«Дар освобождения», курс 29 «Большой побег», занятие 4

[Speaker 1]
Let's go to the long room, okay? I feel kind of sleepy. I suppose you do too.

I can't think of any way to make it more fun. Let's talk about suffering. Something to do with the yoga class I had today.

Yeah, you had to watch the kid, right? That was unfortunate. I could have watched the kid.

Which is more suffering. I'll take Kendra. I'll take Kendra.

Okay, we're at Rang Re Ne, right? Rang Re Ne, I think. Yeah, good.

He's continuing the metaphor from— welcome, Mr. Daniel— from Maitreya, right? Uttaratantra, about medicine. Comparing the four truths to being sick, okay?

Rang Re Ne, he'd now wake up daydreaming. So when you're sick, when something happens, you try to figure out why. Did I eat something?

Why did I get sick today? I haven't been sick for months, and now suddenly I'm sick. So we try to figure out why we're sick.

Ngo Sung, we try to identify the cause. RGYUD NGO SUNG RGYUD DE SPYOD PA'I SPYOD And then to—this is the SPYOD in Dorje Chupa, which means to cut, like diamond cutter sutra. So this SPYOD means how do you eliminate the cause?

How do you cut off the cause? And to do that, we take medicine. So medicine is supposed to eliminate the cause.

If you guys have jet lag, you have to turn around before you yawn. Okay. DIG SNGAGS PA CHEN PO'I CHOS LAGS PAS RDZE NAS So the great fifth Dalai Lama, who built the Potala Palace, basically, he said—he was a great philosopher, and he compared it to water leak in your house, okay?

And THANG DE BAR MNYAL BA'I TSE You're relaxing on the ground, okay? In Tibet, it would be in a meadow near a stream. You lay down in the grass, okay?

And say OG TU CHOS ZHOR BA ZHOR BA means accidental occurrence of things. Like RGYAL PO KA SHOR It slipped out of the king's mouth. Yeah.

You know this story. It means when you want to take time off your job to go to Diamond Mountain, you wait till your boss is in a really good mood. And then you say—he says, how's the sales for the diamonds?

You say, it's really good. And he goes, that's great. Then you make your reservations.

Then you tell him a couple of weeks later, you're leaving for Diamond Mountain. He says, what? You said you— you said I could go.

RGYAL PO KA SHOR means it slipped out of your mouth. So here's slipped. ZHOR BA It also means to lose a game.

Okay? GANG NAS ZHOR BA So you have to find out. Then suddenly, your blanket's all wet.

You're having a picnic in a meadow and suddenly, the blanket's all wet and your butt's all wet. And you have to go looking for where's the water coming from. Okay?

If you come home and there's a big puddle of water in your kitchen, automatically you would start looking under the sink or something. You see? You would look for the source of the water.

GANG NAS ZHOR BA DE'I RGAG BDOD SKYE BA BZHIN And then you— you get some desire to turn it off. Okay? RGAG means here.

It's like GOG. To turn it off. SKYE BA BZHIN YIN PAR GSUNG That's how the Fifth Dalai Lama said.

Okay? So, the third meditation you can do this week if you choose to do these meditations in your reading is number three. And there's people trying to fix a leak.

Okay? I think. Right?

Okay? Okay. So, the idea is when you have pain in your life, you should be curious where it's coming from.

Okay? When things go wrong in your relationship or your health— there's a problem or you're not getting what you want in life, you should try to find out the cause of the problem. Okay?

That's scientific method. DE NA SDUG BSNGAL GYI GNAS LAS THAR BA'I THAB LA TSUM PA LA SDUG BSNGAL GYI RGYU DANG BRAL DUG DGOS LA In the same way that you would try to get free— THAR BA here means free— from sickness, you should also try to get free from samsara, right? And you should work on finding the cause.

Okay? DE SKYE BA LA SDUG BSNGAL GYI RGYU TSE CHOS PA DGOS This TSE CHOS PA doesn't mean cut. This TSE CHOS PA is an idiom.

Okay, Adam? And it means to investigate. Okay?

