«Дар освобождения», курс 27 «Четыре цветка», занятие 9

[Speaker 1]
Let's do a real quick lion's dance. Let's pretend it's Monday, and you actually have to work, and you don't have an hour to spend on this. Let's see what it feels like when you're under pressure.

The main thing is to do it every day, okay? Even if it's ten minutes, just do it, okay? I do it on the plane, I do it in the airport, I do it in the car, okay?

I do it, I pretend I'm sleeping in the car. Okay, so just do it every day, even if it's just, just go through the eight, go to nine. Hi Lama, bye.

Okay, nice to see you. Okay, I don't know whose phone went off, but you broke the Buddha's word. Buddha said no phone during meditation.

Turn your phone off. In Mexico, they charge you $50. $500?

Quick way to make roads.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, here we go.

[Speaker 1]
Now you have a reason to put an air conditioner in your house. So we'll start, just glue your mind to the air conditioner. That's a fast way to start a meditation.

[Speaker 2]
Come to your heartbeat.

[Speaker 1]
Go in the heartbeat.

[Speaker 2]
Heart's beating by itself without you.

[Speaker 1]
Put a grain of sugar inside the heart. Drop the heart and put yourself inside the grain of sugar. Imagine an endless lake.

Drop a pebble in the middle and watch the ripples go infinitely, left and right. Come to the dark center of your mind. Turn on the switch.

Watch a ball of clear light expand out to the universe. Switch off the mind. Stop working to switch off the mind.

Just let it do what it wants. Switch it off if you can. If not, let the thoughts go.

Bring one of your teachers in your life to your mind. Sit with them.

[Speaker 2]
Think of one of their beautiful qualities.

[Speaker 1]
Watch the silver seeds in the middle of your mind opening and images of this beautiful quality coming out and landing on your teacher.

[Speaker 2]
Write a story of your past life, imaginary past life.

[Speaker 1]
How did you plant those seeds? Be generous. Be creative.

Come back to your Lama. Respectfully ask them to move aside and bring up a false image of a Lama who's not coming from you, who's just an accident. There's no history between you and them, and there's no beautiful future.

Cancel that mistaken Lama, accidental Lama. And try to move into the space where they were, and they're not there now.

[Speaker 2]
They're not, they don't exist.

[Speaker 1]
Bring back the real Lama sitting in front of you. You can put the emptiness of the accidental Lama in their heart. Sit with them quietly for a few minutes.

Then we'll come down. Let the mind go. If you can turn it off, turn it off.

If you can't, let it go. In a little bit noisier place where you are making effort to turn off the mind.

[Speaker 2]
Bring back the sphere of clear light, your awareness. Bring back the ripples.

[Speaker 1]
Go back inside the sugar crystal.

[Speaker 2]
Bring back your body. Heart is beating without you.

[Speaker 1]
Now you're inside the heart beating.

[Speaker 2]
Now the heart is beating in your chest. You're above it.

[Speaker 1]
Three long gentle exhales, offering these beautiful seeds to all the people in this place, this country, this world, and then slowly open your eyes. Take a stretch. That was about 15 minutes, I think.

18 minutes. I think that's about, almost close to minimum, okay? Then you rush to work, but you're a little bit late.

Any questions? Microphone.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you for taking my question. You know, I understand the necessity to teach the karma, the four flowers, the four laws, and it's very exact, sort of like paint by number, or if we will, like sort of digital. But it just seems that, especially when we look at our reality that we're experiencing, that it sort of has more fidelity.

And it's not quite so digital, but more like analog, to use that analog, you know? Like an album and not an mp3. Exactly.

And the reason why I ask that is because when we look at the reality that we've manifested, it seems that, other than some distinct events that we're aware of that we, you know, created, one, at least I find that it's necessary to sort of get all of this data and try to see, like, how we're doing, how our practice is doing, how my practice is doing. And it seems that there is more going on, and it's got more data than just, you know, four flowers, four laws, the ten bad deeds. Can you talk about that?

Yeah. If that makes sense at all? Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
We're going to study something in Kamalashila. It's a very difficult idea. It's called ne ngen len.

Say ne. Ne. Ngen.

Ngen. Len. Len.

And these are very, very subtle tendencies that even an arhat has that stops them from being a Buddha, you see? So they already reached nirvana, and they cannot be reborn in a normal suffering life. But there's some kind of very, extremely subtle tendencies that they still have, and those block them from being a person who can see all time and all things.

I would say you have the four flowers, you have the four steps creating events that you can define in your life. I met my aunt. I met my first yoga teacher.

Things like that. Then there's a lot of stuff going on between those that fills out the rest of your reality. Your sense organs, your eyes, your ears, your nose, your tongue, your mind, are still infected with these tiny, tiny tendencies.

