«Дар освобождения», курс 25 «Совершенное прибежище», занятие 8

[Speaker 1]
I feel like doing some of the book, okay? We didn't do for a while. So, Nick wrote D-E-N-G space S-A-N-G.

All right, here we go. We're just going to do the book for a while, then we'll finish the meditations, and then I'll give you dessert, which is a special sutra that you can use during the retreat. Okay, so I have to watch the time.

4.44. Pressure. Okay, THEG SANGS NYAN THOS SHES MED PA'I TSE YOD KYANG So, most of you know there are three tracks. There are five paths, right?

Spiritual evolution. Everybody, everywhere, goes through those five. Maybe this life, maybe a thousand lives from now.

Everybody goes through those five. But you can do it on three different levels of motivation or understanding. The lowest one is called listeners, which if you're studying Buddhism, listener can also mean any disciple.

So, it's a dangerous word. Second track is called self-made Buddhist lowercase b because they're not Buddhists. They're just cool people.

Third track, bodhisattva. The bodhisattva track, those guys are trying to save the world. Bodhichitta, mind of enlightenment, blah, blah, blah.

Just forget all that stuff. They want to save the world. They want the whole world to be happy.

That's what they want and they won't take less. That's a bodhisattva. Here Pabongka Rinpoche says, THEG SANGS NYAN THOS SHES MED PA'I TSE YOD KYANG When we say he's just a listener or she is just a listener track, it sounds like it's lower.

But, KYANG, DE YIN DANG TZAM YIN NA GRUB DOG BYAMS PA'I TSAD DU SBYOGS KU YOD But if you had the qualities that we just described for the path of accumulation, you can see this is a real siddhi. This is a real high yogi who's on the lowest track. Someone who just had their first big disaster in their life and they decide to try Buddhism, they're already very high in the universe.

Got it? You can say high yogi or high siddhi. RANG RGYAL NI, SKAL PA'I RGYAL SOGS BSAGS PA SOGS NYAN THOS LA YIN THAMS RGYA RGYUR STONG RGYUR Self-made Buddhas are a thousand times cooler than that.

They're even more special. And they collect good karma for hundreds of eons. Eon means many millions of years to get to the second track.

BYANG CHUB SEMS PAS YIN NAS NI THAMS MED PA LTA BU YIN TE And the amount of karma that a bodhisattva is making can't measure it compared to the first two. SOGS SPYOR KYI GNAS SKABS SU, SMOS PA CHOS PA'I SA LA STO NI, KYI DON THOS SANGS BSGOM PA LA BSTAN LA'ANG PA Here's an answer to a question that some people had. He says on the first two paths called accumulation and preparation, before you see emptiness directly, on those two paths, which in technical Buddhism are called SMOS PA CHOS PA'I SA SMOS PA CHOS PA'I SA means they're just going on approximate understanding.

They're called SMOS PA CHOS PA'I SA. It means they're just dealing with approximate understanding of what? Emptiness.

STO NI KYI DON THOS SANGS BSGOM PA'I BSTAN LA BSTAN They're trying to understand the pen. They're struggling to understand the pen. First two paths.

They came to their first DCI talk, this strange guy, which might be Nick. Nick taught 500, 600 people. We split the DCI team last tour.

It was really cool. We covered 7,000 people in two weeks because we split the team to different cities. It might be the strange guy is Nick, standing up there with a pen.

The audience, when they first start thinking about the pen, and if they had a personal disaster in their life, they're already like path of accumulation. But their understanding of emptiness is only approximate and it's achieved through conceptual means, like trying to understand pictures in their mind. I think what he means is this.

It's not correct. It's not exact. It's just kind of a rough idea.

DNGOS PA CHOS PA'I SANGS But BSTAN LA BPAB means they're getting there. They're making progress. They came to a lot of DCI talks.

How do you know someone came to a lot of DCI talks? When Geshe Michael pulls out the pen, they're like, I can take a five minute nap. Just kidding.

SNYING RJE'I BYANG SEMS SA, MOD DAG BA RNAMS BYAMS PAS GSON CING THOB PA SNGON GYUR NYAMS MED PA BYAS DU THAMS MED PA'I DANG PA'I RDZOGS SOGS They are working on the idea of compassion and helping all beings and correct understanding of emptiness. They are working on the idea of getting rid of, in Tantra it's called the two vines, the two tree vines. What's that mean?

On your central channel, here, goes like this, is two side channels. They represent, in higher teaching, they represent misunderstand people and misunderstand things. Then at this point, they're studying bodhichitta, they're studying higher teachings, they're getting to understand the two vines.

THOB GYUR NYAMS MED PA BYAS DU THAMS MED DANG PA'I RDZOGS SOGS When you get to that stage, like close to the end of the second path, it takes BYANG MED DANG PO Say BYANG MED BYANG MED DANG PO What's BYANG MED mean? Where's my human dictionary? It's not here.

BYANG MED means countless. RDZOGS means make, what do you call? Pile up karma.

Pile up karma. There are three stages in becoming a Buddha. It's called the three piling up karmas.

But they're called the three BYANG MED piling up karmas, which means countless eons piling up good karma. If you understand Abhidharma, or you can read Stanley's translation, it's like 1% Finnish. It's a number.

It's a name of a number. Countless is not countless. When you're talking about the three pile up good karma to become a Buddha, when you say it's countless, it's a specific number of eons.

