«Дар освобождения», курс 28 «Строю пространство для практики (ретрит в Таиланде)», занятие 11

[Speaker 1]
Okay, we have three things scheduled for tonight. Every time we do lamrim retreat, I do like a special class, two special classes. Special fun classes.

This started in Guadalajara with the organizer there, Alejandro. He asked me, can you teach some special class, Krishna? I said, I did.

It's called lamrim. Then I said, just kidding. Then I said, okay, I'll teach a special class.

So, there's a special book I've been teaching for about six years. It was written by the first Panchen Lama, about 500 years ago. And it has a very beautiful name, dang dzin shang deb.

Say dang dzin. Shang deb. And it's called the Angel Argue with the Devil.

[Speaker 2]
About kong shing.

[Speaker 1]
It's a poem. It's pretty long, and it's really beautiful. And the devil tries to talk about kong shing wrong way, and meditation the wrong way.

And then the angel is our wisdom, and they are both inside of one person's mind. So, they are fighting inside, civil war inside of one mind. And it's a beautiful book, and very funny, and a very good explanation of kong shing.

So, I thought to do that. But, I also want to do another subject. I thought it's ...

we are going to do a fire offering the day after tomorrow. And now, some of you have seen the fire offering, and we will be doing it together. We will have three fires going, and three senior students in teams, they will be offering the fire offering.

And I'd like ... we will choose a lottery, I think, that people can help.

[Speaker 2]
I think about 70 or 80 people can help.

[Speaker 1]
And personally, if I do some kind of special ceremony, I'd like you to understand what's going on. I know when I was first learning all these things, and people are doing these rituals, and I sit there for three, four, five hours, and I have no idea what's the meaning. Everything is in foreign language, and no one thought I should understand.

Then I said, later, when I do all these ceremonies, I will explain them first. So, we were very lucky this afternoon to have a beautiful explanation of the vows ceremony by one Chinese teacher. Yeah, I like her.

Thank you. Actually, I was checking. I was pretending not to check, but I was checking.

She did a really good job.

[Speaker 2]
But don't tell her.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, so I thought tonight, let's just relax. Oh, and I want to tell you what's the fire offering. And what's going on?

Then I taught 134 people to do it, and I can teach you to do it, but first you need that initiation. So, we will do slowly. We will do initiation.

That takes a lot of ... I have to know you. But I can explain what's ...

[Speaker 2]
Generally, I can explain what's going on during the fire. Then you can appreciate it more. What's going on?

[Speaker 1]
Alright, so I thought tonight we just relax. Have fun. If you have jet lag, you can sleep during this explanation.

Let's just have fun. And then tomorrow, we get up early, so I will stop the class a little bit early. Tomorrow's Je Tsongkapa day.

I think he's the most wonderful person who ever lived in this world. And so, it's a good day for doing good karma. So, we will take the vows.

We will have a full day of classes. But also, I would like to do ... Tonight, I would like to tell you about some of our projects, if you'd like to help work with them.

So, we'll do that last. Okay, here's the fire offering. And I'm just ...

It's 269 pages, okay? And it takes about three hours. So, I'm not going to tell you in detail, but I will just go through the main parts.

First, somebody has to work for about four weeks to collect all of those.

[Speaker 2]
Some of those things are rare.

[Speaker 1]
And one person took that responsibility for several years now.

[Speaker 2]
And I'd like to thank Venerable Chunchen.

[Speaker 1]
I really appreciate it, because I used to do it for my lama.

[Speaker 2]
It's a terrible job.

[Speaker 1]
You have to go to many stores. Do you have yam shing? They say, what's yam shing?

[Speaker 2]
Then you go to the next store.

[Speaker 1]
You can spend a whole day looking for yam shing. Okay, so, she did a good job. And I'm really grateful for that.

Let's see here. So, first I will do a special mantra. It's to a lady Buddha.

Her name is Khandrohi. And she's a little bit like ... I don't know.

I won't say.

[Speaker 2]
She's tough. Like Jasmine.

[Speaker 1]
And a very tough woman Buddha. And she will help us during the fire.

[Speaker 2]
So, we have to invite her.

[Speaker 1]
We do her mantra. And she protects the fire. Okay.

Then, after we invite her, we are not allowed to talk. Nobody. I invited one guy to come to the fire offering.

