«Дар освобождения», курс 26 «Реальность кармы», занятие 19

[Speaker 3]
Okay, good morning.

[Speaker 1]
I'm sorry I'm late. The yoga teacher was very slow. You ready to dance?

Okay, so we're going to go up through the ... it's really nine, right? Then when we get to pass the fourth formless realm, we'll go to the lamas.

Okay? The emptiness of the lama. The emptiness of the lama is interesting.

Because the lama is supposed to teach you something you don't know, but you are creating that lama. It's funny, right? So you are creating someone to teach you something you don't know.

And that's the emptiness of a lama.

[Speaker 2]
This is the emptiness of the lama.

[Speaker 1]
They are coming from you. How can it be that a lama which you are creating teach you something more than you know? How can it be?

[Speaker 2]
How can it be that a lama which you are creating teach you something you don't know?

[Speaker 1]
Wait, somebody got close. Yeah, second law of karma. Who said?

Tim?

[Speaker 2]
Okay, second law of karma.

[Speaker 1]
Right? In the same way that you can make a lot of money by helping someone else make a little money, in the same way that you can help someone make a lot of money by helping them make a little money, then you can create a lama who can teach you something you don't know. Okay?

And that's the emptiness of a lama. So emptiness of lama doesn't mean lama's head is empty or something. Maybe it is, but...

[Speaker 2]
I don't understand the reference.

[Speaker 1]
Oh yeah. Can we record this lion's dance today and then make it available on the ACI website?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, okay. You can pick it up and take it all, and we're going to record it, and we're going to put it on the website because this magnetic field disturbs the subtle meditation.

[Speaker 1]
So I would try to make two independent recordings, right? Because the demons will break one of them. Okay, okay.

Okay, so we're going to go to that last step ten, right? Emptiness Meditation. We could do the emptiness of your partner who yelled at you last night, but the emptiness of your teacher is a big karma teaching.

And we're going to use the emptiness of the teacher to review what we learned about karma. You see? So when we get to the emptiness of the teacher, why we chose the teacher?

Because I want you to go back in your lifetimes and continue this movie, okay? So within a month, it should ... after a month of WeChat, WeChat?

What's up? After a month of What's Up, this movie about your past life should be like a Japanese epic, you know, four-hour movie. Okay?

So what we do today, I want you to keep doing. And part of seeing emptiness is to see why were you born here? What caused you to be born here?

You know, what caused you to meet your teacher? That's a meditation on the Wheel of Life. Okay, so traditionally the Wheel of Life is the subject after you do the Dance of the Lion, okay?

So really we're going to do Dance of the Lion. Then we're going to do Emptiness of the Lama. And part of the emptiness of the Lama is where did they come from?

What was the seed? Okay? Then we'll come back to the Lama's face, because it's good luck to stop at the Lama.

All the books repeat over and over again that when you meditate on your Lama's face, focus on the eyes, and that the eyes are loving you. That the Lama loves you. Somebody should open the door quickly.

Three important things coming in. One student and two cappuccinos. Okay, so we're going to do it ...

oh, it's for me. Oh, Instant Karma. I thought it was for somebody else.

Okay, so we're going to end it on the loving eyes of the teacher, right? Then don't forget at the end of the meditation, three long exhales. Don't start moving when I say three long exhales.

Don't start doing your stretch. You still have some job to do. You are doing three long exhales.

Imagine like a golden light, okay? If you want to be a big yogi, you can do it out of here instead of out of here. These are kind of dirty, but this is kind of cool here.

[Speaker 2]
If you want to be a big yogi, you can do it out of here instead of out of here.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, the air comes out of here, but you imagine it's coming out of here. Okay, and so please don't move before we do the three breaths of dedication, okay? Okay, and then those of you who want more, I'll talk about it after the meditation.

There's more steps you can do. Okay, all right, let's go. You ready?

So, a little bit of a smile, and try to keep it during the meditation. Just it's a Mona Lisa smile. And the eyelids are relaxed.

Try to relax. Don't get too serious about your yoga, and don't get too serious about your meditation. Try not to be tense.

