«Дар освобождения», курс 27 «Четыре цветка», занятие 2

[Speaker 1]
Turn the phone off. Okay, we're going to do the whole lion's dance. I mean the first part.

Here we go. Oh, I forgot, wrinkled papers now. Finished.

And this meditation is very convenient because you don't have to watch your breath. And just go straight to the air conditioner or any other noise that you want in the room. Could be refrigerator.

My refrigerator is very good for meditation. Could be traffic noise outside. Could be your kids making noise in their room.

So try to glue your mind to the air conditioner sound. Now, please switch to a more quiet place compared to the air conditioner sound. The sound of your heart beating is quiet, more quiet.

And in a large group it's difficult to actually hear your heartbeat in your ear, but you can feel it beating in your chest. So go from the more noticeable sound of the air conditioner to a quieter place, which is your heartbeat. Try to glue your mind to the beating of your heart.

Next we'll try to go to a more quiet place. There's some tension that comes from trying to observe the heart from the outside. You have to think about you, and you have to think about the heart.

So it would be more quiet if we could go inside the heart to a very quiet place, and just have the heart beating around us. We almost feel like we're beating ourselves, like the heart. So instead of watching the heart from above, which is what the first one feels like to me, go down and enter the chamber of the heart.

And feel yourself beating with the heart. And you are inside the heart. That's quieter, and it's less thinking than watching the heart.

So let's go there for 20 breaths if you have time. It would be more quiet if the heart were beating by itself. I wasn't there.

Just the heart beating, and I don't have any connection to it. It's just beating there by itself. No one's watching it, and I have no emotions about it.

It's just beating. I don't feel happy or sad. It's just neutral.

So see if you can go to a more quiet place where the heart is still beating, but no one's really watching it. Then it would be a more quiet place if I could leave the... even the beating of the heart.

And if I could leave any sense of my body, if I could put my... drop all the feelings of my body as if I were anesthetized, as if I were going to have an operation. And they gave me anesthesia, and my whole body became numb.

No feeling. No awareness of my body. And all my mental processes, all my mind, if it could enter a tiny space, no body, and the mind enters a tiny, tiny space, this is very helpful for focusing the mind.

So imagine a single grain of salt or sugar. One space the size of a single grain of sugar in the center of the darkness where your heart was. And it's a beautiful white color.

And inside there's a tiny chamber. And put your mind inside that chamber. Leave the body.

And put the mind inside a space that's only the size of a grain of sugar. Stay inside that tiny space, single-pointed ekagra. Now we expand the mind.

You can... well, let's do it this way. Imagine your mind on a horizontal plane, like the surface of a huge lake, infinite lake, no shores.

And the water is a silver color. And very, very calm. So instead of staying in a tiny space, you expand the mind horizontally, infinitely, and it helps if you imagine a ripple moving across the water, away from the center.

I like to drop a small pebble, maybe it's the grain of sugar, in the water. And then a ripple starts moving out left and right. And it keeps on going.

It just goes and goes and goes. So try not to lose the ripple. Try to keep your mind on it.

I find it helps if I make everything completely silent. If I lose the ripple, I find it helps if I imagine that... if I go back to my exhale of my breath, and it's helping to push the ripples out.

So let's drop a small pebble, and now watch the ripples go. Left and right, infinitely, on a horizontal plane, silent, and keep your mind on that tiny ripple. Expand the mind both left and right.

Now bring your mind back to the center of your mind. I like to picture it as black space, outer space, bring your mind to the center of the mind. And then it's as if there's a small light bulb there, and we're going to turn it on.

And then light will expand in all directions, like a ball of light will fly from the center of the mind. It's important the light is not white or yellow. It's clear light.

It's the light of your consciousness. So when I say go, from the center of the mind, dark, turn on the light, and let this beautiful, clear light expand in all directions, like a bomb or something. And this clear light quickly expands past our atmosphere, out to the sun, out to Mars, out to other planets, and it just keeps going.

So it's important. Don't stop. Follow the expansion of the mind infinitely.

I like to imagine that I'm sure there are people on other planets who are doing this meditation right now. I like to imagine my expanding sphere of light, clear light, is touching theirs, and on some level we are touching each other, helping each other. So turn on the light and follow the clear light out, and don't stop.

Keep expanding. It would be a more quiet place if we didn't think at all. Even this expanding, clear light, or the ripples on the lake, it would be more peaceful and more silent if we went to a place where the mind can shut down completely.

No thoughts, no awareness of the room, no light expanding line. Just shut the mind off. Turn it off like an electric switch on the wall.

Just turn off the mind. No objects, no thoughts, no meditation. Just turn it off.

So let's go to that more quiet place. And there's some effort required to not meditate. When thoughts come up, we have to try to push them out.

Memories, feelings, sounds. It takes some effort to turn the mind off and keep it off. Turning it off is not too hard.

Keeping it off is difficult. So there's a higher silence, a deeper silence. It's called, I choose not to choose.

If objects come in the mind, if my mind suddenly thinks about lunch, okay, just think about it. Generally, I will try to turn off my mind. So maybe you have a stretch of time when the mind is turned off, and then suddenly thoughts will come in the mind about what you have to do, and not just let them come.

Try to keep the mind turned off. But if something comes, just decide not to connect to it. Gently try to go back to no thoughts.

So just passive. Mind turned off if it will stay turned off. Peacefully.

But if not, thoughts can come and go. Deeper silence than trying to keep the mind turned off. Then please come back to your breath.

Don't open your eyes yet, and follow three long exhales. Then you can gently open your eyes. I like to take a stretch.

Nice, you were very quiet. Thank you for that. It's important when you meditate in a group that you try to stay very quiet.

I'm going to talk about the theory of that meditation, but if anybody has any questions about it first, we could do some questions about this meditation. If anybody's not sure of something, not clear, something not clear, you guys have a microphone. Thank you.

[Speaker 2]
I have a question, Geshe-la, about when we were in Mexico, for each step we were getting rid of the gākta.

[Speaker 1]
Good, yeah.

[Speaker 2]
And then when we go from the infinite space to infinite mind, are we trying to drop space and just have mind without location, and how do you recommend we do that?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, that's a good question. So there's an important idea in Buddhism called gākta. Gākta means what you want to cancel, or what you want to stop.

The most famous gākta is the one which emptiness is empty of, you see? So when we talk about emptiness, it means something's missing, and in that case, the gākta is something that doesn't exist, couldn't exist. But we, for many lifetimes, countless lifetimes, we thought it did exist.

So that's called gākta. But the word gākta can more generally refer to anything which you stop, anything which you cancel. Some of them do exist.

Like the habit of seeing things the wrong way is also a gākta, but that exists. That one exists. So what Aaron's talking about is, during these eight levels, okay, I'm not counting the air conditioner.

Yeah, it's not important enough. Okay, during these eight levels, we are pushing something out that's more noisy, and we are going to something more quiet. Okay, so between five and six, which we'll talk about, number five is called infinite space, nam kha thay, number six is called infinite consciousness, nam she thay.

Between those two, Aaron's saying, what do you cancel? What are you supposed to cancel? What's noisier than the expanding clear light?

That's a difficult one. I would say personally, when I do the expanding clear light, I still have a sense of outer space. You could say the ripple, maybe?

The ripple is more gross than the expanding clear light. So I would say the movement of the ripple is almost physical, and you try to... nam kha thay, level five, is still somehow tied to the physical because of this ripple and the idea of space.

And then when you go to infinite awareness, yeah, you're dropping location, and you're going to awareness, the expansion of awareness. So, cool? Okay, that's a good question, though.

Difficult question. Anybody else? I just want to have a chance to drink coffee, son.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Geshe-la. And when we drop the clear, how is that drop awareness different than just deep sleep? In which case, is my deep sleep that state of mind?

In which case, I can use my deep sleep for my path, which I would love to be able to do.

[Speaker 1]
You mean between six and seven, right? Like when you drop the mind altogether. Yeah.

During sleep, according to Buddhism, you still have some basic mental functions going on. But you're supposed to pretend at level seven that all mental function has stopped. So, of course, it's impossible.

There's no such thing. But you have to pretend that you are turning off the mind. And for me, it helps me if I imagine a light switch, and I'm like, okay, here we go.

