«Дар освобождения», курс 28 «Строю пространство для практики (ретрит в Таиланде)», занятие 8

[Speaker 1]
So, in total, the Lion's Dance has five parts. For example, the first part can be take the elevator up from ground floor, and then one through eight. And then go to the restaurant on level nine, which is called stopping meditation.

And then you can come back down. Eight, seven, six, five, four. And there's a tradition not to come down to the desire realm.

It's a tradition to stop at level one. And you heard about shamatha, vipashyana, which is mispronounced vipashyana. That level, that kind of deep meditation we do from level one.

So, it's considered good luck to come down to the first floor. European way. Okay, then if you have a really good group of meditators, you can do bel gom.

Tugel. These are different methods how to come down. Bel gom means you can go, instead of going one, two, three, four, five, you can go one, three, five, four, two.

And then in the tugel, on the way down, you can put the air conditioner between eight and seven, between seven and six, between six and five. Just to show off how strong is your meditation. Okay, I can go from endless space to the air conditioner, and then I can go back to the sugar crystal.

And it's like exercising your mind. So, I thought this morning, since you are so fresh, we could try that. Okay, so we're going to go one to eight normal way, zero to eight.

Zero to eight, yeah. And then on the way down, we'll have some air conditioner fun. Just to exercise your meditation.

I call meditation muscle. Okay, the mind ... difficult to keep on one thing.

You know, for me, I'm supposed to be focusing on the lama's face. Then slowly, that face will become youtiao. The body is still the same, but the face become like youtiao.

Then, you know, it means the mind went to breakfast. Then the mind is like ... I used to have a bad, small, impolite, bad dog.

And you saw those big people, they have a small dog, and they take it for a walk. And the big person is not walking the small dog, the small dog is walking the big person. Then your mind is like that.

Okay, you bring the lama's face to your mind. Then the small dog will go away. To think about lunch?

Then you have to put the leash on the dog. Pull it back. Then it's a constant struggle, like the dog wants to pee pee on different things.

Then you have to catch it and bring it back. Then it gets pretty comfortable. Then you relax, and then immediately the dog goes.

And this fight, as I said yesterday, this is when you make the best karmic seeds. During the fight. When you are doing yoga, so, do you have Dharma Maitreya pictures, Scott?

Genie? So, I have a yoga teacher. I go to his class once every three years.

Too hard. Then he will ... Where is he?

Yeah. Okay, he's about how old? 78?

He's about 78 years old. That's a real photo. He told me he's lucky he has a flat head.

But, so, he will get you into some pose. Then when you start shaking, he says, okay, stay there, stay there. One more second.

He will count. Just three more seconds. One.

Two. Two. Two.

Two. Then he says, the time you are shaking, then that time the muscle's getting stronger. So, while you're on the object, Lama's face, you are not making that much good seeds.

It's when the little dog goes off, and you are fighting with the little dog, and your mental muscle is shaking, that's when you make the strong seeds. Then this muscle gets bigger when you are fighting with the dog. So, enjoy the fight.

Okay? And have fun. Have hao wan.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Oh, little dog, I'm fighting with you. Yeah, yeah, okay. You can have youtiao tomorrow.

Come back, come back. Then don't get too serious, okay? If you are shaking, and your face is like this, then you don't grow the muscle so much.

So, have fun. That's the most important Dharma system. It's fang fa.

fang fa da. Da fang fa. Okay, like this.

Come on, come on. Okay, youtiao tomorrow. Don't worry, come on.

Okay, then the muscle gets big. Like this yoga teacher. Okay?

So, have fun. We'll go up the same way. Coming down, we will tell the dog to go.

And then see if we can pull him back. How long does it take to pull him back? Where's the dog going to go?

Air conditioning. Okay? You are deep in the ocean.

Then, okay, dog, go to the air conditioner. Then listen to the air conditioner. Okay, time to come back.

Come back to the sugar. Then put him inside. He will fight.

Then put him inside. Have fun. Then, okay, doggy.

Air conditioning. Okay, I will go. Okay, time to come back.

Heart far away. And you exercise your meditation. Later you can do the headstand with no arms.

[Speaker 2]
Near alabama.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, ready? Here we go. By the way, you are doing ...

I wrote my teacher yesterday. This is the best big meditation group I ever had.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Either you are very quiet and focused, or everybody is taking jet lag nap at the same time. Maybe it's 50-50, I don't know. But thank you for being so quiet.

Okay, let's go. Yeah. Cell phone.

Music. Cappuccino. Coffee.

Coffee meditation. I am so happy we are doing meditation. Okay.

Some people I saw, they put the yoga mat under their feet. Very good. Good idea.

It's a good idea. So, in this system, lions dance. We don't count the breath.

We go directly to the air conditioner. There's a feeling you should try to develop where the mind is glued to the air conditioner. Like they are glued together.

Your mind and the air conditioner sound. Okay, here we go. Air conditioner.

Desire realm. Now, please come to your heartbeat. Try to glue the mind to the heartbeat.

A little bit quieter place than the air conditioner. First form realm level. Now come to a more quiet place.

Inside the beating heart. The heart is beating all around you. And now the heart beating at a distance.

Now, please bring the mind into a single grain of sugar. In the middle of your heart. Now see your mind as a great ocean.

Spreading without limit. Deep. And the surface is quiet.

Drop a small pebble in the middle of the mind. And see the ripples going left and right with no ending. And follow the ripple with your mind left and right.

And don't let it stop. Now come back to the center of your mind. As if the awareness was a light bulb.

And we'll turn on the light bulb. And then awareness will fly out in all directions like a sphere. Bigger than this planet.

And keep going, don't stop. Beyond all planets. Into the stars.

Okay, turn on the light. Now let's just turn the mind off. If thoughts come, block them.

Eighth level. Turn off the mind. If thoughts come, just ignore them.

Stay quiet. Don't try to fight them. Now let's come down.

And between each level we'll go to the air conditioner. So go now to the air conditioner. Glue the mind to the air conditioner in a happy, fun way.

