«Дар освобождения», курс 27 «Четыре цветка», занятие 10

[Speaker 2]
Let's meditate. Turn off your telephone.

[Speaker 1]
So this is the first of your 30 days, okay? And I'm not going to explain much. We'll just, it's like tomorrow, okay?

You're doing it on your own, right? Hopefully someone will help me with the barcode thing or whatever that is. I can take a picture of it.

I don't know what to do after that. Seriously. Yeah?

You guys can help me?

[Speaker 2]
How to get to the WhatsApp?

[Speaker 1]
I'm the paper generation. Okay. We'll do like a medium one.

Last night was a short one.

[Speaker 2]
Yesterday was a long one. Oh, clear your throat, okay? And come to the breath of the air conditioner.

Just glue your mind to the air conditioner. Then please come to the sound of your heart. Then come inside your heart, beating.

Then place your heart at a distance and disassociate from it and its beating. Then come into a grain of sugar. An endless lake, ripple, spreading out endlessly.

Make it silent. Then an infinite clear light awareness expanding from the middle of your mind. Then turn off the mind.

And then turn off the mind, but if a thought comes up, just let it go. Let it come and go. Invite one of your teachers in your life to come and sit with you.

Choose one. It can be a different one every day or every few days. Or it could be the same one.

And think of some beautiful quality.

[Speaker 1]
It could be the same as yesterday or you can change every few days.

[Speaker 2]
You'll probably find more and more. Now see that quality coming out of silver seeds in your mind. Feel strongly that this quality is coming from you.

We don't have it, maybe, yet, like they have it, but we have the seeds.

[Speaker 1]
And now write a story about how you planted those seeds. You must have planted them.

[Speaker 2]
We don't remember what happened, but we can make a story which is similar. Be very creative.

[Speaker 1]
Don't be lazy. Don't stop adding details for the next few minutes. Take some extra time for this.

[Speaker 2]
Don't be shy to make it amazing. And then come back to your teacher.

[Speaker 1]
Ask them respectfully to shift to the side. And now imagine a different teacher. Same face, same body, but they are just an accident.

They're not coming from you. They're not coming from how you acted in the past. You met them by accident.

They were created by accident. And really they're part of a larger world which is an accident, just random. There's no moral cause of the world or this teacher.

[Speaker 2]
And your heart should make objections to this idea. It should feel wrong. And then cancel this impossible teacher.

[Speaker 1]
Watch them dissolve and try to learn, try to almost teach yourself to stay in an empty place where they are not.

[Speaker 2]
And then bring back the real teacher, the one coming from you.

[Speaker 1]
And you can imagine that emptiness of the false teacher is in their heart. It's the core of their being which allows the seeds to work.

[Speaker 2]
This teacher is coming from me.

[Speaker 1]
We have a connection for many lifetimes. As I improve as a person, they will become more and more pure in my eyes. And I will become more like them.

[Speaker 2]
And together we will go to enlightenment.

[Speaker 1]
Then I like to ask that Lama to come into my heart, stay in my heart like that grain of sugar maybe all day. Help me when I have trouble, when I have doubts, when I'm afraid. Stay inside until tomorrow when I meditate again.

Help me. And then we'll start down the elevator, down the ladder, by turning off the mind and allowing thoughts to come and go without resistance.

[Speaker 2]
And now turning off the mind but resisting thoughts. A little more noisy. And now bringing back that clear light of consciousness from the edges of the universe.

And now bringing back the ripples on the lake. And now coming back to the grain of sugar. And now coming back to the heart beating in a vacuum.

I'm not there. And now back to the heart beating and I'm inside the heart. I'm almost beating with the heart.

And now back to yourself as you started and you are watching the heartbeat.

[Speaker 1]
And now three long breaths of golden light to share this wisdom and these seeds with people we love, people of our community, our country, and this world.

[Speaker 2]
Then you can gently open your eyes. Take a stretch.

[Speaker 1]
Drink something.

[Speaker 2]
Miss Chinzon, I need my purse. Purse.

[Speaker 1]
I'll take some questions. In the meantime, this is an empty bag. We forgot to collect some money for the kitchen stuff.

So I'm going to put some in and then you put some in. And Tim, we can invite them over before the break maybe. Where is Tim?

He escaped. They work really, really hard and it's fun to surprise them. Jenny, catch.

Make sure it goes around. Haro, are you here in Kamalashmit? Okay.

I want to help with what you talked about yesterday.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, any questions? Geshe-la?

[Speaker 1]
Where are you?

[Speaker 2]
I was wondering if you could share, for those of us that teach meditation to non-Buddhist people to help them with their stress and health and all of that. After this teaching, I'm a little confused what to teach now because so much of that is based on... Closer, yeah.

So much of that is based on trying to help just calm the mind, number one, amongst other things. But how can we still teach them good meditation?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, good. So the question is, we were talking a lot about meditations that don't help you and meditations that can put seeds in your mind that cause you trouble later. Margie's question is, is it okay to teach someone meditation just to calm them down a little bit?

How do we start with new people, teach them meditation? Because if you teach them the lion's dance, they will dance away. So, yeah, I don't mean to discourage you from teaching.

Of course, in the Lam Rim tradition, before we learn to meditate, they say we are like wild horses and our mind is crazy and we have no control. We don't even know we don't have control. And the mind just...

My Lama used to call it RGYAL PA RGANG LA BUNG GO a fly on a piece of poop. It cannot stay for one second going like this. So we have a...

the normal human mind is very, very busy and very bad focused and thinking about negative things all day. And so, yeah, I think it's wonderful if you can just teach people to calm down a little bit. You can start with breath meditation, that's okay.

That's no problem. But it's like giving somebody breakfast and then you have to give them lunch and dinner also. So lunch is SDONG LEN Everybody likes SDONG LEN.