Try not to try too hard. It's a beautiful day. We have a beautiful lake, Chalapa, outside.

We are sitting with beautiful friends. We had a good yoga, and I had a good cappuccino. Everything's relaxed.

Relax your fingers. Pull in your stomach slightly. That will straighten your lower spine.

Relax your forehead like a baby's forehead. And slowly come to your breath. And start to follow your breath.

Gently and happily focus on your breath, and try not to think about too many other things. Long exhales. Then we'll go to a desire-realm state of mind.

You can focus your mind on, for example, on some outer noise in the room. In this room today, we have a pretty loud echo.

[Speaker 2]
We have an air conditioner.

[Speaker 1]
We have bird noises outside. We have some hotel staff doing things outside, making some noise. Sometimes a person inside the room coughs or makes some noise.

For me, the air conditioner is strongest. And focus on this desire-realm state of mind. Every step up through the form and formless realm levels is an exercise in comparison.

We focus on the level that we're at right now. For example, the air conditioner in the desire-realm. And then we compare it to the next level deeper into the object.

And the next object we're going to choose is the first level of the form realm. It's actually the state of mind which creates a form realm birth if you die in that state of mind, or having practiced that state of mind a lot.

[Speaker 2]
If you die in that state of mind, you reincarnate in the form realm, or if you practiced it for a long time and you only stayed at that level.

[Speaker 1]
And we're going to make the comparison by using our heartbeat. So please move your attention from the air conditioner to the heartbeat inside your chest. And naturally you will have a feeling that it's much quieter to follow the heartbeat than to follow the air conditioner.

The rough awareness of your mind noticing things which in Sanskrit is called vittarka. That's focusing now on the air conditioner. And then the part of your mind that wants to go deeper, vichara, will go to the heartbeat.

It's like hearing a song on the loudspeaker at the grocery store. That's vittarka.

[Speaker 2]
And then if you pause and stand without moving in the grocery store to listen to some detail of the song, that's vichara.

[Speaker 1]
That's more like digging into the object, going deeper into the object, examining the object. So classically in this movement from the desire realm to the form realm, your rough awareness, rough noticing, is looking at the air conditioner.

[Speaker 2]
Your general consciousness is focused on the air conditioner.

[Speaker 1]
And then your examination, looking deeper, that's looking into the form realm and seeing the quiet beating of your heart in your chest. So slowly now, let's focus on the air conditioner, and then look ahead into the form realm at the heart, and move into observing the heartbeat.

[Speaker 2]
So move your attention from the air conditioner to the heartbeat, and stay observing it.

[Speaker 1]
You are outside the heart. You are watching the heartbeat. The transition will take a few minutes.

Each step up in this meditation requires a gaccha of meditation. You will leave something behind because it's not as quiet as the place you want to go. And the process of leaving behind what is not so quiet to go to a more quiet place will take a few minutes.

So let's make that transition to a more quiet place this time. The beating of your heart. Notice that the concentration on your heartbeat has a nice effect on your body.

The prana is moving nice, and you feel some kind of nice alignment in your meditation, in your posture.

[Speaker 2]
The beating of your heart is generating an alignment and an energetic movement throughout your body, which gives you a lot of pleasure.

[Speaker 1]
There's a feeling almost of pleasant relief that you are in a more quiet place called your heartbeat. You are watching the heartbeat, and it's more quiet and pleasant. It's a pleasant relief to go to a quieter place.

Now we'll move from the first form realm level meditation to the second. The two mental functions of vittarka and vichara noticing the heart beating and focusing more deeply on the heart beating as an observer. As we enter the second realm level, those two qualities of the mind will drop out completely, and there'll be a sensation of not watching the heartbeat, but staying in the heart and beating.

[Speaker 2]
Try to make this second transition.

[Speaker 1]
Drop the rougher states of mind, noticing, checking. And drill down deeper into the object. Become the beating of the heart.

There's still an awareness of the pleasant alignment of the body. Especially if you've been doing your yoga practice every day. And there's this pleasant sensation, because it's more quiet to be the heartbeat than it is to watch the heartbeat.

