«Дар освобождения», курс 24 «Пустой Будда — высшая защита», занятие 14

[Speaker 1]
Let's meditate, okay? Turn off emptiness and dependent origination. Clear your throat.

Cough now, please don't cough later. Then please relax your mouth. Little smile.

Eyes are relaxed. Stomach in, little bit. Hands soft.

Shoulders back, little bit. Forehead smooth. And then please come to your breath.

Long exhales, keep on the breath. Focus tightly on the breath. Then please imagine you're walking across a wide empty space.

And it's dark, very dark. Very black and dark. Then far ahead you can see a flame.

And it's very quiet and not moving. And you walk towards the flame. And you walk through the flame.

And on the other side it's dark again. And then in the horizon, the far horizon, there's a soft white light. The first part of the dawn is coming.

The sun's not up yet. And soon that white light spread all across the sky, soft white light. You are still walking.

And slowly the white light becomes red. And the whole sky is covered with red light, like a sunset. And then slowly the red color fades away into black.

Deeper black. And even deeper black. And then the black has some crystal color.

Quality of crystal. Then in the middle of the crystal dark is your heart teacher. They are smiling at you and they love you very much.

Now please try to think of the image inside your mind of the teacher from which this picture came. So it will feel like it's inside your head. And try to imagine a very small teacher, about the size of your thumbnail.

Much brighter than the outside teacher. When a picture comes out of a karmic seed, it's much brighter than what we see outside. So try to imagine a small heart teacher inside your mind.

Very bright and shining. And small. Then try to think about the seeds inside your mind that this picture came out of.

And try to think of all the times this week when you shared with other people here what you understood. And you planted the seed for a heart teacher. Then please come back to your breath.

Three long breaths. And you can slowly open your eyes. And stretch.

I see this result here. Okay. Keshav, do you want this?

No? No, the big one? Do you want the big one?

[Speaker 2]
No.

[Speaker 1]
I'm okay. That meditation has four more parts. Four more parts?

Four more. And we're running out of time. So I'm going to tell them to you, and then tomorrow we'll practice them.

So tonight they will have time to cook in your mind. If you want, you can cook them at the fire offering. Okay.

Then when we do fire offering in our retreat center in America, Diamond Mountain, if we have a lot of people, we make more fires. Sometimes two, sometimes three. I think one time we did four.

That way everybody has a chance to try to put something in the fire. And it's good practice for you. Okay.

Then we only need about fifty or sixty people for one fire. And the Hilton Hotel said, we think one fire is enough. Actually we're very lucky they allow us to make a fire.

And again I'd like to thank Jasmine. Where are you? Because it's difficult to go to the Hilton and say, we'd like to make a fire in your front yard.

So we did a lottery to see who gets to throw their things in the fire. And a few of the big sponsors who helped us. So I just want to talk a little bit about how to offer those things.

You'll have a plate. There's a little wall. Then you can put the plate on the wall.

Don't try to hold the plate and throw it. Okay. Then there are many things like rice.

And when you put them in the fire, you take one handful. And then you have to do pretty cool. Okay?

Not like that. Okay? You know, like you are Amitabha.

Okay, like that. Then there's ... We will do the whole offering all the substances.

There are like 20 different grains that we offer. The first time you offer it, it's to a special fire-offering Buddha. To ...

Yeah, you are offering to a fire Buddha. And you keep throwing in. And then you leave maybe one third of the grain, you leave it on the plate.

You don't throw everything in. So, we will throw most of it, but not all of it. And then you take the plate back.

We will help you. Second time, we do all of those offerings again. And that time, it's to a woman, very famous woman Buddha.

Dojo Yujambo. Jingang Yujambo. We call Vajrayogini.

Her nickname is Diamond Angel. Then, this is main practice of my Lama. And my Lama's Lama.

And my Lama's Lama Lama. This one wrote the book you are studying. This one did all the ...

editing work. Okay? So, and back for about ...

over a thousand years. Then the fire offering, custom is 5,000 years old. In India, we call Homa.

