«Дар освобождения», курс 25 «Совершенное прибежище», занятие 24

[Speaker 1]
Number 24, meditation number 24. The ninth refuge vow, the ninth refuge commitment, is to encourage other people to take refuge, okay? The ninth refuge vow is to encourage other people to take refuge.

And I just want to talk about that. I was in Singapore, Singapore has probably the best follow-up programs in the world, of all the dharmas, of all... Jenny Wong's group, because of Jenny Wong, they probably have the best follow-up.

Every... almost a couple times a week you can do follow-up in Singapore, with somebody, or you can go visit a nursing home, or you... they do...

it's very regular, and it's very organized, like Singapore people are so organized, right? Not like anybody else in the world. So, then I said, so Jenny, what are you guys doing, you know, this week?

And she said, we're having a sharing, you know, and I kind of didn't know what she's talking about, and I said, what's a sharing? And she says, you know, we get up and we share. And I said, well, what do you share?

She said, we share DCI, you know, we share DCI. I said, oh, you're teaching people? She said no, she looked at me like this, she said, no, we share, we don't teach.

Then I'm like, oh, that's cool, you know, Geshe Michael teaches. Singapore people share, and it feels much better, right? It feels...

it means you get to say something also. And I don't get up and say, I'm the best person in this room, I know everything, I also know Tibetan grammar, you know, you don't, and so I will teach you, you know. But if you go to Singapore, they will say, I will share with you my experience, you share with me your experience, and let's help each other.

You see, it's mutual kind of thing. So, this refuge vow—by the way, what's the picture? This lady is telling, not sharing, okay?

And her friend is irritated, stop teaching me, you know, okay? Stop telling me—by the way, this is very common when people go home after a retreat at Diamond Mountain, and they tell their family the truth. No, Geshe Michael say, everything you do is wrong, you know.

Geshe Michael say, only I understand, in this whole family, only I understand, you know, and everybody should do like me, you know, and you will quickly become the most unpopular person in your family, okay? People, when your family, there's a family gathering and people see you, they will go the other way. I hope she doesn't tell me what to do, okay?

So, I think with this refuge vow, number nine, okay? Encourage means, if people want it, okay? If people are interested, then share.

If they're not interested, don't bother them, okay? One of the most irritating things in the world is a new Buddhist, you know? Like, oh, now I know everything, you have to accept what I say, you know?

And then, if you want to alienate other people, if you don't want them to learn anything, be like that. Missionary, they call missionary, right? Like, you must believe what I believe, you know?

And people don't like it, okay? Nobody likes it. I don't like it, someone starts talking to me like that.

There's some groups in America, they come to your house, they bang on your door, and you open the door and they say, do you believe, you know? And you're like, believe in what? They say, oh, you want to know, then...

then you can't get them—they get their foot in your house, it's like the camel, and you can't get them out, you know? When I was in the temple in New Jersey, they used to come, and I told Rinpoche, I said, these people keep coming back, he says, debate them, just debate them, and we had fun, and they were pretty nice. So anyway, don't irritate other people with your Buddhism, okay?

You can talk about, you know, cell phones, but be careful, they might put you in the mental hospital, okay? Don't go crazy. Share with the people who want to know, but don't bother people, okay?

So, when you do meditation number 24, you can think about how to share sweetly like Singapore people, and you can think about, do I...do I over... do I tell people, you know? Do I share or do I tell?

Okay? Okay? Do I have this bad habit of pushing my religion on other people, okay?

Okay. And I think that's important for the refuge vow, okay?