«Дар освобождения», курс 26 «Реальность кармы», занятие 3

[Speaker 1]
I promised you questions. Let's do a few questions, and then we'll continue with the text. But if there's no questions, I'll just go ahead.

[Speaker 2]
I have a question. It's a little bit of a technical question. Yes, yeah.

It's a little bit of a technical question in terms of how karma expands, because I'm very afraid that someone will ask me one day how that really works.

[Speaker 1]
Translation. It's a little bit of a technical question in terms of how karma expands, because I'm very afraid that someone will ask me one day how that really works. When we plant seeds and they multiply, they double every 24 hours, then eventually we'll have many, many seeds.

[Speaker 2]
And they ripen at a rate of 65 per second, by that little luminous image coming out. At what point is that little acorn a tree? As opposed to just having billions of acorns.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. A lot of the questions that you might think of don't occur in scriptures. But I can give you some clues.

So, when the image comes out of the seed, then like when a tree comes out of the seed, it kills the seed. So, when the picture comes out and goes onto the object, by the time it reaches the object, I would say the seed is finished. And the tree is the image coming out.

That's the tree. So, I'll just say more because I don't know how to answer you. In Buddhism, every result is also a cause.

What we call the second way that seeds open, the second flower, which will come this week, is that when that image comes out, and you're aware of that image, that will plant another seed. And that's where we get a habit. When we do karma once, then one of the ways that karma opens is we get the habit more.

Then you can understand it better if you think about watermelons. You plant one seed, watermelon comes out. It has, I don't know, a couple of hundred seeds.

Each seed produces a watermelon, can produce a watermelon. And then each of those watermelons has 500 seeds. So, that helps you understand how seeds multiply.

And then the third flower, your seeds create your environment. So, if you like to use drugs or alcohol, when you drink, it creates a seed. And when that seed opens, it creates people around you who enjoy doing the same thing.

Then they encourage you to drink more, and then it becomes a cycle. But the tree is the image coming out, that's all. It doesn't live very long.

Not like a big tree. Okay?

[Speaker 2]
Okay. Geshe Michael, you always teach us amazing things.

[Speaker 1]
Not me, it's the book. But we like the 23 books. Many of the thoughts that I have, that I hear in my mind, I don't like them.

And I think often that I can take refuge in the mind of a Buddha. Could you please teach us how to take that kind of refuge in that moment, so I could lessen those negative thoughts that I don't like, that I have? Okay.

So, when I teach DCI, people heard this question before. And so, for many years, I was my lama's translator. He will speak English, and I will translate into English.

So, I'm always sitting next to him. And when he has a private interview with people, and they will ask him a question, he will answer. They will say, What?

Then I will translate. Then sometimes he tells me I translated wrong. Really.

So, anyway, one day I remember a lady came to him. So, I'm the guard at the dorm. People have to ask me if they want to see the lama here.

I built his house. And before we built it, we made a plan on a paper. It's a two-story house with another house next to it.

Then he said, we'll put the front door here. I will stay on the second floor. And you will sleep here.

So, people have to go past you to reach me. Then I never have any... I never get to sleep.

Every people are coming. Then one lady said, I have to see the lama. Why?

I'm very depressed. All the time I'm sad. Then I thought, oh, she should talk to the lama.

So, we went up to see my lama. And she said, I'm very sad. I'm very depressed.

All day I'm depressed. I'm sad. What should I do?

Then my lama said, don't do that. Then I'm looking at him, she's looking at him. Then he said, just be happy.

Then he's like, okay, see you later. Then I'm like, Then he's like, Then I... Sometimes I will go up to his room after that.

She went away and she's unhappy. Then I went up and I asked him, what kind of answer is that? He said, it's a perfect answer.

He always looked at me and said, I'm your lama. It's a perfect answer. Then I said, but in America lama is not so great.

I can't say that. Then he said, it's too late for her to be happy. When you are depressed, when the seeds open in your mind, or thoughts you don't like, like sometimes there's somebody bothering you, and this thought comes like this, it's like, I want to hit this guy.

