«Дар освобождения», курс 26 «Реальность кармы», занятие 12

[Speaker 2]
So this is the second of two special classes for this week.

[Speaker 1]
That custom was started by the head of the Guadalajara group. I don't remember his name.

[Speaker 2]
Like three, four years ago, he said, can you do some dessert in the middle of the dinner?

[Speaker 1]
Just to, you know, give you something fresh to think about.

[Speaker 2]
So this is the second fresh class.

[Speaker 1]
For those classes, I try to find something that you didn't hear before.

[Speaker 2]
And something a little bit more difficult.

[Speaker 1]
So if you feel lost in the karma class, you will feel double lost in this class. Okay, so don't worry about it. This is a special class.

We're going very deep in something you didn't hear before. Oh, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sorry.

Yeah, we have to... I will need that. You didn't hear it before.

So don't get worried about it. I promised to teach you about churro. Somebody took me to the big cathedral in Mexico City.

I don't remember anything about the cathedral. Because there was a churreria next door.

[Speaker 2]
Churro factory.

[Speaker 1]
I never saw such a wonderful place. So anyway, Stanley, you ready? Where are you?

[Speaker 2]
Stanley, listo?

[Speaker 1]
You have to stand. We're going to do the DCI... This is called the DCI Donut Discussion.

Okay, and this is just a five minute churro break, okay? Some very intelligent people, they will ask me, does everything come from seeds?

[Speaker 2]
Does everything come from karma?

[Speaker 1]
Then I will say, yeah, everything comes from karma.

[Speaker 2]
So then they say, does karma come from karma?

[Speaker 1]
Who made karma? Why should it be that when you plant...

[Speaker 2]
when you give something to somebody else, you get more of it yourself?

[Speaker 1]
So this is a traditional churro presentation of the answer. Then I'll go into the deeper class, okay? Okay, so there's a churro.

Now, let's say I only have one churro.

[Speaker 2]
I like churro.

[Speaker 1]
But he also likes churro. And there's only one churro. Now I'm not, I'm not, I'm not a spiritual person.

I'm not Bodhisattva. I'm not Arhat. I'm not Arya.

I'm not on any kind of path.

[Speaker 2]
I'm just a normal person. And I like churro. And I want to guarantee that I will get churro in the future.

[Speaker 1]
So what should I do with this churro? Yeah, I should give to him. Why?

[Speaker 2]
Because I like churro.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, not spiritual. Forget spiritual.

[Speaker 2]
It's just I want more churro.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, forget spiritual.

[Speaker 2]
I'm selfish. I only like Geshe Michael.

[Speaker 1]
I just want Geshe Michael to get as many churros as possible. Then how do I guarantee future Geshe Michael churro? I have to give to him.

Okay? Then, question for you. Is his mouth my mouth?

Don't go there yet.

[Speaker 2]
Visually, visually. Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Is his mouth my mouth visually? No, his mouth is one meter away. His mouth is over there.

My mouth is over here. All the hippies, main place is Sedona.

[Speaker 2]
How do you know a hippie?

[Speaker 1]
Everything's one, man. Everything's one. But it's not true.

He's over there. I'm over here. Even we have the word him and me.

[Speaker 2]
His mouth and my mouth. Even separate words, right?

[Speaker 1]
Okay, now you and I know the only way I can get more churro is to put churro in other person's mouth.

[Speaker 2]
So the only way to get a churro into this mouth is to put a churro in the other person's mouth.

[Speaker 1]
That's the only way to get a churro into this mouth. Right?

[Speaker 2]
Yes, I better make sure that happens.

[Speaker 1]
So, visually, this mouth is one meter away.

[Speaker 2]
But functionally, churro must enter those lips. If I want churro to enter these lips, if churro goes between those lips, then churro will go between these lips. So, functionally, not visually, Buddhist people, we don't trust these two eyes.

[Speaker 1]
We like this one. This eye can see if I put churro in this mouth, definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely, more churro will come into this mouth.

[Speaker 2]
So, functionally, this mouth is this mouth. Okay, understand?

[Speaker 1]
Stanley's mouth is Michael's mouth. And Michael's mouth is Stanley's mouth. And the hippies in Sedona are correct.

[Speaker 2]
Everything's one, man. We're all one. Karmically, it's true.

You see, I must put something in his mouth to get something in my mouth.

[Speaker 1]
Now, something happens to language.

[Speaker 2]
Every language in the world was designed by people who didn't understand karma. So, when you really go deep into the churro, you start to have a serious problem. I, me, I, Mike Stanley, give churro to Stanley Mike.

