«Дар освобождения», курс 27 «Четыре цветка», занятие 6

[Speaker 1]
Alright, on your schedule for Tuesday and Wednesday around three o'clock, which is a useless time for meditating. You're supposed to be meditating. So, my suggestion is do these meditations then.

We haven't covered all of them. We've covered, I think, six of them. I'm just going to repeat what you're meditating about while you're doing the first six.

Then we'll go back to the Lam Rim. We'll take questions about it. Then we'll go back to the Lam Rim and see if we can catch some more.

Hopefully by the end of the week we'll finish all of them. We spent a long time on the lions, but I like it. Alright, the first meditation here is pick a past deed, good or bad deed, and check how many of the six things were there that made it heavy.

Karma. You're supposed to get used to evaluating your own karmas. You're supposed to get used to thinking about how heavy are the good karmas I've done in my life and how heavy are the bad karmas I've done in my life.

I prefer to start with something positive. I don't mind if you do all of these with something positive because most of us beat ourselves up enough. You will do the guilt trips without being here.

Why don't we focus on your good karmas? To do meditation number one, you can say, I've been helping my mother regularly. Then you check the nature.

Which of the ten bad deeds, sorry, good deeds was it? Did I have strong emotions? Or was I just doing it because I had to do it?

Did I do it in a classy way, like an elegant way? You can help people and you can make it clear that you don't feel like helping them. But if you're going to help them, you might as well do it classy.

You might as well have a big smile and tell them, I would rather help you than go see Blade Runner number two, and make them feel good about it. The third thing, hum, right? How karmically heavy was this person?

Then, am I doing that habitually, constantly? Then, am I being careful not to ruin the afternoon with some anger about somebody else while I'm helping the old lady? You see what I mean?

How pure is the action from negative actions? You're going to check some of your past karmas. It's a kind of complex coffee meditation, really.

I hope by the end you feel better about them and you feel proud of them. That will make the seed stronger. This is, again, this is around three o'clock for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Meditation number two, you could even pick the same action. You could say, I'm helping my mother regularly. What are the four flowers I can expect from this seed?

The pictures are meant to help you remember what the meditation is. What will come in this life, people will be more helpful to me. Number two, I will get a habit of being helpful to other people, especially powerful karmic people like my mom.

Thirdly, I can expect in my world better weather, roads at Diamond Mountain. I can expect things to change in my outer world because I'm, it's really dao ka dao, fei zhang dao, min gung min fei zhang min. You're really following the dao.

You are honoring your parents, which creates a smooth world. Then last one, after I die or in my next life, what can I expect? Third meditation, next page.

What's the picture? Sherlock Holmes, detective. Meditation number three is detective work.

Pick something that's happening in your life. Now for this one, if you want to use a problem, you can use a problem. This is good for problem solving.

My girlfriend just broke up with me. My husband is angry. I lost some money.

Then go back and do detective work. It's like a past life fantasy meditation. When did I disappoint people in my life?

When did I hurt people in my life? If you do this one well, it will almost become like a four powers. It's really a kind of taking responsibility for the problems in your life and solving them, fixing them.

You find the threads. Thread means how does this present problem with my husband tie back to something I did five years ago? Something like that.

You may be wrong. You may find the wrong answer, but just trying is good for you. All right, meditation number six.

Four, sorry. Old man eyes. Number four is really deciding between a karma and a karmic path.

How many of the good things I've done in the last few months? I suggest for number four, again you take a good karma. How complete was it?

How was my intention? If you want to get fancy here, if you want to get deeper, don't forget that for intention you can split it into three. Make a note now.

You can talk about motivation and conception. Okay, motivation with the old lady. When you touch the doorknob, you think I'm changing the world because people will copy me if I'm successful.

Second is conception. Sorry, let's say emotion. Do you care for her?

Part of that is gratitude. It's thanking other people for letting them help you. Letting you help them, I'm sorry.

Thanking people. Thank you for letting me come to the nursing home. She's helping you, you're not helping her.

That should make some strong emotion in your heart, like gratitude. Third one? Yeah, du she.

Wow. Something happened to your mind about two years ago. I don't know.

But it's good. Yeah. Is she a normal person or is she a Buddha?

And we never know for sure. Is it better? You can be suspicious that she's not a normal person or you can be suspicious that she is a normal person.

But which one is more helpful for you? Be suspicious that she's a Buddha. So those are all part of, here what it says, intention.

What's the photograph? A pa, karmic pa. A real karmic pa.

Okay, number five, which we just covered in the class and in fact that's where we're going to start today in the lam rim, is to recognize priorities. In your do-gooding, in your fundraising, things like that, what's more important to do? People in this room are people who enjoy helping people.

So your problem is not to decide, should I help people or should I watch TV? Your problem is, which is more effective to help more people? Which is bigger help?

Part of the decision, the answer, is in the six. So I chose a ladder with how many steps? Six.

It's a trick, you're supposed to remember. Sometimes I like to look at the photos and see if I can remember the six. So you can play a little game with yourself, like when you're eating dinner in your cottage.