And then you're like, no, no, no. Some strange thought comes in your mind. Then when the seed opens, it's too late to push the tree back into the seed.

They say the light is coming from the stars, right? From the stars. And some of the stars which we see, they are already finished.

They are already burned out. But the light didn't reach us yet. And it's the same with your mind.

By the time you hear the thought, the seed already opened and died. It takes a little second for the thought to reach your inner ear. So by the time you feel depressed, it's too late not to be depressed.

Today. But you can plant a seed for next week. So it's possible to stop depression, but your mind won't listen to you.

You are talking to a star which already burned out. The mind who said that to you, by the time you hear it, that mind is gone. The same in meditation.

You can meditate, right? And you have a lama's face. You are supposed to meditate on a lama's face.

And the lama's eyes are full of love. And slowly, slowly lama's face becomes hamburger. Because you are hungry.

Then you say, no, no, no hamburger. I'm a vegetarian. But it won't go.

It's too late. That's why this afternoon, we said you have to plant the meditation the week before. So the same with those disturbing thoughts.

The main way to stop them is to don't upset other people. Then my lama call it the two lakes. Like this lake.

Then right now it's very peaceful. And if the wind comes up, it will get all like this. Then my lama said everybody's mind is like a lake.

And if he gets upset, his mind is like this. His lake is like this. Then he will say something, he will do something, and my lake will start to go like his.

His lake disturbed my lake. So when you feel strange thoughts, and the important thing is not to bother other people's mind. Like go for a walk or something.

Don't talk to anybody. You will disturb their lake. You see?

Yeah. And if you're careful not to disturb other people's lake, then you plant seeds that your own lake will be peaceful. But don't get frustrated fighting with your mind in the present moment.

It's too late. It's like trying to push a tree back into the ground. So don't be very serious and don't get upset.

Don't do that, be happy. Okay, one more question. Not working.

Try again. Hello. There you go.

My question has to go back with the question this afternoon that Ronit asked. I'm the listener to my thoughts.

[Speaker 2]
When that seed opens and I hear that thought, does that seed also make the hearer at the same time?

[Speaker 1]
Oh, that's a good question. There's a big debate about it. Some people say, it's called a NGOS RGYU and a RGYU RGYU.

You can ask Adam. NGOS RGYU means direct cause. Then RGYU RGYU means indirect cause.

So, technically, the seed triggers sense consciousness or mental consciousness. And then in the next millisecond, you're aware of your mind. So by the time...

First the seed creates an object, a thought. Then there's an awareness of the thought. And then there's the feeling, I'm thinking.

So technically those three happen in different times. But you can say one seed grew into both. You can say that.

But technically it was like three. Because this one has to trigger this one, and then you're aware of this one. And they happen at slightly offset time.

Like that. What I mean is, the karma created an object. The object triggered a consciousness.

And the consciousness triggered the feeling of me. Technically they all came from the same seed. But it's different offset time.

It's a big question in a mind-only school. If you are projecting karma, that's a different thing. Mainly that refers to karma that you make in this life, which creates the next life.

For example, in the wheel of life, an Arya, someone who saw emptiness directly, they cannot create new projecting karma. So, someone who saw emptiness directly cannot make new karma to come back to suffering. But they might have old ones laying around.

Up to seven. Lifetimes. So, my book.

Okay. Thank you. Okay, let's do the book.

And I'll take more questions tomorrow. Your questions are getting better and better. Okay.

So, we're on the third law of karma. GSUNGS PA LAS MA BYAS PA DANG MI PHRAD PA NI If you don't do an action, you won't get a result. By the way, what's the fourth law of karma?

What is the fourth law of karma? If you do do an action, you will get a result. Some books switch three and four, just so you know.

Okay. MAG SOGS KYI SKABS DGA' ZHIG GI NGA LA GSOS GSUNGS KYANG MED MED DAG MONG PO THEBS CHUNG YANG RGYUN MA CHUNG So, in Tibet, there's a thing called a kau, kau. It's a big metal box, like this.

