«Дар освобождения», курс 25 «Совершенное прибежище», занятие 10

[Speaker 1]
All right, we were talking about six special qualities of the sutras. And here is the third one. And it means mupay kepar.

You got that? Okay. Okay, gyab su droy tse, mupa-mindawa te.

So, when you take refuge, you can have three different thoughts about those jewels. per na chu le dru na. This dro, for those of you studying Tibetan, doesn't mean liberate, it means to cross over.

What's the Sanskrit? Tara, yeah. So, when you are trying to cross over a large body of water like the Pacific Ocean and go from San Francisco to Shanghai.

drupa dang, you need a captain of the ship who knows how to drive it. go dru dang, and you need a ship. nyam du droy drok tar, and you need people to go with you to help you get there.

And then we can think of sanggye ni chupa dang nyen kor chawa. Now the next sentence is very important. sanggye ni chupa dang nyen kor chawa.

Your relationship to the Buddha. Who's that in this metaphor? Yeah, your relationship to the captain should be chupa dang nyen kor, make offerings, bribe them to take you on the boat, get you across.

That's what we do with the captain. chu rang gyu la ngun du chupa. But in this case, the Dharma is not a person.

Here's where he says the Dharma is something to be achieved inside of you. So, the first jewel, you are making offerings to a person, a being. The second jewel is something you have to find inside of you.

Something you have to plant inside of you. Understanding emptiness, right? Third jewel, gen din dang, su shen du dro pa me po, And then the third jewel is people you want to be friends with, who are people who remember seeds all the time.

You want to hang out with people like that, to reinforce what you know. Okay. druppay khyepa ni, de sum lak len la shul waw, shul waw is a beautiful verb in Tibetan.

It means surrender your soul to these three. To practicing those three. Offering to the Buddha, trying to get the Dharma inside of you, and then choosing wisely with your friends.

And make it your heart's work, make it your life's work to do that. That's called shul waw. It is the ship.

Yeah, the ship is inside of you. That's pretty cool. je den gyi khyepa ni, how do you think about them?

sang gye chenpoy de she, you should recite the sutra that starts with Arya Buddha Anusmriti, right? I taught you that sutra before retreat, right? Small sutra?

That's how you should think of these three jewels. do jik kye sumpa shin, goy ngel gyi yin chen chenpa yin, Then just think about how cool they are. And that's how we should think of them when we're alone, when we're on the bus, when we're driving, when you have a quiet moment.

Then just think of how cool they are. Especially the Buddha, and that's the sutra I gave you. So if you want to...

When I have stuff that I want to remember, I just put it up on my computer and I take a picture of it. Then it's on my phone. When I want to read that sutra, I can read it.

It doesn't take much space on your phone. This is a little too hot. The mic is a little too hot.

The mic is too hot. Okay. All right.

So I taught you that sutra. I taught you what it means. I'm going to skip through that.

Somebody should translate the commentary. Yikes. Okay.

Sixth call. DE GSOS RNAMS PHAL BA LA'I RGYUR BA'I SKYE BAR NI, SANGS RGYAS NI GANG ZHAG GCIG LA BRTEN NAS GSOS RNAMS PA'ANG How do these three jewels act to multiply our good karma? SANGS RGYAS NI GANG ZHAG GCIG LA BRTEN NAS GSOS RNAMS PA'ANG With regard to the Buddha jewel, just having faith in one person multiplies your good karma.

RGYAS NI GANG ZHAG GCIG LA BRTEN NAS GSOS RNAMS PA'ANG And with the Sangha, you are multiplying your karma by doing it with more people. There's more people. Buddha is one person.

Buddha jewel is one person, in this case. And Sangha jewel is many people. Roughly, Sangha jewel is anyone who understands the pen or better.

GSOS RNAMS PA'ANG LAS SANGS RGYAS DANG RGYEN DU NI GANG ZHAG KYI DBANG DU BYED DANG Again, he says the Buddha and the Sangha are people. But, GCOD NI GANG ZHAG MA YIN PA'I DBANG DU BYED PA'I GSOS RNAMS PA'ANG BA'I SKYE BAR RO, But with the Dharma jewel, you are multiplying your karma with something that's not a person, with an idea. DE NA KHYAM TSUL DOR NA YANG, SANGS RGYAS LA KHYAM TSUL DOR NI, SPYOD PA DANG RNAMS DO BYO BA'I BSAM PA YIN LA, SPYOD NI RANG GI LA SKYE PAR BYED PA'I GSOS So when you think about going for refuge to the Buddha, you're thinking about offerings.

I don't like to say offerings because it reminds me of temples and only the monks can offer, you're not allowed to offer, and things like that. I like to think of it as thank you notes to the Buddha. It's just thank you notes to the Buddha.

If someone really did something nice to you, then you give them thank you notes. That's all. It's like, can you hear me okay?

Did it? It's okay? Okay.

My ears are out, I don't know why. SPYOD NI RANG GI LA SKYE PAR BYED PA'I GSOS But the way to go to refuge to the Dharmajul is just to understand the pen, and then you are taking refuge. So it's not something you do with incense.

It's not something you do on your knees in a temple. It's something you do when your husband yells at you when you come home, or your wife, Mr. Dunn. Okay.

All right. I said, I kept saying husband, and then this guy in Guangzhou raised his hand. He said, you don't mention wife ever.

