«Дар освобождения», курс 28 «Строю пространство для практики (ретрит в Таиланде)», занятие 7

[Speaker 1]
We're going to start with some meditation. Don't think about music. Let's give her another hand.

Okay, Buddha said, turn off the cell phone, cough, midnight. Music. Okay, we're going to practice the elevator from the ground floor to the eighth floor, then we'll come back.

So, usually in meditation, we begin by counting our breath. But, in this lion's dance meditation, we start by listening to some outside noise. So, if you have children, you're very lucky.

If you don't have children, you can use the air conditioner. Okay, and we're going to go slow, so just relax. Don't fight.

If you feel sleepy, it's okay. Just relax, do the best you can. Okay, let's start with the air conditioner.

Now, please start to listen to the sound of your heartbeat. Or, you can feel the heartbeat in your chest. Just relax.

We're on vacation. Now, it's more quiet. Go down inside the heart.

You are sitting in the heart like a small room. And, the heart is beating all around you. Just relax, and try to stay with the meditation.

Now, put the heart away a distance in front of you. Maybe ten meters away. And, watch the heart beat from a distance.

Feel the heartbeat from a distance. Now, imagine a single grain of sugar in the middle of your heart. And, very quietly, move yourself inside.

Now, imagine your mind is a great ocean. It has no limits. And, it's a very, very quiet surface.

And, deep water. And, we will drop a stone in the middle of the mind. And, a single, small ripple will go out left and right.

And, it will never stop. And, just follow the ripple. Mind is very quiet.

Very deep. And, the ripple is moving left and right. Okay, drop the stone.

Now, imagine your mind is a light bulb. And, when we turn it on, your consciousness, your awareness, spreads out in all directions. Past this world.

Past many worlds. The beautiful light of awareness. Turn on the light.

It keeps traveling. Now, just turn the mind off. Just stop any thoughts, any images.

If they come up, block them. Now, last, turn the mind off. But, if thoughts come, if images come, just ignore them.

Just stay totally quiet, totally silent. Now, please come back to your breath. Three long, long exhales.

And, slowly you can open your eyes. Take a stretch. Very, very nice.

Very nice. Nice job. I don't know if it was meditation or jet lag, but it was very nice.

Any questions? Those are the eight levels. So, I have a question I would like to ask in Russian, but, so I will translate for him.

You finished? I'm deeply appreciative that you're teaching us. Thank you so much.

So, in the previous class, you just mentioned that we planted the seed to hurt the person, and we had hurting and hurt the person. So, where we are itself? Where we are at this moment?

[Speaker 2]
Thank you so much.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, there's a big argument about it. By the way, I need a piece of paper with the ending time on it. So, some people say, some Buddhist people say, you are the person who is listening to the seeds open.

So, in your mind, you heard someone say, this person bothers me. Then you heard someone say, I think I will hurt them or hit them. Then it's very interesting.

Are you the talker in your mind, or are you the listener in your mind? Because you cannot talk and listen at the same time, except for your husband. Okay, so, we hear the thoughts in our mind.

Those are coming out of seeds. And then someone is listening to those thoughts. And some Buddhist school say, that's me.

That's the me. And then you do something. You push them or something.

That comes from the thoughts. So, we are listener. We hear someone talking in our mind.

It says, I think I will push him. Then we see the body push. That's also seed opening.

And the person that we push, that's also seed opening. So, Stanley is coming from my seed. Then a seed opens in my mind.

I would like to hurt Stanley. Then me, Michael, hears that thought in my mind. Then because of that thought, Michael decides to push Stanley.

And the hand pushing is also coming from me. So, some lower school, they say Michael is at the back. Michael listens to the thoughts.

Thoughts decide to push. Push Stanley. Then some Buddhist lower school, says, I am the person watching and listening.

I am the witness. But a higher school, it says, you are just the opening of those seeds. Who is Michael?

He is just the opening of seeds. What does Michael hear in my mind? Seeds are opening.

Who's the hearer? That's also seeds opening. So, we are in the higher school, we are just seeds opening.

And that is Michael. Okay? It's a good question.

Many Buddhist schools fought about it. Okay? So, think about it.

Okay, other question. Thank you Annie for your help in Shenzhen. Thank you, thank you.

You are amazing. You enjoy. You are Joey.

Annie, I said, Annie and Joey are amazing. Thank you, thank you. So, Geshe-la, in Level 7, you taught us the four space meditation.

