«Дар освобождения», курс 23 «Защита от жизни и смерти», занятие 8

[Speaker 1]
Okay, I'd like to do some more lam rim. And before we finish the class, I had a very good question from Vivian from Guangzhou, our organizer, who does a beautiful job there with the events, and who looks more beautiful every year. She said, Geshe-la, you forgot to tell us which meditations we're doing, which days, and things like that.

Okay, so we'll cover that. We'll go over that. All right.

So, A-R-M-L-A Let's look up D-B-Y-A-R. Oh, you're at the right place. There we go.

Good. That's a good place. Okay, right there.

We're going to start on the first line. SA DANG Okay. Here we go.

Is the air conditioning on? We have to crank it a bit, I think. Make them all cold, otherwise they fall asleep.

I know Chinese people hate it. I don't care. If you're cold, you don't fall asleep.

Okay? RTZA RANG GI SDUG BSNGAL GYI BDOD SU TSIGS LA So in the YAL GYI BDOD SU TSIGS LA Then animals, they don't have air conditioning, and they don't have protection really. When the weather's hot, they're hot.

And we don't notice it, because we don't think about them. But, you know, I have birds I feed every day, and in the summer they really suffer. I can see they are suffering.

They don't close their mouth. They're like this. And they don't have choice.

They can't turn on the air conditioning. They can't take off their feathers. They just suffer.

They are exposed to the weather. Most animals have no choice. RTZA RANG GI SDUG BSNGAL GYI BDOD SU TSIGS LA DGOS YIN GYI BDOD SU KHYAG And they're cold in the winter.

And the SHU BA, they die. A lot of animals die in the winter. They don't have protection and they just die.

SHU BA SOGS SDUG BSNGAL SANGS RGYAS MI KHYAB PA YOD Unbelievable suffering. SNGAR LAM MA ZHIG GI BU MA PO RIM BU ZHIG CHAGS TU RNAMS NAS PHYIR KHAMS PA RGYAS RLUNG YIN RNAMS GSUNGS PAS DE MI SKAD MED TE YIN LA ZER BA CHUNG BA BZHIN RANG CHAGS KYANG BU RDI'I MDAR MI SKYE BA'I NGES PA MED SNGAR LAM MA ZHIG GI In Tibet, many years before, well, he just says before. At some time before him, there was a lama and he saw a worm on the sidewalk.

Sometimes they get stuck on the sidewalk, right? He saw a worm on a stone, red worm. So he picked it up and he held it in the palm of his hand.

And he said, are you that monk from East Tibet that I used to know? And then suddenly the worm said, He could speak one human word. And he said, yes.

RANG CHAGS BU RDI'I MDAR GYIS PA'I NGES There's no guarantee that you and I will not become one of those worms. We don't have guarantee. Unless you understand the pen.

SNGON DPON PO MI KHYIM ZHIG GI BA ZHIG BA DE LUNG PAS BU ZHIG TU CI BA'I OG GI BU LA BSKYED PAR BYAS MI LAS LUNG BRTAN DU DRANG TSUL There was a family following PON PO. PON PO is the old religion of Tibet, before Buddhism. Their father died.

And the DE LUNG PAS BU ZHIG TU CI BA'I OG GI BU LA BSKYED PAR Then Milarepa, Milarepa, very great meditator. He told the family, do you want to see the father who died in your family? And they said yes.

And he went to a cow pie? And he lifted up, turned it over and there's a worm there. He said, that's your father.

That was your father before. I like Milarepa because he's one of the most famous retreat masters in Tibet of all time. And he started his retreats at the age of 50.

So it's not too late for all of us, except me. Me and John. He's busy.

Anyway, so don't think it's too late. He started his deep retreats at the age of 50. So you can always do it.

Come to Diamond Mountain, talk to Michael and Melissa. Get a cabin. You can come here all year any time you want.

There's a cottage waiting for you. That's what these guys are waiting for. RANG RES RNAMS KYIS BRTZON DER GA LA SKYES NYAMS PA You can think, oh, I'm not so bad that I'm going to be reborn as a worm, Geshe-la.

YONG MOD KYANG DER SKYE BA CHU TSUD TZAM YIN PAS But in truth, you are always one hour away from it. You're one hour away from something. Several people almost died coming to Diamond Mountain.

What was her name? Ness Chu. Her car went off the road in the big rocks between here and Tucson.

She fell down like 30 feet. She survived. Captain Bill crashed on David's Thump who's in the kitchen.

He rolled his truck over. You can die on the way back to Tucson. It takes one hour to become a bug.

Okay. Or a roach. Okay.

