«Дар освобождения», курс 28 «Строю пространство для практики (ретрит в Таиланде)», занятие 4

[Speaker 1]
That's good. You guys sound really good, thank you. Okay, I thought first we do some lamrim, and then at nine o'clock, we do questions.

So, get some good questions ready for me. I like difficult questions. They don't have to be about lamrim.

You can ask about anything. Like, what's the best kind of youtiao? No, nine o'clock.

Nine o'clock. Okay. Alright, so one hour of lamrim.

I know you're tired, and I don't care. It's better, if you're still alive, it's easier to teach you lamrim. Tired is okay.

But I know many of you have jet lag, who came from Russia or America. So, you can sit next to each other. Russians have jet lag on one side, Americans have jet lag from the other side.

You can balance. Burit rovne, right? Okay.

Alright, eighth quality of a teacher. What's the first one? Long life, yeah.

Second one? Nice face. Third one?

Higher in society. What's the fourth one? I don't remember.

Oh, yeah, okay, wealthy. Number five? People listen to you.

Oh, looks like it's true. Number six? Powerful?

Seven? Equal. Oh, you treat people equally.

Okay, so now we're number eight. Last one. And it's a strong body and strong mind.

Okay. LUS SEMS RTOGS CHE BA'I RGYUD, GZHAN GYI LUS DANG SANGS PA SOGS KYIS MI NUS SHING MI SBYOGS PA'I LAS RNAMS RANG GIS RGYUD PA DANG When other people have trouble to do something, they don't have enough power, they don't have enough strength. MI SBYOGS is an important word, I'll tell you later.

Or they don't have time to do something. Like Jasmine, then you do it for them. What they are, they have too much to do, or they don't have time to do it, then you help them.

And this is the main cause to have a body and mind which are strong. We call it CI BAS LTA. CI BAS LTA means you are the donkey for everybody.

And you carry the load for other people. Then your body will be strong, and your health will be strong. Like people coming here with luggage, and don't just watch them, you know.

Oh look, small lady try to carry big bag, like run and help them. Especially in the airport, very cool. Let me take for you.

And people like it. And it's the main cause to have a strong body. Does yoga give you strong body?

Maybe. I remember I went to yoga class in New York. I like to just go to the yoga studio, I say, I will join the next class.

I did that in Hong Kong. I just go to the yoga studio, I don't look at the schedule. I give them some Hong Kong dollars, I'll take the next class.

They didn't speak English. They're like, Penny knows Cantonese. I don't know what they're saying.

I said, no, no, I go. They're like, no, no, no. I just drew the money, you know.

They said, okay, go. Then I wait, I'm the first one in the class. And then the door opened, one lady come in.

I thought, strange, she's pregnant. Then she sat down, we are waiting. Another lady came in.

Strange, the second lady is also pregnant. Then ten ladies come in, all pregnant. It's yoga for pregnant lady.

Then, I got a good stretch here. Really good. Then I went to, I had a fun time.

In New York, I went to the class. I said, I'll take the next class. They said, restorative class.

Then I said, what is restorative? They say, it's for people who got hurt. Then I said, how they got hurt?

In the yoga class. Then I said, do you charge them again? Yes, we charge more.

I said, that's a good business. First class, you hurt them. Then charge them extra for second class.

It means, some people when they do yoga, they get hurt. So, it depends on your seeds. Okay, we don't know.

If you do yoga, maybe you have good seed, maybe you have bad seed. Maybe you have to go to restorative yoga after that. Nick, we can also start here.

Charge extra. Restorative class. Anyway, so make the seeds.

Then do yoga. Somebody asked me, Geshe-la, can I just make the seed and I skip the yoga? No, you still need to do.

Yoga brings you the result of the seed. Okay, shen gyi drag che means someone's going someplace. And they need someone to go with them.

You go with them. Okay, they feel afraid to go. They're nervous to travel to Thailand.

And you offer to go with them. That will make your body stronger. shen gyi drag dun dak mi che pa means don't hurt other people's body.

It means don't take massage from Candy Lai. Where is Candy? Yeah, don't hurt people.

Small massage, big hurt. Just kidding. It's actually feel good.

Okay. But also don't give other people bad food. Okay, if they come to your house, give them healthy food.

Even if Geshe Michael comes to your house, he says, can you give me youtiao? Geshe Michael, you're not supposed to eat youtiao. Here's a green drink.

Disgusting.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
All right. de yang yin teng gyen teng gi teng de, gyeway nu du gyeway mun lam tab na If you get a body and mind with these eight qualities, I'm sorry, if you make those seeds, and then you make a strong prayer, you will be like Atisha, who came to West China and brought Buddhism to West China from India. Then he was pretty old when he came to Tibet, but he had a strong body, and he was able to stay for many years.