Then come back to level seven. Stop the mind. Block thoughts.

Back to the air conditioner. Endless awareness. Expanding.

And now it's coming back to the center from the stars. Air conditioner. Glue your mind to the air conditioner.

Endless ocean. The ripples are coming back to the center. Air conditioner.

Sugar crystal. Air conditioner. Heart beating at a distance.

Air conditioner. Inside the beating heart. Air conditioner.

Inside your body watching your heart. Three long exhales. But the breath is not invisible.

The breath is a golden light. Very good. Open your eyes.

Very nice. Open your eyes. Good job.

That was long. We'll do about ten minutes of questions. Then we'll take a pee-pee break.

A lot of coffee. Okay. You choose.

And also if you have any comment about how did it feel to mix the air conditioner. I'm curious. I'm sure that our president she is how do you say he knows you and he knows what you are doing great things and one day he will invite you to the central government in Beijing and discuss how to spread this Buddhist culture together and please take me with you.

So, in my life experience, according to what I observed, according to my real experience, I can say that usually in the time of great, like when everything is good, usually people's heart is more kind, usually people have a better heart, but in the time of lesser great, like bad, then usually people's heart is not as great as those times. And I believe that in those great times, the Starbucks four steps you are using can really, really spread because people's heart are great. But like in China, before 2014, the business industry of realistic, it's great, and then there's not that much control and it's very developed.

But then after 2014, the government started to control it and it started to decrease. And it seems like the economy of it is also decreasing. And I feel like it's not as easy as before to spread this Starbucks four steps to help those entrepreneurs in the time of decreasing.

So my question really is, can you develop like a more advanced Starbucks four steps, like step five, step six, step seven, so we can help those companies in the time of decreasing? Good. Thank you.

Good question. So in my life, I've lived a long life. And I've seen the economy go up and down and up and down.

And political situation go up and down and up and down. I've seen several large wars. I've seen long peaceful times.

And what I've realized, when I was young, actually I was protesting. I actually went to jail for a short time. I was protesting against a war, Vietnam war.

And now I understood more the outer political situation, economic situation. Before, I felt I don't have any control. So I must adjust to the outer situation.

If the economy is good, four steps. If the economy is shrinking, six steps. And I feel like I have to adjust my seeds to the outer world.

Then as I got deeper into my own practice, then I realized something very cool. So, you guys know I was in a diamond business in New York for 19 years. And I don't have a car.

So, I will take the bus. The bus is almost two hours each way. So, during that time, I actually wrote an Abhidharma dictionary.

Because I have almost four hours every day in the bus. And I'll have a big tray of cards on my lap. There's no laptop at that time.

So, I'll check the book and then take a card and write the next word. Then I'll put it in order. People next to me, they think I'm crazy.

My boss, one day he asked me, when you retire, what are you going to do? I said, I have a plan. I'm going to buy an old bus and take off the wheels and put it in my front yard.

Every morning I'll get up, get in the bus, make dictionary, you know. Like that. Then he laughed.

Then coming home from New York, oftentimes it's late. Like eight o'clock, nine o'clock. And we are so tired.

We get on the bus, there's always two seats, two seats like this. And of course we will try to find the empty two seats. Then you put your dictionary box next to you.

It's a message to the other people. Don't sit down next to me. Then the bus will fill up.

And finally there will just be one empty seat next to me. Then a big fat guy will stand in the door, you know. Then he's looking for an empty seat.

Usually drunk, you know. Businessman, you know. He stayed in New York to drink.

Then he's looking for a seat, you know. And I'm like doing Amitabha prayer. Please don't let him see the seat.

Then he will see the box. He will come, you know. Then he'll say, they just go like this, you know.

I have to put the box on the table. Then he will sit next to me. Then like this.

Then I'm like this, you know. Difficult to do the dictionary. Then because he's drunk, he will fall asleep.

Start to go like this. On me, you know. Really uncomfortable.

I'm the economy, he's the seeds. Okay? It's not he's the economy and I'm the seeds.

Okay? Economy has to adjust to the seeds. The seeds are fat and powerful.

The economy has to fit to the seeds. You see? So, I don't have to change my seeds to fit the economy.

The economy has to fit my seeds. If I make good seeds, the economy has to move. So, actually you're creating the economy.

You are creating government policies. So, as I got older, I understood. You have the power to change everything.

You don't have to adjust to the outside. Outside has to adjust to you. Your seeds are fatter than the reality.

Reality has to change for you. You are the fat guy. You're the fat guy.

And reality has to adjust to you. Okay? Yeah, okay.

Thank you. One more. One more question.

[Speaker 2]
It takes at least two hours a day to plant good seeds, to clean bad seeds, and to solve many problems. I enjoy it very much. I heard your sharing about the three-year retreat.

After hearing it, I always yearn for what I need to have to participate in the retreat. And yesterday, I heard you talking about the reputation of yoga teachers all over the world. You said it's not correct.

Because I really like to participate in the yoga workshop. There are about 200 yoga coaches. I really want to share the reputation of yoga.

What should I do? Could you give me a direction? Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
So, it's actually my first time to come to Thay retreat. And I really enjoy your teaching. I'm very grateful.

I often cry out of a touching heart. And then, actually, after attending Level 7, then I am really trying to practice the six things, especially the meditation. Because you told us that by doing that meditation in Level 7, we can plant great seeds and then clean bad seeds.

I almost do two hours every day. Then, I heard about the three-year retreat you have done. And actually, I'm very looking forward to it.

So, my first question is what things do I need to prepare to be able to be qualified to attend the three-year retreat? Second thing is, yesterday, you mentioned that many, many yoga teachers all over the world are teaching raw meditations. And I often go to yoga workshops.

There are 200 yoga teachers in that workshop that I go to. So, I want to know if you can give me some direction about how to share this meditation with those yoga teachers. Okay, good.

Thank you. Very good. Thank you.

First question. The first question. Everyone hears about three-year retreat.