Wife also I do. Okay. Next is called going for shelter by accepting the shelter.

GSUM PA SKYE LAM NI DGONG NAS BSKYAMS SU DROG LA GSUM STE SANGS RGYAS LA BSKYABS DON PA PO CHOS LA BSKYABS DNGOS DGE NAS LA BSKYAMS GRUB PA'I LTAR DOGS KYIS BSKYEN NEN TE So there's an idea that you accept these as three refuges. You accept them as refuge. First one, you accept the Buddha.

This is interesting. Okay. Listen, not as a refuge, but as the person who teaches you what is refuge.

Okay. So you go to the Buddha. You go for refuge to the Buddha, it means you go for refuge because he teaches you the pen.

Okay. Got it? So you're not really...

You're going to him because he's going to teach you the Dharmajula. CHOS LA BSKYABS DNGOS BSKYABS DNGOS means that's the real refuge of the three, the real protection is number two. Of the three jewels, the real protection is to understand the pen, understand the husband's coming from you.

Okay. That's real protection. Why?

Human nature is to respond to violence with violence. Your husband calls you stupid, you say, no, you're stupid. This is human nature.

And real protection when you follow your human nature, you say back to the husband, GNYIS FANG STONG MED YONG DGOS MED YONG DGOS? GNYIS FANG STONG MED YONG DGOS You're the rice bucket head. I'm not.

Then that's human nature. When you do that, you heal yourself and that plants another seed to have your husband yell at you. So, it becomes a cycle, wheel of life.

So, the actual protection, the highest protection is the idea that I shouldn't plant another seed. I don't want to plant another seed. Okay.

And you just shut up. Is your husband a FANG STONG? Yes.

Is he stupid? Yes. All husbands are stupid.

But you don't have to say it. Everybody knows it. Okay.

Just don't say anything. Okay. Then you don't plant another stupid husband.

Okay. And then you accept sangha as your friends, people who can help you. Okay.

Especially people who have seen emptiness. Christian? Yeah.

I can't read the Tibetan. Yeah. In your explanation.

Yeah. We're doing both. Dependent origination.

What's the emptiness? Yeah. We're doing all that.

Yeah. Exactly. That's not just emptiness.

That's dependent origination. Right. It assumes dependent origination also.

Yeah. Hector pointed out that protection doesn't just involve emptiness. It also involves dependent origination, which in normal language means it doesn't just mean to understand there's no husband who's not my fault.

It also means to understand there is a husband who is my fault. That's dependent origination. If you want to confuse people, call it dependent origination.

If you want people to understand, call it my seeds created my husband. Okay. Same thing.

Same thing. Okay. If you give long confusing words to the Dharma, it keeps many monks and nuns in business for a long time, including me.

If you just use simple language, we have to play rock and roll and do something else. For example, you can think of the relationship that a sick person has to the doctor, to the medicine, and to the nurse or physician. Yeah.

Okay. Got it? All right.

Every time you understand a new idea of Buddhism, you are protected from one more bad thing. Every time you understand a new idea in Buddhism, you are protected from one more bad thing. Okay.

In DCI, we call it a life tool or life idea. Idea for your life. There's 12 in each level.

So far we have 95 or 6. Okay. Every time you learn one of those 95, you protect yourself from one bad thing.

Okay. That's protection. Understanding is protection.

Okay. All right. That means, by the way, that refuge ritual happens where?

In your kitchen. In your heart in your kitchen. It's not so much when Venerable Phil gave you vows or Venerable Jigme gave you vows.

It's the real ritual that confirms you as a Buddhist happens in the kitchen when your husband yells at you. Okay. Got it?

That's the real... That's when you get real refuge vows. Always...

You guys are the next generation of teachers and always try to think of ways that it doesn't become a ritual. That it becomes something people use in their home, in their work, with their children, with their parents. Okay?

Like that. Okay. The fourth section is called taking refuge by not agreeing to other kinds of protection.

Okay? Taking real protection by not agreeing to lower kinds of protection is the fourth instruction here. And it's reflected in the first refuge vow.

It doesn't mean you have to swear you're a Buddhist and then if you go to sneak into a church you're a bad person or something. It doesn't mean that. It means solve your problems with seeds.

Achieve your goals with seeds. And don't waste your time on other stuff. First, three course.

The first thing you try should be seeds. Okay? Then you're a Buddhist.

It doesn't mean you can't go to a doctor. Okay? It also doesn't mean you don't have to go to work.

I heard somebody in China told their parents, Geshe Michael says, I just need seeds and I don't have to go to work. Okay? The seeds have to come through something.

Okay? Plant seeds. Get a job that you enjoy.

And you'll be successful. Okay? If you're super Buddha, you don't have to go to work.

Okay? But we're not super Buddha. All right.

,GZHIN PA GZHAN DU MI MA BA'I SGO NAS BSKYAMS SU MDOR NI, ,SNGON RGYA DGOS LA SLOB PUN, ,THO TSUN DRUB BYAS, So there was two brothers in India who were acharyas, masters. ,DGOS NYID YOD PA DANG PO CI ROL PA YIN, And they started as non-Buddhists. If you care, one is named Udbhata Siriswami and the other is called Shankarapati.

