«Дар освобождения», курс 25 «Совершенное прибежище», занятие 1

[Speaker 1]
Good morning. Tashar hao. Buenos dias.

Dobro utro. I don't know the rest of them. Good morning.

[Speaker 2]
Let's meditate. And relax your forehead. And relax your lips.

Especially the corner of your mouth. Relax your fingers. Pull on your stomach just a little bit.

Straighten your shoulders. Pull your hands back just a little bit. And make your eyelids soft.

And then come to your breath. And watch your breath. Try to count to ten breaths.

Count number one on the exhale. And then the second exhale, this number two. And if you think of something else before you reach ten, start over again.

And we'll stay here for a few minutes. Then please invite your heart teacher to come and sit in front of you. It could be someone who's alive now.

[Speaker 1]
It could be a historical person, like Buddha or Jesus.

[Speaker 2]
It could be someone you haven't met yet, but you can imagine them. And they happily come and sit in front of you. Then bow down to them by thinking about one of their good qualities.

Something you would like to learn from them. And make them an offering in gratitude. It could be filling the sky with flowers, like Samantabhadra.

It could be some beautiful thing you've seen or heard in the last few days. Then think of something you've done in the last few days that you're not very proud of. Maybe said something to someone negative or thought something.

Then just literally open your heart to your teacher. Show them so you can clean it. Then think of something beautiful you've done in the last day or two.

Or something beautiful you've seen somebody else do. The hard work that the staff is doing here all year, and especially these last few weeks, is something very beautiful you can rejoice about. Then ask your teacher to teach you.

Keep teaching. When you ask, it means that you're open to learning and changing. Then ask your teacher to stay with you.

Without their influence, you just would continue the way you are. Then please start to think about the last few days and make a list of all the things you've done to take care of yourself. You've fed yourself.

You put clothes on yourself. You put yourself in a car and got your body here. You're working to support yourself, to have a place to stay, to have food, and to do the things you want.

All this intense effort towards yourself to be happy, take care of yourself. Try to count the ways you are taking care of yourself in the last few days. Now try to get in touch with the feeling of love that you have for yourself.

It's very, very strong.

[Speaker 1]
There are many bodies in this room, human bodies, and you choose one and you comb its hair and you buy it clothes and you make sure it's fed.

[Speaker 2]
You have a strong bias and a strong self-love. Some of it's healthy, but compared to the love we have for others, it's overwhelming. It's 99% of our attention is spent trying to feel good ourselves, trying to take care of ourselves.

[Speaker 1]
So don't judge it, but try to become aware of it and observe it.

[Speaker 2]
Try to recognize it, how much emotion, how much strength you put into taking care of yourself. Now think of a Buddha and they say that Buddha loves you many thousands or millions of times stronger than you love yourself. So the love you have for yourself, taking care of yourself, making the bed for yourself every night, to sleep in, feeding yourself, making sure you look good, that overpowering love is not 1% of the love that a Buddha has for you personally.

[Speaker 1]
So try to imagine someone who can watch you all day, wherever you are.

[Speaker 2]
Someone who can hear your thoughts all day and knows all of your faults and still has this love for you, which is millions of times stronger than the strong love you have for yourself. And bring your mind back to the teacher sitting in front of you and realize that they have this kind of love for you, much stronger than your love for yourself. And thank them.

Ask them to come in your heart and stay there. And their body starts to rise, still seated in meditation position, and it comes slowly up and gets smaller and smaller and turns to sit in the same direction as you and comes down on the top of your head, only as large as your thumb. And then you ask that teacher to come into your heart and they shrink to the size of a pea and they melt into the top of your head and they come down the central channel, just in front of your spine.

You can track them along your spine. You can feel them coming down slowly slowly to your throat, to your upper chest, and finally into your heart. And then they start to get smaller and smaller, almost as if they're staying inside a crystal globe, tiny, until they reach the size of a grain of sugar inside your heart.

And it's easier to picture them and keep them there if you picture them very small. It helps your mind focus. And they're smiling and they're happy and they love you and they will stay in your heart all day, protect you, guide you, love you.

Then come back to your breath. Count three long exhales. Don't open your eyes yet.

Don't move yet. Three long exhales. On the exhale, send that good karma, seeds out to all the people in this world that they have a good day.

It's Earth Day. Then you can open your eyes. Stretch.

Take a stretch.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, welcome to Lam Rim. Lam Rim means Steps of the Path. This is the 25th retreat.

Yeah, yeah. We're trying to finish a famous Lam Rim teaching by Pabongka Rinpoche, who was the teacher of my teacher. My teacher's teacher, yeah.

So he's your great-great-grandfather, something like that. My teacher taught this book to me for, I don't know, 25 years? Three times, true.

I think it's the greatest book in this world. So it's cool to have friends together and learn it together one more time. And I think it will save your life, okay?

I think it will save your life. If you come. If you can't come, I know it's expensive and it takes a lot of time to get here.

So if you can't come, listen to it on the Knowledge Base, okay? I think all of them are there, I don't know. And many of them are in Chinese and other languages.

And we're trying to translate them. Scott? Oh, the guy who runs the Knowledge Base is getting it up soon.

Yeah. He works really, really hard and he doesn't ask for money. He takes money, but he doesn't ask for money.

But try to keep up with it, try to follow it, even if you can't come. I think it will be the best thing you did in your life. And especially when you get older.

And as you get older, you'll understand that this is the most important thing you do all year, is to get ready for higher things. And it's very frustrating for me. This was a bad month, last month.

I got, I think, 15 emails from people who someone was dying in their family, or they got some terrible disease. I got an email from a woman that I haven't heard from for 20 years. I had no email for 20 years.

Then I got an email, I have cancer, my mother died, what can I do? And it's so frustrating for me. I said, please come to the first 25 retreats.

24. Then they want me to help them in 10 minutes or 20 minutes. It's not possible.

I can't. They want me to say some prayer and their mother's soul will go to heaven or something. It's too late.

You can't listen to the knowledge base after you die, easily. So, I think it's just really important that you're here and that you keep going. I know you've heard some of these things before.

