«Дар освобождения», курс 25 «Совершенное прибежище», занятие 15

[Speaker 1]
We're going to get to this in the Lamrim after the retreat, okay? But Meditation 15, when I was in Thailand, you know, and we gave everybody Refuge Vow, and Refuge Name, then people get all excited, you know? And they're running around with their new name, and they're showing everybody, look, I have a new name, mine's cooler than yours, you know?

He gave me this one special, I'm not like you, you know? And everybody start wearing ... you can see in the Beijing airport, you know?

Suddenly everyone's wearing these rosaries, like ten years ago, nobody. Now, even the business guys are wearing these rosaries, and yoga teachers like to do that. I noticed when I go to yoga, they're all wearing the rosary on the wrong hand, the right hand.

You always wear it on your left hand, because then you can debate, you know? But ... So, it means ...

people like to ... once they take refuge or something, they like to use the akutu mon, the ... the cute little Dharma things, you know?

Look, I have beads, my beads have turquoise on them, you know? Or, I have crystal, you have wood, you know? Or ...

I have gold on my beads, but yours are just metal, you know? Or ... I have ...

my ... I have a refuge name, and you don't, you know? Or ...

you know, it means the outer ... things, that are associated with spirituality, and people like them. Some people wear ...

religious clothes, you know? Like red clothes, or white clothes, or black clothes, and they get very attached to them, you know? I have ...

I have ... there's a Geshe ... tungak, vest, it has a yellow stripe on it, here, you know?

And in the monastery, it's very important, you know? If you have Geshe yellow stripe here, everyone's like, oh Geshe-la, Geshe-la, you know? I refuse to wear this.

You never saw me wear it. I have one, but it's too small.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, so ... it was made for Tibetan guys.

[Speaker 1]
So, anyway ... and people get very attached to it, you know? If you wear it, and you ...

also in the Tantric College, you get a special one. And if you wear it, when you're not supposed to wear it, everyone gets upset, you know? You're not supposed to wear that, you know?

So ... what I like about the Neo-Tsongkhapian lineage that we have, the New-Tsongkhapa lineage that we have, is ... we are not very big on these outer ...

you know ... signs. Like, I have yellow stripe, you don't have yellow stripe, you know, I have ...

llama hat, you don't have llama hat. You know, I like it that we are ... disguised as ...

someone who owns a cosmetics company in Singapore, you know, like ... everybody thinks I'm just normal person, you know? And I think that's very healthy.

We don't have ... hierarchy, we don't have big llama, little big llama, big little llama, you know? We don't have these things, you know?

And ... we don't have people running in and say, you ... you shouldn't do like this, you should put your fingers inside, or you're a bad person.

You know, I like it that we don't have all these ... silly things, you know? I'm happy we don't have these things, okay?

We ... we're working on the inside, to try to be a nice person, okay? So ...

meditation number fifteen ... is to think about that, you know? Am I attached to ...

you know ... everybody sees my beads and they know I'm a spiritual person, or ... you know?

Am I trying to impress people with my Tibetan grammar skills, like Geshe Michael does, you know? It's the outer thing, okay? It's not an inner thing.

Look how much scripture I can quote, you know? Look how many words I can look up in John's database, you know? Who could find that story that I told you this morning?

These are all outer things, okay? So ... what he's talking about are the outer signs of taking refuge, okay?

Beads, name, special hat, you know? Outer signs that you took refuge. And what he says is, stick to the—what's it say?

Second husband. Second husband refuge, okay? Nobody knows you're doing it, okay?

You're like, oh, this person irritate me. Oh wait, it's like second husband, come from me, you know? There's a joke at Diamond Mountain.

There's a joke. Somebody came from another place, they came to Diamond Mountain. They said, I can't believe it.

What? Everybody I meet is so stupid. I'm surrounded by stupid people.

Then the old Diamond Mountain people go ...

[Speaker 2]
Understand? Okay?

[Speaker 1]
So, they are taking real refuge, okay? And nobody knows if you took refuge or not, okay? You understand emptiness, and it's very quiet, and nobody can prove it.

People come to me all the time. I think I saw emptiness. I say, okay, tell me what it's like.

I saw a green light, yellow light, I forget it. You want to hear a real conversation? Arya conversation.

I think I saw, you didn't. I said, no. Okay?

One of the qualities of seeing emptiness directly is that you are sure you did it. Nobody—you don't have to ask anybody, okay? And the whole world can tell you you didn't, and you don't care, you know?

It's the big, big, big lamas can say you didn't, and you say, okay, I didn't, but I did. Now, only you know, and you know for sure. So, if you're not sure, you didn't.

When you do, you do. When you do, you know.

[Speaker 2]
And it doesn't matter what anyone says, you know? The world can blow up and you don't care. I saw it, I know.

Tell me anything, I don't care, you know? Okay? So, if you have to ask, you did it, alright.

Alright.