And between events like, I don't know, someone pushes you in the temple, or someone sings a nice song, between those events, there's a continuity of life. And it almost feels like that part's coming from its own side. Really what's happening is your misunderstanding of the world has created your eyes and ears and your mind, you see?

So our sense organs how we process the world and our mind perceptions are already infected all the time. And so we feel that there's some kind of analog reality because of this infection of our our eyes were created. Human eyes made of flesh, which will die, are created by misunderstanding the world.

So then there's a, it feels like there's a, what do you call it, a base liquid in which the events are floating. But that's also coming from mistake in your instrument. The instruments are wrong.

It's like a telescope with a crack in it. And you see, everywhere you look you see lines. And it's a problem with your eye and your ears and your mind.

So they were defective from the factory. And they make you feel like there's a continuity to life, which is not coming from you. So until you get rid of those very subtle seeds, very subtle tendencies, they don't even call them seeds, which arhats still have, you won't overcome that feeling that it doesn't feel like seeds could be making absolutely everything, including the filler between the events like that.

Okay, that's my understanding of your question. I like it. I like it.

There's also a thing called neutral karma. So who made the design on the carpet? If you don't care about it, you don't think it's nice, you don't think it's bad.

That comes from the karma you made by driving and not thinking about anything like that. Okay, so that's also karma. We'll get to that.

Okay. All right, another question, maybe.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Geshe-la. When we meditate on the first concentration level, how does the picture we meditate on fit to the platform or the state of mind we have when we see emptiness directly?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, good question. The purpose to do the lion's dance is, the real one, is at the sixth bodhisattva level. I didn't tell you that yet.

Okay, sixth bodhisattva level is when your understanding of emptiness is very perfect. You can see it directly anytime you want, basically. the lion's dance is recommended, especially for people at the sixth bodhisattva level.

When you see emptiness directly, you're at the first bodhisattva level. So, then you're supposed to do the lion's dance, and then you're supposed to think about the wheel of life, the twelve links of the wheel of life. So the lion's dance is a preparation for thinking about the wheel of life.

Normally we say, when you see emptiness directly, you have to be at the heartbeat level. It's called sam den dangpun nyen do mi chok me. Say sam den.

dangpun nyen do mi chok me. So it's not even when you're in the heartbeat, it's when you're moving from the air conditioner to the heartbeat. Somewhere in there, as your mind starts to settle down, is the best chance to see emptiness directly.

Okay, so, and if you can go deep into the heartbeat, you can actually reach shamatha there. You see? what's the exercise that we're doing is actually for people who've been bodhisattvas for a while.

Okay. And the Buddha, again, the Buddha taught it five times that I could find. So it's kind of to get you ready to see emptiness directly, which is I believe why Buddha suggested you stop at the heartbeat.

You don't go back to the air conditioner. Did you notice? Yeah, so if you've been up and down, the heartbeat is a good place.

If you still have any stamina left, you can also try to think about emptiness there, at the level of the heartbeat. Okay? So it's a good question.

The classical place to see emptiness the first time is before you are deep into the heartbeat. Other question. Also, nyen dok means getting into the first level of heartbeat.

It's even before you're totally into it. And the name of that level is called mi chok me. Mi chok me means you don't not have any time.

Okay, it's a complicated name. Okay, Christina.

[Speaker 2]
Geshe-la, thank you for teaching. How do the three levels in the lion's dance relate to the six realms in the Wheel of Light? Does the bardo have any...

[Speaker 1]
Oh, good. Okay, good question. So when you're...

Don't forget that when we talk about desire realm, or form realm, or formless realm, the meaning is if you do that meditation a lot, after you die, you will be born in that realm. So it's not actually what I call form realm meditation. You're not in the form realm.

If you did it a lot, every day, like, I don't know, three, four hours, after you die, you would go to the form realm. Then you would be like Wonder Woman or Superman or something like that. Then after that you die, you go to hell.

Okay? So the air conditioner is desire realm. The form realm is these beautiful superhero beings.

Formless realm is people who don't have a gross physical body. They just have some prana. How does it relate to the pictures in the Wheel of Life?

All six of the pictures in the Wheel of Life are desire realm. And the bardo in the Wheel of Life is mostly desire realm. Okay, so they didn't paint some of the deities in the one on the fifth part of the, half of the fifth part of the Wheel of Life.

Some of those deities are at the top of the desire realm and some of them are in the form realm. But they didn't paint the formless ones. Okay, so, but they would also be considered to be inside the Wheel because they are suffering.

So anything inside the Wheel is suffering. Anybody outside the Wheel is not suffering. Buddha is the only person they ever paint outside the Wheel.