[Speaker 1]
And because of that, Stanley Mike got churro also. Stanley Mike gives Stanley Mike churro and Stanley Mike got a churro because Stanley Mike gave a churro to Stanley Mike.

[Speaker 2]
Sometimes I think that's why we can't talk to Buddhas.

[Speaker 1]
If you meet a Buddha, they'll be like, Hi Stanley Mike Alejandro. What's Stanley Mike Alejandro doing today? Did you do anything for Stanley Mike Alejandro?

[Speaker 2]
You see?

[Speaker 1]
Then we won't understand them. What was the question we started out with when we started eating the churro?

[Speaker 2]
Who made karma?

[Speaker 1]
Why do you get when you give? Because you're not giving. Got it?

[Speaker 2]
I didn't give Stanley anything.

[Speaker 1]
I gave Michael something. Got it? That's why karma works.

It's a lower idea to think that because Michael gave donut to Stanley, Michael got the donut. This is a wrong idea. Michael got a churro because Michael gave Michael a churro.

[Speaker 2]
It doesn't take a genius to say that. Hey, guess what? What?

Michael got a churro. How'd he do it? He got a churro.

No, but how did he do it? He got a churro. No, but tell me how he did it.

He got a churro. Understand? Michael got a churro.

Why? Because Michael got a churro.

[Speaker 1]
It's obvious. That's why karma works.

[Speaker 2]
If he was different from me, if he wasn't Michael, karma wouldn't work.

[Speaker 1]
When I give something to Michael, of course Michael gets it. Come on.

[Speaker 2]
It's so simple, it's difficult. If someone asks you who made karma work, you have to have a churro ready. You can all have churro One mouth.

[Speaker 1]
Stan Mijandro put a churro in Stan Mijandro's mouth. And because of that, Stan Mijandro got a churro.

[Speaker 2]
Visually, different people. Functionally, same person.

[Speaker 1]
Got it? Okay, thank you for eating churro. You did a good job.

Okay, let's go to something more confusing. So, I promised these guys in Borobudur, Indonesia that I will write a book about the Wheel of Life five years ago. They understood three months.

I will write it in three months. Then, I started taking notes about it.

[Speaker 2]
A thousand pages later, five years later, they forgot who I was.

[Speaker 1]
It took me a long time to re-contact how I was. Half the guys are retired now. I said, the book is almost ready.

And I'm donating the money to this temple. Then, that program is next month, on the 24th, I think, August.

[Speaker 2]
Two days in this beautiful, beautiful island in Indonesia.

[Speaker 1]
And there's a mountain there. You have that picture? Anyway, you're welcome to come if you want to come.

Then, unfortunately, I found another book. Those of you who know Tibetan, it's written by Tse Ngawan Tashi, who wrote Adam's book. It's the most famous logic book in Tibet.

But he also wrote a commentary on the Wheel of Life. And we found it.

[Speaker 2]
And I'm eating it these days.

[Speaker 1]
It's 354 pages.

[Speaker 2]
It's very long in Tibetan.

[Speaker 1]
He explains the Wheel of Life in a very sexy way. Then I thought you would like to hear some of it.

[Speaker 2]
He uses a book by Maitreya.

[Speaker 1]
Maitreya is the next Buddha.

[Speaker 2]
Supposed to be coming very, very soon to this world.

[Speaker 1]
Then there was a saint named Asanga. He lived 1,700 years ago and he decided to practice Vajrayana.

[Speaker 2]
Decided.

[Speaker 1]
Just like the Guadalajara people just decided to practice Vajrayana. Then he started to practice level one of the two levels of Vajrayana. Which is what?

Try to make direct contact with angels. So he went to a cave. He learned the mantra for Maitreya, the next Buddha.

This is typical Vajrayana practice. In the three-year retreat these guys did ... how many mantras, John?

I don't know. How many did you do? He did 1.4 million mantras. What's the meaning of a mantra? It's yelling at the angel, please come. Then some angel's head is very thick, you know.

[Speaker 2]
Thick.

[Speaker 1]
You have to ask them 1.4 million times before they come. It's like the priest told you, do 1.4 Hail Mary then we'll see.

[Speaker 2]
So he did Maitreya's mantra in the cave.

[Speaker 1]
He spent, I think it was 12 years or something. 12 years I think. He stayed in the cave and he do Maitreya's mantra.

He called Maitreya, please come, please come.

[Speaker 2]
Nothing happened.

[Speaker 1]
Then he got upset. He said, I'm going to leave, you know. This is not working.

This meditation is not working.

[Speaker 2]
Then he left.