So it's not evident. You won't find it in a dictionary. TSE CHOS PA means you should go around and try to figure out why this is happening.

Your boyfriend is doing bad things or you don't feel well or you don't have energy or whatever. Then you should try to find the cause. Okay?

TSE CHOS PA DGOS DE'I SBYUNG BA LA SDUG BSNGAL GYI GNAR BA DE NYID SHES DGOS TE To get the desire to find the cause for your problems, you got to understand that you have a problem. Okay? Like getting old.

Okay? All right? You have to understand the first truth in order to look for the second truth.

You have to understand you are dying now in this room before you will look for the cause. Okay? RGYUD DE NYID SHES DGOS PA BYAS RIM PA BYAS He is going to quote BYAS RIM PA BYAS.

Who is that? Je Tsongkapa. This is a beautiful piece by BYAS RIM PA BYAS called NYAMS SGUR.

NYAMS SGUR means the song of my own spiritual experience. The song of my own life. He reveals his own spiritual life in a poem, in a song.

It is SDUG BSTAN NGES MIG BSAM LA MA'I PAS NA THAR PAR DU NYOD JI ZHING MI GYIS ZHING GOS BYUNG KHOR BA'I RJU RYUN MA SANG NA KHOR BA'I RTZA BA CHU TSUL MI SHES PA SRID LEN NGES BYUNG RGYAL ZHIG BSTAN PA DANG KHOR BA'I BYANG GANG GI CING PAR SHES PA BYAS Very famous. People memorize it when they are kids in the monastery. Then they go out on the porch and scream it in the evening together.

And they have competitions. The kids from our house scream across the road to the baby monks at the other house. And whoever is loudest is the champion of the monastery.

SDUG BSTAN NGES MIG BSAM LA MA'I PAS NA If you don't make some effort to think about the problems of the first truth, mainly getting old, dying, many problems. We are going to have a list. THAR PAR DU NYOD JI ZHING MI GYIS ZHING You will not even want to get free.

There is a famous expression in Lamrim. If you don't realize you are in a jail, you will never make plans to break out. KUN BYUNG KHO BA'I BYUL RIM MA BSAM NA If you...

Now he refers to the KUN BYUNG DENG PA which is what? The truth of the source with the word rim. Like Lamrim.

Okay? Yeah. You have to know the process of the source.

Not just the source. The source has its own parts. The leak in your house has...

You know? There is the outside place where the water gets into the roof. There is the roof that it travels across.

There is the break in the ceiling where the water finally finds a place to come down. And there is rimpas. Okay?

Like Lamrim. Steps to the source. Okay?

You got to break down the steps of the source. Okay? MA RIM PA MA BSAM NA KUN RGYUD TSA'O TSUL TSUL MI SHES PA'I If you don't break down the source into its pieces, you won't be able to get out of the cycle.

ZHI LING YIN, JIN GYUR ZHIG BSTAN PA DANG So try to develop some kind of concern for what's happening to you before it's too late to do anything. Okay? The paradox is you don't get serious about your spiritual practice until you start to get old.

And when you get old, you can't do anything. So it's only younger people who can meditate for long hours. And you know, before you reach a certain age, you got to put in the time to get out of the cycle.

But you don't want to because you're not old yet. But if you wait till you get old, then you can't sit for an hour and meditate because your hips hurt. Okay?

Got it? So it's the paradox of life. ZHI LING YIN, JIN GYUR ZHIG BSTAN PA DANG So on strictly observation, you have to do something now.

What's observation mean? You have to see what's happening to the hairline of the 60-year-olds when you're 30. You see?

And you got to have the intelligence to say, that could be me. You know, I have time now. Don't wait till you're old and too tired to meditate.

Okay? Like, use your brain. Oh, I saw a picture of Geshe Michael when he was younger.

Now he doesn't look like that. I'm younger. I should be.

But younger people never do. So don't worry about it. KHOR BA GANG GI CING PA SHES PA BYAS CING means chained.

Okay? So KHOR BA GANG GI CING PA SHES PA BYAS You should figure out what's chaining you to the cycle. And mainly, it's not understanding the pen.

