people take the calm bees and kill the other bees. Then they became very stupid, most stupid and friendly. You can see in India, Yi Yi went to India, right?

You can see the little kid pulling the big bull. The bull is like as big as a car. And the boy is maybe five years old.

He can pull the bull. Because for 50,000 years, we made slaves. We pick the ones who are the best slaves and we make babies from those.

And chickens are the same. Pigs are the same. There are wild animals that many years people made slaves.

Now they're very quiet. They die very quietly. You can put them in a line, kill them one by one.

The ones behind, they're like, hmm, look, they're killing the first one. Oh, they killed the second one. Hmm.

They're very innocent. So they are slaves of humans. Okay?

We do what we want with them, right? I think that's the worst one. Even dogs, cats, you know, you will be my pet.

You stay in the house all day. Sit there. Because I want to have fun with you when I come home.

Then they are lonely all day. They want a poo-poo. They have to hold it until you come home.

They are slaves. Pets are slaves. When you're tired of them, you kill them.

Okay. Okay, so let's talk about it from the lam rim. First one.

NGAN TZO GSUM LAS SDUG BSNGAL CHUNG ZHIG BDUN DRO LTA BU SKYE NA The easiest of the three lower realms... Do you have that Wheel of Life thing? Ah, forget it.

It's okay. It's too much work. The easiest of the bad places to go is animals.

Okay? But they have GCIG LA GCIG SA BA'I SDUG BSNGAL They eat each other. It's a food chain.

The big ones eat the little ones. The humans eat all of them. BDUN DRO GSU SPONG BYAS BA CHU ZIN SOGS NI If you take a creature like a big shark, like a white shark, CHU ZIN NYA YI RIG CHEN DANG DE'I KHYUR MI BYAS TU PA'I CHU ZIN NYA MI DANG So in the ocean, the big fish eat the medium fish and the medium fish eat the little fish.

Okay? You know Benjamin Franklin? He's like the most famous early American.

He helped to invent electricity and like that. When we had our war to be independent, he raised all...he's the fundraiser. Okay?

In France. Very smart man. Very, very smart man.

He's on the $100 bill. I think. That's him.

If someone wants to give me, I'll show you. No, just kidding, just kidding. Chinese will do it.

Then there's a funny story. He was like almost Buddhist. He kept six times book.

Automatically. No one taught him. He checked himself six times every day.

Is he being good person? Then sometime he decided to become vegetarian. And that's very unusual in his time.

There's nobody doing vegetarian. He said, well, it's not good to kill those animals. They also have feelings.

So he decided to become vegetarian. Then he took a ship from America to France for fundraising. Then sometimes there's no wind and they have to sit there for two, three days.

And they cannot go anywhere. So people start to fish. And they start to bring out the fish and they make a small fire on the ship and they start to eat the fish.

Then he smelled the cooking fish and he's like, he liked to eat a lot. He's like, man, it smells so good. I'm a vegetarian.

Then he saw them cleaning the fish. And when they cut open the big fish, inside there's a little fish. Then he said, logically, if the big fish eat the little fish, then I can eat the big fish.

Because I'm bigger than the big fish. So he ate a lot of fish that day. Then when he was full he said, sometimes there's a logic of desire, which is not real logic.

Like if you want something, you can find logic that you should have it. Then he realized he made a mistake. So anyway, big animals eat the small ones.

And it's a chain. MI BYAS THUB PA'I So there's fish in the sea who can eat a hundred other fish in one day. DE YANG GYUR MI MI BYAS NUS PA'I NYA MI So that's the story of Pabongka Rinpoche.

He's talking about fish is called NYA MI. NYA MI means fish swallower. So the big fish are NYA MI for the medium fish, and the medium fish are NYA MI for the little fish.

Fish swallowers. GUR MI BYA BA SANGS LUGS PAR ZAD MANG PO CHEN YOD CING There are creatures in the ocean which are very huge. As big as a ship.

He's talking about whales or something. So people in Tibet have no ocean. They hear stories about the ocean and everything gets bigger like in a fish story.

DE LUS LA BDUN DROD CHUNG BA GZHAN MANG PO SANGS CHA ZHING KHOR LUS LA SOS PAS But also the little tiny fish connect to the whales and they suck their blood. Parasite fish. SANGS ZHIG NAS KHO MA SOS NAS GZUGS PA RI LTA BU LA LTAR BA Then those big whales, they will push their body against the rocks under the ocean to get the little fish off of them.