The whole offering, he's checking his WeChat. I got irritated. I said, I kick him out.

Don't do WeChat during fire offering. Focus on the fire offering. It's not a good mixture.

If I see you doing WeChat, I will ask you to offer your telephone to the fire. Okay? So, actually you have to stop talking.

And I will recite in foreign language, okay? Because it's secret. You're allowed to watch, but you're not supposed to know all the meaning until you have initiation.

Okay. So, you know, if one piece of fire is on her lap or something, you're allowed to talk.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
So, if there's special purpose, it's okay. Buddhism shouldn't bother other people.

[Speaker 2]
Have fun.

[Speaker 1]
Don't be ... you can talk. Not like that.

Then use your common sense. You know, if something's necessary to say ... Excuse me, Nick, I didn't get a youtiao.

[Speaker 2]
Then this is important.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Then the people doing the fire, they will use a badger and a bell.

[Speaker 2]
And it has a special meaning.

[Speaker 1]
And we do a special mantra to prepare them. And after we hold it, we're not allowed to put it down until the fire is finished. So, there's a tradition.

[Speaker 2]
They will tie it to your hand.

[Speaker 1]
Because you are holding badger and you're also offering the rice or thing. Then many lamas threw their badger by accident. Then it's hard to get it out.

So, they tie it to the hand. Okay. Then there's a special prayer for preparing the offerings.

And it's pretty beautiful. First, we turn them into emptiness. Then we turn them into Buddha food.

A lot of times you will see me doing this, you know.

[Speaker 2]
I'm going to ...

[Speaker 1]
Like this. This is offering something to drink. Offering wash their feet.

Offer flower. Offer incense. Offer butter light.

Offer perfume. Offer pizza. Food.

And then music.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, so you will see this many times.

[Speaker 1]
Then take an interest, okay? Spy on the lama. Then practice yourself.

Later you get permission. But I was ... For many years, I spy on my lama.

I have several sick notebooks. I took ... everything I took notes, you know.

Everything. Where's the plates? Where's the lama?

I said, can I take notes, lama? He said, yeah. And later I prepared them into a small book.

[Speaker 2]
And I give it to my students. Everything.

[Speaker 1]
Everything. It's a hundred things. So ...

Spy. Practice. Don't go like this.

[Speaker 2]
Spy everything.

[Speaker 1]
What's Chundzom doing, you know? Okay, alright. Alright.

There's a lot of mantras. I fixed them. It took me many years.

Sometimes the Sanskrit mantras got messed up. So, in this ceremony, I found the Sanskrit. And I put it inside.

Okay, one of the first offerings is ghee. And ghee is a kind of butter. And you melt it carefully.

Same as the can. And there's a big bucket. And we will offer it.

There are two special spoons. Then spy. How to offer.

Okay, there's a special way. You can see tomorrow. And mainly, we are asking help from a special woman Buddha.

So, we already had one woman Buddha.

[Speaker 2]
It's Khandro-Rohi. Jasmine.

[Speaker 1]
And now we have ... The other one is the main person we are offering the fire to them. And her name is Diamond Angel.

Vajrayogini. Okay, so this fire for her. There are four kinds of fire.

ZHI RGYAS DBANG DRAG Peaceful.

[Speaker 2]
Generous. Powerful. Fierce.

[Speaker 1]
Fierce.

[Speaker 2]
Fourth word.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, yeah, phantom. Yeah, phantom. These are four kinds of fire.

We are going to do the first kind.

[Speaker 2]
Peaceful.

[Speaker 1]
And that smoke, it will go to all the countries in the world.

[Speaker 2]
Slowly.

[Speaker 1]
And we make a prayer that it will bring peace to this whole world. So, that's one of the main purpose of the fire offerings. Okay.

What? Then we will offer all of the different substances three times. Okay.

First time is to a special Buddha called Fire Buddha. MED LA AG NI BDE BA And we will present many things to the fire. Each one plate.

But we don't put all of it in. We put in like three quarters? Okay.

And when you put in, I'll show you correct way and wrong way.

[Speaker 2]
Here's the wrong way.

[Speaker 1]
Okay? Don't do like that. Do like a warrior.

A little bit cool. Zhenlang San. Okay?

Okay? Don't go like this. Okay?

Alright. Also, don't do too slow, okay? And don't do too fast.

Okay? But it takes three hours. So, maybe four hours.