Some people complain to me, you didn't say anything new today. And I'm like, well, maybe the old stuff is good. Or maybe we need to hear it again.

Some people have been coming to these classes for, I don't know, 25 years. I'm sorry if I don't say anything new. I have new stuff when you're ready.

But, I'm just following the text. A lot of you came here through DCI teachings around the world. That's going really, really well.

I'd like to thank all the Chinese organizers. And staff. We had a two-week tour recent, a few weeks ago.

And 7,000 people came to the teachings. And that's amazing. And people in China, Taiwan work so hard to make the teachings available for people.

And I'm really grateful for that. And I thank you for that. And it's going like that around the world.

So, people are working really hard. And a lot of the people here are teachers or organizers in different countries. And it's your job, right, to make it available to people.

My teacher said, he got upset because we weren't advertising his teachings very well. Actually, we didn't advertise them at all. Because we like to be a small group.

And he got angry one day. I seemed to get angry. And he said, how come all these other teachers, people advertise all their stuff and you don't advertise my stuff?

And we're like, you're too good to need advertising. It's kind of weird to advertise Dharma. Then he said, no, I understand.

It's not good to push Dharma. But he said, if you don't let people know it's available, you did a very bad thing. You have to let people know it's available who want to come.

I went to a yoga class in Phoenix and this guy, I would talk for four days in Phoenix and then I went to a yoga class and this guy ran up to me, he said, Geshe Michael, I wish you would come to Phoenix and teach. I said, I just finished four days of teaching. But he didn't hear about it.

We have to let people know it's there. We shouldn't push them or squeeze them. But we should let them know it's there.

Okay, so, I'm going to review a little bit from what we did in Thailand last time. I thought I would go through... I put the first three meditations in your meditation book are from Thailand, are from the teaching in Thailand.

I would like to thank Jasmine right now for Thailand. She worked really, really, really hard. She made it possible for 400 people to come to that retreat.

She just spent an unbelievable amount of energy and time to make it available for people. Thank you for that. She said she's going for 600 this year.

I don't know. But there's a beach there. We have sand, but no beach.

So, if you're not busy in December, you can come. She said she found a really nice hotel. A little bit more expensive, but much nicer.

Okay. On the beach. So anyway, I want to review three of the meditations we did in Phuket, in Thailand, just to catch up people who weren't there, so you know where we are.

So, the first meditation, what would it be like to love more than myself? Do you remember that one? We did it about five minutes ago.

Okay. That was a trick question. We did that one about five minutes ago.

So, that was the first meditation. That's part of the Lam Rim where we've reached the part where we talk about protection and how to get protection. You can call it protection.

You can call it shelter. You can call it refuge. But how do you get protection when you have problems in your life?

So, a big part of that protection is to recognize that there is a person who loves you millions of times stronger than you love yourself. So, they are ready to protect you and they just want you to come and ask. So, that was the first meditation.

There is a being, many Buddhas. They know what you're thinking. They watch you all day.

They're probably wincing all day. Oh man. But they care about us.

And you have to understand that they are there. They are waiting. They like to protect you.

They want to help you. You just have to learn how to reach them. So, that was the first meditation.

And that's the first review from what we did in Thailand. The second one, which is meditation number two here. And I like to use photographs for the meditations because I can remember photographs easier.

So, for example, if you're a teacher and you're teaching like Kamalashila or something, memorize the photographs. Memorize the flow of the photographs. And then you can teach it without notes.

A friend of mine paid for me to take a voice lesson with a famous jazz musician last week. And he's like, the first thing you got to know man, you can't just look at the paper and sing a song man. It just don't work.

It's not going to work. And so he threw away my notes. And teaching is the same I think.

Generally, unless you're following a text word by word, you can memorize the flow of the photographs. And when you're in retreat, which is starting day after tomorrow? Yeah.

It's good if you can memorize the meditations that you have to do. Then if you forget, you can peek. But just remember the photographs.

First photograph is what? Somebody admiring themselves in the mirror. That's self-love.

She's in love with herself. But Buddha's love for you is much, much stronger. Got it?

Are you warm? Can we turn on the air and freeze the people in front? Did you bring your coat, Jenny?

Okay. Who's going to turn on the air? Nick.

Can you turn on the air conditioner? Go ahead. Okay.

Second meditation. What is the highest form of power? And you have a guy pointing the way for hiking.

They're going on a hike and the guy is pointing the way. So you can remember the photograph. And then it says the limits to the unlimited.

So, this is a famous expression in this Lam Rim, where they say the unlimited has limits. The unlimited here means Buddha. Lord Buddha.

And the idea is that even Lord Buddha has limits. What do you think they are?

[Speaker 2]
Buddha.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, good. Buddha can't help you unless you have the seeds for it. That's the difference between Buddhism and Christianity, for example.

In Christianity, we believe that God made you and God can do anything. God can change you into a turtle today. Can do anything.

But in Buddhism, we believe Buddha has limits. Buddha can't help you if you don't have the seeds. Buddha cannot take bad seeds out of you.

Buddha cannot put good seeds into you. Buddha can only teach. Buddha can only teach.

So of all the things Buddha does, speaking is the most important. Buddha can only tell you how to plant good seeds. Then you have to do it yourself.

So that means he or she is limited. They have a limit to what they can do for you. And they can only teach you.

So, when we talk about taking refuge, going for protection, it's limited how much protection you can get. You see? Unless you plant the seeds for the protection.

Ultimately, the love that Buddha has for you was created by you. By your seeds. And the protection is created by you.

Okay? So, when you do the second meditation, which we'll do together, it's thinking about what I have to do to get protection. I have to do something from my side to get protection.

Probably it has to do with helping other people have protection. Like if you ignore people whose country is being demolished, and tell them they can't come here, then you can't expect protection for yourself. Things like that.

Okay, third meditation. And by the way, it's my goal to go through all these, I think it's 27 meditations. In the next two days, even before we reach them in the text.

Okay? And then, some of them we will reach in the text after your retreat, after your mini retreat. But I want you to meditate on them while you're in your three-day retreat.