Sometimes I've seen people put ducks outside and turtles. My lama used to get very upset. He said, they're in the Wheel of Life.

They're not outside the Wheel of Life. So you're only supposed to paint the Buddha outside the Wheel. So inside would be everybody, form, formless, and desire realm.

You can't see the formless ones. Some of the devas, gods, worldly gods, half of them are in the desire realm and half of them are in the form realm or the formless realm. Okay?

Okay, maybe one more question. There is a lama in the Wheel somewhere. Near the center.

He's teaching and he's pulling people up into bardo. I guess you could count him outside or her. Hi Geshe-la, thank you for teaching.

[Speaker 2]
You're welcome.

[Speaker 1]
So when we're doing the level of Lion Dance, we're supposed to see how the seed creates a teacher, the silver axe. So my question is related to that. First part is, according to the Mayan school, you often talk about one seed creates two branches.

One is you and one is the teacher you are seeing. So according to that, and also I often heard the idea that like in our tradition, in our lineage, the Dharad lineage, it's the path of lama, it's guru yoga. And many times you emphasize on that and you said that's our belief, that's our system.

And then I read it in the Lamrim and many other books saying that our goal is to become one with the lama, like you become your lama. And so I would like to ask you to explain a little more about how to use this idea that one seed creates both you and your teacher and this combination of your mind, your teacher's mind, things like that, so that we reach the highest goal in the fastest way. Cool, good question.

So what Stanley is referring to is the definition of emptiness, one of the descriptions of emptiness in the mind-only school, which is sultan sung dzin gyi tse ma, dzey shen gyi tongwa. Say, suk, dang, sung dzin, gyi, tse ma, dzey shen gyi tongwa. So that's emptiness according to the mind-only school, which is the third of the four great schools from India, right?

So pretty high school. And suk means colors and shapes that you see, things you see in the outside world. Sung dzin gyi tse ma means the pramana or the accurate perception which is holding on to those forms.

So your eye and the colors and shapes that you see. Dzey shen means different substance, different stuff. Dzey shen gyi tongwa means they are empty of that.

There's no such thing. They are not separate stuff. Then some people don't understand that very clearly.

They say, my mind and the clock are made of the same stuff, which is not correct. That's not what the mind-only school says. What they say is our code word for seed is stuff.

So dzey shen gyi tongwa means separate seed. So when I meet my Lama, or when I see, I saw two enchiladas just before we played music and we had a little fight and they lost. Hasso made them and Hero.

Unbelievable. Yeah, increased my intelligence. So, this Mexican food and my mouth, okay?

It looks like we are separate. They are the object. I am the subject.

Then those of you who studied DCI, somebody asked me today, would it be, Geshe-la, I'm busy. I'm a mom. I don't have time to become DCI teacher and ACI teacher.

And you know, it's too much. I also have to make some money and take care of my children. What should I do?

And basically I said DCI has all of the stuff in it, except it's more people can use it, you see? So I like Lam Rim. I like Kamalashila.

If you have time, come to those things. It's like getting the foundation. But if you want to help more people, I think DCI is complete.

DCI has everything. It doesn't look like it. It's secret.

Okay, and you, I think last time we went to Singapore, 7,000 people came in one week. And they're listening to all this stuff, you know? Same thing.

ZAD CIG RTOG PA DA'I. Adam? Yeah, same stuff in a different package.

It's called a business program. So anyway, we have the Mind-Only School. It's in the teachings of the DCI.

And I like to show it with a tree. So here's the tree trunk, and then here's two branches. And on a windy day, the two branches are hitting each other.

This is your husband in the kitchen. This is you come home from work. On a windy day, arguing, you're stupid.

No, you're stupid. Okay, the wind is blowing the two branches. They are hitting each other.

Then what the wife doesn't understand, or the husband, is that the wife and the husband, both created by the same seed before, okay? Last week. Last week a seed was planted.

Then a tree grow. Then it split into husband and wife. Then they start fighting when the wind blows, you see?

But actually, they both come from one seed, okay? Subject and object come from the same seed. This is Mind-Only School, okay?

So for them, emptiness means all things in the universe are empty of subject and object coming from a different seed. That's their emptiness. That's what they call emptiness.

All things in the universe are empty of subjects and objects that come from different seeds, okay? Got it? That's their definition of emptiness, okay?

So what Stanley's asking about is, Geshe-la, we're focusing on the Lama that we are looking at, but aren't we coming from the same? By the way, I like this one. I was a little upset when I heard it in the monastery, and I remember where I was sitting.

We don't have a classroom. We didn't have any money. We're a refugee.

I'm sitting at the, we're all crowded around the Lama's bed. Lama's teaching on the bed. The roof is leaking on all of us, and we're just like this, and he's explaining all this, and we are supposed to sit like this, and then if Lama says, okay, and we're supposed to go, yes sir, you know, and we never interrupt the Lama.