What is it? 10 to the 60th power. 10 with 60 zeros after it.

It's a Buddhist number. In Buddhism, each 10 has a different name. Each multiple of 10.

So take 10, add 60 zeros, that many of periods of millions of years each is the first stage. Here he says equal to the first two paths. How long does it take you to hear the pen?

I don't know. 10 with 60 zeros times millions of years times one and a half. That's how long it took you to get your first teaching on the pen.

Honestly. According to him. Don't think it's easy to hear the pen.

The pen can put you to sleep, but it took you a long time to get there. According to that, it took you many millions of years to get to the pen. You were dog, you were fish, you were bug, you were roach.

Not this roach. After many, many millions of years, you became a human. After many more millions of years, you got to hear the pen.

Got it? First of the three piles of good karma. MTHONG RNAMS SKABS SA DANG PO LA BRJIN PA'I BAR CAN GYIS NYAMS NA'I PHYIR LHAG PA THOB Then you have your experience of the first direct perception of emptiness.

At the same period, you perfect the first perfection to an extraordinary level. First perfection? Giving.

Generosity. Sharing what you have. That's the first bodhisattva level.

It comes at the same time that you see emptiness directly, on a bodhisattva track. LHAG PA THOB SGOM LAM SA DGU'I SKABS SPYOD NI ZIG TSUL GYI DBANG TZAM GYIS BAR CAN LHAG PA THOB PA DANG Then during the fourth path, which is path of getting used to what you saw, during that time, you perfect how many perfections are left after giving? Trick question.

If you keep saying numbers, you'll hit it. There's a joke. They say if a monkey hits a typewriter, then after a while, they'll type some words.

Nine more. Ten bodhisattvas. Ten perfections, right?

What are they? Number one? Giving.

Number two? Morality. Ethics.

Number three? No more anger. Number four?

Enjoy hard work. Number five? Meditation.

Number six? Yeah. Then there's four more.

These are called the four ways of collecting disciples. If you did DCI level eight, you know them. What's the first one?

DU'I LOB PO BZHIN Yeah, bribe them. Offer them churros, ponchics or yochals. Say, when you want to come to my class, they say no.

You say, there's free refreshments. Oh yeah. I'll come.

Help them financially. Make it nice. Play rock and roll during the class.

Stuff like that. Second one? What?

What? Yeah, encourage them. Okay?

Of course they don't do anything right, but if they start to do something close, tell them, you're really making progress. If you're Connie, you're like, oh, you're very close to enlightenment now. Almost there.

You encourage them. Encourage when your students do something right. And as you know, if you're a parent, it works better than criticizing.

They do nine things wrong for every one thing they do right. But, praise them for what they do right. It works better.

Don't tell them nine bad things. What's number three? Yeah, try to get them, I mean, after you teach them, say, okay, now, I taught you, at the end of this hour, we're going to finish 27 meditations.

Do you promise to do at least one of them during the next three days? Try to get them to make a commitment to actually try it themselves. It's not enough to teach.

And that's again why I like the Singapore group. They are, and Guangzhou also, very strong. Jasmine and Vivian, they are trying to get the students to do it.

So don't just teach them and go away for a year. Who does that? Teach them and then have follow-up.

Make sure they're doing it. Reach out to each other. Tell them what you're doing.

Alright, last one? Yeah, last one is, in English there's an idiom called practice what you preach or walk the talk. And it means, be a good example.

It doesn't help to describe how cool it is if you're not doing it yourself. What's the famous example in DCI? I went to see one of my students teach meditation.

I sat in the back. They said, I'm going to teach meditation. Then they reached for the cup, and they're like this.

Then there were two ladies sitting close to me, and one of them said to the other lady, I don't know what kind of meditation she's teaching, but I don't want to learn it. Okay, got it? So you have to be, do it yourself.

Those are the ten perfections. Six usual perfections. What did you go?

Four? Four more on top. SNAM PHYIR LHAG PA THOB PA DANG YANG PHYIR MTSAN SOGS DANG PO BA'I LUS RGYAL DRAG Now he's going to start something called the twelve sets of one hundred each.

The twelve sets of one hundred each. He's still talking about how cool is Sangha jewel. He's still talking about how cool is Sangha jewel.

He says, even a bodhisattva at level one, first level bodhisattva, just saw emptiness directly, wants to help the whole world. That's what a first level bodhisattva is. Even they have the twelve kinds of one hundred each.

So here you go, here they are. Number one, they have the power to send out a hundred bodies at a time to help people. Already they have power.

First level bodhisattva. Number one. Number two, each of the bodies they send out has a hundred bodhisattvas sitting around it.

They can send out a hundred bodies. Each body they send out has a hundred more bodies sitting around it. That's a good question.

It just says bodhisattva. You can be a bodhisattva without being an Arya if you're on the bodhisattva track and all you did was first two paths and you did not travel lower path previously, if you're interested. Number three, they can see a hundred eons ahead.

Number four, when they see emptiness directly, a hundred planets shake. In Buddhism we say if something really cool happens the earth can't hold the karma up and the earth will go like this. Where did we have a nice earthquake?

Was it LA? Yeah, it's kind of scary. And in China I think we had one.

Anyway, we did it a few times. I remember in Taiwan we made it snow when it never snowed before. Number five, THING NGAN ZIN GYI SGO RGYAL PHRAG LA SBYUG PA They can go into a hundred different kinds of meditation.