It's a great meditation to start with. So you can start with breath and that's okay, just to calm them down. And then I think everybody in the world, even if they're not Buddhist, they appreciate SDONG LEN.

They can feel good when they do SDONG LEN. So I think that's a tradition in the monastery. We start with SDONG LEN.

And we continue to do it through the whole monastic. The big Geshe's also do it. So you start at seven years old doing SDONG LEN and at 50 you're still doing SDONG LEN.

So that's a great lunch. And this one's for dinner when they are more mature in their practice and their mind is more calmed down. Then you can share this one with them.

But I think it's good to, from the beginning, to gently let them know the restaurant's on the ninth floor. There's lots of floors in the elevator and we can visit the other floors, but I think it's good to let them know there's a bigger purpose by which we are going to cure bigger problems in the world, like death or sickness or loneliness. You know that the goal of the meditation is grand and we're going to a bigger place in the end.

Than just breathing. But I don't mean to discourage you. It's just when people are ready for lunch, give them lunch.

They can't live without lunch and dinner.

[Speaker 2]
Joel, up to you. Hello. I just want to check and see if I understood or heard correctly when you were talking about, in the ninth step, you were talking about moving your lama to the side and bringing in the false lama.

I heard that the false lama has the same face as the real lama. Did I hear correctly?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, and this goes back to the two husbands in the kitchen. This is a DCI skit that we do and we say there's always two husbands living in your kitchen and one of them is coming from you. If that husband gets angry or that husband doesn't show you affection or loyalty, that's coming from you.

So that husband's real. Then there's another husband that looks exactly the same. But in your heart, in your whole life, you've felt that they're not coming from you.

When they're not nice to you or not loyal or not affectionate, that's their decision and it's their fault and that one is false. But they look, the problem is they look exactly the same. Physically, on the outside, they look exactly the same.

How you feel about them is completely opposite, angel and devil. The feeling that they are, that they have decided to hurt you is false. Actually, you hurt someone before and therefore you have to see a husband who's hurting you.

That's good news and bad news. The bad news is every irritating person you ever met was a mirror of your own behavior. Direct result of your own behavior.

That's the bad news. Especially with certain political officials and things. But the good news is you can change anybody.

If that person's coming from my seeds, then without confronting them and without tension, by improving my own seeds, I can change them and I can change the whole world. That's what we mean by false. The problem is exactly that they look exactly the same.

How you feel about them is different. Any other questions? By the way, if the false husband is like, at Newark airport they have this, do you know Ben, they tried, there was a hologram lady and she stands in front of the passport area and she goes, US citizens, go to the left.

Other people, go to the right. Wait for six hours, over here. Wait for three hours, over here.

Then she keeps repeating it. Then you feel irritated towards her. You go away.

The point is that no matter, all of your feelings towards a lady who's just electricity coming out of a box are useless. It's a waste of time. All the bad feelings you have about the husband who decided not to hug you or who's arguing with you, all those emotions are wasted effort.

They're useless because there's nobody there and there never was anybody there. All the wrinkles on my face from this are a waste of time. I got these wrinkles for nothing.

About nothing. Okay? Got it?

Hologram wife or husband. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you Geshe-la.

[Speaker 1]
Alright, you're welcome.

[Speaker 2]
I have a problem in my meditation and it happened a few days ago and it was like your SpaghettiOs meditation where I had this song going over and over and I didn't even know the tune but it just happened. And then this time, the Diamond Cutter Mantra is one of my favorites and so it kept going over and over.

[Speaker 1]
That's why we don't do music before the morning meditation. Seriously.

[Speaker 2]
So, well, I was watching my mind because I could sometimes focus on the object and then you told us, you taught us that things don't toggle, the thoughts don't toggle, but what was happening is as soon as I heard it very silently coming out of the focus, all of a sudden it just took over and then I would forget about it again but I realized that that song was going all the time and even right now it's going.

I still hear it. Can you help me with this?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, good. They call it water running under the ice, right? Subtle agitation.

So, the word for meditation in Sanskrit is samapatti, one of the words. You know bhavana already. sama means stay in a balance between two things and stay between two ditches on the side of the road.

So one ditch is called chingwa which means getting sleepy and then the other ditch is called gupa which means thinking about lunch or other stuff you have to do today and then middle road is the good meditation. That's called samapatti. Balance.

Stay in balance. Don't go to sleepy and don't go to thinking about lunch. Then it's like the process of driving car and a good meditator is making these small adjustments all the time and a person who's been driving more than a year or two, they can talk and they can listen to the radio, the music, and they're not thinking about their hands.

But if you watch a driver's hands, they're constantly making small corrections. So that's what we want to achieve in meditation. When we get sleepy, we turn it more towards waking up the mind.

Then it gets too much and we start thinking about lunch and then we push back to more peaceful and then we get sleepy again. Then good meditation is like driving a car and there's a subtle form of the two ditches. When you get pretty good at meditating, then the most common is a subtle form of dullness, sleepiness.

That's dangerous because you can space out for hours. I have a friend, he has a children's program. He puts the kids and makes them meditate for an hour or two hours.

If they're really mean to the kids, I don't know what they do, but the kids learn to sit there and don't move. But sometimes they're like... Even the ones who think they're having a good meditation, they're just sleepy.

They're spaced out. That's a very bad habit. It's better to take a break, wash your face, have some coffee, come back.

I mean, maybe not coffee. Then come back and start meditating. So subtle chingwa, they call it subtle chingwa, is very dangerous because you can do it for hours and you think you're meditating, but really you're just spaced out.

Now what Vimala is referring to is less common, but it's called subtle agitation. The other word in Lam Rim is water running under the ice. So if in the winter in Peterburg the river freezes.

Ngeva? Is it Ngeva? Yeah, Ngeva.