Not allowed, okay? It's not a democratic system. And there's no student participation.

You can do it in the debate ground. You can debate in the debate ground, but in the class you never interrupt the Lama. Then I'm like, you know, this is lower school.

I'm like, but it sounds right, you know. I couldn't stand it, you know. Then one time I interrupted the Lama.

I said, Lama, you know, he's like, what? I'm like, what's wrong with this idea? It sounds correct to me, you know.

Why is it lower school? He says, it is correct. It is higher school.

We accept it. Highest middle way school. Accept this.

Then I said, well, why do you say it's a mind-only school? Mind-only school believes that the person in front of you, how should we say, well, they believe it's made of atoms, like a scientist, okay? Believe that this is made of atoms, okay?

Not made of image. But it has its own atoms. That's one problem.

One problem they have. They're called mind-only, but actually they believe outside things. Okay.

So, he said that's the only problem. This idea, no problem. This is correct.

So what Stanley said is, you know, in a way the goal of our spiritual life is to kind of mold with our Lama, you know. We become like very close together, mix up. Lama's mind and my mind, kind of I'm supposed to become Buddha, like that, you see.

So, in this meditation we're only thinking about where does the object come from. But actually those silver eggs are going, you see, they are making me and the Lama, okay? So if you prefer, if you have enough time, if you have two hours, you can, you can imagine the egg is splitting on this side and creating you.

And the egg is splitting on that side and creating the Lama. And that's actually true. You see?

One egg creating the meditator and the Lama in the meditation. They are both coming from one egg, okay? From one seed.

So, I think you could do that. That could be useful. You can try.

That's okay. That's okay. What's the problem?

M-A-Y-O-N-T Does the same seed create such a such a me that is in such a low level? Same seed create a Lama in such a high level. I don't know.

By that time you're pretty cool if you're meditating on Lama. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, the meditator is a low level.

The Lama is a very high level. If they're both coming from the same seed, the two branches should be similar if they come from the same seed. I think we won't know until we get better how cool the Lama can be.

How's that? Right now, you see Lama as a normal person, eating enchilada, playing music, you know, but maybe if your seed improves, you see something more cool. All right, let's do some Lam Rim.

I'm going to feel guilty tomorrow. I will count how many pages we finish. Okay.

We'll do some more questions tomorrow. I'm supposed to go to 9.45. I think Tim changed the schedule after I approved it. So, I propose 9.30 with no break, okay?

It's the same thing, okay? Don't think I'm cheating you. Okay, I'm a diamond dealer.

So, I propose 9.30 because it's been a long week, and I think it will be more productive, okay? Okay, with no break. If you have to go pee-pee, just stand up and go, okay?

All right, eight qualities that we would like to plant in advance. Is there something like this in the DCI teaching? Can you guys think?

There's a word for it. It comes in the level four and level five. I'll give you a clue.

You design the car you want, okay? You design the boyfriend you want, okay? So, you're doing projecting karma and finishing karma.

In DCI level four and five, especially five, you are planting multiple seeds. One seed for the boy, one seed for his job, one seed for how tall he is, one seed for how nice he is, one seed for how loyal is he, okay? Different seeds.

Can he play bass or not? That's the main one. Okay, so here also, you are designing me, okay, for next year or two years from now, okay?

You are designing all of you. Eight qualities, okay? Eight qualities.

Eight qualities you should have if you're going to be a good Dharma teacher, okay? First one, seringwa, long life, okay? If you look at the famous lamas in history, most of them, like the one who wrote The Angel Devil, how old was he?

Ninety-two, okay? Where's all the other books? They died.

Okay? The lama died when he was 30 or 40. He didn't write any books, okay?

Understand? You need a long life to do all this stuff, right? It takes a long life to do, okay?

You should plant a long life, okay? So you have time just to do the five-part lion's dance, you have to have a long life. Okay, suksangwa, good-looking body, we'll explain it.

Riktowa, in your country you should be a little bit comfortable class of person. You have enough money to have a house, to meditate, you can go to Arizona, okay? That takes money, okay?

It doesn't mean you should be high social class so you can have more cocktails or something. It doesn't mean that. It means you have leisure to do Dharma.

Dharma takes money, Dharma takes time, okay? Number four, wangchuk chewa, we're going to explain it, but it means like authority, okay? Five is tsig sumpa, people should honor what you say.

They should believe what you say, okay? Wang chewa drakpa, we said lineage, we're going to talk about more, okay? Number seven is, if it's more useful to be a man, you're a man.

If it's more useful to be a woman, you're a woman, okay? You can switch depending on what society you live in, okay? And eight, you have very strong body and mind, healthy body and mind, okay?