Now we'll move to the third form realm. The big difference here is that the pleasant feeling of the mind, the pleasant feeling of the quiet, that becomes an obstacle. And you drill down deeper into the object.

Now you're not thinking about, oh, it's so nice, it's so quiet. You just be quiet without thinking, oh, it's so nice. A deeper kind of quiet.

[Speaker 2]
At this level, the two meditation tools of the mind are well-developed, strong.

[Speaker 1]
Your smoke alarm, sheshin, your smoke alarm is very subtle.

[Speaker 2]
Sensitive now.

[Speaker 1]
If the mind tries to go back to the air conditioner, or even if it tries to watch the heartbeat instead of being the heartbeat, or even if it says to yourself, this is nice, this is so quiet, then that smoke alarm will make a small beep, beep, beep in your mind. Oh, my mind has gone back to the air conditioner.

[Speaker 2]
Then there's another meditation tool in your mind. It's like a hook and a rope.

[Speaker 1]
It hooks the mind that's looking at the air conditioner, and it pulls it back into the super quiet heartbeat, being the heartbeat. So now we are the heartbeat, and we've gone deeper in the third form realm level. Deeper than thinking, oh, this is really nice and quiet.

[Speaker 2]
Mucho más profundo que el pensamiento de sentir, oh, esto es deliciosamente silencioso.

[Speaker 1]
We went to an even more quiet place. Now let's move to the fourth form realm level. The pleasant alignment of the body, especially if you've been doing yoga regularly, drops out.

It's a distraction in the fourth form realm level to be aware of how good it feels to have a good alignment in your posture, your meditation posture. Cancel that. Each time we move up, we cancel something.

In the fourth form realm level, focus on deep meditation.

[Speaker 2]
Deep quiet.

[Speaker 1]
Go beyond pleasant mental feeling and a pleasant physical feeling, and make a special effort to feel as though you're focused on a single point. Find a single point of ... a feeling or a sensation of single-pointedness beyond physical or emotional feelings.

We'll stay here for a few minutes. Still inside the beating heart. Now we'll move to the first formless realm level, which is called nam khar taye, or endless space.

[Speaker 2]
nam khar taye, infinite space.

[Speaker 1]
Simply take that single point. Stay on the single point. Drop the beating heart.

Leave the beating heart behind. Only the single point now. Way beyond noticing and checking, and way beyond the pleasant feeling of your posture, and the pleasant feeling of the quiet.

The body now is as though it was anesthetized. We're in one single point moving into the formless realm. Now think about space that holds our planet, our sun, our stars, and begin to stretch out from that single point Extend the focus to all of space.

Start like a wave coming from a single point. It's easier for me if I stay in the horizontal plane. And it's easier for me if I just think of going left and right.

As you get more experience in the meditation, you can increase that to front and back. And up and down.

[Speaker 2]
So imagine your mind flowing away from you in either direction from that single point, continually expanding for the next few minutes in all of space.

[Speaker 1]
No awareness of your physical environment or body anymore. Now we'll move to the second formless realm. We always leave something behind to drill down deeper.

In the first formless realm level, we were imagining the mind moving from a single point to all of endless space. So like a boat on an ocean, we were using the ocean to chart our position. But that's also a distraction.

So in the second formless realm level, we drop this imagination of endless space. We drop the places where we can measure where we are. And we move into pure consciousness, pure awareness.

No more points of reference. We are meditating inside of an endless awareness. Even thinking about endless awareness takes some kind of effort.

It reduces our concentration. Let's move to the third formless realm meditation. What will we drop?

Drop this perception of infinite awareness, and move into the third formless realm where you are no longer holding anything. It's just nothing.

[Speaker 2]
No holder.

[Speaker 1]
No holding. Nothing to hold on to. Drop the infinite awareness.

Now we move to the fourth formless realm level. It takes some effort to think, I'm not holding on to anything and no one's holding. Let's go to a deeper, the deepest kind of quiet.

[Speaker 2]
The effort to hold on to nothing.