The river freezes, but under the ice the water is still going. The water is still moving. So that means they sang a nice, beautiful kirtan song before meditation.

They put it in your head. Then the ice comes, but that song is still moving under the mind, under the conscious mind. It's ready to come up anytime where the ice is kind of melting and the song keeps coming up.

And it's, we call subtle agitation. So you have to improve your smoke detector, which is a meditation skill to be able to watch your mind and tell, yeah, it's a beep, beep, beep and you say, oh, I have subtle agitation. I have water under the ice.

So you have to learn to recognize it. Then when you recognize it you fight against it. Whether you succeed or not in that fight, and here's the essence of Buddhist meditation.

Here's the essence of Tsongkapa's brilliant, life-saving, universe-changing teaching, is that whether you can fight that jingle in your mind, Shut up, shut up. Whether you can fight it or not depends on how much did you waste people's time last week, blah, blah. It's all karma.

It's all karma. You can fight that mind and whether you succeed or not will be decided by what you did last week. So, if it is a problem that keeps happening then it's a sign that you have to be careful with bad deed number seven.

Seven? What's number seven? Yeah, like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, just blah, blah.

So if you hear blah, blah in your mind like, da-re-ke-ti-mi, you're trying to meditate. Then, if the seeds are there, it doesn't matter what you do. You cannot push a tree back in the ground.

It's too late. So what you can do when you come out of meditation, you do a karma analysis. You know, why am I having this song in my head?

And then you go back to last week. What was I doing last week? And then you discover something similar, which is the first law of karma.

It has to be something I did last week, which was, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, and then you say, oh, yeah, I was talking to my friend and I I started blah, blah, about Facebook stuff, or internet, and then you say, okay, next week I want my meditation to be, I want to stop the river under the ice. So this week I will be more careful not to waste talk, blah, blah, okay? So you have to be your own doctor.

You have to be your own meditation doctor. If you're sleepy, which is more common, then you have to think, what did I do last week that's making me sleepy? Why do I feel sleepy?

Why do I feel tired? Maybe, Geshe Michael, you made other people tired who needed a rest. Right?

Possible. Okay, so you have to be a karma doctor for yourself. We're going to take a break, I think.

Okay, let's do some Lam Rim. You can just search for the word causes, Nick. Causes.

Causes.

[Speaker 2]
I think.

[Speaker 1]
You can say certainly, have certainly, those two words, have certainly. Certainty, I'm sorry, have certainty.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, okay.

[Speaker 1]
And we're going to ask the kitchen staff to come around 11.45. We'll thank them and surprise them with a big donation. The boss of the kitchen, Chaz, is a famous cook in Tucson and he comes out here to nowhere to cook for us. Then he decides how to share the donations with his staff.

A big, big part of DCI is helping people to design their life. What's going to happen financially? What's going to happen in their family, in their relationships?

What's going to happen with their health? A big part of that teaching comes here. A big part of that DCI teaching about designing 2018 comes from this next section.

In this next section we are consciously planting seeds for next year or next life. Now that you've been in this class for this week and you heard the principles of karma, Pabongka Rinpoche here says you should use it. Don't just leave it in the book.

Have some courage, determination and courage and use it in your life. Then your life, every part of your life, your inner life and your outer life should improve. I've had new students come to me and say, well Geshe-la, why aren't all of your students successful in every way?

I'm like, I don't know. This person, by the way, they own a spiritual gangster company, right? They own a yoga clothing company.

They took these principles and they started using them maybe seven, eight years ago. They are extremely successful now. They're in Bloomingdale's.

They're a huge, big company now. Sometimes he says I have dinner with them and they say, Geshe-la, we don't even come to your programs but we use your stuff. Well, how come your students don't use it?

Nice shot. I don't know. Don't don't lose out.

Have a nice future. Have a nice 2018. Use the karma.

Use karma. Then you'll be comfortable and you'll be happy and your life will go smoothly inside spiritual life and your physical life. Use it.

Here's where we reach the part of how to do it. This is where in the Lam Rim he encourages you to do the same thing. Here we go.

GSOS PA DE RGYUD GRUB PA NI What kinds of seeds do you have to plant to design your future? To design your future. You should be designing 2018 now.

You should be planting 2018 now and you should have some goals in mind. Outside goals and inner goals. Relationship goals.

Physical goals. SPYOD RJES PA LA DE DAG CHUNG NA LAS SMOS DE DAG AE YONG YAM NA Adam, here's a good one for you. AE YONG Really, you have to say it like this.

AE YONG Like, okay, I understand all this theory, but can I really get what I want? AE YONG YONG means will it come. AE YONG means I don't know about it.

Say AE YONG. AE YONG Can you really change 2018? Can I really have a great year?

On the inside and on the outside. Then he says, DE NGES PAR DBANG Translate some, one of you illustrious translate. It's 100% certain.

Just try. If you don't try, it's not going to happen. NGES PAR DBANG NYA DPER NA ZHING PA TSUD SDUG BSNGAL BDE BU'ONG BAR BSHAD NAS CI DUS SU SA BON BTAB NAS Here comes the core of DCI.

This sentence is the core of DCI. Duh! Duh!

Even farmers know that. In the springtime, they plant the seeds. In the fall, they get the food.

Understand? Even farmers understand. Okay, so NYA BA'O BA ZHING NAS CI DUS SU SA BON BTAB NAS They plant their seeds.

SA BON, right? They plant their seeds. There's the use of seed for karma.

And that's another big core idea of DCI. People are uncomfortable with the word karma in some countries. So, here, word seed.

Just use the word seed. It's okay. Same thing.

BSTON PA'I STON KHAR BDE BU NGES PAR DBANG BA LTAR Definitely, in the autumn, in the fall, you will get some crops. Well, what are you thinking? Just plant them.