It's like flies for them. LUS NA NAS PA'I SOGS CHAGS DE DAG ZAD NAS Then they kill many hundreds of those small fish who are eating on their body. ZAD NAS RGYA MTSA YANG SPAGS TSE TZAM MAR PO BYAS PA And the whole ocean around them becomes red from the blood of the small fish.

BYAS PA DANG YANG SOGS CHAGS CHE BA DAG GIS CHUNG BA RNAMS MI Then the big fish eat the littler ones. CHUNG BA MANG PO'I CHE BA SOS TE LUS MI SOS PA RANG SRAR BDOD PA LAS YUL GUL TZAM YANG MI NUS CHE BA SOS TE The big fish eat the little fish and there's little animals that live off of bigger animals, like sucking their blood and things like that. So this is the life of animals.

RGYA MTSO CHEN POR PHUNG POR PHUNG POR PHUNG PA RNAMS GCIG GIS RGYAG TU GCIG GIS SOS NAS SDOD DGOS PA If you go in the ocean... I used to scuba dive in Hawaii. You go away under the ocean and you can watch schools of fish, groups of fish.

So a group of small fish come, then a group of medium fish come. They're eating them. Then a group of big fish come.

And then sometimes you see a big shark. They are just relaxing. They are like this.

They eat everybody. GCIG GIS RGYA TU GCIG GIS SOS NAS SDOD DGOS PA DANG LING BAR GYIS MNGON BAR SKAD PA RNAMS KYIS SKAD TZAR BYAS MA BU YANG PHAN TSUL MI SHES PAR Most of the animals living in the ocean live in the dark. Only the first 50 or 100 feet have light.

And then when you go deeper, when you swim deeper, it's dark. Mostly dark. So most creatures in the ocean are living in the dark.

Then a mother will give her babies and then within 5-10 minutes she doesn't know who's her babies. And she will eat them. And they will eat each other.

This is the life of animals. SDOD DGOS LING BAR GYIS MNGON BAR SKAD PA RNAMS KYIS SKAD TZAR NAS RANG GI KHA TSAR GANG CHUNG BA DE GCIG LA GCIG RAS ZAD BYAS NAS SDOD DGOS They can't discriminate. This is the baby I had two hours ago.

Or this is my mom. Any fish they see, they try to eat it. They try to eat each other.

That's their life. That's the animal life. In the meditation book, page 5, at the bottom, I was trying to find a picture of GCIG LA GCIG SA.

What's that? Yeah. Why do you think birds like to stay on top of the tree?

So nobody kills them. Most birds like to stay as high as possible. Why?

They have to watch for someone going to kill them. They always stay on the top. They try to stay as high as possible.

Then they can see if anyone's trying to kill them. That's why I put the photo. The birds are up high.

I've been feeding my birds for seven years. I feed about a hundred birds every morning. And they're still too stupid.

When I go outside, they run away. Because they're afraid I'm going to eat them. And they watch me put the food there.

I go in the house, then they come. But they're afraid. Because they know big things eat little things.

MI YOD NA YOD PA'I DI DAG KYANG PHRAD CHU The big birds eat the small birds. So now he's talking about dry land, the place where humans live usually. The big birds eat the little birds.

DANG PHYI'U BU GZHAN SA BA Then the little birds eat the insects. CAN GZAN DANG RIGS DAG SOS GCIG GIS GCIG BSOD PA The wild animals kill each other. In my place, coyotes and mountain lions, they kill the deer.

They live off the deer. My pet rabbit in retreat. It's a big excitement for me.

I never close the door, it's like my television. Maybe once a day she will come. And I watch her.

Then one day I went out to see her, and she's looking at me. Then I went behind my yurt, my tent, where I live. I don't have toilet.

I just have plastic bag. And I do my thing, and I wrap it up, and I send it to Jigme. Special delivery.

So I'm sitting there, and I saw her again. Then I went back in the front, I saw her again. Then I thought, I think she has a boyfriend.

There are two of them. Then one day I was sitting there, and doing my number two work. She came up to me and she hit my leg like this.

Then I'm like, I'm busy. She's like, I'm like, no, no, not now. I'll give you a cookie later.

Then she went right here, and she dug a hole. She made a hole. Then she spread herself like this, and she gave three babies into the hole.

She wants me to see. She's like... Then she's bleeding, right?

So she will pick the grass with her mouth, and cover the hole, and run away for five, six days. Because the other animals can smell her blood. We have lots of coyote.

