«Дар освобождения», курс 25 «Совершенное прибежище», занятие 3

[Speaker 1]
All right, let's go back to LOM RIM. So now we're talking about the great qualities of the Sangha. GSUM PA RGAN SDUG BSNGAL YIN DANG NI NYAN THOS TSOR LAMS PA So, you know the five paths of evolution for a Buddhist practitioner.

Path of accumulation. You're making good karma, piling up good karma. And the path of accumulation starts when you have a personal disaster, a tragedy in your life.

You lose your husband or your mother dies in your arms. Then you get interested in Buddhism because something bad happened in your life. So that's considered in Buddhism the beginning of a spiritual career, when you have a problem, serious problem.

Then you make good karma, you pile up good karma, and that's enough to get an explanation of the pen from somebody. That's the second path, second level of realization. Someone teaches you emptiness in a clear way, simple way.

Then you understand it. Third path, Path of seeing, and you see emptiness directly. All people go through these five.

Sooner or later, everybody in the universe goes through these five. Bugs, fish, birds, people. Number four, you get used to what you saw and you use it on your husband.

You use what you learned about emptiness in your real life, which is the path of seeing. With your work, with your family. Then nirvana is path number five.

You reach nirvana. You get so good at understanding that the husband is coming from you, that no one can make you upset, even if they try. Like your best friend.

They do their best to irritate you and you're like, you know, I know you're coming from what I did last week. I don't care. I'm not gonna make that mistake again.

I hate you. Therefore, I will be nice to you. Got it?

Okay, so as Sangha Jewel, Pabongka Rinpoche starts with the lowest possible, which is tsoklam, somebody on the first path. The only good thing they ever did was to have a tragedy. And they got spiritual.

And nyen du, nyen du means they didn't learn the Bodhisattva teachings yet. He tried to pick, as a Sangha Jewel, the lowest possible person. You have to appreciate that.

tsun na, if we take them for an example, sipa la yinjung kye ne, they get sad about this life because they had a tragedy. Sipa la yinjung, yinjung means ngenjung, same thing. They get sad about the world.

If my mom can die in my arms, if my husband who loved me for so many years can leave me suddenly, anything's possible. They get sad about life. yinjung kye ne, tsoklam du shuk te, and that pushes them into the first path.

chang chuk gi tsok chuk sum pel wa, they increase their practice of the thirteen Buddhist component, thirteen parts of Buddhism. He calls it the thirteen parts of Buddhism. chang chuk gi chok dangpo sum topa, and they start on the first three groups of the Buddha qualities.

These are two technical terms, and I have to explain them to you. First one is thirteen practices, thirteen ways to make good karma that are happening on the first path. How did you get on the first path?

Yeah, personal tragedy. So you got out of personal tragedy, then you have thirteen things to practice on the first path. These come from a sangha.

These come from a sangha. I'm going to go straight to them. You want to go deeper?

I mean, this long rim is going to take like thirty years, it's okay. If I do this, it's going to take longer. It's okay.

Okay. We didn't get very far in twenty-five retreats, but okay. NYID PA'I TSOR LAM CHOS LA DUR BSHAD PA LA Let me tell you more about that first path.

I got it for, I went to Chim Jambayang, who lived in the 1200s, and he wrote a very famous book called Chim Tzu, which means Mr. Chim's Commentary to the Abhidharma Kosha. So this is Abhidharma. He's pretty cool because he's before Tsongkapa.

He's 200 years before Tsongkapa. So it's unusual that so old that we follow it very closely. It's a big commentary to Abhidharma.

After Stanley translates the long commentary on Abhidharma, he's going to translate the longer commentary on Abhidharma. I think he's scheduled to finish in 2022. That's why you have to choose young translators.

Okay. So he says, that Chim Jambayang says, let me tell you more about that first path. GZAN NI NI NAM DU LA SBYUGS PA'I SGO SBYOR LAM GYI NGAR RO DU CHUNG BA'I DGE BA'I TSOGS It is collecting more and more good karma before you can reach the second path, which is preparation.

Preparation for what? To see emptiness on the third path. The second path is called preparation path.

So the first path definition, make enough good karma to get to the second path, which is the door to emptiness. You see? Because the third path is seeing emptiness directly.

Okay. What it means is, after you have your personal tragedy, you have to collect enough good karma to have somebody teach you the pen. Got it?

I don't know why she didn't throw it to me. Okay, so really the definition of the first path is to just make enough good karma until you meet someone who teaches you the pen. Okay, it doesn't have to be a pen.

It could be anything. It could be a cell phone. I use cell phones nowadays more because kids don't use pens nowadays.

At all. They don't need them. They don't use them for anything.

WeChat killed pens. Okay. SNGA ROL DU BYUNG BA'I DGE BA'I TSUL GSUNGS Okay, that's the definition of, okay?

It's the making enough good karma to reach the door of emptiness, which is the second path, which is where someone will teach you pen. SEMS SHES NI SKYE BA CHEN DANG PHAL PA NYID NAS There are two examples. One is called extraordinary first path and one is called ordinary first path.

PHAL PA NYID NAS DANG PO NI THAR PA BYA' THUN DE'OGS NAS BYAS PA RGYUR ROL The first one is called helps you get to freedom. The exceptional form of Tsoglam, the first path, is called THAR PA BYA' THUN. In fact, that's the definition.

The technical definition is called THAR PA BYA' THUN. BYA' THUN means conducive to THAR PA, to freedom, Moksha. He says, I'm going to explain that more later.

NYID PA NI LAS DANG PO BA'I THAR PA LUS PA'I DGOS GSUM GYIS LAS DGE BA THAMS CAD YIN TE The second kind of first path is where a person tries to collect lots of good karma and dedicates it to reaching freedom. Freedom normally means nirvana. DE YANG DI NYID NAS TSUL NAS THOS DANG SANGS RTEN PAS ZHES PA NAS ZHES NAS ZHES NAS KYI LAM NYID KYI BAR DU ZHES PA DANG KUN LAS LTOS NAS TSOGS KYI LAM GANG ZHES NA Then he quotes Samuchaya and he says, what's the definition of Tsoglam?