RANG RES KYANG DAG REG RTEN DI LA RNAMS NAS NYON TEN RGYAS LDAN GYI RGYUD GRUB NAS SMOS LA RNAMS DAG GI TZAM BYA NA PHYI MA BDE BU NGOS NGES PAR DBANG STE Then he says, if you put butter on your attempts to plant these seeds, definitely you're going to get some awesome results. What's the butter? Virus chitta.

Don't call it bodhi chitta. Yeah, virus chitta means I will plant my seeds. I will be successful on the outside and the inside.

Then naturally people will ask me, how do you do that? Then I'll share it with them. That's bodhi chitta.

That's bodhisattva's state of mind. Don't think it's something else, please. Don't think Manjushri has bodhi chitta.

I don't. It's not true. If you're organizing in Shenzhen for an MBA program, you have bodhi chitta.

I hope. I think so. All right.

ZAM BYA NA PHYI MA BDE BU NGOS NGES PAR DBANG STE As long as you plant your seeds with lots of butter. What's the butter? Virus chitta.

With just that idea, I'm planting seeds for 2018. Other people will watch me. I will succeed.

They will ask me, how do you do that? Then I become a living advertisement for karma. Living example.

RGYI BO'I MPHRI DMYAL What do you call it in Spanish? Living example. Yeah, that's what I say.

Okay. Also, this next section is a good section if you're interested in correlations. Correlations means you want this, you have to plant this kind of seed.

We call it correlation. There's two cool people in Austria, Germany. Doc.

They came to me last year. They said, if you guys translate some books about correlations with your translation team like Adam and Seiji and Nick, if you guys translate some books about correlations, we will pay. We will pay for translators.

Whole salary for the whole year. Brigitte helped to squeeze, because she has strong fingers because she's a bass player. She squeezed Renate and Norbert and Jessica, his wife.

Seiji's working on that book. He's what we call principal translator. It means he's translating from Sanskrit or Tibetan, Chinese.

Then we have a second team is translating from English into Chinese, Spanish, Russian, German. If you'd like to join that team, talk to Nick. We have a German, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, French, but we need more people.

Ben Gomi's doing the Arabic and the French. Thank you. If you'd like to help with that, talk to Nick.

We need secondary translators. We need a lot of Chinese translators. Here's the correlations for the eight and again, this is a big part of DCI.

TSE RING BA'I RGYUD NI If I want to live a long and healthy life, what should I do? SEMS CAN LA GNOD TSE DANG SOGS SPYOD PO'ANG Stop hurting animals. Stop hurting other people.

I have friends, Jiva Mukti guys, David and Sharon. They say animals are just another tribe of people. They're just another country called animals.

You see? Don't hurt them. If you eat meat regularly, try to eat less.

Once a week, don't eat meat. Then twice a week, don't eat meat. Try.

Or kill the chicken in your kitchen. You will stop right away. By the way, American companies, two of them, McDonald's and KFC, Kandaji and McDonald's, they are spreading this bad idea to China, to India.

They got a contract for the Indian Railroad. They are serving meat in the Indian trains. Huge contract.

Billions of chickens killed every year. It's two American companies. I'm ashamed of that.

The best way is go to McDonald's and order a salad and say, I don't eat meat. I don't want chicken on it. They say, you want chicken?

You say, you cut your finger off and put it in, it's okay. Those big companies, they just do what you want. If you buy it, they will kill it.

The way to stop it is, you don't have to stop the company. You just ask all your friends, go there and order French fries, order salad. They should be successful.

That's okay. Green McDonald's. Green kernel.

We don't want to hurt the company, but we want them to serve healthy food that doesn't hurt animals. SETAR STONG BA means help animals to escape. Help.

You can buy fish. The Guadalajara group did a beautiful SETAR with some very huge eagles and beautiful animals. They are doing it in Mexico.

They buy them, these beautiful big animals, and they release them. It's cool to watch the big eagle fly away. First he's like, no cage.

Then he's like, hmm, let's try. Then he flies and he looks so beautiful. Casa Selecciones, right?

NYON DUN PA LTA BU There's an old tradition to release small fish. To release fish, you can do that. SOGS LUS means, it's called ransom.

LUS means ransom. You pay someone not to kill the animal. We had an idea with milk or cheese that we could pay for the cow's retirement.

Some of us are doing that. We pay for the cow's retirement. Then they just live on a farm until they die and nobody kills them.

ZHING MTSE BA GDOG PA MTSE BRDZIN PA Making sure other people have enough to eat in refugee camps or Africa or Syria. Places that are having trouble. Help them.

We have a beautiful project. Vimala, Ben, and their friend Nour, they are doing a lot of work to help the refugees in Europe. If you're interested to help with that, you can talk to them.

It's also time to help the people in Mexico City. We just gave $2,000 to those guys. I asked them when the earthquake happened, should we send money?

They said, no, send it later. Because the first week, it's in the newspaper, everybody sends money. Then after one month, nobody sends money.

If you want to work on that, who can they talk to, Tim? I don't know. You?

Yeah. If you'd like to donate, Alfredo has a... he's collecting money for that.

You can adopt a family who doesn't have a house, who lost their house. All right. BRTZON LAS STON PA means help release people from prison who are...

it's safe to release them and help them. GNAS PA LA MAN LTAR ZHING Give medicine to people who are sick. GNAS YONGS BYAS PA means serve sick people as a nurse.

Those are all reasons for long life. Long life is the first of the eight qualities that we want to design for 2018 and beyond. Also including next life.

Because to share the Dharma, you need a long life. Okay, good appearance. Okay.

Cheaper than Sephora. Okay, young men, if your partner ever says, let's go to Sephora, never go. You cannot escape this store without spending at least $200.