[Speaker 1]
It feels like some kind of darkness, and all the levels before that felt like some kind of distracting effort. So in the fourth formless realm level, I choose not to choose. I will not think about any particular object, like infinite awareness.

And I also choose not to think about holding on to nothing. Beyond all choice, I choose a deeper kind of nothing. Now that my mind is in a nice space, I will start the real meditation.

I will place in front of my mind a holy object. A teacher, and the emptiness of that teacher. Those nine states of mind before, starting with the air conditioner, going to the four form realm levels, going to the four formless realm levels, those were exercises in sharpening my ability to meditate.

They feel good. It feels like real meditation. I found spaces in my meditation that I never reached before.

But I understand those are only instruments. They are not the goal. It's like building a powerful microscope.

The point is not the microscope. The point is what I put under the microscope after I build it. So I realize those eight states of mind are very attractive.

[Speaker 2]
They're almost addicting like a donut.

[Speaker 1]
Churro. But I know to help myself and others, I need to focus that microscope on something holy. So I choose my heart teacher.

Any teacher in your life who has helped you a lot. Your mother and father are very powerful and holy teachers for each one of us. And then all your school teachers, all the teachers who taught you your occupation, and spiritual teachers or priests, choose one and bring them to meditate with you in front of your mind.

Choose one. Make them real. This is not meditating on a photograph or a painting or a statue.

We are focusing on a real person.

[Speaker 2]
Make it real.

[Speaker 1]
Their chest is moving with the breath. Their eyes are blinking. Their face has a smile.

There's the fragrance of a good person coming from their body. Even this teacher has emptiness. What is the emptiness of this teacher?

There's no teacher in my life who came into my life without a karmic seed. Right now, the teacher sitting in front of me is coming out of a karmic seed in my own mind.

[Speaker 2]
Beautiful silver karmic seeds in my own mind are opening.

[Speaker 1]
Small images of this lama are coming out, one after another, and they present themselves to my mind. And that's what it is to meditate on my lama.

[Speaker 2]
So for just one minute, try to imagine a silver seed in the back of your mind.

[Speaker 1]
Try to imagine the seed opening, and try to imagine the lama coming out. It's a picture, but it's a perfect picture.

[Speaker 2]
It's a real lama, and it can teach me to become a Buddha.

[Speaker 1]
Try to imagine the silver seed, and try to imagine the lama coming out. As long as I have these seeds, I will have a lama. As long as I have these seeds, I will have a lama who put this seed in my mind.

[Speaker 2]
I did.

[Speaker 1]
Mainly, when was it? In my past life. Do you remember planting this seed?

Probably not. Is the memory somewhere in your mind? Yes.

So let's pretend we remember. Think about your lama. Think about the laws of karma.

Law number one. All the forces that created the kind of lama I have must have been the same kind of thing that I did in the past.

[Speaker 2]
Second law of karma.

[Speaker 1]
I've known my lama for, oh, four years, five years, ten years. But the karmic cause, maybe it was only a few days. Maybe it was a very special hour spent with them in my past life.

Maybe they were a completely different person. Maybe a male was a female. Maybe an American was a Saudi Arabian.

[Speaker 2]
Maybe I was a different person.

[Speaker 1]
Maybe I was male or female. I lived in another country. Maybe the seed was planted thousands of years ago.

So now, even if we cannot remember planting the seed for our lama, let's pretend we remember. Let's imagine. Let your imagination go very, very free.

Create a movie. Excitement. Adventure.

Romance. Make a beautiful story of your past life. Whatever comes into your mind.

Because whatever comes into your mind is coming from the same seeds that created your lama. And if you keep doing this meditation, you will be able to look backwards in the wheel of life. And you will see the actual events that have planted your life now.

Okay, five minutes on your personal movie. Every day for our 30 day meditation challenge. You can make it more grand.

You can add more detail. Five minutes on the meeting between you and your lama in your past life that planted that silver seed in your mind. Then please come back to the present moment in your meditation.