Yeah, there are 27 meditations, basically. Okay? Okay, third meditation.

If I could answer like a mirror, then when you stand in front of a mirror, you don't have to ask the mirror to show you yourself. It's just automatic. That's the nature of a mirror.

When you put something in front of a mirror, the mirror will show it automatically. You don't have to ask the mirror, please show me myself. You just stand in front of the mirror.

And it's automatic. And the idea here is that the way a Buddha serves people is automatic. It's like a mirror.

When you provide the mirror, Buddha will be there. When you give Buddha a place to come, Buddha will come. And Buddha doesn't think about it.

It's called sung gi dupa, sung du. And it's such an important idea that many monks are called sung du. Geshe Zopa's first name was sung du in Wisconsin.

So, it means... sung du means it just shows up automatically. Sung du means automatically.

When you reach enlightenment, you have the power to show up automatically when someone needs you. So, a person in need is like a mirror. And a Buddha will show up there.

And there's a beautiful section in the lam rim we'll get to. It's like the moon reflects in any body of water. And it doesn't matter if it's the Pacific Ocean, or a lake, or a puddle on the street in Hong Kong, or a tear in someone's eye.

If there's water surface, the moon will shine. The moon will appear in that water. Doesn't matter where it is, or how big it is, or how small it is.

Buddha will appear. Buddha will come. If you ask.

If you ask them, they will come. And that's sung du. They don't think about it.

It just happens. It's automatic. When someone needs them, they show up.

Okay, so, when you do the third meditation, goodness without thought, I would like you to... We'll meditate it. We'll practice it together.

But, I'd like you to think about what it would be like to have that power. What if I had that power? So, I like to think...

I don't know why, I always see a bus in Guangzhou, and an old lady in Los Angeles, and maybe somebody in Paris. They're all having a bad day in three different cities around this world. And then Buddha appears to them.

I think it's very common that Buddha will appear as a small dog for old ladies. That's why so many old ladies have small dogs. Because Buddha just appeared.

They need company, their husband died, and they feel lonely, and then Buddha will appear as a small dog, and they can walk the dog, and you know, like that. They will appear on a bus to help an old lady up into the bus, or something like that. They are doing this stuff now, all the time.

Every moment, they are doing this all over the world. They're just showing up where people need them. So, I think it'd be nice when we do that meditation, you think about how it would be to have this power.

You want to do it right now? Let's do it right now. So, get ready to meditate.

I want to do each meditation with you at least once before you do your retreat.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, good. Let's go. Sit up straight.

Pull in your tummy just a little bit. Bring your shoulder blades together. Open your chest.

Relax your fingers. Come to your breath. Try to learn to come to your breath quickly.

Bring your mind down into your breath quickly. Then try to imagine yourself as you will be a Buddha, and you will see that Buddha directly for the first time.

[Speaker 1]
When you see emptiness directly, right after that experience, in the few hours following that experience, you will see yourself as you will be a Buddha taking care of an entire world. So, I'd like to look at this Buddha as standing on top of the sky, so their feet are, the bottom of their feet are facing the earth, but they are standing high above the atmosphere, standing on the atmosphere. Venerable Ching May asked me, what should we call the press that we have for printing Buddhist books?

I said, let's call it standing on the sky press.

[Speaker 2]
So you're standing, and you are looking down at your world that you're in charge of. It's your responsibility as a Buddha to focus on this particular world and help the beings in this world. So you feel sort of like a mom watching her child in a crib or something.

This is your world to help take care of it. And I'd like you to imagine this Buddha is like a moon, a shining full moon, and then down there on the surface of this earth are bodies of water, oceans, lakes, puddles, teardrops, and your light of your moon shines in each one. As soon as the water faces you, you appear in the water like a mirror, like stepping in front of a mirror.

But those bodies of water are people who need something. So I'd like you to imagine the Americas, South and North America, and choose a city that comes to mind. And imagine someone in that city who needs help today.

[Speaker 1]
And you decide what kind of help. It could be they just lost their boyfriend or girlfriend or husband or wife. They just found out that they are very sick, they have serious disease.

They just lost their job. They don't know what to do. You choose a city, and you choose an imaginary person or someone you know in the Americas who has a problem.

[Speaker 2]
And then imagine that you step in front of that mirror and you become someone or something that can help them. Maybe a dear friend or a child who comforts them or a teacher or a little dog. You choose something and step in front of the mirror of the person who needs you.

And imagine you're helping them in a place in the Americas. Then stay in that body of the friend or the dog in the Americas, and then move your mind to Europe. Look down on Europe, Western or Eastern Europe, and choose a city, and then decide.

Think of a person who might need you. Let's do the whole strip, like Middle East, Africa, Europe, and think of someone who needs something. Choose a city.

Maybe create an imaginary person or think of a person you know about, say in Syria or something, and come to them as a friend or a protector, someone to love. Reflect in that mirror, in that puddle of water of a person who needs you. But don't let go of the one in the Americas.

Keep that one going and create a second one. Now move your mind to Asia, North and South, and do the same thing. Think of any city.

Choose a city. Ho Chi Minh, Singapore, Jakarta, Guangzhou, Shanghai or Beijing. You choose.

Imagine a person there who has some problem. Don't let go of the first two bodies you took in the Americas and in the strip of Europe and Middle East Africa. Hold those two and now choose a city in Asia.

Imagine someone in trouble needs help or choose someone you know and step in front of that mirror of a person in need and appear suddenly in their life as a friend or a teacher or maybe as their child, someone they can love and enter this third body at the same time as you keep the other two. Keep those three bodies going, helping three different people and bring your mind back to yourself standing on the sky. Those three bodies are still living, helping people, but bring your attention back to yourself as a Buddha standing in the sky and then three long exhales to come back and then slowly open your eyes.

Take a good stretch.

[Speaker 1]
We caught up to Thailand, so I think it's a good time to take a break. Okay, so we'll take a ten minute break? Okay, let's start.