What's those six steps? Number one, just anybody you meet. By the way, it doesn't mean that it's not important to help strangers, but it means if you can help the DCI organizer in Mexico City, it would be more powerful.

Alright, number two, your parents, of course. Americans have this funny thing, a lot of Americans don't like their parents and they say, my mom didn't like me. All you have to say is, did your mom risk her life to give you life?

Voluntarily. In America, she could have had an abortion, but she chose to risk her life for you. That's enough.

She didn't buy you the surfboard you wanted when you were 12. Actually, my mom did. But she still risked her life to give you life.

That's probably pretty cool. Number three, serious practitioners. Helping people who want to do retreats at Diamond Mountain.

Diamond Mountain belongs to you. You don't have to wait for the next Lam Rim retreat. Michael Dunn, personally, is going to be your butler.

If you want to come back during the months until next public retreat, of course you should come and do a personal retreat. It's very powerful. They're nice because the directors here did three-year retreat.

They can help you when you're having a problem or you don't know what to do retreat about. They had every kind of problem you can have. Their retreat was special.

They had every kind of problem you can have. They have experience. Come sometimes and do your own retreat.

It's very nice. It's very quiet here. Bodhisattvas.

People who are trying to help the whole world. I think DCI people, a lot of them who work for DCI are spending their whole lives trying to help people. Trying to change the world.

Consciously. Purposely. Like in Kuching, Malaysia?

Kandy Lai. Stuff like that. Kuching or Kuching?

Kuching. Buddhas. If you have a chance to help a Buddha.

Then your personal teacher. Your heart teacher. Whoever is your heart teacher.

Very powerful comment. During this meditation you can check some of the things you've done in your life which you're very happy about and check where was the object on this ladder. All right.

We'll see if we get to number six today. Let's go to the Lam Rim. We have...

We have about an hour. You need a break? You don't need a break.

We just started. All right. We'll do about an hour.

Just straight Lam Rim. Nick, we're at RAR space. Or whatever, Tim.

You're more handsome than Nick. Just kidding. Search for RAR.

[Speaker 2]
Wow.

[Speaker 1]
Search for space RAR. Not that one. That one.

Nope. Nope. Yeah.

Nope. Search for space RAR space. There you go.

No, one more. I don't know where you got this text. One more.

There we are. Stop. This is where we are.

We were talking about the heaviness of the person to whom you do the karma. This says, ,GAM GSUM GYI SEMS CAN THAMS CAD, ,'KHRENG RAR CHUG STE MIG STON PA LAS, ,BYANG SEMS LA MIG LO LTA BA SDIG PA BYED, Think about the karma of putting someone in a prison and cutting out their eyes. It happened in Tibet.

It used to happen in Tibet. It used to be a punishment. Put someone in prison and gouge out their eyes.

He says, think about the karma of doing that to every person in the universe. Putting them in the jail and cutting out their eyes. Compared to that, someone's a bodhisattva and you go like this.

Which is worse? Second one. That's heavy.

That's pretty heavy. Bodhisattva is very powerful karma. DCI organizer is a very powerful karma.

,SNGA MA DE DAG MTSON RAR LAS, ,RTEN DE MIG BYIN PA BA'I, ,BYANG SEMS LA DE PA THAL MO SBYAR BA, ,PHAN YON CHE BAR BSTAN NA, On the other hand, if you took all of those living beings out of the jail and gave them eyes back, gave them back eyes, or if you went up to the bodhisattva and went like this, THAL MO SBYAR, which is better karma? The second one. More powerful.

PHAN YON CHE ,'BAR NA DON GROL ZAS NA, ,SDUG BYED LAS MI SBYUNG BA, ,PHA MA BYUNG BA LTA BU, Oh, okay, there's a misspelling here. The monk's vows have levels. They are divided into groups.

Here, one is called LTUNG RJE, which means downfall. Then there's one called PHAN PA. PHAN PA means if you break that one, you lose your monk's vow.

Very serious. So he gives two examples. One is killing an animal, and one is killing a human or a human fetus.

Which one more serious? Yeah, the second one. So what he's saying is that even in the vinaya, even in the monk's vows, this is why there are levels of vows.

Much more serious to kill a human or a fetus than it is to kill an animal. And different results, different karmic results. Okay, next one.

The person who does the karma is also important. And this is what it ... Not the person you do it to, but the person doing the karma.

BSTAN GYI SGO NAS RTOB CHE BA NI BSTAN here means the person who's doing the karma. SDONG PA MA LAM PA DANG LAM PA NYID KYI RGYAL BA RGYAL CHE CHUNG BZHIN DU CHE BA So when I was in the monastery, everybody was eating meat. Most people were eating meat.

And then I ... Okay, I'll tell you the whole story. And I was the cook, so I have to cook the meat every day.

Then one day I decided ... I had a dream about an animal getting killed. It was a cow.

And he had a rope on his neck and they stake him to the ground. And then somebody came with a big knife. They were killing the cow.