DER SKYE BA CHU TSUD TZAM YIN PAS DGUL KHYAD BYAS MA BUR KHYAD NAS SOGS DU UK MA BYAS TZAM Then you're under the ground. You can barely breathe under there. Those worms, it's not fun to be a worm.

DGUL ZHIG ZHIG BYAS TE DOD DANG They just tried to move through the dirt a little bit. YANG NA BU LA SKYES NI BYA TSOGS KYI GSOS NAS Or maybe a bird comes down and eats your front half and your back half is still in the ground moving around. You're one hour away from this kind of life.

All the time. ZHIG MA THUB PAR KOG MED KYI DGOS NAS DE YUL MED KYI NGES PA MED There's no guarantee we won't be there with half of our body in the bird's mouth and half of our body is going like this. There's no guarantee.

GZHAN MA CHUNG NA DE NAS NGAN DU MI KHYAD PA'I THAB ZHIG LA BAS DGOS Even if you cannot become a Buddha in this life at least meditate so you won't become a worm. At least do this much. Even if you can't become a Buddha at least get an insurance that you won't be an animal.

And you can get it at Diamond Mountain. Diamond Mountain is selling insurance policies. DER MA ZAD DUN DUG PA'I PHYIR YID DANG RDOG KYANG MI SDUG LA Most kinds of animals are not very attractive.

It's better to have a human face than a, I don't know, dog face is too long for me. BRTAD ZHING BSGOMS PA'I NYIN GANG ZAD TSUL BA They're hungry, they're thirsty, they spend the whole day looking for food. That's all they do.

They just look for food. ZAD MI NYES PA'I SDUG BSNGAL SOGS RGYUR And many times they don't find it and they just die. They quietly die.

Billions of them every day die. THA LTOS GZHAN GYI RANG LA KYIS RGYEN ZER BA TZAM YOD MI GSOS PA BYAS NA KYIS LTA BUR DNGOS SU RGYUR NA JI LTAR BYAS We had this word, Adam, but you can mark it again. Say, KYIS RGYEN RGYAL KYIS RGYEN RGYAL KYIS RGYEN RGYAL I don't know why but people always remember bad words in a foreign language.

So you can learn this one. Insult word in Tibetan language. KYIS means dog.

RGYEN means old. RGYAL means fuzzy face. Then in Tibet it's a joke.

It's an insult. Oh, he looks like RGYEN RGYAL In the scriptures it's used for someone who doesn't understand anything. Even a RGYEN RGYAL like that.

So right now we don't like people to call us to say, oh, you look like a dog. It's uncomfortable. But it's more uncomfortable to be a dog.

Right now somebody calls us you look like a dog. We're like, but if you become the dog it's even more uncomfortable. ZAD KOM DANG NYAL SA SOGS LA LTOS DANG They have to walk around, fly around, looking for a place to sleep.

It's a big thing for animals. When I did Sriya Retreat I had a bird. He will come every night and I have a window with a cloth over it and he come every night at exactly the same time.

6.05 And he's a woodpecker. They eat wood, right? Very beautiful color, red color.

And he will come under the... He's looking for a place to sleep. He will sleep under the window cover and at one time I went to see I lift it up and he's like this.

He has his wing over his head. Then he's like... It's like, put the cover back down.

I'm like, okay, okay, okay. I wrote a book about those guys. I never published it.

We should publish it. Halfway through the book the animals start talking and they teach dharma. They start teaching dharma.

They were all my real friends in the Sriya Retreat. I'm sure Michael had some. RANG LTOS SA GSOS NUS GANG DANG GANG PA'I SNANG DU MI TSA'I YONG PO MA RTOGS GZHAN MED Then animals like dogs they don't have...

A lot of the dogs which are trained by humans as slaves they forgot how to get their own food. So they have to come back to the house and they're like, they're asking for some food. Like a slave.

MA RTOGS, they have no other way to get food. You think they love you, they love your food. Okay, GYIS GANG PA'I SNANG DU DBANG PO NA SANGS MED GYIS BSLAB BYUNG ZER NAS RGYUR RTEN MED PAR SDU LAS PAR TZAM BYAS Then if a...

if the neighbor's dog or some dog with no owner comes into your house everybody says, oh there's a dog in the house. In English we say, there's a strange dog in the house. Then they beat the dog or they chase it away, they kick the dog.

As if it were a demon who arrived in the house. He says here, RGYUS RTEN MED PAR For no reason at all, they treat the dog bad. TZAM CHEN DI YANG KHUR RANG GI LAS NGES PA'I BRAL BU ZHIG MIN NA GANG YIN If this is not the letter which he sent himself, then what is it?