Just tell them you're busy or your boss told you to come to work. So here's... Also, if you want your makeup to work, it's okay to use makeup.

That's okay. But if you want it to work, you have to create the karma. Otherwise it will look terrible.

I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. There's a karma to make makeup work.

Seriously. Here it is. SOS PA Don't get upset.

Ever. Never. Especially with other people, but also traffic jams, airport delays.

Never, ever get upset. Never, ever tell the airport ticket person they are extremely stupid. Just tell them they're kind of stupid.

No, I'm kidding. Always be polite to them. Be patient.

Be the last person to get the seat. Be super patient. Then your makeup will work.

You can buy Wal-Mart makeup and it will work great. GZHAN YANG, BSTAN LA MAR MED, SEL BA'I BUD BA Offering light to the altars is a special cause of physical beauty. Next retreat there's going to be a lot of butter lamps here.

By the way, on Tsongkapa's birthday it's a tradition to offer one thousand. So you can get a lot of makeup karma on that day. We're doing something special, Scott.

What are we doing on that day? I forgot. This year.

We have some special thing we're doing on Tsongkapa Day. I forgot. Where are we?

Don't ask me that. Can somebody look it up? You have the app?

We were going to do something special. I don't remember. But it's a great day to...

Huh? Where are we? Oh, in Thailand.

We're going to celebrate that. Maybe you can have... safely have a thousand lights.

Maybe not butter lamps, but I don't know. It should be a thousand lights. People should offer light.

That's the day that Xiaoping's going to give us a one day vow. On that day. Now I remember.

You have to study it. BSTAN GSUM SAR GZHAN SNGAM Making temples, making altars, making stupas. This stupa out here was made by one persistent young lady who came here.

She said, Geshe-la, I'm going to build a stupa. I'm like, yeah, okay, see you later. Then she got up at five o'clock every morning and she built it.

Mostly by herself. You can do it. She's very beautiful now, right?

She just had a baby. She had a beautiful baby. SNYING PA CHAGS GRUNG SOGS DANG NYAMS SOGS DANG Fixing broken altars, broken temples, temples that are leaking on the roof.

Make a donation to Michael or Melissa. GZER DANG GSUM GYIS SO BA Repaint Dharma temples, stupas. There's a tradition in Tibet to put gold on the face of statues and things like that.

GZHAN LA GOS RGYUN ZAR PA LTAR BA Providing clothing to poor people and jewelry. Okay. That's the correlations for beautiful face.

You still need a postman, right? You still have to go to Walmart and buy the lipstick, but now it will work. Any color.

No, if you have the seeds, it doesn't matter. You can use the black one, you know. Okay.

How to be in the top people in your country, right? That you have money, you have time to go to Dharma things. RIGS MTHO BA'I RGYUN NI ZER KYA GANG YIN YANG YIN RTEN DANG RIGS TSUL KHRIMS SHES RAB GOR BYA SOGS KYI KHYEN SEMS MI BYAS PA Don't be conceited or proud about the good qualities you have.

Then you will always be born into a... you will become like one of the officers in your company or in your family, you will become respected by the whole family and like that. So he gives some examples.

He says it doesn't matter whether you are an ordained person, monk or nun, or you are a lay person, it doesn't matter. Same. When you think about your good qualities, your intelligence, your beauty, your ability to do strange yoga poses, or your race, or your country, or you think about your own morality, or you think about your own emptiness meditations, you think about your friends, you think about your position, then always be humble and don't be proud.

My Lama has this. She's like never proud. It's very nice.

Helps many people. Doesn't ever talk about it. NGA RGYAL DANG, CHE BA'I NGA RGYAL THAMS CAD SPANG PAS SMIN SA GSUNGS Abandon all kinds of pride and always take the lowest position in a group.

Like I'm the last one to take my lunch or somebody has to take the lousy things, I will take the lousy things. Like that. Like that.

Let other people take first. It's difficult like when you're in an airport, you're in a line at Starbucks. Where were we?

Oh yeah, some guy was trying to get in front of me in the security line and he says, I got to rush. I said, why? He said, I'm late.

I said, I'm also late. Then he said, yeah, but I'm going to Chicago. I said, I'm also going to Chicago.

Then he's like, but I can go ahead, right? And I was going to like give up. But I said, yeah.

Then I thought, I'm a Buddhist. Then I let him go. He was very impressed.

That's the one time I did the right thing. The other times, I didn't. Okay, LAM MA SLOB PA'I KHYEN PO RGAN NYON SOGS SHING KHYAD PAR CHEN LA SHIN TU DGOS PA BYAS PA DANG Respect the Dharma.

Respect good teachers. Respect your Dharma brothers and sisters. That's the way to get a high position.

Usually, when we feel superior, we don't show respect to other people. Super superior person shows respect to everybody. RAB BYUNG TSOR RANG LAS BSLAB PA RGAN PA RNAMS LA GUS ZHING In the among monks and nuns and bodhisattva vows, the person who took their vows first is considered to be elder.

If you're 50 years old, but you took your bodhisattva vows after a 20-year-old person, you're supposed to respect them. SNGA PA BZHIN PA'I RANG LA CHAGS DANG, KUR TI BYED PA SO RANG RGYUD KYI BSLAB PA RNAMS KUR PA'I DANG DANG LEN DGOS PA When people show you respect, then keep in mind they are respecting your vow. If you're the younger person who took the bodhisattva vows before the older person, and the older person shows you respect because they are high Dharma intelligence, then you should not think they are respecting you.

They are respecting your vows. DGE SLONG GI SDOM PA BOG CHOG SKABS CHUNG BA DE, DBOS PA RNAMS LA'ANG BDAG BAR YIN means when monks and nuns take their vows, during the vows ceremony, the vow giver, the abbot, will give them a lecture about respecting people with older vows. They have to keep it for the rest of their life.