And you said, the first one is black, second one is blue, and they are changing, they are not the real emptiness. And the third one is not changing, but also there is a difference between the third space and the fourth space, which is the real emptiness. And the first three kind of help us, like prepare us to understand the real emptiness, which is the fourth space.

Then in this level, nine levels meditation, I'm not so sure about the relationship between the first eight and the level nine, like are they similar like the first three spaces and the fourth space? Yeah, okay, good question. Beautiful, beautiful words, beautiful example.

So something you have to understand about meditation, it's just a tool. It's not a goal. It's like a microscope.

If you have meditation, you can see very cool things. If you don't have meditation, you cannot see them. But the microscope is not the goal.

What you put under the microscope is the goal. And that's emptiness. So these eight levels, they have special names.

Okay, and I'll teach it to you now. Okay, we have European style, ground floor. Then we have elevator through eight levels.

Then level nine is meditation on kongshin. And I will teach you all the names, okay? And it will answer your question.

I hope so. Okay, ground level, where you get in the elevator, we can call level zero. It's called desire realm level.

Desire realm means very physical air conditioning sound. Okay, nothing spiritual. So, why they call desire realm?

This is the normal human state of mind. Mostly interested in two things, especially the boys, like me, food and sex. Okay, these are two qualities of desire realm.

And it's very gross, rough place. And we are listening to air conditioning. If you live in Beijing, you can listen to the heater.

If you live in Guadalajara, which has the same temperature all year, you can listen to the refrigerator. I like to listen to the crickets. You can take any time you want.

Sorry, any example. Maybe your kids are making noise. There's a garbage truck outside or traffic.

All those noises are desire realm. Then the first four floors, one, two, three, four, these are called form realm. Form realm means special part of the universe.

Why is it called form realm? People there have special body. They all look like Iron Man, Wonder Woman, Superman, They are all like Superman, super power.

Spiderman. And I think the people who make those movies, I think deep down they are remembering before when they were in the form realm. Why it's called form realm?

They have super strong, super beautiful form. Then if you want to go there, by the way, form realm is a bad place to go. Why?

To be Iron Man or Wonder Woman, it takes a lot of karma. Every minute you live there, you are using up your debit card very fast. And after you die there, you always go to hell because your debit card is empty.

So it's very expensive to live there. And you are using up karma very fast. But it's all good karma.

We call two kinds of good karma. Dirty good karma and clean good karma. So dirty good karma takes you to this form realm.

And for, I don't know, long time, thousand years, you have this Wonder Woman body and super power. Then it takes a lot of good karma to go there. Most people who live in the desire realm, we are in the desire realm, they can never make enough good karma to go to the form realm.

Why? Every day we say many small stupid things. Nobody in this room will kill another person here.

Nobody in this room will steal everybody's money. But small bad karmas all day. It's too cold.

It's too hot. I don't like this person. Why are you wearing that?

Why you talk like that? Why can't you take a shower? You know, we are thinking these small bad thoughts all day.

All of us. Me too. Then because of that, we cannot go to form realm.

Now, if you meditate four hours, three, four hours a day, on that first heartbeat, just on heartbeat, you don't have time to think those small bad karmas. I don't like Stanley. It's too cold.

It's too hot. Because your mind is thinking about heartbeat. So, because you don't have time to do your usual moment by moment bad karma, if you do this heartbeat meditation for three, four hours a day, after you die, you will be Wonder Woman for thousand years.

Then you always go to hell because you used up the debit card. So, very famous, all lamas in history don't get off at the first floor. Go to the ninth floor.

When the elevator opens, you can look out, but don't get out. Oh, look, heart is beating. Okay, then go to the second floor.

Don't stay there. It's very dangerous. So, that form realm, like temporary heaven, it has four levels.

And there are four meditations you can use to go there. If you just do the heartbeat three, four hours a day, because you don't have time to do your usual bad thoughts, you will be born in the first form realm level after you die. Then the elevator breaks and you go to hell.

Okay, then if you just sit inside the heart three, four hours a day, heart is beating. Or some people watch their breath. Just watch your breath.

Then after you die, you will go to form realm. And directly from there you go to hell. Okay, then third floor, what is that?

What's the meditation? Yeah, heart is far away. You don't feel any emotional connection to the heart.

And if you do that meditation three, four hours every day, you'll be wonder, wonder, wonder woman. Okay, wonder, wonder, wonder woman. Okay, more beautiful, more powerful.

And when you die there, go to hell, basement. Go to the basement. Fourth form realm level, it's a single point, like laser.