Wolf, they also come every day. So she will run away. Then one day I'm sitting there doing my job again, and this beep comes out from the grass.

Then they come out. Three rabbits came out, baby rabbit. The ears don't grow.

When they're born, the ears are full size. So they look very funny. The ears are this big and the rabbit is this big.

Then they're like... They try to jump and they're like... So, they eat each other.

Those rabbits have in their life, I think 20 babies or something? Because 19 will die. 19 will be eaten.

A few days later, a big snake came. it's very big. Much longer than this.

He's about this big. One night he tried to sleep with Jigme. And he grabbed one of the rabbits.

Then he's like, tried to swallow. The rabbit's like... Then one of our retreatant is a very brave woman.

What's her name? Petra. She pulled a rabbit out.

And one leg got... They have acid in their stomach. So one leg is gone.

But we sewed him up and he survived. And he lived with us for several years. But this is the life.

This is their life. Everybody wants to eat them. Rabbit is the dorma for the rest of the animals.

Okay. SA SOGS CAN GZAN DANG RIGS DAG SOGS GCIG GIS GCIG BSOD PA DANG ZHAG GIS RIGS DAG DE CING BSOD PA SOGS YIN Then humans train some animals to kill other animals. Like hunting dogs.

SDUG BSNGAL BA'I SEMS CAN DE DAG LA BAR BAR BSTAN MO LTA BA LTA BU MA YIN PAR Don't look at those animals as if you are a spectator. Here's the word for spectator, okay Adam? We can put it in the dictionary.

BSTAN MO LTA BA Say BSTAN MO LTA BA So many of you guys know the word for correct view. One of the three principal paths from ACI course 1. That's called LTA BA.

How you look at something. LTA MO LTA BA means to watch a show. So don't feel like you're watching a show.

When you watch those, look at those animals killing each other, you could be there tomorrow. And that's the purpose of this week's retreat. How to not be there tomorrow.

Okay. So maybe this is the most important class you ever took. Maybe this is the most important week of your life.

I don't want to be the rabbit that the snake eats. I don't want to be the cow that is the slave of the humans. I don't want to be that.

So the purpose of this week is to teach you how not to become that. And it's related to the crystal. The secret is in the crystal.

BSTAN MO LTA BA LTA BU MA YIN PAR SDUG BSNGAL NYANG BA'I SEMS CAN DE LA DE LTA BU RANG GI SKYE NA When you see those cows being killed, or you see the birds running away, you have to look at them like, how do they feel? Exchange self and other. How does it feel to be like them?

How are they feeling right now? It's very interesting to watch birds, wild birds. They are like this, watch.

All day, also night, they have to go find a special tree. Why do they do this? All the time.

They never stop. They are afraid someone is going to kill them. Then sometimes watch them, look at them, say, how does it feel to live like that?

Kelly has to look at Jack. You know, right? Maybe.

Okay, like that. How does it feel to live like that all day? All day, your whole life.

And then, okay, you say, I'm going to relax. Shump! I think I'll relax today.

Shump! Then somebody eat you, okay? BSTAN MO LTA BU MA YIN PAR SNYAMS BSTOD SNYAMS BSTOD Okay, that's a good word, Adam.

SNYAMS SNYAMS generally means to get worse, or to degenerate. But sometimes it means, how does it feel to be something? Like, what's the SNYAMS of an animal?

You see? SNYAMS BSTOD means get used to how does it feel. You know, how does it feel to be...

So that's an important word to learn for you Tibetan translator guys. Because if you look in the dictionary, it's going to say degenerate. But one out of a thousand times, it means, how does it feel to be that thing?

SNYAMS BSTOD BSGOM DGOS You must meditate. Practice being an animal. So we'll do a meditation right now.

Now, I'm going to give you guys a break first. Hang on. LEN CING BSDIS BUGS PA'I GZHAN LTA CIG GSOS SAR GCIG PA DANG RTOGS DER ZAR GCIG PA GANG YIN TZAM YANG MI SHES PA When the farmer comes to get the cow and they put a rope on them, the cow has no way to know.

They don't have the intelligence to figure out, is he taking me to feed me or is he taking me to kill me? He can't think like that. He can't make a decision.

Oh, the farmer's taking me to give me some nice food or the farmer's taking me to kill me. They don't have enough intelligence to figure it out. Then they just go, okay.

In this place, it's very bad. I went with the farmer one time. They get in a truck, big truck, and they get a bag of carrots and they drive through the desert and they throw carrots off the truck and then all the cows come and they follow the truck.

