«Дар освобождения», курс 23 «Защита от жизни и смерти», занятие 9

[Speaker 1]
Okay, let's meditate.

[Speaker 2]
I'm sure your cell phone is already off, like mine. Okay, let's start. Relax your eyes, relax your hands, shoulders down, shoulders back, a little smile.

Try not to move. Be like this statue going in and come to your breath. Then please ask your lama to come and sit with you to meditate.

Then please think about something that your lama has, some quality that you would like to learn from them. Think about all the times you've seen them have this quality. Then make a gift to your lama, something beautiful, maybe from the last three days.

Maybe all the hard work you did, the best parts of it. Then think of something you're not so happy with, some kind of distraction in your practice, not good thoughts about someone during the last three days. Tell your lama and remember that tonight we'll have a fire offering, which is partly to remove those obstacles.

Then please ask your lama to teach. Teach you in many forms. Ask your lama to stay with you.

Then please come back to your breath, three deep breaths. Each time you exhale, offer this good karma to other people. Then you can slowly open your eyes.

Okay.

[Speaker 1]
So we're still talking about animals. If you come out of the crystal into the red, black, to the red, to the white, and then you look and you are you are barking. Okay.

Then we talked about three different kinds of suffering that animals have. What's one of them? Yeah, they're out in the cold and heat.

No one can, no one makes them even a tent. What's another one? Yeah, they're always afraid.

They always think someone's going to eat them. And now we reach the part called slavery. They always live in slavery.

[Speaker 2]
Where'd you go?

[Speaker 1]
Pong means donkey. I learned this word because my lama used to call his nephew Punggul, which is the colloquial for donkey. And one day we were driving to another monastery and a donkey crossed the road and he got all excited.

He made us stop the car. He said, there's your brother. So Punggul, say Punggul.

Punggul is in spoken thread. RGYAL PA THAMS CAD MAR SONG YANG So people put things on their backs or people ride horses and then they get this open source on their body. DAG DUNG GAL GAL But nobody cares and they ride them more and they put things on them.

CI BA NYE BA NA GAR PA PAG TU RGYUR And when these animals that we use are closed, when they're no longer useful, we kill them. Like a milk cow, they have to make so many gallons per day. Chickens have to lay so many eggs per day.

And when they cannot, then they go into a big machine that kills them. In the United States they make pet food out of their bodies. So the minute they can't produce anymore, then people kill them or they throw them away.

In this desert you can see many cow skeletons and they couldn't get to the water. And the owners just left them there and they die. They die in the heat and they just die like that.

SONG YANG, DAG DUNG GAL I think some friends of mine have tried to make retirement homes for cows that can't give milk or chickens that can't lay eggs and they're very happy. One of my friends has a retirement home for cows. And there's a problem because the next door there's a real ranch and the cows keep jumping over the fence into the retirement home.

They're not stupid, right? I think that's a good idea. They do it a lot in India.

And maybe those of us who are still drinking milk or eating eggs, maybe someday we can try that. U MA BYAS KHO NA'I PHYA ROL GYIS MI BDUN PA Some of them, I saw this in Nepal in Kathmandu, a cow was dying in the street and nobody cared, nobody did anything. And then other animals come, birds come to poke their eyes.

And they start to eat their body before they even die. They cannot move.

[Speaker 2]
We see the ants and the other animals in the retreat.

[Speaker 1]
When you look at them or these wild pigs, it's possible they could be eating your body. It's possible you could die first and they will be eating you. It's possible.

We don't know who's going to eat whom. MI BDUN PA'I PHYA ROL GYIS MI BDUN PA SOGS BYA STE BYED PA'I PHYI TSUL RANG RE DENG DAR BSKYED MA SDUG BSNGAL GSOS BTABS MED PA'I NYAM DUN Again, he mentions this word NYAM PA DUN, which means try to get into the mind of a milk cow or try to get into the mind of a chicken who gives eggs. Those chickens who give eggs, when they are born they burn off their beak so they can't hurt each other.

They put their face on an electrical connection and it burns their face flat so they can't fight. So try to not be a spectator and try to feel what it's like to be those animals. BSAM DGOS GSUNGS Now he's going to go into different realms of animals, different places of animals and talk about their suffering.

