«Дар освобождения», курс 28 «Строю пространство для практики (ретрит в Таиланде)», занятие 14

[Speaker 1]
Let's meditate a little bit. Me and Stanley are too nervous from this song. Cell phone off.

We're going to start on the ninth floor. Usually night time is not a great time for meditation. Morning is the best time.

But we can do a short one. Clear your throat. This time we'll start with ten breaths.

Count ten long exhales. Then please bring one of your teachers to mind. Ask them to come and sit in front of you.

Alive. Real. And looking at you.

With love. Then think of some beautiful quality that you really admire in them. Then please come to the center of your mind.

Pleasantly dark place. And see the silver seeds. Beautiful silver seeds.

And see one of them open. And like a ghost picture of your teacher comes out. And it's this beautiful quality.

It looks like a hologram of your teacher. And it has this quality. And it leaves from your forehead.

And it settles on your teacher like a bird, like a coat. And that's why I see my teacher have this quality. Actually it's coming from me.

Watch a few seeds open. Watch the image come to your teacher. Now think to yourself.

How did those seeds get planted in my mind? It must have been in many of them in a past life. And we cannot remember directly.

But we can imagine in our past life what we did. And we can imagine what kind of person we were. And we can start to build a story about ourselves in our past life.

So, you know, it's the last evening of our program. We are all pretty tired. And so, tonight I'd like you to just relax.

Don't focus too hard. Pretend you are in your own apartment. And you just had a nice dinner.

And the kitchen is quiet. And you just relax in the chair. And imagine what was I like in my past life?

Make a beautiful story. Lots of detail. During this meditation there should be no negative parts.

Of course we have many negative seeds. But we have the best seed of all. We have teacher seed.

And that we should celebrate. We should be happy. So, make a beautiful story about who you were in your past life and how you planted those seeds.

And after the meditation I'm going to ask people if they would like to talk about what they imagined for their past life. And you can share with the rest of us. Okay, make a beautiful story.

We'll take a few quiet minutes. Just relax. Don't fight with your mind.

Your mind is going to think about going home. And just accept it. And go back to your movie.

Okay, here we go. Now please come back to your teacher. Respectfully ask them to move to the side.

And bring another teacher. They look the same. But the feeling is different.

This second teacher, you met them by accident. It's not that they are coming from your seeds. And you will also separate in the future by accident.

You don't have a destiny to become enlightened with them. And try to feel how uncomfortable it is that this teacher who is like a stranger could be this beautiful teacher that you have. Not coming from you.

Not coming from your kindness towards other people. And cancel this teacher. They don't have any place in your life.

They should go away. And send them away in your mind. And there's a space left over where they disappeared.

It's not a physical space. Like the inside of a glass or a cup. It's the absence of a teacher who is not coming from you.

And you have to try very hard to put your mind into this space. And we didn't do it before in our life. So it's something new for us.

And it will take a few weeks to learn how to do it. But keep trying. And ask your teacher ask the real teacher for help.

Okay, let's try for a few minutes. It may not come tonight. But when it comes you will you will be amazed.

Now please invite the real teacher to come back to this space. And try to understand one thing. The real teacher can only exist in the empty space where the fake teacher is not.

It's like a the movie of the real teacher needs a white movie screen. Maybe we won't understand it tonight. But just remember the real teacher to come from our seeds needs an empty space.

In which to sit where the fake teacher used to be. So bring back the real teacher. Enjoy sitting with them for a minute.

Just relax. Be together with your teacher. Happy.

Quiet. Grateful in the final night of our retreat. Now three long breaths.

Dedicate the good karma with golden light. And then slowly open your eyes. Take a stretch.

I thought some people might like to share a little bit about their story of their past life. Imagined story. Please don't make it too long so more people can have a chance.

Okay, who will pass around that? Here we go. Who wants to share?

[Speaker 2]
I walked into the time tunnel Then I saw a beautiful and magical view. Mountains, rivers, and sea. Very beautiful.