Then there's like 20, 30 cows and then they catch them and then they kill them. They saw it happen many times. They don't understand.

Don't follow trucks with carrots. They should talk to each other. Don't follow trucks with carrots.

They're tricking you. But they can't understand. All right?

Okay, let's take a break. Ten minute break. Let's meditate.

All right. So, we're going to do three of the meditations from here, from your meditation book. You can find them on page five.

Actually, where is Tim? Two pictures got reversed here, sorry. Maybe I messed them up.

Number seven, the picture should be the birds. They are watching for someone who wants to kill them. Okay, got it?

And number eight, the picture should be the two cows out in the sun. So, just switch those two. Okay, got it?

The cows are also looking for who's killing them, which is the farmer. So, actually you can use either one. Actually, they both fit.

The birds are in the sun and the snow also. Okay? Then the next page is the slavery.

And you have a nice, friendly horse lady torturing a horse. And we think they're so cute, and they look so nice. The reason he goes left or right is he has a piece of metal in his mouth that hurts when she pulls the reins.

It's not some kind of glorious, wonderful, Arizona, Wild West, cowboy thing. It's slavery, and it hurts. And when they get old, they kill them.

And they love them, and they pet them, and little kids ride on them. It hurts. Everything hurts.

It all hurts. It's a bad custom. They weren't meant to have people riding on them.

They're supposed to run around and eat grass. Okay, so here we go. We're going to do those three.

Those are the three that relate to animals. What's the middle one on page six? Yeah, they are watching.

The family, the wife, the husband, and their child, they are watching a show. Animals over there, humans over here. But now, in this meditation, we're going to try to feel the nyam dunpa.

We're going to try to feel what it's like to be an animal. Not as a spectator. We're on the stage.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, here we go. Cell phone's off, I'm sure. Try to stay still.

Try not to move. When you start meditating, think stone. I'm like a stone.

I'm not moving. I went to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors statues. They are good meditators.

I'm going to start in the mirage. So you are walking across the desert, and ahead you can see a mirage, like in Anton's video. You walk towards the mirage, and through the mirage, and then suddenly you're surrounded by smoke, just walking through the smoke.

And suddenly there are fireflies, sparks in the smoke. Your brain is... electricity in your brain is dying, and then you see a candle flame.

Anton did a very nice job on the video. The flame starts small, and as you walk towards it, it gets bigger and bigger. Then you go through the flame, and on the other side, the day is breaking.

White color in the sky. Keep walking, and then come to red color in the sky. And then suddenly everything is black.

You can go deeper in the black, more black, and then more black. And the mind is very quiet, single point, and then suddenly you have awareness of crystal, that things are not themselves by themselves. Then again, black, back into the black, go ahead into the black, and it gets less black, and less black, and then red, and then white light, and then suddenly daylight, sky.

You are looking left, right, over yourself. You are sitting in a tree. You are holding a tree.

You have wings, feathers, and the main thing you can think of is fear. You have to watch carefully. Any movement nearby means death.

Somebody is trying to eat you, kill you. So the main feeling, nyam dunpa, of a bird, you are a bird, and your main... most of your mind is thinking, I don't want to die.

I don't want to get eaten. You are checking over your shoulder, over your left shoulder, over your right shoulder, looking up. Is there anything dangerous?

Is anything moving towards me? So try to feel what it's like to live in constant fear, worry. It's different from humans' worries.

Humans' worries are, I don't have enough time. I have too much work. People don't love me.

Birds' worries are anything that moves nearby. And then feel hunger in your stomach. I must find some food in a world where everybody is trying to find food.

So part of your mind is searching for anything to eat. Could be old. Could be rotten.

Doesn't matter. Hard, soft, dirty. Anything I can find to eat, I will eat.

And any water, even dirty water, filthy water, I need to drink. I'll take anything. If I don't find it, I die.

So try to feel what it's like to be worried. Only two thoughts in your mind is, where can I find food? Where is there some water nearby that I can use?

And will someone kill me while I'm drinking? If you watch a bird drink water, first they land, and then they carefully look around before they put their head down. Because a favorite place of hunters to kill animals is water.

Then try to imagine there's a house nearby, and a human comes out of the door. And they're especially dangerous. They are the animal that eats all other animals.

Try to feel what it's like to see a human. How frightening these animals with no feathers, no fur, most dangerous, most intelligent, and how frightening they are. And how they use animals without mercy, without compassion or love.