,GONG NYID DBANG PHYIR PHYIR, So the god of their religion was named Indra. And ,PHYIR PHYIR RIG PO GANG PHYIR LA SOGS PA NA, And to make offerings to Indra, they climbed a mountain in the Himalayas. ,PHAR DBANG PHYIR CHEN PO'I SANGS RGYAS LA BSKYAMS SGROL BYAS PA, Then they saw Indra, but he was on his knees taking refuge vows from Buddha.

So they said, whoa. Then they became Buddhists. What the heck.

,GZHIN TE PHYIR CHEN GYI SLOB PUN CHEN PO RGYUR PA, And they became great masters of the Mahayana teachings. ,DE'I SANGS RGYAS KYI PHYIR BA YIN DU SPYOD PA, And one of them wrote a famous poem, which is in the Tengyur, called ,SKYE BA DU PHAG TU, I bow to your greatness, or something like that. I bow to your extraordinary greatness.

It's a very, very beautiful poem and it's often quoted. All right. ,RANG RES BSTAN PA LA BSKYAMS SU'I DZIN CING, ,DE'I BSTAN PA LA SLOB PA NYID GZHAN DU RGYUR MI THUB PA, ,BSTAN PAR GSUM PA DANG, Ideally, we should reach a point where our understanding is so big that we're not interested in any other teacher than the Buddha.

It doesn't mean you're a bad person if you like Jesus or Moses or Muhammad. It just means that the more you learn, the stronger you will admire what the Buddha taught. And my personal belief is ,LTAR THUG THEG PA GCIG PA, which is what a Sangha taught, which is in the end, they all go to the same place.

So that's a Buddhist principle, ,LTAR THUG THEG PA GCIG, You know, ,LTAR THUG means in the end, ,THEG PA means path, ,GCIG means it's all the same. It all leads to the same place. Some paths are slower, some paths are faster.

,DE'I BSTAN PA LA SLOB PA NYID GZHAN DU RGYUR MI THUB PA BSTAN PA, Then your refuge will slowly become stronger and stronger. ,BON DANG, ,MOD THAG SOGS CHOS DE LA'I PHYIR RO DU RGYUR PA LA BSKYAMS SU MI DZIN PA STE, The Buddhist word for non-Buddhist is outsider. If you continually take refuge in science or things that only work on a surface level, then actually, PHYIR RO DU RGYUR PA, you leave the Buddhist group.

You become non-Buddhist. So it's very tricky. When I try to fix the air conditioner by taking it apart, I'm sort of alienating myself from Buddhism.

And when I try to fix the air conditioner, as the child told me to, in New York at, what's his name? Leon's place. If I go and try to help someone else with an air conditioning problem, then I confirm myself as a Buddhist.

PHYIR RO DU RGYUR PA, ,SNANG PA DANG PHYI BA'I BSTAN PA DANG, ,BSTAN PA DANG, ,BDE LA LOG PA'I RGYUN DU DANG, ,GYUR CHOG MED KYI SKYES PAR YANG, ,DE NYID NAS, If you want to kind of get a feeling of the difference of the sangha between those who are trying to fix the air conditioner by helping others fix theirs, or those who are trying to take it apart, Okay? By the way, do you have to take it apart? Yeah.

But it won't get fixed unless you help someone else, okay? So you still have to fix my hot water. Okay.

BDAG NI BSTAN PA, now I'll read you a poem. He quotes a poem. BDAG NI BSTAN PA GZHAN SPANG NAS, ,BYOM LDAN GYUR LA RGYAL TSUL GCIG, ,DE GCIG LAS DU GZHAN NA, ,GYUR MI NGA NA YIN DANG LDAN, I'm going to leave other teachers for this time.

I'm going to take refuge in you, Bruna. Why? Because you actually, everything you teach is right, and you don't teach anything wrong.

Okay? Got it? Who wrote that?

One of the two brothers, okay? The brother that he was talking about. That's from his poem.

Here's another line from that poem. ,MUD DEG GZHAN DU GZHUNG RUNG LA, ,JI LTAR JI LTAR RNAMS SANGS PA, ,DE LTAR DE LTAR DGON GYUR LA, ,BDAG GIS SEMS DIN DE'I PHANG RGYUR, The more familiar I become with the teachings of science, etc., the more I believe in you. Okay.

We don't understand quantum physics or the general theory of relativity. So, we kind of think they know what they're talking about because they can blow up a city. But if you really study it, if you really, really, you know, spend a few weeks with Wikipedia.

By the end you'll reach, what's his name? Eisen... Uncertainty Principle, which is not really his, but it's still a cool principle.

That they don't even know how light goes from the sun to the earth. They cannot agree. And there's no physical way to measure correctly how light comes from the sun to the earth.

Like a basic thing. How light comes from my face to your eyes. They can't understand.

They can't explain it. Because it acts two different ways according to who's watching. According to who's present, light that goes through a diffraction grating behaves either as a particle or as a wave.

Contradictory. Okay, depending on who's watching. Okay, and if you really study, you come down to that.

Which is the pen. Okay. All right, ngak ngak du le kyang, here's another poem from another verse called The Praise of People Worthy of Praise.

juk dang dopa khalak dang, kun ne nyamong nam jang kang, de nyi pa'o gyur gyal dang, shen gyi tsi kyi kye par la Oh, oh Lord Buddha, you hero, what's the difference between your teaching and the words of other people? You tell us what's good to do and what's wrong to do, what will make us happy and what will not make us happy, and I don't see it clearly elsewhere. That was written by a master named Mati Chitra.

kun dir mu tegpa ngu me kyang, so there's a word called mu teg, say mu teg. Mu teg. This is the ancient Buddhist word for non-Buddhist.