I think 12 years. And then, nung gi chok gyel gongwa nam tar means Dharma King. So, 2,000 years ago, there were Dharma Kings, very powerful, very wealthy, and they loved Dharma, like Kalachakra Kings.

Okay. mun lam tsam mo ma chungwa mi gyeway ten du gyur na ta mi gyel kha gyi gyel po tar nam yin gyen teng gi lu den dra top kyang de, mi gyewa top chenpo druppay yupe You have to be careful to have the right motivation when you create this practice machine. When you plant those seeds, you have to make a special prayer.

I will use it to help people. Otherwise, maybe it will hurt you. You get lots of money.

You look very handsome, like Stanley. But, you can also get a lot of trouble, right? If you are handsome like Stanley, you can get a lot of trouble.

You have a lot of money. Many people with money are unhappy. So, be careful when you make these seeds.

Do it with a good motivation. Okay. If you don't do it with a good motivation, maybe you will use that strong body and strong mind for bad things.

So, it's important from the beginning. You can start using these eight now. Some of the old seeds will open in this life.

Some of the seeds will open in the next life. But, make a prayer that you should use it for good things. If you do these eight things, the result will come, and you can't stop it.

There's a joke in Buddhism. After you plant the seed, even Buddha cannot stop the seed. So, you will become strong.

You will become wealthy. People will listen to you. So, be careful.

Okay? In English they say, be careful what you wish for. Maybe it will come true.

Then you have more trouble. Alright. DE NA MI BDAG PA'I CHUNG KHOR SOGS KYANG THOG MTHA' BAR GSUM LA GAL CHE MOD What will help you to remember your motivation is thinking about ...

We already talked about death meditation. And we talked a lot about it before. Why we have to die.

How we have to die. And I taught how it will feel inside your mind. What things you will see during the death.

We finished that. These subjects and karma, these are mainly for people we call lower level people. Foundation.

It's like a foundation. Okay? Those are important.

SKYES BU'I CHUNG LUS SKABS MDIR NYAMS NGAN GYI THIL MOD ZHIG LTA BU NI NAS DE LA LANG DROD LA NGAN BYAS PA DI YIN GSUNGS But the most important thing in this foundation level is to understand karma. And understand what will happen. Understand about seeds.

Okay, now we reached a new section. It's called GSUM PA LEN DE BSAM NAS BYUNG SDOGS BYANG TSUN LA NYID After you learned about seeds, what are you supposed to do now? How to use them?

PHYIR BSTAN PA and SKYES BU'I RTOGS ZHIG SBYONG BA'I TSUL PHYIR BSTAN PA means, okay, here's a general advice. How to use the seeds. And then secondly, RTOGS ZHIG What's RTOGS ZHIG?

Four powers. Okay, four powers. How to clean an old bad seed.

Okay, after you learn about seeds, many people are like that. After they learn about seeds, they come to DCI teacher. Oh, now I understood about seeds.

I understood the pen. I understood the husband in the kitchen. But now I have a problem.

Is there a way to take out the bad seeds I did before? That's called four powers. If the student comes to the DCI teacher, I understood what you said.

Now I'm a little bit nervous. From now on, I know how to make a good seed. But before I came to DCI, I put many bad seeds here.

Is there some way to take them out? So, he's going to talk about it. DANG PO NI MTHUN GYI SKABS RGYAS BDE GYI RNAM SHA'I YANG YANG SANGS PA DE DRON TZAM SU DRAN ZHES PA YOD KYI BLANG DOR BYED PA So, during the study time, during the meditation time, think about the principles of karma.

And there are some small meditations here we will do. They are in your book with the picture. So, we will do those meditations.

That's in the morning before you go to work. You know, get up half hour early. Do your meditation.

Then he says DRON TZAM SU but between meditation. That's the difficult time. With your family.

At your job. It's difficult to remember karma. BA RGYUD KYI BLANG DOR BYED PA Then he said there's a special method.

There was a Geshe a thousand years ago. And here's the word for Geshe actually. So, one thousand years ago there was a Geshe and his name is just Ben.

Geshe Ben. And he had an interesting system. He used to carry a lot of stones with him.

I think he has jeans on. Jeans. And in the back pocket he put a lot of small stones mixed black and white.

Then during the day if he got angry at Stanley Oh, you're a fun baller. Then he's like, uh oh. Then he'd take a black stone and put it in the front pocket on the right side.

Then if he says something nice to Vivian you're a very nice person then he will take out a white stone and put it in the left pocket. Then all day is like that. So, white stone, black stone.

Then at the end of the day just before Café Ming Chang he will take out how many black stones? How many white stones? So, we can do like that.

You can keep it on your cell phone. Maybe Zoe can make an app or something. White stone, black stone.

Then at the end of the day, check how many more, white or black. Okay, then the Lama quoted Shantideva. Shantideva from India lived at the same time as Xuanzang.