It's called nyen chen. Three years, three months, three days. Many people feel attracted to it.

In my experience, it's like Olympic weightlifting. And if you start with that big weight, you will squash yourself. You will hurt yourself.

So, we always start with two-day retreat. Three-day retreat. Then do one week.

Then do a lot of... We call le rung. Le rung means about four weeks.

So, do a lot of four-week retreats. I think I did about 50 of them. One-month retreat.

So, you cannot jump into a three-year retreat. You have to start with one week. Then one month.

And then... I think our Diamond Mountain Retreat Center is special. A lot of the teachers there have done three-year retreat.

Here, I think, how many? Gyal Tse. Chunzong.

Who else? Me. That's all.

Anyway, the staff there, they have done... Jigme did a one-year retreat. So, I think it's good to find some people who did it before.

And there's a lot of training. Those people had 14 years of training before they did three-year retreat. And still it was very hard.

So, you know, find a good teacher. That's the most important thing. And they will teach you.

About yoga teachers' meditation, I didn't mean to criticize all the yoga teachers in the world. There are many amazing teachers. And I've had hundreds of different teachers.

And I really love them. If they didn't teach me, I would be dead. So, I'm very grateful to them.

And, of course, there are meditations like Tonglen, which many people are doing now. And those are very good. So, I think the difference between the Lam Rim, for example, and a normal yoga class, in the yoga class...

Well, I'll tell you a story. So, in the monastery, we have yoga, but it's secret. And you have to...

Oftentimes, you should be a Geshe before you can do yoga. And when I became Geshe, there's a strange custom. They took me to the abbot's room.

Then the abbot's room is... We never go there. Only for punishment.

If you do some very bad thing, they will take you there, and they will hit you. There are two big guys called dop-dop, dop-dop. Two biggest guys in the monastery.

Then they will wear a special... It looks like American football. Then they look even bigger, like two pieces of wood.

And then they will grab your arms and pull up your robe, so your bottom is showing. Then they take, sometimes electrical cord, and they will whip you, you know. If you did really bad thing.

People ask why Tibetan monks so polite. It's result of electrical cord. So, we don't like to go there.

These two guys took me there, after finish Geshe. Then there's a secret room in the back of the abbot's room. Like a stone room.

And they took me inside. And there's an old throne. Like in our monastery, it was founded 600 years ago.

So, there's this old wooden throne. And it's abbot's throne. Then we are not allowed to touch it.

Usually. They will keep it in the temple. I heard some little monks discussing.

Why are we not allowed to touch the abbot's throne? Then the other said, I know why. He said, why?

That abbot's throne has fleas. Then if you touch it, you will get the fleas. Not like that.

Then they told me, okay, you get on the throne. In the secret room. Then I'm like, we are not allowed to touch the throne.

Much less sit on the throne. I said, they will give me electrical cord. They said, get on the throne.

Then I think, I'm going to get electrical cord anyway. So, I get on the throne. Then they go and get the abbot's hat.

Put it on. Then totally not allowed. I think if you put on the abbot's hat, you can get three times electrical cord.

Then they put on the hat. Then they close the door. It's completely dark.

I'm just sitting there. I think they left me there for two hours. And a beautiful, many beautiful experiences.

Because of the throne and the hat. Then open up the door. My logic teacher came in.

We don't like to see logic teacher. Very boring guy. Dharma geek.

They said, because of that. Then I'm like, yeah. Then he said, okay, time for class.

I said, what class? Then he said, yoga class. Then I said, we don't do yoga in the monastery.

He said, it's secret. Then I said, who's the yoga teacher? Me.

I'm yoga teacher. Then I'm sharp. Then he taught me this Naropa's yoga.

And they teach it with meditation, special meditation. But the goal is very interesting. I remember one day I came back from two hours of yoga class.

And I met that teacher. I'm sorry, I met one of my other teachers, who knows about it. And he said, where have you been?

And I said, I was a little proud, because now I'm Geshe and yoga. Then I said, you know, I was doing secret yoga. Then he said, oh, how long?

Then I feel proud, you know, not just one hour, but two hours. I was doing two hour class. Then he said, ha ha ha, why you do yoga?

I said, I want to get healthy. I will get strong. He said, ha ha ha, you are two hours closer to die.

Now you are two hours closer to die. Yeah, for a few years the body will get stronger. Then later die, you know.

This teacher who stand on his head, recently had a hip replacement. His body now finishing. So, the yoga, normal yoga, normal motivation for yoga, I will be strong.

I will look good. I can eat more youtiao. And it won't show much.

Those kind of motivation, it doesn't last. Yoga cannot help you. So, long answer, the meditation in yoga, the purpose should be to stop death.

How to stop death? And that's all. If the yoga teacher has this minimum motivation, I want to stop death.

Then that's real meditation. Higher motivation, I want to stop my own death. Then it will be like a DCI virus.

Other people will see me. Oh, you stop death. I also want to learn.

And then slowly you start a virus. Some worlds, whole world, nobody's dying. Right now there are worlds where nobody has to die.

You can call it Buddha paradise. But before they were just like this world. Then one person did real yoga.

And one person did real meditation. Body change into light. And then other people say, Oh, that's cool.

I also want. Virus spread. So, my long Geshe Michael long answer, if a yoga teacher can learn this bigger goal, to stop death, to stop death for everybody, then that would be cool meditation.

Okay, thank you. Let's take a break. 15 minute break.

Okay, thank you. Okay, let's start. We should bang the thing, right?

Don't wake up the student. Okay, I'm going to go to the lam rim. Again, I like to make the morning session long.

Because you are fresh. And then afternoon is shorter. And evening is very short.

Sugeng, we are at Deita Minbar. Deita Minbar, okay. Deita Minbar ge chok dun yin dang means don't worry too much about fundraising.

Okay, but I have to. And then, shen tsar chupa ched tsam du, chupa chen na, if you always thinking about money, even fundraising for temple or religious organization, then the teaching became business. Shen tsar chupa ched tsam du means when you are studying, don't think competitive thoughts.