Then inside the sugar crystal, keep the mind one point. Then if you do that for two, three, four hours a day, because you don't have time to do your usual bad thoughts, you will go to fourth form level, wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder woman. More beautiful, more strong.

And then when you die, go to hell. So, the lamas are very strict. Go up those four, but don't stop.

Keep going. These are not goal. These are microscope.

You are exercising your meditation. Meditation muscle. Level one.

Level two. Level three. Level four.

Then don't stop. Keep going. Then the next four levels, five, six, seven, eight, these are called formless realm levels.

When you do those meditations, you are not in the formless realm. When you do these four, you are not in the form realm. When you do these four, you are not in the formless realm.

But if you die, you will go to the form realm. So, these are the cause of the form realm. When you are doing them, you are in the desire realm.

Your body is in this realm. Your mind is preparing for the form realm. Now, if you go deeper in the meditation, each one is more quiet than the last one.

Air conditioner is noisy. Heart is a little bit noisy. Inside heart is a little, little bit noisy.

Heart far away is a little bit noisy. Inside sugar crystal, very quiet. Level five.

More quiet. Mind is ocean. Then you spread the mind very far.

The name of this level is called nam kathay, endless space, like the ocean. Very peaceful. If you do it for two, three, four hours a day, number five, right?

And if you die, you will go to a place where you have no body, just mind. It's very interesting. You know, usually we have bardo, bardo.

After you die, you become bardo spirit up to 49 days. Why bardo? Because you have to go to where you're going to be reborn.

And they can move very fast. They can even travel between planets. So, you die, then you become bardo spirit.

Then up to seven weeks, you have to go to your next place. Like, if I die in Arizona, and I'm going to be born in Shenzhen, then my bardo needs time to fly to Shenzhen. That's purpose of bardo.

Then some lady in Shenzhen will have a baby after seven days or 49 days. And my bardo become a baby. Now, if you do number five, like endless space meditation with the ocean, there's no bardo.

Why? You don't born in a physical body. You are born where you die.

If I do that meditation here, and suddenly I die, I will be reborn here. There's no bardo. No place to travel.

And I don't have body. I'm just mind. For thousand years, two thousand years.

Then die. Go to the basement. Okay, hell.

So, we say don't get off at fifth floor. It's very nice, very quiet. Don't stop there.

It's dangerous. It's like alcohol. Very similar.

Drink many bottles alcohol. Then like ... Hey, man.

Then next morning. Blah, blah. Okay.

So, don't get off. Sixth level. It's called namshe thay.

Namshe thay means endless consciousness. Namshe thay means endless consciousness. The mind grows to all of spaces.

And again, if you do two, three, four hours every day, you don't have time in your mind to be jealous of Stanley. So, accidentally you make good karma. You will be born in a even more quiet place.

Third one. Number seven. Chi yang me.

Say chi yang me. Chi yang me. Chi yang me means nothing at all.

Turn off the mind. Just nothing. If you stay there for several hours a day, if you die, you will be born without a body right there.

Then when that person dies, go to hell. Okay. So, don't stop at seven.

Okay. Number eight. du shes me, du shes me min.

du shes me. du shes me. du shes me min.

du shes me. du shes me. du shes me min.

I choose not to think and not to think. What do you like? You want to think?

You want to stop thinking? Or you want to not stop thinking? I don't care.

Turn mind off. If some memory comes, if I think about dinner, okay, goodbye. Just let the thought go.

It's called, I choose not to think and I choose not to think. That's level eight. Same thing.

If you die, you become mind being. And when that one dies, you go to hell. Okay, so Maitreya said, ten ne seng gye nam gim pe, ting yin dzin la nyom shuk ne, ten chen drel jung luk tung dang, luk mi tung la tokpa che.

Very famous. Do the eight, and you must go to nine. Lions dance.

Dance of the lion. Why are they called lion? Lion's not afraid of anything.

You go to a lion, you say, I'm going to hit you, you know. They're like, wow. That's the name of this meditation.

The real name in Sanskrit is wow. Why? This is what you say to the husband who didn't come from you.

Okay, understand? Does that husband exist? The one who didn't come from you, exist or not?

Yeah. So if he call you phantom, get out of here. You're not even real.

Go away, go away. I'm not going to say anything to you. Go away.

Okay, that meditation, level nine, that level nine is called stopping meditation. Stopping meditation. It means stop thinking the husband comes from himself.

In the ninth level, we are watching the teacher, and then we watch our seeds open. That's dependent origination. Okay?

Teacher's good quality coming from me. From my seeds. How did I plant those seeds?