He wrote a beautiful book called Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. The Lama put two verses here. Poetry.

MI DGE BA LAS SDUG BSNGAL BYUNG DE LAS JI LTAR NGES THAR ZHES SNYING SEMS BDAG TU BDAG GIS NI SDI NYID PAR ZHIG BSAM PAR RIGS All the trouble in our life comes from bad seeds. DE LAS JI LTAR NGES THAR ZHES Then you should think to yourself, how can I get out of this kind of suffering? SNYING SEMS BDAG TU BDAG GIS NI Then during the day and also at night, think to yourself, how can I get out of this problem?

DCI teaches five things. Number one, financial independence. Number two, nice relationships.

Number three, healthy body. Number four, peaceful mind. But actually they are impermanent.

If you use DCI, you make a lot of money. You buy a big house. Nice car.

You have nice clothes. Later, there's a joke. They will say they will look for a new owner after you die.

So, there's a bigger problem. Can you stop death? Is there a way to stop it?

That's the purpose of lam rim. For us and for other people. And it's possible.

It is possible. They don't teach you in the school. They don't teach you in the university.

But it's the most important thing. You can stop it. The dogs had a meeting.

Then, I heard a strange thing today. What? Some people said, this thing you can use as a fan.

Some people said, this thing you can use as a pen. That's a good one. This one tastes good.

I heard a rumor. Somebody said, you can use this as a pen to write a message. Stupid idea.

Why? I never saw anybody use it as a pen. Understand?

I never saw a person who didn't die. I never saw a person who didn't die. Of course you didn't see.

You're a dog. No, I mean we don't have the seed. When you are close to not dying, you will meet all those people.

They are everywhere. But we don't have seed. But don't say it's not possible because you didn't see it.

It's not possible because I didn't see it. Okay? Don't be stupid, okay?

My teacher saying, I say, I never saw a person who didn't die. He goes, there's many things you didn't see. He always tell me the same thing.

,RGYAS PA'I CHOG NI, ,THAMS CAD KYI RTZA BA SMOD PAR THUB PA'I SEMS, The root of all good things is a good motivation. ,DE YANG RTZA BAR BTAG TU NI, ,NAM YIN DER BU BSGOM PA'I SO, And the root of a good motivation is to understand karma and how it opens. ,ZHES GSUNGS PA LTAR GAR NAG GIS, ,NEN DE ZHES PAR BYED NAS, ,RGYUN DU DRAN ZHES PA YOD RTEN TE, So first job is to understand karma.

So the first job is to understand karma. And then second job is to be careful. And remember it all day.

,SOGS SPYOD DANG RDZUN SOGS BYED PAR NYE BAR NA, Then this is ... We have a retreat center. Do you have a picture of Diamond Mountain?

We have a beautiful retreat center. In America. Big group of people did a three-year retreat there.

And those people studied for many years. Before they started retreat, I taught them for 14 years. So they had to come to class for 14 years.

Then I allowed them to do three-year retreat. So they are pretty well-educated Buddhists. In our university, in our retreat center, you can see many people having conversation.

Stanley! Yeah, there's a ... Yeah.

Yeah. You can come. Okay?

Beautiful place. I think most beautiful place in America. And very good for meditation.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, yeah.

[Speaker 1]
Very, very quiet. And that's my ... Can you go back?

That's my meditation cabin. In the middle.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[Speaker 1]
So they are beautiful places. But it's a strange place. When people are talking ...

Hey, Stanley! Guess what I saw? Jenny Wang.

She was ... Like that. Many sentences not finished.

Why? Here. SOGS SPYOD DANG BRDZUNS When you are about to lie, try to watch your mouth.

You know what Jenny Wang did today? She ... It's very strange when you come to our place.

You can see many people talking in the cafeteria. They are like ... They know how to stop the bad karma during the bad karma.

So, you have to be like that. You become a little bit schizophrenic. I was thinking ...

Okay. That's a good sign. It means you are stopping yourself.

You are controlling yourself. Okay, so even in the middle of criticizing another person, you can't believe what Jenny Wang did. My husband is a ...

Then ... Okay. So, try to stop it halfway.

Shut the door. Maybe you will be like this. Okay.

DE MA THAG TU TZAM ZHAG PHRA MA CHUNG BA DAG KYANG SHANG SDOM BYAS NA And then, even if you do a small bad seed, immediately do the four powers. Four powers is a special method to stop a bad karma. CHEN TZAM, you have that can here?

Where are you? You have it now? Can you bring it up here?

I mean, is it in this Thailand? Who's got that can? Special can.

She has one, I think. She's looking. Maybe somebody's using it.

Oh, it went outside. It will come. Don't fall down.

Then he quotes Nagarjuna. He's going to quote Nagarjuna. There's a ...

Nagarjuna wrote several letters to kings, and they are very beautiful letters of advice. By the way, Nick is going to teach Nagarjuna. Am I right, Nick?