Okay. And it was from India. And I recently, in our translator class, we found, we translated the reason for the word tirthika, mu teg, and it means people who set up a little stool in the stream so they can wash away their sins or something like that.

Tirthika. So, Pabongka says the days of tirthikas are gone. We don't see them in Tibet.

The classical non-Buddhist schools of India are gone. You can go to, I spent many years teaching at the Shivanana Center in Bahamas. Once a year, for 10 years, I went there once a year.

They're supposed to be teaching tirthika, mu tegpa. But the knowledge is almost gone. That system is almost gone.

It's actually better in Tsongkapa. He explains it more clearly when he teaches the other schools. Anyway, teng du chepa dang kyepa kye chepa ga shi ga la thu So, I translated it.

You meet people who encountered a problem, so they got into some weird stuff. It means you meet these kind of people, I don't know, I seem to meet them a lot in yoga classes. But, they'll say, you know, I just got, I just found out that somebody, there was a snowstorm where I live.

I met this couple at this coffee shop. They didn't have a place to sleep because the highway closed. So I said, you can stay at my, you know, I'll find you a place to stay.

I found them a place to stay. Then they said, we have a big load of ayahuasca in our car. Would you like some?

I thought they meant jikama, which is a vegetable. I said, you know, I don't really like it that much. It's some kind of drug.

It's popular nowadays. It's some kind of plant, I think, right? And people take it and then they think they can see God or something like that.

It's popular in America with young people right now. A good friend of mine, Kevin, his daughter went to a ceremony to take it and she died during the ceremony. She had her phone on.

She had her video going and you can see her die. So these are, just people get into weird things, you know. People say, oh, ayahuasca is the new thing, the new cool thing.

She was beautiful. She sang a mandala during my three-year retreat, I remember. She's in Celtic, I think.

She did the song in Celtic. Very beautiful woman. Very, very beautiful.

So anyway, people get into weird stuff. YANG KHOR MANG DUG PA DANG Then they attract many people because it seems like they have something special. GZHAN GYIS NGOS GSUNGS CHE DUS Then because they want to get attention from people, they want people to follow them, DPON DANG, BLA LUS CHOS LUGS TSUN LA SBYUG PA LA JI MI NYAMS PA DI DAG NI So they start following some kind of weird, like, I don't know, what do you call that?

Shaman stuff with ayahuasca drug or something like that. Then everyone runs to the ceremony. A bunch of people died in near us, Flagstaff, from a ceremony in a, what do you call, sweat lodge.

Like, how many? Three people? So anyway, GSUNGS LA SBYUG PA JI MI NYAMS PA DI DAG NI BSKYABS LA NYIN GZIN BYAS PA If you go to refuge for something like that, like to a drug, then you're splitting your refuge and then it weakens your refuge.

Or if you split it to science and seeds, like 50-50. I worked in a diamond company for 19 years. The owner was from Israel.

Very fine man. Every six months I will give half my salary to saving those books and things like that. So he will write a check from the company as a donation.

Then every time he'll say, you know, I'll throw in an extra $10,000 from me. I'm like, wow. Then one day I asked him, I said, Why are you so nice to me?

Why do you always add money when I make those donations? He says, you never know who's right. Maybe Jewish, maybe Buddhist.

Anyway, don't split your attention. Either accept science or accept seeds. Science with seeds.

I like to call it accept science or accept science with seeds. Accept aspirin is going to work by itself all the time, which you can see is not true. Or accept that aspirin will work if you serve others.

Got it? But don't say whichever is, you never know, which might be right. KHA CIG BOS DGOS BOS DGOS BOS DGOS BYAS SER KHYEN YOD KYANG Then he gets into a delicate question.

It's can you kind of keep some of your old beliefs and use these new ones also? Many of us grew up Christian, for example. I'm very happy with the church.

I had very beautiful deep experiences in the church. So then some people will say, can I just do like 50-50? You know?

BYAS ZER GYEN YOD KYANG BRUL GYI BRTZON PA DANG CHOS DANG DE'I RJES SU ZHUGS PA RNAMS LA SKYES BU'I PA'I RGYUR ZIN MED DE Then he says, examine who it is you're going for refuge to in that belief, and what's protecting you, and who's the people who are going to go on the journey with you? Okay, what is their Buddhadharma Sangha? Okay, study it.

ZIN MED DE, and he says, unless you have a very deep understanding in which I believe you can find those emptiness teachings in other faiths, you'll be disappointed. Okay? DE'I BSTAN PA LA BSKYEN KUN TSE SOGS RGYEN BSTAN MI BSTAN If you don't understand those other teachers' teachings deeply, you will be disappointed, and you will find some problems there.

Okay? CHOS LA NYON MONGS PA'I KHAR BDIS BA'I THUB TZAM MED He says an interesting thing, and Khyabje, a teacher in Buche, said this, and I wrote it down and kept it on my wall for many years. He said, if you're practicing something, and it's not making you happier year by year, then something's wrong.

Okay? If you're practicing something, and it's not making you a better person and happier year by year, then something's wrong. Okay?

