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

[Speaker 1]
I want to talk about meditation number ten, okay? We have to do twenty-seven before you start your retreat. Meditation number ten is called Earth, the Foundation, and the Inner Essence.

Refuge and Commitments. Keeping the refuge vows, which we will cover, but the first one is what I just said, okay? Really, the first refuge vow is make your garden grow by patience and not by biochar fertilizer, okay?

Or maybe both, okay? That viewpoint, or that worldview, that taking refuge, is required for all further Buddhist practices, by tradition, okay? You have to take refuge before you can take Bodhisattva vows, before you can take layman's vows, before you can take novice vows, before you can take medium nun vows, before you can take full nun vows, or full monk's vows.

The eight vows, right? Pratimoksha. They all depend on refuge vows.

If you don't take refuge vows, you can't take the rest, okay? So, in the scriptures, taking refuge, those simple vows, is considered like the earth, and then all the trees, all the flowers, everything that grows out of the earth comes from that. And then, Pabongka Rinpoche makes a big deal about, you know, I was...

I planted iris bulbs, okay? And... they grow in two...

in my house, they grow in two colors, okay? A pale yellow and a pale purple. Very beautiful, very stunning.

I'll show you a photo later. I just had to take a photo of them. They're so beautiful.

And the dirt where I live is 90% rocks. It's just like Ireland. Right, Mr. Dung?

It's terrible, you know? I take the rocks out of a few square feet and the ground drops like six inches, you know? And it's terrible.

The ground is hopeless. It takes about three hours to plant a rose, because to dig a little hole, just to pull out all the rocks is impossible, you know? Then I plant these bulbs, then the iris grows, and these colors come out.

And I'm looking at the colors, I'm saying, how did that come out of my rocks? You know? How did the plant suck the right chemicals out of the rocks to make these colors?

Like, it's like weird, you know? There's no yellow or purple in the dirt, it's a terrible color. It's like brown, black, dirt, dust.

And then, somehow, this stupid bulb sucks out only the yellow from the ground, only the purple, and then puts it all into the flower. But only in the flower, not in the plant. It's weird.

It just seems weird to me, okay? Pabongka says refuge is the same. Okay?

You take good refuge, you understand taking refuge, then all the other Buddhist practice produces beautiful colors. Got it? Like everything, your tantra practice, you know, deep mystical things, deep meditation, you know, difficult practices, they all come from refuge.

Refuge is the chemical that makes the yellow flower. Okay? It's in the earth, so it's the foundation.

So, that's why I put, you know, it's the same with fruits. I put an apple tree here in the picture. And...

whether the rest of your Buddhist practice is successful depends on whether you take refuge well. It's the soil. I call it dirt, and then V says, no, no, it's soil.

Cat used to tell me that. Don't call it dirt, Geshe Michael. It's like soil.

You do the same thing. Okay? So, it's the foundation.

Okay? Refuge is the foundation. So, during that meditation when you do it, you can think of all your practice, your meditation practice, your yoga practice, your study, and you can try to tie it into your refuge, you know.

If your refuge is good, your yoga will be good, your meditation will be good, and your study will be good, and your service of other people will be good. And if your refuge is... if your refuge is not strong, if the earth is weak, it won't be good.

I have to tell you bad news about my poop tree, bird poop tree. Do you know about my bird poop tree? Okay, I got to tell you about the bird poop tree.

The DCI people know. People ask me why do... why do creepy...

like, why do gangster drug lords become rich? Okay? Why do mafia guys become rich?

If karma is correct, they shouldn't get rich, but they do. Some of them. So, then I said that's called bird poop.

And they said, what's bird poop? And I said, well, there's a tree that comes from China, it's called mulberry. And...

you need it because silkworms only eat mulberry leaves. So, to make silk, you need silkworms. To make silkworms, you got to have mulberry leaves.

That's the only thing they like to eat. They're more picky than me. Okay?

And... somebody brought it to Arizona. For many years it was secret.

In ancient China, it was a death penalty if you told someone about mulberry trees. And the first mulberry seeds were carried out of China in the hat of a noble woman who wanted to share them. And she hid them in her hat.

And... so anyway, they grow all over Arizona. They grew in my school when I was a little kid, and we used to climb them.

And they're nice because they don't need much water. And the birds like them because they make a little berry, mulberry, purple berry. So anyway, I always wanted a mulberry tree.

But... my gardener partner said, I don't like mulberry trees, they make mess on the ground. You know?

Then one day I went out, I was working in the garden and... and there was a plant about this high. You know?

And I'm like... I asked my partner, Vy, I said, what is that? And she said, oh...

oh, she said, oh my god, that's a mulberry tree. She said, did you plant that? I said, no, no, I didn't do anything.

I don't even know what it is. She said, it must be a bird poop mulberry tree because they eat the mulberries and they're in a rush like someone trying to get to meditation class. And they...

they don't digest the berries and they poop the seeds and then the seeds have nice poop fertilizer around them and they grow pretty fast, okay? So, I always bragging about my good karma that a bird pooped mulberry tree in my front yard. But then Vy said, I don't want it in the front yard.

She said, you have to move it. I'm like, okay. So, I dug it up.

While I was digging it up, I split the taproot, which is going to kill it. She said, it can't grow. Now it will die.

I said, but can I plant it anyway in the backyard? She said, okay, you can plant it, but it's going to die. Then I planted it and it grew.

It's about three meters high now. And... but then the gophers came.

And these are little like rats and they live under the ground and they eat the roots. So, now... I don't know.

So, the bad news for my bird poop tree friends. I went out to work on the tree and I touched it and it went... And I'm like...

Oh, there's no foundation, you know? That's what your life is like if you don't take refuge properly. Okay?

You grab the tree and it goes... It just went like this. Then I shake it and the roots are gone.

All the roots are gone, you know? This animal ate them. So, I asked her, do I have to pull it out?

She said... She said, really, you should pull it out. I said, can I just try?

So, you have to pray for my mulberry tree.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
I'm still going, it's still going. It's trying to put a leaf out. What it means is you need a foundation.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Without... without those roots. Forget it.

Everything else is fake. It looks strong and when you touch it it goes... You know?

You get a little problem in your life and your practice collapses, you know? Because the roots aren't good. Okay?

It's like... It was really disappointing. I touched it and it went...

And then I... I pulled it and it went... And I'm like...

And your practice will be like that if you don't know about refuge, if you don't take good refuge. Your practice will be... no foundation.

Okay? And you will collapse the first time you have a problem. Okay?

And... Okay? Your practice will be like that.

Also yoga. Stuff like that. Okay.