SO SOGS SKYE BA'I TSUL KHRIMS DANG The morality followed by a person who has not yet seen emptiness is first path. DBANG PO'I DGOS DAM PA They control their senses. They control their talking.

They control their eating. They control their listening to rock and roll, sort of. They control their...

They don't have too much sex. They don't go crazy about... You see?

They control their senses. It doesn't mean you can't enjoy food. It doesn't mean you can't enjoy intimacy with your partner.

It just means you protect your senses. You don't overload them. The circuits.

SREG GI TSOS SHES PA It means to judge correctly. TSOS means the measure of your food. To judge correctly how much you should eat.

It's about a third of what you eat now. You can say it's part of Pratyahara. It's to carefully judge how much you eat.

Bite by bite. Six bites okay, seven bites too much. By the way, part of taking refuge, one of the vows of taking refuge is to thank the Buddhas every day.

Buddhas, lamas, bodhisattvas. Thank them every day by offering the first part of your food. Before you drink a tea, you offer it.

Then you drink a tea. Some people forget. They go like...

I saw people, they eat one bite and they're like, Oh no! Okay. In English we call it grace.

Grace has many meanings. The word grace has many meanings. But in English it can mean offering the first part of your food, offering the first part of what you drink to your teacher, to the Buddhas, to bodhisattvas.

My lama taught me many graces. Food offering prayers. My lama taught me many of them.

I took my favorite six and I put them in your meditation book. Let's go over them now quickly, since we're on the subject of food. This is before you eat and before you drink.

Even if you're just going to have a cup of tea or a glass of water, then a Buddhist should first offer it to their teacher. It's a nice way to show appreciation for your teacher or for the Buddhas. There's a famous story of Lama Zopa Rinpoche that he does so many food prayers.

He took a long flight. They offered food and he offered it so long that they were landing and they took the food away from him. He didn't get to eat the food because he was offering for like an hour.

Don't do that. You can offer. If you're in a rush, I'll teach you the emergency offering.

You just say OM AH HUNG. By the way, some people say HUM. It's not HUM.

It's not H-U-M. That's a mispronunciation. H-U-N-G.

Like French. Three times. Even in super emergency, you can't just do one time.

You can go OM AH HUNG, OM AH HUNG, OM AH HUNG. It means bless my body, speech, and mind. Bless my body, speech, and mind.

OM AH HUNG. Okay, HUNG. You do it three times.

OM AH HUNG. If you're in a rush. If you're not in a rush, you should memorize these prayers, especially if you're learning Tibetan.

This is what they teach kids in the monastery. They teach them the Buddhist grace. Grace in English means food offering.

It's on page 21. First one's on page 21. I'll give you a LUNG.

Okay, I'll give you a LUNG. Oral Browsing. DUN PA LA MED SANGS RGYAS RIM PO BYED RGYAL PA LA MED DANG PHYIR RIM PO BYED DRIN PA LA MED RGYEN DANG RIM PO BYED RGYAB NAS GONG CHO GSUNGS LA SPYOD PA'O Okay.

I make offerings to the three supreme jewels, to those who are my shelter, matchless teacher, the precious Lord Buddha, matchless protection, the precious holy Dharma, matchless guides, the precious Sangha. That's basic food offering. Everybody learns it.

You can memorize it in English. That's very, very basic. Everyone should know that one.

The rest are optional. This one you should know. You're taking refuge while you offer your food.

Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Okay. I called it a grace to the three jewels.

Okay, number two. Page 23. This is also very important.

You're offering the food or the drink to your teacher. It could be lineage teachers, Buddha, Nagarjuna, Tsongkhapa. It could be your mom or your dad.

Especially if your name is Tina Lu, you have a wonderful mom and dad. You offer to them. You offer the food to them.

You offer the drink to them. Because they are your teachers. They are your first teacher.

What should we say? Okay. Ready?

LUNG RGYAL MTSAMS KUN DU LAM NA BLO BYAS BYANG GANG LA GANG DU GZHAN NYID TSUL GSOS NAS MTSOGS DANG THUNG MO'I DUR TSUL ZAD PAS DRAN PHYIR LAM NA RNAMS LA SPYOD PA BU Okay. And you can do it in your own language. You are my Lama.

You are the keeper of the diamond. All three jewels in a single person. You take the form of my human teacher.

You take any form it takes to tame each one of us. And by doing so, you grant us both highest and common goals. I make offering to my Lamas.

You are so kind to me. Okay? The basic meaning of the prayer is you are like an actor.

You come into my life as my mother or father. You come into my life as a teacher. You come into my life as my partner.

You come into life as my children. And you teach me. Or my dog Gracie.

And you teach me. And thank you for that. That's the grace.

Got it? That's also an important one. They're all important.

Yeah, okay. Grace number three. This is a...

Try to make the karma to have good meditation. Generally, food doesn't work well with meditation. But in this prayer, you are offering your food and you are praying that everybody should have a good meditation.

Ready? Here's the lung. ,GZHES RANG ROL RGYAL BSTAN PA YID GROL PA, ,LAS GRANGS DE NYID RGYAL BA'I SRID CHEN NA, ,DE PA'I BU BA'I GROL BA'I DE DAG GIS, ,'BYOR NA'I DING DZIN ZHES NA, ,GCOD PA'ANG ZHOR, Okay?

This food has a thousand flavors. Well-made, hard-stealing. I offer it in faith to the victors and to their daughters and sons.

By this act, may every living being enjoy the richest feast of all. Perfect meditation. If you're having trouble with your meditation, eat as much as you can and do this grace before.

I'm just kidding. Probably you should eat less. Who's the daughters and...

Who's the victors? Yeah, the Buddhists. Who's their daughters and sons?

It's a name for bodhisattvas. You're offering this food to Buddha and the bodhisattvas and you're dedicating the karma that other people should enjoy the tasty french fry called shamatha. Got it?

Next one. This is a famous grace. It's the oldest one.