So my idea for teaching this book was to go through the original Tibetan word by word because I would like to have a record of it in the world before I take any trips. So I would like to... I know maybe if you don't know Tibetan it seems strange or it's boring, but I don't care because I want to finish it in my lifetime.

I want to have a record of it. So I will go through the Tibetan word by word and when there are special words that would be helpful to know for our translators, we have a translator team. They are working on, I think, 23 books.

They have a project of 23 books. It's scheduled to go to 2024. So I will pause sometimes and explain a word that I think they might need.

If you don't like that approach, just come to DCI. Okay. But this is the backup for DCI.

This is the foundation. This is where DCI comes from. I think it's good to hear it.

The filter process is that 1,000 people come to a talk at the Union Trade Center in Singapore. Then 100 people will come to the Swiss Club for a retreat and 10 of those will come to Diamond Mountain. You see?

So you are one out of... Sorry, one will come to Diamond Mountain. Anyway, so you're at the bottom of the filter.

You are the people who are most serious and you're going to hear the original scripture. You will, during this week, and especially in Guadalajara, you will say, oh, that's where DCI comes from or that's where that comes from. All right.

I think it's important to do both. I think it's important to reach normal people with normal language. I think it's important to have the backup of the ancient scriptures.

You should have both. Then we have to translate it into Spanish with a bigger team. We had, in Taiwan, we had level 8.

The manual is 400 and something pages, 450 pages. And the Chinese translation team, organized by Stanley. Guess how many people worked on the translation?

81. 81. 81 translators.

And they finished in one week. Okay. So, it's an example for Spanish.

Okay. We have to talk about it. We need to get going.

Okay. All right, here we go. Who's...

Are we going to project it to them? So, I'm at Shenyang Kui, I don't know. G-Z-H-A-N-Y-A-N-G You got it?

Shenyang? Shenyang Kui. Something going on up there.

Oh. Okay. It's secret.

All right. All right. Shenyang Kui, CHOG CHUD BSTAN NAS SEMS CAN DU BA So, these are other examples of Buddha doing things.

CHOG CHUD is an unusual word here, it means miracles. So, Buddha will show miracles. Like Jesus turned water into wine, and walk on water.

And then Buddha often does the same thing. SEMS CAN DU BA To impress students and get them to do things. Generally, it's not a preferred method because it doesn't last.

Then next week people say, I want a bigger miracle. So, it's better if people just can understand the scripture and follow it. But sometimes it's good to show a miracle for people and it changes their life.

GSUNG GI CHEN LAS CHOS GSUNGS PA Then the main quality of Buddha's speech is to teach dharma, of course. YANG MO MED PA'I MTHUN GYI MDZIN LA BSTAN NAS THUG GI PHYIR NAS BRJED PA YIN So, then Buddha is in a constant state of perfect meditation. So, they act from a state of deep meditation all the time.

Then they can do things out of that meditation, like emanate as the wind and teach us. I like to try to listen to trees when they rustle and see if Buddha is talking to me. Like, don't do that Geshe Michael.

Like that. DOR NA SA RGYAS PA MED NA BSTOD RAG PA DANG So, up to the eighth bodhisattva level, BSTOD RAG PA means obvious effort. They have to make an obvious effort to do an action.

It's with decision. With a lot of decision and thinking about it, they will help somebody. Up to the eighth bodhisattva level, when we help people, we have to think about it and then we have to make plans and then we have to work hard to make the plans come true, like funding Diamond Mountain or something.

It takes a lot of effort and conscious thought. Up to the eighth bodhisattva level. Now you can guess what he's going to say next.

After that, DE YANG GIS BYANG SEMS KYIS RKYANG KUN LONG PHRAG MO LA BSTOD ZHING DE LTOS NAS SEMS CAN THAMS CAD DU BYED PA'I PHYIN LAS MIN BYUNG Then eighth, ninth, tenth bodhisattva levels. The bodhisattva is subtle. It's a subtle...

KUN LONG PHRAG MO means subtle motivation. They have a very subtle thought to help somebody and then it happens. So they can make things happen without a lot of planning, without a lot of intention.

It just kind of happens. They say, it would be nice if Diamond Mountain had enough money and then next week it has enough money. Like that.

So eighth, ninth, tenth bodhisattva levels. It's still a subtle intention to help people. It's required to take actions.

Now what's he going to say? Yeah, but when you become a Buddha, it's like stepping in front of a mirror. It's automatic.

You help people automatically. SEMS CAN THAMS CAD DU BYED PA'I PHYIN LAS MIN BYUNG means even eighth, ninth, tenth bodhisattvas with their very subtle intentions... Is the Chinese having a problem?

The Chinese? It's okay?

[Speaker 2]
Something wrong with the Chinese? It's okay? If you need batteries, they're...

You have batteries. Okay. HAO DANG HAO MA There's a better one.

Good? Try it Stanley. Good?

HAO MA Okay, HAO.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so because they still have to think about it a little bit, a bodhisattva at the eighth, ninth, and tenth levels cannot help all beings at the same time. Not possible. Because, you know, there's too many people.

SANGS RGYAS KYI MTHUN LAS NI By the Buddha's activity, BDAG GIS SEMS CAN GYI DON BYA'O GONG BA'I KUN LONG DANG PA'I TSUL SOGS LA MI STOD PAR They don't think, they never think I should go help this person or this other person needs help or, you know, I should get down there to Los Angeles right now and help that person. They don't think that. They don't have time.

BAR DPER NA RNAMS SKYES BDAG BA'I RANG NYID NA For example, similar to the moon in the sky, RNAM PAR RTOGS PA MED Without any kind of conscious thought, GZHAN DU RTZA TSE ZIL BA GSOS DANG SPYOD DANG SPYOD NUS BUM PHRAG MANG PO So the word here is ZIL PA or ZIL BA ZIL PA This comes in the Diamond Cutter Sutra in the last few lines. Kharma rabri marmer dang RGYUD MA GSOS PA SPYOD PA'I DANG RGYUD MA GSOS PA SPYOD PA'I DANG Famous poem. Like a star.