Who sent? The dog. If this is not a letter which the dog mailed to himself years before, then what is it?

Just mistake? Just random? Just these things happen?

No reason at all? No logic? DGOS PA'I RGA' ZHIG TU SOGS SDUG BSLTA BA'I RNAMS DNGOS BA'I GYIS YANG LDAN BRTAG PA RGA' GYUR GYIR PA LTA YIN Most monasteries have a gong on top of the temple and they hit the gong like for dinner time or it's time to come.

If they hit the gong and you don't come within five minutes for debate ground, you get beaten. That's why everyone goes to debate. So they hit the gong.

When you hear the gong, you're like trying to do a long poo-poo. Forget it. You just do the best you can and you run.

And it's always a different time. You never know what time they're going to... But when you hear the gong, you have to run.

But when they hit the gong, there's always a lot of dogs go, they have some kind of thing with the gong. Then Pabongka Rinpoche says these dogs were definitely monks in the past. When they heard the gong, they were like, and I got to go.

Now they're like, woo-hoo. ,'BYUNG RDO RGA SHI GANG LAG SOGS GANG YANG MED PAS, ,GZHAR BGOR MO YI YIP CHEN DU YOD, There are also... Oh, can you get the...

Scott, can you line up the Portuguese boy? You know which one I'm talking about? I'll give you time.

Okay? No rush. Like...

I always tell him that. I'm like, no rush. He's like, do it with no internet.

Where's the internet? We'll talk about that. We need some mula for that.

I'll give some money for that. Okay. Maybe we don't want internet.

I don't know. GANG YANG MED PAS GANG There are animals which just look like a lump of meat. You can't recognize where's the legs, where's the arms.

They look like just weird shapes. Weird animals. When I did Maitriya retreat, I put out a bowl of water for the animals.

Every night a wolf came, coyote. He'd come in the fence and he drinks the water. Dogs and coyotes, their head is built to look at the ground.

They don't look up. So I would be on the roof doing my mantras. He would come in every night and drink the water.

Very beautiful fox, like a wolf, coyote. Very beautiful. He'd never look up, so he'd never saw me.

I would watch him. For a couple of weeks I got up in the morning and all the water is gone. It's all over the place.

I thought, oh God, this must be a big animal. Then I thought, I want to see this animal. So I go out and sit in front of my, and I just wait for like two hours.

This is how I spent my three year retreat. Then I heard this, then I'm like, then I got the flashlight ready and I heard, then I turn on the light and in the water bowl, two eyes come up and it's this big weird frog in the middle of the desert and they live underground and they come up two, three times a year when they see water. They come up and it looks like a pancake.

So there are many animals like that. Just weird shapes. In my retreat there was a bug it looked like a lobster.

Very scary. We don't have here, I think. I did retreat about how many miles from here?

20, 30 miles from here. But it's about this big and like this. Looked like a lobster.

There are many weird animals. NGON BDAG PA LAM MA ZHIG LA RGYUN DU BYIN DAG MI TZANG GIS MI TZANG GCIG GIS MAR DANG MI TZANG GCIG GIS ZHAG BU Did you got it? Is it ready?

Yeah? I want to show you a video. I really like it.

I think it's one of the most beautiful videos I ever saw. Can you turn the lights down? This is almost connected to our teaching.

Wait. You got sound? Go.

[Speaker 2]
Is it good? Yes. But eat your octopus.

It's good. Octopus is not spicy, right? No.

It doesn't have a head. Right? It doesn't have a head.

It doesn't have a head. It has the legs of a chopped octopus. And the head is in the sea?

It's in the fish market. The octopus is cut like this? Yes.

Why? So we can eat it. Otherwise we have to swallow it whole.

But why? It's to eat. Just like the octopus, the chicken.

No. No one eats the chicken. No one eats the chicken?

Yes. I don't know anymore. Really?

Yes. But let's eat the octopus. Eat the potato then.

Only the potato and the rice. Ok. And the octopus is the animals.

Ok. All these are the animals. This is the animals.

Octopus is the animals. Chicken is the animals. Cows are the animals.

Pigs are the animals. So, when we eat the animals, they die. Why?

So we can eat them, my love. Because they die. I don't like when they die.

I like when they grow up. I don't like it. Ok.

So we won't eat them anymore, ok? Ok. These animals are poor.

We have to be careful not to eat them. Ok, my love. So eat the potato and the rice.

Ok. Why are you crying? I'm not crying.

I'm moved by you. I'm moved by you. So eat.

You don't have to eat the people, ok? Ok.