Number six, right? They see a hundred Buddhas. Number seven, those hundred Buddhas, each one gives them blessing.

Number eight, they can emanate a hundred Buddha paradises. Number nine, they can go to those hundred paradises. Number ten, they can make a hundred distinctions between subtle kinds of phenomena.

Like a hundred distinctions about emptiness and teaching about it. SEMS CAN RGYAL MIN PA They can help ripen a hundred living beings. In this case, ripen means...

I'm sorry. In this case, hundred just means zillions. Lots.

Many. Lots. Number what?

Eleven, right? That was eleven. We okay?

Let's do nine. Nine is they can go to a hundred Buddha paradises. Eight is they can create a hundred Buddha paradises.

Got the difference? Ten is they can teach a hundred teachings about a hundred kinds of emptiness. Like that.

Number eleven, they can ripen a hundred living beings, but it means many hundred. Number twelve, RGAL PA RGYAL GNAS PA They can stay for a hundred eons. Now my opinion.

This is my opinion. I think this list is exaggerated. In some ways it's exaggerated.

In some ways it's not cool enough. I don't believe, for example, that someone who just reached the direct perception of emptiness on bodhisattva track can emanate a hundred Buddha paradises. I don't think so.

To be honest, I think this is some kind of slightly exaggerated tradition to get people excited. I've told you before what does happen. You see you're going to be a Buddha.

You see that Buddha. You meet a Buddha. You have an experience of bodhichitta.

You can read the minds of every living being. You can see their face. Those are bigger, right?

Than this. So this list is, in my opinion, it's just a little bit... some of it's a little bit exaggerated and some of it's not enough.

Okay. But I have to teach it to you because it's in the book. Okay.

DE BZHIN DU SPYOD NYID PAR RE RE NYID BYAR BA'I SA NYID PAR STONG PHRAG Then that's at first bodhisattva level. At the second bodhisattva level, multiply these numbers times a thousand. Okay.

At the third bodhisattva level, multiply each number by a hundred thousand. At the fourth bodhisattva level, multiply each number by a billion. I put the numbers there for you, okay?

Because they're kind of complicated. At the fifth bodhisattva level, multiply by ten billion. At the sixth bodhisattva level, multiply by one quadrillion.

Twelve zeros, right? Something like that. At the seventh bodhisattva level, multiply times ten to the fourteenth power.

At the eighth bodhisattva level, multiply by a hundred thousand times the pieces of dust in a million planets. Okay? On the ninth bodhisattva level, the dust of ten to the sixty-seventh power.

Then at the tenth bodhisattva level, forget it. There's no description. He says indescribable number of galaxies full of dust.

DOR NA Briefly, MA DAG SA SDON GYI SKABS SU BYAMS MED NYID PA Okay. At the first bodhisattva level, sorry, at the first two paths, they completed the first collection of karma. It took ten to the sixtieth zeros eons.

Okay? Now, to get from there, to get from the pen to the seventh bodhisattva level takes another ten to the sixtieth power. That's how long our Buddha took.

Then to cover bodhisattva levels eight, nine, ten takes another ten to the sixtieth power. But, if you studied Tsongkapa lineage, if you just relax and learn these ideas like we teach them in DCI, you can finish in about 500 years. It sounds like a long time, but it's not.

Life goes on pretty fast. I can tell you. I was 20 yesterday.

It just went boom. You're like, whoa, wait, slow down. So don't worry about it.

Seven lifetimes. Not much. It's really not very much.

It goes very fast. ,GZHAN DU RGYAL CHEN PO GSUM PA LTAR, ,RGAN DU DGE YIN PAS YIN TZAM, Anyway, Sangha jewel is cool. That's all he wants to say.

That's all he wanted to say. Sangha jewel is cool. I'm going to do the sutra with you because we don't have time to do much more in the book.

There's a... later in a few pages, he's going to mention, called Buddha Anusmriti. Say it, Buddha.

Buddha. Anusmriti. Anusmriti.

Buddha. Buddha. Anusmriti.

Anusmriti. It's a sutra. It's a short sutra.

It's only a few pages long. It's called How to Think About the Buddha. If you have time sometimes and you're just having a hot cocoa and you're sitting in your porch in the afternoon at home on Sunday, you don't have to work, you can read this sutra.

It's good luck. I translated it this morning. Yesterday morning.

It's a short sutra. It's so important that every time the monks and nuns do their confession, we have to read it together. If you're a monk or nun, you have to say this one every two weeks.

It's very important for cleaning karma also. Bad karma. Did we translate it Stanley?

That seems contradictory. It has to be cleaned up. You'll get it after the retreat.

I'm sorry we couldn't finish it. Here's the English. I'm going to just teach it to you and explain it to you.

I found a commentary. I found two commentaries. I'm going to teach you from a commentary because some parts are difficult.

I'll just read it to you for good luck. It's called lung. This is the first English lung, I think.

In the language of India, this book is called Arya Buddha Anusmriti. In the language of Tibet, it is called BAG PA SANGS RGYAS BYAS SU BRTAM PA I don't know in Chinese what? Title.

Remembering the Buddha. Thinking about the Buddha. Yeah, that's what I said.

In the English language, it is called Exalted Lines on Thinking of the Buddha. How to relax on your porch on Sunday afternoon with an iced tea or coffee, and how to just think cool things about Buddha. That's all.

That's the sutra. It's supposed to be done relaxed. Go to a Starbucks, Shimbunka, and have a coffee and just read it to yourself.