Like an illusion. Which one is here? Yeah, like a drop of dew.

What's he going to say? Yeah, the moon will reflect even in the morning when there's a drop of dew on the grass. Then the moon coming down, right?

Will show in that drop. Okay? At nine, okay?

Dew on the tip of a plate of grass. Even there, the moon will appear. GSOS DANG SPYOD NUS BUM PHRAG MANG PO And in billions of open pots of water or glasses of water around the whole world.

MANG PO CHU NGOS NAS This NGOS is useful to know. N-G-O-S NGA NA RANG NGO SANG NGOS And it means the surface of something. So, the surface of a wall is called NGOS.

The surface of water is called NGOS. And the word to recognize someone is called holding their surface. MUN ZIN Okay?

MUN NAS DANG ZHING It's clear, crystal clear. This is a beautiful Tibetan word if you want to learn it. DAG HA SOR NA SA DANG Okay?

And it means crystalline clear. It's a very beautiful word. And it's also the word for faith.

It's one of the words for faith. So, it can refer to clear mountain springs or it can refer to how a person feels about their teacher or something like that. Okay, DANG.

DANG ZHING MA YOD NA If the water's not moving, what's that mean? Yeah, if the mind is quiet, the Buddha can reflect there. If the mind is not quiet, if the water is shaking, it won't show the reflection of the moon.

GZUGS NYAN CHAR BA LTAR Then that reflection GZUGS NYAN will appear in that water. RDUL BYED RGYU DAG NAS Here's the important part. This sentence is very important.

Okay, let's do it. RDUL BYED RGYU DAG NAS RDUL BA'I RDUL LA BA BA NA RDUL BYED RGYU DAG What's DAG? Pure.

He's my human dictionary. DAG NAS means if the... I got a charley horse, I apologize.

If the disciple's heart is pure, DAG NA That's a very important qualifier. If the disciple's heart is pure, DAG NAS RDUL BA'I RDUL LA BA BA NA If it's time to tame them, RDUL BA is... What's the Sanskrit?

Vinaya. If it's time to vinayasize them, meaning if they're acting wrong, but if their heart is pure, RDUL BA'I RDUL LA BA BA NA If it comes time to correct them, SANGS RGYAS KYI CHEN LAS BAS MED LHUN DUP DU SBYUG PA YIN Here's the word LHUN DUP. BAS MED often comes with LHUN DUP.

It means effortlessly. Automatically, the Buddha will appear to help them. That's a Buddhist quality.

If it's time, and if you have the seeds. DUN DU SANGS RGYAS KYI CHEN LAS ZHES PA RANG RGYUD YES ZHUGS PHYUD KHUS BDAG KHYEN BYAS PA Basically, what we call the holy activity of a Buddha, which is called CHEN LAS, that's also a popular name. There's a TEN TZIM CHEN LAS in the Vajrayogini lineage, if you remember.

He was my first teacher, his reincarnation. TEN TZIM CHEN LAS So CHEN LAS means the activities of a Buddha. Holy activities.

ZHES PA RANG RGYUD YES ZHUGS PHYUD KHUS BDAG KHYEN BYAS PA BDAG KHYEN means what's the cause inside a person that creates these bodies showing up in Buenos Aires and Berlin and Guangzhou? What's the cause inside a person? It's YES ZHUGS KHUS.

YES ZHUGS KHUS We learned, we were debating it here, I forget. Last time we were here, we were debating how many bodies does a Buddha have? Tell me what's the right answer, two or three or four?

And Yuan Tse says five. All the above. Who said that?

You can't answer all the questions. You can divide Buddha's body, which just means the parts of a Buddha. In this case, body means parts.

There's two parts, or three parts, or four parts. Two parts means physical and mental. Rupakaya, Dharmakaya.

Physical body and Dharma body. Three parts, you can split the physical body into two. The one that they keep in heaven, the one that they send to places, and then their mental body.

When you divide it into four, there's the physical body in their paradise, there's the physical body they send to earth, there's their mental body, their wisdom, their state of mind, and then there's the emptiness of these three, it's called their reality body. Emptiness body. So, essence body.

NGO NYID GUS SVAD BAB PA'I RKA' YA So, what he's talking about is this third one, the mind of a Buddha. Yeshe Chukwu That triggers the emanations without intention. If you have a Buddha's mind, you will show up in every city in the world where someone needs you and you don't have a choice, and you don't think about it, it just happens.

The trigger is your state of mind. That's what he's saying. The trigger.

BDAG KHYAN means the trigger inside of a person. The inside of person trigger is his wisdom. And if you have that state of mind, even if you don't want to, you will show up in many cities to help people.

Like the moon reflecting in water. He finished talking about how cool a Buddha is, and he's going through the Three Jewels, because this section is about taking refuge, right? To the Three Jewels.

Which is, by the way, what makes you a Buddhist. So, in Christianity, you get baptized. Then you become a Christian.

In Judaism, something goes, Anyway. Vit, right? Anyway, I went to one of these ceremonies.

I couldn't stay. But in Buddhism, when you take refuge, then you're a Buddhist. When you take refuge in the Three Jewels.

So, there's two interesting possibilities. One is, if people understand the pen very well, they take refuge by accident, and they all become Buddhists, even if they don't want to. Then there's lots of Buddhists, people who were born in Buddhist families, who want to be a Buddhist, but they don't know about the pen, so they're not a Buddhist.

Okay? All right. NYID PA CHOS KYI YON RTEN NI What are the cool things about the Dharma refuge?

ZHUNG PHYIR MO'I THOS PA BYAS PA YIN NA Now, I think this is one of the most important parts in this book. Did I say that 300 times already? But it is.

What's the Dharma? What is Dharma? And what's Dharma refuge?

Here he talks about the real one and the one that's not real. What do you call him? He shows his cards.

He shows you what's real, what's true. Here, right here. You want to be a Buddhist?

This sentence. Ready? ZHUNG PHYIR MO'I THOS PA BYAS PA YIN NA If people have had a chance to get a good Buddhist education, if they came to many Lam Rim retreats, if they went to many DCI levels, if, he says if, MTHONG LAM PAR BYED MED LAM LTA BU then you can explain to them that the direct perception of emptiness is the ultimate taking refuge.