I will learn more than other people. And my friends will be impressed with me. Then he says, chu sulam min drul means then it's not dharma anymore.

Okay, if we have this competitive thought, then the study of dharma with competitive thought becomes not dharma. Then his next comment is very interesting. When you are debating, you know, I debated for many years in the monastery.

And as I said, my class started out, we started out with about 60 guys. And in the first year, they will choose the leader, the assistant leader, the assistant, assistant leader. These are the smartest guys, most aggressive guys, you know.

Then I noticed after many years, those guys will fail. Something will happen. They are thinking only competitive thought.

And there are other guys in my class. They are quiet. They help other people.

They are respectful. They are not always the most smart ones, but they have a big heart. And after 20 years, only they survive.

And they become great Geshe. And those very smart guys, who are proud, something always happens to them. I remember one of them died.

And very bad things happen. And then there's a cool custom. Big, humble Geshe.

Secretly, very great mind. Outside, they are always volunteer to wash the dishes. So everybody thinks they are stupid or something.

But actually they are very humble. Then, oftentimes, they will come to the debate ground. And they will, for example, they will say, if you put the pen on the table, and you ask all the dogs to go out, and you ask all the people to go out, and then the pen is there.

Is there something there before the dog comes back, before the people come back? Is there something there? They will act like they are confused.

And they will say, I think the pen is there. Before the human comes back. So it's not true.

They know it's not true. But in the debate, they will show that they are stupid, to teach the other monks. They will say, oh, I think there's a pen before the person comes back.

Then the young monk will say, no! He said, oh, really? Why?

Then the young monk will fight with them. And then, finally, the old monk will fail. Oh, there was no pen before I came back.

Then the young monk is like, yeah! Oh, thank you. Now I understand.

And they keep doing this every day. So it means here, when you debate, humble. And sometimes, just for humility, take the wrong position.

Purposely. And pretend you are stupid. And let the younger debate beat you.

They go, oh, I'm so ... Thank you very much. Now I understand.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Like that. In the debate, there's two ways to debate. The lower debaters, they will go home, they will prepare.

To prepare debate about the eight kinds of qualities of teacher, for example. They will work very hard to understand it. What is the karma for those eight qualities?

They will prepare, prepare, prepare. Then the better debater, better debater, they will try to find what they don't understand. Or something controversial.

And this is the custom of Tsongkapa. Tsongkapa's custom. Don't study what you know, study what you don't understand.

And go into the debate with a question. Something you don't understand. Then tomorrow, we will ...

Tomorrow is Tsongkapa's birthday. And we will have special vows. I wanted to talk a little bit about it.

One day I was in China. I met some people. And they said, what group are you?

And I said, what? And they said, are you Tsongkapa? Are you Karmapa?

Are you Nyingmapa? Are you Satyapa? Are you black hat, red hat, yellow hat, blue hat?

Then I'm like, I don't know. I like Tsongkapa. Okay, so you are Gelugpa.

You follow Dalai Lama. And I'm like, no. I just like Tsongkapa.

Why? Tsongkapa teaches about the two husbands in the kitchen. What is your group?

I'm the two husbands in the kitchen group. Then ... Personally, I think what you choose, your group, it's up to you.

I don't care. People ask me, what's the picture in your altar? Scott, you ready?

I'll show you the picture on my altar. I really respect Tsongkapa. Why?

Great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great teacher. This is the picture on my altar. He's a great guitar player.

I respect him. I feel like I'm not Gelugpa or Karmapa or Sakyapa or Nyingmapa. I think these became religious group.

Then I'm in this group, you're in that group. I have yellow hat, you have black hat. I shouldn't talk to you.

Partly became political. We have this political group. You have this political group.

Personally, I don't feel comfortable with that. So, when I say Tsongkapa, I'm not thinking some political group. Just, I love him.

I have crush on him. Like in the high school, when you have girlfriend and you see her in your life, that's how I feel about Tsongkapa. The meaning of what he taught is very beautiful.

So, I don't mean you should join some Gelugpa group or some religious group or political group. For me, it's not fun. I just like Tsongkapa.

I love the two husbands in the kitchen. Someone ask you, what group are you? Don't say I'm Geshe Michael's group.

I'm dog with a pen group. That's okay. Teacher will pass away.

New teachers will come. Every generation. The main thing is not Geshe Michael picture or Geshe Michael group or Tsongkapa group or Karmapa group or any group.

The main thing is the two husbands in the kitchen. Stay in that group who understand Kongxin who use the four steps in their own life. Outside, follow government policy.

Listen to the policies. Countries are big. China has over a billion people.

They need a strong government. Many hundreds of years fighting in China. In America also.

Hundred years ago. I think 500, half million people died. So, I think a big country needs a strong government.

What they say, we should listen to them. Don't think about what I want. Then there will be a problem.

There will be civil war. My personal belief what government say, I just do it. I just, okay.

We have to have harmony. What religion are you? DCI teach many Muslim people every year.

Several thousands. Oh, you have pictures. Scott and you, Stanley, at the PhD ceremony.

In Israel, we have 50 DCI, this is teaching in Mexico Congress. We are teaching Jingang Jing in the Mexico Congress. And, you have Stanley?

You have Stanley? That's Scott. This is Stanley.

He's teaching Jingang Jing in the Mexico Congress. Best export from China. Okay, it's Jingang Jing.

Then those people are all Christian. They are tough Christian in the Mexico Congress. But they like Jingang Jing.

They are studying Jingang Jing. So, I feel like that. Personally, I don't feel I want to be in any group or especially if it's religious and political.

It's uncomfortable for me. What you do, you just do what you feel comfortable. But myself, I like Tsongkapa.

We are like friends. But I'm not like Gelugpa. I follow this Lama.

You follow this Lama. Personally, I don't feel comfortable. Long time ago, I decided I'm not in this group or this group.

Sometimes I wear a robe. Because I took a vow. The robe reminds you of the vow.