Okay? Mainly, it's not understanding the pen. And then he uses a strange word.

BYAS The last word of this verse. And Seiji knows this word. Is he here?

CHEN ZIN BDAG CHEN ZIN RANG CHEN ZIN What's it mean? RANG CHEN ZIN Self-cherishing. Okay?

That's the subject of his book. Okay? That's the subject of his book.

He's translating a very beautiful commentary to a very beautiful lojong. So CHES PA means to cherish. So Tsongkapa is saying you should enjoy figuring out why you're here.

CHES Okay? The last word is very strange. It's like you should enjoy figuring out why you are chained to this suffering.

Like you should kind of really take pleasure in figuring out who stuck you here? Who put you in a body that's going to die? Okay?

And how can you get out of it? Okay? How do you get out of this body?

Wait. You got a pen? Just throw it in here.

Who put you in this body? How do you get out of this body? Right?

You change how it looks. Okay? Got it?

You don't leave it. You change it because it's coming from you. Okay.

ZHES GSUNGS DE'I ZHIG RE RE LA'ANG RIM BZHIN MI THAG SDUG BSNGAL MTHONG PA DAG ZHIG MED ZHIG He lists here the sixteen aspects. Okay? He makes a list of the sixteen aspects that we went through.

And I'll just do it fast. DE'I ZHIG RE RE LA'ANG Each of the four truths has its own aspects. The first one, RIM BZHIN means I'm going to tell you in the normal order.

So the first one is going to be suffering. Say MI THAG You should just say the words for good luck. Okay?

MI THAG SDUG BSNGAL MTHONG PA DAG MED Four aspects of the first truth. Okay? MI THAG means impermanence.

SDUG BSNGAL Suffering. MTHONG PA Empty. DAG MED No self.

Okay. Those are the four aspects of the first truth. Okay?

Truth of suffering. Second one. Say RGYUD KUN BYUNG RGYEN RAB KYE These are the four aspects of the second truth.

They are RGYUD Cause KUN BYUNG Source RGYEN Factor or conditions. RAB KYE means pouring out. RAB DU SKYE BA Okay?

Those are the four aspects of the second truth. Now, here goes the third one. Ready?

GOG PA SHI BA RGYA RNOM RGYEN BYUNG GOG PA SHI BA RGYA RNOM RGYEN BYUNG GOG PA Stopping. It also means garlic, so be careful. One more.

SHI BA Peace. Peace. RGYA RNOM I love this word.

I told you this morning, but that was a long time ago. Nice. Beautiful.

IRMOSA GOG PA Okay. LINDO Okay, I'm worn out. RGYEN BYUNG means get out.

Okay? Get out. Got out.

They all mean cessation. Four aspects. Okay, here's the fourth one.

Say LAM RIG PA RIG PA RIG PA RIG PA RIG PA RIG PA RIG PA RIG PA RIG PA Logic, okay? Or figure... solution.

RIG PA RIG PA RIG PA RIG PA RIG PA RIG PA RIG PA RIG PA Okay? It's the other side of NGAN BYUNG. NGAN BYUNG is the trigger, NGAN BYUNG is the escape.

It's the key to the door. Okay? NGAN BYUNG.

Okay? DE'I KHYAD CHOS ZHIG ZHIG YIN He just taught you the sixteen aspects. You're supposed to say, oh wow Geshe-la, we're so grateful that you did it more...

more... You know, you didn't just give us the sixteen NGES. Okay?

Okay. No, but that's... this is one of the greatest books of Buddhism and he didn't tell you what they are.

He just made a list. Okay? It's frustrating, right?

Okay. SRAG CES NYE RLEN GYI PHUNG PO LA TSOR BA DE SDUG STANG NYAMS SUM LAS Okay. Okay.

NYE RLEN GYI PHUNG PO... Not... Adam?

Huh? Yeah, good. The parts of Ben that Ben...

that were delivered to Ben when he came out of his mom. Okay? The parts that you were given.

Your brain, your ears, your ear, you know, your nose, your feelings. Okay? What your mom delivered to you just before she delivered to you.