Then make a movie about your past life. This is also dependent origination. How did I plant the seeds?

Then that's all dependent origination. Come back to the lama. Ask the dependent origination lama to please move to the side.

Then bring bubu lama, bubu. Okay, bubu lama. Not real, okay?

Usually you cannot say bad word with lama's name. You cannot say. Very bad seed.

Danzi. This lama doesn't exist. Doesn't matter.

You can call him bubu lama, kuku lama, dudu lama. Doesn't matter. Doesn't exist.

That's empty. Okay, that's the other side. He's not there.

That canceling the fake lama. What's a fake lama? Come from their side.

Just come from big bang. Dust came together. Monkey came out of tree.

Start to teach dharma. Okay, this one forget it. Impossible.

Cancel that lama. That's fake lama. Didn't come from you.

Then you stop them. Say, I don't believe you. It's like which husband?

Like the husband who didn't come from you. Stop them. And that's the name of the ninth meditation.

So the first four, what's the name? Form realm meditation. Are you in the form realm?

No, you're in the desire realm. Why they call form realm meditation? If you die, after those meditation, you will go to the form realm.

Four formless realm meditation. Then after that, stopping meditation. This one is the most powerful good karma you can do.

And you are thinking about the most powerful person in the world. They say your own personal teacher, whoever is your teacher, for you, they are more powerful than a million Buddhas. Why?

We can't talk to those Buddhas. They are too far. Then those million Buddhas came to us.

As a normal person, can talk, drinks coffee, picks nose. Then we feel comfortable. Oh, this person I can talk to.

So they say one million Buddhas show as your teacher. Whoever is your teacher. So to meditate on this person, you are meditating on one million Buddhas.

at the same time, you are meditating on emptiness. Most powerful object. So that meditation number nine, the restaurant with the American breakfast, you can get out there.

You stay there. Go up the eighth. Do not get out.

Go to number nine. That's the most powerful. You cannot do more powerful meditation than that.

Now, you know, when I first start to do yoga, Jeeva Mukti, David Life, Sharon Gan, Lady Ruth, they gave me advice. I said, look, I'm traveling all the time. I don't have time to do yoga.

I'm not even at home. Then they said, we have suggestion. When you go to other city, check internet, and go to the class.

That's why I ended up in the pregnancy yoga class in Hong Kong. And I do it. Every city I go to, I go to the yoga class.

I don't know the yoga teacher. I had some very good classes. I had some very bad classes.

Okay? Some great yoga teacher. And some are not so great yoga teacher.

But all of them, one hundred percent, terrible meditation teacher. Okay? Unbelievable.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
They can do headstand. They can do handstand. Then when we meditate, they are teaching one of these eight.

All of them. I saw hundreds of yoga teachers. I have a question.

If your family member committed suicide, what kind of thing can you do to help them to remove their bad seeds? Yeah, good question. I have the same thing in my family.

And my younger brother committed suicide. So I asked my teacher the same question. We call it jang chok.

Jang chok. You take a photograph of them, or a piece of their clothing, something they have connection to that. Like, this belongs to my brother.

Then I hold it. Then talk to him. They have special power.

In the bardo, after that, they can hear you. This also, if someone you love dies, okay? For a long time, they can hear you.

Especially if you have something from them. Then talk to them. Then it's important to tell them nice things.

Okay? Remind them the good things they did. When you die, it's like you are playing lottery.

And in the bowl, you are reaching in the bowl. And there are many black stones and many white stones. Then you want them to pick a white one.

So it's good to talk to them. I remember when you helped this other person. And tell them how much they helped you.

So, I will tell my brother, you gave me a good example. You were a very good person. I remember when we were fifteen, you helped our neighbor.

And you can start to keep a list. What good things they did. In the beginning, you can't remember much.

Then one memory trigger the other memory, trigger the other memory. And the list will become very long. And remind them the good things they did.

I have a friend, she's in California. Her daughter died ... Jigme, do you remember?

Stigliana, what's her name? Her daughter died like fifteen years ago. And I told her to do this.

She still does it every day. And she's very happy. And she's really helping her daughter.

So, you don't have to stop. Don't talk to them when you're in the subway or the bus. Everybody will think you're crazy.

But in your own room, or you can go for a long walk, and just talk to them. You will find a great result. And it helps them a lot.

I did the same thing. OK, other questions?

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Geshe-la, for your teachings. And I have two questions, if you don't mind. OK, the first one is, which level of meditation is a power meditation?

And the second question is, as you're saying, everything is coming from seeds in our mind, even our thoughts and everything. So, do we have a free will, and how is it connected to the seeds? Thank you.