I bow down to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. And a Buddha, a conqueror, is the one gone thus. The enemy destroyer.

The totally enlightened one. The one who possesses both knowledge and the legs. We'll talk about it.

He or she is the one gone to bliss. Knower of the world. Matchless charioteer who tames all beings.

Teacher of gods and men. The Buddha, the conqueror. And the ones thus gone come from a cause of the same, from merit.

The store of their virtue will never go by. They are dressed in the jewels of patience. They are the earth with mines of merit.

They are studded with the gems of the sacred marks. The flowers of their sacred signs are in full bloom. They come to us in a way that fits each one of us.

And when we lay our eyes upon them, nothing but harmony comes among us. They please those with thoughts of faith. Nothing can outshine their wisdom.

Their strength can never be overpowered. They are the teachers of all living beings. The fathers and mothers of the bodhisattvas.

Kings and queens of those who have seen the void. They captain the ship for those who travel to the city of Nirvana. Their knowledge is incalculable.

Their courage is inconceivable. Their words are pure. The song they sing is exquisite.

I made a mistake here. We cannot get enough of looking upon them. Their holy form has no equal.

They cannot be stained by the realm of desire. They cannot be stained by the realm of form. They can never be compromised by the realm of the formless.

They are free of pain. They are forever free of this mortal coil. I'm reading a slightly earlier translation.

Probably you have a few changes. No longer do they possess the parts of a human being. They have mastered the doors of sense.

They have sliced away all knots. They are free of regrets. They are free of craving.

They have crossed the great water. Their wisdom is complete. They live within the wisdom of Buddha's gone and yet to come and here among us.

Never do they stay in Nirvana. They dwell in the end of all things and they make their home in a place from where they can watch over each one of us. These then are the magnificent qualities of the immaculate wisdom of the ones who have gone that way.

That's the whole sutra. Okay? Cool?

Sometimes during retreat, now your retreat is getting very busy I think. If you're tired, you don't want to go for a walk. I don't like walks.

I'm supposed to. I'll just sit on Gyal Tse's porch and drink a watermelon juice and read the sutra and relax and listen to the birds. Alright?

This is a very famous refuge practice. Just to read this sutra and think about it. I'm going to give you some notes for the sutra.

These are from several different lamas. It's kind of nice because he explains the meaning of common synonyms for Buddha like Tathagata, Sugata. Ready?

We call them... Those who have gone that way? Is that one of the first ones I think?

Gone thus. Because, ,DE BZHIN NYID LA LAR MING DANG BA'I TSUL KHYI GNOD PAR BSHAGS, ,DE SA GZHAGS PA Because they have gone to a place where they will never again not be meditating on emptiness directly. So they are called gone thus.

They just went into a meditation from which they will never come out called direct perception of emptiness, a Buddha. So they went that way. Got it?

Thusness is you know, Tathagata. Okay. ,NYAL MONGS PA'I RGYUD PA'I DRA BCOM PA'I NA, He doesn't cover all of them.

So tell me which ones he doesn't cover. I'll give them to you from another commentary. He says they are enemy destroyer because they destroyed their own negative emotions forever.

,YIN RTEN MA LUS PA, ,CING CI MA SLOB PAR MTHOGS NA, ,YANG DAG PAR RDZOGS PA, They reached total enlightenment because they totally got all the good qualities. So we say total Buddha, right? Totally enlightened Buddha.

,MA RIG PA'I NI SANG ZHING, ,GZHAN BYA LA BLO DGES PA'I NA SANGS RGYAS, Now why are they called Buddha? Why are they called Buddha? Okay.

Buddha has two meanings. One meaning of the Sanskrit root bud is to wake up. And one is the root vid, which means what?

Video. To see. So bud is related to vid in Sanskrit.

So when you say the word Buddha, the Tibetans did a very smart thing. They said SANG RGYAS They used two different words glued together. The Tibetan word for Buddha is very smart because it includes both meanings of bud.

Wake up and see all things. How did they wake up? They woke up from the sleep of misunderstanding.

How did they spread? How did they grow? How did they see?

Their mind has expanded to the vision of all things. So they are called woke up wide vision. How's that?

Something like woke wide. Woke wide? We call them woke wide.

They are said to possess knowledge. Is that the next one? Okay.

They possess knowledge because they have the first of the three Buddhist trainings. What's that? Yeah, but he's going the other way.

Wisdom. Understand emptiness. Therefore they have knowledge.

Then there's a strange part. If you don't have a commentary, you're going to get lost. It says they have legs.

That doesn't seem like a big deal. Oh, you got legs, so do I. I'm not even a Buddha, I got legs.

My legs hurt. Okay. It means they have the first two trainings, which is morality and concentration.

Or you can say, for the concentration you can also say... Well, let's leave it at concentration. Okay.

Why do they call those two legs? Yeah, they're the support for the third one, which is wisdom. There's three Buddhist trainings.

Morality, concentration, wisdom. You need the first two to support the third one. So they're called legs.

Oh, you got legs. Thanks. You mean I have good morality and good contemplation.

Yeah, yeah. All right. What's the next one?

Sugata? Yeah, the one gone to bliss, the one gone to happiness. Sugata in Sanskrit.

They reached ultimate wisdom and they got rid of all their bad things, so they are gone to bliss. Okay. Next one.

They know the world. Okay. It means they can read their disciples' minds and know what they need perfectly.