Okay? That's called the... NYE RLEN GYI PHUNG PO.

The parts you took on when you were born. And they are SRAG CES. Stanley knows this.

SRAG CES. CHOS NAMS SRAG CES SRAG PA MED LAM PA RTOGS PA'I DUS GYI NAMS SRAG CES GANG PHYIR DE DAG LA SA NANG DGOS YIN RGYAS PA RGYUR BSAD MED LAM GYI BSTAN PA DANG SDUG MA BYAS NA GSUNG YON TE NANG KHA RTAG NI DGOS PA NI DE DAG NANG KHA MA GRI PA'U Opening lines of the Abhidharmakosha. SRAG CES means impure.

Okay? Impure. Vimala's name means SAD MED in Tibetan.

Vimala means no impurity. Her name means no impurity. And MALO in Spanish.

See? Bad. Impure.

She's VIMALA. VIM means no MALO. So she's perfect.

But SRAG CES means MALO. Imperfect. Dirty.

These heaps are dirty. Why? Blood, bone, flesh has to wrinkle, has to break, has to bleed.

These are not very cool. Factory defect. From the factory.

It's not going to last. It's hopeless. You can do yoga all you want.

I shouldn't have done yoga today. I was trying to be a nice guy. SREG CHEN YON GYI PHUGS PA LA SOR BA.

So generally the feelings that you have are divided into three or five. Here's the division into three. DE BA, SDUG BSNGAL, and STANG NYON.

Yeah. Pleasure, pain, and neutral feeling. By the way, as we learned in Buddhist psychology, it never stops.

Your capacity of feeling is always going. You're always feeling something even if you're not aware of it. You're always having pain, or you're always having pleasure, or you're always feeling neutral.

But it never stops. After you're born, the button is never turned off. Feeling is going in a flow, and that's one of the problems of life.

Of those three, STANG NYON GSUM LAS. Of those three, SAK BCAD KYI SDUG BSNGAL KYI SDUG BSNGAL, we recognize normally the first kind of suffering, SDUG BSNGAL KYI SDUG BSNGAL. Obvious pain, outright pain, manifest pain.

Headache, backache, boyfriend broke up with you. These are pain. Any idiot can see it.

But, he says, but, MA STOG, GZHAN NYID LA SDUG BSNGAL YIN PAR MI SHES So of course we are aware that pain is pain. Headache is pain. You don't have to be a Buddhist philosopher to know that a headache is pain.

So why, why the relationship we're supposed to have with the first truth? What's the first truth? Pain.

What's the relationship we're supposed to have with it? You know that you're having it. Then he's like, duh, you don't know when you have a headache?

You don't know when your boyfriend just broke up with you? What's wrong with you? And then Pabongka says, we're not talking about pain, pain.

We're talking about the other two kinds of pain, are things you have to figure out, okay? So the part of the first truth that you have to figure out is the second two kinds of pain, not the first one. What's the second one?

Change. What's the ZEN SHI? The classic example.

A good meal at Kuchina Rustica. Moscato, right? That's my new favorite restaurant, Camp Verde.

Me and Phil hang out there. You're taking me out, right? Having a nice meal at the only good restaurant within a hundred miles is suffering, okay?

Even the nice meal is suffering because you'll be hungry six hours later, okay? You'll be very hungry six hours later, so it's pain. A nice meal is pain, okay?

Got it? Is that something we didn't know was happening? Or we didn't think about it much?

Yeah, so that's an example of the first truth, okay? What's the third kind of suffering? Yeah, just, it's called pervasive.

It means built into you, built into your body, okay? It was put into your body when you were born, okay? Your body's getting older every day, okay?

Moment by moment, okay? I saw a friend, I saw Ted Lemon. He was a student here ten years ago.

And you know, we did this thing when you meet somebody after ten years, you're like, God, you look great. And in your mind you're like, God, he looks terrible. And then he's thinking that about Geshe Michael also.

I mean, he got all gray and everything. Then you're like, oh, you look just the same. And you know, it doesn't happen in one day, it happens every second, okay?