We were flying in the sky. Then we entered a glittering palace. Then I realized Mr. Gesi was my brother. At that time, he was going to be a king. He was going to sacrifice a person and go to the human world to promote his throne. The king in the universe.

But girls are not allowed to show their faces. Then I disguised myself as a man. Because at that time, I wanted to see Mr. Gesi. I wanted to see his quality. The quality of being admired by everyone. Then I was thinking what kind of seed I planted.

It turned out that in that life, I gave up my identity as a girl and kept promoting Mr. Gesi's good. My brother's good.

[Speaker 1]
But then, to do that, he has to sacrifice a person to send them to the human world to promote his goodness and things like that. But this job requires a male to do that. As a younger sister, I just sacrificed my female identity and I faked myself into a boy.

Then I just went into the human world and talked a lot of good things about him. I think that's how I planted the seed to see him right now being admired by many people. Cool.

Thank you. I like the story because you let your imagination go. I hope everybody else can do that.

You don't have to be boy or girl. Sometimes I like to be a fish. Or a mouse.

Something like that. It's okay. A nice mouse.

Anybody else like to share? So my story is like, I don't know whether it's about my past life, but I see Lord Maitreya, the Buddha, and he's just walking down the mountain with a few young boys and girls and they're having fun together. But I don't know if I'm the Maitreya or I'm one of the younger ones.

That's it. Thank you. Anybody else like to share?

[Speaker 2]
When I saw Lord Maitreya was bleeding to death, at that moment, I had a huge wish I want the world to stop the war forever and there will be no more killing. I want everyone to be happy and healthy. So at that moment, I put down the butcher knife and I wanted to know what kind of method could stop the pain forever.

At that moment, Lord Maitreya appeared. He understood emptiness. This is the only way to save the world.

Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
So my quality, the quality that I'm thinking about is about emptiness and compassion. So it's a little sad. I was in a battleship, battlefield, and then there's crops everywhere and the lights like a flowing like a river and then there are a lot of killing.

And then I was one of the generals with another two of my friends, Jenny Lee and Qin Ruiyang. And then we were both, we are all generals. Then after seeing this scene, then suddenly I had this wish, strong wish that I really want to stop battle forever.

There's no killing anymore. Then I was wondering what's the method, what's the path to reach that goal? Then suddenly you show up and then you taught us emptiness and said that is the only way to do it.

Thank you. One more.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you, Kashi Michael. I have three lives. The closer one is I'm just like the Oliver Twist.

18th century in Europe. And then I'm just skinny little boy, no parents, and then I go to, oh no, it's a priest bring me to the church to drink the milk. This is the one life.

And then the middle life, I'm a pig in the forest. And then I kept by some hunters and I eat my meat. And then the far away, the lives is Jesus Christ is carrying the cross, walking to the mountain.

On that day, I'm the long hair old, I'm long hair man and I'm just going to help Jesus Christ to walking a distance. And that's it. Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
I have three lives. The closest one is I'm just like the Oliver Twist. 18th century On that day, I'm the long hair old, I'm just going to help Jesus Christ to walking a distance.

Thank you. If you're from China, you can go to European. Americans can become Chinese.

There must be a reason why you're from Germany or Russia. There must be some reason why you're with so many Chinese people today. Okay.

Something like that. Okay. Let's go do the four truths.

Alright. First I'd like to tell you just the names of the sixteen, we call the sixteen aspects. And these are accepted by all Buddhist schools.

The first Arya Truth is suffering. We have to lose everything. Our family, our house, even our own body.

Okay. This truth has four parts. First one is impermanence.

Okay. Everything will pass away. We cannot keep them.

In Tibetan language it's mitak. Second one, it's called dungyel, it's called pain. Dungyel is pain.

Three kinds of pain in our life. First one is obvious pain. Like if you cut yourself, you have a headache.

Okay. Second kind is called suffering of change. So, every time we have something nice, it gets old and it changes.

Marriage becomes divorce. Peace becomes war. Health becomes sickness.

And the third kind of suffering, body has to get old. Unless you change the seeds. If you don't know about seeds, your body will get old.

Your mind will get old. You will lose everything. So, that's the second one.