Now let's talk about them. de yang per la jing ten na shing gi su nam lekpa le de bu sangwa jungwa shin, rang re nam kyewa nga me le sangpo tu le da ta lu longju sok kyang ma lu tsam chungwa yin la Everything about our body right now, good or bad, okay? Everything about your body right now, everything about your intellect, and everything about the house you live in and the city you live in, that was all created by your pasakamma.

I told you a joke. I was driving in Australia with a great Dharma teacher named Salim Lee from Indonesia, and I said, you're so amazing. He's a famous architect, he's a famous college professor, he's a famous designer of old folks' homes.

He doesn't visit the old lady, he builds the houses for them and makes them cool. And you're rich and he's extremely spiritual. I said, you know, you're just a very strange person.

He said, Geshe-la, it's not me, it's Joe. It's all Joe. Then I'm like, then I thought, oh, I got to meet this guy.

I said, where's Joe? Where can I meet him? Where does he live?

No, Geshe-la, Joe is my past life. You know, I didn't do anything. Joe did all this work, you know.

I just enjoy Joe's result, okay? So right now, the body we have, the mind we have, the city we have, the country we have, it's all coming from Joe. Okay?

Now we are the Joe for the next one. Okay, so we can we can make things even better, okay? All right.

,DIN LOS BSTOD NAS, ,'BYUNG TZAM GYIS MI PHAN PAR, ,'CHI LO BSTOD RTOGS KYI SON NAM LA MTSUNGS DGOS PAR BZHIN, After the farmer collects the fruits or the crops this year, they have to, they got to think about next year, okay? If you're a real gardener, real farmer, there's no time to enjoy the fruits much, okay? Because you already you're thinking about next year.

Okay, so we should, it's nice to have a, we have an okay body, we have an okay mind, but let's plan for an even better one, okay? Let's design the next one. Now, okay, more consciously, okay?

,SKYE BA PHYI MA LA, ,'JIG MI NYAM PAR DANG, ,PHYI MA LA BSTAM LO STONG KHAN YIN YANG, ,'JIG STE DE NAS MI PHAN ZHING, Most people, their relationship to their future life is two kinds. Number one, they don't think about it. Okay?

They're not like working really hard to make sure next life they have hair up here. Okay? They just don't think about it.

Okay? Or they're scared. They're scared.

I don't want to die. Okay? So this is the normal relationship that most people have of their, with their future life.

Okay? Either they don't think about it, or they're scared. Okay?

The ones who don't think about it get scared later. So sooner or later everybody gets scared. Okay?

DE PHAN MI PHAN, but that doesn't help you prepare. Okay? To get scared doesn't help you.

,SNGON MTHOGS PHAL PA TZAM GYIS RGYUD GRUB PAS KYANG, ,GANG YANG MI YONG BA'I, You can say I want to be a human Geshe-la. A lot of people told me that. I just don't want to be a roach again.

I want to be a human. Okay? Like that.

Okay? People always tell me that. Where did my mother go after she died?

Where is she living? Which house? I'm like, what's that?

Somebody asked Buddha how many people get reborn as a human. He was sitting outside a dime mountain, dust, in the dust. He go, that's his answer.

It means count all the dust in the whole earth. And then you count the dust on his finger. That many become human.

And that many don't become human. People are always asking me, where's my mom? I'm like, you don't want to know.

,DUG PA'I KYANG, ,GANG YANG MI YONG BA'I, ,PHYIR GRUB PA'I NUS RTEN BSKYED PA CHEN ZHIG, ,LTOS PA'I RGYUD GRUB DGOS LA, So we should study how to make a good future body and mind. Okay. Because we are studying karma, right?

So we can design future life. And honestly, in DCI you can design your finances for 2018. Somebody asked me, ,DGIS LA, I said, what?

Can you design your future partner if you don't have a partner? I said, of course, you can design. Then they said, yeah, but what if you already have a partner?

I said, well, just upgrade. Business class. They said, what do you mean?

I said, well, how much about them do you like now, how much you don't like? Then usually people, it depends on if the husband's standing there or not. If the husband's standing there, they say, oh, he's 99%, you know.

Then if the husband's not standing there, they say, he's about 75%. Then I said, well, don't you want 100%? Yeah, but ,DGIS LA, it's not going to happen.

I said, why? He says, he has big ears. Like, am I going to change his ears?

I said, why not? Four steps. Plant new ears.

What? I can change my husband's ears? Yeah, easy, no problem.

Okay, I'll tell you something cool. I taught people how to change the husband's ears. And then next year I saw them.

I said, how's your husband's ears? They said, what? I said, how's your husband's ears?