And I was very interesting for me. I was in Varanasi, India, which is the oldest city. And I had a chance to sit with some Hindu monks doing fire offering.

And that custom is very, very old. And a lot of the mantras are the same. So, we will do the offering second time, about 20 plates.

This is for the Hindu monks. This woman Buddha, who's the most important Buddha in our lineage. And we are offering to her with her special mantra.

And again, you should leave about one third of the grain. And we will keep it. Then we do again, third time.

About 20 plates. All the leftover, we put together. So, first set of grains, you go like this.

Try to show in the fire and not at the people. Some people get excited. So, there's a fire.

Brain goes in the fire. Try not to throw it everywhere. And then the third time, those leftovers, we put them all together.

And we will do the same mantras. Then you do like karate chop. Like this.

Just one, you don't go ten times or something. You just put the whole thing in. So, I will help you.

But you know, the third one is like that. There's a funny part where you offer alcohol. And we use, my Lama use American beer.

Take off the top. Be careful to hold it far away. Otherwise you will smell like beer.

When you go home from Thailand, your friends will say you smell like beer. You sure you went to Buddhist program? Then, we don't go like this.

We offer, offer, offer. And again, you leave about one third in the bottom. We also offer khata.

It looks a little bit like our scarf. Can I use it? This is a good luck cloth.

And you hold it over the fire. And then you drop it in the fire. And you have to focus.

Let go. Don't hold on. And you drop it.

Okay. And then there's a special offering cake. In Tibetan language, we call torma, torma.

In Sanskrit, we call baling, baling. Very ancient custom. And that's a little thing.

That thing looks like, I don't know, pyramid maybe? And it's a little bit heavy. So that one, you have a special platform to put it on.

And you put it on the top. And you push it out, and you flip it over. And try to throw it in the fire, and not on the people.

So don't worry, I'll help you. At that time, that instrument is extremely hot. Okay?

If you want to put circles on your feet, you can use it. Okay, so please don't touch it. I'll show you, but be aware.

Then what's the purpose for this fire? In ancient times, there are four different fires. We call shi gye wang trak, shi gye wang trak.

Then I'll teach it to you someday, after lam rim. But tonight's fire is called shiway jin tse, shiway jin tse. Shan ti ho ma, it means peace.

So we are praying for peace in the world. Then, fire offering is pretty long. It's about three hours, okay?

Three, four hours. It's all in a foreign language. You don't know what's going on.

You're not supposed to know what's going on until you get initiation. So just relax. Try not to let many demons in your mind.

What's this guy doing? Why does it take so long? Why is it so cold out here?

It's too hot. There is some spark coming. Okay?

So, don't ... just relax, okay? If you feel tired, you can go home.

You can sleep. No problem. If you want to go home, take nap, come back, that's okay.

No problem. Really, okay? No problem.

Tonight is like vacation. Dharma vacation. Just the way to sit at a fire offering is to just relax.

We will have some refreshments. You can get anytime you want. Some snack.

Have some tea. And just like picnic. Really.

You don't have to sit like this, okay? Just relax. Eat popcorn.

Like movie. And it's important to have happy thoughts. Oh, this smoke is going up into the sky.

And slowly it will cover Thailand. Then it will reach China. Slowly it will go over the ocean.

Even those crazy Americans will become peaceful. We can bless the new president. Maybe he will calm down.

Okay, and you know, have thought like that. And just enjoy. Think about all the people you know who have trouble.

And you know, pray for them. And this smoke, one day it will reach their house. This is the good thing about world pollution.

The pollution from every car reach every house. Then the pollution from our fire also reach every house. And give them blessing.

So, just relax. Have fun. I request that you don't use your cell phone during the fire.

Okay? Maybe you can leave it at home. You know, it's okay to take photo.

If you want to take photo, it's okay. Okay, video is not so okay. If your friend is coming up to put something, you can take five photos.

If they are doing the ... Okay, so photo, okay. I think not, you know, what do you call, video.