So, that condition is the third kind of suffering, okay? It's our human condition to get old and die, okay? Nobody has to do anything to you, okay?

Baby in the vault? In DCI. You can take a baby, you can feed them health food all day, you can have them do yoga, you can make sure they don't get any problems in their life.

And they will still get old and die from the inside, okay? All right, but we don't understand. Now he's got some very interesting examples of these kinds of suffering, okay?

Of people who didn't understand they were suffering. He's got, I think, two examples, okay? Here's the first one.

NGAR SNGAGS PA Notice you Tibetan scholars that these first two are a high tone. SNGAGS SNGAGS PA They have an S in front of the SNGAGS, okay? So, you have to say high tone.

SNGAGS SNGAGS PA SNGAGS SNGAGS PA ZHIG GI KHU RANG GI PHUD MED RNAM LA SKYES TSUL DUG PA LAS SNGAGS RANG LTA RING BZIN ZHING DU DROG CHOG CHOG YIN ZER SNGAGS means once upon a time, you know, maybe 100 years ago, there was a SNGAGS PA. Yeah, tantric practitioner, okay? Person who was working hard on tantra, okay?

ZHIG GI KHU RANG GI PHUD MED RNAM LA And he had several partners, female partners. So, he was talking to them. I think it was three or something.

And he said to them one day, SKYES TSUL DUG PA LAS You know, I don't want to hurt your feelings. I don't want you to be sad. So, I'm not going to my tantric heaven yet because I would have to leave and you would be left alone and you guys would be sad.

So, I'm gonna, you know, because I don't want you to feel bad, I'm not going to my tantric heaven yet because I don't want you guys to feel lonely, okay? They said, RDRO CHOG CHOG YIN SER. Otherwise, I'm all ready to go.

I could go anytime, okay? He was bragging. Then they said, RJES SU SNGAGS PA DE NAS KYI THEBS Later, the tantric got sick.

He got cancer or something, okay? PHYI BA NYAL NA And he was approaching his death. PHU MA'I TSOS SNGAGS BYANG LA SKYE SNGAGS BYANG LA SKYE LTAR RING ZIN SHIN DUG PA'I CHOG CHOG RE DE Oh, you know, tantric partner, you are you are ready to go to your tantric paradise, right?

You can go anytime you want and now you're gonna, we're gonna be sad. You're leaving us. SNGAGS PA NA RE Tantra got said back to them.

SNGAGS LA BDOD PA'I DBANG MED PA Actually, I don't have any choice. I would like to stay and I can't. He was confessing that he didn't really have power to go to paradise, you know?

He says, actually, I would rather stay with you guys. But, MA STOB DBANG ZHIG YOD NA LTAR RING ZIN SHIN DUG DROG LA KHYER NAM DANG NYAM DU DUS GYI CHUNG BA RANG RGA SER BA I would rather stay with you guys. But, I have to die.

I don't have choice, okay? So, he understood finally. He didn't have a choice, okay?

Supposedly, he had power to go to his heaven, but he didn't, okay? And then, supposedly, he was staying so they wouldn't be sad, but actually he was staying because he would be sad. Understand?

That's what men do. You know that. Okay.

ATSARA MANU THAM GYU LTAR RANG BYA'I KHOR LA GYI PO DUS NYAM NAS BYA PA LAS SDUG BSNGAL GYI RANG BZHIN CHEN DU MI SHES ATSARA here means the Sanskrit word acharya, okay? Master, Buddhist master. His name was Manu.

He lived in the time of Atisha, okay? Lord Atisha. Exactly a thousand years ago.

THAM GYU LTAR, like his story, as we hear in his story, RANG BYA'I KHOR LA GYI PO DUS NYAM NAS Actually, most of us are pretty happy with samsara, you know? I mean, we kind of would like to be here, okay? When you are honest with yourself, okay?

NYAM NAS BYA PA LAS SDUG BSNGAL GYI RANG BZHIN CHEN DU MI SHES And we don't realize the trouble we're in, you know? We think it's not so bad, you know? There's good coffee here, you know?