[Speaker 1]
He decided to go to town. Probably he went to the bar, I don't know. On the way to town, on the side of the road, he saw a dog and the dog got hit by a wagon, horse wagon.

[Speaker 2]
The wheel ran over the dog's stomach and it cut open the dog's stomach.

[Speaker 1]
All the guts of the dog are spread out. The flies, if you've been to India, you know. Ten million flies.

Then he's like, I got to take this dog and get it to the vet. He picked up the dog. But when he reached down to pick up the dog, he noticed that already there were many maggot worms from the flies in the dog's stomach.

[Speaker 2]
Then he said, if I pick up the dog and if we saw the dog's stomach shut, all these maggots will die.

[Speaker 1]
Then what can I do, you know? Then he said, I will get a razor blade. I will cut open my thigh, make a cut in my thigh and then I will pick up each maggot and put it in my thigh.

[Speaker 2]
Nice gooey blood.

[Speaker 1]
So he got a knife, he cut his thigh open.

[Speaker 2]
Then he reached inside the dog, take the first maggot and he picked it up, you know, to put in his thigh.

[Speaker 1]
He saw that the maggot's going like this. He's like, oh my gosh, this is uncomfortable for the maggot.

[Speaker 2]
Fingers are too strong for the maggot. He's like, I need something softer, you know.

[Speaker 1]
I will use my tongue. It's very soft, you know.

[Speaker 2]
I will pick them out one by one.

[Speaker 1]
Put them in my thigh with my tongue.

[Speaker 2]
Then he's like, but it's so disgusting, you know.

[Speaker 1]
He said, okay, I can do it, you know.

[Speaker 2]
He closed his eyes and his tongue touched the ground. Then he opened his eyes.

[Speaker 1]
Maitreya standing there. He says, wow, you Maitreya.

[Speaker 2]
Yes. Wow, you came, you know. Yes, yes, I did.

[Speaker 1]
He's like, I've been working 12 years in the cave, you didn't come. Then I gave up.

[Speaker 2]
I came on the road, you know. Then you show here as this dog, you know. What's wrong with you?

[Speaker 1]
I've been waiting 12 years. You didn't come. I called your name 1.4 million times.

[Speaker 2]
Where have you been? He says, I was in the cave the whole time. I was next to you.

Every time you clear your throat, you know how many times you spit on me? It's like a dance. I'm like this, you know.

[Speaker 1]
I was right next to you the whole time, you know.

[Speaker 2]
But you didn't have enough good karma to see me.

[Speaker 1]
Now you have real compassion for this dog.

[Speaker 2]
And for the maggots. Because of that good karma, you were able to see me.

[Speaker 1]
Then Asanga was like, yay!

[Speaker 2]
He said, get up on my shoulders, you know.

[Speaker 1]
He got Maitreya on his shoulders, you know.

[Speaker 2]
And he ran to the town.

[Speaker 1]
I saw Maitreya! I got Maitreya! Then the town has like 50,000 people.

49,999, they saw some crazy guy with nothing on his shoulders going, I got Maitreya! I got Maitreya! Then there was one super good karma, old, old woman.

She was sitting on her porch, you know. Asanga ran by, I got Maitreya! I got Maitreya!

Then she went inside to the kitchen, you know.

[Speaker 2]
Saw her daughter.

[Speaker 1]
The weirdest things happening outside, you know. What's going on? There's a guy running up and down the street, I got Maitreya!

I got Maitreya! And he's got this dog on his shoulder with the guts hanging out.

[Speaker 2]
One person had enough karma to see the dog. Everybody else saw nothing.

[Speaker 1]
Then Asanga went to ... Maitreya took Asanga to his Buddha paradise.

[Speaker 2]
Asanga said, will you teach me?

[Speaker 1]
What's the second step of tantra? Yeah, the angel teaches you to become an angel. So he's doing second level tantra in Maitreya's heaven.

And it took about a month and Maitreya taught him five famous books. When he dropped off Asanga back home, all of Asanga's friends are 25 years older. So like one month in Buddha paradise.

Then one of those five books is called Jewel of Realizations.

[Speaker 2]
It's 75 pages long. It's written in poetry.

[Speaker 1]
Every monk has to memorize it when they're about 10 years old. Then the first ... so the Geshe course takes like 25 years.

[Speaker 2]
The first 12 years, half the course, is this short book, 75 pages.

[Speaker 1]
So we study, I mean we are working like 18 hour days in the monastery. Very difficult. Every year cover six pages.

It's so difficult. It's so deep.

[Speaker 2]
So we're going to start today with Maitreya.

[Speaker 1]
This is how he describes the Wheel of Life.