Even Buddhism, even your practice of Buddhism. RGYEN NI SOGS DANG LA BSTAN PA YIN GUS BYED KYANG, DE'I SDOM GYIN MED PAS, DE'I GSUNG DGOS LA YIN TE MA TZAM This is that thing where in Tibet there was some groups that were not Buddhist, but they wore Buddhist robes, and they have a blue robe, and they have their own kangyur, but they stole it. It's the Buddhist kangyur with the words, with the titles changed.

You can see sometime if you check it. They just replaced Buddha's name with their teacher's name. Then we debated them once.

They came, only once they came to debate with us. We have to say, DE DE DE DE CHOS CAN, which means, what about this example of this object? And the word is Dharma, right?

Object is called Dharma, and they refused to say it. They said BUN CAN. They want to say, take this BUN.

They wouldn't say take this thing because the word for thing is also Dharma, so they refused to say it. So they would say BUN CAN, we'd say CHOS CAN, and then they only came once. SDOM GYIN MED PAS, so they don't have the vow tradition, unbroken tradition of vows that we have.

Even though they may wear those clothes, that makes you think they might. DBANG LA RNAMS SKYES KYANG SDUG BSNGAL MED PA'I SKYABS SU MI'I DGOS The idea of taking refuge by trying to protect yourself by not answering your husband when he yells at you, right? Real refuge.

They don't have it. They don't have it. They say bow down to this God or bow down to this gun.

But they don't say bow down to this idea that you shouldn't respond to violence with violence because you created it, and you will just create more. They don't have this idea. They say bow down to this statue or bow down to this statue.

DBAN DBAN PHAN TSUN PHYAG DANG KYI MTHA'AM DE LA RGYUR TSOS PA LTA BU'I MA YIN PAR Then he says, I'm not trying to criticize other religions, and I'm not trying to make an argument. I'm just saying there's a difference between how we bow down to Buddha and how they bow down to their holy beings. When we bow down to Buddha, it's when we're in the kitchen having a fight with our husband.

It's not in the temple and bowing down to some statue. It's different. He said it's just different.

If you ask them, do you bow down to the idea that there's a second husband in the kitchen that's not there? They'll say, that's crazy. Okay, got it?

We believe it's protection. Ultimate protection. DBAN DRIN SKYES PA'I GSUNG GIS BLO RGYUD CHEN PAS RNAMS LA'I CHUNG BA LTA BU'I RGYUS GUNG BRJUN DAG YIN SHES PAR BYED PA GAL CHE BA'I Then he says, in the case of burn, this ancient shamanism of Tibet, you should check out also where it developed and how it developed.

Because there are books about, that explain how it developed, how it started. THUG BSKYEN DANG PA'I BAR BYED GSUNGS SGRUB LTA THAMS CAD KYI KHUNG DANG DE'I TSUL DE'I TSUL LTON PA LEGS SHES ZHAL GYI SMIN NO SOGS NAS BSHAD PA DGOS YID Then there are books in Tibet called Siddhanta. Ben Kramer is translating one for our translation program.

They explain the sources and the beliefs of these ancient schools. I was teaching Hindu people, Sankhya people, their school in their ashram because they didn't understand it. Tsongkapa wrote a beautiful chapter about the belief of Sankhya system, Advaita.

It was cool. They lost a lot of their beliefs and Tsongkapa recorded them. DE NA SBYUNG GI BRTEN PA BRTEN PA LTA BA GSUM GANG, PHYIR LOS PA'I LTA BSGOM BSAD PA DANG So these, basically, to put it into modern terms, the ideas of science infect everything we do, okay?

Everything we believe, all the things we do during the day, we are trusting the idea that chemicals are the building block of reality. That's our viewpoint. Everybody in this room, cell phone mentality.

PHYIR LOS PA'I LTA BSGOM BSAD PA SNANGS PA'I GSUM RIM NAS BAR GUR TE BRDZUN CHU BYA BA SOGS DU BYED SNGAGS BA ZHIG NAS BYUNG STE But a lot of the beliefs that are in India and Tibet came from early Buddhism. If you read the Yoga Sutra, and I memorized it in the Maitreya Retreat, it's a conglomeration of Buddhism from the 3rd century. Okay?

It's just a bunch of ideas from Buddhism put in one book. KHYAB BRDAL TU RGYUR PA'I LUS NA NGAN DAR BA YIN PAS Then those become systems in themselves, and then they get very weird commentaries. Try to read a modern commentary of the Yoga Sutra.

SDUG BSNGAL DANG NYAN GYI BYED PA'I BSKYABS SU DGOS PA DANG YID DANG RUNG BA'I GNAS MA YIN They're not going to protect you. Okay? They're not going to help you with your husband in the kitchen.

They're not going to help you with your business problems. They're not going to help you meditate. Then DE LTAG LA BSGOM TE SRIG RGYUNG JI RTEN BSGON POS Then there was a famous person who started a lineage in Tibet called Srigung, and his name was Rinchen Phel.

BSGOM POS LTA GONG GI SKABS GNOD CHU THAMS CAD BSGONG BA LA'I SKYES PA'I LUS So they have a belief in India. It's called, I forget what it's called. Andarja The world was born from a cosmic egg.