I hope I can come back. You know, one, two, three, and I turn off the switch and then try to think about nothing. Because sleep is still a state of awareness.

It's more subtle, but it's still a state of awareness. I would compare sleep to number five, infinite space, or number six, infinite awareness. You see?

[Speaker 2]
But why do I want to turn off my switch also?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, great question. What's the benefit of turning off the mind, even if you could do it? We're going to talk about it right now.

Okay? One more question, then. We'll take more questions each session.

Okay, we'll try this each session. One more question.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Geshe-la. I have a technical question, which for years I've heard you say, listen to your heartbeat or feel your heartbeat. I can feel my pulse, but that's different than my heartbeat, and I can't hear it in my ears.

So what do you recommend for those who are not able to do that?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, cool. Good question. And I got this question a lot.

We started a group in Mexico. We try to meditate together every day on what's up, and then we started one in Germany, and we started one in Romania. And I got this question a lot.

So if you're alone in a room, and if you meditate, in my experience, around 30 or 45 minutes between the air conditioner and the heartbeat, just that one step. If you practice a lot, you can hear your heartbeat. But you have to be alone in a room which is quiet.

You have to turn off the air conditioner and the refrigerator and the kids. By the way, after that, you can, or somewhere around before after that, you can hear the air molecules hitting your eardrum. So that's a kind of quiet meditation.

If you have trouble hearing your heartbeat in your ear, for example, then the pulse is fine. The pulse is fine. In a group, I doubt that you could get to hearing your heartbeat in your ears.

I don't think it's possible. Or maybe if your concentration is really good. So any awareness of any kind of beating is fine.

Pulse, heartbeat. If there's no heartbeat, then probably you're dead. So try to...

But it's a very, very useful way to go into meditation from the air conditioner. And in this meditation, you're using the air conditioner instead of what? Yeah, instead of the ten breaths, okay?

Instead of following ten breaths to get the mind quiet, you go straight to the air conditioner. And it's very helpful, because then when the air conditioner comes back during the leg, you're like, oh, I know you. You're back there, forget it.

And you don't listen to it. Okay, so I want to talk about the theory of this meditation. Again, it was taught by Lord Buddha.

There are nine stages. We only finished eight. And they have their own names and their own functions.

So the air conditioner, which in Europe, we decided... in Berlin, I think we decided to call it ground floor zero. In America, first floor means the ground floor.

In Europe, first floor means the second floor. So we decided to call the air conditioner zero. So it doesn't count in the nine.

Okay, sometimes the lions dance. By the way, in Tibetan, it's SRENG RGYAS RNAMS RGYINGS PA And it was taught by Maitreya also. So it's very famous in the Abhisamaya Alankara, which is one of the five great books of Maitreya.

And in that text, DE NI SRENG RGYIS RNAMS RGYINGS PA'I THING NGE BRTZON LA MYONG ZHUGS NAS BSTAN CING BRAL BYUNG LUNG BYUNG DANG LUNG MI RDOG PAR RTOG PAR BYED This is used as a step to get to the meditation on the Wheel of Life. So the nine, the lion's dance, is a traditional way to enter a meditation on the Wheel of Life. And that's how Maitreya teaches it.

So Lord Buddha, Gautama, taught it three times, that we still have. And I'll check. I think it's the 100,000 verses, the 8,000 verses, and the 15,000 verses, or the 10, I'm not sure.

But he taught it three times. We still have it. You can still...

I put them all together. Maitreya doesn't explain it. He just says, do the lion's dance, and then go to the...

and then go on to the Wheel of Life. But a sangha does, who studied with Maitreya. So the air conditioner represents the desire realm.

Desire realm means where we live. Okay. If you are in this room, and if you are not in disguise, if you are not a deity in disguise, an angel in disguise, if you're a normal person, I'm the only one I'm sure about.

I'm a normal person. I don't know who else in this room is. But if you're a normal person, and you're in this room, then you're in the desire realm.

It means you were the stupidest kid in the class. And because you were stupid, they put you in the kindergarten, that you have to go back to children's school. This world is for stupid people.

There are many other worlds where they are not like us. They don't have wars. They don't have sickness.

They don't have crazy presidents. Those worlds are enlightened. What do you call it?

Work in progress. We are still in process. We are still trying.

So in this realm, the way you get to come to this realm is if in your past life you were mostly interested in physical things, like food, or music, or sex, things like that. You hurt people a lot. Your life was mixed up.

You did some good things. You did some good things and you did a lot of bad things. And then you are born in this realm.

You came to this realm. And to be honest, the best person in this realm and the worst person in this realm are very close to each other. Like Mother Teresa or somebody like that is about 98% messed up and we are 99% messed up.

You see, we are almost all the same. What we think is a nice person is a desire realm messed up person. A person who is a little bit less messed up.

So the air conditioner is physical, gross, noisy, outside thing. And we call that desire realm. The first of the eight meditations that we started, what was the focus?

What were we focusing on? Yeah, the heartbeat, okay. That's supposed to be moving from a more noisy thing to a more quiet thing.

There's two words for that. One is the shi rak gi nampa chen. Shi means peaceful.

Rak means rough. Nampa chen means what aspect does your mind take? You go from more peaceful, sorry, you go from more rough air conditioner sound to more subtle, which is the heartbeat sound.

So that process of going up through the eight levels is called, in the Abhidharma Stanley's text, it's called the shi rak gi nampa chen. Drop the noisier thing, go to the quieter thing, okay? Drop the noisier thing, go to the quieter thing.

And we do that, I guess, eight times, right? Moving from air conditioner to the heart, heart to the inside of the heart, inside of the heart, to the heart by itself, heart by itself to the grain of sugar, grain of sugar to the leg, leg to the expanding mind, to the blackout, to the, I don't care if I'm blackout or not. Okay, so those are called shi rak gi nampa chen.

And they are not meditation, okay? They are not meditation. They will not help you in your life, okay?

You will be more peaceful for a few hours, then somebody will say something to you and you will drop back to air conditioner where you started, okay? They are not meditation. They are just warm-up for the real meditation.

We didn't reach the myo meditation yet, okay? So I'll tell you once, I'll tell you a thousand times. Don't get stuck there.

Don't get stuck there, okay? People who play soccer, I heard a statistic. You know, Americans, we like American football.

The rest of the world likes soccer. We like more violent. Probably if you could shoot each other in the football, it would be good.

But you know, Europe, Asia, they're into soccer, okay? And I heard a statistic that soccer players are the healthiest people in the world because they're running the whole time. Like football players hit each other, then they rest.

Then they hit each other and they rest. But soccer players are running all the time. So they are light and they are strong.

You know, they are light and strong. Football players, they do this many, many years and their arms are like this and they're very heavy. They can't run as fast as a soccer player.

And they're less healthy. They die earlier. You know, they're more fat.

I was thinking, when I was thinking about it, those eight levels are like going to the gym to get stronger for soccer. Okay, so those eight levels are like exercising your mind. Oh, shrink your mind into a piece of sugar.

Now expand your mind to the whole universe. Now shrink it back again. And you are just stretching your soccer muscles, okay?

But if a soccer player stopped and just weight lift all day, then they will actually be a worse soccer player. They'll be too heavy. It will slow them down.

Okay, so these eight meditations are like that. They're supposed to make you strong and light. Then you go to level number nine and you're boom, boom, boom, you know.

Wow. Like you can make a goal in... We don't even know what's the name of that.

FIFA? What do you call the World Championship? World Cup.

Level nine is the World Cup, okay? Don't get stuck in the first eight levels. First eight levels are just exercise, okay?

It's not the goal. Okay, and if you stop there, if you stop there, you will die. You will die without reaching the goal.

And then where you go, we don't know. Animal or worse, okay? So it's dangerous to stop there.

It's a very bad idea. Okay, don't stop there. Go to level nine.

Go to the World Cup, okay? Don't spend your whole life stretching. Okay, if there's a World Cup for stretching, that's okay.

But it will actually slow you down if you stop there. You will go to a bad realm after you die. Where do you go?

First four are called form realm meditations. The second four are called formless realm meditations, okay? Those eight meditations are given their name from where do you go after you die if you do that meditation your whole life, okay?