When? Tuesday afternoon. Nagarjuna is most famous from India.

Most famous Buddhist teacher. They call him Second Buddha. So, there will be a ...

Thank you. Yeah, I'm going to hold it. He wrote this verse.

GANG ZHIG RLUNG BYAS PA MED GYUR PA LA So, if in the past you made a mistake, PHYI NAS BAB DANG BSTAN PAR GYUR TE YANG but later you are more careful, BDAG BAR DRIN DROL LTA BUR NAM ZAD TE you are more ... So, let's say you had a bad habit. Let's say you have a drinking habit.

You drink alcohol, or you eat a lot of meat, and you have this bad habit. Then you fight with yourself, and finally you are able to stop. Then Nagarjuna said, you are more beautiful than the person who didn't drink alcohol in the beginning.

Then he gave example. He said, moon in the sky is beautiful, but if the moon is covered by a cloud, and then the cloud moves, then you see this beautiful moon come out. It's more beautiful.

It means bad habit is like cloud. Then you fight, you fight, you fight, and you change the bad habit. You are more beautiful than the person who never had the bad habit.

So, I feel lucky. I have more bad habit, and I will be more beautiful later. Then he gave one, two, three, four examples.

Then he gave four examples. Gawo's name is Nanda. Here it says Gawo means Nanda.

His name is Nanda. He was the younger brother of the Buddha. He was addicted to sex.

I think nowadays, if he lived now, he will look at it on the internet all day. He couldn't stop. Then he tried, he tried, he tried, and later he became very pure.

So, he's more beautiful than the person who wasn't addicted before. Then Angulimala, say Anguli, Anguli. Anguli means finger.

Then he met a bad teacher. He told him, if you can kill one thousand people, cut off this finger, and put on a string, you will become Buddha. So, he met a bad teacher.

Then he cut 990 people's finger. He just has one more. He met Buddha.

Then he got his knife. He start to stab Buddha. Buddha start to walk very slow.

Angulimala, mala means the string, right? He's chasing Buddha with a knife. Buddha's walking slow.

Angulimala's running fast. He can't catch him. He's always one inch behind.

He's... Buddha's just walking like very slow. Then finally, Angulimala said, who are you?

Then Buddha taught him, you made a mistake. This is not the way to Buddhahood. Then he changed.

He became Arhat. Even though he made a big mistake before. If you can kill 999 people, and then after that you become beautiful moon, then our life is not so impossible.

Then you guys learned the story of the Wheel of Life who went to Bodobudur. There were two kings, Bimbisara and Udayana. They were both killed by their son.

Bimbisara's son, Ajatashatru, he killed his own father. His father was just below Arhat. But later he used four powers.

In this life, he became Arhat. Then there's another one like that who killed his mother. He wanted to have sex with another man's wife.

His mother said, don't do that. She tried to stop him. Then he killed her.

Then he also became Arhat. He used four powers. This is the advertisement for four powers.

Nagarjuna advertisement for four powers. Then the lama, he said, he started to talk about the four powers. Tomorrow, well, what day we do the fire offering?

Wednesday? What day is Tsongkapa Day? Thursday?

Tuesday. Wednesday we will do fire offering. Three big fire offerings.

That custom is 2,000 years old. I learned it from my teacher. It took me about 20 years.

I watched him many, many times. I was the cook many, many times. Then I cleaned the toilet during the fire ceremony many, many times.

I did all the dirty job. But I spy on him how he does the fire offering. I remember the first one he did.

This big ashes came out. It's burning. Small piece is burning.

It came on the air. Then it landed on my arm. Then I thought, it's burning my arm.

Then I thought, I will leave it there. I will have a nice scar. I can remember blessing first fire offering.

So anyway, I learned how to do it. So we will do it together. One of the main purposes of the fire offering is to clean away bad seeds.

We will take many kinds of seeds. We will throw them in the fire. You can do it together.

We will do it together. This is a nice way to do the four powers. But it's expensive.

It takes many, many days to get all of those grains. To prepare, it takes about, I don't know, ten days. To burn takes three hours.

To prepare takes ten days. I'd like to thank Chunzong for doing all the work. So it's very cool during the fire offering if you do the four powers.

Before Wednesday write down some of your worst bad deeds on a piece of paper and bring them to the fire offering. And you can offer them to the fire. Since early, early, early in your life.

Okay. Usually when we are sixteen we will do a lot of stupid things. Now you can clean them.

Now, there's a very cool custom my teacher taught me. He said, you can do fire offering every day. Small one.

So, Jasmine and her team and Chunzong they prepared this can for everybody. And tomorrow I'll teach you how to use it. And you can carry it with you.

You can do fire offering everywhere. Okay. Okay.

And I will teach you tomorrow. But don't do it in the hotel room. Go on the balcony.