It's about this big. Inside, there's a little Buddha. I have a gao.

Every monk has a gao. The day you become a monk, they give you a gao. And inside, there's a little Buddha.

And you're supposed to keep it for your whole life. My gao had many funny stories. Customs in Thailand tried to take it away from me.

They thought it was antique. It is an antique. They thought I was smuggling out of the country.

Then I had a big fight with them. Because you're supposed to keep it. So, anyway, Tibetans believe it will stop a bullet.

If somebody shoots a gun at you, your gao will stop the bullet. So, all these Tibetan soldiers carry this big gao, and I think it slows them down, and they get shot. Anyway, never mind.

MAG SOGS KYI SKABS DGA' ZHIG GIS So, he says in his example, sometimes there's a war. War in Tibet is a joke. There's a joke.

It says, Oh, there was a war today. Three guys got hurt. This is a war in Tibet.

MAG SOGS KYI SKABS DGA' ZHIG GIS MA LA BRTZON GSUNGS Some people say, I forgot to bring my gao to the war. And the enemy was shooting many guys. But it didn't touch me.

Nothing touched me. Even without my gao. By the way, here, a gao is called BRTZON GSUNGS.

BRTZON GSUNGS means weapon protection. YAT SEMS PAR BRDZIN SMOS Then they feel really surprised. Wow, nothing happened to me.

Then the lama said, that's no big deal. It's just karma law number three. You didn't make the karma to get a bullet.

So, it's possible, like that lady who walked out of the airplane. One person, you know, just walk out, everybody else die. I'll tell you a story.

I was on a plane. I used to travel with my lama to India, to go to the monastery. Then I always wait until he has time on his schedule to go with me.

Because I think, if I'm on a plane with my lama, it will never fall down. One day, we're going on a plane to India. I'm at the window seat, he's on the other seat.

I'm reading newspaper. Last night, there was a bomb on an airplane. Small bomb.

Under one seat. It blew up. One guy fell out of the airplane.

Then I'm like, anyway. ,GANG ZHIG DANG PO TSUNG GI MA THUB NA, Some people, they go to fight in a war, and nothing happens to them. There's a guy in America, very famous sniper.

He killed many bad guys. He killed many other snipers. And nothing happened to him.

And he came home, and somebody shot him and killed him. This is a true story. He said, ,'CHI SRED PA RGYUR NA, means you survive the war, you come home and you die in a car accident on the way home from the airport.

,GANG ZHIG DANG PO TSUNG GI MA THUB NA, means you survive the war, you come home and you die in a car accident on the way home from the airport. Then some people say his gao stopped working. Then the lama says, that's not the problem.

That's not what happened. You think his gao stopped working, you don't know anything about karma. ,SNGAR LAS DANG MA BRTAD LA, ,PHYIS KYI DE LAS DANG PHRAD PA YIN, In the war he had karma law number three, and when he got home he had karma law number four.

Because karma law number four is what? If you do something wrong, you must experience result. ,LAS DANG MA BRTAD NA MER ZAD KYANG MI CI STE, A person who doesn't have the karma can be in a house which catches on fire and it will not burn them.

,SNGAR KHYEN DAG MED KYIS ZHES PA'I, ,MA'I RO NYAM DU MER ZAD KYANG MA ZHIG BAR, ,PHYIS BDAG SBYONG MA THOBS SU, Then there's a story in the scripture. There's a person named Jyotishka. He was in a same room with his mother, in a house.

There was a fire. Mother died and nothing happened to him because he didn't have the karma yet. ,GONG GI ZER GYI LAM PO, ,MA RGYUD DANG PHYOGS SKABS LEN DUNG GI BAR ZA'OGS DU NUS, ,MA RGYUD DANG NA PHAN MA THOB PA DANG, That's the same thing of that king who tried to steal the gold pooping elephants.

Then he just didn't have the karma to have the elephants. Then he talks about a king named Sharpa, Gyelpo Sharpa. ,'TSUM MO'I NGO SANG MA, He had a queen.