[Speaker 2]
This is the description of the Wheel of Life according to Maitreya.

[Speaker 1]
DE NAS SANGS RGYAS NAM GYINGS PA'I STING NGE BRDZIN LA MYONG ZHUGS NAS BSTAN CING BRAL BYUNG LUG MTHUN DANG LUG MI MTHUN LA RTOG PA BYED Then the bodhisattva goes into a special meditation. It is like a lion. I don't know the English word.

You have to tell me, okay? It's not the sound. It's the ...

By the way, this word is also used for supermodels.

[Speaker 2]
It's not the sound, but the same word is used for supermodels.

[Speaker 1]
Huh? Pose maybe. Lion pose.

But it means like ... I don't know. Gaya deer.

[Speaker 2]
I'll tell you the definition.

[Speaker 1]
I'm going to give you the definition, okay? Let me find it. Yeah.

Yeah, here it is. Okay. I wanted to know why they call bodhisattva's meditation lion ...

what are you going to call it?

[Speaker 2]
Lion attitude?

[Speaker 1]
Lion's attitude. Why do they call it lion's ...

[Speaker 2]
Anyway, lion's pose, okay? Okay.

[Speaker 1]
CI MTHUN GYI RTZIN SREN GYI RNAM PAR RGYUN PA ZHES BYA ZHES NA Why is it called the lion's pose? SREN GYI RGYUN PA RI DAG GZHAN GYI BAG TZAB MED PA LTAR MTHONGS PAN GYI So, a lion in the jungle has nothing to worry about from other animals in the jungle. When I did my three-year retreat, first we went there to check out some rancher who owns 20,000 acres.

We asked him, can we stay on your land for three years in a small tent like a hut?

[Speaker 2]
He said, okay.

[Speaker 1]
Next time I saw him, he has a ... he broke his leg. He had a cast on his leg.

He said ... I said, what happened? He said, I was riding my horse and he jumped ...

he went like this. I said, well, why? He said, that land which I told you you can stay on, it has the grandfather rattlesnake of all rattlesnakes lives there.

He's like this big. He's like three or four meters long. Jigme came with us.

We had a small group of people. The first night we're checking out the land. That snake, she was sleeping in a tent and he came to sleep next to her outside.

She's warm, he's cold.

[Speaker 2]
She's warm, he's cold.

[Speaker 1]
Whole tent going like this. First day I did yoga in our retreat. He came to watch, you know.

He coiled up under a tree. He liked watching us, you know. The rancher said, don't worry.

The grandfather snakes, they never waste their poison if the thing is too big. We had a rabbit. One day he decided to eat the rabbit.

He's very skilled.

[Speaker 2]
He gave a little poison.

[Speaker 1]
Then he start, you know, and you could see the rabbit going down.

[Speaker 2]
Then we had a very brave retreatant to New York. Petra, yeah, she pulled the rabbit out of the snake. With the ears, you know.

She pulled it out of the belly, she pulled it out of the snake, like that. And the rabbit survived.

[Speaker 1]
But one leg was eaten up by the acid, stomach acid. But he lived for a long time. How long, Jigme?

A couple of years. A couple of years he lived with us, yeah. Then I asked the rancher, how come these snakes have such a bad attitude?

We had many. In my retreat one night we had five in the front yard.

[Speaker 2]
You just look at them, you know, and they're like, you're like, what are you going to do to me?

[Speaker 1]
He said, what are you going to do to me? Even the horse ran away from me. Even the cow ran away.

Everybody ran away from me.

[Speaker 2]
The horse ran away from me. The cow ran away from me. What about you?

Why don't you run?

[Speaker 1]
You're not afraid of me. They really have an attitude. It's like, you can't move them, you can't push them, they won't run away from anything.

[Speaker 2]
That's the lion.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, SRENG RGYAS RNAM PAR RGYUN PA SHES BYA BA NI, SRENG RGYAS RGYIN PA RI DAG GZHAN GYIS BAG TZAM, They're not afraid of anything around them.

[Speaker 2]
What's it mean?

[Speaker 1]
The person who reached this meditation has seen emptiness.

[Speaker 2]
A person who has directly perceived emptiness has generated this meditative state.

[Speaker 1]
And they just saw emptiness.

[Speaker 2]
And they're a bodhisattva. Yes, bodhisattva.

[Speaker 1]
So there are like windows, three negative emotions which you eliminate by seeing emptiness directly.

[Speaker 2]
There are 84,000 bad karmas.

[Speaker 1]
There are 84,000 negative thoughts.