If my lama is coming from those seeds, then my lama has emptiness. Because emptiness means there's no lama in my life which I did not create. Now come back to your breath.

Three long breaths.

[Speaker 2]
With each exhale, a golden light coming from you and spreading to the people of this world, sharing your good karma of this meditation with each living being.

[Speaker 1]
Then you can slowly open your eyes. And take a stretch. That's called the Dance of the Lion.

It was taught by the future Buddha, Maitreya, to Asanga 1,700 years ago. And bodhisattvas use it after they see emptiness directly, in the minutes after they see emptiness directly, to understand more about emptiness and the Wheel of Life. Okay, don't forget you ...

I think most people made a commitment for 30 days. It's July 19th. So until August 19th, every day, daily, you don't have to spend as long as I spent.

[Speaker 2]
I was just trying to make a good recording for you.

[Speaker 1]
During these next 30 days, when you have time, you can follow the recording. And then, what's fun for me, I try to guess what the Lama's going to say next. And then later you don't need the recording.

And once in a while you can use the recording just to check, did I do it correctly or not?

[Speaker 2]
And once in a while you can use it to check if you did it right.

[Speaker 1]
Generally, the heart chakra is a very sensitive place to meditate. And it's possible you will start to get what we call lung, or tightness in the chest. Chest gets tight.

Hands are shaking a little bit.

[Speaker 2]
Hard to breathe deeply. If you feel these symptoms, there's a very simple correction.

[Speaker 1]
Move the meditation to your navel.

[Speaker 2]
Navel is that little hole here.

[Speaker 1]
The navel chakra is not in the hole. Navel chakra is an abbreviation. The full name, the chakra which is one centimeter in front of the spine, at the level of the chakra, of the navel.

[Speaker 2]
The chakra which is one centimeter at the back of the spine, in front of your spine, one centimeter at the level of the navel, but at the back.

[Speaker 1]
You can go to your friend like Alejandro. You can put your finger in your navel. And your friend will check the level.

And they can press on your back. And they can say, that's where your navel chakra is. Is it centimeter?

Like ten millimeters, right?

[Speaker 2]
In front of the spine.

[Speaker 1]
That's navel chakra. So if you start to feel tightness in your chest, or your breathing is you can take a big sneeze, or you can move to your navel chakra. Then somebody asked me, Geshe-la, there's nothing beating down there.

Still you can imagine some beating there.

[Speaker 2]
Don't go too low.

[Speaker 1]
If you go a little bit lower, you will start to have sex dreams. If you go lower, you will have constipation. Really.

So if you feel one of those two problems, move up a little bit. Seriously, okay? We have a few ...

We have about four minutes for any questions. No questions. Yay!

Aw, shucks. Up to you guys. Up to Alexei.

You choose. You choose, then people don't get upset at me. Thank you.

Microphone. No. Oh, okay.

[Speaker 2]
Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your extraordinary teachings.

When we were looking at the Wheel of Life in the 11th link, when you're about to die, and you choose a karma, or a karma chooses you, you haven't told us how to choose a good karma at that moment. You told us what were the dominating karmas, but know how to choose one.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, good. You have to do mafia. When I was in Colombia, they asked me, I don't know why, but the local organizer said, you're going to be on national television.

The whole country will see you.

[Speaker 2]
Then I was excited. I said, okay.

[Speaker 1]
Then they said, you have the honor of picking the lottery number tonight. Put on your robes, and you'll be famous for about 30 seconds. Then, I got there, they rolled the thing, and they said, okay, reach in, take a number.

Then I said, that reminds me of a pen. I taught the pen for 45 seconds until they cut me. But those mafia guys, they will say, my ticket says number 699.

Then they will arrange that every ball in the basket has a 699. So, you have to be Dharma mafia. And fill up that bowl with good seeds.

So, whatever has been your lifetime habits, those will be in the bowl.

[Speaker 2]
Traditionally, they say the later part of your life is a better time to fill up the bowl.

[Speaker 1]
So, for me, for example, I'm 64. The Germans, I think, they wanted to make me happy on my birthday, and they did a video singing, when I'm 64. Was it, or Ukraine?