She already saw emptiness directly. She doesn't have to come back. After she dies, she doesn't have to come back to desire realm.

She had 500 serving women. She taught them all about emptiness, and they all saw emptiness directly. ,YANG DRAM ZE MA RGYUD, ,KHYIM LA MED PA'O BA NA, ,RGYAL RIM POR BUR DU MED PAR, Then somebody set the palace on fire.

,BYUNG ZAD TZAM BUR TE, Then they decided to fly away. Then they had trouble to go far enough. Then the queen said, ,RANG GI CHES SHING SA PA'I LAS, ,RANG GI BDAG GIS MI CHE NA GZU BYAS, She said, it looks like we don't have the karma to escape.

Even though we are Aryas. ,BDAG GIS MI CHE NA GZU BYAS SHING, ,CHE MA LAS MED LA BYAS PA BZHIN DU, ,THAMS CAD MED NANG DU GSUNGS, All of them fell back into the fire like a mariposa. Flying into the fire.

,MED TSIG, And they were burned. ,PHRAD MO'I GUR CHOG BYAS PA'I, ,RDZU DRU MA THOB KYANG, Then there was one, what do you call it? Like a dishwasher in the palace.

And she had a, what do you call it? Like this. And she doesn't know anything about emptiness.

But she didn't make the karma to be burned. So she hid in a big pipe and she escaped. Five hundred and one Aryas died.

One old woman who didn't have that karma survived. ,PHA RGYAS BU, ,ZHAG RGYAL MA GRANGS PA NA, ,ZHAG RGYAS DON DRID DON STONG PO, ,THAMS CAD RGYUN ZHUGS THOB PA SHA DAG YIN YANG, ,MA THAR BAR ZOD CING, There was a king named Virudhaka. This is a famous story that Lord Buddha's village was attacked.

And there were 77,000 people in the village who had seen emptiness directly. And every one of them was killed. ,LAS MA BYAS PA RGA SHI ZHAG RGYAL MIN CHIN, ,CHUR NUS PAS RING LA CHOS NAS THAR PA, Then a few people escaped who didn't have that karma.

And that's a long story. There was one shakya person named Min Chen. And he asked this king who was killing everybody.

He said, there's a lake here. Then I'm going to put my head under the water. And as long as my head is under water will you agree not to kill anybody?

Then the other king said, yeah, that's okay. You know, 30 seconds, 50 seconds. He was also an Arya.

He put his head under water. He tied his leg to the bottom. And he died.

He died. But he didn't come up. So like three hours later the king's like, where is this guy?

So during those three hours many people escaped. But it means they didn't have the karma. Okay, chung kyir drag do, sa char kyi nyen te Then there was a town called Raurika.

And there's a famous story that it was buried by a rain of dirt. But two people escaped. And they were kind people, but the rest of the people in the city were killed.

That's part of the story of the Wheel of Life. And if you want to hear the whole story, you can come to Indonesia in August. And there's a beautiful temple there.

It was carved out of a mountain. It's a mandala. And it was carved out of a whole mountain.

And it has 3,000 carvings about the size of that wall. And the United Nations asked me to go there. It was buried in a volcano.

And we are raising money for them. And then I went there just for a few hours. There are many pictures of the story of the Wheel of Life, but they didn't know about it.

So I told my friends in Singapore and Indonesia, I will go teach there for two days. Then the money we will donate to clean up the volcano. So if you have time, you can come to that event.

It's a pretty amazing place. And we'll be staying in a five-star hotel next to it. And two days of teaching Wheel of Life.

So that story comes from the Wheel of Life story. For me, the third law of karma, when we teach it in DCI, to me it's about expectations. Like, oh, I applied for this job.

I hope I get it. Or I called my friend Gua Shi, right? I called my friend.

I expect him to help me. But they didn't. I think expectation is all about seeds.

If you don't plant the seed, then don't get upset if nothing happens, okay? If you don't plant the seed, don't get upset if nothing happens. If nothing happens, you didn't plant a seed.