I have to be more careful. Don't kill. Don't steal.

Don't lie. Like that. It's just to remind of the vow.

So, I like to wear it. Tomorrow, I will wear robe. I ask you not to, what do you call?

A lot of photo and upload WeChat. Let's keep the ceremony in this room. Same for the fire.

Because it makes other people uncomfortable. Oh, he's in this group. He's in this group.

So, I like to wear the robe. I don't want outside people feel they are this group or this group or this group. Join any group.

What's our group? Husband in the kitchen group. That's all.

No leader. No membership. You don't have to join anything.

Take the four steps. Go home. Use them.

If you are successful, take me to dinner. Okay, that's enough. Alright?

Okay. Okay. DE MTSAN NAS RANG CHAGS RAB CHEN RNAMS KYIS RNAMS KYIS CHOS CHOS ZHIN PA DE NYID SANGS PA'I CHOS SU RGYUR BA LAS LHAG PA'I CHOS BYAS PA LOGS SU BRTZOM MI DGOS If something is Dharma or not Dharma, it doesn't depend on the outside thing.

It depends on your mind. So, washing dishes can be Dharma. And studying Jing can be not Dharma.

What is your motivation? I want to help people. GZHAN KHYEN PA'I KHYA BA'I GCIG RTEN PA'I LTA NI LOGS SU CHOS LA BRTZOM DGOS PA YIN Everybody can practice Dharma.

You don't have to be a monk or a bhikshuni. In my opinion, there was, I don't know, over a thousand years, Dharma holder, person who holds the Dharma is monks. For a thousand years.

The holder of the Dharma is a monk. I think in the modern world, it will be you. Okay?

Not mainly monks. In the modern world, I think it will be modern people. And you will keep it.

The smartest people in the world, some of the smartest people, some of the smartest people in the world, they are not in the monastery. They are in business. If you want to build this building, don't call a monk.

Call an architect. Shenzhen architect. Ask the Shenzhen architect.

If you trust a monk to build this building, it will fall down. In the modern world. Of course there are many brilliant monks.

They do build buildings. And good buildings. But what I mean is, in the modern world, I like to teach the business people because they are skeptical.

They don't accept easily. You say everything is koshing. Then they say, why?

Why? They ask tough questions. They don't say, oh yes, Lama, you say it's that way, I agree.

They ask tough questions. They don't believe easily. So I think in this generation, it's the family people who will hold the Dharma.

Especially business people. It's difficult to convince them, and if you convince them, they hold it. So we are wrapping up.

The teaching on karma. The Lama said here, we are about halfway through the lam rim. He said that actually the second half of the lam rim is just more detail about karma.

So we will go to many more subjects but the foundation is seeds. Understand the seeds. In DCI, we call four by four.

You guys teaching four by four again? Scott? Okay, in the workshop you can hear.

Okay, ,LAM LEN DGE RLUGS KYANG ZHIG LTA BU, ,SOD PAR NYES NAS, ,SEMS CAN DU SHAGS ZIN PA NA, Then he says, one thing is to study the theory of karma. And it's a different thing to practice karma. Then in the monastery, there's one bad thing.

We sleep on the old wooden bed. There's no mattress. It's made with strings.

And unfortunately, it's only this long. For me, I have to sleep like this. There's always a lot of fleas on the bed.

Special bed bug. It's terrible karma. Then at night, they wait till you're asleep.

Then they come out of the wood, and they crawl on you. Then they will have dinner. Then when they are full, they're about this big, full of blood.

And they're very slow. They're like the guy on the bus. Then they will ...

Okay, disgusting. I'm sorry. They will crawl up the wall to digest.

And in the morning, when you wake up, there's three or four on the ... They are holding onto the wall. All red, big, full of blood.

Then some of the younger monks, they will kill them. And then big red spot on the wall. So, they take in the finger, and they squish them.

So, he said, if you wake up in the morning, you're irritated because you couldn't sleep. Then you see this bug on the wall. And you learn, and you get ready to kill them.

Learn how to stop yourself when you're almost ready to do something wrong. You're ready to squash them. So, learn to stop yourself.

Halfway through a bad deed. Then he says, dzun shik shepa tsom nang, Geshe Michael loves to exaggerate in the class. When I go home next week, I haven't been home for a long time.

Then my partner, other people, they will ask me, how was Thailand? First person, I will say, yeah, we had 500 people. Second person, I will say, yeah, we had 600, almost 600 people.

And the third person, I think it must have been near 700 people. It will get bigger and bigger. So, learn to watch your mouth.

Geshe-la, how was Thailand? Yeah, it's great. How many people?

400 something. Okay, so, learn to stop your bad karma halfway through. Geshe Michael.

Okay, tsong na che ne ma shorwa means before it leaves your mouth, stop it. dikpa chung mu ne pong kang thub dang Then watch the small bad deeds. Nobody in this room is going to kill somebody.

Nobody's going to steal money from your pocket. But we do small bad deeds. You order room service.

You make a mess. You just put it all outside. You're supposed to call the room service and tell them to pick it up.

Then we feel lazy. It's not like killing somebody. It's just a few dirty dishes.

It will hurt the hotel. They will get more roaches. Right now they just have one.

Okay. Then it will hurt the next people who come here. So, small thing.

Be careful. Okay, and gyewa chung lu. If you have chance to do small good thing, let the other person go first.

Let them have a nice seat. You know, just learn to be graceful. And people like it.

Person who does small good things. We like to say, Oh, I donate $100,000. I can recite Xinjing.

But these other people, they are just doing small graceful things. He says it's very beautiful. When you have like a pound of seeds, like mustard seeds, you make them one by one.

Okay, and I like to talk about in my diamond business. So, we don't do just diamond. We do many tens of thousands of stones every day.

Every kind of stone. Then for many years, we are looking for a light blue clear stone. And they are like sky blue.

And there isn't any. This one is called turquoise. But it's not clear.

Then one day I was in Hong Kong on a business trip. I was in Hong Kong. I saw this clear blue stone.