And don't spread the photo too much, okay? At the end, like 9.30, 10 o'clock, there's extra butter to put in the fire, liquid butter. If you stay till the end, then everybody can come up and try to put some butter in the fire.

Okay? There are two special instruments, and you can learn how to use them. Luke Tsar and Kang Tsar.

These names are very strange, Luke Tsar and Kang Tsar. You can learn how to use them. Okay, so, where's Chunzong?

Is she busy? Can you stand up? Venerable Chunzong did all the work to prepare the fire.

I'd like to thank him. It's a lot of work. It takes, I don't know, many days to prepare.

If you have possibility, can you make some extra ghee? So, everybody can get a chance. Two more things.

If you have some bad seeds and you want to get rid of them, there's a custom. You can write them on a piece of paper. Like, I lied to my mother last year.

And after the fire is finished, and after Geshe Michael go to bed, you can throw those in the fire, and it will destroy them. Then, this custom is older than money. Okay?

Fire offering is older than money. So, five thousand years ago, the production of the farmers is money. Rice is money.

Wheat is money. So, they are making a sacrifice. It's like they are burning money.

Then, you have to have a lot of faith that there must be a Buddha if you are going to burn your food. In the time when food was not easy to get. So, if you want to, you can bring some paper money, and you can offer it to the Buddha.

Okay? Just throw it in. In our time, money is paper.

So, if you want to offer some, it's good. To the fire. And we'll have a good time.

The prayers are very long. Okay? You don't know what it means.

So, you're going to have to kind of meditate, and relax. We are not allowed to talk during fire offering. So, please don't blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Okay? If I need something, I will talk. You know, like, we need more popcorn over here.

That's okay. So, if you are serving the fire, and you have to say something, it's okay. Oh, Nick, some part of the hotel is on fire from our fire.

Then it's okay to talk. Okay, but otherwise, it's a custom not to talk a lot. It's a custom not to talk at all.

And meditate. Okay? Then you can't meditate for three hours.

So, meditate for, I don't know, half hour. Then go have some tea. Walk around.

Take a stretch. You can even take a nap, come back. Okay?

But have fun, okay? Not like this yoga people, you know. Okay, like that.

Just relax, and have fun. Okay, it's very beautiful, and you are very lucky to see it. And it took me about 20 years to learn how to do it.

So, if you watch carefully, later you can learn how to do it. And all of the older teachers here, they do many fire offerings by themselves. How many in the three-year retreat?

I don't know. Fifteen? They did fifteen, twenty during their retreat.

Fifteen, twenty? Fifteen or twenty, yeah. Okay, let's do some question-answer.

Okay? Okay, and then tomorrow, in the teaching about refuge, we reached a special part. Special?

Special part. It's from a book called Uttara Tantra. I mentioned it before.

Written by who? Asanga and Maitreya. Maitreya is the next Buddha to come in this world.

Much closer than you think, okay? We are lucky. We are lucky.

Then, we will study that special book. They start to explain it in the Lam Rim, but they don't finish. Not in the Lam Rim.

So, we will finish it together with a special explanation from 500 years ago by a great Lama from the best monastery in the universe, which is ... I don't know why, but it's my monastery, called Serame. You guys have a microphone?

We have about 20 minutes. Okay, Hasso will choose people. We can do question and answer if you like.

Any subject, I don't care. Hasso, up to you. Why you give to him?

[Speaker 2]
Okay, thank you Hasso. Thank you, Geshe-la. So, I was having a conversation with Tim, and we were talking about the state of mind when you become a Buddha.

So, if you have the third body, the wisdom body, you should know about everything. Then, we raised up a question. Can a Buddha read another Buddha's mind?

If they can, so another Buddha knows everything of the world. So, this Buddha also knows everything of the world. So, it feels like if another Buddha can read another Buddha's mind, the whole mind will overlap, because that's everything of the world.

Then, it's hard to imagine, are they separate in a way that we think, or are they combined in a way? I think they are both wrong, but I don't know how to understand it better. Okay, good question.

[Speaker 1]
Automatic translation. Okay, thank you for good question. All right.