People are always asking me, you know, Geshe-la, my friend didn't help me. I expected my friend to help me. Now my business is in trouble.

I say, did you do the four steps? No, but I want the result. I'm like, get out of here.

If you don't do the four steps, don't expect something. If you're hoping for something and it doesn't happen, it's your fault. In this system.

Oh, my husband doesn't give me hug. My wife, she doesn't give me, you know. It's your fault.

You have to plant the seed. So, if you understand karma law number three, you can't blame other people. Just yourself.

If you really understand karma, then you don't get angry at other people. Somebody asked me, is it okay to get angry at myself? No.

Okay, that is your fault. Okay, fourth law of karma. ZHIG PA LAS BYAS PA CHOS MI SA BA Now, in DCI, we say if you plant the seed, you must get the result.

But the ancient book is a little bit different. It says if you plant the seed, CHOS MI SA BA means it will never just go away by itself. There's some people at my company, my diamond company, I'm just waiting for them to leave, you know.

They irritate me, but they are in a different department. I don't have power over them. So, I just decide, okay, I'm going to wait until my karma finishes.

But after you plant a karma, it will not just go away. And it doesn't matter how long you wait. That karma must open.

The fourth principle for opening of karma, we will get to it later, but the seeds of karma in your mind are stronger than your body. They don't need a body to live. This body can die.

If Geshe Michael dies right now, those seeds will fall down. Those seeds will stay here by themselves, without a body. They don't need a body to survive.

And then they will open. And they will create a new world, and a new Michael. So, anything you do, something will come back to you.

We decide it's Newton's third law of physics. Motion. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

And there's no exceptions. So in Buddhism, we don't believe you can ask for an exception, because it would mess up the universe. It would mess up the symmetry of the universe.

If you do good things, you must get good. If you do bad things, you must get bad. If somebody, I don't know, in my high school, if your mother wrote a note, Mike had a headache last night, he couldn't do his homework.

In my school, the teacher must accept it. My mother never wrote me one.

[Speaker 2]
She refused.

[Speaker 1]
My mother is very like karmic law number four. Mom, can I get a special case letter? No.

You always get what you deserve. If someone could mess with that, then the universe wouldn't be balanced. You have to get what you did.

So Geshe-la, why we do the four powers to confess? Why we do the four powers to stop a seed? Who wants to give me an answer?

[Speaker 2]
Does the four powers stop the seed from opening?

[Speaker 1]
No. Okay. So in Buddhism, we have four confession powers.

They will stop the... We say it will stop the seed, but it doesn't. If you have like a watermelon seed, and I have some in my garden.

I have seeds, I keep them outside. In the paper envelope. And it's safe to keep them outside because it never rains in Arizona.

Then recently it rained by accident. I think the rain came from Mexico or something. In my three year retreat, we got so sensitive.

We can smell the salt water from the Gulf of Mexico. So, sometimes... Anyway, all my seeds got wet.

When they get wet, there's a message to the seed, it's time to open. Then they will open inside the package, and they will die because there's no soil, there's no sunlight. So in Buddhism, we have four confession powers.

When you do a good confession, we call four powers, it will cause the seed to open too early. And if you're supposed to have a car accident, you will have a bad headache or something. So, every seed will open.

But you try to make them open too early. But for those of you teaching DCI, it doesn't say you must experience the result of every seed. That's not karmic law number one.

It doesn't say you must experience the result of every seed. That's not karmic law number four. Technically, karma law number four is a seed will survive for millions of years and it won't get one percent less.

Until it opens. Okay, let's start. We have seven minutes.

Geshe-la, why don't you stop the class early? We are tired. My lama said, I don't do that.

He got in a car accident before I met him. He talks just like Star Wars. I don't do that.

We're going to keep going until the time is finished. LUS CAN DAG GIS LAS RNAMS NI, RGAGS PA RGYAL YANG CHOS MI SA, SOGS SHING DUS LA BHAG PA NA, DE BU MING PA GNYIS DU RGYUR Very famous verse. LUS CAN DAG GIS LAS RNAMS NI The karma of living beings, the seeds of living beings, RGAGS PA RGYAL YANG CHOS MI SA millions of years can pass and they will not get one percent less.