Did the husband's ears change? They said, DGIS LA, what are you talking about? I said, last year you told me your husband's ears are too big.

You told me what's the four steps to change my husband's ears. They said, I don't remember. My husband's ears are fine.

You will change them so good, you won't remember what they were before. Okay, really, you can change anything. Lama coming from you, ears also coming from you.

Okay, why not? So in DCI, with lots of coffee meditation, you don't have to wait till next life to make these improvements. I like this kind of system because you don't have to talk to your husband about his ears.

You just change them. You don't ask him permission. You just change them.

You see? Okay? It's fun.

No more arguing. I used to argue like way till five o'clock in the morning, argue, argue, argue. Now I just change things.

I don't tell them. Okay. With certain friends of mine.

All right, not with my partner. Okay, NYID PA DE'I PHYED LAS NI. Okay, why is it useful to have these eight qualities?

Okay, you ready? Number one, and I numbered them for you in the English. YIN DANG SKYES KYI DANG PO'I RANG BZHIN GYI DE'I NGE TSA'I YUN RIN DU SGRUB PA'I PHYED THAR PHYIN PA BYED You have time to do all the good karmas you want to help yourself and to help other people.

Some of those projects take some time. You need to live a long life to change your country, for example. Something you don't like about the weather or something like traffic, it takes some time.

So you need time. And I lived a long life and I'm really happy. I'm really glad.

I was able to do, I counted how many books I did, 65 books. Okay, I have 31. I'm in the middle of them.

96 books. But if you don't live a long life, you don't have time to study all those things. Okay?

Okay, number two, good appearance. If you look nice, you can get more students. Okay?

And that's the only reason. Okay? That's the only reason.

Okay? People are attracted to handsome teachers. My teacher was not handsome and he was very short.

When you're with him, he feels like he's 10 feet tall, but physically he was short. And he broke his nose in a car accident. Then I remember, and then we brought a monk to cook for my Lama.

Very tall, very handsome. And I remember one day I was in New York and this movie maker, famous movie maker, what's his name? Harrison Ford's wife, she made E.T. Then she came to me. She said, I want to make a movie. I need a Lama. I said, yeah, I have a Lama.

She said, oh, okay, I will come down and see. And the whole crew came, movie crew came down to our temple. And the cook, handsome cook, he was over there.

My Lama was over there. The handsome cook doesn't know anything. Nothing.

No Dharma knowledge, nothing. And then they all went over to the handsome cook. They said, oh Lama, you are Geshe Michael's Lama.

Will you be in our movie? My Lama's like... And the handsome cook is like, what, what?

And they said, you know, you are Geshe-la's Lama. No, no, he's a Lama. So people always they go towards what's beautiful, handsome.

It's not a good thing. It's a big mistake. Sometimes the handsome person is not honest and not nice and doesn't know anything.

And sometimes the not so handsome person knows everything. But in the world, that's the way the world is. Okay.

Usually the famous movie stars, singers, they are all so beautiful. So if we're going to design future Michael, then okay, make him a little bit nice. Okay, like that.

Only to attract the students. Okay. Okay, number three.

GSUNGS PAS. This is, in your country you are like upper class, more money, okay, more comfortable. GSUNGS PA'I RANG GIS JI LTAR DGOS BA LTAR GZHAN GYIS NYON PA DANG If people think you are a little bit like wealthy person or high position, then when you tell them you have to do 30 days of lion dance, they will say, yes, Lama.

Okay, like that. Okay, they will listen to you. What you, DGOS BA means what you instruct them, they will follow.

It's not a good thing, but that's the way it is. Okay. Most of the great Buddhist saints in India were also princes.

Buddha was a prince. Asanga was the son of a king. Shantideva was the son of a king.

These great Lamas. Usually the karma to be a high Lama is also the karma to be born as a as a king or to be born in a wealthy country like that. Okay.

All right, number four. Authority. ZHIG PA DBANG CHUG CHE BA DE'I SPYANG SBYOR CHE BZHIN GOS MANG BA'I NI SEMS CAN RNAMS MTHONG MA SANGS SEMS KYI DBANG DU LTAR CHUG KYI MIN PAR BYED DE GZHAN DON SLOB BYED NYON PA DANG Number four mostly means you have money.

And you can pay for the Dharma classes. I taught ACI 36 courses for 14 years. I paid for everything.

I had to pay for everything. All day I work and then night I teach. I have to pay for the renting the place and 14 years.

All the books, everything I have to do. I print them at midnight in my house. I put them in a backpack.

I carry them to New York, you know, then hand them out. And then, you know, slowly people started to help me. But if you're going to be a Dharma teacher be ready to pay for it.

And it's an honor. Okay, so don't feel oh, my students are lazy. They never help me.