It was written by Nagarjuna. It's part of one of Nagarjuna's books. It came to be used as a grace.

He talked about using food carefully and that verse became a grace, became a famous grace. If you have trouble, if food causes you trouble, like you can't stop eating or you can't control yourself, this is a good one. If you want to learn to think of food in the proper way, then you can do this grace.

Nagarjuna's idea is you should start to see food as fuel or as medicine to keep yourself going. It's just to keep yourself going. It's not to make big muscles.

In India, in ancient times, there wasn't enough food sometimes. People who were a little bit fat were considered very beautiful. The same in Europe.

Nagarjuna said, don't eat to get handsome or beautiful. Don't eat to get big muscles. Don't eat for your ego.

Eat for fuel. Just to keep your body going. Enough to keep your body going, which is about a third of what you eat now.

Okay, here we go. ,GANG TSE MIN RANG DRA BA RIG PA YIN, ,'DOD DROGS SHES DANG MED PAR BSTAN GYIS TE, ,RGYAG CHOS MA LAG NYES PA'I CHOS MA LAG, ,ZHAG CHOS MA LAG NI NAS PAR ZHIG CHOS, Don't do it for that. Don't do it for that.

It's like that. MA LAG. Not for that.

I will see this food as medicine, as fuel I can use to destroy my desire and anger. Not to look strong. Not to look beautiful.

Not for my ego. But only to keep my body going today. That's Nagarjuna's grace.

Number five. This is a prayer. If you're a Tsongkapa-ian, people ask me, are you a Buddhist?

I say, no, I'm a Tsongkapa-ian. It's better. This is a grace to offer the food to Tsongkapa and his two main students, Gyel Tsub Je and Kedrub Je.

This is Gyel Tsub Je on Tsongkapa's right and Kedrub Je on Tsongkapa's left. That's Tsongkapa in the middle. I'll read it to you.

GANG CAN ZHING LAS SU BYAS TSONGKAPA'ANG DGOS DOR PA'I PA'I DBANG CHUG GYEL TSUB JE, SDONG BA BRTAN PA'I BDAG PO KEDRUB JE, RGYAL BA YIN PAS GSUM LA CHUG PA BUR Offering the first part of your any meal, also snacks. If you're American, you can do a lot of prayers all day because every snack you can offer, make offering. Snacking becomes a great opportunity to make some good karma.

We like to snack. Americans like to snack. I make offering to the victorious ones, to the father and his sons, to Tsongkapa, spiritual innovator here in the land of snows, to Gyaltsabje, absolute lord of logic that reveals the truth, and to Kedrubje, great master of the open and secret teachings.

That's a prayer to Tsongkapa and his two main disciples. Everything you hear at Diamond Mountain, everything you hear in DCI, everything you hear in ACI, everything you hear at Three Jewels is because of these three people. Everything comes directly from them.

We don't teach anything else. We have a Ferrari and we're not interested in Volkswagens. I mean, sorry.

The last one is a little bit secret, but I thought you guys are so serious. You come from so far away. This is actually tantric.

This is actually Vajrayana offering. If you have initiations, you can say it. If you don't have initiations, I give you permission to say it and it will plant a seed to get an initiation.

This is grace to Jigme Udjamo. Jigme Udjamo. Vajrayogini, Angel of Diamond.

It's a special grace to her. It's very sexy and it's very cool and it's very beautiful. RANG RNAMS BDAG GIS LAM HA SA BA'I SRAS DU TSIS ROL LA NONG BRJES PA'I BLO DE CHEN SDONG PA'I YIN TSUL ZHUGS EMMA HO MED CUNG KHA BA SANG EMMA HO means, wow, we're so lucky.

Say EMMA HO. EMMA HO. We're so lucky.

EMMA HO. Then MED CUNG KHA BA SANG means, oh, I'm so lucky to meet you. The last line is very cool.

Wow, I'm so lucky to meet you. MED CUNG KHA BA SANG Then in tantric practice you see yourself as her. You're actually offering the food to yourself.

I'm already Buddha. I'm this Lady Buddha. I'm a Lady Buddha.

By the way, in Buddhism, that's the highest Buddha, is the Lady Buddha. I'm the Lady Buddha. I'm the protecting angel of what seems and what is gone.

Of what seems and what is gone. We met these two today. You tell me who it is.

She said the two husbands, right? Did you? Yeah, she got it.

What is gone is SHAL PING. It means empty. No husband like that.

It's gone. Never was there. Got it?

What seems is the Nick. Looks like my husband. That's dependent origination.

What is gone is emptiness. She is both. This angel is super cool.

She has 50-50. Emptiness and dependent origination. I savor this taste of this food as the nectar of deathlessness.

So she's not eating calories. She's eating deathlessness. AM RTA If you want to mispronounce it, you can say AM RTA.

Say, uh? AM RTA AM RTA means to die very much. Okay?

AM RTA means to never die. Which one you want? AM RTA Okay.

Yeah, okay. By the way, if you're interested, AM RTA means no death, right? Nectar, which is the Greek, means free from death.

NEC means death. Necrophilia. And LTAR comes from Tara, to cross beyond.

So the Greek is the same. Nectar. It means AM RTA.

It's the same word we call nectar. And it sends my mind, this food is not food. It's nectar.

Deathless nectar. And when I put it on my tongue, it goes BAM! And my mind goes into emptiness.

Like I eat a french fry, BOOM! Then my mind goes into emptiness. It's like that.

So when you eat, you're like, one, two, BOOM! Then your mind goes in. It's a prayer like that.

I hope the food gives me that idea. Like that. Into the empty realm, which is combined with highest bliss.

And that's secret. I can't tell you about that. But you have to learn it later.

After lam rim. So those are six graces you can do. Practice them during your three-day retreat.

Use them during your three-day retreat. Like, what mood am I in today? Oh, I like to pray for better meditation.

Then do the meditation grace. Or today I'm sort of feeling vain. Then do the Nagarjuna's grace.

You see what I mean? Or I'm so grateful for my teachers. Then do the teacher grace.