SOGS SHING DUS LA BHAG PA NA If the causes come together, DE BU MING PA GNYIS DU RGYUR then the result will come out. BYAS GSUM PA BZHIN YON RIGS NAS SNYING BAR GYUR BA DANG, CHUNG NAS MED PAR GYUR BA SOGS, GANG YANG MED PAR There is no expiration date on a karmic seed. Doesn't matter how much time goes by.

They survive 100%. CHUNG NAS MED PAR GYUR BA SOGS, GANG YANG MED PAR And they don't just disappear. CHUNG BZHIN YON RIGS LA YANG NAM ZHIG BRGYAD BU MING PA GYUR TE And even the tiniest karma, it will also survive for millions of years.

You're driving your car and you say, you yell at somebody. Then you forget it, like 50 seconds later, 30 seconds later you forget it. Karma never forgets.

You made a seed. I heard a nice talk by an American Buddhist nun. She said, you people are so funny.

You got divorced 15 years ago. You still remember every stupid thing your husband said. And you think about it all the time.

He forgot it the same day he said it. Right? Okay, anyway.

Karma never forgets anything. Karma never forgets anything. I still got four minutes.

Okay, this is the best story. Just to give you some sweet dreams. In the time of the ...

You got that picture Tim? It's a special pie.

[Speaker 2]
It's a special pie. Yeah, that one.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, cow pie. Now, it took me a long time to find this photo, so you have to appreciate. About 3,000 years ago, there was a fly.

I'm sorry, let's not go that way. In the time of the Buddha, he started to get very famous. Then many people came and said, I want to become a monk.

I want to be your student. Then it got to be too many people. So he trained one of his students, Maudgalyayana.

Maudgalyayana. You sit outside the door. When people come and they say, I want to be a monk.

I want to be a student of Buddha. You read their mind. He has, what do you call it?

ESP. Clairvoyance. He said, you check their mind.

If they have the seed to see emptiness or something, let them come in. If they don't have a seed, politely tell them to come back some other time. Then of course, Buddha can see all things all the time.

So he's checking Maudgalyayana's mind while Maudgalyayana's checking the other people's mind. Then this old man came, very old, dirty farmer. His name is Srija.

He's very famous. You know this guy, someone tried to teach him OM MANI PADME HUM. When he learned OM MANI he forgot PADME HUM.

If you think about PADME HUM he'd forget OM MANI. He's so stupid. Then Maudgalyayana read his mind.

He said, go away, go away. It's impossible. Then Buddha said, wait, wait.

Let him in. Then Maudgalyayana said, no, no, don't worry, I checked. He's got no seed at all.

Buddha said, no, no. Sometimes under the earth one mile down there's a diamond. He's got a seed.

He's got one seed. Then Maudgalyayana's like, what? Buddha said, many lifetimes ago he was born as a fly and he was eating some cow shit.

Should I tell you another joke? There's a monk joke about the two flies. They were sitting on some dog poo-poo.

One guy said, do you think it's possible for an insect to become a Buddha? He said, yeah, they say we all have Buddha seed, you know. So, are you going to become a Buddha?

Nah. Why? There's no dog shit in heaven.

Again, that's a different story. So, this guy landed on a cow pie and there was a big rain storm. The cow pie was a little bit dry one.

The rain storm carried the cow pie away and it reached to a stupa and the fly is like this. He's riding on the cow pie. Then, oh no, stupa, stupa.

Turn the cow pie. Cow pie go. Then he went around the stupa.

So, he got if you go around a stupa you get a little bit of good karma. Many lifetimes later he became this guy. Buddha said, he has a seed.

He has a cow pie seed. He saw emptiness in his lifetime. That's it.

So, it can happen for anybody. Okay. Let's leave it there.

That's a good sign. All of us have a Buddha seed. Probably if you really want it there will be dog poop in heaven also.

I think so. Okay, let's go.