This is the suffering of animals who live in the ocean. So in this world, the most animals are in the ocean. The biggest population of animals is in the ocean.

NYID PA SOGS SU SDUG BSNGAL BSAM PA LA BYING NA GNAS PA DANG, GAG MTHO'I DUG BSNGAL SDUG BSNGAL BSAM PA NYID So he says, I'll talk first about the suffering of animals who live in the ocean and then I'll talk about the suffering of those who live on dry land. THOR BA means scattered around on dry land. Are you guys warm?

You need air conditioning? Let's not have a vote. Who wants air conditioning?

Raise your hand. Who doesn't want air conditioning? Raise your hand.

Geshe Michael, vote for air conditioning. Air conditioning. My whole life I never had an air conditioner and then I bought one this year and now I need it.

Okay, BSAM NYID LA, DON DOR GCIG NA, GNAS PA PHAL CHUGS RGYAL TSUL KHRAMS PA'I STING DANG Most of the animals in the ocean live very deep. STING DANG, LING BAR GYI MUN NANG RNAM SU, BYANG RGAGS KYI DBANG MA, DBUNG PAR BZHIN, GCIG NAS GCIG TU, GCIG NAS NAS YOD PA In Tibet, when you make beer, you make it from, I think, barley grain and you soak it in the water and then you take it and you throw out the grains, right? Outside a Tibetan house you might see a huge pile of grains.

And he says in the bottom of the ocean, that's how these animals live. They're piled up. Millions of them piled up, like coral reefs are from their bodies, right?

So, that's how they live, all piled up in huge mountains of beings. They are eating each other, fighting with each other in huge piles in the ocean. RTEN NAS RNAMS PA YIN PA, They are squashing each other.

OG MA RNAMS BSTANGS NAS NEN TE, OG KYANG MI LTAR BA Then the creatures at the bottom are killed by the creatures on the top, by the weight of the creatures on the top. Animals living on dry land, BRJUN RDOG DKA' THAR BA NI MI YOD NA YOD PAS BRJUN RDOG RNAMS YIN PAS DE DAG LA'ANG SDUG BSNGAL NYON TSUL MI BRAL BA THAL YOD PA YIN, These animals also have a lot of, infinite number of sufferings, those who live on dry land with us. DE LTA BA'I SKYE BA RNAMS PA'I RGYU CHA TZANG, RTOG LDAN MANG PO RANG RE LUS YOD CING, The karma or the seeds in your mind which will cause you to be born as one of those animals, you already have, we already have, all of us.

We have those seeds in our mind. RTOG LDAN, they are powerful. MANG PO, we have many of them.

It's just a question of how the lottery goes at the end of your life. Which seed will you pick? DE NA NYES KYANG THU ZHUG NI, PHYIR DANG PHYI MA BLA MA DGOS PA, So what are the most powerful seeds in your mind for becoming an animal?

PHYIR DANG PHYI MA BLA MA DGOS PA, Not to respect people who are trying to follow Dharma, okay? To disrespect people who are trying to follow Dharma or to disrespect the Dharma. SANGS PAR BYED PA RNAMS PA'I RDZU'I DU BDUN DROD MIN GYI LTA PA SOGS, Then those of us who are in a Dharma group, sometimes we might call another person like an animal's name, like, oh, he's a real pig.

Like that. Or she's like a dog or something like that. It's just a word.

You aren't very serious about it. But you just say, oh, he's a real pig or something like that. Then that's the specific karma to be born as a pig, because of the second law of karma.

It always multiplies, okay? It doubles every day. So, you think it's not very fair that you call somebody a pig and then you have to be born as a pig when you did so many good things.

But because karma doubles every day, it's possible. So, you have to be careful. ZHES BU ZER GYI BYUNG BA LTAR YIN, This is like the story of this person of Manavakapila.

We told his story already, and I'm not going to repeat it here. But it was about that they found a creature in the ocean with 18 heads and a huge body, and it washed up on the land. They talked to it and asked it, how did this happen to you?

And mainly it was because of a fight he had had in a monastery with another monk, okay? So, the karma inside of a Dharma group is very powerful, okay? It's better to go to Tucson and say bad things in the airport.