Many people set the fire alarm. You will get four powers and you will get the hotel staff. What are you doing?

Yeah, yeah. So, we're going to switch horses. This horse is tired.

Okay. We should thank Stanley. So, I'll teach you tomorrow.

There are many cool things inside. And I like ... it's cool that we have them.

And you can carry it with you. You can do fire offering at home. Okay, let's go a little bit more.

,'DI LA SBYOR BAR CHEN PO'I KYANG, ,TSAL DU SDOD PAR MDZAD, So, Atisha, he was very good at doing four powers. So, he rode his horse all through West China for twelve years. Then when he's riding his horse, if he has a bad thought, Oh, that Nick is a phantom!

Then he'll say, Oh, I made a mistake. I made a bad seed. Then he will stop the horse.

He will get off the horse. He will take out his can. Right there, immediately, he will do a little fire offering, and he will burn the bad seed.

So, like, you can try on the airplane on the way home. Don't wait until you get home. Because the seed is doubling every day, right?

Atisha, he will stop his horse. All his students are irritated. They don't like it.

You can do when we get there where we're going. He said, no, no, I don't want to ... I'm collecting 1000% interest every 24 hours.

I have to stop it now. I'll tell you a story about him. He was the greatest lama in India.

Then people invited him to to West China many, many times. Finally, they kind of tricked him. He came to China, and then he has 1000 students.

He brought one assistant with him. He brought the worst student. Most stupid.

Most impolite. Most lazy. Then, finally, Tibetan people asked him, why you have 1000 students?

Why you bring this one with you? He said, he is my patient's meditation. He makes me upset every hour.

So, I keep him close to me. Then I'm getting stronger with my patients. Then they're traveling a lot together.

Atisha's trying to learn Tibetan language. Then he got a small rock in his shoe, and then he stopped taking the rock out. Then Tibetan said, what's wrong?

He said, I have a stone in my shoe. But he doesn't know the word for stone. So, he said, pabongka.

Then the lama who wrote this book, his name is pabongka. Because his monastery is built on top of a big rock, like bigger than this room. So, pabongka means boulder?

Big, big. Very, very big stone. You can build a house on it.

Then he made the mistake, he used the wrong word. I have pabongka in my shoe. Then all the Tibetans are ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

He called small stone pabongka. Then he looked at all of them. Now I can send that student back to India.

Now I have new people to irritate me. Understand? Okay, don't be like that.

Okay. Then he told a story. This lama told a story.

ngun pen yu na do de pang gong ja kya pa ka tun che pa So, many years ago, in Tibet, a book fell out of the sky. The first sutra that came to Tibet fell out of the sky. They say that, I don't know.

The sutra is called do de pang gong ja kya pa. It's called the seal of what to do and what not to do. And people start to learn it, they don't know what it means.

They just learn it, and they learn to say it. They learn to repeat it. And one guy learned it.

Then later he started a bad business. He's making Dharma books and selling them only for money. Okay, and he doesn't care what they say.

He just wants to make money. And he cheated many people selling Dharma books. Then after he died, he went to hell.

And in the hell, there's the boss of the hell. He's called the shin je che. It means lord of death.

Then when you get to the hell, he has a book, what you did. So, when he got there, the lord of death said, it says here you were selling, you were cheating people. Selling Dharma books, cheating people.

Then the guy's like, me? No, I never did that. I don't know what you're talking about.

Then king of death has a special mirror, and they will show it to you. And then it plays a video what you did in your life. He played the video.

What people bought the book. Even one guy didn't have money. So he said, I don't have money, but I have a bag of beans.

I will give you a bag of beans. Then lord of death is like, remember? The guy with a bag of beans?

Remember what happened after that? Then the bean bag broke, and the beans went everywhere. Then these little kids are chasing the beans.

So, very specific. He showed exactly what he did. Then the guy's like, oh yeah, I'm sorry, I lied.

Then he said, okay, we're going to put you in a boiling metal pot. This is your punishment. Then the guy's like, ah, ah, ah, ah.

But what came in his mind, that book he memorized, like the last verse of Jingangjing. GANG MA RAG LAS MA RIGS DANG RGYUD MA SRID PA'I BYAS PA'I RNAMS MI LA SLOG DANG, PHYIN RDAG BU DE'I GCES BYAS RNAMS BDE DAG DAG DAG LA RGA'A'I DI MI RAM DI PO You can memorize in Sanskrit. In Chinese language.

So we're going to do it here. Start tomorrow, or next day. And we will teach you to sing it.

You can pick the Chinese language. Sanskrit language. Nicole, Aaron, those guys are going to teach you.

Okay? Why? What happened to that guy?

They are putting him in the metal pot. Melted metal. Then he's so scared.

Then only thing come in his mind is this verse, like Jingangjing. He's like, DAG LA RGA'A'I DI MI RAM DI PO Then suddenly, everything disappeared. He came back to life in this realm.