[Speaker 1]
NGON BDAG PA LAM MA ZHIG LA RGYUN DU BYIN DAG MI TZAM GCIG GIS MAR DANG MI TZAM GCIG GIS ZHAG BU LUS So there was a lama from BDAG PO, part of Tibet. And one family used to always give him gifts of butter to eat. And one family would give him gifts of meat to eat.

LAM MED GOR BYANG MA BYAS PAR ZHIG STE MA BU BA'I KHYIM BDE'ER NGO MA BZHIN DU MANG BA'I GRI ZHIG TU SKAD BYAS SU YANG DU LUNG PA CHU KHYEN NAS ZHAG BU BA'I MI TZAM DE NYID Then he didn't do the correct prayers with the food. So when you give a monk food, they're supposed to do prayers for the family. Then when he died, MA BU BA'I KHYIM BDE'ER he was reborn as a cow, female yak, called di.

Mommy yak is called a di. He was born as a di that gave a lot of milk in the family that used to give him butter. Then he fell off a cliff.

The cow fell off a cliff. Then he was reborn as... Sorry.

And then he was carried... the body of the female yak was carried away by a river. Guess who found it?

The family who gave him meat. ZHAG RNAMS SU ZIN PA NA TSUL MA'I ROL PA'I BDEBS SU MI TZAM CHE DGOS MO'I ZHAG DANG MI TZAM CHE DGOS MO'I MAR GYI KHYIM CHOS SONG ZER BA'I YID DGES BYONG Then when they were finished, they ate the meat of that cow. And when they were eating it, they came to the bones.

And on the bones there's something written carved into the bones of the... what do you call? Ribs.

It says, I would like to pay back my debt to the family that gave me the meat and the family that gave me the butter. I'm giving back the debt. ZER BA'I YID DGES BYONG DE NA LAM MA LAS NA LAS NAS RGA CHU RGYAS SHES SOGS LA GRUNG PA NAS MI GZAL STANG YANG LAS NAS GYI MI GZAL STANG RAG MED So in the monastery, there's a kind of a...

there's a system where some people get special treatment. Like if you are a reborn Lama, if you are CHU KHU if you are like supposed to be the rebirth of some Lama, then you never have to do all the work. You don't have to work in the kitchen and things like that.

Otherwise we have to work in the kitchen. We have to be... I was dishwasher for eight years.

Every day. Because I wasn't reborn Lama. So how I feel about them, I don't know.

LAS NAS means like person in charge of the volunteers or something. They just tell the volunteers what to do and they don't have to do the work. RGA CHU means it's an old kind of Geshe.

And then he says Geshe. So when you get your Geshe, you don't have to work in the kitchen after that. So you get what's called...

Adam, you should make a note. It's called MIG GZAL. Say MIG GZAL.

MIG GZAL means special treatment. You get, what do you call? Exception.

You don't have to go to the kitchen. We have to work in the fields with a real cow. I did it.

Plant the corn with a cow. We have to do that. Very, very hard work.

But if you're a Geshe, MIG GZAL. You get to hang out in your room and drink tea. You don't have to go in the fields anymore.

That's a good reason to become a Geshe. Then he says, LAS BDE'I GYIS MIG GZAL GTANG RA MED Never in the history of all the monasteries did anyone get a MIG GZAL from karma. He's like, you big guys in the monastery, you know, officials in the monastery, you big Geshes, you're used to special treatment.

But I have some news for you. Karma doesn't give anybody special treatment. BDAG RA'I MA ZAB NA If you're not careful, you big guys, you big lamas, DGOR DRAM GYI GYIS DANG PHONG PO'I DANG NANG GI MI TSOGS DANG NYID KHO SA BYAS BA LA RGA TSE MED It's not such, it's not so rare that the dog chained to the gate in front of your house or the donkey chained up in front of your house and the person, the big person inside the house change positions.

In like a year the donkey becomes the boss. The boss becomes the donkey or the dog. It happened many times.

Just boop! And they switch places. BYAS BA RGA TSE MED We should learn that word, Adam.

RGA TSE MED means it happens. It's not difficult. RGA TSE means difficult.

It's not, it doesn't take a lot of work that it happens. It just happens. SNGAR MED TZAM GCIG GI GANG PAS RGYAL TU MUD TE MUD TE'I PA'I LHA BRTAN YOD PA LA MAR CHOS BYAS PA'I BTAB BYAS DE LAM GROL CHEN PO CHUNG So there was a family that kept a, there's some kind of non-Buddhist religion.

And in that religion like Veda, in the Vedas a big part of the Veda is to kill cows and offer the blood to God or something. It's supposed to be and they did it in Jerusalem, right? Sacred, what do you call it?