Period. Emptiness is refuge. If you understand the pen, you are taking refuge.

If you understand the pen, you're a Buddhist. If you don't understand the pen, frankly, you're not a Buddhist. Okay?

Got it? Here's where he says it. So, if I say that in a DCI program, you know where it came from.

MTHONG LAM PAR BYED MED LAM which means the direct perception of emptiness during the path of seeing. LTA BU RANG GI DNGOS RGYAL GYI BRJOD PA DBANG TSUL BSAM ZHING If you're just aware of how understanding emptiness can help you to remove your negative thoughts forever, then you're a Buddhist. If you're aware of how emptiness can help you be a better person, then you're a Buddhist.

Now, I'm going to give a real life example because it's in your meditation book. Okay? Let's look at number...

meditation number...

[Speaker 2]
Where is that guy?

[Speaker 1]
Meditation number 15 and 16. I repeated it. I repeated a picture in both meditations.

What's the picture? The two husbands. This is what we call a DCI life tool.

There are 96 DCI life tools. Once you know them, you're really smart. Okay?

This is one of them. It's called the two husbands. Alright?

Does the lady look happy? No. Why?

The husband is yelling at her. What does it mean?

[Speaker 2]
We could do it up here.

[Speaker 1]
I don't know if we should do it. Well, Nick's really good at it. Xiaoping's good at it.

Come, quick. Be the husband. I'm the wife.

You're one of the husbands. Okay. These are my three bad kids.

Right here. Okay? I'm the wife.

You know? I'm a working woman. Okay?

So, I have three naughty kids. Which is almost real life. And then I have a husband.

Okay? Then I'm working full time because the husband likes to watch soccer. And he's not interested in...

So, anyway. My life is like that. Five days a week, I take my kids to school before I go to work.

And then I work for 8 or 10 hours. If I live in Guangzhou, I probably work for 14 hours. And then I come home.

But on the way home, I have to buy groceries because my husband's watching soccer. Not penny, of course. So, then when I come home, I'm really, really tired.

Exhausted. So, you know this story because that's your real life. Now, on Tuesday afternoon, my boss tells me that on Wednesday morning, I have to come in early.

Probably because we have a Skype call with the Vassics in America. We live in China. So, I don't know why they can't have a Skype call in the middle of the night.

It's always... the Chinese who have to have the Skype call in the middle of the night. And my boss told me, don't forget, you have to come...

I want you here at 8 o'clock in the morning, not 9 o'clock, okay? So, then Tuesday night, I have to tell my three kids, tomorrow mommy has to go to work early. And, you know, so I want you to be dressed for school, not at 7 o'clock, but like 6.30, okay?

And have your homework finished and be dressed and have your shoes on and everything. And then mommy's got to take you to school earlier because mommy has to work. Then they promise.

See how they're nodding. And then, next morning, when mommy walks in the room, they are jumping on the bed. You don't have to...

They are jumping on the bed. They don't have their school clothes on. They lost their shoes.

Nobody can find them. They're under the bed someplace. Then mommy's like, I told you to be ready.

You're so stupid. You are the stupidest kids in Guangzhou. You know, like that, okay?

Then mommy... Who heard mommy? Yeah, the three kids, maybe they heard, maybe they didn't.

But mommy hears mommy, okay? When mommy hears mommy say bad thing, mommy makes a bad seed. That plants a bad seed in mommy's mind, okay?

Next week, Monday, bad day, right? Monday is always the worst day. So you go to work.

You had a long day. You took the kids to school. You went to work.

Your boss kept you late. I'll tell you an interesting thing about bosses. They give you so much trouble if you show up late in the morning.

But they're not shy to ask you to stay late in the afternoon. Why is that? My boss, he starts screaming at me, you know, you are late.

You are ten minutes late. I say, you kept me three hours late yesterday. I'm ten minutes late.

You kept me three hours late. They don't understand. So he keeps me late.

Then I come home. Sorry, I went to buy groceries because my husband is watching a football game. Soccer game.

I'm tired. Then I come home and all I want, the reason I have a husband, the only reason, because he doesn't work much, is to give me hugs. I like to have some, that feeling of him hugging me.

That's why I keep him. And then, so I'm looking forward to having a hug. You ready?

Come home late. Open the door. I'm home.

[Speaker 2]
You're stupid!

[Speaker 1]
Phat thong! Then the husband calls you rice bucket head because you're late. The husband is upset because husband didn't get dinner during the soccer game.

Then they call you stupid. Now, normal, the normal reaction is what? No, wu phat thong!

No, ni phat thong! You're a phat thong. I'm not rice bucket head.

You're a rice bucket head. Like that. That's normal reaction.

What happens if you do that? Who hears it? You hear it.

It plants another seed. Next week, he will do again. Because he's coming from you.

He's like a pen. He's coming from you. Why did he yell at you?

Yeah, because you planted the seed last week. Last Wednesday you planted the seed. He's coming from you.

Whose fault? Yeah, it's your fault. Now, bad news.

Every irritating person you ever met was coming from you. Everyone. Most people want to say, Geshe-la, 90% of the people I meet who are irritating coming from me, but my ex-husband, he's not coming from me.

He's so bad. Okay? People think that.

It's really 100%. It's really 100%. So if you...

So this husband called Xiaoping, I believe not coming from me. Not my fault. You can take a deep breath and you can say in one word, I didn't do anything.

I didn't do anything. I just opened the door. I didn't do anything.

And then he called me phantom. I don't know what it is. That husband, not my fault.

That husband, not my fault. Does it exist or not? Doesn't exist.

That husband, we call in Buddhism, in Tibetan we call it Gag ja. Who said gag ja? Nice.

That's a self-existent thing. That's a gag ja. That's the thing that's not there.

And that's the meaning of illusion. It looks like he's there, but he's not there. That's maya.

That's illusion. Don't get all mystical on me. It's not mystical.