[Speaker 2]
And when you see emptiness directly, you stop three of them permanently, for the first time in billions of lifetimes. And if you get rid of those three, you will become Buddha in seven lifetimes, no question. Guaranteed.

So it's important. What are the three?

[Speaker 1]
Give me any one. Yeah, doubt. Doubt about Buddha, doubt about path.

Alejandro told me that he had a debate with some of you guys.

[Speaker 2]
Prove Buddha exists.

[Speaker 1]
Then most Buddhist people never saw Buddha, right?

[Speaker 2]
But if you see emptiness directly, you see Buddha directly.

[Speaker 1]
So then somebody say, Oh Geshe-la, I have this year's psychology bestseller.

[Speaker 2]
Just get angry. Let it out. Don't worry.

[Speaker 1]
You know, I really appreciate your book.

[Speaker 2]
I'm grateful, but I met Buddha yesterday.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, I don't need it. I saw Buddha. I understood Buddha.

[Speaker 2]
I saw what Buddha taught is correct. Directly.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, and I love you.

[Speaker 2]
I appreciate you want to give me a book.

[Speaker 1]
But I just met a person who can see all things in the universe in all times at any time. And I think I'll stick with his teaching.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, so that's first one, no doubt.

[Speaker 1]
Second, anybody? Yeah, after you see emptiness directly first time, you see emptiness directly. You understand that the pen is not coming from the pen.

[Speaker 2]
But when you come out of the direct perception, the pen still looks like it's coming this way. The pen still looks like it's coming from the pen. But you remember what you saw.

You saw directly the pen, there's no existing pen which is coming this way. Third one.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, it's called stupid yogic practices or something like that. You don't try them anymore. There was an old yoga practice.

[Speaker 2]
If you want to go to Nirvana, you should get a trident, this weapon, spear, and you should put it in the ground face up. Then you stand up on a chair and you make a prayer to God. Then you jump on a chair and you have to jump on the spear.

If it goes exactly here and here and here, you will reach enlightenment.

[Speaker 1]
There's another practice, you build five fires and you sit between them for, I don't know, a week or something. Then you're a spiritual person.

[Speaker 2]
There's another one, you hold your hand up for like ten years and then it shrinks, the hand shrinks, everything shrinks like this big thing. Then you're a spiritual person.

[Speaker 1]
These are just crazy ideas.

[Speaker 2]
After you see emptiness directly, you cannot believe those anymore.

[Speaker 1]
If somebody comes up to you and says, I don't want to share my things with other people because then I will not have any things.

[Speaker 2]
Why did you waste half the churro on Stanley? Geshe-la, I thought you liked churro. Why did you give half to Stanley?

That wrong idea. When the bodhisattva who just saw emptiness think about that idea, they are When the bodhisattva who just saw emptiness think about that idea, they are Again, that's the meaning.

[Speaker 1]
Maybe you can call it the lion bird or something.

[Speaker 2]
Bird?

[Speaker 1]
Flip of bird? You know this one?

[Speaker 2]
It's called flip of bird.

[Speaker 1]
He's not going to translate. Just etc. That's why this meditation Let's call it the dance of the lion.

Now I'm going to tell you about what else he says.

[Speaker 2]
What else did the author say?

[Speaker 1]
When the bodhisattva has done the dance of the lion RTEN CING BRAL BYUNG then they see the wheel.

[Speaker 2]
The bodhisattva who just did the lion's dance sees the wheel.

[Speaker 1]
They see how the wheel spins and they see how to stop the wheel. This is Maitreya's poetry. Very difficult.

[Speaker 2]
I'll say it to you again. The bodhisattva goes into the meditation of the dance of the lion and then they see the wheel how it spins and how it stops. SGO DANG BYAS PA'I MYONG CHUB DGUR Then they go into nine deep levels of meditation which include meditation on the end.

[Speaker 1]
SNGAGS PA GNYIS SU SONG DBANG NAS They come and go two times.

[Speaker 2]
They come and go two times and they play with the world's mind. They play with the world's mind.

[Speaker 1]
They touch what is not meditation. They rise and they fall. It's all crazy.

No meaning. How many lines about the wheel here? It's like one or two, right?

[Speaker 2]
They see the wheel how it spins and stops for seventeen centuries. Thousands of books about these two lines.

[Speaker 1]
Cool? Anytime you study the wheel in the monastery, they start with these two lines. They see the wheel how it spins and stops.

So I thought you'd like to know what's the lion's dance.

[Speaker 2]
It's a little bit complicated.

[Speaker 1]
Dance is a dance That's okay. I'm good. I'm going to give you an explanation that comes from It's called DONG DUN CHE MO DONG means emptiness.