I told my ... I told that guy, Oh, I'm looking for this for ten years. He said, Yeah, it's a secret process.

You take the brown stone. From Sri Lanka. And it's a secret process.

It becomes beautiful blue. Then I decided I'm going to figure out the secret process. It took me two or three years.

But you take the brown stone from Sri Lanka and you put it in a nuclear reactor. And you leave it there for like two weeks. It will become a beautiful blue color.

And then I came back. I'm like, Ha ha! I decided how to do it.

Then I thought, we should check with a Geiger counter. Is it radioactive? Then we checked.

It's like, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Then we found out there's two kinds of brown stone. One of them radioactive.

One of them not. Then you have to check every single stone. We make maybe 5,000 every day.

You have to check. Then I called the American Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I said, is this stone dangerous?

They said, no. One stone, okay. I said, what do you mean one stone?

They said, how many stones you have in the bag? I said, like a thousand. They said, that's not okay.

One stone, it's safe. But when you put them together, it's dangerous. Then I thought, it's just like karma.

Nobody in this room is going to kill somebody. I don't think so. Except your husband.

But small bad thing, small angry, small bad word, it gets like radiation. Many small stones become dangerous. So, be careful of the small things.

You are Dharma people. You are not going to do big bad deed. So, we have to be careful about the little one.

Many, many small ones. It's dangerous. Together.

Okay. GOG CHED DE'I GRUB DGOS KHA CIG GI SDIG PA BRTAN PAR BYED KYANG SHAGS PA CHA CHOG PA'I KHYUN MED NYAMS NA This is very, very useful for us. I was doing a retreat one time near my home.

When I was a kid, my best friend is a Christian. He came to visit me. We didn't see each other for many years.

I said, what are you doing? He said, I'm still very active in the church. What are you doing?

Oh, I'm Buddhist. He said, teach me about karma. What is karma?

Then I taught him four steps. He said, that's cool. Then he said, is there some way to take out the old bad karma?

I said, yeah, four forces. Then he got a little bit upset. He said, so Buddhist people can do any bad thing.

Next morning you can do four powers. There's a special pill you can take next morning after sex. You will not get pregnant.

You can take it after sex. He said, you people are like after sex pill. You can do any bad thing.

Next morning do the four powers. Then Pabongka talked about it here. He said, some people say, I can do some bad deeds.

Then the next day I can do four powers. Buddha said, don't drink alcohol. But I can drink tonight.

I can drink alcohol. Then tomorrow morning I do four powers. Everything's fine.

He said, no. There's a big difference between not doing a bad deed and doing a bad deed and cleaning it. There's a big difference.

DANG PO NAS GANG PA MA CHAGS PA DANG CHAGS NAS CING SOGS BYAS TE SBYOR BA GNYIS KHYAD PAR BYED PA LTAR A big difference between a person who never broke their leg and a person who broke their leg and got healed. Second person's leg is always weaker. Then he It's true, if you do good four powers, that bad seed will not open.

Or it will open a little way. It's like you cancel the bad seed. young, but, salam toppa la hajang gyang tak singwa, but because of the effect of the bad seed, you becoming a Buddha is delayed.

Okay? You don't experience the bad result. But, you becoming Buddha, using emptiness, you getting bodhichitta, everything delayed.

Okay? So, the cleaned bad seed delays everything. How long?

gyalpay yun sam dun gor dro means, oh, just one million years. Okay? Everything delayed.

Then, we have a responsibility, who study lam rim. We have to become Buddha as fast as possible. People are waiting for you.

Okay? Your family, your friends, people in your country, they are suffering. Every day, people die.

People get cancer. People getting old. Then, if you delay your Buddhahood, actually you are hurting them.

Same as hurting them. So, you have to avoid the bad deed from the beginning. It's true you can clean it.

It's true you just get a headache and you don't get cancer. But, the cleaned bad seed delays your Buddhahood. So, he's kind of summarizing.

And, lam rim person, their attitude, it changes. Okay? In the beginning, there are four steps, Geshe-la, four steps.

Why? More money, beautiful husband, nice kids, better yoga. That's a beginning motivation.

Then, if you keep coming to lam rim, your motivation expands to the next life also. I taught you eight ways to become a teacher. Half of those are for next life.

Okay? You are, your mind expands. You're not just thinking about Thailand.

You are thinking about flight home. What I have to do next six months. Then, short-sighted person, they're just thinking about tonight.

Geshe-la, what's for dinner? Then, long-minded person. How can I use this next year?

How can I have happy ten years? And, after die, how can I have happy life? So, you won't hear that anywhere in your life, except in this class.

We are preparing not for Thailand. We are not just preparing for when you go home. We are also preparing for next life.

Okay? So, you're in this class. Your mind have to expand.

Then, after that, when you see normal people, they look a little bit crazy. You say, what are you doing? I'm trying to make a million dollars.

Why? I want to have a Jaguar car. Jaguar.

Okay, Mercedes Benz. Jaguar. I want to have a beautiful house.

Can you keep it? No. Do you have to die?

Yes. What are you going to do after that? I want a Jaguar.

I want a beautiful house. No, no, no. After you die, I want Jaguar.

I want beautiful house. They don't want to think about it. People are a little bit crazy.

Will you die? Yes. Will something happen after that?

Will something come after that? Yeah, I guess so. Are you ready?

I want Jaguar. The mind is crazy. Okay?

Then, when you come here, we try to expand your mind. It doesn't mean you can't have Jaguar. You should have Jaguar.

It's okay. And you should have a nice house. Why not?

Okay? House is nice. It has a door.

Okay? You cannot stay in a cave. If your house is comfortable, you can have better meditation.

And a little bit fancy. Okay, why not? The goal of Buddhism is not everyone should have a not fancy house.

The goal of Buddhism, everybody should have a fancy house, if they want. Okay? The goal of Buddhism is not everyone should have an old car.

That's like the old Russian communist system. Everybody should have an old car. I like the new Russian system.