Sacrificial lamb. You kill one lamb and that then everybody, you put all the bad karma of everybody into the lamb, the little lamb and then you kill it and everyone's clean. They believe this, okay?

So this family they did MAR CHOS. Say MAR CHOS. What's CHOS PA?

CHOS PA Yeah, what's MAR? MAR PO MAR, not MAR MAR MAR PO KHA ROL GAR MAR Red, good. What's CHOS PA MAR LAM PA?

Yeah, the red light that comes, okay? So, what's a red offering? Yeah, kill an animal offer its blood, okay?

So something really bad happened to this family. What happened? They killed like a cow as an offering and then by very bad luck something good happened.

Understand? Peter got it. So, unfortunately they remember this story?

Okay, I did this in Russia. I was giving a talk, I forget Moscow or Kiev? Kiev.

A lot of Russians there. And I was talking DCI talk and I kept going like this. Then finally one guy says, can you stop doing that?

Geshe-la, I love you but this is really irritating. Can you give the talk and not do that? Then I said, I'm sorry.

I have to do it. Then they're like, why? I said, it's very important that I do this every day.

Then they said, what are you doing? I said, I'm causing the sun to come up tomorrow. Then they said, why you think that?

I said, every time I do it the sun comes up the next day. Then they look at me like I'm crazy. Yeah, but Geshe-la, there's no connection.

No, there is. I do this on Saturday, sun come up on Sunday. One come after the other.

So, it's not true that everything that happened before something else is connected. There's not always causation going on. You can kill a cow on Saturday as an offering and on Sunday you get a big profit from some real estate investment.

But don't think you should go kill cows every time you want real estate money. It's just an accident. LAM RDOR CHEN PO CHUNG KHYIM GYIS PA DE'I PHYI KHAR YANG MAR CHUG GI ZHIG BYAS GA CHEN BZHAG PAS Then the father of the family before he died he wrote a KHAR CHEN Where is that?

Say KHAR CHEN Adam, that's a good word to put in a dictionary. KHAR CHEN means the will or last will and testament. The will, the paper you write, I give my shoes to Emily, I give Gibson my mala.

Okay, like that. So the father of the family in his KHAR CHEN he said the day after I die please do a MAR CHUG. Please make a blood offering with some of the money.

I want everything to go well. You guess what happened. Come on.

Yeah. BYAS SU BAR GUR RANG LANG DU BSKYED PAS So it wasn't that MAR CHUG but a later MAR CHUG that the family did. It was him.

The cow they killed was him. The father who wrote the will and who paid for the cow to be killed was the cow that was killed. Okay, got it?

Karma works that way. KHAR RANG LANG DU BSKYED PAS RANG GIS BU His own son slaughtered him. THENG GRUG What's GRUG?

What's GRUG? Sixth. LUS LUS It means sixth.

Six times he killed his father with the money that his father left. YANG NI TZAM GCIG BZHI GYI BAG GANG RGYAL GYI MTSO RNAMS DUS NYA LA SKYES TSUL RANG RES LANG DE DAG MI SBYUNG BA'I NGES PA MED How much time do I have? Really?

Then I'm going to tell you the whole story. I like this story. I heard this story 30 years ago and then I went and found it.

It's in the Kangyur. It's in a sutra. The book is called Karma Vibhanga.

Karma Vibhanga. It means a teaching on the different divisions of karma. In Tibetan it's called LAS RNAMS PAR BYED PA Pabongka Rinpoche says YANG NI TZAM GCIG BZHI GYI BAG GANG RGYAL GYI MTSO RNAMS DUS NYA LA It's like the story of the fish behind the house.

There's the fish in the lake behind the house. I think I told you this story before. But I'll read it to you.

This is the... I went and got it for you. The whole story.

Let me tell you the story. Ready? I like it.

It's cool. BAR PA MOD RGAL GYI BU This Arya named Maudgalyayana. If you can say his name, you're a real Buddhist.

Maud Gyal Ya Yana Maudgalyayana One of the two great disciples of Buddha. Who's the other one? Sha Li Tzu Sha Li Tzu These are the two great ones.

Maudgalyayana YUL MA RGA LTAR GSOS NYON MA SOGS SO He was in a place called Magadha which is in India. He was out asking for food. Okay?

Morning food. KHYIM ZHIG GI DGO'I SNANG DU SPYIN PA He reached the door of a certain family. KHYIM DE NA KHYIM BDAG BU MED DANG BYAS PA ZHIG SPANG NA BU THOGS TE He looked inside the door and he saw a kitchen table.