They see what seeds the student has in their mind. They see what's their capacity. They see what's their...

what do you call that? Proclivities. Aptitude.

They can tell how much aptitude. And they teach the right thing at the right time for that person's mind. All right.

That's what it means to know the world. Why are they the charioteer who what? Tames all living beings.

You can say a car driver. They are your chauffeur. They are the ultimate chauffeur.

Why? They know the right road to take to redirect people who are going the wrong way. When the student starts going the wrong way, the Buddha says, turn right or turn left.

They put them on the best... what do you call? The best GPS road to enlightenment.

They are the ultimate GPS. Dharma GPS. That's what this one means.

,LHA DAG MI NANG KYI, ,LANG DOR JI LTAR BZHIN DU, ,STON PA'I STON PA ZHAG GI THUB PA LA THUB PA, What's the next one? Teacher of Gods and Men. Yeah, Teacher of Gods and Men.

Jigme says I should use humans, but I don't know. I just... gods and men is an old expression in English.

Men doesn't mean males. It means all human beings. Maybe you can say gods and women.

Okay. Then they know how to teach people what to do and what to not do. That's all.

They can teach people what to do and what not to do. So they are... What is it?

Teacher of Gods and Men. Now, there's one irritating one. Sorry.

That isn't clear to me. It was something about they come from a cause which is similar or something like that. How does it go?

Say it out loud. A cause of the same. Yeah, a cause of the same.

That one's not clear. I found that in a commentary by... anybody, somebody.

They said what created those Buddhas is that they tried to help many people earlier. That's all. That's the meaning of that one.

Anyone I didn't cover? Anyone you want to know? We okay?

Which one? Oh, good. Let's look up that one.

Yes. Okay. Here's how it was explained by...

Who is this person? Somebody named Dechir Rinpoche. They destroyed all obstacles.

That's how he said it. And they destroyed the four demons. Four demons are, I don't know, death, old age...

Yeah, negative emotions and the divine youth, which means cool things that distract you from Dharma. Okay. All right.

Any more? Anything we didn't cover? Speak now or forever hold your pee.

We finished it. Didn't we? Yeah, we did.

Oh, same thing. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Conqueror. Bhagavan.

Bhagavan. That's a long story, but that's how it's explained here. Anyway, if you want to think about Buddha Jewel, you can recite this out loud, quietly on your porch.

Okay? And praise the Buddha. All right?

And it's a very powerful practice. It's a very powerful sutra. Okay?

All right. Let's finish the meditations and then we can go close your retreat border and send WeChat to rest for a few days. Okay.

WeChat, take a few days off. Number 25. Meditation 25, page 11.

Now, the tenth refuge vow is that you're supposed to take refuge three times every day and three times every night. That's the tenth refuge vow. We'll talk about it later.

But the good news is if you understand what taking refuge is, especially if you understand that taking refuge is deciding not to tell your husband how stupid he is, it's easy to do it six times a day. Okay? Someone will irritate you six times a day.

That's why we get married. It's automatic. In your own house.

You don't have to go anywhere. Okay? Six times a day your partner will upset you.

Okay? Big upset or little upset. I mean Michael Dunn never does, I know, but...

You can borrow somebody or something. I don't know. Anyway, if you understand what refuge really means, this meditation is, can I remember the pen six times a day?

Yes. Okay, no problem. Otherwise, if refuge means I have to go to the temple and burn incense, then six times a day is a problem.

I won't have time to do anything else. It doesn't mean that. It means understanding emptiness six times a day.

I don't know. If I drive from my house to the village of Oak Creek, six people will irritate me in traffic. Then I'm like, thank you, now I'm done for the day.

You know? Jigme can drive me home. You know?

Okay? I can cover it in just that 25 minute drive. I can do my six times refuge.

Seriously. Sometimes I forget and I just get pissed off at them. Why does everyone do it?

Why don't you drive home? Then if you just remember, oh, that's coming from me. Why do I have to see people breaking the rules so often?

There's a joke in DCI. What's the joke? I don't know why I have to see somebody talking too much.

Nick, what is that? Nick's like, duh. Duh.

Okay? There's a DCI joke. I don't know why I have to see people eating sweets all day.

So 25 is just, you know, you will get sunburned or some bug will get into your bed and keep you up for two hours. Something will happen during retreat. Don't worry.

Demons don't like people doing retreat. They will come. The minute you put up your...

What's the marker? It's an advertisement for demons. Come to this house.

Someone's trying to meditate. That's the real meaning of this OM MA HUNG. Come, bother me.

Something will happen. Last time what happened, I remember, that handle came off of somebody's bathtub and all the water from every house is pushing out of the one bathtub. Me and Tim had a...

Was it you and me? We had a good time that night. Gyelse was the hero.

Him and me were watching. We're like, oh my god, nobody will have any water in about half an hour. The minute you start doing retreat, something will happen.

Because they want you to spend the rest of your life looking at cat videos on YouTube. They don't want you doing retreat. They don't want you doing retreat.

The demons don't like it when people do retreat. Very, very serious things will happen to people in retreat. We proved it here.

It happens. When stuff happens, you should feel proud. Penny, did you get any obstacles?

No Geshe-la, everything went smooth. I got obstacles. The demons thought I was going to do something cool.

They came to my cabin and they left you alone. I attracted demons. I must have been doing some good practice.

You didn't have any demons. Don't worry, next time if you work hard you can get some demons. Okay, alright.