Two tough questions.

[Speaker 1]
OK. So, po'a, it's a special practice you can do while you are dying. And I taught it, I think for three retreats at Diamond Mountain.

And during po'a, you can do po'a from first form realm level meditation. It's just one kind of focus. And there are, when you die, there are whole stages while your mind is shutting down.

It's like the electricity in the mind is getting less and less and less and less. And then the mind starts to see crazy things. First, you can see an earthquake.

Then you see a flood. And there's a standard hallucination. And during one of those hallucinations, you see what we call clear light.

And your mind is close to emptiness. And if you have a lot of training, you can change subways at that moment. You can jump on the clear light.

And you can see emptiness. And then you can have a very beautiful experience. And it can help you a lot.

But it needs training. So, if you're really interested, you can talk to Jamie. He has it on the Knowledge Base, I think.

I taught it for like five days or something. So, you can do that. But, in general, when you're dying, you are most scared.

And you are most upset. And you are crazy. Your mind is completely crazy.

Electricity is breaking down. And the mind doesn't work correctly. It's like ...

And you're a little bit crazy. So, those big lamas, they say, do the po'a before you die. Do it this week.

It's level nine. Do it now. When your mind is clear.

You have a good Thailand orange juice. You just swim in the beautiful orange ocean. And your mind is peaceful.

Then try to see kong shing. They say, don't wait until it's too late. Some very rare person, one out of a million, they can do po'a.

But most of us at that time, we are very scared. We have a lot of ... It's very difficult to focus the mind.

So, don't wait until the day you die to try to see kong shing. Do it now. Then later you can relax when you die.

Okay, what was the second question? If all the thoughts are coming from I, do we still have ... Oh yeah, is there any free will?

Free will. I heard a joke. A scientist in Europe, he said, we don't have any choice.

We have to accept free will. We have no choice. We must accept free will.

Okay, anyway, I'll tell you a related issue and then you can understand. One of my students in Beijing, they asked a very good question. They said, Geshe-la, everything you say, it makes sense.

You know, world is coming from me. Pen is coming from me. If the pen is coming from the pen, the dog will use the pen.

Okay, you don't need more proof than that. That's real kong shing proof. You don't need more than that.

If the pen is coming from the pen, then the dog will see a pen. The dog doesn't see a pen. Therefore, pen is coming from me.

It must be like that. Then a person asked me a question. So, Geshe-la, is everything come from me?

Yes. Does other people also come from me? Yeah, that's why we are doing this meditation about your past life.

Even your teacher comes from you. Geshe Michael also comes from you. If you don't like my teaching, it's your fault.

If you like my teaching, it comes from me. Okay? Then somebody asked a very good question.

So, Geshe-la, if all the people come from me, then I'm alone in the world. I'm the only real person. And it's true for each person.

For Vivian, she's also alone in the universe. Everything else coming from her. Then that person told me, I feel lonely.

I want to have friends. I'd like to have a partner. I'd like to have parents.

I'd like to have children. I don't want to stay with myself all the time. Then someone asked this question 1,400 years ago.

And there was a famous teacher in India. His name is Dharmakirti. And he's so interested about this book that he wrote ...

about this subject, he wrote a book about it. I think it's called Antara Siddhi ... Antara Santana Siddhi.

Proof of Other People. And ... what's it called?

Santana Antara Siddhi. Proof of Other People. He said, other people exist.

They are outside of you. When your seeds open ... when my seeds open, they create Vivian.

As a separate person. With her own mind. Her own seeds.

Okay? Generally, she comes from me. But as a separate person.

With her own seeds. And her own mind. And her own world.

Okay? And then I can have relationship. We can be friends.

The guy who asked me the question, he's very upset. I said, why are you so upset? He said, if my girlfriend comes from me, then when I kiss her, I'm kissing myself.

He doesn't like it. Who wants to kiss themselves? Then he was happy with this answer.

Okay? So, your seeds are so powerful that they create free will. You see?

They can create part of your mind which can make decisions about your future. And you always have a choice. It's coming from you.

It's coming from your past seeds. But it's like a separate person. Your mind is so powerful, it can create a part of your mind which is not under your control.

And which makes choices. So, you do have choices. And there do exist other people.

And you can kiss Sonia without kissing Edmund. Okay, thank you.

[Speaker 2]
Good question.

[Speaker 1]
One more. Oh, no. We have to stop.

It's grandpa's bedtime. I will do some more questions tomorrow. Okay.