Third one, tongpa. These things are empty. Now, emptiness means many things.

It's a good thing. Okay, but in this case, we count it as the third aspect of the Arya Truth of Suffering. And we'll talk more about that.

Fourth one, dakme. It means no self. Things are not themselves.

It sounds very strange, but if I give you an example, you can understand easily. Fire is not hot by itself. Why is fire hot?

The hot is not inside fire. The hot is like the pen coming from me. So, there's a red flame, and why it's hot?

The hot is coming from me. That's why some people can pick up fire. Their seeds are different.

For them, fire is not hot. Some people, famous story of Jesus, he could walk on the water. Water is not wet.

The wet part of water is coming from me. So, that's the meaning of no self. Here it's part of the truth of suffering.

Okay, second truth. Hole in the roof truth. What is the source of my pain?

Where is my pain coming from? And there are four parts. First is called gyu.

And it means cause. What is the cause of my suffering? Okay, second one, which is number six here, say kunjung.

Kunjung means like a spring, underwater spring, and the water comes up. So, what's the source of the water? Underground source.

Where the pain is coming from. We know the source, right? Every problem I have, let's say you have trouble meditating.

You know, you sit down. You close your eyes. And you do everything correctly.

The feet are correct. Hands are correct. Shoulders are correct.

And you close your eyes. And your mind is like, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. That's because you talked too much last week.

You bother other people. Oh, let me tell you my idea, you know. Nordica, let me tell you my idea.

And you talk for one hour. And you talk too much. Then you plant a seed.

Next week, when you meditate, seed open. And inside your mind is like, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Good translation.

Okay, that's called source. Number six. Seven is called gen.

Gen means factor. Like the cause of the tree is the seed. But, water, warm weather, good soil, these are conditions.

Okay, they are not the main cause. So, that's the meaning of number seven. It's a condition.

Okay. Number eight. RAB RGYAS means flow.

Flowing. Like steady flow. Like coming out, if you open the water in your hotel room all the way, and water is flowing out.

That's called number eight, RAB RGYAS. Heavy flow. Heavy flow, strong flow.

Okay. Number third truth. Four parts.

The third truth is you can stop it. You can stop death. You can stop old age.

You can stop losing your family, parents and children. You can stop it. Okay, this trouble.

Number nine, GOG PA. This is called stopping. Okay, you can stop it.

Okay, number ten. ZHI BA means peace. Okay, you can find peace.

Okay. Number eleven. It's called RGYA RNAMS. RGYA RNAMS means beautiful. Okay, if you can stop death, stop sickness, stop losing your family, this is the most beautiful thing. Okay, number twelve. NGAN SBYUNG Here it means it's a inevitable finish.

Good one, good one. Inevitable good finish. It means the definite good ending to the story.

Okay, that's number twelve. Fourth truth, truth of the path. Okay, there is a path.

There is a method. You just learn it. You just do it.

And you can stop death for yourself and for your family. Fourteen, sorry, thirteen. The first part of path is also called path.

Path. Fourteen, logical method, makes sense. Okay, good method.

Okay. Fifteen, DRUG PA means practice. Buddhist practice.

There's something you can do. These meditations, study, serving other people. That practice will work.

Sixteen, is the brother of twelve. Sixteen is the brother of twelve. Twelve means a happy ending of the story.

Inevitable happy ending to the story. And sixteen, means the thing which will bring the inevitable happy ending to the story. Okay, those are sixteen.

Then, I have a suggestion. These sixteen, you can almost not find their name in the sutras. They are well known.

Buddha taught them. They are in many sutras. And everybody calls them the sixteen.

And if you say, what are the sixteen? Maybe two people out of a hundred, they can count the names. But if you ask, what does it mean?

They say, I don't know. And it's difficult to find in the sutras. Why?

These sixteen, are experiences that every Arya has when they see emptiness directly. Okay, so Arya means person who saw emptiness directly. It's a very powerful experience.

It's the most powerful experience a living being can have. If you have it, you will quickly become a Buddha. Okay, so, it's so cool, after billion, billion, billion lifetimes, you guys are very close.