You can save them than to say them inside this Dharma group. Because people who are trying to meditate are very powerful. Karma.

GZHAN YANG RGYA RGAN LA GCIG GIS BYIN DAG GI YANG NAS PA'I RGYEN DON GYI SO SBYONG GNAGS PHYAR BSTANG BA'I DAM SRAB PHYI SNGA BA ZHIG NA BU DGE SLONG GI DGO CHEN ZHIG TU SKYES DE SDUG BSNGAL NYONG Then he told a story, the lama told a story about in India, someone offered $30,000 or something like that to the monastery. And then this monk turned it into $25,000. And so he was born in the middle of a filth in a swamp as a worm.

And it had the same face as the monk, okay? BU ZHIG SDUG BSNGAL NYONG BA DANG YANG SNGON MA GCIG GIS DGE SLONG ZHIG LA MTHUS DON DRAG BZHIN MED PA'I MTHUS SKYE BA SNGABS RGYA'I BLANGS PA SOGS MDO LAS ZIN TSUL Lord Buddha talks about in the sutras somebody who called another, one monk called another monk, or one Dharma person called another Dharma person a monkey. And because of that he took 500 lives as a monkey.

This is from Buddha, Lord Buddha said. MI SKYE BA CHEN PO'I GNYEL BA DANG SBYIN GYI GYIS BDAG CHUNG SMOD DON DRO You caught up with me, Adam? Is your computer?

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
This is very famous and you should remember it, okay? If you make a bad seed, which is very big, it will take you to the hell realms. If you make a bad seed, which is medium, it will take you to spirits realm.

And if you make a bad deed, which is smaller, you will become an animal, okay? CHE LUGS KYANG SANGS PA DANG ZHING DANG DNGOS PO SOGS KYIS BYAS BA YIN GYIS What makes a karma bigger than another karma? There are many factors.

The DCI people know it very well. He mentions a few of them. First one is SANGS PA.

What is your motivation? If you hurt someone by accident, that's different than if you try to hit them with a car. SHING here means feel, but it's a word which refers to the person to whom you do the action.

Three things can make a person a big SHING. What's one of them? Yeah, someone who's helping many other people.

So if you hurt them, it's probably going to hell. You see? Who's helping many other people.

What's another example? Yeah, someone who helped you a lot. Like your mom and dad, very powerful karmic objects.

If you treat them nice, very powerful good karma, right Vicky? Oh, sorry. And if you treat them bad, very powerful bad karma.

What's the third one? Yeah, someone who's having an emergency. I don't know about you.

Sometimes I see someone on the road. It looks like they're having emergency and I'm just too busy doing good things. And sometimes I don't stop, but one mile later I feel bad.

I'm like, oh, I should have stopped. I should have helped them. Okay, someone having an emergency.

By the way, in Arizona, you can call 9-1-1 from your car and they will send somebody to help the person. So I often do that, like maybe once a month. Or if I see something in the road, you can just call and it's easy and you can help the person.

Okay? It's an emergency thing. MI SRED PA LTA BU MNGON SEMS CHE BA ZHIG LA MI SRED THA LTA BZHIN GYIS PA CHEN LTA BU BRTZON MNGON SRED GOR DANG So he says, to make a serious bad karma, because of the heavy object, it's not necessary that you have to kill somebody to do something very bad.

If the object is heavy, like your mother, or I don't know, another person in a dharma group, if the object is heavy, you can do a small thing and the karma is heavier than killing a person. For example, he says, SEMS MONGS SEMS GZHAN Then you just make some, you don't try to hurt them, but you're just joking. Which Geshe Michael does too much.

You're just making a joke and then you really hurt that person's feelings. If that person is a great meditator, they're doing a lot of retreat, they're serving this retreat center, for example, those are very powerful karmas. Even just a joke towards a powerful karma object is more serious than even killing another person, okay?

GZHUGS GSUM GYIS BYAS PA'I LAS KYIS Or you start to say something, but you stop yourself, like, Angelo, you're a real... But still, because he's such a powerful object, then you collect some very serious karma. ZHIG BYAS PA'I LAS KYANG PHYI MA NGAN SONG DU THUB KYIS SBYOR BA YOD You may find yourself in the darkness in the hell realms if you do something like that.