Okay. It's in the Hatayuva Pradipika, I think. SNGAG LAS SKYES PA'I LUGS DANG And then this custom of making sacrifices, killing cows for religion, killing lambs to take away the sins of Jerusalem.

Which is funny, because it just adds to the sins of Jerusalem. DBANG CHUG SOGS KYI BYAS PA'I LUGS SU SNANG BA RNAMS These ideas, MUTTER GYI LTA BA GAL BA YIN, they're all mixed up with different... What do you call it?

Primitive beliefs. KHA DAM BU CHUD LAS This is from a book, a famous book of the Kadambas who were the first Buddhists in Tibet. And this book is a couple thousand pages long and Nick's group just had it in print.

They finished it last week. I'd like to thank you for that. It's the most important book from the early days of Buddhism in Tibet, a thousand years ago, called KHA DAM LAS SPANG.

And we couldn't find it for a long time. And they just finished it about a week ago, I think. It has an important part on the Wheel of Life.

So I was trying to find it. Okay, it is the teaching of the Wheel of Life as we know it today for the first time. It changed when Atisha came to Tibet.

MUD TEG POS NI MUD DUS MYUR PHYAL DGA'I PHUGS SU NYAN DOR GYUR MUD TEG POS NI MED DANG DRAG, CUNG ZAD NYES BA'I DANG RGYUR NA'ANG, NYES PAR THUGS NA TSIGS PA RGYUR So things like ayahuasca ceremonies, they might make you feel cool. I took it once, okay, to be honest. Not ayahuasca, I took mescaline.

In a cave, and I went to a canyon near Cottonwood. There's a beautiful secret canyon. When I was like 19, I went there and there's a beautiful river and caves and it's totally isolated and very beautiful.

And I stayed for a couple days and I took mescaline. And all this stuff happened to me. I thought I heard the angels singing and I was jumping over cliffs, one cliff to another cliff.

I was like, oh, this is so cool. Anyway, in the short run, for a few hours, for a few days, you might see something cool. And the first time I met the Dalai Lama, I think I was with my mom.

Yeah, my mom was dying and my lama took me there. She was dying for his blessing and he said, so I'm sitting with my mom and he looks me in the eye and the first thing he says is, did you ever take drugs? And I'm like, I'm like, yeah.

My mom's like, Anyway, we talked about it. It means here, what they're talking about is there are things you can do which make you feel happy for a few days or a few hours and then you come back worse than before. So there are drugs you can do.

There's hippie things you can do. Don't eat for 10 days. Strange things.

And it will make you feel happy for a couple hours or a couple days and then in the long run, it will ruin your life. Those of you who've tried drugs, you know that. I'm kind of glad I tried them.

I'm glad I didn't become a monk till I was 30 because I tried everything. Okay, so I know everything. NYAL SBYOR GYI DBANG PHYIR BYAS MI LAS SHES NAS KYANG We'll go for another 15 minutes or so, okay?

Your jet bag is supposed to be finished. Maybe she went to Singapore during the three days. NYAL SBYOR GYI DBANG PHYIR So he quotes Milarepa.

Who's the most famous meditator from Tibet. DBON GYI SBYUNG KHUNG LOGS SPYOD DANG LUS DANG SBYUNG PO THOB LDAN GYIS BYAS PA THAR TU LAM MI BRJOD DPO NYID BZHIN DU MED PAS NAS So these ideas of like ayahuasca ceremonies, things like that, local spirits, trusting local spirits, it's not an ultimate solution. It's not a long-term solution.

PHYIN NGANG GI SKYE BAR NI SKYES PA NAS BDAG LA RDZUN BA'O The difference between Buddhism and other beliefs is the husband in the kitchen, okay? That's all. We take refuge.

We seek protection in the idea that all fears and all negative things that come to us are because we hurt somebody in the past and we have to purify it. That's our belief. We take refuge in not repeating the same mistake.

RANG PA'I KHYAMS NAS KHO BYO GSUM PHYIS PA'I TZAM RANG KHYAMS SBYUG GO RANG NYID KHO BAR LAS SDOD NAS GZHAN DAG RDOR NUS PA NI RDZOGS PA'I SANGS RGYAS GNYIS YIN NO To take people out of suffering, you should have done it for yourself first. Okay. DBANG PHYIR LA SOGS CI STON PA'ANG RANG YANG KHOR BAR BYING RGYUR PA'I GZHAN LA Don't spend a lot of time following something made by people who are not happy and who are suffering, like scientists.

In the end they die and they're gone and it didn't help them. All that science didn't help them. BYING RTEN GCIG RGYUR PA'I GZHAN LA GNAS SKABS DNGOS GRUB TZAM RDZOGS BAR NUS KYI THAR PA'I NAM DU BRTAD BAR GANG LA NUS Can't give you nirvana, much less Buddhahood.

What's the difference? What's nirvana? I like to define nirvana as nobody can...

Excuse me. I'm not going to say a bad word. My lama said not to.

Nobody can make you angry anymore. You're at nirvana. If you know all things, you're at enlightenment.

That's the difference. So those other paths can't even give you the lower goal of nirvana. LUS BU'I GANG MO LA SOGS NA RIGS NA LUS KYIS KHYING KHON DU SANGS RGYAS THOB PAR GYUR CI LO LUS NYID DU NUS SBRANG ZHIG SBRANG Then there are some people who go for refuge in local spirits.