DRUG KU DANG CHUN ZAD GSOGS KYI LUGS SU YOD KYANG BSLAB PA RGAN PA LA'I TSIS SHING DGOS PA CHA DGOS SOGS Nowadays, in the monastery, the reincarnated lamas and special practitioners, we're supposed to show them special respect. They get to sit in the front, even if they're 10 years old. They get to sit in the front, they get the tea first, and we're supposed to show them respect.

Then the Rinpoche, Pabongka said, if you are one of those lamas, reincarnated lamas, I say you still have to show respect to the other monks. I don't care you're a big lama, you're a big reincarnated lama. DRUG KU, right?

He said, he was also a DRUG KU, but he didn't show it. He was always bowing down to other people. He was a DRUG KU of Changkya Rinpoche, who taught the emperor of China.

He never told anybody. He just always respected other people. All right.

DGOS PA CHAGS DGOS PA SANGS RGYAS GYI KUN LUS NAS YOD PAS DE DAG That's what Buddha said to do, and we have to keep it. The older monk gets respected by the younger monk, even if the younger monk is a reincarnated lama. DANG DAG GZHUNG SA GANG LDAN PO RANG CHEN PO CHUB SRID LA YONGS SU DGRAS PA'I MI CHOS TZAM MA CHOS DUG MI CHOS TZAM MA CHOS DUG is Now it's interesting.

This is the only place in the Lam Rim, or in Buddhism, where they start to talk about secular law. Secular law. Like the laws of your country, or the laws of your city.

This is one of the rare places where he's talking about the laws of your country. He says, in ancient times, in Tibet, we had a national law, 16 laws. It was the beginning of legal system in Tibet.

It was 16 kinds of good behavior. CHUD DUD DE'I SNANG DANG RGYAN BZHIN TSIS SBYOG DGUR GYI SDI DANG In those 16 laws, which began the legal system in Tibet, there was a law that younger people should respect older people. In China, you guys still do it.

I think it's cool. We don't do it in America. Maybe it would be nice.

What he's going to say is these ancient customs, and then he mentions respecting your parents. Like it's a big thing in Confucius teaching. Then he says, those are, they don't seem so important for people to respect your parents or respect older people like me and Phil.

But he says here, when people do that, the world goes more smooth. The whole world runs more smooth. If younger people respect older people, if sons and daughters respect mothers and fathers, there's a result on the whole country.

The whole country changes. The karma of the whole country changes. Then he tells a story, which I'm going to tell you for dessert.

This is a retreat dessert. Then we'll finish the rest of the eight in Thailand. If you don't know where's Thailand, talk to Jasmine.

She knows. We are going to a special town where the king of Thailand goes for his vacations. We got special permission to go to this town.

There's a five-star hotel and there's a beach there. You're going to do ocean swimming meditation. I encourage you to come.

She and Jasmine and Tim and the whole team, they worked very hard. They got us, I think it's one of the most beautiful hotels in Thailand. It's on the beach.

The king of Thailand goes there for his vacation. We told the king he had to come later. No, I'm just kidding.

Actually, it's illegal in Thailand to say that. Okay, here's the story. You're going to show this photo.

It's called the Four Harmony Brothers. It's in the images for this course. Is there some old painting and you're some elephant and monkey?

Which number is the meditation? Number 13. Okay, we're going to, this is just for fun, okay?

This is a story of why if you respect older people like me and Phil or John Brady, the whole country will run more smoothly. Here's the ancient story. Again, in China they still have this custom and it's a good custom.

I hope the American custom doesn't spread to China. We purposely disrespect everybody, older or younger. This is democracy.

Okay. I went and got you this story which is mentioned by Pabongka Rinpoche but he doesn't tell you the whole story. This is from a famous lama named Lung Dul Rinpoche.

He wrote a history of Dharma in India. I think it's a cool story because this painting, I saw it like 40 years ago in India and I asked my lama, what's this painting? And I got a nice teaching about it.

So I like it. If you're an older person, you can teach it to other people. If you're younger, you can try to hide it.

RGYAL PO GSUNGS ZIN GYIS CHOS TZAM PA CHOS DUG GI MTHIL Sorry, that's a different one. Where is that story? Oh, sorry.

I told you the wrong source. This is a teaching by Buddha himself. This story is a teaching by Buddha himself.

The 16 laws, if you're interested, you can find them in Lung Dul Lama. Here's the teaching. This is from Vinaya Vastu which is teaching by Buddha to the monks.

Very famous. Okay, here we go. This is a long story, okay?

This is like your bedtime story. You can sleep on the plane. JI LTAR BSGYEN PA DE LA BRTEN NAS TZAM PA LING DANG GNAS PA'I SKYE BA'I TSOGS PHYAG CHOS GSUM GYI RTZA TZIN GYI RIGS RGYAL NO MAR SKYES PA RGYANG NYID MA NYON Buddha says you want to know how to make a world which is running sanely, correctly, peacefully, smoothly.

People are not shooting each other randomly. You want to live in a nice society? Here's how.

Who said it? Buddha is teaching his students. DGE SLONG BDAG Okay, monks and nuns.

SNGON CHUNG BA Long ago, once upon a time, there was a country called Kashi. What's Kashi? Varanasi.

Kashi is the old name for Varanasi. We just bought some, ACIP just bought some land in Kashi two weeks ago. We are building a school where you can study Sanskrit and Tibetan.

We bought the land. John Brady did it. I'd like to thank him.

We'll talk more about it later. Probably someone's going to squeeze you at some point. GNOG THUB PO There was a thick forest.

SOGS BYAG ZHI GNAS PA There were four different kinds of animals living there. Four animals. One was a kind of, partridge means, we have them here.

What do they call them here? Quail. They run around with their whole family and they go, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick.