Do you guys need a break? We have about half an hour. It's okay?

Okay, it's 11.15? 11.30. It's about an hour. Do you need a break?

Bathroom break? Let's take a break, okay? Take a 10 minute break.

Then you'll be ready to come back and we'll do some more lam rim. Okay, now the most important sentence of this week. Ready?

NGAN DOR MI KHYER Are we on the same page? Thanks, Adam. We should give Adam a hand.

Thank you. By the way, his hair, the person who does his hair is named Gracie. Is that going to make me an animal?

No. Gracie is his dog. NGAN DOR MI KHYER BA'I DANG YONG BA LA If you want to have a guarantee that you will not go to one of the three lower realms, I told you many times, here it is in the book.

You didn't believe me. Now Pabongka Rinpoche is saying the same thing. If you want a guarantee, insurance policy, permanent, that you don't have to go to lower realms, RDZOD LAS What's RDZOD?

Good. The Abhidharmakosha written by Master Vasubandhu. How many years ago, roughly?

1700 years ago. He said, SOS THOGS NGAN DOR YONG MI STON You cannot drop into the lower realms out of the black, red, and white if you reach the stage called mastery. Mastery is a stage in the path of preparation.

It's closely connected to understanding the pan. Okay. So DCI is tricking business people all over the world not to become animal.

Okay. All right. It's very connected to this.

If you understand this very well, that's your insurance policy. And it feels good when you know you have it. It feels really good.

You know, like You know, it feels really good, you know, like I don't have to worry, you know. Everything's taken care of. It feels amazing.

You can be 10 times happier all the time. You're not happy all the time, but you're generally you're happy almost all the time. Like very funny happy because you have insurance policy.

It feels really good. So you should try. Try to get it.

We talked about it a lot last retreat. We're going to talk about it more during the Kamalashila retreat and the Thailand retreat. Those two places.

And the class this afternoon. The, yeah, okay, the Maitreya class we're going to talk about, okay. GSUNGS PA LTAR BRJOR LAM SOGS PA THOB DGOS PAS So we have to attain this part of the second path, which is called Mastery.

THOB DGOS PAS RANG RES LA BDEN DAG MED PA'I THOGS NGAN DUR SKYE BA'I RGYUR DU NGAR BSAM PA'I RNAMS MA SHUG BSGOM DU SHAG MI THUB PA NI THA STE CHE LUGS DI ZHES PA Those of us who don't have that kind of guarantee, we can guess whether we have causes in our mind, seeds in our mind, to go to the lower realms just by how is your day going. Okay? Is your day blissful, happy, smooth?

Or do you have problems coming up? If you have problems coming up, if it's like a roller coaster and your life goes up and down, then it's dangerous. It means you have some negative causes in your brain.

You have some negative seeds. You can tell. There's no reason to expect that your day will go better the day after you die than the day before you die.

However the day is going now is probably how it's going to go after that. There's no logical reason why it should be different. So you've got to reach a place where your life and your practice are going very beautifully now.

Because that's the kind of day you're going to have the day after you die. NGAN DOR GYIS RGYUR BZHAG RNAMS SHING BSGOM DU SHAG MI THUB PA Don't forget, he says, you can always use the four powers to clean out those negative seeds that are causing the dips in your life. Don't forget, you always have the option to freeze those seeds.

What do you call it? Nowadays there's... I was reading an article about it.

Nuclear reactors create waste. The waste is extremely poisonous. It will be poisonous for 10,000 years.

So all these scientists are working to develop ways to encase that radioactivity, like in ceramic or... Then they're trying to find cheaper ways to do it that are still pretty safe. And then they bury them in salt mines, like a thousand feet deep.

But that's next to our water supply. So the idea is, can you wrap those karmas in some kind of stuff that will make them never grow? That's the four powers.

Okay. Just basic DCI stuff. DCI is a really amazing, practical lam rim.

Okay, it's lam rim in disguise. NGAN SONG DU GCIG SKYES NA, DE LAS THAR BA'I THABS DANG SKYABS MI NYES TE If you die with those bad seeds in your mind, it's too late, okay? You can't ask, Oh, I just, you know, I didn't have time to do those four powers.