The name, the names for the eight meditations are are named by where do you go after you die if you do that meditation your whole life, okay? So the first one, which was, what was the focus? Heartbeat, okay?

If you stay there, you know, stretching your legs while everyone else went to the World Cup, you are still stretching. Then after you die, you go to the first form realm level, okay? Why is it called form realm?

Well, this desire realm also has form. Form means anything you can, shin ching, right? Anything you can see, hear, smell, taste, or touch, we call form, okay?

So why do they call the form realm if the desire realm is also a form realm? It means the realm where form is most beautiful, okay? Super sexy form realm.

But the Buddha didn't want to say super sexy, okay? So when we say form realm, it just means people's bodies are extremely beautiful. And you know those, what do you call?

Superhero movies like Thor or I don't know, Wonder Woman, those are exactly form realm people, okay? That's exactly what a form realm person is, okay? They still die.

They still, Wonder Woman still had a lot of problems, right? She's not enlightened. She still has family problems with her mother and her mother died, right?

And people die there. People are very beautiful. People are very powerful.

That's why they're called form realm. It means superhero form realm. You have super cool body, you live in a beautiful place, and then you die, okay?

The karma it takes to keep the Wonder Woman body is very expensive. When it wears out and you die, you always go to hell, okay? It's like this, because you use up your debit card, you see?

And it's a it's an automatic way to go to hell, okay? If you go to the Wonder Woman realm, to live there is expensive. You use up, it's worse than Singapore.

Every minute you are losing money just walking around the form realm, you know, to have Wonder Woman's body is expensive. And then you use it up and then you always go to the hell realm. So actually, if someone was teaching somebody these eight meditations, they're actually, the Buddha said, you are pretty much sending them to the hell realm.

Okay? You teach somebody these eight, it's not just wrong, it's it's it's cruel, you see? You are sending, actually you are sending them to the hell realm, okay?

Now in my opinion, most meditations you ever hear, anywhere, in a yoga class or some meditation places, they're all these eight. All of them are one of these eight. You go to any, in my opinion, I haven't ever been to a yoga class where I heard anything else, okay?

You do one of these eight, it's actually dangerous for the person you're teaching, you see? And if you don't understand anything, it's okay. Just do it, but it's very dangerous.

If what I said is true, and it is, then you are hurting those people, okay? Very seriously. It's better they didn't meditate, you see?

So anyway, the first one, first form realm, the first four don't have any cool name. They're just called form realm number one, number two, number three, number... samten dambo, samten nyipa, samten sumpa, samten shipa.

Samten means concentration. So as a cause, as a meditation, the name of the first four is concentration level number one, concentration level number two, concentration level number three, concentration level number four. Those four, after you die, if you do them your whole life, you go to their four form realm levels.

Form realm level number one, form realm number two, three, and four. Okay, they don't have any cool name. They're just a little...

each one is a little more Wonder Woman than the last one. Okay. And they have divisions.

They have three or four divisions each, okay? And that's a long story. So I'm not going to...

Stanley can teach you when, after he reaches that third chapter of the Abhidharma. Okay. The next four have sexy names, okay?

And they're called formless realm meditations. Okay, why? Yeah, if you do them your whole life, you will be born into a formless realm.

What's a formless realm? You have no gross body. You have no body like this, okay?

You are only mental person, okay? A question for you Buddhist geeks, Buddhist geeks like Nick or Adam. What kind of bardo does a person have if they are headed for the formless realm?

Trick question. No bardo. No bardo.

Why? Purpose of bardo is to get to your new world. The purpose of the spirit between death and rebirth is to travel to your new place.

But when a person enters the formless realm, they just die and they enter it here at the same moment, because there's no place. There's no form. Okay?

So is it possible for a mental process to go on without prana underlying it? Not possible. So actually in the formless realm, you have a little bit of form.

It's the little form realm. You just have prana. You exist on prana, but you still have no bardo.

It's just there's a tiny bit of prana carrying the thoughts and you just enter it here. So actually you have a subtle body. You still have a subtle body.

By the way, there's no gross suffering in those realms. Nobody cuts themselves. Nobody's husband leaves them.

Okay, there's no gross suffering in those realms. So people mistake it for nirvana. People think, oh, that must be nirvana.

Okay, there's no gross suffering there. Who can tell me one of the reasons why there's no gross suffering there? By the way, I will give you a pee-pee break because I also had watermelon juice this morning.

Who can tell me why there's no suffering? What's one cool reason why you don't have much suffering in those realms? Of course, you suffer from dying.

Yeah, good. Yeah. During meditation, you don't have time or chance to lie or to steal or to cheat somebody.

You don't even have time to wish a famous movie star would have a car accident. You see, you don't have time during those, you know, you're focusing on the RIPPO or you're focusing on the on the heartbeat. You don't have time.

It's not possible to maintain focus on the heartbeat if you think a mean thought about somebody else. I wish you will fail. Then that will pop you out of meditation.

So if you stay in meditation, it means you didn't have mean thoughts. And obviously you didn't steal anything or you didn't kill anybody. So if you meditate a lot, you will go to the form or formless realm because you didn't have time to do all the bad things that all of other people are doing.

Because most of the bad deeds that we do are inside of here every moment. They're not the time you killed an animal or you lied to your mother or you stole money from your company. Those are just once in a while.

This one's going all the time. I don't like her. It's too hot in here.

Why is Geshe-la talk so much? Then when you're meditating, you're not making these karmas, you see? So you go to a better place temporarily.

Then you always go to hell realms. So these are dangerous, these eight meditations or anything like them. I believe you could take all the meditations that people are teaching in the world and you can find them in one of these eight.

Okay, I believe. So Geshe-la, what's number nine? In number nine, we're going to watch the karma seeds in our own mind.

We're going to watch the karma seeds in our own mind as they open and create something. We're going to watch the karma seeds in our mind open and create our world. Just pretending that we can see it.

When do you really see it? Yeah, Chod Chong, you're so hot today. Must have been the watermelon juice.

Yeah. Okay, at the top of the second of the five paths, you first see karma seeds opening, but in this meditation, in the lion's dance, you pretend. You can see the seeds opening and creating your world.

That meditation helps you. That meditation can kill death. kala danda in the yoga tradition, right?

What's kala danda? What's danda? Danda is a stick, right?

Like dandasana. Kala means time, which means death. So kala danda means take a stick to death.

Beat death to death. Yama antaka, put an end to death. Okay, so that meditation is the only one that's valuable.

And the part after it, where we see emptiness. Those two help you. So don't stop on the ladder.

Go to the roof. Okay, don't... It's like an elevator.

It's like living in an elevator. To do those eight meditations all the time is like... We were in Kiev, right?

There's this awesome breakfast restaurant. Me and Scott, we are not meditation masters, but we are breakfast masters. We like a good American breakfast.

Even when we're in Guangzhou, we will try to find one. In Kiev, it's on the ninth floor, this awesome breakfast place. So if you stay in the elevator, you will never have breakfast.

Understand? Don't stop at those eight meditations and don't... just practice them enough to get strong in the soccer.

Then go play the World Cup. Don't sit in the elevator when there's waffles outside on the ninth floor. Well Geshe-la, why are you teaching us these eight?

Because Buddha did. Buddha said use the eight to exercise your meditation mind and then get off at the ninth floor. So we'll do the ninth floor in the afternoon.

We'll start the ninth floor. If I feel you're doing pretty good, I'll teach you the second part of the lion's dance, which is after the nine. Okay, and there's five big parts to the lion's dance.

We only did the first part. All right, have a pee-pee break. Me too.

Please come back when they ring the bell. Okay, Chepa Gyutun, he's going to talk a little bit more about the second flower. Habit.

Yeah, okay. Habit. MA BYIN LEN GYIS TSAN DE So he...

you know, normally we think of flower number two as a habit for doing the same thing. The first time you lie to your parents, it's difficult. Second time it's easier.

Third time it becomes a habit. But he's going to talk about habit in your next life. So he's kind of mixing two of them.

SEMS DER YANG RGA ZHIGS PHYI BA CHUNG NGU NAS You can see the results of this flower in certain people. Even as children, they like to steal things. Little children, they enjoy stealing.