DUN means like a vacation or a break.

[Speaker 2]
And CHE MO means the great book.

[Speaker 1]
This is a book about emptiness.

[Speaker 2]
Written by Kedrup Je, student of Tsongkapa.

[Speaker 1]
Let me find a good place. Let's see. So in this presentation of the wheel it's something that a bodhisattva sees just after they come out of emptiness.

So Maitreya is describing what happens just after you come out of seeing emptiness. Let me see here. Okay, here's Kedrup Je.

MTHONG LAM GYI RTOGS PA'I RGYU MTSAN DE LA DBANG DU BYA BA'I PHYIR SO RTZA BA LA NYAMS SHA SREN GYI RNAMS KYIS BDANG RJES RTOGS BSTAN DANG LA RTOGS PA NYID What Maitreya is talking about is that while you're still in meditation you are dancing like a lion. during the RJE RTOGS RJE RTOGS means Okay, we can divide in the day, let's talk about it this way. Here's what it's going to be like on the day that you see emptiness directly.

So typically the person is serving some lama. So let's say they got up and they're making tea for their lama. They've been meditating every day at least an hour.

They've been studying with their teachers on a regular basis.

[Speaker 2]
They've been serving those teachers and their community.

[Speaker 1]
Their community has been Okay, they've been serving the community.

[Speaker 2]
Old people, sick people, prisoners, environment, doing something for the community. Four causes of seeing emptiness directly. Because they've been doing those four things while they're making the tea suddenly trigger, boom!

Something triggers in their mind and they say oh my god, it's not a pot on the stove. It's just silver color and a round shape.

[Speaker 1]
It's only colors and shapes which my eye can see. Black and white stick. It's not a pen.

[Speaker 2]
Just black and white stick shape. Why?

[Speaker 1]
The eye can only see color and shape. The eye cannot make decision what is this thing. There are cells in the back of your eye.

They detect changes in color and changes in shape. They cannot decide this is pen, this is chew toy. Then this guy who has all the necessary conditions, they've been meditating every day, and you when you have all the necessary conditions you've been meditating every day.

[Speaker 2]
Studying. Serving the Dharma. And serving their community.

And then because of those causes suddenly they see the picture of the pot is a picture in the back of their mind. And that picture is coming out of a seed. In the back of the mind.

The picture is made of light.

[Speaker 1]
Then the mind is putting this picture on the silver circle. And so for the first time ever you see karma opening in your mind. Seed.

[Speaker 2]
For the first time in billions of lifetimes you see it. Then you like serve the Lama the tea, then you go to the temple to do your daily meditation. You sit down.

[Speaker 1]
Now something cool happens.

[Speaker 2]
The mind starts going up through meditation levels. Like climbing a ladder quickly.

[Speaker 1]
And you have a it feels like you're climbing. Like the mind goes boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

[Speaker 2]
Then you reach this level. This is not seeing emptiness directly. It's going higher in meditation.

Deeper levels of meditation. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Then you reach a platform and from there you go into direct perception of emptiness.

Then for like 15, 20 minutes you're not aware of time. You're not aware of yourself.

[Speaker 1]
You're not aware of meditating. You are just in a higher reality. And that's emptiness.

Then that 20 minute finish, actually the karmic seeds for that they wear out very fast.

[Speaker 2]
The karmic seeds that detonated that experience wear out very fast. Then there's this feeling boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, coming down.

[Speaker 1]
Then you're still in meditation but you're not in emptiness anymore. Then you have these really supernatural perceptions. They are not about emptiness.

But I'll give you some of them.

[Speaker 2]
That day you perceive and you can see directly when you're going to die.

[Speaker 1]
You can see the day that you become a Buddha.

[Speaker 2]
You see yourself as a Buddha directly with your directly, like you're looking at it.

[Speaker 1]
Your eyes are still closed. Then pen is coming from me, right?

[Speaker 2]
So is time. So is time. So is space.

Time is also empty.

[Speaker 1]
Time you spend in the car making out with your girlfriend when you are 16 goes very fast. You stopped kissing and it's already 2am in the morning and your mom is already angry. Time you spend at the dentist is going very slow.

That guy is drilling and drilling and banging and banging and cutting and cutting and poking and poking and then you finish, finally. And only half hour has gone by. When you come out of the direct perception of emptiness, watch.

Okay? You can see one by one, one after the other, like a very fast slideshow. You see the face of every living being in the universe.

[Speaker 2]
One by one. In about five minutes.

[Speaker 1]
Okay? And there's a...

[Speaker 2]
something else happens.