Or I want the karma to understand taking refuge in the Three Jewels, so then do the Three Jewels grace. But really, from now on, you shouldn't eat without some kind of grace. You shouldn't drink anything without some...

And you see Geshe Michael, he's like, emergency, right? Just get in the habit. You watch any lama, anywhere, any good lama, then they're like...

So they're not talking to themselves. They're doing a grace. Anytime now, even a glass of water.

I don't know about gum. Should we offer gum? You don't really eat it.

Let's offer it anyway. It's just another excuse to do a prayer. So learn to do them and practice them during this three-day retreat.

And after a week you should memorize them, something. You can do that. That can be part of your retreat.

Just learn your favorite one, by heart. In your own language, it's okay. You don't have to do it in Tibetan.

You're not Tibetan. Neither am I. All right.

Let's go back to the... Yeah, you're welcome. I'm glad I had a reason to share those graces that my teacher...

If I eat without that, I get a blessing. Okay. He only hit me a few times.

SNANG GIS BYA LTOS DANG, SNANG GIS BYAMS MED LA MI NYAL BAR This is another practice at the first path. Get up early in the morning. Just learn...

Some people say I'm not a morning person. Well, become a morning person. Go to bed...

My Lama goes to bed at 8.30 or 9 o'clock. Then get up at 5 or something and use those beautiful hours of the day when the world is quiet. Before your kids get up.

Use those beautiful times of the day. Go to bed early. Get up early.

Try to get in that habit. You'll be much, much more productive also. If you just want to be a business person or something, if you learn to get up early, you're much better.

You'll do much better. If you don't eat too much, you can get up early. ZHES BZHIN DU DNGOS PAR DGA' BA'O Then take joy in your life.

YANG GANG RGYUR RGYUR PA'I RGYAL BA GZHAN DANG THOS PA LAS CHUNG BA DANG, SANGS PA LAS CHUNG BA DANG DGOMS PA LAS CHUNG BA'I SHES RABS KYANG RUNG STE ZHES PA Try to go through the practice of how Buddhists train themselves. It's called THOS SANGS BSGOM Say THOS SANGS BSGOM This is Buddhist education. Number one, go to classes.

Go to classes. Go to classes. Over and over and over.

For many years, I never missed my teacher's classes. He taught the alphabet. A, B, C, Kha, Kha, Ga I went and I sat in the back because I don't want to miss anything.

I'm really happy I did that. I never missed a class. Then sometimes later I had to travel during the diamond business and I would miss some classes.

But don't miss a class if you can help it. So that's THOS. SANGS BSGOM means when you get home think about what you learned and one of the best ways to do that is to talk it over with your friends.

When Dharma people get together they should talk about what happened at the last Lam Rim class. Don't talk about Trump. It's hopeless.

Don't waste your time. Talk about what you learned in the class. Don't talk about movies and don't talk about the three irritating Dharma students that come to every program.

Now you have to figure out whether you're one of them. Just talk about Dharma. Then BSGOM means of course meditate on what you learned.

Now we got to the third... This is the 13. This is the real 13.

This is where I got it from Chim Chompeyang. Here we go. Number one, BDAG DANG GZHAN SBYOR PA means make it a practice to serve other people.

I enjoy, and I know I know other people here do, take care of older people, give rides to poor people, visit people in the prisons, that kind of stuff. You're never too advanced to do those practices. Like homeless people.

You're never so important that you shouldn't make meals for sick people or poor people or things like that. DUN PA means aspire, work hard. CHUL is a printing error.

It should be TSUL KHRIMS. Keep your ten good deeds. DBANG PO means power. I think it's similar in Chinese language.

DBANG PO Power? How do you say power? LI YANG Not same.

There are five. There are five famous powers at the first path. They are the following.

Number one. I think they're in the Yoga Sutra. Or maybe not.

I think they are. SHRAD DAG RGYUR YANG Or SMIR TE Samadhi and Prajna, probably. Something like that.

DE PA means faith. Belief. SHRAD DAG SHRAD DAG TSUN DRUL means enjoy hard practice.

Enjoy your life. Enjoy your practice. MIR RIA DRAN PA means mindfulness.

If you lose your DRAN PA when you get a box of chocolates, you will eat all of them before you remember what you're doing. That's called SMIR TE. Remembering what you're doing.

Don't do mindless things. STING NGAN ZAN is meditation. Another word for meditation.

Samadhi. SHES RAB is to think about emptiness, as far as you understand it. That's number four of the thirteen.

All of those five is number four. Number five. Say, again, here it refers to eating carefully.

Learning to eat carefully. Learning to eat carefully takes many years. Some people never learn.

They die before they learn to eat. It seems like eating shouldn't take any knowledge, but it takes a lot of knowledge to eat properly. MI NYAL means don't oversleep.

Go to bed early, get up early. Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. It's true.

ZHES BZHIN DU NI CHOS PA means keep a mindfulness. It means be careful what you say to people. Be careful what you do.

Even when you're tired, even when you're busy, watch yourself and act carefully. DGE BA'I GZHAN YIN means find a teacher and serve them. Find a teacher and serve them.

Serve the Dharma. Take your time. Go slow.

Check many people. Check out the teacher before you go to their class. Find out, are they a good person?

Ask many people. Check out their reputation. See if there's any problems.

Scandals. Things like that. Check about them.

Are they honest? Are they well trained? Are they compassionate?

Then help them because they're helping other people. DANG PHYIR NYEN means study the Dharma. Number ten is SEMS PA means think about what you learned.

BAR BYED MED means avoid things that would be an obstacle. One of the biggest obstacles is stupid friends. My brother killed himself when he was young.

He was 20 or 21 years old. He met some bad young people. We were all nervous.

I felt very nervous. They were using guns. They were using drugs.

They were stealing things. One of the ways to avoid obstacles in your life is be careful who you hang out with. Be careful who you make your friend.

Choose your friends wisely. If you choose good friends, you'll always be okay. They will take care of you.