Ukraine, I'm sorry. But it was just depressing, okay? Because I heard that song when I'm 16.

Anyway, at my time in my life, this is the time to fill the bowl. So, the things you do in your golden years, terrible golden years, those are more likely to be chosen. So, make the latter part of your life more beautiful.

Okay, one more question. Thank you for the retreat and all the teachings, Geshe-la. When you were teaching the ten non-virtues, this time when you taught sexual purity, when you were teaching the ten main bad seeds, specifically sexual purity, when you said if you sleep with a married person and you know it, it's very bad karma.

And then you said if you don't know it, it's still a bad karma, but not as bad. And I'm just wondering that if you never find out, how is it that it's still a bad karma? Is it some kind of super subconscious aura that they have?

The way I like to answer this question, it's true that seeing yourself do something, hearing yourself do something, is what places the impression on the mind. And I like to call it walking across the grass. So, all of us were at the fire offering.

To get to the fire offering, we had to walk across this grass. Everybody. And if I ask you, did you kill any small creatures walking across the grass?

You can answer honestly, Geshe-la, you know, I don't know. I didn't like purposely step hard or something. Or driving here from Guadalajara, did you kill any small creatures?

[Speaker 2]
Insects.

[Speaker 1]
Geshe-la, I don't know, but probably. So, there's a thing which I call peripheral awareness.

[Speaker 2]
Walking across the grass, if I ask you later, is there any chance you killed some animals?

[Speaker 1]
Then some part of your mind understands, yeah, probably I did. And anytime you have sex with someone you don't know very well, you don't know their history very well, there's a peripheral awareness. Is it possible they were married?

I don't know, maybe 3% possibility. I think it's that awareness that plants the karma. Later, if you find out they were married, it's almost a Tartug.

One last thing. I'm going to cover the sixth way that karmas get serious or not.

[Speaker 2]
We didn't cover it.

[Speaker 1]
It's going to take 10 minutes, okay? We're going to be a little bit after 12 o'clock, okay? If you have to catch a plane or something, don't worry, just go, okay?

Or you can stay and miss your plane and have another day at this beautiful lake, Chalapa. And we're going to play ... Andriana is going to sing you a song, a goodbye song, okay?

Okay, so first one was karma that's serious by its nature. Killing is more serious than stealing.

[Speaker 2]
Killing is more serious than stealing.

[Speaker 1]
Second was emotion makes it more strong.

[Speaker 2]
Adios, señorita.

[Speaker 1]
If you're very angry or very jealous, okay? Number three, how do you kill them? Do you torture them for ...

Do you teach them lam rim for 10 days and then kill them? No, no more. Kill me, kill me.

Number four, the karmic object is very high.

[Speaker 2]
For example, your parents are very, very high, okay?

[Speaker 1]
Number five, you do it constantly. Gossiping about Trump by itself is not as serious as killing somebody.

[Speaker 2]
But if you do it all day, it will build up to become pretty serious, okay?

[Speaker 1]
Now I'm going to quickly go through number six. This is also for the person who asked me about the dog. Somebody did a bad thing when they were very young.

[Speaker 2]
How do I remove this bad seed?

[Speaker 1]
Okay, number six.

[Speaker 2]
The sixth way that a karmic seed can be especially strong is if you don't try to fix it. It's when you don't try to fix it, or heal it, or heal it, or change it, or modify it.

[Speaker 1]
So, a person who makes no attempt to clean the karma, then that becomes a very serious seed. Now, so it's important that we talk about the four powers. Most of you know them, but this is how we can clean old bad karmas.

I'll just give you a review.

[Speaker 2]
If you heard this ten times already, play a game with yourself. Try to guess what the Lama is going to say next.

[Speaker 1]
I never missed a class by my Lama. Never. 25 years, except I was sent overseas for my work for like a week or something.

He taught the alphabet 30 times in his life, and I went to all those classes, and I sat in the back, and I tried to guess, what's he going to say next?

[Speaker 2]
Guess what he said after A? B!