Sitting at the kitchen table is the husband of the family. His wife is next to him sitting on a chair and she has their child on her lap. Small baby.

SPANG DU THOGS BU THOGS TE NYA ZHA'I DRAN DANG BYAS PA'I KHA ZAS SA They are having fish for breakfast. ZHING BSDOD NA KHYI SNGA BU ZHIG DUS PA There was a black dog sitting at their feet. DE LA NYA'I RUG PA MDOR RO When they finish each fish they throw the bones to the dog.

DE NAS KHYIM BDAG DE MA LGOG GI BU CHEN PO MTHONG NAS Then the husband look up and see MA LGOG YANG YANG is standing at the door asking for breakfast. Old custom. BAR PA BDIN NA LONG BA LA BRJIN PA GSOS LA MA CIG GIS LAR ZHUGS GCIG He said to the Arya.

He didn't know he's an Arya. He said, you can stand there all day. I'm not going to give you anything.

Just go somewhere else. We're busy. I don't have any money to give to the communication center.

Never mind. BYAS MED TE LAR LOG PA DANG He sent him away. KHYIM PA DE DGOS NA YUL GZHAN NAS DBANG PO'I SKYE BU SKYE PA ZHIG SNGA NA DUG DUG PA DE Then there happened to be a very special monk.

Some people say it was Sharipu, Sharitsu. But he was just kind of hanging around the village. Came from another place.

ZHIG SNGA NA DUG DUG PA DE He was like across the street and he's watching this going, he's watching what's happening. DE'I MTHONG NAS NGOS TSAR TU RGYUR TE He was like, oh my god. SKYE MA GSUM PA DE NI RDZUS DU BYING GI CHOG TE Then he went to the door of the house.

He said, you don't understand who this guy is. RDZUS DU BYING GI CHOG TE He's the Buddha's disciple who can do any kind of miracle. RGYAL PO DGA' BO DANG YER RGA' BO NI LTOS He also is the teacher of two of the kings of this country.

LHA'I PO DANG RNAM PAR RGYAL BA'ANG CHAGS YIN PA'I THE BA'O DGUL STE RGYA' BYING YANG NGOS TSAR TU RGYUR He can move planets with his left thumb. Whole planet will shake. NGOS TSAR TU RGYUR MTHONG GSUM GYI MTHONG CHEN PO'I JI RTEN GANGS KYANG MIG MTSUM PA TZAM GYI BKOR BA LAG NA In the time it takes you to blink he can travel to three galaxies.

TZAM GYI LAG NA GSOS NYID MA GSUM BAR LAG LTA'I BA NGOS TSAR CES And it's, excuse me, it's fucking amazing that you can tell him to go somewhere else for breakfast. He's like standing at your door. You have a chance to feed one of the most powerful people in the world and you tell him go somewhere else?

Are you crazy? DE NAS NAS BSTAN GYI BDAG RGYUR BA'I BYA BA'I PHYIR MED PA And I'll tell you something else. RGYUR NGOS TSAR MI PHYIR MI DE MED PA MI DE MED BA'O NA NGOS TSAR CHEN PO'I CI CI He said, that's not all.

Something weirder than that is happening right now. And the husband said, what? What's so strange?

He said, I'll tell you. DE NAS KHYIM BDAG NYA ZHAG CHEN DANG BYAS PA'I KHA SA'I SA BA DE NYA DE NAS KHYIM BDAG DE PA YIN TE The fish you're having for breakfast is your father. PA YIN TE DE NAS KHYIM DU BSGYAB NA Remember you have a pond behind the house.

NYA MANG PO ZHIG YOD PA NAS And your father used to like to catch them. ZHIG YIN CHOS ZING TSOS TE And he used to cut them open and cook them for dinner. MI DE TSE BU NAS Then remember last year he died.

He was born in the same pond as a fish. You are eating your father. SNANG DU SKYES SO DE BU DE KYANG LEN RGYAL THAG DU MA NYA DE CHOS ZING CHOS ZING TSOS TE DI NYID DU YANG DU LEN PAR SKYES SO And his son went...

The person who's caught the father many times and ate him many times is the father's son. It's you. You are killing your father many times.

Each time you eat him he's born again in the pond. Then you catch him again and you eat him again. KHYIM BO DE NI KHYIM BDAG DE MA YIN TE And the dog on the floor is your own mother.

You're throwing your father's bones to your mother. DE YANG CHAGS PA'I GZIL GYIS NYON PA GZUL LA YANG BYIN PA'ANG MA BYIN She was very attached to this house. So when she died she was born as a dog belonging to this family.