So now, get into the In German you say, Gestalt. What's the feeling to be this bird? Three thoughts right now.

One is, is there a bigger bird nearby who might kill me? I have to keep checking over my shoulder. Second thought, is there any possible food or water nearby?

Any dirty water is okay. And then thirdly, how does it feel to see a human, the most intelligent, the most dangerous of all animals? Have to avoid them.

Have to stay clear of them. We'll stay here for a few minutes. How does it feel to be reborn as a bird?

Not as a spectator, but as a bird. Then please come back to your breath. Watch your breath.

Don't move. Three long breaths. Each exhale, dedicate this good karma, good seeds, to all the animals in the world.

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

[Speaker 1]
I wanted to talk a little bit about the schedule for retreat. A little bit more. So you can look at your schedule if you have a copy.

Brigitte, can you find the Tsongkapa mantra, what page it's on? Tell me what page it's on. Okay, five o'clock today, we'll go to the Tsongkapa Center and we will do the prayers for closing the border.

I heard you didn't finish border markers, or did you? You did. Okay, good.

You did or you didn't? You did. Okay.

Okay, good. How many? Good.

Very good. Okay. Huh?

Oh, good. Okay. 179?

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
So, the way you put the markers up, okay, is that you go out your front door, okay? And you go to the left.

[Speaker 2]
Alright?

[Speaker 1]
And go around the corner to the left side of the front door when you're facing out. Okay? So, you go out the front door, turn left, and go to the side wall.

Okay? And you put one up there. Okay?

Did you give them tax or something? Tax. Tax is good.

Okay. It's very windy here sometimes. Okay?

And sometimes rainstorm or something. if everyone talks, I can't talk. Okay.

So, go to the left, put one there. Okay? But make sure it's going to stay.

Okay? You might put it up high under the roof so the rain can't touch it or like that. Okay?

Sometimes I put it on the window because the window is... tape sticks on the window pretty good. Okay?

But then you get to see the back of the retreat marker, your whole retreat. Anyway, then go to the back of the house and put the second one. Okay?

And then you come up to the other side, which is right side as you face out of the door.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
That wall, outside the wall. Okay? And then it's like a person in a submarine.

They get in the submarine and they close the door. Okay? the last...

the last marker goes on the outside of the front door or you can put it on the door frame next to the front door. Okay? Then you go in the submarine and close the door.

Okay? And that's your retreat cottage. In my case, I have a...

my toilet, I have to walk to my palace away from my house. you can put one on the... I would keep the retreat markers on the house, main house, and you can ask the Buddhists of protection, please also cover my toilet.

So, sometimes I'll be going out there and sometimes I'll be going for a walk. So, please protect me during that time. Okay?

So, it's important to put them up. Now, on Saturday, Friday morning, when you leave, retreat. Okay?

You do the opposite. Okay? First you take off the marker on your door or door frame.

Then you go right and you take off that one. Then you go to the back and you take off that one. And then you go to the left and you take off that one.

Please take down your boundary markers. Okay? If you leave them up by accident, all the spirits on this land, it's like stop signs everywhere.

They have to go, oh no, there's a marker, I got to go. You know, and it's inconvenient for them. Okay?

So, it's important to take them down. Okay? Don't leave them up after Friday morning.

Okay? And I suggest you don't throw them away. I like to keep them.

You know, I take them home with the kusha grass. Do you have kusha grass? Yeah, I like to keep them, you know, I brag, I show my friends, look how many retreats I did.

Look how many boundary markers I have. So, I like to keep them in my house. Then I can remember Diamond Mountain and I can remember my retreat and I can think about my next one.

Okay? So, keep them. I like to keep them.

Okay? All right. So, when we do this ceremony, someone will run to the borders of the property.

Adam likes to jump over all the snakes on this mountain. And they will put up boundary markers. Then in the evening you're going to do mantras.

You have an option, okay? You can choose your own mantra. My suggestion is mainly do the Tsongkapa mantra.

Okay? That's on page... on the English it's 179 of this book.

Is there a different Chinese page? I don't know. Stanley?

I don't know. Same? Good.

Yeah? Same number? Okay.

Why don't you look at it and we'll do it together three times? Because some people maybe didn't get the blessing for this mantra. When you learn a mantra, someone has to say it to you three times.

So, this is called an open mantra. It's not secret.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Are you ready? Okay, repeat after me. Pay attention.

179. 179. Ready?