Okay. By the way, coffee is not samsara, okay? It's your relationship to coffee which is samsara, okay?

And it's not, you know, to have a partner is not samsara. It's your view, right? If you think it's coming from their side, you're in samsara.

If you have gone to DCI, you're not really so much in samsara anymore. Because being in samsara means you don't know how to change your reality by working on your seeds. That's what samsara means.

Samsara is not this place, okay? This is not samsara. Samsara is not knowing about seeds.

And then you can't control what's going to happen, okay? If you can control what happens, you're not in samsara anymore, understand? It's not a place.

Got it? So, he didn't tell you the story of Mr. Manu, Master Manu. So, I went and got it for you.

Yay! Okay, and this is in Yeshe Gyeltsen's lamrim, okay? And I'm just going to read it to you, okay?

You don't have my notes in there, right? NGON SBYOR BA ZHIG NAS KUD DUNG ZHING PA'I ATSA RA MANU SRER BA ZHIG YOD PA So, in the time when Atisha had come to Tibet from India, okay? Lord Atisha.

And he had already passed away. And they were, they were building his KUD DUNG. KUD DUNG means his tomb.

Okay, there's a very famous tomb. It's supposed to be on the Chinese, like around Chengdu or something. Near Chengdu, there's a famous— No, it's one of the two brothers from Nepal, Pham Thich Nhat Hanh, yeah.

And they buried him with his tantric partner. And it's a very beautiful tomb. Anyway, they were building a tomb for Atisha.

And this person named Manu, Master Manu, it was the 15th lunar day of the month, which means a full moon, okay? Today is the 30th, black moon, 15th is the full moon. SREG CHUNG LA BDAG BA LA BRTAD NAS NGOS PA'I He was standing outside at dusk, looking up at the full moon and crying.

Mr. Manu, okay? RGYAS ZHING ZHIG GIS GYOD CI LA DNGOS TSIS PA'I Then there was a RGYAS ZHING there, okay? A thousand years ago, RGYAS ZHING was more like, it wasn't a degree, it was like a master, just a general master, okay?

So the RGYAS ZHING said to him, why are you crying? And he said, RANG TSUL YUN NA BDAG DAG RGA LIG CHUB NAS SKYES PO RANG YOD ZER Back where, in my home state, so he had traveled to study with Atisha, right? Back home, you know, back in Rimrock, this is the night when they do the dancing, you know, this is the full moon night of the spring or something, and we always have a dance, and I'm not there.

I'm stuck here. Okay, he was crying. Then the RGYAS ZHING said, GYIS BYANG RGA BA DANG PHAD YOD DU LAS PA He was from Nepal.

NYID GANG DAM DAM means to choose, okay? And the RGYAS ZHING replied, if you had a choice right now between becoming a Buddha or going back to Nepal to dance with those ladies in the spring festival dance, which would you choose? DAM GYI RANG CHUNG BA NAG PA'I YOD DU LAS PA DANG DAG I'd rather go back to Nepal.

Which reminds me of the famous story of the two flies sitting on a piece of shit in Hasa, and they're like eating poop, right? And they're like, you heard about this Buddhahood thing? Yeah.

Would you want to go to Buddhaparadise? No way. Why?

I heard there's no poop there. Okay, same thing. DE LA KA DAM PA NAM GYI NGA MTSO KHYAD SANG MA SANG GI KHYAD MA STOG Then the Kadampa teachers in those days, they used to tell this story, and they said, actually, most of us would rather go back to Nepal and do the dancing with the ladies, but we're too intelligent to admit it to the other monks.

You see what I mean? DAM MA NU RANG LDAN PAS So, it's not uncommon that people in their hearts would rather be in samsara, okay, than be a Buddha. Okay, and that's partly why we're still here.

SANGS RGYUD RGYUD PA YING We are veiled. We have a veil of our misperception of what's beautiful. What we think is beautiful is not beautiful, but it blocks us.

Got it? Okay. SDUG BSNGAL GYI RGYUD KUN CING LDAN PA YIN PAR BSHAD NAS DBANG DGOS So, what's your relationship to the source of suffering?