One of my lamas said, we have a spring here. Bear Springs. Why is it called Bear Springs?

We have bears. Then, I don't know if you have time, you should go see it. It's next to the lama house up there.

Community, what do you call it? Ranch house. It's in front of the ranch house.

There's a natural water. It's one of the only ones in Arizona, South Arizona. That's why they built this.

There's a military fort here that's 100, I don't know, 100 years old? 150? And to protect, to take the water from the local people.

Anyway, one of my lamas said there's a naga here. There's a spirit, water spirit here. For many years the water stopped.

It started last year again? Is it still going? Yeah, you can go see it.

It's very deep. It will cover your toes. In Arizona, that's cruel.

All right. Anyway, those kind of creatures that we can't see, spirits, they're not going to help you get nirvana or a Buddha. Okay, don't waste your time.

Then some people said to Pabongka, they said, look, I think like these Hindu gods or Christian gods or Muslim gods, I think they are Buddhas. They are Buddha. They are just Buddha in different form.

SEMS CAN THAMS CAD ZHIG GIS NI DGOS DAG NYID MI CAN And then every person on this planet is a disciple of the Buddha. SANGS RGYAS BYANG SEMS KYI THUB PA MANG PO'I SPUN GYI MTHAY SU BYIN PA'I So it's possible that there are bodhisattvas and Buddhas in every religion. BU LAS BYAS PA LA YIN TE MA TOG RGYUN MED ZER BA YOD KYANG DE LTAR MA'O NYID RANG NYID LTA TOG GI BA CHAGS NYIN PAS RGYUS LAS PA'I ZHES CHEN MONGS PAR BYED PA'I STAM CHEN PO ZHIG STE That may be true.

But is there a system that you can use to become a Buddha in that belief? Is there a way where they explain the pan and they explain how to get protection? It's okay.

But is there the teaching there that people can use for their real life? DE LTAR MA YIN NA SANGS RGYAS BYANG SEMS KYI THUB PA DON DON DANG PO'ANG CHUN ZHIG PAS Then he makes a joke. If you don't care whether they're teaching protection or not, then since dogs and roaches might also be Buddhas, you can just take refuge in them.

KYIS PA'I YIN NA BYIN NA YIN TE MA DOR GYIS MED But it won't help you. The dog and the what do you call it? Roaches can't explain to you about emptiness.

They can't explain the pan to you. So it's possible everyone you meet is a Buddha but not everybody's teaching the pan. Something that can protect you.

So it's probably better to stick to the one who's explaining the pan. NGAN THA DAG PO'ANG PHYI PA'I LTAR BZHIN DU DANG NAS Okay, excuse me. I didn't write the book, but I should read every sentence to you.

He said, In Tibet, they didn't have toilet paper. So people would use rocks with a little bit sharp edge, but not too sharp. And he says, after you wipe your butt with one of those butt rocks, you don't take it home and keep it like this.

You throw it away. So, it's possible. And Tantra says there are holy beings all around us.

It's possible. But for us, who's teaching you about the husband in the kitchen, that's where we should go right now. At our level that's what we need right now.

There may be a day when you can sit with some ants. I also looked at ants in my retreat, my three-year retreat, because there wasn't anything else to do. And it's very possible someday you'll reach a place where you realize those ants are Buddha.

It's possible. There will come a day. But to get there, we need to study the pen, and we have to go to classes, and we have to learn all these things.

And things that don't teach you about the pen, you should throw away like a butt rock. We keep looking for a name for our band. Monica is like, okay, ,LAM PA SANGS RGYAS PA'I SKYABS KHO YUL GSUNGS KHO NA LA BSKYED MA'I YANG NA THUGS GSUNGS DDE'I BLO LING RGYAL SKYES PA BYED PA'I So you can put your trust in this Buddhist refuge.

Try it out. Next time you have a problem with somebody, somebody hurts you, next time somebody hurts you, and not, by the way, not because it's spiritual, not because it's spiritual, but because it's effective, because it works, then try to remember they're coming from you. Not because it makes you a beautiful spiritual person.

It will make you a beautiful spiritual person, but that's not why. Take refuge because it works. It helps.

If you don't respond to the husband who criticizes you with criticism, then over time... What did Master Shantideva say? If you keep up this habit, what did he say?

Yeah, you're going to miss them. You're going to say, how come I don't have anybody to practice with anymore? We used to have all those guys helping out at Diamond Mountain who pissed me off, and now they're all gone.

You know, I really can't... I don't get many opportunities to practice nowadays. The people who give you opportunities to practice will get fewer and fewer, because you're not responding.

You're not planting new seeds. Just try. See what works.

Okay, SDOR NA KHYAMS SDOR NA'I TSIG TU PA TZAM LA MI ZER GYIS NYE CHEN GANG DRAG PA'I BOS NA BSKYAB SPYUNG BA LTA Don't... and then we'll stop. One more sentence, okay?

Don't let your refuge be something you do in the class. BSANGS RGYAS BYAS DANG RDZOGS KYI BRTZOL NA'I TSIG TU PA TZAM LA MI ZER GYIS Okay, don't let it be thoughtless words. Try to take refuge like a criminal who's facing the death sentence, and they get one chance to appear before a judge who can let them go, right?