[Speaker 1]
You realize you will take care of each one of them. Okay? And other things happen.

[Speaker 2]
Then you, you know, I don't know, maybe an hour later you come out of it. You stand up.

[Speaker 1]
You start walking around. And there's other like leftover cool things. Like you can read other people's minds for the whole day.

And then when you go to sleep next morning everything's finished.

[Speaker 2]
Now, why are we talking about that?

[Speaker 1]
Because we're talking about the lion.

[Speaker 2]
We're trying to figure out what did Maitreya mean when he talked about the dance of the lion.

[Speaker 1]
What's he talking about? And then Kedrupje, Tsongkapa's disciple from 600 years ago, he says while you're in meditation you are doing the lion's dance.

[Speaker 2]
And in the, we call the aftermath, in the next few hours you see directly the wheel of life. Okay, so this is a when you study the wheel of life from Maitreya when you study the wheel of life that Maitreya teaches, he's not just interested in the wheel of life.

[Speaker 1]
He says people people see the wheel of life directly.

[Speaker 2]
Who just came down out of that deep meditation after they saw emptiness directly.

[Speaker 1]
And when Maitreya presents the wheel he's only talking about someone who just saw emptiness directly. Like five minutes before, two minutes before. I'll tell you something interesting.

Scott, you got your laser pointer? I'll tell you something interesting, okay? So this is the wheel of trouble.

The whole thing is trouble. If you're in the wheel you're going to die. It's the wheel of trouble.

[Speaker 2]
Why suffering? What's the first link of the wheel?

[Speaker 1]
Misunderstanding. What's the picture? Blind man.

What's always the next ... So blind triggers something, okay? Misunderstanding.

This wheel is twelve triggers right after another. What does the misunderstanding trigger?

[Speaker 2]
Next link.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, the potter.

[Speaker 2]
He's making karma.

[Speaker 1]
But it's not just any kind of karma. It's pen je kyi le. What's pen je?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, throwing karma. What's throwing mean?

[Speaker 1]
Throws another life inside the wheel. Inside the wheel. Throws another suffering life.

Be born in blood and tears. Live a long life, see many tragedies.

[Speaker 2]
Collect money, make babies. And then lose everything. And then the babies lose everything.

[Speaker 1]
This is the wheel. So, this second link, that's the karma which throws another life in the wheel. Who are the only people in the world who are not making pots?

Yeah, someone who has seen emptiness directly.

[Speaker 2]
The only people who don't project another life in suffering are the people who directly perceived emptiness.

[Speaker 1]
That's the only people who are not blind. Okay, so if they don't make the pots, are they free of the wheel? Not yet, why not?

They still have the old pots they made. But there's never more than seven left. So, that person, we call SIPA LEN DUNG BA BA LEN DUNG BA BA LEN DUNG BA BA means only seven more times max, maximum.

Now, the cool thing about Maitreya's wheel, there's many, many books about the wheel, but the cool one about this wheel is this one.

[Speaker 2]
He talks about this. How to come in and how to come out.

[Speaker 1]
And that's called the lion's dance. Okay, so I thought, now that we're ready to start the class, I thought you're going to enjoy hearing about what's the lion's dance and how can I practice it. Okay, so obviously this class is going to go into tonight, is that okay?

[Speaker 2]
Okay, so we're going to go through Maitreya, his description how to do the lion's dance. How to go up and then how to come back. Because you have to go up to see emptiness.

And we're studying it from Kedrup Jeh's explanation.

[Speaker 1]
Now, he says, okay, we don't have much time, but let's start. He says split the verse in two.

[Speaker 2]
Split the verse of poetry into two parts. So to do that we have to go to the verse.

[Speaker 1]
Where is it? So here's the verse in Tibetan, okay? DE NAS ZEN GYI RNAMS KYING PAS MTHING NGAN ZIN LA MYONG ZHUGS NAS BRTEN CING BRAL BYUNG LUG THUNG DANG LUG MI THUN LA RTOG PA BYED We have to memorize it in the monastery.

I forgot it, but it's almost there. DE NAS ZEN GYI RNAMS KYING PAS MTHING NGAN ZIN LA MYONG ZHUGS NAS means first go into the lion's dance, the meditation of the lion's dance.

[Speaker 2]
That's the first two lines.

[Speaker 1]
Next two lines is, then you will see the wheel. Spin and stop. So Kedrup Je splits it into two parts.

MYONG ZHUGS and RJES RTOGS MYONG ZHUGS and RJES RTOGS MYONG ZHUGS means you're still in meditation.

[Speaker 2]
MYONG ZHUGS means you're still in meditation.