My teacher said, when you were born, they shot the bullet at the target. If you can slow down a bullet, it's going towards the paper, and it first touched the paper, then goes through. And my teacher said, if you are in this class, if you are doing the lion stance, your bullet touched the paper.

You just need to work a few weeks, a few months, and you are finished. You saw emptiness. The bullet is touching the paper.

After billion, billion, billion lives, then it will happen to you. It's so powerful. That for twenty minutes, you see emptiness directly.

Then for the next ten hours, twelve hours, many, many, many impossible, amazing things happen to you. And those together, are the sixteen. And almost nobody understands it.

So, if you made a list of all the cool things that happen to you, there will be sixteen. In that ten hours or twelve hours, the first twenty minutes, direct perception of emptiness. The next ten hours, twelve hours, these sixteen things happen to you.

And they are very, very beautiful. Okay? They are the most beautiful thing in the world.

So, it's very cool that we have a chance to talk about them. So, what I suggest, we take a break. And then, please come back in fifteen minutes.

We will do a few tonight. And then tomorrow, when we are together, last class. I promise I will finish all of it.

Okay, thank you. Okay, let's start the class. Those of you who took DCI Level 7, you heard a lot of this.

But now, in the Lam Rim, we reached the four Arya Truths. Each one has four aspects. And so, we have sixteen.

So, what I have done, I took all of those experiences which you have when you reach Arya. And I tried to fit them into the sixteen. That teaching is mostly lost.

I don't think it survived from India. So, I'm going to do my best to put those Arya experiences into this structure of the sixteen. Okay, so, first thing, before you see emptiness directly, you see dependent origination directly.

Right? Cause and effect, same thing, no? Yeah, you can see...

Now, what does it look like? So, you must be doing a lot of good things. Most important, you should find a teacher.

Real teacher, who understands these things. Secondly, you should serve them. It doesn't mean you give them your youtiao or like that.

They will get fat. More important to do what Jasmine is doing. And all these volunteers.

And all these teachers. Youtiao is very, very important. But organizing this retreat in Thailand, if you ask the teacher, Geshe-la, you want youtiao or you want retreat in Thailand?

Okay, retreat in Thailand. Then that's real service. So, serving Dharma is serving the teacher.

You should be studying. I'm very impressed by friends from China. I love it that you take notes.

I love how serious you are student. I told my partner Veronica, those Chinese people, it's so nice to teach them. They are always taking notes.

Then I always talk about China, China, China. She said, you should move to China. No.

But study. Serious study. Like Wang Xia reading group.

Things like that. You guys in Shanghai. Singapore has excellent reading group.

Taiwan has ... So, that kind of hard work. Then you also have to serve other people.

Poor people, old people, young people. If you want to see emptiness directly, study and serving Lama is not enough. You have to serve poor people, sick people, old people.

Not sometimes. Should be like every day. I will buy your groceries for you.

I will carry them home for you. I will take you to the doctor. I will take you to the government office and spend two hours filling out your retirement papers.

Just every day. Some kind of service. You should be meditating every day.

At least ... Okay, you want the truth or you want the easy? Okay, don't tell everybody.

They will run away. At least one hour. Meditation every day.

If you are not serious, if you are DCI, I will say half hour. Half hour is okay. It's actually not correct.

Just for beginners. You are not beginners. If you are serious, you want to see kong shing.

One hour. One hour every day. Now, if you are doing that, something will happen to you, very cool.

I will just give an example. Let's say you are in the kitchen. And you are making tea for your teacher, for example.

And you get the pot and you put the water inside and you put on the stove and you turn on the stove. Now, all the study, all the retreats, all the meditation, all the service of poor people, all these causes are ready in your mind. Then you are just watching, you are waiting for the water to boil.

Suddenly, you will see seed opening your mind. And you will see a small picture of pot. Come out and go on the stove.

Then another one. They are coming 65 per second. That's why we don't see them usually.

It's so fast, it looks like things are out there. But actually, seeds are opening. If you have a lot of good karma, one day you will see them really open.