Okay, so that's... Demons are good because it gives you a chance to take refuge. Then you can keep your refuge vow.

If the demons come six times a day, you should be happy. Yes, madame? Yes.

Number one, demons don't like it. It's called go-numba. In Tibetan there's a special word.

If you stick your head up out of the poo-poo, I'd like to get out. Bam! They're looking to see if anyone is not looking at cat videos all day.

They're like, I don't want to look at cat videos. Boom! Go back to the cat videos.

When you stick your head up, it's called go-numba. They will take you back down. Why they don't like it is bad deed number nine.

Because of our human tendency to be unhappy when other people succeed. We are so happy when a movie star... Oh, Brad Pitt divorced Angela Jolie.

Oh, really? Tell me. He threw something at her.

Oh, really? You can hear it for two hours. The lawyers are talking about what he threw at her.

People, why is it on the radio? Why they put it on the internet? Because we like it.

Oh, really? Tell me more. Did he hit her or just missed her?

That causes demons. Yeah, the demons are coming from us. Because we're so interested about movie star's troubles.

And I am too. It's almost... What do you call it?

It's part of us. What was that recently? I don't know.

Anyway. We'd love to...oh, those two guys got fired in the government. Yeah, one guy.

Oh, did you hear? He was talking to the Russians. But he said he wasn't talking to the Russians.

So they fired him. Oh, really? Tell me more.

And the other guy was just mean all the time. Anyway. Oh, tell me more.

Which one? What did he say? Who fired him?

Like that. Okay, number 26. What time do I have to finish?

4.45. Don't cheat me. 4.45. Okay. Number 26 is I will offer my day-to-day honesty and integrity to the Buddha.

This is one of the refuge vows and I can't remember which one. Is that am I a bad person? I'll have to go look it up.

Because the... I think it might be. Let's see.

Yeah, it is. Yeah. So this refuge vow, which is to put all your hopes in objects of refuge every time you do something.

Yeah. Pabongka Rinpoche says it involves offering your day-to-day honesty and integrity to the Buddhas. Okay, now that's not what you would expect, so I made it a meditation.

Okay. It doesn't seem to equal putting all your trust in the Three Jewels, but somehow it is, and maybe you can meditate on it and figure it out and tell me when you get out. Okay.

So during this meditation number 26, think of all the times you've been honest. Think of all the times you've been an honest person in the last few days, few weeks, and offer it to the Buddhas, and you are taking refuge. You are fulfilling your refuge vows.

So that's a pleasant meditation. All the times I was honest in the last few weeks. A lot of these are not like confession where you have to think of what a bad person you are.

Of course you are. But during these meditations, you're supposed to be thinking all the good things you're doing. It's like coffee meditation.

Number 27, and that's the final part of the teaching on refuge in the Lam Rim. What happens next in Guadalajara? We go to karma.

We start studying karma. The DCI people are going to be excited in Guadalajara because then we go deep into the laws of karma, the four laws of karma, and the four flowers, and all that's going to come in Guadalajara. We'll be finished with refuge this week, and then in Guadalajara in August?

July. We will do karma. Just karma, karma, karma.

If you really ever wanted to know about karma, come to that. It's a very detailed teaching about karma. How does karma work?

The last, last, last refuge meditation, the last, last, last advice in the Lam Rim, by the way, this is called SNYOMS KYIS. SNYOMS KYIS is as opposed to PAS KYIS. PAS KYIS means teach the people the scripture.

SNYOMS KYIS means put them in retreat and let them experience that Lam Rim level. Teach them meditations that will help them to experience refuge. We're doing both.

We're doing PAS KYIS. I'm explaining the book to you. Then you're going to go do a SNYOMS KYIS or a NYAMS KYIS.

You're going to go put the teaching into personal experience. That's another way to do Lam Rim. If you do a tough Lam Rim program, you teach people the eight Lam Rim books together.

It's called... I'm sorry. Well, he used eight.

Four is also traditional. Four great books on Lam Rim. That takes a long, long time.

Then you require that the student reach that level before they can go on to the next one. You test them. Are they taking refuge six times a day?

You test them. If they're not, you don't let them go to karma. But it would be impractical because I'd have to do karma over like a hundred times.

It's for a Lama who has a few good students. Like that. Number 27, the final refuge teaching, which we will get to in the book, I hope, after the three-day retreat.

He says something very cool. He says, look, either jump or don't jump. Don't stand on the cliff.

Did you ever jump off one of those cliffs into the ocean? I think I did it once. It's really scary.

You say, oh, I can do that. Your friend says, okay, let me see you do it. You go up to the edge and you look over and you say, I don't know.

Maybe I can't do it. It doesn't hurt too much if you land on your feet. He's going to land on his head.

That hurts. But it doesn't hurt too much if you don't hit a rock. He says, don't stand on the top and go, I don't know.

I don't know if I want to do this or not. In English we say, don't be wishy-washy. Don't say, I don't know if I want to do it or not.

Maybe I'll do it, maybe I won't. He says, if you're going to take refuge, jump. Just jump.

Stop using science, start using seeds. Just jump. He says, don't around.

Just jump. The last refuge advice is, go for it, man. What the hell?

Just jump. Start using seeds to run your life. Stop thinking about doctors and jobs.

Marriage counselors, just jump. Start using seeds for everything. Maybe you can do that meditation on Thursday morning.