You take care of them. You support each other. If you meet a person who's not kind, not compassionate, not honest, even if they're very handsome or very beautiful or something like that, it's going to be trouble later.

Something will go wrong and they will hurt you. It's better to find a person who's not so beautiful, but they are honest and they are clean and they have a good mind. Don't look at the inside and don't look at the outside when you choose your friends.

Choose good people. LTONG BA means be generous. Practice sharing what you have with others.

And then DGE SBYONG RGAN RGAN means jewelry and DGE SBYONG means spiritual practice. Let your jewelry be your spiritual practice. Good daily practice.

Keep a good daily practice. Those are the thirteen that he mentioned. Then he said the last three of the what did he call it?

Yeah, he said the first three groups, but he didn't explain it. So I went and got it for you. And that's why we're going to go so slow through this text.

So all the qualities of a Buddha and needed to become a Buddha, that's an important distinction, are grouped into seven. Seven famous groups of Buddha qualities. Not because Buddhists only have them, but because you need them to become Buddha.

Buddhists have them in their highest form. So there are seven groups. Three of them you can do on the first path.

Three of the seven groups of practices you can do on the first path. So here they are. SEMS PAR NYER ZHAG ZHI SEMS PAR NYER ZHAG ZHI Okay.

It's a number one. Go down a little bit. It should be a number one.

Keep going. There you go. Right there.

Yeah, SEMS PAR NYER ZHAG ZHI So these are the first of the seven famous groups of Buddha qualities, which again can be qualities that make you a Buddha. People translate it as Are you warm? Are you okay?

You okay? Okay. Let's make it democratic.

How many people want air conditioning? Raise your hand. How many people don't want air conditioning?

Okay, you win. There's a bad English translation. It's close recollections.

The four close recollections. It's a ridiculous translation. You never go up to somebody and say I had a close recollection today.

You can say I had a close call with my wife or something. Okay. So I would just call it like, I don't know, awarenesses.

The four kinds of awareness. People get hung up on Sanskrit prefixes. Like if they saw the word consciousness they would say knowing together.

You see what I mean? They get... Anyway.

LHAG MTHONG DGONGS SKABS KYI MIG RNAMS SHES It's four It's four parts of Vipashyana. It's four parts of Vipashyana. If you want to butcher that word what can you call it?

Vipassana. That's a mistake. It's Vipashyana.

Pash means to see. Vip means very well. Vipashyana is a deep meditation.

By the way, it's not even a... It's not meditation. It's kind of understanding the pen.

Vipashyana, understanding the pen. Shamatha, deep meditation. They always go together.

So when you think Vipashyana is a meditation, it's wrong already. You're already wrong. Alright.

Then you go deeper. So anyway. LUS BYAMS PA GNYER BZHAG, MTSOR BYAMS PA GNYER BZHAG, SEMS PAS BYAMS PA GNYER BZHAG, CHOS BYAMS PA GNYER BZHAG These are four awarenesses that you develop as you start to understand emptiness.

Okay? You want to go deeper? Okay, we'll never finish the text.

The first path has three levels inside. The first path that you reach by having a personal tragedy. Okay?

There are three levels inside the first path. First one is when you get these four kinds of awareness. Okay?

That's the lowest one. And it has four parts. Number one, body.

About your body. You learn to examine how is my arm like the pen? How is my arm like the pen?

Okay? Is the arm coming from my mind or is the arm coming from the arm? You see?

And you apply your knowledge to the body. Okay? Is my arm coming from me or is it coming from my arm?

Okay? By the way, if it's coming from me, your life is dangerous and your life is hopeful. If your arm is coming from your seeds, then your life is dangerous and it's hopeful.

Why is it dangerous? Your human seeds can change to dog seeds in five minutes. And you can look at a dog leg.

If it's coming from its own side, life is easier. You can have an arm for a while. But if it's coming from your seeds, life is dangerous.

It can become a dog arm in five minutes. Okay? Because the dog arm also coming from you.

So thinking about those things is... Oh, by the way, it's hopeful because it can become Buddha arm also. If you have Buddha seeds, it will become Buddha's arm.

Same thing. Like a pen. Okay?

Got it? Okay. LUS BRJEN PO'I GNOD CHAGS SO BA Same thing about your feelings.

It's more subtle. It's more difficult. What's the emptiness of your feelings?

You know? They shift like the wind, right? You're having a good time with your partner, and then suddenly five minutes later you're fighting.

That's the emptiness of your feelings. You see? They are also sprouting.

They are flowing out of your seeds. They can shift immediately. If good seeds are coming up, the movie is good.

If bad seeds are coming up, the movie is terrible. It's the same movie, or music, or Dharma talk. How you feel about it is coming from your seeds.

That's the awareness of your feelings. That's the second of these four. Third one.

SEMS BRJEN PO'I GNOD CHAGS Even the thoughts I hear in my mind are coming out of my seeds. I am just the witness. I am just listening to karma's opening.

I don't like him. He's not nice. He didn't say hi to me before the class.

That whiny voice in your mind, it's coming out of your seeds. It's because you said like that to other people last week. So you have karma to hear this person complaining inside your mind.

Got it? That's the emptiness awareness of your own thoughts. And now SPYOD.

SPYOD DER MA GNYER BZHAG means everything, all things. The world around you, the people you meet, the weather, the traffic, everything. Keep this awareness that it's coming from your seeds.

All right? If you mastered those four, you can say you have finished the first third of the lowest path. Why are we talking about this?

We're talking about the lowest example of Sangha Jewel. Now it's beginning to sound a little bit higher. They've mastered all these things.

All right. Second group is called YANG DAG POR BAR ZHIG These are very famous. Four.

It's another four. I think the total of the seven groups is 37 and they're called the 37 Limbs of Enlightenment or something like that. Second group is four.

What part of the first path did they relate to? Yeah, the middle part, the second part. Got it?

Don't get confused where we are. I know you're confused. Okay, I don't care.

Those with jet lag are more confused. I love it. Because I...

I'm always jet lag in your country. Now you're jet lag in my country. Okay, YANG DAG POR BAR ZHIG means four...