So, think about the other people. They are tired. Don't go very slow.

Okay. Then there will be a mandala.

[Speaker 2]
Sand mandala.

[Speaker 1]
We put it before we put the fire.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah. It takes a lot of time to draw it.

[Speaker 1]
We have to do three. Then, you are not allowed to look at that. Okay?

Just who she ...

[Speaker 2]
who Chunzong chooses, they can help.

[Speaker 1]
But you're not supposed to see it otherwise. Yes. And somebody asked my lama, Why?

That's a secret. Okay. Then, after we put the wood on it, then you can see it.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Can see it after the wood. Before the fire. During the fire, it's covered with fire.

But after they draw the mandala, and they put the wood before lighting, then you're allowed to look at it. Okay? Then I spy, you know, I look under.

I figured it out. Okay. Then there are special books how to draw it.

And I translated those books. And I translated the whole Fire Offering. The Diamond Way course, ACI Diamond Way course, it's 10,000 pages of translations.

It takes seven years to learn. So, when you're ready, we'll do it. Alright.

Let's see. Nick will be helping me, right? He'll do a lot of strange things with the offerings.

That's secret. Okay. Then there's an optional part.

There's a long offering part. I give yotel to Buddha of the East.

[Speaker 2]
I give yotel to Buddha of the West.

[Speaker 1]
South, North. And you can skip it if you're in a hurry. That means you have something more important to do than a Fire Offering.

So, I never skip it. I think there's nothing more important than that. It's better than sleeping.

So, I added all of those. It's optional. But we translated them and we added it.

So, there's a long offering part. Let's see. Then there's a special mantra for the Fire Buddha.

And when you're offering the things, I will be doing a prayer. And here's the main prayer. And I have to repeat it many times.

Like that. There's a prayer. Then, while you are offering, I have to repeat it.

It means ... basic meaning. We are trying to practice.

This week, we are doing classes. We are doing meditation, yoga, dance. You know, we are doing many study, much study.

Then, during that time, we made bubu. We got sleepy, or, you know, we thought jealousy about the other students, or some bad thought.

[Speaker 2]
Then, we are apologizing with this offering.

[Speaker 1]
So, that's one of the main prayers. Then we offer a special kind of tree. Tree wood.

And each offering has a Sanskrit mantra. This one is om.

[Speaker 2]
Om bodhi virkshaya.

[Speaker 1]
Say om.

[Speaker 2]
Bodhi.

[Speaker 1]
Virkshaya. Virkshaya means tree. And we imagine this is a part of the tree that the Buddha got enlightened.

And they are sticks. You offer them two at a time. Like this, okay?

And, let's see ... Yeah. Then, any obstacles to you becoming a leader are removed.

So, each offering has a obstacle. Each offering has a goal for the wood. It means people should respect you.

People should listen to you.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Next offering is the gi. And this stops obstacles to financial independence. Okay, so when we are offering the butter, you have to think, oh, my financial problems are being burned up.

Then, third one is black sesame. And this represents your bad seeds in your mind. And you are burning up your bad seeds.

Then there's a kind of grass. In each country, we can find different kind of grass, right? And it should have joints.

Okay? So, we ... Chunzong was looking all over Thailand for some joint grass.

Today she found some. Then, that represents long life. Okay, because there are many extensions of the grass.

Okay, next one is rice. Rice represents removing obstacles to good seeds. Okay, the word for rice in Sanskrit is pushta.

And it means grows bigger. So, when you offer rice, it means all your good seeds are expanding. Like Wheel of Life Part 10, what's that?

[Speaker 2]
Pregnant lady.

[Speaker 1]
Getting big. Okay, pushta. Pushta.

In, I don't know, in Basa, in Indonesia?

[Speaker 2]
How do you say rice?

[Speaker 1]
Belas? Oh, okay, this is from Hindi.

[Speaker 2]
Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Number six. This is a strange thing. It has many strange ingredients.

[Speaker 2]
I cannot tell you. A lot of yogurt inside.

[Speaker 1]
Number six. It's called Sampada. Sampada.

And, so, when you are meditating well, and when you are doing yoga well, and when you are studying well, you feel sort of super happy all the time. You're always in a good mood. Like Venerable Phil.

Something like that. Then, if you offer this yogurt, you will achieve that in your yoga, in your meditation, in your meditation, everything. Everything.