[Speaker 1]
Okay, and I'm like, okay, next is C. In Tibetan, ka, ka, ka. Then I'm like, yeah, I got it!

Okay, four powers to stop old mistakes we make.

[Speaker 2]
Number one, just think about the pen. Okay, pen coming from me, from silver seeds in my mind.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, and if I leave that seed in my mind, I will have a problem. So automatically the mind goes to power number two. Intelligent regret.

[Speaker 2]
I'm sorry I planted that seed.

[Speaker 1]
That seed is doubling every 24 hours. I have to do something about it. There's no word in Tibetan or Sanskrit that I know which is, I feel guilty.

There's no room in Buddhism for I'm a bad person, or low self-esteem, okay?

[Speaker 2]
You're a warrior. You are doing lion dance every morning.

[Speaker 1]
Like, I'm going to smash you! I'm going to smash that bad seed.

[Speaker 2]
Bad seed, you know?

[Speaker 1]
Come on! Yeah, like, come on! Like Stanley singing, come on!

[Speaker 2]
Then third one, most important.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, so number two is a kind of confidence, okay?

[Speaker 2]
It's like, I'm going to kick the ass of this bad seed. Step number three, most important.

[Speaker 1]
If you don't remember all four, just remember number three. Make a commitment not to do it again. Again, that kills the power of the old one.

If it's a big one, like I was involved in an abortion when I was in college, then you can make a commitment, rest of my life I won't do that.

[Speaker 2]
If it's a small one, I got upset at my wife.

[Speaker 1]
Don't promise you will not get upset at your wife for the rest of your life, because you will make a new bad seed.

[Speaker 2]
So, in power number three, make a time limit.

[Speaker 1]
For three days, I won't say any upsetting word to my wife or husband. Then go away and do a three-day retreat by yourself. Don't take your cell phone.

Okay, power number four. Do something to balance the karma.

[Speaker 2]
Number three, power number three, it's a negative commitment.

[Speaker 1]
For three days, I will stay very, very conscious of what I say to my wife or my husband. And I won't say any criticism. And that will remove the power in the past when I had a fight with her, or something like that.

But number four is a positive commitment. I will do this good thing to balance the karma. So, in my case, the abortion, I asked my lama, what do you suggest?

Then he said, you start a children's dharma group. So, I started a dharma group for the children in our neighborhood. They are Buddhists.

They were Mongolian Buddhists. And for something serious like killing, I asked my lama, how long should I do it?

[Speaker 2]
He gave a typical Ken Rinpoche answer.

[Speaker 1]
Until the karma is finished. I'm like, well, how long is that? Then it's nice to know his answer to me, there are signs when the karma is finished.

[Speaker 2]
There are signs you can detect when a bad karma is finished.

[Speaker 1]
First sign, you will feel like someone who lost ten kilos. Recently, Anatole helped me to do a diet. I lost seven or eight kilos.

All of my jeans fit without struggle. I got all my old shirts out of the closet, they fit. This button here doesn't pop open.

Then I feel light.

[Speaker 2]
So that's the first sign.

[Speaker 1]
Subconsciously, you feel some relief. Then second sign, because of the laws of karma, you cannot destroy anything.

[Speaker 2]
You cannot destroy any seed.

[Speaker 1]
The purpose of the four powers is to cause the seed to open too early. I was planting sunflower seeds this year in my garden. Something weird happened.

It rained in Arizona. I left the package of seeds outside.

[Speaker 2]
All the seeds got wet.

[Speaker 1]
When I opened the package, they had opened and a small sprout came up, but because there's no soil or sun, they died immediately. That's what the four powers does to your old bad karmas.

[Speaker 2]
It makes them have a premature birth.

[Speaker 1]
Then some small bad thing will happen.

[Speaker 2]
You're supposed to get in a fatal car accident. You did the four powers.

[Speaker 1]
Then you will get a very unusual migraine for two days. Small, unusual disaster in your life. I don't know, you cook dinner for somebody and you carry out the tray and you drop it.

One lady I know, she was driving. You have a name for the big bochet? The Volkswagen van?