There's some children they walk up to you with some food and they try to feed you, right? They're very beautiful. It's very beautiful.

And then some children, even as young, very young, they start stealing things. So he says that's past life, flower number two. CHUNG NGU SKABS TSUN CES, he says, he gives the example of a needle.

They would steal a needle, even just a needle. KU BA DANG, PHYI BA DANG PHYI LA, PHYI BA means mouse. PHYI LA means cat.

They also have a habit of stealing things or taking things. Mice like to take things and like that. He says that's second of the ten bad deeds, second flower.

SKAD PA LTAR MA BYIN LEN LA RGA' ZHING SBYUG PA LTA BU STE, they enjoy stealing, they like stealing, they do it a lot. DE'I TSUN NAS GZHAN NAMS GO LA, GO LA means I don't have to explain the other eight bad deeds habit, now you understand. So what's the third one?

What's the third of the ten bad deeds? Yeah, not respecting other people's relationships. Then some people have that very young.

Very young, they are already doing that. It's a habit from their past life. They don't think it's wrong or they don't hesitate to hurt another person's relationship.

All right. So he says you can, the rest of them you can understand. SNABS SEMS NUS SEMS LOG LTA GSUM GYI BYAS PA RGYU DUS NA CHAGS DAM MONG GSUM PHAL BA'I YIN, What's the second flower for the last three of the ten bad deeds?

Yeah, then he says the three animals in the middle of the Wheel of Life. They're called rooster, snake, and pig, right? Rooster, snake, and pig.

Rooster, sometimes it's a pigeon because they like to have sex a lot. A lot of desire. And then snake is anger.

And then pig is ignorance. What's the connection? What's bad deed number eight?

Unhappy when other people get something. Then that's a kind of desire. Nine, happy when some other people fail.

And that's why all the newspapers exist in the United States, especially, you know, reporting people's failures. Okay. So that's a kind of anger.

Okay. That's a kind of hatred towards people. To be interested in how did this politician get in trouble or how did this actor divorce his wife or things like that.

And then MONGS, as we said yesterday, the habit of not understanding the pen is come from not understanding the pen. Okay. DANG BRAS, okay?

Say DANG BRAS. DANG BRAS means environmental result, okay? Environmental result.

Literally it means part of the bigger me. Part of the bigger me, okay? This temple is part of each one of us right now, okay?

In Abhidharma, there's a debate. You know, there's five skandhas, right? Five parts of a person.

The first one is SA BU'I KHONG KHONG BU'I SA Yeah, it's a physical world. So some people say it's just your body. Some people say, no, no, it's a temple also, okay?

That's part of you. Okay, so DANG BRAS, the third flower, the things you do affect your environment. The things you do affect the weather, they affect the country, they affect the traffic, okay?

They affect the buildings in your city, okay? Then he gives the environmental results for each of the ten, okay? Ready?

He already did killing. What was it? Things are more dangerous than what you do.

Say again? Yeah, yeah, violence in your city, your country. People just shoot people for no reason.

Okay, okay. Here we go. Stealing LON DRE'I MYUNG LA means crops don't...

From stealing there are problems with crops in your country. The weather is not good for crops. You have a lot of frost, global warming, okay?

Hail and drought. Things, weather problems, okay? From stealing.

That hurt the commerce of the country and the agriculture of the country, okay? GZHON NGO ZHONG NYON BA In Tibet milk was an important product because they couldn't grow much vegetables, for example. I think that's why I like Tibet.

Not much vegetables. But sometimes, for no reason, the cow will not give milk or the chicken will not give eggs and then that's caused by stealing, okay? That's environmental result.

Not respecting other people's relationships is the cause for pollution in your country, okay? I put that in the Diamond Cutter book many years ago. And that's the only part people want to talk about.

I don't know why, but it just seems strange to modern person that pollution should come from not respecting other people's relationships, okay? But think about it. Thumbs up GZHAN GZHAN means lots of dirty things in your country, like garbage in the streets.

There's countries I've been to where the sewer smell is everywhere. Oh, it's interesting. The one I'm thinking of has a big sex industry, you know?

The country I'm thinking of, and then when I go there, the whole city smells like a sewer. The sewer is always smelling, you know? Okay, that's a sexual misconduct, okay?

Okay. Lying from lying, then in your country, there's a lot of corruption. Honesty is not respected in your country.

Okay. Here's an interesting one. Divisive speech, okay?

If you try to split up other people who are friends, then in your country the what do you call it, topography, the land will be very not level. Okay, like here. We must have done a lot of divisive speech.

We had to learn to build these houses on the on the mountain. Nobody wanted this place because they say you cannot build any house here. And we we built them anyway.

So this kind of land uneven, okay? There was a retreat center in California. This is a famous story called Vajrapani Institute.

I used to teach there. Then they had big problems. They couldn't make a road to their retreat center and they had to have these special vehicles, you know?

And they asked me, what's the karma for this? Then I said, divisive speech. You are not supporting each other, you know?

Then they said, if we try hard, what will happen? I said, something will happen. You will get a road.

So they did it for six months. They tried very hard for six months. Nobody tried divisive speech, you know?

They all tried very hard to be careful. And then the county came to them and said, we are building a road to your retreat center. Pai bro.

You know, it was amazing. It's like a miracle, okay? Cool.

So maybe we have to do that this week. So next week something happens. I don't know.

Let's try. Okay. Okay.

So try not to say bad things. Try not to split up. Try to bring other people together.

Oh, you're from Guangzhou. You should meet this guy. He's from Berlin.

Very similar. Okay, let's try for one week. Maybe then I can squeeze somebody next week.

Okay. Speak harsh words, like you are stupid. SDONG SDUM DANG BRTZER MA means lots of cactus, lots of rocks, lots of like tree trunks laying around, you know, okay?

I give up on that one. There's a joke in logic school. Who made the cactus sharp?

Who made the peas round? There's some non-Buddhist school that says those are self-existent. Nobody made cactus sharp.

Nobody made peas round. But of course we did. Okay.

But let's do that one after the road, okay? Okay. Okay, idle talk, wasting people's time, blah blah.

Okay, wasting other people's time. Telling them another story about Mr. Trump. Which is what Americans do.

You know, we hired a person to do the publicity for a China Love You book. So me and Dr. Wu, we wrote a book about how China and the West can get along better. Then we hired someone to do the publicity.

And after like three months, she came back and she gave us the money back. And she said, impossible. Then we said, why?

And she said, Trump, people only want to talk about one thing. All the newspapers, all the magazines, everything, only one. I cannot get a single article about anything else.

Nobody wants to talk about it. You know, everyone wants to know about one thing. What stupid thing did he do today?

Okay. So wasting people's time like that means that crops and fruits, foods, they will not ripen on time. Okay?

So like shikwa, there's a time, it has to ripen now, right? I have chili plants in my house to make Mexican food, but some new flowers came out, you know, just last week. And I got excited, you know, I called Veronica.

Look, new flowers. She said, forget it. It's too late.

You know, they won't make a chili. They will die. It's too late, you see?

So when the timing is not correct and the thing dies before it opens, this is the result of wasting people's time. The timing question. Okay?

Timing is wrong. Okay? All right.

So either they won't ripen when they're supposed to or they will ripen too early or something like that. Okay? All right, number eight.

Somebody else got some success and you feel unhappy. PUN TSOGS THAMS CAD SBRDOD PA means all kinds of success in your life are blocked. Okay?

All kinds of success, financial success, personal success, relationships, health, mental peace, all of those things are blocked. Okay? Eight and nine are very, very, very common.

We all have them. Okay? It's like an addiction.

We all have it. Don't think you don't have it. Don't think it's somebody else.

Okay? We all have it. Okay?

If the person close to you wins a lottery or they get a beautiful partner or suddenly their business double, your immediate reaction is jealousy. Okay? I wish they would fail.

I wish they wouldn't get so successful. A little bit successful is okay, but very successful? You know, we all have that.

We all have that. Okay? And we have to be...

To stop an addiction, you have to know you have it. Okay? You have to admit you have it.

We all have this addiction. We don't like it when people next to us are too successful. Okay?

It makes us uncomfortable. Okay? Everybody.

All right. Number nine. What's number nine?