And the cow was screaming, but in a human voice. Then I woke up and I said, I can't eat meat anymore. Then I thought, if I announce I'm not going to eat meat, then I'm the youngest monk at that time.

So, it will be disrespectful. So I thought, what can I do? Then one day I told all the monks, I have a stomach ache.

I don't feel so good. And they said, maybe you have to go to the doctor. And I said, yeah, I think I have to go to the doctor.

Then we had a country doctor, small office, like half hour away. So I got in the car, I went there. I park in his parking lot.

I didn't get out of the car. And I sit there. You know Farmingdale, so half hour I sit in the car.

Then I went home. Then everybody said, what doctor say? I said, doctor say I can't eat meat anymore.

And Tibetan people really respect doctor. So, they said, okay, then you shouldn't eat meat. Then I said, yeah, I'm sorry.

But they said, you still have to cook the meat. I said, it's okay. I was the cook for eight years in the monastery.

so anyway, then we had a Geshe, a very high Geshe, and he was blind. He was blind. And I lived with him in his house.

so one night, he's kind of weird because sometimes he's reading a book. He's like, and then he said, come in here. I said, yes, Lama.

And he said, I heard you gave up meat. And I said, yeah, I gave up meat. He said, it's too bad you don't want to make it a good karma.

I said, what do you mean? He said, if you make a vow never to eat meat again, that's much more powerful. Then the action is the same.

You're not going to eat meat for the rest of your life. So, if you promise not to eat meat, then you have extra karma to do the promise. So I promised to him.

I said, I won't eat meat. I promise in my life I won't eat meat. And he said, okay.

Now you have better karma. So if you take a vow to do something, like layman's vows, do we have time for vows this time? Yeah.

So if you have a chance, I think it's next weekend, take the vow. The layman's vow, lifetime vow, no killing human or fetus. No stealing something expensive.

It means you can steal small things. No. Nope.

The definition in the Vinaya is the cost of a good sweater. That means expensive. Nothing more than that.

So you have to go to JCPenney, see what's a good sweater cost today. Then, I think it's four karshapanas in Varanasi 2,500 years ago. That's the second one.

Third one is don't break up another person's marriage. Don't break up another person's marriage. Then, number four is don't lie about your spiritual life.

Oh, I saw Buddha yesterday. Tara came to talk to me yesterday. No, I met many people who say that.

So be careful. It's better to say, I'm a bad person. That's true.

Then, number five is no alcohol, no drugs for the rest of your life. Alcohol wastes your money, makes you crazy, makes you do stupid things and kills your body. There's no good about it.

My parents both died from alcohol and they spent so much of our family's money and it ruined their marriage. It ruined their life. You don't need it.

I had a chance to meet a big lama with my mother one day and we bowed down and we sit with him and then he asked me directly, did you take drugs before? I was 19 years old or something. I said, I can lie to the lama or I can have my mother upset.

Then I said, yeah, I took drugs. Then my mom's like... Then I said, but just twice.

Then the lama is very interesting. He said, tell me what it's like. I want to know.

I was thinking to try. Just to see what everyone's talking about. Then I explained to him what happened to me.

Then he said, that's all? I said, yeah. He said, oh, you don't need a drug.

You can just meditate. He said, also cheaper. Anyway, those are the five.

Anyway, you're not going to kill somebody. Anyway, you're not going to steal. Nobody in this room is worried that Vivian's going to steal their purse.

You're going to do it anyway. You're already going to do it. Take a vow.

Then you get more credit. You get more good karma. Make a promise.

Even if it's something you didn't want to do anyway. In fact, that's easier to keep. RGYA ZHIG GZHAN DU MI DGE BA'ANG DE DAG TE There's also people, they call it DO MIN.

Say DO MIN. DO means vow. MIN means anti-vow.

For example, when you join the army, you have to promise to obey the officer and kill. If they say, kill this man, you have to kill this man. For as long as you're in the army, you get negative karma from bad vow, negative vow.

In tradition of Buddhism, that's also related to the work that you promise to do in your life. If you join a company which is bribing government people or something like that, if you're involved with it, that's considered an anti-vow. Because you made a commitment to stay with this company.

So, be careful about negative commitments. That's also heavier karma. Then he gives four levels of commitment.

Number one, lowest one, KHYIM BAS MI DGE BA BCUG PA CHUL GNOG BCUG PA LAS First one is for a person to commit to the ten vows. They commit to the ten vows. Second one, they commit to monk or nun's vow.

I'll give you a choice. Now we're talking about karma, which is heavy because of the person who does it. Not the person you do it towards, but the person who does it.

Here's the choice. A lay person makes commitment to the ten, not to do the ten bad deeds, but they do them every day like a hundred times. Then a monk makes a commitment to 253 vows.

There's some small ones, like we are not allowed to cut a living plant without a ritual because that's some insect home. You are destroying the home of an insect when you cut a tree branch, even if you're gardening. We are supposed to ask permission.

We're supposed to say, I'm sorry, I have to cut this tree branch. It's in the way of my house. And then you have to do a ritual and then you cut it.