Am I jumping or not? Just jump. By Thursday morning you're supposed to be like, the meditation is the calm of Diamond Mountain retreat cabin finally reached your mind.

In that enlightened space, you decide, I'm changing from now on. I'm going to jump. No more, no more like, I don't know, I don't know.

From now on, seeds, seeds, seeds. For everything I want. And jump.

By Thursday morning, I do this last Thursday morning meditation. What time is it? At 7.15. At 7.45 on Thursday in the morning, do this meditation. At 7.45 on Thursday morning, which is your last serious meditation during the three days, do this one. I'm going to jump or I'm not going to jump. Don't do it before that.

Save it for the end. Because hopefully by that time the retreat cottage had an effect on your mind and you will have more courage. I'm going to jump.

No more self-existent aspirants. I'm jumping. I'm going for it.

That should be your last meditation. All right then. Now, don't forget you have this sweet death meditation.

Sorry, there's another one before that. I'm sorry. There is a 28.

Oops. Two more meditations if you want. By the way, nobody can do 28 meditations in three days.

Don't even try. Pick the ones that you're attracted to. Have this book with you.

You can say, that sounds boring. That one is depressing. This one looks pretty cool.

You choose. You choose your meditations. That's why I gave you 28 choices.

It's actually 29. Here's 28. It has three steps.

Very famous. Lam Rim, taking refuge, meditation. Number one.

Decide, I already went there. I already went there. Where?

Lower realms. Lower realms. I'm in hell.

I'm an animal. I'm a hungry spirit. Decide you already went there.

What's the photograph? This is a famous photo that was taken during the Vietnam War. These people are being shot at right at that moment.

Somebody is trying to kill them right at that moment. It's like a hell. They jump into the water.

They can't stay under the water. They have to put their head up. In that moment, it's a real photo.

Someone was trying to kill them at that moment. This guy took a photo and he survived. It's just a normal family.

There's a mom, and there's the mom, her daughter, grandma, mom, and kids. Someone is trying to kill them in this moment of that photograph. Why are we talking about that?

Imagine you're already in the hell realms. You didn't take refuge very well. You spent the three days on your cell phone.

So you went to a place like that. Then your mind will object. Your mind will say, no, no, no, no.

I'm in Diamond Mountain in a nice, comfortable, beautiful, cool retreat cottage because of Melissa and Michael, and Tahiya. I'm not in the hell. Nobody is shooting at me.

Then step number two. What's that? I do have the seeds.

If I died this afternoon, I would go to a place like that. First part, I am in the hells already. Then your mind will say, no, no, no.

No, no, no. I'm in a retreat cottage in Diamond Mountain. It's hot as hell, but it's not hell.

Then you have to look into your mind. Do you have the seeds or not? Then the answer is, yes, I have the seeds.

I could go there. If I died this afternoon, if I'm the first person to die from rattlesnake at Diamond Mountain, it's possible. I could go there.

Then third, it's supposed to be happy thought. What's that? I have shelter.

Like a son, a small boy, who has dad, he can hang on to dad and say, help me dad. Who's that? Buddha Dharmasangha.

I have shelter. I have refuge. I have protection.

I can hang on to my dad. Like that. Try to remember the photographs.

Try to memorize the photographs. You can give yourself a photo quiz. Look at the photos and say, what was I supposed to meditate about?

Then you won't forget the meditations. You can do them after you get home. It's on the bus, on the airplane.

When your flight's delayed in the LA airport or you're in the LA customs line for two hours, don't waste your time. Who was that? Me and Nick did the whole translator program design waiting in a customs line.

Where? Thailand? Yeah.

Phuket, 11 o'clock at night. Something like that. I don't remember.

That's another meditation you can do. Now, if you want to get to the first one conveniently, what's the first one of those three? You're in the hell and somebody's shooting at you, etc.

Do the meditation after it first. What's that? Death meditation.

Go through the stages of death. If you have difficulty jumping into being shot at, do the death meditation before it. Then you're reviewing the last part of the lam rim, before refuge.

You're reviewing that one, which is death meditation. Tie together retreat number 22, retreat number 23, retreat number 24, and retreat number 25. Those of you who came to them, who's smart enough to come to them, tie them together.

Try to remember what came before. Don't let it go when you do the next lam rim. Don't forget about death meditation when you start refuge.

When you reach karma in Guadalajara, don't drop the refuge. Try to keep some continuity of the lam rim. Okay.

I finished the meditation book and you didn't. I can take one question. I think I promised two people.

Quick. How do you say? I promised two people, right?

Like this.

[Speaker 2]
So... We have learned to take refuge even in the moment when somebody shoots a gun at us. I have a much more simple problem.

This translation tool is not functioning. I got the first, it was not functioning.

[Speaker 1]
I got the second, it was not functioning.

[Speaker 2]
And the third was not functioning. And it took the fourth one to remember that I take refuge before I plucked in the earplugs. And it was not functioning.

And then suddenly somebody came up and helped me. We changed the channel and it was working for a time but now it's not functioning anymore. So, now I start to think about science.

Maybe there are some interferences of the radio waves in this room. Why it doesn't work here and there, especially with me. That means for me, when somebody shoots at me, maybe I'm just on the wrong place, just like I'm on the wrong place with my device.

I can't trust the refuge because the refuge didn't help me. Gisela, can you help me?

[Speaker 1]
I asked my Lama this question. He was a very tough guy. Those of you who knew him, he was a very tough guy.