Very interested when other people have trouble. Okay? In America, there's often, there's a traffic jam because someone got a car accident.

And actually there's no obstruction on the road, but everybody's curious, you know? They will slow down and they'll, oh, did anybody get... is there any blood?

You can see any blood, you know? And they're just curious. They want to see did somebody die?

You know? And we all have this thing. We are interested about problems.

If you look at a newspaper or online, you look at the news, I don't know, 50%, 80% is about problems. Because they are interesting to people. Oh, 50 people got shot, you know?

There's a new war. Now there's a big disease, you know? You never see on the internet 100 people from 15 countries went to the desert to meditate together.

Wow! You never see, you know? There's no room in the newspaper for good news, you know?

We are only interested in the bad. We want to hear there's some problem or some scandal or some danger or... we are interested.

It's a human nature. So you have to see you have it. We have it.

Even Dharma students, you know, oh, did you hear? These two Dharma students got divorced. Really?

What happened? Okay. We all have that, okay?

Don't blame the newspapers. The newspapers are giving you what you want. If you don't want it, they will change.

If you ask for good news, if you don't buy newspaper with bad news, the bad news newspaper will put good news. Because they just want money. They are giving you what you want.

Okay. All right, last one. Resources.

Oh, I'm sorry. Infectious diseases and conflict in the world, okay? From being happy when others fail.

It's the environmental cause for conflict in the world, and diseases which are dangerous, which spread to many countries. Okay. The one before was all kinds of success in your life are blocked.

The government tries some new economic policy. It fails. You see what I mean?

Like that. Last one. Natural resources become rare.

Okay, oil, metals, forests, water becomes difficult. I think half the people in the world don't have good drinking water right now. Okay, and it will get worse.

He gives the example of drinking water and precious things that come out of the ground, like oil. Okay. DE LTAR MI DGE BA'I BDE BU RNAMS SBYUNG TSUL THOS ZHING ZHES KYANG LTA DUS MI DGE BCU LA ZHES BZHIN DU BYUNG NA MI NGAN YANG LA CHUNG BA RNAMS DRA If you hear about the results of the ten bad deeds and you still keep doing them, you are an idiot.

Like a person who drives off the cliff with their eyes open. Oh, look, I'm falling off the cliff. My car, I'm going to die.

So interesting. You see countries, I was in India and we used to farm, at the monastery we used to farm. I was a corn farmer for one day.

Then I quit. It's extremely difficult. We have ox and a plow and I almost died.

Then I said, I'm sorry you guys, I can't do this. It's interesting in that country, the crops don't grow well. The soil is not strong.

There's something wrong with the soil. And Pabongka Rinpoche says that's a result of these ten bad deeds. Scientists will say, oh, they didn't use nitrogen or like that.

We used to try to put nitrogen, we had a nitrogen in the soil project. We grew soybeans between the corn crop and it didn't work. It just didn't work.

The nitrogen didn't stay. So it's karma. He says don't try nitrogen, try karma.

It's karma. ,RGA BU SANGS PA SKABS SA ZHIG YANG ZHING PHUN TSUM TSOGS PA YOD KYANG RIM GYI SGRUB DE RNAMS SGROG DANG YANG SA LAS MED PAR BSTAN DANG RGYUR DRO BA'I SKABS YIN, There was a time on this earth when the whole earth was nice and smooth and level. And then because of people's bad deeds came all of these, like Sedona, you know, canyons and rocks and things like that.

He says in the beginning of this planet, the surface of the planet was nice and smooth and level. I don't like riding a bicycle where I live because you have to go up or down. There's no strength.

It's like kill you. It's no fun to go down because you know you have to come back. So, according to him the shape of our planet was created by karma.

And it didn't used to be like that. In the beginning, what Christian called the Adam and Eve's time, the world was nice and good for bicycles. Okay.

This brings us to our meditation. By the way, this morning class is very long. I'm sorry and I'm not sorry.

That's the way it is. But we'll do some question and answer in about half an hour. Okay, so just be uncomfortable.

Okay. If you have to pee-pee, just go. Okay, I don't mind.

In the monastery you get hit if you go pee-pee. Okay, meditation number four. Now we're going to talk about karma marga.

Okay, say karma. marga karma marga So there's a difference between a karma and a karma marga. There's a difference between karma and a path of karma.

Okay, path of karma. Path of karma means complete karma. Karma can be incomplete karma.

Okay, karma marga, path of karma, le kyi lam in Tibetan language, means a karma which is complete. In what way? Yeah, Mr. Abhidharma, all four steps are there. Now, this is an important moment in the 15 years of teaching this book. We are coming to the four steps which are the basis of all DCI teachings. Okay, this is where it comes from.

Okay, all DCI teaching comes from this half hour. Okay, in the 15 years of the book. Okay, so this is cool.

This is hysterical. You are here. I mean historical.

Okay, you are here. We reached the four steps. Okay.

Yay. All right. Okay.

And all of DCI is based on these four steps. Okay, all the DCI levels. Last year 25,000 people came to DCI.

Okay, and all they learn is this. Okay, so this is where it comes from. There's several presentations.

One is from Vasubandhu Lamrim and Abhidharma. Kosha. We're going to do the Lamrim presentation.

It's not exactly the same as the DCI, but you can see the DCI is here. Okay, here we go. NYID PA RGAR PO LAS DE BSAM PA LA NYID So let's talk about good karma.

Okay, it's depressing to talk about bad karma over and over. Let's talk about good karma. It's called RGAR PO, white karma.

SHUGS LA in Sanskrit. RGAR PO LAS LAM DNGOS DANG, DE DAG GIS BDE BA'I BSTAN PO Let's talk about what's a complete karma with the four steps. Okay, let's talk about the four steps.

BDAM PO NI MI RGYAL BAR CHU MA BYAS PA TZAM GYIS RGAR PO LAS LAM MI RDZOGS TE A good karma is not just not doing a bad karma. A good karma is not just not doing a bad karma. Like don't kill.

That's not a good karma yet. Okay, saving other people's life, including our animal brothers and sisters. That's a good karma.

RGAR PO LAS LAM BSAM PA LA, if you want to do a complete good karma, you have to know the ten bad deeds and then you have to reverse them. Okay. DE LA NYID MI SU GTAN NAS YANG DAG PAR SDOM PA'I SBYOR BA DANG, BDAM PA THAG TUG PA'I SPONG BA'I SEMS KYI RTEN NAS SBYOR DGOS You have to understand all the parts of a good karma, a complete good karma.

Four steps. DE YANG SOGS SPYOD PONG BA'I RGYAS BA LTA BUR So let's take the action of protecting life. Okay, let's take the action of protecting life.

First one. GZHI BSAM PA SBYOR BA THAG TUG. There it is.

Guadalajara. The Guadalajara team, they put this word on their t-shirt. GZHI BSAM PA SBYOR BA THAG TUG.

There it is. You were there when we reached it. GZHI BSAM PA SBYOR BA THAG TUG.

In Tibetan some letters are not pronounced. So G-Z-H-I is a GZHI and B-S-A-M is SAM. Okay, and I'm sorry, but B-Y is a J sound.

SBYOR BA. So don't get confused. Okay, say GZHI BSAM PA SBYOR BA THAG TUG.

Okay, four parts to a well-done karma and then it will ripen faster. Okay, you can actually use karma to design your life. Okay, you can decide what happens in 2018.

Okay, if you know GZHI BSAM PA SBYOR BA THAG TUG. And it's fun. Okay, it's really fun.

And don't think it's crazy. Okay, you decide what you want for 2018. Learn GZHI BSAM PA SBYOR BA THAG TUG and then do it.

And it's so comforting that you can make stuff happen. Okay, you're tired of financial problems? Okay, GZHI BSAM PA SBYOR BA THAG TUG.

You're tired of your husband causing you trouble or your wife causing you trouble? Okay, GZHI BSAM PA SBYOR BA THAG TUG. I can't meditate, Geshe-la.

GZHI BSAM PA SBYOR BA THAG TUG. Tim knows, he just went on a tour to all the countries where DCI goes and I tell people we have this new college, DCI Teacher Training College. You can come.

It's in Sedona. We have three times a year for two weeks and you can learn to be a DCI teacher. And we need you.