Okay, just pay. Okay, it will come back. Don't worry about it.

It's a good investment. Okay, better than stock market. Okay, better than real estate.

You're a Dharma class. Make the Dharma beautiful. Okay, they asked me with these meditation books, Geshe-la, can we print black and white?

No, but it's expensive. I don't care. You want money?

Here's the money. Okay, make it Dharma should be beautiful. Okay, it's going to save somebody's life.

Shouldn't be cheap and ugly. Okay? Then Dharma teaching place should be cool.

Okay? Don't put the throne holder of Tsongkapa's throne when I was young. Somebody brought him to New York and put him in an abandoned building with no heat.

He's on the concrete in the corner. Okay, you don't do that. Then Dharma should be a nice place.

They asked me in New York, I just agreed to go to New York for two days in February. They said, where do you want to teach? I said Lincoln Center.

This is the most famous place in America. They're like, Geshe-la, can you pay? I was like, yeah, okay, I'll pay.

Okay, all right. Dharma should be classy. Elegant?

Okay, and if you don't have money, you can't do that. Okay? So number four, I said authority.

When he explained it, he said mainly financial. Okay? There are how many perfections?

Ten. The last four are how to collect your students. Okay?

The last four perfections are how to collect your students. What's the first one? Bride them.

Who said that? Yeah. Okay.

Have nice food for them. Have a beautiful place for them. You pay.

And they will say, oh, this Dharma Center is nice. They give free churros and yotels and ponchiks and donuts. That's the only word I know in every language.

I don't know why. Okay, so you need to have some money to attract the students. All right, number five.

SNGA BA'I NI GZHAN GYIS BSTAN PA RDZIN PA BYAS If people respect what you say, then they will believe it. They will believe it. When you teach them do the lion's dance, they will do it.

You need that karma. Sometimes people say stupid stuff and everybody believes them. Sometimes people say true stuff and nobody believes them.

That's because of karma. Okay, so we want to make the karma that when we say true things, people will listen to us. It's very frustrating when you're giving someone a deep Dharma practice and they're like, yeah, okay, but I got to go to a movie.

Okay. So you need this karma. In Buddha Buddha, what did we talk about?

What was the subject in Buddha Buddha? Yeah, family wealth, planning. How to make money for your parents, for your children, for your wife or husband.

And then we divide it into two parts. One is making the money. And one is if your family, if your parents or your children or your wife or husband, if they don't follow this system, they will lose the money.

The one year after you leave it to them. One year after you give your kids money for college, money for house, money for kids. If they don't know the four steps, they will lose it.

Then everybody in the audience is like, but Geshe-la, they don't listen to me. Okay, then we have to work on that first. First we have to work on the karma of why don't people listen to you?

Guess what? You don't listen to other people. I have a suggestion, Geshe Michael.

Yeah, yeah, just tell Michael Dunn. Tell the other Michael. Okay, understand?

Then if you want your family to listen to you, you have to listen to other people. Right, Phelma? Just kidding.

I mean, I'm not going to listen to you everything, but maybe more. Okay. All right, number six.

,'GRUB PA NI RGYAL PO RGA LTAR, ,CHAL BA THAMS CAD JI LTAR DGOS BA LAS, ,MING DAG BAR NUS DU GRUB PA, ,RGYAL PO RGA LTAR, ,CHAL BA THAMS CAD JI LTAR DGOS BA LAS, ,MING DAG BAR NUS DU GRUB PA, This is a little bit different than what I said. So number six means, RGYAL PO RGA means the king tells people do this or do that, right? Then DGOS BA LAS MING DAG BAR, they obey the king and they do things NYON RBA, quickly.

Okay? So people listen to you and what you ask them to do, they do it quickly. Okay?

If you're going to be a dharma teacher, you need to have the karma that people will listen to what you ask them to do, and they will do it quickly, not five years later. Okay? All these things are, if you want to be a dharma teacher, you got to make these karmas.

Okay? It doesn't help if you know a lot, and then you don't have the karma that people listen to you. Okay?

You can talk all day by yourself. No one will do anything. Okay?

Some people have the karma to be a dharma teacher and they have no dharma. They tell people, think about nothing, and the people are, oh, thank you Lama. Okay?

Some people have something to teach, but no one wants to listen to them. Okay? So you want both, right?

Okay. All right, number seven. DON PAS NI KHOR GYI'U GNOD US SU MI'I RJIGS SHING DBANG PA'I PHYIR PO NAS DE CHOS GRUB PA LA SOGS PA DGE'I BSTAMS PAR BYED NYON BAR He's talking about ancient India, ancient Tibet.

It was advantageous to be born as a man. There are 4,600 books left from ancient Indian Buddhism. 4,600 books in the ACI database.