In America, there's this custom, right? The governor of the state can sign a paper and even the guy who's supposed to be killed will be not killed, okay? Khorwa La Khyap So, try to imagine when you take refuge that you're like this guy who's going to be killed tomorrow by the court, and you have one chance to talk to the judge.

And take refuge with that kind of respect, you know? I'm not really a bad person. You know, like, take refuge a little bit seriously.

Don't like this, TZAM RGYAS BYAS DANG RDZOGS KYI BRTZOL NA'I TSIG TU PA NGAN SONG DANG KHOR BA SOGS LAS JIG STE Because that judge can protect you from going to hell and animal realms after you die. That judge is who? It's not even the three jewels.

Which jewel? Dharma jewel, okay? We had a long teaching about it in Diamond Mountain last term.

Okay? When you understand the pen to a certain degree, it's not possible to go to the lower realms. And people complain when I repeat it.

One guy, not you, but one guy in Singapore. I'll narrow it for me. He said, you taught that last time.

Then I'm, I don't want to tell him, you know, I'm trying to keep you out of hell. I'm like, oh, really? I'm so sorry.

You know? This is part of the definition of refuge. Means, put all your hopes in what?

In that response to your husband. Okay? Put all your hopes in that response to your husband.

Not some god. Okay? It's an idea.

That's protection. I told you before, I'll tell you again. There was a famous incident during the Buddha's life.

His village was attacked. People came and ran to him. They held on to his lower row for protection and they were killed.

Their blood was all over his row. You know? They couldn't kill him, but they killed all the people.

Okay? Taking refuge is not holding some Buddha statue or or praying to some picture of Buddha. That's not Buddhist refuge.

This is Buddhist refuge. Don't answer your husband because you don't want to plant another one like that. Okay?

All right. That's protection. Okay.

SEMS RJE'I SEMS PA BZHIN LA BYAS BUG PA'I DE NI BYAS TZAM GYI GAL TSUL TZONG BA'I TSAD YIN So, you know you've taken refuge when you trust that idea. Okay? That's refuge.

When you don't respond to violence with violence, you took refuge. Okay? Got it?

All right. Doesn't mean you shouldn't go to the ceremony that Venerable Phil and Venerable Jigme has. Ah, that's not refuge.

You should go. Okay? It's making a beautiful commitment and then you should remember that commitment when you go to your kitchen.

Okay? Got it? Both is okay.

Anton? Hang on one second. We just want to ...

there's people listening in Bui, I think. Thank you.

[Speaker 2]
So, when we deal with a big situation like yelling husband and we are thinking about taking the refuge and we do take it, but when we do small things, for example, when I go from this place to the wall, so my steps are not the cause for me to reach the wall. That's correct. Should I make this action?

Should I keep remembering that that's not the cause and if I'm not doing it, do I actually plant the bad seeds of not understanding or of not taking the refuge? What's the healthy, like, what's the fine line when you should actually take the normal action or when you should take refuge?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, it happens to me when I turn on a light, you know, like I reach out to the light and I touch it and I'm like, this doesn't make the light go on. You know, why I think this makes the light go on? Then I go like that and it goes on and I'm like, but sometimes it doesn't, right, Vivian?

So, I think there's a balance. The more aware you can be, the more you get protection. But you know, those of you who did three-year retreat, there's days when you walk around like this, you know, you know, I'm like, oh, I'm going to take refuge.

I'm just going to the toilet. But I don't remember what it was, you know. I mean, you can get spaced out, you know, I think you can be dysfunctional.

I mean, if you did a three-year retreat, there's days when you're you're so sensitive, it's you're too sensitive, and then you can't help people, you can't relate to people, you know. So, I think it's a balance. I think it's a balance.

But it doesn't have to be a balance. It doesn't hurt to try to do it when you turn on the light. Or, you know, I want to get food so you open the fridge, but that's not how you get food, right?

So, just to remember that from time to time in a healthy way will make you a kinder and kinder person. But if it starts to make you like, you can't tie your shoes, then then you should back off a little bit. Seriously, because I, you know, we've all seen Dharma people who get dysfunctional.

That's not the goal. Wait, microphone. It goes back to the air conditioner.

At that point you had to fix the air conditioner and the little boy said, no, go fix someone else's. Could you not at that point use the four powers and bring up a memory of a time when you helped someone, maybe actually helped someone fix an air conditioner? And can you not do a meditation and have that be the way of fixing it?

Yeah, that's a great suggestion. I mean, it would take an hour to find someone else on Fifth Street in New York who who had all those Indian restaurants that aren't there anymore. Is your air conditioner broken?

Then they'd say no. The kids would, their parents would come to pick up their kids. We wouldn't have a class.

Yeah, I think that's a great idea. You know, in theory, you've lived countless lives. So you have seats for everything in the bank.

We teach in DCI, we teach sometimes you know, in theory, you have enough seats in your mind already to be Warren Buffett. You just didn't activate them. You didn't rejoice in them.

So for me to be honest, rather than four powers, I'm a bad person, I didn't make other people cool. You know, I'm sorry. It doesn't work so good for me.

I like something positive. I must have fixed some goddamn person's air conditioning, you know, like three billion years ago. And so I rejoice that I helped someone fix their air conditioner.

I do that and it works. It's pretty cool. So you can do that.

You have lots of unused seats in your mind, countless. If you could access them, you would be successful without much new work, which is always attractive to me. Okay, all right.