Could I just have another day to take care of that? And the hell guards are dragging you away, and they're like, no. We don't do that.

Okay, so if you die, those seeds will activate. So you got to take care of it now. Don't wait.

Do the four powers. If you have some big negative thing you did, my suggestion is talk to Diamond Mountain people like Tahiya, and do a two-day retreat or something. Like do a two-day four-power retreat and clean it up.

You don't have to come when everybody's here. You can come anytime. These cottages are for you, and they are open all year.

You can come anytime. Go tell Tahiya, I have a terrible thing I did when I was 16. I don't know why everybody does them when they're 16, but I have something terrible I did when I was 16.

I need two-day cottage. Then make a deal with her. You don't have to ask anybody.

Just do it. Just come. Anytime.

It's your place. CHUN GYUG LAS Now he's quoting Master Shantideva, very famous. TSUL SHIG CI CHEN DI LAS BDAG LAS PAR BSKYABS PAR BYED GYUR ZHES DRE ZHAG BSTAN PA'I MI'I DRE NAS PHYOGS SHES BSKYABS BDAG TSUL BAR BYED TSUL SHIG CI CHEN DI LAS BDAG So if you die and you go through the...

you come out through the black light, red light, white light, and then suddenly you're in some very dangerous place, then DRE ZHAG BSTAN PA'I MI'I DRE means like this. Your eyes are like you know, like this, and who can help me? Should I call the police or the fire department?

Or my lawyer? The lawyer is the one that got you there, okay. PHYOGS SHES BSKYABS BDAG TSUL BAR BYED Sorry, sorry Aaron.

Not every lawyer is like that. PHYOGS SHES BSKYABS BDAG TSUL BAR BYED Then you're looking around, who can help me? Mami, PHYOGS SHES BSKYABS MED DONG NAS NI DE NI KUN DU MUN GYUR GYUR Then you get, you just give up because there's no one going to help you there.

Okay. In this world, in these countries right now, there are people who are supposed to help you. Police or doctors and lawyers.

Then when you get to that country, called Three Lower Realms, there's no system like that. Okay, there's nobody there. Nobody there is interested in helping you at all.

Nobody. There's nobody that can help you, except Lama, right? GNAS DER BSKYABS YUL MA YIN NA DE'I SRAS BDAG GIS CI DAG BYA If you reach this place where there's no one to help you, what are you going to do?

There's no system that there's anyone there to help you. BDING NGAN SANGS GSOS NAS BYAG SHES DRIN DROL BSTED KYANG ZHES BSTED Of the Three Lower Realms, most of us can only see one of them, which is animals, okay? And you don't have to be a philosopher to see that it's not fun to be an animal, okay?

MA NI GCIG SANGS BRDON PA'I THABS MED They can't even say one OM MANI PADME HUM. I told you, my lama tried. He had a dog.

And he told me, I'm going to teach her to say OM MANI PADME HUM, you know. And first he taught her to stand up like this. And she's like this, you know.

She's about this big. Lhasa apso. She makes...

Then she's like this. Then he said, OM. And he has some food to get, some dog candy.

He goes, OM. She's like, She tried to bite it. Then it took him about a year to get OM.

If she says OM, she gets candy. If she doesn't say OM, she gets BOOM! Then I thought it was kind of mean, you know.

But after like four years, she's like, OM MANI PADME HUM OM MANI PADME HUM Then he gave candy to her, you know. Then one day I thought, God, he's doing the same thing to me. You know, So that three poisons, like wanting to get things by reaching the hand out and taking them, rather than by reaching the hand out and giving something.

We have this poison, part of us. LAS NGES RMON PO SA'I DU SOGS TE We're constantly making new bad karma. NYAN MTSONG NAS, NYAN MTSONG THUB DRO In the lower realms, once you reach there, it's a...

what do you call it? Manifest destiny. It's a downward cycle.

Birds kill animals. Animals kill animals. Once you get there, you keep doing the same thing that got you there.

You see what I mean? Humans can break out, but animals, it's almost impossible, because their lifestyle is to hurt other animals. NYAN MTSONG THUB DRO GZHAN YANG DE NYID LAS What's DE NYID?

That's DE NYID. No, DE NYID means that same book. He's quoting that same book, which is?