We should all have comfortable car, but everybody should have one.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
So, it's not the goal of Buddhism that you purposely not be happy in this life. We should be happy this life, and prepare for next life. Okay?

Then you can relax. You know? Are you going to die?

Yes. What's going to happen? I have a plan.

Everything's ready.

[Speaker 2]
You know?

[Speaker 1]
My luggage is packed. I'm going to have a beautiful next life. I've prepared eight different qualities.

Then you can relax. Okay? You can see your future life.

Okay? Meditate until you can see your next life. If you do the lion's dance, especially number nine, 100% sure, you can see your future life.

And you can take care of it. Okay? Prepare.

And it will be more beautiful than this life. And just take care of it. You know?

It's like brushing your teeth. You can stop brushing your teeth. You can.

You can. But later you will have problem. You know?

So, just every day brushing. No problem. Okay?

Take care of next life. Then you can relax. Okay?

Cool. All right. Then from this class, you start to think about ...

expand your future. I will have a jaguar and a nice house in this life. And next life also nice.

Okay? TSE NI SNANG SHAS SHAR CUNG TZAM DU SONG NA SKYES BU CHUNG NI LAM RIM RTOGS PA GNAS DANG DANG PO SKYES PA RE SNANG SHAS SHAR CUNG TZAM DU SONG NA He said, if this life ... worry, worry about this life.

Plan for this life. Okay. So, plan for this life can be majority.

And then plan for next life is shorter. Minority. Yeah.

You can spend 75% of your time take care of this life. And 25% of your time take care of next life. When the percent of next life time grows, that's a sign you becoming spiritual person.

Okay? Cool. All right.

DE LTAR SKYES KYANG BDAG DU YANG YANG GOS PAR CHAGS DGOS TE BYAS MTSON DKA' PO CHEN PO'I DBUNG KYANG BSTAN PAR BYED PAR DGOS PAS DE CHUNG NAS KHYENG MA PAS PAR SOGS So, even after that, you start to think more about future life. Don't be satisfied. Keep pushing.

Two lives. Three lives. Four lives.

Okay? When you get to seven, that's cool. You are planning seven lifetimes ahead.

That's smart. Like smart people put their money in investment. You can also do.

And if you do lion's dance every day, you can see seven lives ahead. You can have 500-year plan. Many people have 10-year plan, 20-year plan.

Real lion's dance meditator has 500-year plan. Okay? And it's cool.

And it's fun. Okay? Dharma should be fun.

Okay. DE PHYIR NGES BYANG CHUB LAM BRAL RTOGS PA'I GNAS DANG PO'I PHYIR BRAL DE NAS SKYE DBANG DBANG YIN GSUM So, when should you start working on next life? Then we ...

I don't know about you, but I tend to think, I will start my practice tonight. What I learned today in the class, I will start to practice tonight. Then he said, no.

Start now. On this chair. Start to make those karmas.

Start to make those plans. During the class time, while listening about karma, you can start to plant the future karma. Start now.

In the class. DE NAS DRING DU BRAL TE ZHES PA TSE, KHYUNG TSUL DOR DU BRTEN LA, SBYOR CHOS NGOS DANG LAMA CHUG PAR ZHUGS PA LA GZUN DER BYAS NAS LEN DE PHYI'I PHYIR DANG RNAMS SA BYAS DRAM DE BSAM How to do meditation? Then bring the Lama, you know, put them in front of you, ask them for help, and you can start to do a meditation on karma.

When you get up, then start to do the karma. BRTEN TZAM GZUGS LEN DE KHYI RNAMS ZHAG BRTEN PA'I KHUR DO BRTZAM LUNG DANG LAS RGYAS PA RTOGS CHUGS RGYAS PA BRTAN PA GNYER ZHAG SDU BA LUNG DE ZHUGS SOGS LA YANG NAS YANG DU BRAL DGOS PAR NGA'A KHONG DU RTOGS TZAM ZHUGS PA YIN THAG GSUNGS So, what should we do after this Thai life? We have 10 translators working.

11. They are working on different, all the different schools of Buddhism from ancient times. Sugeng is doing Wheel of Life.

Nick is doing Nagarjuna. Allison is doing Vinaya. Stanley is doing Abhidharma.

Word is doing Mind Only. Udpala is doing Emptiness Meditation. Mr. Wu is doing Karma. And Seiji, oh Adam's doing, where's Adam? He's doing Logic. Logic School.

Shenzhen team doing Master Yuan Tzu from Tang Dynasty. And Seiji is doing a special book about Lojong and the stories about Karma. So, he's going to teach it here.

Did I forget somebody? Oh, Ben Kramer. He's doing ancient schools of India.

Did I do Word? Yeah. Mind Only School.

Okay. So, I asked them before this class, put your translations sample. Most of them are working for one year now.

And I asked them to make a sample for you guys. And I think it's ready. Maybe.

Almost ready. Before you leave, it will be ready. Then they are shy to ask you for fundraising.

I'm not shy. I will be their fundraiser. They have to publish those books.

It takes money for paper. In the next 10 years, they will publish about 15, 20 books. They need some help.

So, Nick, stand up. If you'd like to help, if you'd like to help them, talk to Nick. So, Gang's working on a bigger project to print 108 Dharma books together.

And I'll talk to you about that later. Okay. So, he said here, read those Dharma books.

Okay. Now, big thing happened today. Okay.

NYIN CHU ZHIG PAR. We reached... Okay, that original teaching about 100 years ago, it was a 24 days teaching.

They are not like us. They do 10 hours in a row. No peeping.

Maybe they have little bottles. I don't know. No microphone.

Like 3, 4, 5 thousand people. Lama has to talk very loud. Anyway, something big happened today.

We reached the 14th day.

[Speaker 2]
Just now. So, congratulations.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah. Okay. We are over halfway finished.

When did we start? What year? I don't know.

2009 or 10? 2010. Yeah.