You heard them. They have this thing on their top of their head. I'm going to say quail.

It's actually a partridge. And a rabbit, and a monkey, and an elephant. DE DAG KYANG PHEN PA'I RGYU ZHIG NA They got together very well.

They were good friends. YANG DAG PA RGA BA DANG TSUL PA MED PA DANG THOB PA MAN CING Not the slightest bit of tension between them. RGA BA'I SPYOD LAM They used to hang out together and have fun.

GNAS PA'I DUS BDAG BAR BYAS PO JI TZAM DUS GZHAN ZHIG NA DE NANG GI BLO BSKYED PA Then they got some idea. They were sitting around, relaxing, having fun together, and they said, GZHAN LDAN DAG BDAG CAGS LA PHAN TSUN YID CHUGS PA'I GZHAN ZHIG GNAS ZHING MTHUN PA DANG You know, we're all sitting here, enjoying each other's company. YANG DAG PA RGA BA We get along so well.

TSUL PA MED PA We never fight with each other. SNGON KYANG But, you know what? BDAG CAGS KYI GANG LA NYAN GOS BYA Which one of us should respect the other?

It means which one is older and which one is younger. NYAN GOS RO LA MA BYA BA This Lama means older. BYAS PA BYA BA CHOS PA BYA BA MI SHES KYI MA LA MA LA means well then.

It's ancient, very ancient language. BDAG CAGS KYANG PA JI LTA BA BYA BA BYA BA Let's check who's older, then we know who's supposed to respect who. DE RNAMS PAN TSUN DU SPYOD BYA BA BYA BA They started to discuss this question.

Who's the older among us? DE NAS GHO MA ZAD KYI ZHING NYA RGRO DA So, NYA RGRO DA is a very famous ancient tree in India. It's related to a fig tree.

We have one at this other house here. Cat planted it, right? And it grew very big.

Fig seed is tiny, like mustard seed, and it grows very, very big. Very successful. It's called Banyan in India.

Banyan, Banyan tree. I have a picture of one in your reading. Do I?

That's a Banyan. The seed is this big. And they tend to, they grow another trunk and they grow another trunk.

So they were looking at this big Banyan tree. Then the quail had an idea. Let's talk about who saw this tree growing when it was growing.

SNANG PO CHE MED PA Then the elephant said, I saw it growing. And they said, Well, how tall was it when you saw it? When you first came, when you first remember, how tall was it?

He said, It reached up to my stomach. Elephant said, BYIS LANG LUS DUR, DE'I SRID KHO BAR LUS DANG, NYAL MA KHO NA MTHONG BA Reached up to my stomach. SPRUL MED PA Melissa, can you tell those guys, they can come in and listen to a story if they want a bedtime story.

There's the kitchen staff. We'll surprise them later. They can just hang out on the floor and we'll be done in ten minutes and they'll get...

Okay. SPRUL MED PA The monkey said, Can you put the monkey back? KHO RGYUD DANG LHAN CIG LAM, DE NAS DOR, DE SRID KHO DANG, NYAL MA KHO NA MTHONG BA When me and my monkey friends were walking past this the first time, it was only as tall as my shoulder.

What's it mean? He's older. He's older.

DE DAG GIS MED PA DE BA'I KHYOD RGYAS NO Then everybody said, Oh, then you're the oldest one among us. Then the rabbit said, Wait a minute. KHO DE BLO MA NYID RGYAS PA NA BLO MED ZIL BA'I THIG PA BYAS BDAG PO When this tree was only two leaves coming out of the seed, there was some dew came, Vajraya, right?

In your kirtan. Some dew water came on the leaf and I drank it. I remember.

BYAS BDAG PO DE DAG GIS MED PA KHYOD RGYAS NO You're the oldest one. Then the partridge, what do we call them? Quail said, Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

KHYOD RGYAS BZHIN NAS, SREG CHEN PO'I RNAMS LA DE DAG MTHONG BA DE DAG GIS MED PA, DE DAG GIS MTHONG BA You guys saw the tree after it was growing. But me, I was on another fig tree, I ate a fig and I came here and pooped this seed. Bird poop.

I pooped this seed here. Then they're like, KHYOD RGYAS NO DE DAG MTHONG BA You're the eldest one here, for sure. So we have to respect you.

DE NAS BLANGS PO'I PHYIR, THAMS CAD KYI NYAN GONG BAR BYA BA TZAM MO Then the elephant, who's more powerful, he said, I have to respect all of you. You can ride on my back. You can ride on my back.

Then the monkey can ride on top of him, who's smaller and less powerful. The rabbit, which is even smaller and less powerful. Then the quail can sit on top of the rabbit.

It means power doesn't matter. It's respect. Even if you're most powerful, you take the lowest position, in general, as a Buddhist.

DE NAM LTAR YIN NA, RIGS PA'I RGYUR NA, When they went through the thick forest together to dangerous places, the elephant would always carry everybody else. Then the monkey would carry the rabbit, and the rabbit would carry the quail. Then a strange thing happened in the forest.

ZHES SO DAG BYAS PO'I RNAMS LA, YI HANG DI LTA BU'I BLO SKYES TE, GZHAN NAS BDAG BYA LA, SDUG PA PHAL GZHAN, GZHAN DANG DAG BYAS PO NI, YOD KYIS RE ZHIG DGE BA GZHAN YANG, CHUN ZAD GCIG BLANGS TE, SBYUG PA'O Then they started to say, you know, everything karma is getting better in our forest. The forest is becoming more and more beautiful because we're respecting each other. The forest is becoming more beautiful.

So the bird, quail, said, you know what? Let's start to keep the first of the ten good deeds. Which is what?

No killing. If we got this kind of result of a beautiful forest, every day more beautiful, because we are following the rule of respecting each other, then what will happen if we give up killing other animals? Okay?