It took us 25 years. It took John Brady, we should give him a hand, 25 years. We finished about five years ago, six years ago, we finished.

It took 25 years. How many were written by women? I think one.

Maybe two. Okay, so in that country, India, women were not respected, women were not asked to teach. There are many stories about cool women who did teach in the sutras, but you have to dig to find them.

Okay, so in the country you're born into, and then there are countries where women are more respected, okay? There are countries where the family line goes down to the woman, okay? So the women are in charge.

Actually, women are in charge everywhere, but so anyway, depending on which country you want to teach Dharma, you should plan, I want to be a woman or I want to be a man. Like sometimes in America, teaching Dharma, women will believe a woman more, you see? So then it would be more smart to be born as a woman, okay?

So you have to plan these things. Okay, you have to plan these things. Which one you want to be is number seven.

You choose. Depends on which country you're going to teach in. All right, number eight.

We're doing good. We're going to finish this tonight. Strong body and mind.

LUS THOB BYED PA BYED MI LA LTAR GANG TSE CHEN PO'I SGRUB DGOS PA'I CHOS RNAMS KYANG GANG TSE I'm sorry, yeah, in India, to do retreat, as I mentioned before, you had to be male. A woman in the forest in India could have been raped or could have been considered dirty, okay? It was not allowed in India for a woman to go out in the forest and be a meditator.

I mean, somebody like Niguma did it, and she had a lot of problems, okay? She had a lot of cultural problems. All right, number eight, body and mind.

LUS THOB BYED PA So Milarepa, one of the most famous meditators, yeah, he started his long retreats, three-year retreats, when he was 50. He started his serious retreats when he was 50, and he became the greatest meditator in Tibet. Okay, history.

Because he had a very strong body. He could go in the snow. He could go in the cave.

He had strong health. He didn't get sick easily. He lived off of nettles, green cactus, for many years.

He just ate green cactus. It's good stuff. But if we try it, we will get sick.

We will have to go home. But he had a very strong body, okay? ,GA TSE CHEN PO'I GRUB DGOS PA'I CHOS NAMS KYANG, ,GA TSE GYIS GRUB NUS ZHING, SEMS THOB BYED PA And if you have a strong mind, ,GZHAN GYIS SDON GANG LA MI GYUR, you don't get discouraged, okay?

Strong mind here means work hard for other people. Disappointment, disappointment, disappointment, disappointment. Disaster, disaster, disaster, disaster.

Problem, problem, problem, problem. You're like, I can do this. This is cool.

Okay, so you never get discouraged. You never give up, okay? You're like, you know, you teach somebody for years, then they go crazy, and then you're like, okay, I'll start with another person.

Okay, it's okay. You don't get, if you have a strong mind, you just feel happy all the time, okay? If I succeed teaching, I'm happy.

If I don't, I will do again tomorrow. I don't care. I don't care if I fail with 100 students, then I will teach the next one.

Okay? I don't care. You have to be hard-head.

To be in the Dharma business, you have to be stubborn. Okay? Like Gyel Tse.

MI GYEL BZHING. MGROL ZHUGS CHE BA means you enjoy it, okay? Hard, hard times.

No sleep. Do the fire offering. Ten people say, I got to talk to you on your way home, Geshe-la.

Okay. Then you're like, let's do it, man. Come on.

Let's have hot chocolate and talk till midnight. Okay, like really have fun and never feel tired, okay? All right, MGROL ZHUGS CHE BA LA BSTAN PA SOGS SOGS RTOGS PA'I RTOGS RTOGS NAS SNGON SHES NYUS DU BYA BA'I RGYUS BYAS PA SOGS BYUNG Also, if you keep up this kind of good attitude, happy attitude, even when the Dharma teaching is difficult or the students are difficult, your own mind expands, okay?

Your own mind becomes more intelligent every year, and it's kind of freaky. It's kind of strange, okay? Your mind becomes, your IQ grows every, your mind changes every year, okay?

You become more, just everything, you can read everything scripture, easy, like newspaper, okay? And more scripture come to you. And, and just everything.

I mean, you feel healthier every year and your mind grows. Your mind expands. And easily you can do difficult meditations and things like that.

Karma, right? Karma change your brain capacity. And then you just like, you can speak many languages and everything.

You can do anything, okay? All right. So tomorrow we will talk about how to plant those eight seeds, okay?

What's the method to plant those specific eight seeds? Because I want to be a kick-butt dharma teacher. Not just next life, but in this life, okay?

Like, in five years, I want to be a different person. I want to be super virus. Then you need these eight karmas.

You have to know what these eight karmas are, okay? How to plant these eight karmas. So we'll do it tomorrow, okay?

[Speaker 2]
All right.