Then a special kind of grass called kusha. This is a very famous grass. And Buddha was sitting on kusha when he became Buddha.

So, this one we have to bring from India. It's a special grass. And when we offer it, it protects ourself.

It protects our family. It protects our country. Okay?

[Speaker 2]
It's a protection. Okay.

[Speaker 1]
Mustard seed. When we offer this one, all obstacles to your meditation, your study, understanding emptiness, those obstacles are destroyed. Okay.

Next one is called rye. I don't know. Rye.

[Speaker 2]
That's interesting. Yeah?

[Speaker 1]
Okay. We use it for bread. Then, when you burn this one, you get lucky.

Everything you do is lucky. Okay?

[Speaker 2]
That's rye.

[Speaker 1]
Next one is barley. Chinka. This is a nice one.

When you offer that, all your bad habit of delaying and going slow in all your projects is destroyed. Okay? So, we have problem of postponing things.

And we delay things.

[Speaker 2]
If you offer this one, it stops this bad habit.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Soy beans. Huang dou.

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, soy bean.

[Speaker 1]
It stops all obstacles to your physical and mental power. Then, next one is number twelve. It's called wheat.

Gasmaria in Sanskrit. Gasmaria.

[Speaker 2]
Gasmaria.

[Speaker 1]
And when you offer this, it helps to remove any sickness in your body, or your family, or people you know.

[Speaker 2]
It helps to burn the sickness.

[Speaker 1]
Now, thirteen is a little bit strange. We offer beer. Some kind of alcohol.

Then, Buddhist people cannot drink alcohol. But we just offer ... it burns well.

And it's a tradition to offer something bad. Then, when you offer it, you're supposed to think, why am I offering bad thing to Buddha? And I'll give you a ...

it's like a secret teaching, okay? Is there any way that alcohol and jing kang jing are the same? Yeah, come on.

It's supposed to take longer. Just kidding. Yeah, they are only equal in one way.

Diamond Cutter Sutra, jing kang jing. It's very beautiful. It's very helpful.

I think it can make the whole world happy. So, it's like number one good thing. Alcohol is like number one stupid thing.

[Speaker 2]
But in one way, they are the same.

[Speaker 1]
You ready? They are not not coming from your seeds. Okay?

They are kong. Okay? So, the purpose of offering alcohol and it's difficult.

You have to go like this. It's a can of beer. Don't put it on me, okay?

I don't want to smell like beer. You can pour it on yourself, it's okay. Then you're supposed to think, why are we offering alcohol?

Now you know the secret answer.

[Speaker 2]
It's supposed to remind you of kongxin.

[Speaker 1]
The only good thing about alcohol is it has kongxin. Okay? And same for the next offering.

Next offering is meat. Small piece of meat. Then it's wrong to kill the animal.

And it's a bad thing.

[Speaker 2]
It's one of the worst things in the world. So, why are you offering it?

[Speaker 1]
You're supposed to think, is there any good thing about this? Yeah, kongxin.

[Speaker 2]
It also has kongxin. That's all.

[Speaker 1]
So, it's like offering poo-poo or something. Okay? It's wrong to offer poo-poo.

It's a bad thing. Then if Lama says, please offer poo-poo to the fire, then in your mind you should say, why does Lama want me to offer poo-poo? There's nothing good about poo-poo to offer.

Or is there? Or is there something good? Yeah, it has kongxin.

Okay? Little piece of kongxin. It's supposed to remind you of kongxin.

When you offer rice, you are not going to think, why I offer rice?

[Speaker 2]
You will not remember kongxin.

[Speaker 1]
If I say offer beer, you say, why I offer beer to Buddha? Yeah.

[Speaker 2]
Little piece of kongxin there. Okay? Understand?

[Speaker 1]
It's supposed to remind you of kongxin. Tomorrow, if you take the one-day vow, you're not allowed to wear lipstick all day. Then, of course, at three o'clock, you will reach in your bag, you will go like ...

[Speaker 2]
Then you'll be ...

[Speaker 1]
Or maybe after you put it, you'll ... Xiaoping asked me, why are we not allowed to wear lipstick? Because it's fancy?

[Speaker 2]
No.

[Speaker 1]
Because you usually use it. Then you have this habit.

[Speaker 2]
You don't think about it.

[Speaker 1]
You are like ... You're talking to your friend, and two hours later, you're ... The boys watch you, we know about it.