It's all about husbands. That husband is maya. That husband appears to be real and doesn't exist.

The husband who's not... I didn't do anything. It's not my fault.

That husband doesn't exist, never existed, will never exist, cannot exist, because it's not coming from you. That's impossible. That's the impossible husband.

Now, the other husband, Nick, the lousy husband. Right, Aaron? No.

That one is my fault. That one I created last week with my three bad kids. I planted a seed by hearing my own thing and I planted a seed.

Next week the seed opens, picture comes out, goes on top of Nick's body and mine. That's dependent origination. If you want to use stupid, long Buddhist words.

Seed came out. Seed opened up. Dependent origination.

Let's just call it, come from my seeds. Same thing. He comes from me.

Does that husband exist? Yeah, he's dependent origination. She's emptiness.

They go together. She doesn't exist. That one isn't there.

That's emptiness. The absence of this husband in the universe is called emptiness. The presence of this husband who comes from my seeds is called dependent origination.

Every time you meet anybody until you are 8th level bodhisattva, there will be two of them in the room. There will always be two of them in the room. Okay?

There's always two husbands in your room, in your kitchen. Always. Okay?

Always. Because your mind is still making this false, fake one. But you know that it's not true.

There's two husbands in the room all the time. Now, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big question. When you get upset and you want to say, no, I'm not stupid.

You're stupid. Okay? When you prove you're stupid by planting a new seed.

Okay? By saying, no, you're stupid. Okay?

When you get upset, when you get angry, which husband are you angry at? Xiaoping or Nick? Yeah, Xiaoping.

Allison. Okay? So, learn something.

Understand something. Every time you got upset or nervous or frightened or worried in your whole life, you were worried or angry or frightened about something that wasn't there. And all war in this world.

World War II killed 100 million people. 35 million in China. Okay?

From Japan, right? It killed 100 million people.

[Speaker 2]
Those enemies didn't exist. Okay? 100 million people died hating someone who wasn't there.

[Speaker 1]
But it killed 100 million people. See what I mean? It's amazing.

It's incredible. Okay? Got it?

Now, what happens? What do we call it if you say, oh, I understand where you come from. It's because I yelled at my kids last week.

I won't do that again. Okay? What's that called?

When you use emptiness to stop your anger, what's that called? Nirvana. It's called nirvana.

That's the definition of nirvana. Okay? I will not get angry because I know I will plant another seed.

Then you stop the cycle. That's called you broke the Wheel of Life. Okay?

See? You broke samsara. Okay?

Cool? Okay, two husbands can sit down. Thank you.

Thank you for being good husbands. If you want to call somebody phantom, if you want to say, no, you're stupid, you can go in the toilet, in the bathroom, look in the mirror and say, yo, I'm stupid. Okay.

All right. THONG RNAMS PAR MTSAN MED LAM LTA BU, RANG GI DNGUL BSKYED RGYUD PA PONG TSUL SOGS BSAM ZHING Thinking about how you're going to get rid of your anger by not getting angry at a husband who's not come from you is called taking refuge. Got it?

That's refuge. That's protection. You just protected yourself in the future.

Okay? That's all. Okay?

Forget all this NAM MO SANGS RGYA YANG, NAM MO BU DAG YANG, NAM MO RANG BA'I RANG, RANG BOS DAM SHARANAM GOS BYAMS You know, forget all that. Use it in your kitchen. Don't use it in the temple.

Temple is already peaceful. Kitchen is not. Okay?

Use it there. Take refuge there. When you have a problem, take refuge.

That's real Buddhism. And all those people in many countries studying DCI, if they follow this, they're Buddhists. And they don't know it.

And it's okay they don't know it because they don't have to be Buddhists. I don't care. Just be happy.

Reach Nirvana. Okay. Okay.

RGYUD PA'I SPONG GSOL SOGS TZAM If you think about how you can get rid of your anger by understanding that the people who upset you or the traffic jams that upset you are coming from what you did last week, then you took refuge. And that's all. Got it?

Cool? We can just go home now. Or we could have a five-day party.

DE LTAR MI SHES PA'I But we have 13 more minutes, okay? So hang in there. If you think your butt is tired now, wait till five days from now.

Okay. DE LTAR MI SHES PA'I NI SNGAR SANGS RGYIS MI KHYAB PAS YIN LDAN DANG LDAN PA SHES PA'I SANGS RGYIS DE GANG LAS CHUNG NA DGOS BLAM SOGS RTOG PA DANG LUNG GI CHOS LA BSTAN NAS BYUNG ZHING BYUNG BA'I NA CHOS LA DE DAG GIS PA'I YIN LDAN NYAMS DU BSAM DE LTAR MI SHES PA'I NI SNGAR SANGS RGYIS MI KHYAB PAS YIN LDAN Then he's kind of talking about people who are not intelligent enough to understand the two husbands. Okay?

People who are not intelligent enough to understand the two husbands. Everybody in this room, if you got here in the middle of nowhere, you probably have enough Dharma IQ, Dharma intelligence to understand the two husbands easily. But there are millions of people who can't understand it.

You explain it very carefully and then they go home and yell at their husband. Nothing happens. They don't change.

Okay? Those people, you can teach them. Okay, just say Namo Buddhaya, Namo Dainaya, make some incense, you know.

He said, okay, that's okay. Those people who can't understand this one, the two husbands, then teach them to go to temple, teach them to make incense, teach them some small mantra, OM MANI PADME HUM. It's okay.

That's alright. Because they're not ready for the real refuge. MI SHES PA'I NI By the way, people can be very intelligent and not have Dharma intelligence.

It's different, right? There are many very intelligent people who hurt other people and think it's okay. Okay?

So, it's not the same as normal intelligence. Functional. Worldly intelligence?

Okay. DE DAG MI SHES PA'I NI, SNGAR BSAM GYI MI KHYAB PA'I YON DANG, LDAN PAR SHES PA'I SANGS RGYAS DE GANG NA'I CHUNG NA So, you can explain to the person about all the cool things of the Buddha. SGOS BLAM SOGS RTOGS PA DANG LUNG GI CHOS LA BSTAN NAS BYUNG ZHING BYUNG BA'I NA But really, you have to split Dharma into two kinds.