Mr. Angelo? Okay, here we go. MIG MED ZE BA'I DER CAN CAN RE ZIG KHYE MED KHYEN PAS DBANG PO BYAMS PA'I YANG DUS BUNG MA NUS SBYONG TSE SANG BA'I BTAB GANG CAN KHAS PA'I TSUL KHYEN MTSONG DKA' PA BLO BZANG DRAG PA'I BZHAG LA TSUL BA'ANG BDEBS Okay, two more times.

After the last one, I'll make a SRED DGO. Then you got the transmission of the mantra. Okay, ready?

MIG MED ZE BA'I DER CAN CAN RE ZIG KHYE MED KHYEN PAS DBANG PO BYAMS PA'I YANG DUS BUNG MA NUS SBYONG TSE SANG BA'I BTAB GANG CAN KHAS PA'I TSUL KHYEN MTSONG DKA' PA BLO BZANG DRAG PA'I BZHAG LA TSUL BA'ANG BDEBS Okay, third time. MIG MED ZE BA'I DER CAN CAN RE ZIG KHYE MED KHYEN PAS DBANG PO BYAMS PA'I YANG DUS BUNG MA NUS SBYONG TSE SANG BA'I BTAB GANG CAN KHAS PA'I TSUL KHYEN MTSONG DKA' PA BLO BZANG DRAG PA'I BZHAG LA TSUL BA'ANG BDEBS Okay, good. People ask me, are you Buddhist?

I say, no. They say, are you Gelugpa? I say, no.

What are you? I'm Tsongkapa. I'm Tsongkapian.

Then what's the meaning? Tsongkapa really understand emptiness. Okay?

GONG ZHING GONG ZHING And really, really understand all the teachings of Buddha for 2,500 years. Unbelievable. I cannot tell you.

I cannot express it. If you read Tsongkapa's... It's like listening to Neil Young.

After you hear that, you don't want to listen to anything else. If you really understand Tsongkapa, you don't want anything else. You don't need anything else.

And I'm not... What do you call it? I respect other traditions.

And you know, I try to be very respectful. And people tell me, there's a purple light on Mars and you can get there if you close your left ear. And I'm like, okay.

And even other Buddhist people, I listen and I'm very respectful. I have many Christian friends. I go to Christian church sometimes.

And I enjoy it. But if you really want to help this world, and you really want people not to suffer and die, and you want to stop the pain in this world, in my opinion, it's only Tsongkapa understands how to do it. That's my opinion.

And I love other traditions and I respect them. And I don't tell them you're wrong. But I've had a personal experience of this Tsongkapa's teaching that it can save the world.

I've personally had some unbelievable experiences and this is, this can help the whole world. And if people learn it, there will be no more suffering, no more war, no more hunger, no more hell, no more animals. It will be a mandala.

Perfect world. And I tell you because you're here. You didn't hear me say it at DCI 6.

But you are here. So I tell you, it's true. This is, this one teacher can stop all pain in this world.

So to say his name in this mantra is the best mantra you can do. My opinion. Okay, so we're lucky to have the mantra.

So that's your main practice during these three days. You're asking Tsongkapa for help. Please make me like you.

Mainly, it's saying he has three qualities. Right? One is the quality of kwa yin, or Avalokiteshvara, Chenrezig, is love.

Has love for other people. can you line up Oslo? Is it possible?

Slowly. Yeah, I'll sing it one time. Okay, ready?

You can sing along, okay? NGIGS PA'I TSAD BA'I DTAN CHEN CHEN RE ZING DRI MED KYE PAS WANG PO CHEN PAS DU BU MA NU JOM ZE SANG WE GANG CHEN GYI PAS TSUL KHYEN TSONG KHA PA NO SANG DRAG PA'I SHANG LA SU BA Yeah, that was nice. Okay, so that's the main, when it says do your mantras, that's the main mantra.

Inside the crystal, you can play with that other mantra.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
What is it? OM SHUG NYA NA BSYA NA RZA SU BABA ATMA GO HUNG Earl, I had time to look up that thing. ATMA KHA ends with, sorry, ends with AS, ATMA KHAS and that changes to ATMA KHA A rough breathing.

It's called, in Greek, it's called a rough breathing. ATMA KHA and then A rough breathing changes to O before A of ATMA, long A and then the A is elided with the VIGRAHA. So, okay.

ATMA KHAS AH HUM changes to ATMA KHA AH HUM and that changes to ATMA GO HUM Alright? Okay. I didn't have time to check the other mantra yet.