[Speaker 2]
Kombi. Kombi? Kombi.

Kombi.

[Speaker 1]
She has a kombi, Volkswagen kombi. She has a DVD player, and she was listening to me teach the four powers on the DVD. She was driving down the Pacific Coast Highway.

[Speaker 2]
In California. And she's doing the four powers while I'm teaching it. Then she got to this part.

[Speaker 1]
The electricity in the kombi caught on fire.

[Speaker 2]
She was so happy. I did it! I did it!

[Speaker 1]
She pulled over.

[Speaker 2]
Jumped out. The whole thing is burning. She's like, yay!

[Speaker 1]
Then she sent me an email. Send me a new DVD, the old one melted.

[Speaker 2]
Send me a new DVD, because the old one melted.

[Speaker 1]
Okay? So you should feel some kind of happy disaster.

[Speaker 2]
Last thing.

[Speaker 1]
When you get those two signs, my lama taught me about the abortion, for example.

[Speaker 2]
Understand something.

[Speaker 1]
Now you are clean. No more guilt. No more thinking about this baby I killed.

No more worry. You are clean. You can remember what happened, but don't live with it anymore.

Let it go.

[Speaker 2]
Don't live with it.

[Speaker 1]
Then it won't be in the bowl when the lottery comes. Okay? So very important, say, it's done.

[Speaker 2]
I'm clean.

[Speaker 1]
So in Buddhism, as very similar to Catholicism, it's a very good custom to do confession at the end of your life.

[Speaker 2]
So this custom of priests coming to give final rites, very, very good custom.

[Speaker 1]
Then my dad was dying. He had cancer.

[Speaker 2]
The cancer.

[Speaker 1]
Last few weeks he cannot eat. I'm just making orange juice for him and watching football, not soccer. I'm sorry.

He was never very religious, Christian or Buddhist. On the outside. Then I'm thinking, he won't accept to have a priest come.

So I did upaya. What's upaya? Dharma trick.

[Speaker 2]
Dharma trick.

[Speaker 1]
So we were watching a slow football game. Now I said, Dad, you remember you told me about World War II?

[Speaker 2]
And you said you killed many people. He said, yeah, yeah, I did.

[Speaker 1]
Then I said, would you do that again?

[Speaker 2]
And I said, could you tell me that again?

[Speaker 1]
No way, no way.

[Speaker 2]
I don't know what to do. No, no, no. No way.

I will never do it again. That's power number three. That's the one that kills the seed.

[Speaker 1]
Then I'm like, oh look, he's throwing the ball. Okay, got it?

[Speaker 2]
So if someone's dying, especially, try to help them clean their heart.

[Speaker 1]
After someone dies, so I was talking to someone in the group whose, their auntie is dying right now in the hospital.

[Speaker 2]
So after someone dies, during the bardo, they become a spirit.

[Speaker 1]
They can enter any room by going through the wall. They are attracted to the people they used to know. Many of them don't realize they're dead.

So they will come in your room, and they will talk to you, and you're ignoring them, and they get upset actually. And they have a special power to understand any language.

[Speaker 2]
So for seven weeks, 49 days, until the midnight of the 49th day, counting the day of death as number one, they can hear you.

[Speaker 1]
So sometimes sit in your room, by yourself, and just talk to them like you can see them. Remind them of all the good seeds you know they planted. Don't talk about all the bad seeds they planted.

Because at the end of 49 days, there's a second lottery.

[Speaker 2]
And you can help them get ready for the second lottery. So if your mother yelled at you for 36 years, don't talk about it.

[Speaker 1]
Just say, Mom, I remember that Christmas dinner you cooked was so amazing. Everybody was so happy. And I'm really grateful for giving me birth and other great things that you did.

[Speaker 2]
The first conversation you have with them feels weird, and you can't remember too many good things.

[Speaker 1]
And then every day you will remember more and more. Suddenly it will come. And so ...

Oh, last advice. Do it in your room. Don't sit in a park or something and talk to the air.

The police will come and take you. Okay. Andriana is going to sing you a goodbye song.