But it's happened to you every time. GANG ZAS RGYAS BYAS RKYEN BRTAN YANG, DGE BA BDAG GIS MA BYAS NA While I'm alive, and I have a chance to do some good deeds, if I don't, NYAN MTSONG DU NGEL KUN MONG BA DE SRID BDAG GIS CI BYA YOD If I end up in one of those lower realms, then I already have a habit of doing more bad deeds. DGE BA BDAG GIS MA BYAS NA SDIG PA BDAG GIS NYER BSAM NA While I'm an animal, I will do more bad deeds.

GAL PA BYAS BAR RGYA RGYAL YANG NI BSTAN DO RGYA YANG THOS MIN GYUR I won't even hear the word higher realms. For how long? No, times BYAS BAR.

That's a saya chu. Boom, 1,000 booms. BYAS BAR means 10 million.

Multiply 10 million times 100. So a billion? One billion.

Eons. Eon is like, God knows, I don't know. I tried to figure it out one time.

15 million years or something, I don't know. Anyway, because of the nature of the lower realms it's a downward cycle. You keep doing the same thing that got you there.

And you won't even hear somebody say, you could have been a human. ZHES PA THAR DAG RE GYI RTEN DE MA THANG PHYI MA RNGAN SONG NAS THAR BA'I KHYAB DANG THAB TSUL BA ZHIG LA MA BAS NA So he says, forget the name of this book, which is... No, this book.

Liberation thrust into your hands. Forget the liberation part. Just try not to go to the lower realms.

Try to stay human. Try to stay where you are. THAB TSUL BA ZHIG LA MA BAS NA NGAN SOGS DU LHUNG BZIN SONG NAS CI TZAR BA NAS Because if you end up there, it's too late to do anything.

You can't do anything. NGAN TZAM GSOS ZER BA'I SBYAR BA BYED DE DANG RANG NYID KYI BAR NA So there's this terrible word. The word is bad.

Three lower realms. The word that doesn't exist in America in English. It doesn't exist.

Nobody says, watch out for the three lower realms. But that word, the word three lower realms, this terrible word, is here. And you are here.

And what separates you is one outbreath. Here's you. Here's three lower realms.

The distance between you and the three lower realms is one. It's not very much. Okay.

RGYUD PA DANG TZAM LAS MED DE'ANG THUN DANG DAG BLO RLUNG BYUNG DANG RIGS NA SANGS POS DAG TSUL MANG BLO GANG ZHIG SONG TZAM LAS GCIG TU NA NYAL BAR SKYES TE LUS DANG MED Maybe it might be at the end of this year. Maybe it will be next year at this time. Or maybe you'll live for a few more years.

But sooner or later, you will reach a place where your body and the fire are mixed together. BYAS NAS BDE YOD NAM GCIG TU NA YI DAG GZUGS KYI NAS ZAD CHU THIG BYANG THUB MA YIN PA NYES PAR BDE YOD NAM Or maybe you'll be a spirit looking for a piece of spit somewhere. YANG NA DON DOR GYI NAS GOL LA RAG CHOGS ZING NYID BA DANG LUS LA BU ZHUGS LAS BA Or maybe by next year you will have horns, or a tail, or a fur.

You will be wearing new fashion. BU ZHUGS LAS BA ZHIG TU NI LA RIM PA LAS ZAD PA BZHIN DU MI SKYE BA'I NGES PA MED There's no certainty that you will not awake from this dream of a human life. And then suddenly you're someplace else.

DE DAG BRTAN PA NA YANG THAR RIM PA ZHIG TU BRTAN DAG YOD PAS GTAM NYON PA DANG BSTAN PO LTAR BA'I LTA BU MI BYED PA Don't say, oh one day I have to die, or when I get old, I will have to die. Right, Phil? You and me, we can't say that anymore.

BSTAN PO LTAR BA'I LTA BU MI BYED PA Don't be a spectator. THAMS BAR SKYE ZIN PA'I NYAM DANG In your meditation, get used to feeling like an animal already born there. SKYE ZIN PA means already born there.