You should drop it. Get rid of it. Stop doing it.

KUN CING LA The source of suffering has two divisions. You guys know already. Karma and negative emotions, okay?

LAS KUN CING LA LAS KYI KUN CING DANG NYON MONGS PA'I KUN CING So, we call it karma source and negative thought source, okay? These are the two sources of pain, okay? Karma and negative thoughts.

SDUG BSNGAL DANG PHYAL BA'I BDE PA'I PHYAG NI DGOS BSTAN DANG This is a very, very important use of the word PHYAG, which means BU PHAN, part. PHYAG means part, okay? The Tibetan word PHYAG means part, like first part, second part, third part, okay?

In definitions, it's extremely important that a translator should understand the use of the word PHYAG, okay? So, PHYAG means a condition, okay? Which can cover an unchanging thing.

Okay? Understand? The fact that, PHYAG.

So, it doesn't mean part in philosophy. In this usage, this special usage of the word PHYAG means the condition or the state. State, okay?

So, you should know or else you're going to translate it wrong, okay? So, in a definition, an author will cover themselves with the word PHYAG because it means state, which could mean emptiness, okay? Got it?

And they use the word for part. This is for the translators, okay? Which is why all the translators should come to the Lamrim.

And you should poke pins in the ones who are not here, or something bigger. SDUG BSNGAL DANG BRAL BA'I BRAL BU'I PHYAG NI So, BRAL BU'I PHYAG means the resulting condition, BRAL BU'I PHYAG, in which you are free from suffering is the definition of SGOG LDAN. It's the definition of the third truth, okay?

The condition of being free from suffering is the definition of the third truth. Okay, got it? They didn't want to say BRAL BU.

They wanted to say BRAL BU'I PHYAG, resulting condition. Because then it can be forever. Because it's a separation.

Got it? Okay? SGOG LDAN DE THOB BYED KYI THABS SU BRAL BU'I PHYAG The condition of something which helps you achieve that stopping of suffering is called the truth of the path.

That's the definition of truth of the path, okay? What gets you to... The thing that gets you to the stopping of suffering, okay?

It's the definition of path, okay? SGOG LDAN THOB PA LA LAM LDAN NYAMS SU MNANG NAS THOB DGOS To get to the third truth, you have to practice the fourth truth, okay? DE NA SDUG BSNGAL ZHES PAR BYA LA LAM YIN CHEN PO LAS GSUNGS PA'I SDUG BSNGAL RGYAS DANG Then he does his big segue.

Segue is an English word meaning he bridges to the next subject. And it's kind of artificial. Or maybe not, okay?

He says, oh, and if that's the case, okay? And if we're supposed to know that we are suffering, but we don't know, okay? We don't really realize how bad things are, okay?

So, maybe we should study all the divisions of suffering, okay? Let's go to the Lam Rim Chenmo. The Great Lam Rim by Je Tsongkapa, okay?

Two thousand pages something. I don't remember. Thousand pages.

Thousand page faces. Let's go there and we'll study the SDUG BSNGAL RGYAS, the SDUG BSNGAL DRUG, and the SDUG BSNGAL GSUNGS. RGYAS means eight kinds of suffering.

DRUG means six kinds of suffering. GSUNG means three. Nice.

Something happened to her brain. I don't know. Like six months ago.

Then, whatever it is, tell us. Are you drinking something? Her English went like boom.

Then at SDUG BSNGAL BSHAD PA BYA LA So, BSAM PA RNAM SU YOD PA LAS. So, there are three choices you have in the Lam Rim when you want to meditate on the different kinds of suffering. You have three choices.

You can take the eight. You can take the six. Or you can take the three.

SDUG BSNGAL LAS. RGYAS MI SDUG BSNGAL DUD DU. The eight are all specifically MI.

Human. Relate to humans. Not so much the animals or yidaks or hell beings.

The list of eight sufferings is specific to humans. MI SDUG BSNGAL DUD DU. GSUNG, KHYAB PA DU BYED KYI SDUG BSNGAL DUD DU.

The division into three is really a division, is really included into the third of the three sufferings. The human condition. What do you call it?