He looked at me and I said, I'm trying all this stuff, it's not working right now. He said, well, you just go back to the old way then. Work as hard as you can.

Take vitamins. Then samsara will remind you that there may be another way. Because it will fail.

It will fail again and again and again. If you're not ready to jump, okay, stay the old way. When you want money, just work harder.

When you want health, take more vitamins. Do more yoga. If you want a nice relationship, try to steal the nicest, handsomest boy or most beautiful girl you can find from someone else.

Go back to the old way and try that for a while. When the disaster is big enough, come back. He told me that.

He's a very impatient sort of Lama. He's like, okay, then go back to your old life. No problem.

When the pain is big enough, come back to me. Okay, so I would say that. I would say that.

Samsara will remind you that it doesn't work. Okay, we had one more promise of a question. Who was that?

Vivian? Okay, that's the last one. Then we have to do the boundary.

Thank you Geshe-la, your teaching. You're welcome. Can I have two questions?

But you only paid for one. So Geshe-la, the first question is, you taught us to offer anything we eat to our teacher first before we eat them. Last time in Thailand.

And then now you have given us a few more graces to do before eating anything. So what do I do? Do I put the teacher offering first and do any one of this or what's the order?

Yeah, okay, good. All of them are to your teacher. In the end, all of them are to your teacher.

All six of them are to your teacher. Okay? All six of them are to your teacher.

So don't worry about it. By the way, there's another tantric one you want to know? Yeah.

Don't offer it before you eat it. Eat it first. Like if you have a yotel, don't offer it.

Just an art. Then swallow. Then imagine it goes down to the Lama in the heart.

And they're like, That's an old custom. That's called the Bali Mandala. There's an old teaching like that.

So just imagine it's coming down your throat and they're like, they are like, and they take a bite. You can always do that. Do the other grace first, then eat, and then Lama gets it anyway.

Okay? Second question. Okay.

Geshe-la, you taught the meditation of exchanging self and others in level eight. And then at the end of that meditation, we should give away the golden light ball in our heart to all the people around us, the people on the street, and to all the people in the city, and even to all lives in the universe. So my question is, when I do this golden light giving, should I just do it in a way like it's a concept?

It's not that real? Or should I just try to see every real life around me and try to give them the real golden light? You can't cover all the living beings in your mind right now.

So you have to do blanket golden light. Just send it out. It's traveling, right?

It's going out in all directions. Send it out. Let it go for a while.

Let it go to Shenzhen. Then, I don't know, Europe. And it reaches New York.

And then you can let it go and say, please keep going. I'll check on you later. You don't have to watch it go through everywhere because you'll never finish the meditation.

So you start it, and then you let it go, but you don't think it's stopped. You think it's still traveling. And when we do the fire offering on Thursday night, it's the same thing.

The smoke from the fire touches the top of the sky, and some of it actually release into the outer space, and it joins cosmic dust. Sooner or later it reaches every star, every planet. Then you don't have to see it.

You just imagine, logically, that dust will reach every planet of this fire, of this fire offering. Later you'll be able to follow it all the way with your mind after you become Buddha. But right now, you just start it, and then you let it go, but you imagine that it's still going.

Alright, good question. I like your questions. Take a 15 minute break, pee pee, relax, and we'll go close the boundary.

Two kinds of people. One doesn't work hard enough in retreat. The other one works too hard in retreat.

What's the percentage? 99% try to work too hard in retreat. They get nervous.

They don't have a good time. They decide they're a bad person. They feel upset.

They don't relax. This three day retreat is also meant to give you a break from your normal life. You are too busy.

Every one of us is too busy. Don't bring that busy into retreat. Leave it.

If you have to start your yoga half an hour late, okay. If you want to eat cookies instead of yoga, it's okay. Have some fun.

Get some rest. Everybody needs a rest. Your life is like a train, high speed Chinese train.

Just take a break. Relax. Enjoy Diamond Mountain.

Enjoy your cabin. Enjoy your friends. Don't make the mistake to bring your busy life into that cabin.

Make it a time of rest, relaxation, renewal. Give yourself a break from your life. If you can't do 28 meditations, do two.

You're still a good person. If you came here, you're a good person. Please don't get all anxious.

I didn't see Buddha on the second day of retreat. I'm a bad person. Just relax.

When you relax, have a good time. Eat well. Rest well.

Meditate well. Then you have breakthrough. You don't get breakthrough by pushing yourself.

By getting nervous. Just relax. Stuff will come.

Please don't get nervous or anxious. I'm not a good person. Like that.

The goal is to be relaxed. Have a good time. Don't use your...

No one's going to text you. This is your private time to take a break from your life. Diamond Mountain is always here for you to come.

All year. These cabins, they don't go to Tucson when you're not here. They're still here.

The staff is still here. It's a place for you to come and rest. Anytime.

You don't have to have a retreat. You don't have to have Lam Rim teaching. You can come anytime.

Call Melissa. Write Melissa. Is my cottage free?

Yes. Can I come next week for a break? Yes.

I just had trouble with my husband. I just lost my job. I don't feel so good.

Okay, so come for a week. Take a break. There doesn't have to be Geshe Michael there.

There doesn't have to be a Tibetan grammar book. Come and take a break. This is your place.

We built it for you. Come and let it be the place where you take a break. It doesn't have to be a special program.

Just come. Just let Melissa know, Michael, and come. It's here all the time.

All right. Good luck.