DE'I RJES SU SKYE NGES KYI NYAM DUN PA After getting used to the idea of being born there, get used to the idea that it's probably inevitable, if you keep up your current lifestyle, that you will be there. So you go from how it feels to the inevitability, given your current lifestyle. NAS DE'I PHAN NA RGYAL PO CHEN PAR NAG CHEN MANG POR BYED PA CHUG SKABS RANG STE MO LTAR ZHING PAR YOD PA LA It's like five or six people have been condemned to death, and you are one of them, and they are taking people out to hang them, and you're like, wow, look at that.

He has to go get hung. Oh, look at that. He has to go get hung today.

You don't think like you're next in line. We should always have this meditation, I'm next in line. I'm the next in line.

All over Arizona you can see this special corral, place for cows, and there's a little gate, and there's a chute, right? There's a narrow part where you can take out one cow, and they take out, they call cutting out a cow. The name is cutting out a cow.

They cut one out of the herd, they push him down the chute, and at the end they slit his throat, and they put a hook in his foot, and he goes up.

[Speaker 2]
And the other ones are like this.

[Speaker 1]
They're just like, wow, look at that, he got killed. Yeah, what's to eat? They can't think, I might be next.

A cow cannot think, maybe I'm next. There's a story in the Lam Rim that one sheep, the guy dropped his knife, and the sheep tried to cover it with some dirt. The next sheep tried to cover it with some dirt.

He understood, just a little bit, this knife is not a good thing. But mostly the cows are like, wow, look at that, one more. And we're like that.

People you know die. I have my old lady, right? Now she lives in a nursing home, and people die every day.

And I say, well, I see her, I say, how have you been? What's up? And she says, I don't know, I feel lonely.

I say, well, there's all these people here. You can just talk to them. She says, no, all my friends are dead.

All my friends are dead. You got to think about people died around you. You start with ten, then there's nine, then there's eight, and it's going to come to you.

,LTA LTANG LEN TSOR ZHIG BYA BA GANG ZHIG NA, ,SEMS CAN MANG PO ZHIG SDUG BSNGAL BSTAN DANG, ,NYON GYIS NUS PAR BA'I NYAM DU TZAM DANG, Right now, when somebody says three lower realms, this picture comes into our mind of some other place where lots of bad people are suffering. ,GZHAN PA'I LUGS GSOS ZAG LTAR, ,BSTAN PO LTAR BA GZHIN TAG PAR, ,MUR LO BUR DU NGAN GSUM GYUR LAS PA'AM, While you are being a spectator, like those animals who wait in line to be killed, suddenly someone will grab you. ,LUGS LTA BUR GYUR NAS, ,GZHAN PA'I LAG TU OG TU GNAS NAS, Then maybe you are a sheep and a worker in the factory is standing over you and splitting your chest with a knife.

,SNGON GSUM PA'I NYON BAR GYUR NA, ,JIG RTAR DANG SDUG BSNGAL JI LTAR BYUNG BA DE LTAR PA'I NYAM DON, You have to get used to imagining, for example, you are a cow in a slaughterhouse and how it feels. There is a slaughterhouse near here because they make lots of cows around here. We went there and we said, can we just go inside and see what it looks like?

They were afraid we were TV people. They said, are you from some TV station? We are like, no, no, we just live nearby.

We just want to see what you guys do here. They wouldn't let us come in. They were afraid to let us come in.

They said, you will be too freaked out. They wouldn't let us go inside. But it is good to go to places like that and see what could happen.

SANGS RGYAS BYAMS DANG DE SKYES MA'ONG PA NA, ,NGA'I NYAN THOS RNAMS, ,CHE MA'I DRO BA GANG THUB DU BSTAD PAR ZHIG, ,NGAN TSONG DU DOR ZHING, ,RANG CHAGS LA LUS BSTAN NANG BA YIN PAS, ,NAG CHEN DANG DU RGYUR BA NGA'I PAR ZHIG, ,YANG KHAR MNGAL SO BA BZHIN DU YOD, The Buddha once said, in the future days, even my followers will be like grains. Like you fill a bag with sand and you turn it over and the sand rushes down. He says, even my followers will go to the lower realms.