Then some monks say, I don't have time. Let's just cut it. So monk broke a very small vow or a lay person broke all their ten every day a hundred times.

Which made worse karma? The monk. Because he has a vow.

So this is a negative way. Then it's dangerous to be a monk. Really.

If you do small bad things, it's better you weren't a monk. Alright. Number three.

BYANG SEMS If a person who made a commitment to help the whole world, and I really think it's like a DCI organizer, which is a bodhisattva, then if they make a small mistake, it's much bigger karma than a monk who made a small mistake or broke all their vows at the same time. A bodhisattva who makes a small mistake makes a worse karma than a monk who broke all their vows. Okay?

The monk broke all their vows. The DCI organizer made a small mistake on the account. The DCI organizer's karma is worse, more bad.

Because the person doing it is more powerful. They are more powerful. Bodhisattva.

SNGAGS KYI SDOM LDAN SNGAGS KYI SDOM LDAN means you took a tantric vow. You took Vajrayana vow. Diamond Way.

If you survive the Lam Rim, I will teach you tantra. The good people who come regularly. You don't have to come every time because you will get divorced and you will lose your job.

Come as much as you can comfortably without causing trouble for your family or your work. Those people, we will do Diamond Way, Vajrayana. Later.

A person who took a tantric vow. It's a tantric vow to be suspicious of other people. Maybe she's a Buddha.

Maybe Allison's a Buddha. I have a vow to think like that. If I decide Allison's not a Buddha, then that's worse than a bodhisattva broke all their bodhisattva vows.

I just have a small mental broke the vow. Allison cannot be a Buddha. Then that's more heavy karma than a monk break every vow they have.

It's just mental. It's just a thought in my mind for two minutes. Then it's worse than if I'm a monk who broke all their vows.

It's dangerous to take more vows. I tell you a story. You heard this story.

My Lama went to Virginia to teach. He taught us tantric vows. Then we all learned the tantric vows.

Then at the end of the weekend, he said, by the way, if you break even one of these, you will go to the hells for a long time, lowest hell. Then we're all like, why didn't you tell us in the beginning? It's better not to take this vow.

Then one lady asked him, I remember, she's a college professor. She said, Rinpoche, but wouldn't it be better if we didn't take a vow than if we go to the hell from breaking a small one? Then he said, his English wasn't that good, and he's looking at her and then he says, oh, I understand.

He goes like this, no, no, you don't understand. All of you are going to hell anyway. So it doesn't matter.

But when you go to hell and you're talking to the other people in hell, some people say, how did you come here? Oh, I killed my mother. Oh, how did you come here?

I broke tantric vow. Oh. Oh.

He said, you can brag in the hell. ,GA'I PHYI KYI SDOM PA ZHUS NA, ,DIG PA BYAS ZAN NAS, ,SDOM PA LA TSE MO, Then he says, some people hear about all this and they say, you know what? I won't take any vows now.

You keep the vows, Lama. I don't need it. It's easier to go to hell if you have vows.

I don't need a vow. That's okay. I'm not coming to Venerable Phil and Jigme's vow ceremony.

Thank you very much. I will rest in my room. Then he said, ,'JUG PA LAS DNGOS RTOG RGYUD NI, ,TSUL KHRIMS LAS GZHAN MED, ,LTAR CIG MED LUS BSTAN THOB PA LA, ,BDAG PA SDOM NAS, ,SNGON TE TSUL KHRIMS SU BA NGES PAR DGOS, ,DE MED PAR BYED PA LTONG BA TZAM GYIS ,'DU LUR LA LTA, So he said, forget it because you need the vows.

For your good karma to be channeled correctly, you kind of need a vow. Then he gives the example of Naga. ,LONG, Like a dragon.

Like a dragon. Naga means like a dragon. In England, they will call it dragon.

In India, they will call it Naga. If a Naga is in a place then water flows easily. That's a tradition.

The only spring in the whole southern Arizona is here. That's why this fort was built here, to protect the water. It comes and goes.

Right now it's not flowing. Earlier this year it was flowing, right? We say it's because of Naga.

So Naga is a what kind of rebirth? It's an animal. But they are a very powerful animal.

So he said, for example, if you're very generous but you don't take a vow, you could be a Naga. A big boss animal. An animal who's more powerful than other animals.

But if you take a vow, then you'll be born as a human who has enough money to help the Dharma and practice. Like that. Vows are important.

He says don't think it's better to avoid vows. So now you have enough information to do meditation six and meditation seven. Meditation six is who's doing the good deed?

For example, you did some good deeds before you became Buddhist or before you started practicing. Those are not so powerful. The good karmas you did after you started practicing are more powerful.

The good karmas you did after you became a nun those are even more powerful. And the good karmas you did after you took bodhisattva vows are more powerful. So you can think about things you did in the past and decide, what was I at that time?

Number seven is just check what commitments you have. You see? How many commitments do I have?

I think I have 900 or something like that. Okay, I forgot. Anyway, if you're a full monk, 253, then bodhisattva, 64, and tantric, that's a couple hundred.