In the lion's den, we are just pretending to see the seeds open. But if you do those causes, serve teacher, serve Dharma, take care of people who need, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, then those seeds slow down. And you can watch them open.

Then, you know, trust me, when that day comes, you will be wow, Geshe-la was true. I didn't believe it. Everything, pen, he taught a pen to me 3,000 times.

It's actually correct. Wow. Okay, like right now, you respect me, and you think, oh, it sounds pretty good.

Everybody goes, oh, yeah, yeah. But on that day, it will become your direct experience. Okay?

And then, after that, you will understand the world is coming from you. Therefore, you don't have to die. Okay?

Because it's coming from you. If you change the seeds, you become Maitreya. You are Maitreya.

Okay, on that day, you will believe. Okay, then I'm going to put this in number four. I'm going to put it in number four of the sixteen.

Somebody tell me what's number four in the sixteen. No self? Things are not themselves.

What's it mean? Fire is not hot. Water is not wet.

And the pot on the stove is not a pot on the stove. It's a picture from my mind. Okay?

It's a picture from my mind. You want to go deeper? Okay, pen.

I'm going to go deeper, don't worry, I'm not going to repeat. Somebody can ask question. So, guess what?

Guess what? Number four of the sixteen, which is the only one we're doing tonight, you said the pen is not the pen. Now I ...

and in Xinjing, this Buddha said the same thing. What's the meaning? Guess what?

I think pen must be the pen. Why? I understand this picture coming from me.

I understand. But there is something in the pen. Like hot in fire.

Like wet inside water. Then there is something in the pen. Now, I understand maybe this shape, pen, pen, what I call pen, I understand come from me.

But, that pen can write. Must be something inside. Okay, understand?

Then you said number four, nothing inside the pen. But the pen can write. Must be something inside the pen can write.

Okay, now watch. We need a new page. Go like this.

Now, there is a line. And it seems because of this line, the pen has something inside. But it's not like that.

When I go like this, small picture come. Picture. Picture.

Picture. What the pen does is also coming from me. Pen cannot write.

The writing by the pen also come from me. Picture. Picture.

Not coming from here. Coming from here. Okay, cool?

Got it? That's number four. Now, Geshe-la, the DCI, the beauty of DCI is that you are not just talking philosophy.

We are using in our real life. So, how do I use number four in my real life? Okay, pot is coming from me.

Okay, so, still I have to make tea. It doesn't really matter, Geshe-la. Comes from me.

Doesn't come from me. Still it works the same. So, why should I ...

You know, you charge me thousand dollars or thousands of dollars to come to Thailand so you can tell me pot is not a pot. Then, when I go home, I'm still going to use the same pot. And it will work.

So, why I have to come here? Let's talk about aspirin. When you get a headache, you know, and you take aspirin.

Why you take aspirin and you don't take banana? Geshe-la, don't be stupid. Banana doesn't stop headache.

Aspirin stop headache. When you get a headache, you should take aspirin. Don't take banana.

Geshe-la probably take youtiao for headache. Okay, but we all know, and you heard in DCI many times, aspirin doesn't always work. Sometimes it works.

Sometimes it doesn't work. Why? The power to take away your headache is not inside the aspirin.

That's number four. The aspirin is not an aspirin. The aspirin is not a headache medicine.

It doesn't work by itself. If you have seeds, aspirin will work. If you don't have seeds, aspirin will not work.

That's why sometimes aspirin works and sometimes aspirin doesn't work. Because there's nothing in the aspirin. Aspirin is not an aspirin.

Okay, that's number four. Yoga is the same. Some people do yoga, they get strong.

Some people do yoga, they hurt themselves. Yoga is the same. If you have seeds, yoga has the power to make you healthy.

But if you ignore sick people, if you don't help your friends when they are sick, you will not have seeds when you do yoga. And you will hurt yourself. The yoga will hurt you.

There's nothing inside the yoga that makes you strong. The power in the yoga is coming from you. Okay, got it?

That's the meaning of number four. Okay, fifteen more tomorrow. Okay, let's go.