She's attached to the house. TSUL KHRIMS KYANG MA GSUM GYIS NAR RIGS DANG RGYUD KYI BRTAN DU TSE RNAMS GSUM TE She did many bad things to get a house and for the family to have a nice car. Not a car, but a cow.

TSUL KHRIMS KYANG MA GSUM GYIS NAR RIGS DANG RGYUD KYI BRTAN DU TSE RNAMS So she was very cheap. She won't share anything with other people. This is my family.

This is my family's thing. I don't want to give to other people. DE YANG KHYIM DE NI LA SEMS CHAGS BZHIN DU And because she had such attachment to this house, after she died she was born as a female dog in this house.

That's the dog. DE NAS TSE BOS NAS KYANG YANG DANG YANG DE NYID DU SKYES TE KHYIM BDE'I MI GZHAN ZHUGS SU MTHONG NAS SEMS THOG THAG KYANG KHYIM CHIR KHO RO Every time your dog dies and you buy a new dog, that's also your mother. She dies and be born as a new dog.

That's why she likes to circle the house at night and look for anyone coming in the house and she barks because she's attached to this house. And MI DE'I SPANG LA SDUG PA'I BU YANG The boy that your wife, your son, that your wife has on her lap right now, do you remember last year the neighbor man want to have sex with your wife and you killed him and then your wife had a baby? That's him.

Because he's attracted to your wife's body. Then that son, your son that you are holding and, oh, this is my son, he's the guy who tried to steal your wife last year. Then he said, PHA GANG YIN PA DE SHA NI SA You are eating your father.

MA GANG YIN PA DE LA NYA'I RUG PA DANG DRA MA DOR You are throwing the bones of your father to your mother. PHYI BA CHE BYAS PA'I BRAL BAR SPYOD PA SRID And the guy you killed because you were jealous of him is sitting on your wife's lap. PHANGS BLANGS SUM DE LTAR BA'I NA KHO BA'I NYES PA DANG GYUR BA Now is that weird or not?

LAS MED DGE SLONG MO RGAG GI BU DE PHYI MED GYUR BA PHAL PA PHYIN RNAMS GYUR BA DE NYID SRID ZHIG BYAS PA Then Maudgalyayana was standing nearby and he said DE'I PA'I SHA SA BZHIN MA LA RUG PA DRA MA DOR CHU ME'I CHU BO SU BYAS PA STI MO DANG NAS CHAGS PA'I SDIB GANG ZAG SDIG NAS TSE BSAD LAS MI SRED PA Then he made a poem. It's a famous poem. Look, he's eating his father.

Look, he's throwing his father's bones to his mother. Look, he's raising his wife's lover. STI MO DANG NAS CHAGS PA'I SDIB And he has no idea what's going on.

Got it? So I went and got you the whole story. That's the whole story.

What time are we supposed to stop? 4.45. Okay, let's stop there. We reached the part in the animals.

We're going to start talking about slavery when we come back on Friday. Which meditations at which time? And then I'll answer a few questions if we have time.

In the morning sessions focus on the meditation song. The first book in here. Do the whole meditation song.

Do it nice. Take your time. Don't say, okay Lama, here's a flower.

What's next? Take your time. Make a beautiful...

The tradition is to imagine the whole sky covered with flowers, carefully, one by one. And then say, that's for you Lama. Like that.

So do a slow meditation song. And then I'd like you to practice from looking at your family's face on the deathbed up to the crystal but don't think about the emptiness. Just go to the crystal.

Got it? You okay? Start with lying on your deathbed and your family's crying looking at you, which is meditation number one.

And then follow that through the signs of death, five signs of death. Then follow that to the gross elements, the earthquake, things like that. Follow that to the four signs, the subtle elements, starting with the mirage.

Follow that to the four emptinesses. Yeah. The black, the white light, the red light.

Sorry. White light, red light, black and then crystal. But stop at the crystal.

Just stop at the crystal and get used to that. So practice that. Then at noon, you know, at noon and afternoon meditations, start with the start with the black, sorry, white, red, black, crystal.

Start with white. Start with white. NANG BA GAR LAM PA White color, red color, black, crystal.

And go through to a rebirth. After the crystal, don't stop in the crystal. Don't get off the subway.

Go straight through. Means it's going to be what color again? Black, then red, then white, then practice.

Go to one of the eight hells or go to a couple of them. Go to preta, be a preta for a while. Big stomach, small mouth, looking for food.

Or go to animals. If you go to animals, you can hang out in being a slave or you can hang out in eating each other or you can hang out being hungry and cold and no place to go. Okay?