Then SOGS SPYOD PA'I RLAMS LA, Then they all agreed, let's try. Let's try not to kill. Then the quail said, there are little creatures living on the leaves of the branches on the plants.

So let's be careful when we eat the plants that we don't kill them. Like, if we see it's somebody's home for an ant, or we see it's a home for a grasshopper, let's go to another plant and eat that one. Okay?

It's really cool. The opposite of our society. BDE BU SOGS CHAGS DANG PHYIR BA NI, SOGS CHAGS MED PA YANG YOD PAS, Let's go to all the plants that don't have creatures living on them.

So they started to only eat the plants that weren't already home for other insects. Then the quail said, this is really working out. We feel healthier.

We are not hurting other animals. We are getting stronger. Let's try the second one.

Let's not steal things. Let's see what happens. Then they all said, yeah, let's try.

Let's not steal things. Then the quail said, there are some plants that, you know, those animals think this is my part of the forest. Those animals think this is my part of the forest.

Let's respect other people's part of the forest. We don't use their part of the forest without asking permission. Let's not steal other people's things.

Then they all said, let's try. They did it. And it went really well.

Getting more and more peaceful in the forest. All the animals are cooperating with each other. Then they tried the third one.

Respect each other's partners. Reject each other's partners. Then they all discussed how we're going to do that and they did it.

I'm going faster because we're running out of time. Let's do the next one. Let's stop lying.

Then they all started to speak the truth to each other and the forest got more and more and more beautiful and more and more harmony, more and more success in the forest. Then they said, let's give up alcohol. Let's not even drink little drops of alcohol.

Then they all agreed, that's a good idea. In the scripture it says, ,'GRU YI BYANG DANG, ,BYAR BA'I BYANG ,GRU YI BYANG means alcohol. ,BYAR BA'I BYANG means drugs.

Other kinds of drugs. By the way, it's not allowed at Diamond Mountain. I don't care who passes any laws.

We cannot drink alcohol. We cannot use drugs here. Don't do it.

I will kick you out. We will kick you out. You won't be able to come back.

You can do it in Buhi or you could do it on the highway. Don't do it on this property. We'll kick you out.

For a long time. Then their mind was pure and clean and not crazy because they didn't take alcohol. Then they all said, this is really working out good for us.

Let's teach it to the other animals. Then they had a meeting and the quail said, I'll teach all the birds. Sorry, the monkey spoke first.

The monkey said, I'll teach all the other monkeys about our new system. Then the rabbit said, I'll teach all the little animals like mice and rabbits and things like that. Then the elephant said, I'll teach the elephants, the lions, the tigers and the leopards.

Then the bird said, I'll take everybody else. Any animals you guys don't teach, I will teach them. The five vows.

Five good ways of behavior. Then the bird said, I will cover all the animals who don't have legs. Snakes.

Okay, yeah. I will cover all the animals that have two legs. It's like chickens.

I will cover all the four-legged animals also. Also any feather animals that you don't cover. The bird was the most strongest, biggest virus chitta.

Okay. Then all the animals in the area of Varanasi started to follow this way of life. They didn't hurt each other and the whole forest became more and more beautiful.

Then the gods in the sky form realm. Wonder Woman, those guys. They suppose they live in the sky.

If they think people are being good to each other, they will make more rain at the correct time. Okay. So they look down, they say, Oh, look at those animals.

They are so cooperating with each other. Let's give them rain when they need it. So the rain came down exactly the right time.

All the crops in the jungle began to grow. More fruits, more flowers. Became more and more beautiful.

Then the king of Varanasi noticed that the jungle is more beautiful. The crops are more great. He said, I know what happened.

Everybody said, what? He says, I am a Dharma King. Because I am a Dharma King, everything is more beautiful.

This is me. This is my good karma, my virtue, which is why Varanasi is prospering. Then the queen said, well, if you are a Dharma King, I am also a Dharma Queen.

It's probably us also. And the prince said, me too. And the minister said, me too.

Okay. Then, then, what do you call? A seer came.

A wise person came who could see the real thing. They said, not really. It's not you, king.

It's not you, queen. It's not you, prince. Something else is happening here.

They said, what? They said, it's these four animals started this whole thing. It's an elephant.

It's a monkey. It's a rabbit and a bird. It's not the king.

It's these four animals in the forest. They are cooperating. They are showing respect for their elders.

And their whole forest system of all the animals is based on respecting parents, respecting older people. DRANG SO CHEN PO BDAG GIS YOD NA, BDAG GIS GYIS BYAS BZHIN DU YOD NA, RNGON YOD NA, Then they were all amazed. And the king said, I want to go meet these four animals.

The seer took the king out into the forest and he saw how the four animals were getting along with each other and how they were keeping the five vows of a lay person. Then the king said, this is a nice way to run our country. Let's run Varanasi the same way.

Then they started to teach the five vows to everybody, all the humans, and everything got more and more happy. Then people in other cities in India heard about it and they started to keep the five vows. Then pretty soon all the people in the whole Asia started to keep the five vows.

It started from four animals. Then the gods also started to keep them because they saw how cool it was. Everybody started to respect their elders.

Last thing. Ready? CHOM LDAN BDA'I KYI RGA TZAL PA Then Lord Buddha said, DGE SLONG DAG, DI JI SNYAM DU SEMS DE, SRAS DE'I DUS KYI KHO MA SRED GANG YIN PA DE The Buddha said, who do you think was the bird?

He said, that was me. That was my past life. I was the bird.

The rabbit was Shariputra. Sharipu. Like in the Shijing.

Then the monkey was Maudgalyayana. The elephant was Ananda. The three great disciples of the Buddha.

They were all hanging out in the forest as animals. That's the end of this story. You're supposed to say, wow.

We'll finish the other correlations in Thailand.