Like that. So, in the seventh meditation, just decide how many vows do you have. Try to get more vows.

Okay? If you can. It's good.

Alright. Do you need a break? Okay.

We have half an hour more. Okay. DER MA ZAD DONG PA SKAD LANG NA Keep drinking.

DGE BA RGYUN MI BYAS LA SDONG MIN SKAD LANG NA MI DGE BA RGYUN MI BYAS PA'ONG STE If you have a vow not to eat meat, but it's not lunchtime, is the vow giving you any good karma? Yeah, okay? So it never stops.

It never stops. If you make a vow not to eat meat, then all day you are making good karma. In the sleep you are making good karma.

Okay? There's one other example in the Abhidharma of a vow like that, or action like that, a karma like that. What is it?

It's called DGE BA LAS CHUNG BA'I Sorry, ZAD LAS CHUNG BA'I DGE BA Anybody can remember? ZAD LAS CHUNG BA'I DGE BA No? It's called, the name in Abhidharma, what's ZAD?

Stuff. Stuff. R-D-Z-A-S ZAD LAS CHUNG BA'I DGE BA means like this temple was built by the students here.

We didn't hire anybody. We built it. And every time someone uses it, by the way, that's why it's got leaks and stuff in here.

Every time someone sits here, we get more good karma. That was ten years ago? Fifteen?

Fourteen years ago? That was like twelve, thirteen years ago. 2005.

Twelve years ago. But every time someone sits here, even the people who didn't come here for ten years, they are making interest on their karmic bank account. So it's similar.

When you have a vow not to eat meat, then even when you're asleep, you are making more good karma. If someone donates a million dollars to put roads at Diamond Mountain, and if they say, I expect your students to raise 1.89, wait, 189,000 more, and if they do it, then every time someone rides on the road, even twenty years from now, you are collecting interest. But I'll talk about it later.

BYANG TSUNG MA SKAD LANG BA LTA BUR NYID MNAL BA DANG SEMS SEMS LAS GNAS SKABS TSUN CHE DU SDIG PA PHAL BAR BGYUR MI CHE For example, if you agree to sell alcohol, or work in the business of selling alcohol, then even if you're sleeping, or even if you're like playing cards with somebody, during that time, you are making bad karma. Okay. SOGS SPYOD PO BA'I SDONG PA DANG DE MI DE NYID NYAM DU DE DE SOGS MI SPYOD PA GNAS PA'I SKABS SOGS MI SPYOD PA TZAM DU TSUN KHYANG So a person who did take a vow not to eat meat, and a person who didn't take a vow not to eat meat, if they are at, you know, I don't know, if they are listening in the class, then they're both not eating meat at that time.

SDONG PA MED PA DE LA SOGS SPYOD PA BA'I DGE BA MI SBYUNG SDONG LDAN NYID RIM BZHIN DU NYID SPAM PA'I DGE BA PA But during the class, the person who made a vow not to eat meat is making good karma from that vow. And the person who didn't take a vow is not, even though they're doing the same thing at the same time. Okay, got it?

All right. DE BZHIN DU SDOM LDAN RGYAS NYAN DANG DGE TSUL DANG DGE SLONG RNAMS KYI DGE RTZAG CHE DU MA GRUB KYANG THAR DAG NYID NYAL BA'I SKABS TSUN LA RIM BZHIN NGA DANG SOGS DU DANG NYID RGYAS SNGAGS CHU SNGAGS TSUN GYI RGYAS BA PHAL LA If you took novice vow, sorry, lifetime layman's vow, or you took novice vows, or you took full monk's vows, then even if you are sleeping, you are getting interest from those vows. And he gives the number.

Five for layman's vows, 36 for novice monks and nuns, and 253 for full monks, and 364 for full nuns. They get more karma. I don't know why.

DE THAMS CAD LAS KYANG CHEN GSAM GYI SDOM LDAN LA NI DGE BA GRANG GIS MI CHOD DE If you've taken bodhisattva vows, which you can learn in ACI course number seven, which you should do, okay, you just did it in Singapore, right? Yeah. Congratulations.

I think John Brady and Connie was there? No. You were asleep?

Okay. Anyway, they both did it. If you take bodhisattva vows, then even while you're asleep, DGE BA GRANG GIS MI CHOD DE you cannot count the good karma you are making.

Not possible. If you took bodhisattva vows and you're just asleep in the class especially, you are making... there's no number on the number of good karma you are making.

He says GRANG GIS MI CHOD means you can't count it. It's beyond count. Then he quotes Bodhisattva Charya Avatara by Shantideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life.

He says, DE NAS ZING DE NYID LO GANG, BAG MED GYUR KYANG GSOS NAM ZHUGS, RGYUN MI CHE BA DU MA ZHIG, NAM GANG NYAM BAR RAB TU CHUNG From the day you take your bodhisattva vows, it doesn't matter whether you are asleep or BAG MED. BAG MED means you're not thinking about bodhisattva vows at all. You're just like watching a movie or something.