Then he's like, Wow. Okay, so, it's good to know. Okay, so we'll teach you one verse.

Then if you get in a big trouble, like car accident, you know, airplanes falling down. One day my airplane started to fall down. The pilot said, we have mechanical problem.

And the plane is going Then I'm like, RGA'A'I DI MI RAM DI PO RGA'A'I DI MI RAM DI PO DAG LA RGA'A'I DI MI RAM DI PO RGA'A'I DI MI RAM DI PO Then nobody knows what to do, you know. So, you can have emergency prayer. Okay.

When he got back to this world, his Lama told him, tell as many people as you can. What happened to you? Okay?

That's why we have this story. So, at least you should memorize, it's short, the last part of Jingang Jing. Okay, questions.

Do you guys have a microphone? Microphone? Okay.

And we'll give you your can tomorrow, right? Tomorrow. I asked the boss, she's the boss.

Any question, I don't care. We have 20 minutes. Okay.

Dear Geshe-la, it's a real honor to meet you again in Thailand. Thank you. Honor to be here.

Okay. I hope you don't mind, I will use some poor English. No.

I think Alison will take care. Huh? English.

Okay. Okay. No problem.

I have two questions. Okay. In my understanding, we come here, Thai retreat, is to plant seeds.

To plant seeds. The most important thing about planting seeds is our motivation, right? So, I think our motivation might be to clean our bad seeds, to plant some new good seeds, and learn from the great teacher, to understand the emptiness.

But I think you might can give us some suggestion about what motivation we will aware during this Thai retreat. So we have some guidance. This is the first question.

Let me do this. Let me answer this one first. Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Relax.

[Speaker 1]
Sit down.

[Speaker 2]
It's okay.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. In my understanding, we come here, Thai retreat, is to plant seeds. To plant seeds.

The most important thing is our motivation. Our motivation is to clean our bad seeds, to plant some new good seeds, and learn from the great teacher, Geshe-la, to understand the emptiness. Can you give us some suggestion about this motivation?

That's my first question. So, in the monastery, they're always teaching us you should have good motivation. And before everything we do in the monastery, we have to do this prayer.

We are doing this prayer. It means, for all living beings, I'm doing this thing. And then we say it so much, it became a joke.

For example, we have to work in the kitchen. We have to clean the pots. And we will make Tibetan tea, for example.

For almost two thousand people. The pot is about the size of this stage. One pot, like this.

When you clean it, you need a ladder. You climb in the pot, then you clean it like this. Then, if you do a bad job, and it's still dirty, they will say, you did for every living being, right?

It means you did it without thinking. Because in the monastery, people do prayers without thinking. ...

Like this. I can do a one hour prayer, I don't think about it one time. So, it means, we always say, help every being, help every being.

Then, how to help every being? That should be our motivation. We can do things with that motivation or without that motivation.

For example, if you use DCI level three to get a relationship, so let's say you want to find your wife or husband, or you want to plant your wife or husband, then we say four steps, right? Step number one? Yes, I want to want.

Yeah, what do you want? I want to plant my wife or husband. I want to be like Peter or Scott.

Okay, I want to plant my husband or wife. Number two? Find your karmic partner.

Okay, find your karmic partner. We say, you can go to the nursing home, find the old lady and help her. Okay, once a week.

Okay, third step is to take her, like take her to the movie. Once a week. Okay, one hour every week.

Step four? Put water on the seed. How to put water on the seed?

Café Ming Xiang. Before you go to sleep, think about the good seed. Then this system was taught by Vasubandhu 1,700 years ago.

And motivation can be two different ways. When you go to her room and you touch the doorknob to visit the old lady, you can think, I'm planting seed for my future husband, my future wife. And that's true.

It's a true motivation. But only for yourself, right? Or, you can have bigger motivation.

I want to help all people. How? If I try these four steps, if I get a beautiful partner, wife or husband, then what will your friend say to you?

What's the nightclub? What's the website? Is there more boy like that?

Okay, they will ask you. Then you have to say, I didn't meet him at nightclub. I didn't use a website.

Nursing home. I used nursing home. Then your friend will say, huh?

He looks so young. Then you have to explain, no, no, you don't understand. I used the ...

I did the four steps at the nursing home. Then the seed opened and my husband came or my wife came. Then your friend will try.

Then friend's friend will try. Then friend's friend's friend will try. If you use the four steps to get the things you want, you automatically you start a virus.

Jingangjing virus. And it will spread to other people. Automatically.

Then actually you can help all people. It's a real thing. Not like ...

Not like that. This doesn't actually help people. To use the four steps yourself it helps other people.

Automatically. If you are successful by using karma, then people will copy you and you will start a virus. Okay, I'm going to give you an example.