[Speaker 1]
RJES RTOGS means you just came out.

[Speaker 2]
During the time that you just came out, you see the wheel. Spin and stop.

[Speaker 1]
During the first two lines, we'll talk about it. But generally, you can think that the wheel part happens after the meditation.

[Speaker 2]
Then the lion's dance happens during the meditation.

[Speaker 1]
Now, which meditation are we talking about? Just stay with me, okay? We have five more minutes.

Then we have to take a photo. DANG PO NI RDO LAS Okay, let's talk about the lion's dance. DE RNAMS THAR BYED DANG MYONG ZHUGS DGOS PO DE DAG RNAMS PAR BYED ZHING Sutra spoken by Lord Buddha.

It divides... This one, okay, watch. Eight steps, okay?

[Speaker 2]
So, divide the meditation to get to the direct perception of emptiness in eight steps. Those eight levels of meditation are called the eight freedoms.

[Speaker 1]
Eight freedoms. They are not freedom. They're just called eight freedoms.

[Speaker 2]
And there's a ninth state above them.

[Speaker 1]
So, now we're describing in great detail, which only a Buddha can do, what's happening in about one minute as you go into the perception of emptiness. It's like this, and then he's going to spend ten pages on it.

[Speaker 2]
So, Lord Buddha said, you want to know what's the lion's dance?

[Speaker 1]
It's eight freedoms.

[Speaker 2]
And what are the eight freedoms?

[Speaker 1]
And a total of nine meditation levels.

[Speaker 2]
Then he says, the second part, after you come out, who described that?

[Speaker 1]
Buddha did.

[Speaker 2]
BUDDHA did. BUDDHA did that description. BUDDHA did that description.

[Speaker 1]
RTEN CING BRAL BAR BYUNG BA YAN LA BCU GNYIS LUGS DANG THUN PA DANG LUGS DANG MI THUN PA LA SO SOR RTOG PAR BYED All of you guys, you should study this wheel.

[Speaker 2]
How do the twelve links trigger each one and the next one? And how do you reverse the whole process of the wheel of suffering because of the detonation of these turns? How do you reverse the car?

[Speaker 1]
,GAL PA LA YANG SNGAR LTAR GNYIS LAS, ,DANG PO NI MTHONG BA'I LAM THOB PA'I NYAMS SBYOR PA DE, ,NAM THAG BSKYED DANG MYONG CHUB DGU'I RANG BZHIN GYI, ,TING NGE BRDZIN SREG GI RNAM PAR RGYUN PA, ,BLA MYONG BAR ZHUG NAS, ,DE LA BLANGS TE BYAS THOB LA SBYUG GO, Then there's a famous commentary by Haribhadra. It says, the yogi who sees emptiness directly, they go through eight freedoms. They go through nine levels of meditation.

And that's called the dance of the lion. Then they come out and they go into what we call the aftermath, the after period. ,JI CHE'I RTING NGE BRDZIN SREG GI RNAM PAR RGYUN PA, ,ZHES BYA BA BZHIN NA, Why do they call this the lion's dance?

A lion and those big daddy rattlesnake, there's nothing around them that can scare them. When doubts about the Dharma come to them, when people try to give them the next hot book on psychology, and when the pen says, I'm coming from my side, I'm coming from my side.

[Speaker 2]
They're like, Okay, got it?

[Speaker 1]
That's what the lion, it means that. You think I'm going to believe you anymore? Okay, got it?

Really, that's what the text says. It says, use the middle finger, right here.

[Speaker 2]
And, and, they're not scared looking ahead at the future, the obstacles they still have to work through to become a Buddha. Why?

[Speaker 1]
They had a taste of it. They saw time and space contract at the yogi's wheel. They know it's possible to see every living creature in the universe in five minutes.

They understand. They cannot do it any time they want to, because if they could, they would already be a Buddha.

[Speaker 2]
But they had a taste of it. And they know it's possible.

[Speaker 1]
So they're not afraid of the rest of the journey. Hey, is 500 years of meditating and working going to be too hard for you? No, okay?

That's called the lion dance, okay?

[Speaker 2]
Who said that?

[Speaker 1]
Kedrup Je. He says that's why Buddha called it the lion's dance.

[Speaker 2]
And when they came to the Buddha, when they come out, they see the wheel.

[Speaker 1]
Nobody teaches them the wheel, they see it. Because they're not in it anymore.

[Speaker 2]
Got it?

[Speaker 1]
Okay. I mean, they're still stuck for a little while, but they're on the outside now. They can kind of see it.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, we'll continue tonight.