RANG CHAGS LA LUS BSTAN The Buddha has given his prediction for us. YIN PAS ,NAG CHEN DANG DU RGYUR BA NGA'I PAR ZHIG, ,YANG KHAR MNGAL SO BA BZHIN DU YOD, But we are like criminals who have been sentenced to being thrown off a cliff and we are relaxing on the edge. We are watching TV, looking at internet, sending each other useless things on Facebook.

We are at the edge of the cliff and we are having a little bit of fun. RANG RES BDE DAG ZHIG MI SHES PA DRA BCOM PA BYA BA BYED PA ZHIG LAS KYANG BLO DE CHOG KHA BA ,DI'I NGAN TSUM DU GRO BA'I DNGAL BRTEN YIN So there's a thing called DRA BCOM PA which is? Arhat.

Arhat means they reached Nirvana already. Then we tend to be more relaxed than an arhat. A synonym for arhat is BYA BA BYED PA.

Say BYA BA BYED PA. Did what they had to do. Done.

Done with what they had to do. BYA BA BYED PA, past tense. B-Y-A-S, BYA BA BYED PA.

It's here. It's a nice word. I like it.

Someone who did what they had to do and now they can relax. But we're more relaxed than them. KHAL CING KHA BA DANG NGAN TSUM DU GRO BA'I That's sort of a sign that we're headed for the lower realms.

Being too relaxed at the wrong time is a bad sign. It means we're in trouble. It's like people getting drunk and giggling in a car and then suddenly their head gets...

It happened near our house, Jigme. Why they put the no U-turn signs up on your highway? 260 is it?

They put no turn signs to the... It's a hassle, right Scott? Because you can't go to the Starbucks.

The reason they put the signs there is this guy who got married and he got drunk and he was driving with his friend. He was driving the car and his friend put his seat down to get some sleep and they drove under a truck. On his wedding day, the guy got his head cut off and his friend survived because he was laying down.

His seat was down. So they split the car in half and nothing happened to his friend and he lost his head. So we're like that.

Just before there's a big mess up, you feel kind of giddy. Like, hehehe. He's drunk, he's driving a car.

He's feeling pretty cool. Then he got killed. Then they put the sign up.

Now you can't make those turns anymore. ,LA LUS PA'I YIN TE, ,DI'I NGES BYUNG, ,LA LUS PA'I PHYIR MA SNYUNG ZAD DANG, ,DRA BA ZHIG AE YONG DA DGOS, So when they dump the bag of sand and everyone falls to the lower realms, we want to be like a little grain of sand that got stuck in the seam of the bag. Okay?

SEMS GZUGS means the seam of the bag. ,NGAN SONG DE DAG TU'ANG SKYE SEMS PAS NYAMS DON TE, Try to meditate. In your meditation, practice what it's like to be born in one of those places.

In tantra, in the higher teachings, Diamond Way, Vajrayana. You're supposed to imagine you are a Buddha already. So one guy, the teacher said, I want you to do a meditation that you're already a dog.

And the student said, No, no, I'm sorry. I'm already a Buddha. He said, Yeah, yeah, okay Buddha.

Meditate that you're a dog. Because that's how you get to be a Buddha. That's how you can do that other one.

So don't think if you're already studying tantra that you can't or you shouldn't do these meditations. They go together like peanut butter and jam. Okay?

They go together. You have to do both. Then you can really see yourself as a Danny.

And you can sense that if you did a good retreat this time. BSKOM NA SDIG NGAN CUNG BRTAN'ONG BA'I Then you'll start to feel a little bit of detachment from too much money or too many things. You'll start to get a little relaxed about all this temporary stuff.

RANG RES ZHIG YID DAM BSGOM PA BA'I NGAN TSUNG GI SDUG BSNGAL BSGOM PA NA LEGS SU YOD He says here, and we will stop here, this last sentence he says is RANG RES means what? Us guys, RES ZHIG means for the time being. YID DAM BSGOM PA BA'I This instrumental, BAS, is the comparative.

Better than meditating that you're a Yidam, that you're already a Buddha, maybe it would be better if we meditated we went to the three lower realms. So he addressed the question for Vajrayana people, for Diamond Way people, for Tantricus. Yeah, yeah, you're a Buddha, but today let's meditate you're in the three lower realms.

That will help you be a Buddha. Okay, got it? They go together.

All right.