So, I don't know, some years ago I was in a country called Norway, which is where Christian is from. Maybe you were there, I don't remember. I was teaching in a yoga studio.

One young man asked me a question. Geshe-la, how can I get a girlfriend? Then I taught him these four steps.

Number one, I want girlfriend. Number two, find karma partner, like older person in the nursing home. Number three, take them to the movie once a week.

Number four, be happy, okay, at night, about the seed which you planted. Then he wrote me back after a few months. He said, Geshe-la, it worked.

I don't remember his name, but he was so happy. He said it worked. Then his friend tried, then his friend friend tried, and friend friend friend tried, and friend friend friend friend tried.

Paiyada, Paiyada. then later he sent me a video. This is ...

so I'm so glad Christian is here, because we don't know what it says, but this is an advertisement. They are showing on Norway TV. The telephone company is offering special, special gift it's called 2 for 1.

And so we're going to play the video. Only one person in this room can understand it.

[Speaker 2]
Four.

[Speaker 1]
And see if you can guess what's the video. I'm showing it because it's the answer to your question. The motivation to come to Thailand is we want to change the whole world.

And in this video you can see if it works.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Okay, go Scott. Yes, I was afraid that maybe someone would say no, they wouldn't agree to that. There was so much that flew in my head.

[Speaker 2]
I said, I don't know if I want to. Were you surprised when we came in? Yes, I was surprised.

Very surprised. Yes, if we would agree to go to the cinema. To the cinema?

What in the world should I do at the cinema? I'm 80 years old. That was the last time you were at the cinema.

The last time you were at the cinema.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, it's been a long time. I've been to the cinema a lot, but it's become less and less.

[Speaker 2]
It's an experience for us. I don't have that many experiences. They were so happy and so grateful.

It was so fun to meet them and hug them. To experience something like that when you're 86 years old, to get a great cavalier, it's an experience just like we did in our youth days.

[Speaker 1]
She actually came up to me and said that she didn't want to separate from it. The cavalier came and took me in her hands and kissed me on the cheek. And then I felt, this is very strong.

So, that's the motivation. Don't sit in the temple and pray. I want to help all people.

You can actually do it. Use the four steps yourself. And of course, people will copy you.

If you are successful, people will copy you. And then virus will spread. In Norway, I think it's the telephone company, right?

They will pay for both tickets. They will pay for the ticket if the young person take the old person to the movie. Okay?

So, one person can start virus. Dharma virus. Okay?

So, when you do something good, then make a prayer in your mind. I hope it spreads. If you are happy and you are successful, if you come back from Thailand and suddenly you are a very happy person, then of course your family will say, what did you take in Thailand?

What did you drink in Thailand? You can say, a special beer called four steps beer. Okay?

So, that's the motivation. Okay. Second question.

Can you give me a chance? Quick, very quick, very quick. I will give very quick answer.

Okay. In your teaching, like level seven, I usually don't take notes. Because I feel more connection with my teacher.

It gives me more power. So, I feel very strong seed is growing. But, yesterday you taught us take some notes.

Yeah. Okay. What do you really mean?

I have this suggestion. We need to take talking Chinese first. Oh, I'm sorry.

So, in the Lam Rim tradition, you supposed to take notes, and you supposed to look at them twice before you come back. But, we have Jamie, and knowledge base, then he will make a video. So, it's like Jamie is taking notes for everybody.

Some people, if they take notes, their connection is stronger. Some people, they don't want to look at the paper, they want to just look at the teacher. And they feel a nice connection.

So, my suggestion is, especially if I'm in the class and I'm sleepy, and I have jet lag, I found it's useful to take notes. Then I can stay awake. That's my first suggestion.

But if you feel better connection if you pay attention, and you don't look down, I understand. Then my suggestion is you get the video, look at it on the knowledge base. Second time, take notes.

Then third time, just enjoy. So, tradition is to do it three times. Then it will become part of you.

Okay, one more question. Come on, that's cheating. That's not fair.

It's not my question.

[Speaker 2]
Not your question.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Usually he says, it's not my question, and then he says ... So, this is the question from the live stream, by someone named C.

[Speaker 2]
Liu.

[Speaker 1]
Where are they? I didn't get the answer. Okay, okay.

Beijing.

[Speaker 2]
Beijing.

[Speaker 1]
So, the question is, what can I do to avoid feeling living in guilt or shame due to a past experience which was called by no fault of mine? Okay, good. They feel guilty about something that wasn't their fault.

Then, I studied these books for almost fifty years. And I'm crazy about these books. And I can't stop looking at them, even in the airport, or on the bus, or even in the toilet.

I cannot stop, you know. And for fifty years, almost fifty years, and I really love them. Like, crazy about them.

And that feeling never stopped. So, I read many thousands of books. And in all of those books, in two and a half thousand years, there's no word in Buddhism for guilty.

There's no word for blame yourself. Okay? It doesn't exist.