GSOS NAM ZHUGS, the power of your karma, RGYUN MI CHE BA DU MA ZHIG you get a constant karma. It never stops. There's no interruption in the karma.

And NAM GANG NYAM BAR RAB TU CHUNG That karma is equal in size to the universe. Okay. Cool.

That's an easy way to make some good karma. SNGAGS SDOM LDAN PA'I NI DE BA'I KYANG RGYANG RGYUR MTHONG RGYUR GYI LHAG PA PHAL YOD And a person with tantric vows is infinitely more karma than that. Okay.

Infinitely more karma than that. DE NA SDOM PA And we have a very, very nice tantric course here, Diamond Mountain. Eighteen courses.

Ten classes per course. 180 classes. It takes about seven years.

It's about 10,000 pages of translation. Whole tantric course. I have to say it's better than anywhere else in the world, including Tibet.

Because you cannot get a course like that anywhere, not even in the tantric college. They don't have.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
So we're lucky. DE NA SDOM PA GANG YANG MA LAM PA DE DGE RTZA CHE NGA GRUB NA MA RTOG MIN BYUNG LA If you don't take a vow, you get some good karma if you really focus and try hard. At the time, when you're purposely trying to make a good karma, you can make some good karma.

But SDOM LDAN MA NYIN ZHAG RAS YANG DGE BA SNGON GYI PHAL BA'I KHYAD SANG CHEN PO'I KHYAD ZHUGS PAS But if you took a vow, you get KHYAD and you get KHYAD SANG KHYAD SANG means interest on your account. He uses the word also. KHYAD SANG means interest on your account.

Even when you're asleep, all the time. So take vows. Okay?

Don't forget them, break them. Just kidding. BLO CHUNG GI BLO RTOG MI BYAS PA KHYIM PA'I KYANG SO SBYONG NYES NAS BYANG STONG SOGS BSTAN PAR BYED DGOS He wants to remind you that you don't have to be a monk to take tantric vows.

You don't have to be a monk to take bodhisattva vows. You don't have to be a monk to take your lifetime vows. So take them.

He says, why not? Why not take them? He says, don't think small, BLO CHUNG.

Don't think small, think big. I can do it. I can handle all those vows.

Pachi has a question. Make it loud. The answer is yes.

So a layman with no vows kills someone. Okay? And there's a tantric practitioner who's sleeping, dreams of killing someone.

So this tantric practitioner makes worse karma than a layman? Yeah, it's a good question. That question comes up in the scriptures.

And the answer is no. Because, okay, this is a special thing. To take a tantric vow, keep a tantric vow, break a tantric vow, there has to be some conscious.

Consciousness? The person has to be fully conscious. So they would say, and it's interesting, a person who has, a castrated person who doesn't have a sexual organ, male or female, cannot take monk's vows or nun's vows.

And they say because they don't have this energy. They don't have the energy to, there's some kind of energy you need to take a vow and keep a vow. And they say that during sleep you don't have that kind of energy.

You see, so what you do in your dreams, it's an indication of your state of mind. But it's not, it's not even close to a karmic path. That's the classic answer.

So I'd say no. But I would say if a tantric practitioner pushes another person with intention to hurt them and a person without tantric vows kills the person, a tantric practitioner has made a heavier bad karma. That we can say.

Okay. Okay. Now we're going to get into a subject called natural bad deeds and declared bad deeds.

I'll give an example. The classic example, killing a being is a natural bad deed. The Buddha didn't have to come to this world to make a rule.

If there's no Buddha in this world and you kill someone, it's wrong. That's natural bad deed. Okay.

Then in the beginning of the Buddha's time as a Buddha, it wasn't a bad deed to use alcohol. Okay. The monks used to drink alcohol.

And then there was a leng shi. What's a leng shi? There was an incident.

There was an incident. It's called the incident. You know.

Some monk drank some alcohol and did some bad things. Then the Buddha said, I have an idea. All the monks should stop drinking alcohol.

This just doesn't work. Okay. Something happened yesterday.

This guy used alcohol. He did stupid things. Let's make a rule that nobody will drink alcohol anymore.

Okay. That's called BYAS PA'I GANG NAM MA MTHONG BA BYAS PA means Buddha made the rule later. LANG BZHIN GYI GANG NAM MA MTHONG BA means it's naturally wrong.

Like killing. So here's his explanation. What's going on in this book right now?

You are learning every possible detail about karma. And you should be happy. It comes from many, many scriptures.

You are lucky someone put them all in one book. You don't have to study. It wasn't me.

But you don't have to study Abhidharmakosha and Abhisamhankara and Madhyamakavatara, Bodhisattva Avatara. You don't have to do all that. Read the Lam Rim.

Every kind of karma thing you need to know is here. DANG PO NI natural bad deed RGYU'I KHYAD PAR NI DNGOS KYI KUN LONG MI DGE BA'I KUN NAS LANG BZHIN What makes something a natural bad deed? What makes something a natural bad deed?