So, the answer is a little bit deep. Why ... why ...

Okay, when I listen to my own mind, I can hear thoughts all day long. You know? Today Geshe Michael's thoughts are complaining and whining because he didn't sleep enough last night.

Because too many names. So, you know, I'm hearing in my mind, I'm tired. I'm tired.

I'm tired. Then, a question comes. Am I talking or am I listening in my mind?

Am I talker or am I listener? Then it feels like you're doing it at the same time. You're talking and listening.

It feels like that. But it cannot be. The talk triggers the hearing of the talk.

Okay, talk comes first, and then when you listen to the talk, consciousness of the talk comes a millisecond later. In fact, the Abhidharma says you are always one second behind the world. World.

Telephone rings. Sound comes to your ear. Comes to your mind.

You hear it. But it takes time to, even scientists say, it takes time for the sound to come to your ear. And it takes time for it to go through the nerves to your mind.

So actually, by the time you hear the ring of the cell phone, that ring is already past. It's like they say, when you look at the stars, that light came to our world for many thousands of years. And some of the stars you see in the sky, they are already burned out.

And the light just reaching us now. So it's the same with your ... By the way, this thing about the telephone, by the time you hear the ring, it's finished, right?

Next time your friend complains, you didn't call me back, you can explain. By the time I got your call, the call was finished. Vasubandhu said that.

So, by the time you hear your thoughts, the talker is finished. Okay? Because it's a split second to hear the thought.

It takes a split second to hear the thought. So actually those thoughts are coming out of seeds in your mind the same way the picture of the Lama is coming out in the deepest part of death. So actually you are more the listener than you are the talker.

What thoughts come out of the seeds in your mind? You can't control them. Because you don't hear them until the next second.

When you see a tree, it's too big to see. It's too late to push the tree back into the seed. By the time you see the tree, the seed is gone.

It's too late to do anything about the seed. By the time you hear your own thought, the seed which talked the thought is already gone. So my Lama, people used to come to ask him questions.

And I remember, sometimes I have to translate. I'm not translating his student's English into Tibetan language. I'm not.

When he gives answer, he gives in English. Then I have to translate his English into our English. Understand?

Then, so I'm always sitting with him. Then some guy came up, I remember he came up to my Lama's room. Lama, I'm having a really hard time.

Last three months, my girlfriend left me. I don't have enough money. My apartment roof is leaking.

And I feel really depressed. So what can I do? Then Lama look at him and say, be happy.

Then me and the guy, we are waiting for more information. He said, you didn't hear me? Don't be depressed.

Be happy. You can go now. Then the guy's like, look at me.

Then I'm like ... Then we left. Then every night I sit with my Lama, we have tea together.

We talk about things. I said, you know, Lama, this guy has a serious problem. He's very depressed.

He doesn't have money. Lost his girlfriend. House is ruined.

Why did you tell him, just be happy? He said, listen, after the tree grows, it's too late to change the tree. Seeds in his mind are opening, which he planted one month ago.

Seed open. And he's listening to them. Then, if he don't want to be depressed, he should have done something nice for somebody one month ago.

Then the seeds will be saying, I'm happy. I'm happy. I'm happy.

He said, it's too late. So, I don't want to waste my time. So, I told him, just be happy.

If he wants to be happy next month, I can tell him what seed to plant. But it's too late to change the thoughts he's hearing now. Why am I talking about that?

So, seed opens. I hear my I hear the seed say, I'm sad. That makes me sad.

Then it puts a new impression on my mind. New sad seed. Understand?

Sad seed open. I listen. It makes sad impression, and that becomes a seed for next week.

That's why we say Wheel of Life. You know? So, your seeds that are opening in your mind now, and the new seeds which they plant, and the new opening of those seeds, now listen.

That is called Stanley. Stanley. Okay?

There's no other Stanley. Okay? Seeds are opening, and they are planting new seeds.

And that stream which you American rock and rollers, the name is Santana. Santana. It's a name of a rock and roll band.