There are many countries asking us to go there. We don't have time. Many, many countries.

We are doing crazy things. We are... This last two weeks, last in Europe, we flew to Romania?

Bulgaria? We get up at three o'clock in the morning. We fly there.

We give a talk. We get on the plane. We fly to the next city and try to give a talk.

It's crazy. Everybody got sick. We need more teachers.

We really need more teachers. And our hope is after three years, we open some teacher training in other countries like in Asia and Europe. But first we have to learn what we are doing, how to do it.

Not yet. Give me two more years. Give us two more years.

We are talking about Singapore for example, and Muscvine. I don't know how serious they are. But I told the thousands of people in the last few months, if you really want to be a DCI teacher, I can teach you in one minute.

You don't have to come to Sedona. You can save so much money, airfare, tuition. I will teach you in one minute how to be a DCI teacher.

There's two steps. It's just two steps. Two things you have to know.

Then someone will ask you a question. Next year I want to make more money. I'm tired of fighting for money.

I'm tired of not having enough money. Or next year my goal is to fix my wife or to fix my husband. Like they should be more affectionate to me.

They should listen to me sometimes. That's my goal for 2018. How can I achieve my goal?

I want no financial problems and I want my husband and my wife to listen to me. Just sometimes. Okay, I'll give you the first step of DCI teacher training and the second step.

First step, try to look intelligent. Oh, more money. Husband listen to you.

Yeah, okay. Like that. Try to look intelligent.

Then you must look like you had a good idea. Oh, I got it. I got it.

Why? Then go like this. Four steps.

That's the second step. First look intelligent. And try to look like you are trying to decide what to say, but already you know what you're going to say.

You try the four steps. Somebody told me I should have a tape recorder in my pocket. You know, Geshe-la, I have a problem.

What? I go, click. Use the four steps.

ZHI, BSAM PA, SBYOR BA, DAG TU You know, but then people get angry. Okay. Four steps.

For everything. Fix everything. Okay, just try it.

Just try it. If you hear about it, and you don't try it, and you spend the rest of your life struggling for money, that's stupid. Okay, if you spend another year with your wife or husband unhappy, when you could have used ZHI, BSAM PA, SBYOR BA, DAG TU, that's just stupid.

Okay, at least try it. Try it for one thing. If it doesn't work, ask Tim for your money back.

Okay, right? I'll give him your email. Okay.

All right. But it's crazy. People hear about it, then they don't try it.

Then they come to me. I got to talk to you, Geshe-la. What?

I have a problem. What? I need more money.

Oh. I have an idea. What?

Try the four steps. Okay, don't waste Geshe-la's time. Okay, here we go.

He says, let's talk about you made a decision not to kill for food. Okay, you made a decision not to kill for food. Okay, you decide to be vegetarian.

You decide not to eat meat. Okay? 32 years ago, more actually, but anyway, my college friends and me, we were talking, and I said, I'm a vegetarian.

I'm going to be vegetarian. They said, no, no, Michael, you're going to get sick. You need protein.

I said, I don't know. Let me try. He said, no, no, don't do it.

You won't have protein. You will die. You'll get sick.

Then I'm like, well, just let me try for like six weeks or something. Be vegetarian, you know. So, I don't know.

It's been about 35, 40 years I've been vegetarian. Okay, they are all dead. They are all dead.

Really, they're all dead. Okay, they got cancer. They got a heart attack.

They got diabetes from eating meat. And I feel great, you know. I feel like I'm 30 or something.

Okay, so you don't need it. It's not true. It's a lie.

Okay, really, it's a lie. You don't need it. My brother was at my house.

He said, I want some steak. I said, okay, I'll get a cow. You know, I thought I'd bring the cow in my kitchen, but it's kind of a small kitchen.

Then I gave him a knife. I said, you kill it. I will cook it.

No problem. I will cook it, but you kill it. He's like, I'm not going to kill this thing.

I said, but you kill it every day. Okay, all right. So in DCI system, the first step is decide what you want, right?

In Lam Rim system, the first step is what's the thing? It means the animal you're not going to kill. What's the animal you're not going to kill?

Okay, what's the animal whose life you're going to protect? It's called the foundation, shi. Okay, like that.

It's like choosing the person in step two in DCI. Okay, samba. LUS GSOS PA NYID MED SU MTHONG NAS DE GZOD DUS MI RUNG SNYAM DU GSOS PA POR BA'I SDOD PA KUN LONG Then what's your motivation?

What do you want? Okay, so it's almost the reverse of DCI. Okay, second one is what do you want?

Second one is I want to protect a life instead of taking a life. Okay, my motivation is that I want to protect this life. I want to make this being happy.

I don't want to hurt this being. By the way, you want to go deeper? Okay, we're going to go to Abhidharma fourth chapter, okay?

In the Abhidharma fourth chapter, they divide this one into three. I already taught you in DCI, but here you can recognize it. How you're thinking during a karma has three different parts.

How you're thinking has three different parts. I'm going to give an example which I give in DCI. I like to give this example in DCI.

People say how can I speed it up? How can I make the karma faster? Your state of mind is very important.

In the lam rim, it's step number two. Your state of mind. There are three parts to your state of mind.

If you really want to get karma result quickly in 2018, you will do much better if you know these three. The more you know, the better your life will go. These classes are not just blah blah, okay?

The more information you have, the more successful your life will be. Keep coming for 30, 40, 50 years, okay? You will always learn more.

Somebody asked my teacher one day in New York, I remember, McDougall Street. He was teaching in a small apartment, like six people, and they said, Rinpoche, he said, what? They said, well, what happens when everybody gets enlightened?

What are we going to do then? He's like, well, we're not going to retire. Buddhists don't retire.

He said, when everybody gets enlightened, we will have retreats at Diamond Mountain where we talk about the same thing again. Just because it's so beautiful. You know?

After everyone's already a Buddha, then one Buddha will pretend to be a stupid, you know? Do you remember the four steps? I don't remember.

Oh, I remember. Why? Why?

Because it's beautiful to talk about these things, even if you already know them. Okay? What else are you going to do?

Go see Chen Lang-er? Never mind. Okay.

Wolf Warrior number two. This is a popular movie in China right now. They learned from the Americans how to kill 10 million people in two hours.

Okay. Three ways to make the thought more powerful, okay? I'm going to give you the DCI example, which is for people who say, in 2018 my goal is to find a good partner.

I want a nice, I want a perfect partner. You know? If you're already married, your goal should be to upgrade the same person into first class or business class.

If you don't have a partner, then the goal is to find a beautiful partner. But plant one. How you plant a partner?

In Buddhism, you don't go to a nightclub. You don't go online. You go to a nursing home and you find a lonely person and you serve them once a week.

You make them happy once a week. Now, let's talk about your state of mind when you go to the nursing home. Okay, let's talk about your state of mind.

First one is called, so there's three, okay? Say, kun long, du she, nyong mong. I put them there.

I added them there. That's my note, okay? Say, kun long, du she, nyong mong.

Okay, so kun long means what's your motivation? When you go to visit the old lady. I like to talk about the moment that you reach out and touch the doorknob of the nursing home.

Okay? I like to talk about the moment you get out of your car or you walk to the building and you touch the doorknob. Then in that moment you should check your kun long.

What's my kun long? Okay? Kun long is motivation.

Intention. Okay? What do you want?

Why did you come to the nursing home? There's two possible kun longs, okay? There's two possible kun longs.

Number one, I came here just because I want to find my soulmate, you know, or I want to upgrade my husband to business class. I love him. He's 90% perfect.

I want to get 10% more. Okay, so if you're already married, the goal is to improve your partner. If you're not married, the goal is to plant them.

So that's a small motivation. Is it correct? Yes.

Is it good? Of course. Is it Buddhist to want a partner?

Yes. Buddhism and success are the same thing. Okay?

It's not that you should live alone in a cave by yourself and be unhappy and lonely. Okay? That's not Buddhism.

Buddhism means you have a successful relationship. According to Buddhism, if you have a super successful relationship, you go to enlightenment faster. Okay?

You can go to enlightenment faster. Okay? It's more efficient.

Why? Your partner can upset you every day. You can think about emptiness.