Got rid of four things or something like that. The four ways that you got rid of something. YANG DAG POR BAR ZHIG The four ways that you got rid of something very well.

BAR BAR ZHIG YANG DAG POR BAR ZHIG Here they are. Number one. MI DGE BA RGYAS PA POR BA Any bad habits you have, you get rid of them.

Any bad habits you had already, you get rid of them. That's number one. Number two.

MI DGE BA MAR RGYAS PA MI RGYAS PA Any bad habits you might have next year, you get rid of them this year. Okay, future bad habits. Future bad things.

You get rid of them now. You stop them now. Stop the ones that grew already and stop the ones that are on their way.

It's the first two. Got it? You all right?

If you're totally lost, just nod. Yeah, okay Geshe-la. Okay, third one.

RGYAS PA MAR RGYAS PA RGYAS PA Now, try to make good seeds that you haven't got yet. Try to make new kinds of good seeds. Try to make new kinds of good seeds.

Is number three. Now, yeah, it's called got rid of, but it's not. I'm sorry.

Only the first one is. I didn't make the list, Buddha made the list. You can write a letter to Tushita.

Okay. Just put Tushita on the letter. Let's see what happens.

Okay. RGYAS PA RGYAS PA SPEL BA RGYAS PA SPEL BA means the good seeds you already have, try to feed them. Try to make them bigger.

SPEL BA means, this SPEL means to make it bigger. I'll summarize those four that happen at the middle part of the first path. Ready?

The bad seeds you already have, try to get rid of them. Bad habits. Number one.

Number two. The new bad habits you haven't developed yet, don't develop them. I have a problem with jealousy, but I don't have a problem with alcohol.

For me, number one would be try to get rid of your old bad habit, Michael, of jealousy. Number two would be don't start the new alcohol bad habit that you don't have yet. It's on the short list of things I didn't do wrong in my life.

Okay. Number three. RGYAS PA MA RGYAS PA RGYAS PA If there's some good habits you don't have yet, try to get them.

I don't know, like helping homeless people. Number four. If you're already helping homeless people, try to expand your operations.

Okay. The United States. I mean, it's nothing.

Let's get to Mexico. Now I want to see something happening in Canada. Okay.

Alright. Those are the second group. Got it?

They're for the middle of the first path. Now let's go to the third group and you'll be totally confused. Then I'll give you a little break.

Then I'll give you a ten minute break. I know the jet lag is... This is where the DCI staff starts snoozing in their chair.

They've learned to do this in their chair. Then you're like, Scott, he learned to sleep in the class with his eyes open. He's like, Orit is more advanced.

If I say, everybody understand? She's like... She's actually asleep from jet lag.

Scott can't do that. He's just like... Orit's like...

Okay, sorry. Okay. RDZUS DRUL GYI GANG PO ZHIG These are difficult.

It's hard to get a good explanation of these seven parts of Buddha. Okay. RDZUS DRUL means the ability to do miracles.

We had another word for it earlier today called PHYO DRUL, same thing. RDZUS DRUL or PHYO DRUL. PHYO DRUL There's a famous holiday called PHYO DRUL GYI RGYUD CAN, the day of miracles.

So RDZUS DRUL means miracle. GANG PO means your legs. So it's the four miracle legs.

The four legs of miracles. People make pretty weird translations. Like, oh, your legs are so miraculous.

You know. Okay. Bertha got it.

The ones about Mexico City people are so smart, I don't know. They don't even call their city Mexico City, they call it Mexico. Okay.

BDE MA'I TING NGAN ZIN PO BA'I BDU BYED DANG BDE MA'I RDZUS DRUL GYI GANG PO ZHIG SEMS RGYAS TING NGAN ZIN PO BA'I BDU BYED DANG BDE MA'I RDZUS DRUL GYI GANG PO ZHIG SEMS RGYAS TING NGAN ZIN PO BA'I BDU BYED DANG BDE MA'I RDZUS DRUL GYI GANG PO ZHIG BDU BYED DANG BDE MA'I RDZUS DRUL GYI GANG PO ZHIG Do I know what these are? You get these at the third part of the first path. BDU MA'I TING NGAN ZIN PO BA'I BDU MA'I TING NGAN ZIN PO BA'I BDU BYED DANG BDE MA'I RDZUS DRUL GYI GANG PO ZHIG I got to look that up for you.

I'm not happy with this. Let me do it later. I'll do it tomorrow.

I looked it up, but I don't like it. I don't like it. All right.

I promised you a break after that. Okay? Let's do question and answer.

Let's have fun for 20 minutes, okay? Any question and answers? We need a microphone.

Jenny had one. La Hefa, Singapore.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you Vesala. Just now you talk about the TING, the last one, the number 13. I just want to confirm.

Is it you wear the jewelry and you do the practice every day? Is it like this meaning?

[Speaker 1]
The jewelry that you wear is your practice.

[Speaker 2]
Is your practice.

[Speaker 1]
There's no physical jewelry. It's just metaphor.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, thank you.

[Speaker 1]
But if you want to wear jewelry and practice, it's okay. What's the karma of desire for food? Karma of what?

Desire for food. Too much.

[Speaker 2]
Too much.

[Speaker 1]
I don't know. If I knew, I wouldn't have a problem myself. I think part of it might be sharing bad food with other people.

You know, like giving people yoga towels. Instead of vegetables. I think part of the bad karma of having a food problem might be that we don't help other people to eat good food.

We give them... It's very common in America, and I was brought up in America, to give someone bad food as a gift. Like chocolate, or cake.

You see, many people give me a box of chocolate. And finally, I learned to throw them out in the airport after I go through customs. I say goodbye everybody.

Thank you for the chocolate. Then finally I learned when I go through the passport, on the other side I throw it out. So, maybe part of that karma is encouraging other people to eat bad food.

I think, yeah. In America, if you like somebody, you make them a cake, or you make them a pie, and it hurts them. Really, you're hurting them.