But in Sanskrit, it means this stream. That's the stream of Stanley's mind. That's why we can say Stanley is ...

I don't know. How old are you? 29-something?

That's why we can say Stanley is 30 years old. It just means his seeds are opening for 30 years, one after the other. And we call that stream Stanley.

Okay? That's Stanley. If each seed didn't plant a new seed, then Stanley would only last for five minutes or something.

Okay? Like, boop, boop, boop. Okay, Stanley finished.

Boop, boop. Stanley finished. Okay?

Now, when you were born into this world, you had your first thought. In the scripture, it says first thought is usually one or two different ... three or four different thoughts.

First thought inside your mother. Ah, it's hot in here. Or, she's doing yoga again.

Or, she's eating chilies again. Feel too hot. Okay?

So, there's a first thought inside your mother. Okay? If there's some thoughts inside your mom, according to Buddhism, there must have been a last thought in your last life.

Because something has to cause this one. Everything must have a cause. You can't have movement without movement before that.

So, in this life, it's hot. It's too hot. Up to the last thought.

Oh, lama in the death meditation coming from me. Okay? So, there must have been a thought last thought, last life.

And it planted the first thought in this life. Logically, it's not possible to have a thought without a seed. It's not possible to plant a seed without a thought.

Okay? So, there must have been a last thought. And there must have been one thought before that, and one thought before that.

So, we can logically ... Your mind had no beginning. Okay?

And the stream of your seeds opening is the lifetimes that Stanley has lived. Okay? And we say there will be no end.

So, if you want to visualize it, I like to see the whole universe, and Stanley's mind looks like one long noodle. Then, if you look down the noodle, there's no beginning. And if you check the other way, there's no end.

Every noodle has two important points on it. In your infinite noodle brain, we can only point to two special things. Two special things.

This is the moment that you saw emptiness directly for the first time. On your infinite noodle with no beginning, that's the only important thing that ever happened. The only important point.

That's only one important thing so far. You see emptiness directly. Then, shortly after that, only seven lifetimes after that, you become Buddha.

Okay? So, why am I giving such a long explanation? Each Buddha's spaghetti noodle is separate.

Okay? Every living being has a separate mind. You cannot mix them together because I cannot plant seeds for you.

So, even after this place on the spaghetti noodle, when you became Buddha, you still ... now you are Buddha Stanley. So, Buddhas don't mix together because the person is made of seeds opening.

And no one can plant seed for you. Now, second question, then I get to go take a nap. Uh ...

Yes, every Buddha can read the mind of every other Buddha. Why? One of the definitions of Buddha is kunken.

Some of you got named kunken. You are lucky. Kunken means knows all things which exist.

Other Buddha's mind exist. So, every Buddha can read all the mind of every other Buddha, but those minds are separate spaghetti noodles. Okay?

Clear? Okay. Thank you.

Then I'm going to do nap meditation before fire. Or maybe I'll play rock and roll. I don't know.

Who's the mandala person? Yeah, okay. So, we have a representative of ACI in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Hiranyi Mong. Hiranyi Mong. Thank you.

Sakye Phukyakirchen Medhotra Vimalakirti Nindekaripati Sanghe Shindhukamitthewargi Thank you, very beautiful. Two more things before we stop, and maybe Tim has some things. Organizer from Shanghai, Wang Xia.

Where are you? I'd like to welcome her. She asked me to remind you about programs in Shanghai this March.

It will be Level 4, which is how to use seeds to have good relationship with your parents, with your kids, with a business partner, with your phantom husband, and even your mother-in-law. And that will be March 18-19 in Shanghai. Then there will be also open talks, March 14 in Xiamen, March 16 in Hangzhou and Wuxi, and March 17 in Shanghai.

If you'd like more information, talk to Wang Xia. And thank you for doing such a nice job in Shanghai. She's very active to have a reading club.

It's just fun. You get together, you read some DCI book, and you can discuss with each other how to improve your relationship. It's nice because you can support each other.

That's real Sangha Jewel. Okay, thank you.