Nah, just kidding. That's a long story. So anyway, you can have this small motivation.

It's correct. It's nice. It's okay.

It's not a problem. But you could make it bigger. You could have more powerful motivation.

And then the karma will ripen faster. Okay? So here's a cool way to have a bigger motivation at that moment.

Here's a cool way. Okay? Touch the doorknob.

Say, why am I here? Oh, I'm planting seed. For what?

My perfect partner. Okay? Then what will happen if you find them?

What will happen if you're successful? Then of course your friends will say, What's the website? What's the nightclub?

Are there more boys there? And then you have to say, nursing home. And then they will say, oh, he he looks so young.

Then you say, no, no, you don't understand. I planted him at the nursing home. Okay?

Then if you tell three of your friends how you planted a partner, okay? Two of them will say you're crazy. One of them is so desperate, they will try Buddhism.

Okay? One of them is so desperate. Okay, I will try.

Just tell me what to do. First, she's Sampajorta, I think. Okay.

I will do it. Okay? Then what will happen?

They will get success. They will have a new boyfriend. Then people ask them, how did you get it?

And then starts a boyfriend virus. Okay? Husband virus.

Thousands of young people in line at the nursing home. Do you have an old lady? No, she's busy.

Can I make an appointment? Next week. She has 15 minutes.

Oh, please. You know. There will be, like there's drug dealers now, there will be illegal old ladies phone numbers dealers.

You got a phone number from me? Yeah, here you go. Okay?

It will spread. Okay? If you succeed in using the four steps, automatically you become a teacher.

Okay? Because it doesn't matter what you say, it matters what you do. Okay?

If people look at you, and you have a beautiful, perfect partner, they will beg you to teach me. How did you do it? Okay?

So it's one thing to get up and talk about lam rim for 15 years. It's a different thing to be successful, have a beautiful partner. The second is a better teacher.

Okay? You will attract more students, right? They don't even know they're a student.

They just want a boyfriend. Like, tell me, what's the four steps? Please, tell me.

Okay? So, when you touch the doorknob, there are two possible correct motivations. One is small.

One is big. Okay? Number one, I want to get my soulmate.

I want my soulmate. Or I want my husband to become more perfect. That's a small motivation.

What's a big one? I want to start boyfriend revolution. I want to start virus.

I'm a virus. Okay? Does it take more time to have the second motivation?

Not really. Okay? Does it cost you more money?

No, it's easy. Just expand your mind like Ripple. You know?

Have a bigger motivation when you touch the doorknob. You know? I'm helping every lonely person in my city.

If this thing becomes popular in my city, everybody will have their perfect partner. That's cool. Then touch the doorknob like that.

Okay? That's kunlong. Okay?

That's kunlong. By the way, that's a lam rim big person, right? They call, in the lam rim, they call big person.

It doesn't mean how many croissants you ate. It means what's your, how big is your motivation? And it doesn't cost you more and it doesn't take more time.

So why not? Okay? It's also not a sacrifice.

Okay? Don't believe this Buddhist thing which is not a Buddhist thing. I have to give up my happiness so other people can be happy.

Okay? Geshe Michael should be lonely and sad and poor and other people should be happy. That's a stupid idea.

Okay? Buddha never said that. Jesus never said that.

Okay? If you're happy, if you're happy, then other people will, you will infect other people. It will spread.

Okay? So yeah, be happy. Take care of yourself.

But make a big motivation. Okay? I want to be a virus.

I'm a human virus. Okay? That's kunlong.

That's a cool kunlong. Okay? Now, second one.

I'm going to do nyomong second. Nyomong. Say nyomong.

This is the only place in Buddhism where this word means a good thing. Okay? This word in Sanskrit is klesha, which means disturbed thought.

Disturbed. What's the one English carbonate? Hali.

Good. Hali is a plant in America. It has a sharp prickly.

You cannot touch it. It will hurt you. Okay?

Hali. The word klesha comes from the same root. It means hulk.

It means prickly thought. In your mind, it makes you unhappy. Okay?

Anger, jealousy, desire. Okay? They're all klesha.

But in the study of the second of the four steps, klesha means how strong are your emotions. It doesn't mean negative. It only means how strong are your emotions.

Okay? How strong are your emotions? Okay.

In the case of going to the nursing home, okay? How do you feel about the old lady? Okay?

And there's a famous debate with Chandrakirti and Tsongkapa. There's a famous debate. If you go to the nursing home with no love at all for the old lady, you just go because you have to.

Okay? Will it work? Will you get a boyfriend?

Yeah, it works. The answer the Buddha gave is yes, it will work. In fact, no one can stop it.

So be careful when you go to the nursing home. There's a lady who went to too many nursing homes. She has a new problem.

She has like three boys who want to marry her. And then she came to me. How do you plan decision?

Now I have too many boys. is it okay? Do you have to feel love for her?

No, it will still work. Okay? You can use her.

Selfishly. Okay? Just use her.

You are my karma making object. I don't care about you. You are just my karma maker.

You will get a boyfriend, but he will use you for sex, for money. He will use you. He will take advantage of you.

So better to love her, to care about her. Better to love her. To care about her.

One easy way to care about her more is to understand who's helping who when you go to the nursing home? Who's helping who? Are you the nice person?

Are you so kind? Are you giving up your movie? You're not going to see Blade Runner until next week because you're going to the nursing home this week.

Are you such a noble, nice person you are going to give up Blade Runner for one week to visit the old lady? Who's the nice person? She's nice.

Okay? Without her you cannot get a boyfriend. She doesn't need you.

You need her. Who's the nice person? Who's noble?

Who's got a lot of love? Who let you visit them? Okay, got it?

So that's a way to make a nyong mong stronger. That's a way to make the love stronger. Gratitude.

Thank you for letting me come to the nursing home. Thank you for letting me visit you. Without you I cannot...

Getting a beautiful partner without an old lady is like playing basketball without a floor. It's not possible. It doesn't work that way.

You need some place to bounce the ball. Boing, boing, boing, boing. You need her.

You need her more than she needs you. You should love her. You should feel special about her.

Okay, last thing. Then I'll take questions for 15 minutes, okay? What's left?

DUS SHES. Say DUS SHES. Those of you learning Tibetan, E plus S makes GYI GUS almost.

DUS SHES. DUS SHES. It's not SHES.

Okay, DUS SHES. DUS SHES means, how do you think of her? How do you think of her?

You see. I'll give you a classic example of DUS SHES. So when a monk is attracted to a woman, he's supposed to change his DUS SHES.

Or a nun, when they see a man, they're supposed to change their DUS SHES. To sister or brother. Like that.

I'm supposed to... If I meet a lady and she's good looking, then I'm supposed to turn on sister, sister, sister. You know, I'm supposed to think of her as my sister.

Okay, that's called DUS SHES change. Changing DUS SHES. Don't think of her as a single beautiful woman.

Think of her as my sister. Then obviously you're not going to do anything wrong with your sister. Okay?

That's called DUS SHES change. In the study of the Four Steps, DUS SHES change, everybody can do. Very powerful.

Very useful. The best DUS SHES change is this one. So if I become a Buddha today, if I become a Buddha today, then I want to help other people.

Okay? And I have THUG DGU. What's THUG DGU?

Yeah, I have power to emanate any shape. I can be a dog. I can be a tree.

I can be a someone's husband or wife. Okay? I can arrange it so I meet you on the bus at the right time to become your husband three years later.

I can accidentally sit down next to you on the bus because I have omniscience. I know the seat next to you will be empty six months, three days, and two hours from now. Then I can make sure I'm on the bus.

Okay? So I can plan. One of my billion bodies can plan to be your husband.

You see? I can arrange it to meet you accidentally on the bus, but it's not an accident. Okay?

If I'm a Buddha, I have this power. Okay? And if I really want to help you, you know, it would be useful to be close to you.

See what I mean? Your children are also suspicious. Okay?

Right, Ella? Your children are suspicious, right? Maybe Buddha, you know, maybe Buddha decided the best way to help you is to be born from you.

You see what I mean? And then whole life they will help you, make you upset, test your understanding of emptiness, you know, every day. You can't be sure that if your partner is making you upset all the time, or your children are making you upset, or your parents are making you upset, you can't be sure they are not Buddha.