Diabetes is very serious. Many people die from diabetes. I think it's number three cause of death.

And you get it from eating those things. So, I think maybe we need a culture where when you give a gift of food, you give something healthy. Carrot cake.

Anyway, that's how I'm thinking right now. Vivian, you have one? Geshe-la, you told us that 90% of the seed is your motivation.

And you also said the way we get the desire for food might be sharing bad food with other people. But what if we share the bad food with good motivation? Yeah, I think most people do.

Which is probably why you're still alive. So, yeah. I mean, nobody gives somebody a yo-tao and say, I hope it kills you.

So, it's true. 90% is motivation. So, maybe in many cases of the 10%, it caused the desire for food.

Maybe. I think parents especially have to be more careful. I was in a bookstore and a family came in, man and his wife, and a small, small child.

They went to the bookstore coffee shop and they bought a chocolate chip cookie like this, like that. They gave the whole thing to a small child and they ate it. Then like half an hour later the kid starts screaming, crying, fighting, and the parents are hitting him.

I'm like, we should hit you. You gave the... It's too much sugar for four or five days.

They gave them in 10 minutes. So, I think parents also have to be careful with that. It's not nice to teach your kids, if you are good, I will give you sugar.

You see? You're hurting them. In America, it's all like that.

Sugar is more important than the dollar. Thank you. Nicole?

Thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. So, when you reach Samatha and you have the seeds to have the direct perception of emptiness, are you having a dissolution that's similar that happens at the time of death? Is there something happening with the withdrawal of that consciousness?

Is it similar or is it different? Is there a stopping of the breath? I would like if you could talk a little bit more about the difference between those two processes.

Okay, good question. I think you've heard me say many times, according to scripture, when you see emptiness directly, your central channel opens completely. That's the physical cause to see emptiness directly.

In Buddhism, the purpose of yoga is to help the central channel to open completely. The purpose of yoga is to see emptiness. The purpose why we do yoga every day is that it helps you to get the chi into the central channel and that causes you to see emptiness directly.

So yoga in Buddhism is an important practice for your life. In our group, in our immediate group, it contributes to what you learned in this class. It supports what you learned in the class if you do yoga regularly.

I don't mean this standing on one hand. That's fun. If you can do it, it's fun.

I like it. Just a regular, gentle, good stretch. Yoga practice every day.

Not like super anatole. Just pleasant stretching, some good cardiac thing. It helps your central channel open.

If the central channel opens, you see emptiness directly. The central channel opens two times naturally during your life. One is during orgasm.

When you have a sexual orgasm, for a few seconds, just for a few seconds, uncontrollably, your central channel opens. Then when you die, at that point that we talked about, the crystal point, your central channel also opens for a brief period. In the natural flow of life and death, your central channel opens during those two circumstances.

I have a theory that the reason people are so attracted to sex, I mean obsessed with sex, almost everybody, sex is the most common word looked up on the internet, for example, by a lot. I think it's the craving for seeing emptiness. I think they are connected subconsciously.

People don't understand it. They're driven by that urge, but they don't understand that maybe it's a spiritual instinct that gets made common, or low. The desire to have the central channel winds flow, I think is a high thing.

You can use it for that. You should use it for that. That's all.

Is that your question? I was asking about, well, thank you for that answer. I was asking about during the direct perception of emptiness, is there a dissolution process?

Is there a kavaya kumbhaka that occurs or something? I'm just curious, the yogic... The opening of the central channel during the direct perception of emptiness is exactly the same as the opening of the central channel for a few seconds during orgasm, and exactly the same is the opening of the central channel for five, ten minutes as you die.

Same opening. I wouldn't call it a dissolution. I don't think they would call it a dissolution, but the result, or the final stage of it is the same.

But one is done with control, and one is done sort of like a beast. It just happens. You don't know what's happening.

The first two, the direct perception of emptiness and orgasm are more pleasant, whereas like that is a little bit more scary. The direct perception of emptiness is much more pleasant. So you can't really be having a fear at that time, because you're at a platform of physical and mental fluency that's very blissful, right?

In the direct perception of emptiness. So you can't be... if it opens, it's not like, you know...

No, there's no... Fear is an unchanging thing, and the object of the sense of fear is not ultimate reality. During that experience, it's impossible to perceive any existing entity which is not ultimate reality.

You can't be aware of fear, you can't be aware of joy, you can't be aware of your own mind, you can't be aware of yourself. You are just chula chu shakpa, water poured into water. Your mind is in emptiness.

So there can't be any other emotions. Then you would pop out. You see?

Because that's ultimate reality. Does the breath stop? Kevala kumbhaka, the spontaneous suspension of breath is a very common indication that you are close to seeing emptiness directly.

So what the yogis call kevala kumbhaka, which is the spontaneous suspension of your breath for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, half an hour, is a sign that you're close. So if you get really close, you might notice you haven't breathed for 10 minutes or something. Which is an interesting thing because that implies that life is being sustained not by oxygen, but by karma.

And maybe breath is not necessary. You see? And that makes sense.

It's very interesting that in the yoga scriptures they discuss that kevala kumbhaka and then they try to use physical means to induce it. And I think that's a tremendous mistake. I think that can only give you lung and can only cause you problems.

I don't think it has any benefit at all. I know some yoga schools where you try to hold your breath for... That's like, I don't know.

I don't know. It's like trying to have an orgasm by eating cookies or something. I mean, it's just...

There's no connection. I mean, maybe. I don't know.

No, I mean, to me it's... It can be very harmful. I know people who have had serious physical problems from trying to hold their breath for three minutes because they think it's a big yoga thing.

When your breath stops, it's because of constant practice of kindness and goodness and study and meditation. It's not that you force yourself to stop. It just stops.

Okay? Thank you. Daniel's close by.

I just wanted to add a question. When you see the emptiness, when you see emptiness directly on your cushion or when you see emptiness directly through the death process, I mean, you're seeing the same emptiness, right? You're seeing the emptiness of your subject state of mind?

Yeah, that's a good question. There's only one emptiness. Now, you may not recognize it.