Then, you're not supposed to think like that. And many, many, many people do. I'm a bad person.

I can't stop my bad habits. I go to the Dharma class. I come home.

I do a bad habit again, within one hour. I'm hopeless. I'm a really bad person.

Everything is my fault. Ever since I was young, I'm doing bad things. Then, this kind of feeling doesn't exist in Buddhism.

I've checked it for almost fifty years. There's no word like that. You're supposed to be strong.

You make a mistake. So, I used to make the same mistakes, bad habit. And I made a promise to myself.

I will tell my Lama. Every time I do this mistake, I will tell my Lama. First time I went to my Lama, Lama, I have to tell you, I want to do four powers.

He said, okay, go ahead. Then, I tell him what I did. He's like, that's terrible.

Then, I said, I'm sorry. He said, okay, good, you did the four powers. Then, next day, I go back.

Lama, I have to say something. He said, what's wrong? I said, I did a bad habit again.

He's like, huh, that's worse. Then, after four or five days, when I come in his room, he says ... He look at me, he says, yeah, yeah, I know, just go away.

You can do confession downstairs. Then ... But he said, don't feel guilty.

Just clean it. Just, like if you spill some coffee, then you don't stand there and think, oh, I'm a bad person, I spilled the coffee. It doesn't help anything.

Just clean it up. Do your four powers. I have the record for ...

I think I have the world record for breaking the four powers. I'll tell you why. I was doing the four powers in my room.

Yeah, I remember the pen, and I made a bad seed. I was very jealous of the other student, and I won't do it again. But he ...

I'm so jealous of him. I broke in less than one minute. I think I should be in the record book.

Before I finish the four powers, I broke the four powers. But just clean it up, okay? Don't sit there, I'm a bad person, I'm a bad person, okay?

That's also a bad karma. You're making extra problems. Just tell your Lama, I'm a bad ...

I made a mistake. Then actually Lama respects you more if you say, I made a mistake. The people who don't talk about mistakes, they are in trouble.

Then just try, okay? Try to say, look, I made a mistake, and I'm sorry. Then okay.

Five minutes later, I made a mistake, I'm sorry. It's better. Then fight.

Don't be wimpy. I'm a bad person. I made many mistakes.

Don't be like that. I'll tell you a funny story. My Lama was giving tantric initiation.

Then before giving tantric initiation, we must explain tantric vows. For example, there are nineteen vows for the five Buddha families. Then a teacher was teaching us, and he finished them.

Then he said, okay, we can do initiation. Then some lady asked him, excuse me, Lama, what happens if you break these vows? Oh, you go to the lowest hell for a long, long time.

Then she said, is it easy to break them? Yeah, you can break ten times in one hour. Then she said, why you teach us these vows?

It's better you don't teach us. We will go to hell. Then my teacher's English was not so good.

I'm trying to explain to him. He's like, what? She said, why you give us a vow?

Why not? Because definitely we have to go to hell. Then he's like, I don't understand.

Everybody in this room, Rinpoche, is going to hell because you taught us tantra. Then he's like, oh, oh, I understand. He said, no, no, it's not like that.

He said, everybody going to hell anyway. Then when you go to hell and you meet all your friends in hell, you will have discussion. How did you come to hell?

Oh, I killed somebody. I stole money. How did you come to hell?

I'm not like you. I broke my tantric vow. Okay?

So, anyway, guilty. Don't go to hell. Don't go to hell.

I'm a bad person. You have to be proud in hell. I broke my Buddhist vow.

I'm not like you other people. I was a Buddha. I broke some big vows.

But seriously, there's no place to be like that. People who blame themselves all the time. I'm a bad person.

Every problem in the world is my fault. It's true. But fix it.

You know how. You have four powers. Use the four powers.

Next year I want to see your can is worn out. You used it every day. Okay?

Don't be like that. Don't blame yourself. Let it go.

After you do four powers, that karma is finished. You are free. Then Buddha said you are required to forget it.

Okay? So, do a good fire. Kill the seed.

Stop talking about it. I'm a bad person. I did it again and again.

It's finished. If you keep talking about it, it means you don't believe the four powers. Okay?

So, do the four powers. Clean up the spilled coffee. And then go on with your life.

Okay? Let it go. Okay?

Buddha said that. Gyal Tse. Venerable Gyal Tse.

Venerable Gyal Tse. She's going to teach you mandala offering, right?

[Speaker 2]
What day?

[Speaker 1]
Which day? Tuesday? She did three ...

That cabin you saw in the Diamond Mountain video?

[Speaker 2]
You have that?

[Speaker 1]
That's her cabin. She sat there for three years. Fighting in here.

In the meditation. I like her meditation cabin. This one.

She spent three years there. Nowadays when I go there, I sleep in her cabin. Because the energy is so cool.

Okay? She will teach on Wednesday.