7, 8 years now.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Halfway finished. Okay. NYIN CHU ZHIG PAR, CHU GYI RGYAL PO MTSONGS KHA BA CHEN PO'I BSRUNGS He quotes Mtsongkhapa.

When they start a new day, they will talk about motivation. Okay. So, he quotes Mtsongkhapa.

LUS SO'I RGYUR CHU'I CHOS PAR BZHIN, NYUR DU GCIG PA'I PHYI BA BRTAN PA DANG, ZHIG PA'I RJES SU LUS RANG, DU MA ZHING DKA' NA LAS DE, PHYIS BZHIN BRTAN DBANG LA, NYES PA BRTAN PO NYID NI, NYES PA'I TSOR, PHRA BZHIN BRTAN DBANG, RNAMS BSKYENGS PO'ANG DANG, RGYAS TSOR THAG DAG GRUB PAR BYED PA LA, LTA DU BA DANG, BRTAN PA'I RJES KYI RLOB Very famous. Okay. Very famous poem by Mtsongkhapa.

LUS SO'I RGYUR CHU'I CHOS PAR BZHIN, your body is like the bubble on this ocean. NYUR DU GCIG PA'I PHYI BA BRTAN PA DANG, that bubble will pop, and you will lose this body. ZHIG PA'I RJES SU LUS RANG, DU MA ZHING After you die, you have a shadow.

Okay, like if I put my arm here, on this table in front of me, I can see shadow, and it matches the shape of my hand. Just like that, the karma you made in this life is attached to you, like your shadow. I can say, I don't want this shadow.

You cannot take it away. What you did in this life, it will follow you, like a shadow. GAR NA LAS DE PHYI BZHIN DANG BA LA, good ones and bad ones.

NGES PA BRTAN PA NYES NAS NGES PA TSOG So, once you understand that, PHRA BZHIN PHRA BA RNAMS KYANG DPONG BA DANG, try to give up even small bad mistakes. DGE MTSO THA DAG GRUB PAR BYED PA LA Try to do all the good things. RTAG TU BA DANG LDAN PAR BYIN GYI RLUNG Please bless me, my Lama, to be careful.

When Geshe Michael starts to exaggerate, how many people in Thailand? About 400. Okay, catch yourself.

GZHOGS NI BRTAN PAR MDZAD NAS NGON DU'O KUN RUNG SPYOD TSUL DOR DU DANG So, the Lama, again, on the 14th day, talked to us about good motivation. NGON DU JI LTAR SONG BA'I SA BYAS RNAMS GSUNGS TE And then the Lama will review what they taught yesterday. JI BSTAN BYAS MA DE BA'I THABS NGON LEN DE SKYES SKOR LA BRGYA SHES MDZAD Then the Lama gave us a summary of the teaching about karma.

Now, Lam Rim has three big divisions. We call beginner people. Medium people.

Advanced people. And in this class, each one will take about six years. Six or seven years.

Now, good news for you. You just graduated first one. We just finished the beginner.

So, give yourself a hand. Seven. Seven years.

Eight years. We finished seven years. Now we reached the second part.

Okay, so it's cool. Now you are finished with beginner. Foundation is finished.

Now we reached the second part. We have four more minutes. Let's use the time.

NYID PA SKYE RBUNG SDUG DANG THU MED BA'I LAM GYI RIM PAR BLO BYANG BA LA NYID So, the medium person's has two parts. THAR PAR SDUG BSNGAL GYI BLO SKYE BA DANG THAR PAR SDUG PA'I LAM GYI RANG BZHIN BRTEN LA AB PA'O First, decide, I want to be free. I want to get out of this jail.

What is the jail? Where is the jail? We have to talk about it.

Then, second, THAR PAR SDUG BSNGAL GYI LAM GYI RANG BZHIN Then, what is the method to get out of the jail? So, two steps. What is the jail?

Number two, how to get out of the jail. BLO BYANG BA LA NYID First one, what is the jail? KHOR BA GCIG SDUG BSNGAL SANGS PA DANG SO SOGS SDUG BSNGAL SANGS PA'O Think about all the suffering in samsara.

And then think about each kind of suffering in samsara. General problems with the jail, and specific problems in the jail. DE YANG RNGAR SHES PA'I SKYE BU CHUNG MU DANG THUB MU BA'I LAM RIM LA BRTEN NI MI SKYE BCUG PONG GI TSUL KHRIMS GSUNGS NA GNAS SKABS NGAN SONG GI SDUG BSNGAL LAS THAR STE If you do the foundation steps, don't hurt other people, keep the ten good deeds, then okay, you can escape hell's realm.

You can escape animal realm. You can escape hungry spirit realm. Unfortunately, he said GNAS SKABS for the time being.

Okay.

[Speaker 2]
I'm sorry.

[Speaker 1]
TEN ROL SKYE BA SHES BCUNG YANG Then, if we are careful about karma, we can be born again as human. Somebody asked a Buddha, how many people are born human? You and me, we think, oh, if I die, we are trying to decide which country I'd like to come back.

Maybe New York. Maybe Shenzhen. We are trying to decide which place I want to come back.

Then Buddha said, don't think like that. Why? You think you're coming back as a human?

Yeah, why not? I'm human now. Then Buddha went like this.

Then he touched the ground and he showed the students, you know, how much dust here. Three, four pieces. How much dust in the whole planet?

Billion, billion, billion. He said, this many of you come back human. That many of you come back animal or worse.

Don't think, don't think, should I come back New York or Los Angeles? You shouldn't come back as roach, okay? That's a main goal.

Which city, it doesn't matter. Okay, so that's beginning goal. But suppose you come back as human.

Then what? Get old. Die.

Go to Thailand a few times. Learn how to come back as human. Come back as human.

Get old. Die. Go to Thailand a few times.

Come back as human. Get old. Die.

Lose all your family. Die again, die again, die again. Even if you are these people, not enough.

Okay? We want freedom. Okay?

And we want to take our family to freedom.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
So, we just reached this place. Okay? Today.

Okay. Thank you. See you in the afternoon.