Or you come close and you don't know what's going on and you just slide by and you become an animal or something. That's what happens most of the time. So, could you say that seeing emptiness on your cushion is more reliant on an intellectual understanding whereas seeing it on your deathbed is more reliant on repeating that visualization over and over?

Yeah, exactly. You can say that. Yeah.

That's a good way to say it. Even, I mean, animals have that. Bugs have that.

They slide by emptiness for a few minutes or seconds during their death but they don't know what to do. Yeah. Okay.

Other question. Okay. You got to bribe Joel the night before.

Elizaveta.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Geshe-la, so much for teaching us. So, you said to avoid obstacles and stupid people and people who can harm you. So, this is something I've struggled with since I got into Dharma.

If everyone is coming from me and if the seeds ripen every 24 hours, I feel like by avoiding people who can harm me, I'm trying to avoid the bad karma and it may continue to ripen and come back at me with even worse circumstances. Could you explain this difference when you avoid and when you take responsibility for that karma and you work on it?

[Speaker 1]
Okay, good. I think the purpose to avoid someone is that you're not strong enough to not be influenced by them. You see what I mean?

If you're strong enough, you can hang around with bad people because you will help them. If you're not strong enough, they will influence you and you will change. It kind of depends on how strong you are.

If you're really strong, you can hang out with... Be honest, I was in the diamond business for 19 years. Many diamond people are dishonest.

When I was going to go work in the diamond business, I asked my Lama, I'm afraid to go to the diamond business because I'm afraid I will become like those people. He said, no, you're strong enough. You're not going to start smuggling diamonds and cheating people with glass and cheating on your taxes.

It's not going to... Don't worry. I would say that if you're strong enough, you can put yourself into situations where you're surrounded by bad examples because maybe you can help them become good examples.

But if you're not strong enough, they will change you. Sometimes we fool ourselves. Oh, I'm strong enough, but then three years later we're lying all the time or something like that.

You got to be careful who you choose. Also, I would say who's your real friends. We all have a close circle of personal friends who are in English we say confidants.

We tell them all our secrets. They tell us all their secrets. Especially those people should be good people.

So don't choose them on the basis of their appearance. Don't choose them on the basis of their income. Don't choose them on the basis of their social level.

Sometimes people, look, there's a thing where we often feel that beautiful people are more good somehow. It's not correct. You may find out that the best people are not the ones that look like George Clooney.

Although I think he's kind of cool. His wife, who's very beautiful, is an extremely good person. She's helping many, many refugees.

She's extremely active and in dangerous situations helping the refugees in Syria. And in Lebanon. So I think she's...

Don't assume that people who look angelic are angelic. Sometimes it's the other people. You see what I mean?

Judge who's your close friends carefully. They had a rule. I played tennis in high school.

I wasn't that good. I barely made the team. I was the last one to make the team.

During the tennis season my coach had a rule that we were not allowed to play a match with anyone who wasn't better than us. We were required to only play with other players who could beat us regularly. You see what I mean?

I think your friends should be the same. Pick these high quality, super honest, super sweet, good example people and get close to them. Even if you don't feel close to them in the beginning, try to get close to them as your close friends.

Of course, you're teaching a lot. You and Anton are teaching a lot. You should reach out to people who are bad business people, rich guys cheating lots of people.

You should try to hang out with them and try to influence them. That's a good thing. But your close personal friends, I'd say, be really choosy and picky and try to hang out with people who are better than you.

Okay. One more. But if you don't have, I will go to bed.

Joel's choosy, not me. Look, Buddhist fight. He's trying to give it to the other person.

Buddhist fight. Thank you Juan, I appreciate that. Thank you Geshe-la for teaching.

I've been thinking a lot about purification lately. Briefly, I was taking a walk down the Verde River. Went about two hours in, two hours out.

On the way back out, I was walking through a clearing and I saw a tree. I said to myself, I recognize that tree. Then all of a sudden I realized I've never seen that tree before because I never saw the back of the tree on the way in.

But my mind had created a memory of the back of the tree. Then I was like, oh, I'm not actually looking at anything I ever saw. It was never there to begin with.

So I started thinking about that in terms of negative seeds or even positive seeds, where if I did something in the past, in that moment I had a... I saw the complete thing happen but I never saw, say, the backside of that. In purification, if I had that kind of view, then that negative seed almost doesn't have that power that it may have had before because I'm recognizing that I never actually...

The other half of it wasn't even there. If I'm just putting percentages on it. I'm wondering if that's a helpful way of seeing that or if that's sort of what happens in purification because I'm not quite clear on how does one purify a negative seed.

My answer is with one of the meditations. It's number... Where are you?

Number 11. Meditation number... Let's knock that out since you brought it up.

Pabongka Rinpoche says protection is retroactive. It means if you did some... This is the guy with the umbrella.

If you planted a bad seed in the past and then now you take refuge by thinking about the second husband, right? It damages other bad seeds. It infects the other bad seeds.

The habit of thinking about the pen damages old bad seeds. Definitely if you start thinking about the pen, if you start thinking about where things really come from, it damages the seed you planted ten years ago when you hurt somebody. It's very interesting.

Taking refuge now in the proper way can protect you from things that were supposed to happen to you because of something you did ten years ago that you're not even thinking about. Cool? It's like that.

So I think you're right. If you do a good purification it can... it infects the other bad seeds.

In terms of the Wheel of Life, the eighth and ninth links are called desire. Initial desire and advanced desire. A guy eating a big McDonald's dinner and the monkey reaching out far on the branch for some fruits.

Those two they trigger number ten, which is ripe karma. They make karma ripe and they involve misunderstanding the seed. So what's interesting about karmic seeds is the more you understand them the more you damage the negative ones and you reinforce the good ones.

It's interesting. It's called scorching. In Buddhism it's called scorching.

Understanding seeds scorches bad ones and renders them impotent. It's very interesting. The more you understand the way seeds work the more you damage bad seeds.

Just by understanding them. The best way to damage a seed is to understand it. Cool?

Something like that. All right.