Number one, the cause involved, the motivation is negative. The motivation is negative. Secondly, DNGOS KYI KHYAD PAR RANG GI NGOS SDUG PA MI DGE BA'I DANG BDAG GCIG TU RGYUR PA The nature of the deed is that it hurts somebody.

It hurts somebody. There's a negative motivation, number one. Number two, it hurts people.

I think the third one is most important. SDUG PA MI DGE BA'I KHYAD PAR RANG GI NGOS BA'I BYANG NAS RNAMS MI NYID DANG MI'ONG BA'I BYIN GNYIS PA If you do it, something bad will happen to you later. I think it's interesting.

If you care, if you're interested, in Buddhism, right and wrong are defined by does it hurt you or not? If you do it. It's very interesting.

I grew up in a Christian church and right and wrong was defined by God or Jesus. In a country, right or wrong is defined by the government. But in Buddhism, what's right and what's wrong are defined by what happens to you if you do them to somebody else.

You see, it's not even what happens to the other person. It's very interesting. If you do an action and it brings you suffering later, that's wrong.

If you do an action and something sweet happens to you later, that's right. It's very interesting. They don't talk about what happens to the other person.

It happens to be the same. In Buddhism, right or wrong is defined by this third quality. What happens to you after you do it?

Something is a natural bad deed. It's a bad deed by nature if you do it and it hurts you later. So, Buddhist morality is all about not causing yourself pain.

All right. SDOM PA DANG LDAN MI LDAN SRID KYANG SRID DE LAS SHUGS NA GANG NA MA THOB PA'I SDIG PA SKYE PAR BYED PA ZHIG LA SBYOG CHING And it doesn't, a natural bad deed, it doesn't matter vows or no vows. It's still going to hurt you.

NYID PA NI SANGS RGYAS KYI BYAS PA LEN RGYAL BA'I LAS SBYOS PA GANG ZHIG What makes something BYAS PA'I GANG NA MA THOB PA a declared bad deed? What are the qualities of a declared bad deed? Number one, it creates a LAS GRIB.

Say LAS GRIB. LAS GRIB means karmic obstacle. It doesn't mean pain.

It means karmic obstacle. A natural bad deed, if you do it, will cause you suffering later. One of the qualities of a declared bad deed is that if you do it, you will have karmic obstacles.

What's a karmic obstacle? Geshe-la explained the pen to you ten times. You hate it when Geshe-la takes the pen out at a DCI program.

You're like, oh no, he's going to teach the pen again. I thought we were going to do something new. Then you go home and you have a fight with your husband.

[Speaker 2]
Why? I didn't do anything.

[Speaker 1]
I didn't do anything. Stop yelling at me. I didn't do anything.

Just after you heard the pen, you go home and you're like, I didn't do anything. Got it? That's called LAS GRIB PA.

If you break the action which Buddha advised you not to do, not a natural bad deed, it's Buddha's advice not to do it, something happened to your ability to understand. Okay? Then someone explained silver seeds to you and somebody said, go sit in the emptiness and you're like, I don't understand Geshe-la.

I don't get it. And the person next to you is like, and you're like, what? Okay.

Then that's called a karmic obstacle. That's the first quality of declared bad deed. RGYUD KYIS BSKYED PAR DNGOS KYI KUN RNGON DGE BA'AM LUGS MA BSTAN GYI SANGS PAS KUN NAS LANG BZHIN So, I don't know if I agree with this or understand it very clearly.

I have to study it more. Okay? There's not a lot of things like that.

Here's one of them. It's possible that your motivation in a in a declared bad deed could be neutral or could even be good. Okay?

Like you drink alcohol because you want to make your parents happy or something like that. It's possible. You still have a karmic obstacle from it.

Okay? The motivation for a natural bad deed is always I want to hurt somebody. Okay?

But for this bad deed because Buddha made a rule, it's possible to break it with a good motivation. I want to make my parents happy. Okay?

Or you just don't think about it. All right, number three. DNGOS KYI BSKYED PAR RANG GI'I DNGOS LUGS MA BSTAN DANG BDAG CIG TU'I SPYOD PA Let's say you didn't know Buddha made the rule.

Okay? Then your motivation is sort of neutral. So it's possible to do this with a neutral state of mind and the actual action is karmically neutral.

LUGS MA BSTAN means karmically neutral.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
There's an idea that you are always making karma. No matter what you do. When you are sitting in your room breathing, you are making karma.

But it's neutral karma. You are making karma to have moments in your future when nothing's happening. Okay?

Like, I don't know, the floor. I'm not happy about the floor. I'm not unhappy about the floor.

But the floor is there while I'm talking to you. That's also creation of my karma. But it's neutral.

It doesn't make me happy. It doesn't make me sad. BRAL BA'I KHYAD PAR RANG GI NGOR BYA NAS RNAMS NAS NYID DU MI'O BA BYIN GNYIS GNOD PA ZHIG LA SBYOG By itself, the action wouldn't make an unpleasant result unless you knew it was a rule.

Unless you knew Lord Buddha had made a rule and you broke it. If you didn't know that Buddha made a rule and you broke it, you wouldn't make a big karma. Okay?