[Speaker 2]
You're like ...

[Speaker 1]
Okay.

[Speaker 2]
Then tomorrow, you will ...

[Speaker 1]
Oh, I took a vow. What was the vow? Oh, bodhichitta.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, it reminds you why you took the vow. Then you're not supposed to sing.

I love singing. I sing all the time.

[Speaker 2]
My friends hate it.

[Speaker 1]
In the elevator, I will sing songs. Then tomorrow, I'm not supposed to sing. Go in the elevator.

Someone wants ... Then why are you not supposed to enjoy? It's just to remember a bigger purpose.

[Speaker 2]
You know?

[Speaker 1]
Why did I take that vow?

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
Somebody in the evening offers you very nice youtiao.

[Speaker 2]
And you're like, thanks!

[Speaker 1]
Then you will remember why you took the vow.

[Speaker 2]
You see? It's not to make you suffer.

[Speaker 1]
It is suffering, but it's not the purpose. I have a friend, Dr. Taylor. Famous story.

We took the vow together. He was sleeping at my lama's house because he had to travel a long way to take the vow. We woke up early the next morning.

I wanted to make breakfast for him. And he's sitting ... I opened the door at dawn on the second day.

He has, in this hand, he has a box of cookie.

[Speaker 2]
And then he's looking at his hand.

[Speaker 1]
When you can see the line, you can have the cookie. He put it in the window, you know? He's waiting for the sun.

He loves cookie. So you can do that. Okay.

By the way, those two special offerings, alcohol and meat, you're supposed to remember emptiness. So the result of those two, some of those things are supposed to help you financially, sickness, finishing your work on time.

[Speaker 2]
But these two, direct result, is Buddhahood.

[Speaker 1]
Buddhahood.

[Speaker 2]
These two, special.

[Speaker 1]
Why? You're definitely going to think, why am I offering this? Then you will say, emptiness.

And that plants a seed for Buddhahood.

[Speaker 2]
So those two are special.

[Speaker 1]
All right. Then there's a messy offering with lots of flowers on it. That's also for Buddhahood.

Then starts this long offering. Let's see. Yeah.

Then we start a second set of the same offerings. And that's for Jingang Yujia Mu.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
So that's for Lady Buddha. And I enjoy that one. She has special mantra.

OM OM SA BA BUDDHA LTA GYI GNYER BA DANG DBANG PHRAD PHRAD PHRAD Like that. Then when I reach that mantra, I'm offering to Vajrayogini.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
She's a woman Buddha. She's extremely beautiful. She loves to help people.

Even to hear her name is good luck. Then to make the offering is super good luck. To offer something to her.

Why we offer grains? This offering is 5,000 years old in this world. Older even than the Buddha.

[Speaker 2]
From the past Buddha.

[Speaker 1]
In those days, there's no money. Like, I will buy your horse with 10 pounds of rice or something.

[Speaker 2]
See?

[Speaker 1]
People trade this food directly. So, it's so old. We are offering.

This is money. I told my students that one day we did special fire offering. We collected $15,000 US.

[Speaker 2]
And we offer one by one in the fire. Then it's difficult.

[Speaker 1]
Burn $15,000. Don't tell anybody.

[Speaker 2]
It's illegal.

[Speaker 1]
Maybe Scott's having a heart attack. Anyway, it's really money. We are offering our money.

And usual offering, you want to get famous. You want your friends to see your offering. You are making donation.

I built that temple. I built this statue. But to burn it.

Then no other motivation.

[Speaker 2]
Just Buddha.

[Speaker 1]
Nobody's going to say, oh, you burn more than other people. You know? It's gone.

It's a real offering. Okay. Let's see what else is here.

I'm going to go to the end. Yeah, that's all. That's good.

Of course, at the end, we have to do gewa di together.

[Speaker 2]
Same prayers.

[Speaker 1]
If you like, you can write down some bad deeds you did in your life on paper. And you can burn them at the end. We don't have ...

there's too many people for everybody to offer something. But at the end, okay, after three hours, there will be extra butter? Ghee?

And I encourage you to practice offering. Each person can do three times. And you get this seed in your mind making this special offering.

Okay. The rest is secret. I'll teach you later.

Okay. We're going to do a mandala, and then I'm going to ask you ... I'm going to tell you about some stuff.