Sambhāra Sambhāra I bet someone explained it better than I did, but I'm still looking. Okay. Bedtime, please be on time.

By the way, you can sleep, if you're tired, take a rest. It's a balance, right? You have to try hard.

But if you feel like you're going to have a breakdown, take a rest. Okay? It's up to you.

It's up to each person. Only you know how far you can push you. Okay?

Push you pretty hard, then take a rest. So, it's your wisdom when to stop, when to take a rest. I can't tell you.

Everybody's body is different. We learned this on the DCI tour. How far can you push somebody before their body breaks down?

Like Taiwan team. Whenever I leave Taiwan, everyone sleeps for two weeks after that. So, okay, like it's up to you.

You know your limit. Don't push too hard. Don't get sick.

If you feel you're getting too tired, too sick, I also take a nap. I say, no mantras today. I'm sorry Tsongkhapa, I need a nap.

Maybe in my dream I will do some mantra. And I take a nap. So, just relax.

What's the third thing that happens deep inside of emptiness? Fun. You got to have fun.

I don't want you like this kind of yoga person. Okay. Like, okay, have fun.

Relax. Most of you are working very hard every day, all day. You never take a break.

Most of you, I know you. You are workaholic. Dharma workaholic.

And here's your chance to take a rest. Okay, DCI vice presidents and other people. Here's your chance to take a rest.

Okay, so just take it easy. Do some mantras. Have fun.

But to be doing mantras like this, you know, you know, no, you don't know. I saw many, many, many, many times. Oh, I have to finish one thousand today.

Okay. You know. Okay, just Tsongkapa likes nice, slow, happy mantras.

MIG MED Okay, he doesn't want you to get all nervous. If you feel nervous, just calm down. Okay.

If you feel some tightness here, get tight here. Or you feel some headache here. They call it go kam kam.

It's a special kind of headache. Dharma retreat headache. Really.

Janda, janda. Feels like it doesn't come here. It comes a little bit light here and it spreads here.

That means it's too much. You have to relax a little bit. Take more walk.

Relax. The worst thing you can do in a retreat is to get nervous. Or to try too hard.

And then you will fail. Nothing will happen. You will do ten thousand mantras and nothing will happen.

Ten thousand.

[Speaker 2]
You know.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Okay? Got it?

Okay. Be happy, please. Then in the next morning you're going to start with Jorja.

Jorja is the... What's the first thing in this book I think? Is it?

It's called Jorja Meditation Song. This was written by Pabongka Rinpoche's lama, whose name is here, Dagpo Lama Rinpoche. This is a meditation song.

In here is all the warm-up steps we did this morning. Invite the lama. You know.

Make them offering. Tell them the bad things you did yesterday. Tell them the good things you did yesterday.

Okay. So, we do it in the morning. Okay?

So, you don't have to try to remember all the warm-up I did this morning. You can just read this.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
You can read it out loud. It's okay. I like to.

But if you prefer, you can just read it in your mind. Okay? You can just sing it in your mind.

If you're a rock and roll star, or ex-rock and roll star, you can put some music in there. In your head, or... Okay?

That's fine. Okay? So, this is the preparation for meditation.

When you go to the Olympics, before you race, you have to stretch your legs. You have to get warm. Before you meditate, you have to warm up your brain and your heart.

And that's... The main purpose of this is SOGS BSAGS SGRIB BYANG Say SOGS BSAGS. SGRIB BYANG SOGS BSAGS SGRIB BYANG This first prayer makes a lot of good seeds in your mind, and it takes out a lot of bad seeds.

And if you meditate right after that, before you have time to get angry at anybody, you have a good meditation. You see what I mean? So, it's a cleaning, and put all the good energy, and then right away start meditating.

Don't think about your friend or how much they irritate you. Start the meditation right after this. In this case, 7.30 in the morning. Then do yoga. Okay? You have to learn to do yoga by yourself.

Okay? We do it here every day, we do it in the class, but if you want to stay healthy for the rest of your life, take care of your rental car. Shine it sometimes.

You have to do some yoga. And don't go crazy, don't hurt yourself. I saw you have a bad shoulder, right?

Don't do some crazy... Don't go crazy, okay? The goal is to do yoga your whole life.

It's not the goal is to stand on your head with one arm. Okay? The goal is when you get to Geshe Michael's age you are still healthy.

So, a little bit every day. Steady every day. I don't care if you stand on your head or you can close one eye and put your leg behind.

It doesn't matter. I have a very famous yoga teacher, he had to have hip operation because he'd do too many of this thing. So, just stretch.