This is a not a natural bad karma. Opposite. BYED KYANG GI LTUNG BA LA RGYUR YID KUN LONG BSLAB PA KHYAD GZUGS KYI BSAM PA SOGS MI RGYUR BAR GANG BRAL NAS BYAS PAR RANG BZHIN GYI GANG NA MA THO BA'I DI LTUNG MI SKABS BYUNG BZHIN Now, so although generally breaking a rule that a Buddha made and you don't know about it is kind of neutral karma.

But, what am I going to say next? Yeah, if you know Buddha said don't do it and then you break it, you make a big bad karma. Okay, got it?

So the second kind of natural bad karma, if you do it, you get a bad karma. Bad karma by commandment, by Buddha's word, if you know he made the rule and you break it, you get a bad karma. If you didn't know he made a rule, you don't get a bad karma.

Got it? Alright? Question?

Loud? Yeah, me too. Sorry?

No. Yeah. Now, if you took a vow, if you went to an initiation, a tantric initiation for $35 and the and they go ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba and they ring a bell and they give you a tantric initiation, you just accepted hundreds of vows.

And I've seen many, many, many initiations where the student has no idea of a single vow. Okay? But if you take that initiation from that lama and you break one of those hundreds of vows, you automatically go to the hell realms.

Now, why would you give someone an initiation for $35 without explaining that to them? I have no idea. Okay?

They say the lama is like the cow. You know how two cows pull the plow? They say a lama who gives an initiation without explaining the vows, when the student goes to hell, the lama goes with him.

Because they didn't explain the vows. In the Diamond Mountain tradition, you don't get the vows until you understand them and we teach them to you for 10 weeks or something. Okay?

Alright? Alright. Don't do that.

Don't go to those $35 initiations. $34? Okay.

Question. Somebody had a question. Wait, wait, wait.

Microphone. Microphone.

[Speaker 2]
Here it says if you don't know what the Buddha said, the rule, that they take the initiation and you broke the vow?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. It's different. If you take a tantric initiation and you don't know the vow, but you accepted the vow, you see?

During the initiation, when you're sitting there and the lama's like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, they say, do you take the vow? And you say, yes. And you don't know what's the vow.

But when you say yes, there's like an Indian initiation to say if you don't accept these vows, leave the room now. And everybody's like, oh look, he's ringing the bell. That's the problem.

If you stay there, you take the vow. Even if you don't know, it's a problem. By the way, if you know the vow and you break it, it's worse.

Maybe it's better not to know the vow. No, but my lama was very upset when he heard that there's this $35 initiation. He got very upset.

He said, I can't believe it that they will give an initiation to a thousand people and nobody knows what the vow is and they all agreed to it. It's not fair to the student. Okay.

BYAS KYANG... Okay, good. If you know the Buddha didn't allow it and you did it, you get both wrong karmas.

Natural and commitment. Think about it. KUN LONG LUS MA BSTAN KYANGS PAS BYAS PA YIN NA, BYIN RGYAL GYI LTOS BA LAS, RANG BZHIG GI DKA'I MA THO BA'I BDE BA SMIN BYUNG BA YIN But if you break, if you know the Buddha said you can't drink alcohol, I was on a...

I'll tell you a funny story. When I was young, a hundred years ago, I was translating Abhidharma Kosha and I went to an initiation by a big lama and on the airplane some Tibetan guy sat down next to me and I could hear him talking Tibetan to some other guy. Then the stewardess came halfway through the flight and said, who wants a beer?

And all the Tibetan guys order a beer. I'm like, hmm. Then I I have Abhidharma Kosha with me.

So I turn it to this page. What's the page? Somebody asked the Buddha, is it wrong to drink alcohol?

Buddha answered, if you take this much and you put it in the alcohol and you drink it or offer it to another person, okay, don't call yourself a Buddhist. That's how the Buddha said it. He didn't say it's wrong or you're a bad person.

He said, don't tell people you're my student because you're not. Then I was sitting next to the Tibetan guy, I said, are you Tibetan? He said, yeah.

I said, you know I have this Tibetan book and I was wondering, what's this sentence here mean? And he's like, um you know, it's really fun to do stuff like that. Okay.

If you if you have a neutral state of mind and you break the command of the Buddha, you broke a command but you didn't create a natural karma. You didn't make a natural karma. But if you know there's a rule against it and you willingly if you think in your mind, I don't care.

I want to do it. In your mind, if you say this is a stupid vow, then you get a natural and a commandment. Both.

Okay? Got it? If you disrespect the Buddha and say, I'm breaking this, I'm breaking your rule because it's a stupid rule.

Why not relax, have a beer? I can understand I shouldn't drink whiskey but a beer? This is a stupid rule.

Then you create a natural bad deed. Got it? If you just drink it and you think you don't think about it, you don't create a natural bad deed.

If you are what do you call it? Disrespecting the Buddha, then you make an extra bad deed. Natural bad deed.

Okay. That's a good place to take a break. We'll stop there.