But Geshe-la, they're not acting like Buddha. They always piss me off. Yeah, therefore they could be Buddha.

Why? Because they are helping you to grow. Okay, yeah, but my ex-husband definitely not Buddha.

Ex-husband make you grow more than anybody. Okay, right? Okay.

So yeah, the people that you meet in your life, you never know if they are Buddha or not, okay? They will try to be close to you. If they're Buddha, they will try to be close to you, like an old lady.

And don't forget, Buddha can see all time. For Buddha, a million years and five minutes is the same. You see?

They can plan to be born in Arizona in 1935 so that they will be an old lady by the time you meet them. They can plan 80 years ahead. Okay, I have an old lady.

She's 92. You know? Maybe she planned to be born in Arizona 92 years ago, so Geshe Michael can take care of her 92 years later.

Because 92 years for a Buddha is like sneezing. It's nothing, okay? It's not difficult for them to wait 92 years for you to meet them.

Okay, why are we talking about this? DUS SHES. Change your DUS SHES about the old lady.

Maybe she's a Buddha. Maybe she decided to be born in your city 90 years ago because you need a partner, okay? Oh, I got to be born...

They're like in the Buddha paradise, Tushita. They're talking to their friends. Then suddenly they're like, oh, let me check my iPhone.

Oh my god. I got to get to planet Earth right now. Why?

I have to be born. Why? 92 years from now.

Look, there's a schedule. My iPhone calendar says meet Geshe-la when you're 92 in the nursing home. Oh my god.

I'm sorry. We can talk later. I have to go to Earth right now and be born so 92 years from now I can meet Geshe-la.

You see? Possible, okay? Is it true?

Is she a real Buddha? Now there's a problem. When you ask them, they always say no.

And when they're not a Buddha, they also say no. So if you ask her, come on, tell me honestly, are you a Buddha? She'll say no, no.

But if she's not a Buddha, she'll also say no, no. So we never know if there's a... the ones who say yes, usually they're not, but sometimes they are.

No, really. So, you don't have choice. You have to decide to be suspicious.

Okay? It's suspicious. You know, you are trying to get close to me so I can have my partner.

You are very suspicious. To decide correctly, logically, that they are suspicious is extremely powerful step number two. And it's not incorrect.

We don't know if it's correct or incorrect. To be suspicious means maybe you're a Buddha. 50% chance you're a Buddha.

50% chance you're just an old lady. But if you keep that suspicion in your mind, the karma is much, much more powerful. Okay?

You will get the boy faster. And he will be cool because he will be suspicious about you. And he will treat you with respect because maybe you're a Buddha.

All right? That's a nice karma to plant. All right?

So step number two, you can make it stronger with three things. What's your motivation? You want one boyfriend or you want the whole world to have a boyfriend?

Because they're the same. Same time to have the motivation. Second one.

What was the second one? How do you feel about her? I'm so nice, Geshe-la.

I visit the old lady every week. No, she's so nice to let you to visit her. You see?

Okay? Then you have strong gratitude for her, strong love for her. Third one.

DUS SHES Help me out. Suspicion. Suspicion.

What do you call that? Paranoia. Divine paranoia.

What's paranoia? Oh, everyone try to hurt me. Everyone try to hurt me.

This one is the opposite. Oh, maybe Jasmine Buddha. No, Jenny Buddha.

No. No, Buddha Buddha. No.

Monica Buddha. No. No, Mark Buddha.

Okay, that kind of paranoia, healthy paranoia. It makes all your karma more powerful. Then you get what you want faster.

Okay? So there are three ways you can make the second step stronger. We have 10 minutes for questions.

Any question, any subject. We can go back to meditation or you can ask me if I'm going to finish this disgusting green drink or the coffee.

[Speaker 2]
Geshe-la, thanks for your teaching.

[Speaker 1]
You're welcome.

[Speaker 2]
I'm curious about one question. What would be the karma for the yoga teacher or meditation teachers when they teach the wrong meditations like you taught?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, it's a good question. She said, suppose there's a yoga teacher or a meditation teacher. They don't know these things and they teach someone to try to stop thinking or something like that.

What's the karma for them? And you can... the answer is how many of the four steps are there?

How many of the four steps are there? Let's do DCI way. Did they choose someone to teach meditation?

They did. I mean, they said, I'm going to teach you meditation. They chose a person.

Step number two. I'm sorry. Step number one.

What's step number one for them? Why are they teaching? They want to help the person.

Yeah, their motivation, they want to help the person. They're like, if I teach this person meditation, they will be more calm. So in DCI way, step number one is good.

Good one. Step number two, choose a person. Yeah, they chose a person.

This person came to the yoga class because they want to learn meditation. So far, no problem. Step number three.

Action. They are teaching meditation. Problem or not?

Yeah, wrong way. Yeah, that's a problem. You see, there's no intention to hurt somebody.

But they could really hurt somebody. It's like a car accident. What's the karma of a car accident?

In Abhidharma way, you always have number four. You see, you finished killing them. You see, number one, you didn't intend to kill them.

You just wanted to go to the grocery store to buy some grocery. You didn't get in your car and say, I want to kill someone today. But you kill somebody.

It happened to one of our students. They asked me about it. Did I make a bad karma?

I killed another person in a car. It happened to one of the students. Did they make bad karma?

A little bit. Some bad karma. Yeah, because tar tuk, in Abhidharma way, they finished killing somebody.

They did it. They hurt somebody. So they didn't intend to kill.

They didn't use a special painful way. They didn't say, I will hit the car this way so it will hurt them more or something like that. But they did kill somebody.

So there's some karma. It's not a karmic path. There's no intention to hurt the other person.

In fact, the intention is to help them. Some bad karma. What if it's a way of earning money?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, a lot of people are doing that.

[Speaker 1]
There's a what's it called? Lok tsong. Bad ways of making money.

There are five. I don't think it's really evil or wrong. If you try to run a yoga studio without charging, you will close in six weeks.

I did it. So, I think if you charge something fair and you are not trying to hurt the people, but you try to keep your studio open, I think it's okay. I don't see a problem in it.

There are special rules about selling dharma and we're going to talk about it. It's coming during this class, so we'll talk about it. But in my opinion, to charge enough to keep doing it is okay.

Otherwise, you just have to close. Then you can't teach. I had this problem for many, many, many years.

For 30 years, I didn't charge anybody. And my life was just difficult because I have to work all day and I have to teach at night and then I just couldn't do it anymore. I like that.

Other question? Singapore question? Do you have one?

Okay. You want to know what airline is best for getting to Diamond Mountain?

[Speaker 2]
So, a question from Singapore. Her name is Jennifer. And she asked, in terms of planting a seed for a beautiful partner, she asked, what about talking and listening to other single mothers weekly or talking to other single people to help them find partners?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, very, very good. You are looking... Oh, I'm sorry, there's one other thing.

She said, what about helping single mothers who have been rejected by their own families? Yeah, cool. Very good.

Very, very good. So I always use the example of the old lady in the nursing home, but there are two other common examples. One is people at work are often lonely.

People you work with, there are some people you work with who are not nice. They don't take a shower enough. They don't look nice.

They get angry a lot. And then nobody wants to go to lunch with them. Nobody wants to talk to them.

So in your workplace, there's probably three or four lonely people. And oftentimes children are lonely. In the modern world, the parents don't have time to...

They are working and the children are lonely. They want fun. So if the parents allow it, and in America especially, you have to ask the parents, but if the parents allow it, then children are some of the loneliest people in the world who don't have parents who talk to them.

So if you get permission from the parents, then that can be nice. But to find other lonely people, single mothers who got rejected by their family, that sounds perfect. That's great.

You just want shikwa. Okay? You want someone similar.

Okay? That's the first law of karma. Okay?

If you want shikwa, you must plant shikwa. If you want a partner, you must find a lonely person. Any kind of lonely person is fine.

I think that kind of lonely person sounds great. Nowadays, because of the power of WeChat or WhatsApp, you can easily have a group of lonely people together. One is in Shanghai, one is in Berlin, one is in Moscow.

One is in Phoenix. So in that way, the internet can be very powerful. You can have groups of people with similar problems.

Yeah. Very cool. Okay.