Somebody tell me what they are. Yeah. The books and the ideas.

Okay? The books and the ideas. Is this book Dharma?

Yeah, it's Dharma. And it can protect you. It's okay.

But the idea, the understanding, the two husbands, that's real protection. Whether you use it or not, I don't know. But it can protect you if you use it.

But you have to use it. So, here it says RTOGS PA DANG LUNG GI CHOS You have to use both really, right? This expression, RTOGS PA and LUNG is so popular in Buddhism that some monk's name is LUNG RTOGS BSTAN NAS BYUNG ZHING BYUNG BA'I NA CHOS LA DE DAG BSKYED PA'I YON TAN NYAM DU BSAM So, that brings us to this meditation number four.

Can you show the photo? Yeah. When you get to, when you're in your three-day retreat, you'll be doing a meditation on this picture.

And it's supposed to show both kinds of Dharma jewel. This is both kinds of Dharma jewel. What's the first one?

The book. What's the second one? It's the idea behind that smile.

There's an idea like six inches behind that smile in here. And that's the real Dharma jewel. So, this picture is supposed to show the two kinds of Dharma jewel.

And when you do that meditation, you can think about the two kinds of Dharma jewel. Like, how many Dharma jewels do I have in my life? I have Lam Rim.

I have Kamalashila. I have Disayi level one, level two, level three. You can count the physical Dharma jewels you have.

And then you have to count the mental ones you have. Mainly three. LAM SO RNAM GSUM The three principal path.

The word path in Buddhism means idea. It doesn't mean road. What are three principal paths?

First one? Yeah, just see, life is trouble. Life is trouble.

If you don't do anything, you will get old and suffer. It's life. Life is a problem.

You should feel sad about it. If you think things are going well, just wait a while. Wait till you have to go to doctors every day.

Like, the body falls apart. I was reading Princeton magazine about they're trying to cure old age. But what they figured out was they can't cure old age by curing separate diseases.

Like, you can't cure diabetes and then cure cancer and then cure heart attack. It doesn't matter. Because what they found out is a person who gets, a person who dies from diabetes is going to die in three months from heart attack anyway.

You see, if you cure the diabetes, they will die from heart attack in a few months. If you cure the heart attack, they will die from cancer a few months after that. Because the body all falls apart at the same time.

That's why they got diabetes. You see what I mean? You have to change the cells, or you have to change the karma.

But the first principal path is just be aware how messed up things are. Just be aware. Things are not going well in this realm.

People are killing each other. People who are getting old and are going to die anyway are killing other people who are going to get old and die anyway. Why spend the time?

Do something else for a while. Because you're both going to die anyway. Why bother to kill somebody?

Just that's the world. It's messed up. The world's messed up right now.

This realm. There's other realms that are not messed up. We're just in the bad neighborhood.

Okay. Alright. Second principal path.

Yeah, bodhichitta. I would like to do something to help everybody. Very basic.

I would like to change myself to help everybody else. Third one? Yeah, understand the pen.

That's all. Those three ideas are Buddhism. Those three ideas are Dharma jewel.

The real Dharma jewel. The world's messed up. I would like to do something to help it.

Understanding the two husbands is how we can get there. No more fighting. I talk about Diamond Mountain all over the world.

I say Diamond Mountain is one place where people will say, somebody calls them stupid, they go like this. No, you're... That's the sign of real practice at Diamond Mountain.

I call it half-finished sentences. That's a sign that Dharma is going on at Diamond Mountain. There are more half-finished sentences here than any place else I ever saw.

People are like, no... Okay. Four more minutes.

I'm going to use every minute. Okay. We were studying how to teach teachers and we found a guy, the most popular teacher at Princeton said...

What he said? Oh, three principles of great teaching. Number one, know your material.

Number two, get to know your students. Number three, let class out early. But it's not going to happen.

Okay. SPYIR GCOD GNOD GNYIS Generally speaking, Dharma jewel, SGOGS BSTAN DANG, THUNG BSGOM BAR CHAD MED LAB LTA BU SA SPYIR LAM NA SOGS LA BYAS KYANG Generally, the Dharma jewel is when you can no longer get angry, which we call the truth of cessation. Okay?

When you reach a point where you can't get mad anymore because you understand where things are coming from, that's called... THUNG BSLAM, seeing emptiness directly. BSGOM BSLAM, getting rid of your negativities.

BAR CHAD MED LAB, the direct portion of the path of seeing. SA CHU, ten bodhisattva levels. LAM NA, the five paths, etc.

That's the real Dharma jewel. Those realizations. But, KYANG, but, DE'I RGYUD BDUR BA TSOG CHE CHER, TSUN JA'I TZAM RAG PA'I KHO LA BAR BSHAD NA LAM YIN GYI LTA BU CHA RUNG BA NGON ZHUGS LTAR YIN GSUNGS But, when you're teaching people who can't get it, then fall back to Dharma.

Fall back to books and counting lists and trying to get them... Throw the Heart Sutra at them. Throw the Diamond Cutter Sutra at them.

Make them memorize Heart Sutra, anything. Teach them a mantra. If they can't get it, then okay, give them the physical Dharma.

Give them the physical Dharma. That's what he says here. If they can't get it, RGYUD BDUR BA TSOG CHE CHER, the point is to help people.

So, TZUN JA'I TZAM RAG PA RAG PA means KHO LA BAR KHO LA BAR means, give them something any fool can understand. KHO LA BAR RAG PA, give them approximate Buddhism. RAG PA BSHAD NA, give them LAM YIN He said it, LAM YIN.

Got it? You learned Dharma Jewel in DCI. You don't need all this Lam Rim, but it's good to know, right?

And then he says NGON ZHUGS PA LTAR means, I told you that already. He mentioned it before. So, real Dharma Jewel, understanding the two husbands.

Understanding the pen. Okay? You're lucky because I didn't teach you the pen again.

Or maybe not. Okay.