Do Niguma. Then in the middle of the day we do the thousand angels. That starts on page...

What page? 157. Page 167.

GANG LDAN LHA RGYAL MA Thousand Angels of the Heaven of Bliss. Okay? It's the second of the three treasures in this book.

That's a special prayer to Tsongkapa for help. Who wrote it? Tsongkapa.

Tsongkapa gave it to one or two of his students and nobody wrote it down until about 250 years later. It was a secret tradition for a long time. So, we'll do that in the middle of the day.

Alright.

[Speaker 2]
Sorry. Yeah, in the evening actually. Okay.

You can see. Yeah, two times. Okay, good.

[Speaker 1]
Alright. There's a who has helped me contemplation on the schedule. Who has helped me contemplation.

Okay? So, you can do this while you're walking, for example. You can do mantras and then make a list in your mind of all the people who helped you in your life.

Okay? Because Christine Walsh is doing this psychology studies. Gratitude.

To be thankful for all the good things in your life is one of the best things for your mental health and for your physical health. So, make a list in your mind all the people who helped you. What did they do for you?

If you want to, you can keep it in a journal. Okay? I'd like to keep a journal during meditations, retreat.

I have, I don't know, 20 journals from 20 retreats. I keep them. So, I encourage you, two things.

Don't talk, do keep a journal. Talk to your journal. Okay?

It's cool. Okay? Listen.

I'll tell you something important. Listen. What idea comes about your life in retreat is correct.

Listen to it. If you hear in your mind it's time to quit doing financial job and switch to basketball player, do it. Okay?

Your mind is more clear during retreat. Trust it. Much clearer than out of retreat.

So, if you have big life decisions to make, should I move? Should I buy this house? How am I going to make money?

What's going on with my partner? Make those decisions during retreat because your mind is clear. Keep a journal and talk to yourself.

First day you decide to be a basketball player. Second day it says, nope, soccer player. Then go with soccer player because your mind is more clear on the second day than the first day.

Okay? Third day is a death day. Okay?

It says, forget it, you're supposed to be a jet pilot. Okay. So, one of the big purposes of retreat is to make decisions about the rest of your life.

And it's the best place to make decisions because your mind is clean and you're surrounded by good people and it's quiet and you don't have, your phone's not ringing and there's nobody sending you emails and you can think, what's better for me? What should I do? What's my next step in my life?

So, ask those questions. Ask Tsongkapa, send me some kind of message. Some rabbit will come and have a baby in your house.

You know, like, something will happen. Everything in retreat is coming from Buddha. Okay?

Everything in retreat is coming from Buddha. Everything is a sign. A bird is singing, pukukup, pukukup.

It means, come on Kelly, don't be so serious. Pukukup, pukukup. Or, I don't know, the sunset is very beautiful and it means, you know, try to be more happy.

Everything is a message. So, in the retreat, you have to watch for messages from Buddha. Buddha will come as a tree.

Buddha will come as a wind. Buddha will come as the sun. Buddha will come as the bug who crawls on your head while you're asleep in the cabin.

Everything is a message. Try to understand what's the message. If something bad happens, like, I don't know, your torma falls off the altar and it goes plop!

Then say, what's a Buddha sending me a message? That's a fun. And it's true.

Everything is true. Bad things also. You go out for a walk, you forget your water and you feel terrible and you get a big headache.

You say, oh, Buddha sent me a headache. Why'd you do that? Why'd you do that?

What do you want? Everything is a message. Also things you hear inside your own mind.

So you say, well, maybe you should calm down a little bit. You're like, who said that? Buddha also talking in your own mind.

So listen. Be open. All right.

Let's see here. Yeah, I guess that's about it. The Lama Chodpa is in here.

It's the last book in here. It's the last of the Three Jewels. And we did it on Friday night.

If you feel like celebrating your teachers, you can throw a Lama Chodpa in there somewhere.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
So these are the three most important prayers of Buddhism in our lineage, are in here. I'd like to thank Tim for hard work to get them ready. And I'm sorry it's so expensive.

I would like to make them free. I don't have enough money to do that. It's got lots of pictures.

The pictures all have meaning. Try to find out what's the meaning. Each picture has meaning.

Each picture is important in this book. Sometimes you can just look at the pictures and don't read the words. Seriously.

Okay? Just say, today I'm taking a break and I'm just going to look at the pictures and try to understand what's the picture. Okay?

[Speaker 2]
Alright.