Practice. Then what do you have to do? Are you going to just stay there and go have dinner?

No. Ask your Lama for help. Come out.

Get out. Go to the most beautiful place you can imagine. I think Anton going to Bali and Elizabeth go to the beach on Bali.

Personally, I like some grass. You decide. Come out with your Lama.

Hang out on the beach. Do some meditations together. Happy ending.

In the evening, I'd like you to start again on the deathbed. So evening meditations. Start again on the deathbed.

Go quickly to the crystal. Like don't go slow. Go pretty quick.

Through the crystal and hang out in the crystal with the four qualities of emptiness. SNANG BA STONG SOGS MA NGES NGO'I RANG BZHIN MED PA RANG SEMS BDE BA CHEN PO BDE'I SNGA' BO That's me. And hang out there.

So the last thing in the evening meditations is what? That's me. Stop at that's me and hang out there and be a Buddha.

Those of you who came to the debate today, you heard that this is the real Buddha jewel. It's that. The Dharmakaya.

The emptiness body of a Buddha. This is the real Buddha jewel and the mind which sees it. Those two parts of the Buddha are the only two that can protect you.

So hang out there and be protected. That's all. Got it?

Don't forget your coffee meditation. The most important meditation in the day I believe is coffee meditation. Just before you put your head down on the pillow.

In English we say count your blessings. Think about all the nice things that are happening here. You are here because several thousand people are working to make those airplanes go.

And you are here because several thousand people are working to get the food into the store. And you are here because four or five people are doing all the work at Diamond Mountain to keep your cabin ready. Then just be happy.

Before you go to bed, I don't want this in yoga. On who? You are one in 70 million people who made it here.

For God's sake, be a little grateful. Maybe your life is pretty amazing. You get to here after two and a half thousand years.

You got this dharma. You are a pretty lucky person. So when you go to bed and you are thinking, I didn't have such a good day.

I wasted the first day of my three days. I have a stomach ache. I didn't get the licorice I asked for from Michael Dunn.

I'm taking it. Your mind will start to complain. Then tell your mind shut up.

Generally you are not supposed to say bad things. But you can say to your own mind, just shut up. We are lucky to be here.

We are really lucky. Oh, but it's all dusty. Shut up.

I didn't get the tofu I like. Shut up. I got a bug in my room.

Shut up. Maybe you will be the bug tomorrow. Okay.

Be happy. That's the main thing. Meditation is fighting with your mind.

Your mind likes to think about problems. Tell your mind, shut up. Think about the nice things.

That's meditation. Control your mind is meditation. Tell your mind what to think is meditation.

All right. Elisabetta had a question. Oh, forget that numbers, okay?

Just forget it. It says group 1, group 2, forget it. Just do what I said.

Just do those. I don't know if it's 4 or 5. It doesn't matter.

In the morning, go up to the crystal. But don't think about it too much. It's mainly to practice the dissolution of your body and mind.

And then in all the afternoon sessions, then go up to becoming an animal or going to the hells or becoming a hungry ghost. Get used to that. And in the evening, oh, by the way, those sessions have to end with Lama taking you home to the Bali beach.

And then the third part of the day, all the meditations end with emptiness. And that's me. All the meditations in the third part of the day end with that's me.

Hang out there. Then the final, final meditation every day, when you lay down, oh, thank goodness, first day is over. And I'm glad I tried.

I'm lucky. I got a cottage at Diamond Mountain. Later, people will say, oh my God, you were in the 23rd retreat at Diamond Mountain.

Wow! You can say, yeah, I was there. You will be famous later.

They will make stories about you which are not true. Oh, Yi Yi was flying across the sky. They will paint tankas of Yi Yi.

Or maybe it's true. I don't know. One more question.

No question. Good. Let's stop.

Meet me at five o'clock over in the Je Tsongkapa Center. What's that? Okay.

Mark Schnell.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you very much. I have a question regarding the emptiness. Okay.

I learned through the process that everything is coming from me. I have to put the butter of emptiness on all this process of dying. But Abe Why is everybody seeing the same?

Has everybody the same seeds to see that?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. If we do karma as a group, then the result comes as a group.

[Speaker 2]
We have the same karma. It's individual karma, but we have the same one. Yeah, it's a group karma.

[Speaker 1]
So for example, all of us, because we are here together, it's proof that we did something good together in the past. I don't know what we did. If you remember, let me know.

But the people in this room, no more people, no less people, we did something together and it was very, very powerful and very good.

[Speaker 2]
And that's why we're here together now.

[Speaker 1]
We are all old friends. So that's a group karma. Alright, I'll see you over at the take a 15-20 minute break.