Pervasive. The human condition. So, when you study the three kinds of suffering, these are sufferings that every human being has all the time.

You are suffering now. I just had an extraordinary Indian chai that Andriana made me. I was in heaven for like five minutes.

But during that time, I was getting older and my body was breaking down more. And all the muscles that Kendra pulled and popped out, don't tell her. So, the three kinds of suffering are actually all variations on the third kind of suffering.

Got it? The one we have all the time. But the eight are specifically human.

Sorry. Yeah, so actually, he's gonna go through the six and then he's gonna go through the eight. And the three you already know, okay?

So, he's gonna go through the six and then he's gonna go through the eight. So, we're gonna go through the six and then we're gonna go through the eight. So, I'll start for good luck, okay?

And then we'll take a 10 minute pee pee break and then we'll do idims for 20 minutes. Because we have to do six every time, okay? Here we go.

,DE KHOR BA CI SDUG BSNGAL SEMS PA LA SAB CES GRUG, You Tibetan scholars should know the word SAB CES. Great. And it's an illegal pronunciation of the prefix letter of the second syllable, okay?

SAB CES, like door J. Okay. So, SAB CES GRUG means six parts to the outline of six sufferings.

Here's the first one. ,DANG PO NGES PA MED PA, Yeah, there's no certainty. Meaning, no position you can reach is safe.

No relationship you can get into is safe, okay? Nothing's safe. Everything can change in a minute.

Everything can change in five minutes, okay? There is no insurance here. There's no guarantee about anything, okay?

Then he'll start giving examples, okay? So, this is the first of the six kinds of human suffering. There's no guarantees about anything.

Relationships, health, financial, state of your mind. You can be mindless an hour from now. If you have a— My niece had an aneurysm at 21.

You know? It can happen to anybody. Like that, you know?

Then, an hour from now, you can have no mind. Okay, we don't know, okay? So, ,DANG PO NGES PA MED PA NYES PA NI, ,RE ZHIG BRTEN DOR SKYES KYANG, Technically, we have been born into one of the higher births.

We are human, right? What are the three higher births? Human, worldly god or pleasure being, and then demi-god, halfway, okay?

But, ,KHO BA DUR SKYE BA ZHIG LAM CHIN CHE, ,SDUG BSNGAL KHO NA LAS MA DE STE, But actually, it doesn't matter if you are born into a higher birth or a lower birth. It all sucks. ,SDUG BSNGAL KHO NA LAS MA DE, It's never better than that.

,KHO NA LAS, Okay, this is the ,BYOM LDAN DE DE. This is the ,MYA NGAN LAS DE PA DE. You never graduate from pain.

You are always in pain. ,DE STE, ,KHOR BA'I DE SKYES LA YI RTEN CHUNG ZAD KYANG MED, There are no guarantees in this life at all. Nothing is guaranteed.

,DE YANG TSE SNGAGS CI LA TSOS NA, Let's take as our first example, big non-guarantees. Big non-guarantees are from life to life. What's going to happen after this life?

That's the big one. We're not talking about where's your relationship going to be next week. That's also no guarantees.

We're not talking about will you be able to walk next week. That's also no guarantees. But in the big picture, where are you going next and where were you before?

That's totally no guarantees. Then he talks about it. ,BYANG YANG PHRA MA SOGS GONG SDOG TU RGYUR NAS BRAL BA, Because the people you hate and the people you love keep switching life to life.

Like in this life, you're in love with somebody and in the last life you murdered them. You hate, they were your worst enemy. And in this life, they're born as your best friend.

Things like that keep happening life to life. People who were your parents become the people you are shooting in the war. Like that.

Then of course, he has to go to the story of the fish in the backyard pond, which I have told you before. It's one of my favorite stories about no guarantees. So, we're going to do it tonight because it takes some time.

I can't do it in five minutes. Very, very famous story about no guarantees. So, we'll stop there.

You take a pee pee break. It's 4.58. I'm going to start at 5.10. I don't care if nobody's here. I'm going to start at 5.10. Okay, and we'll do idioms. Okay, go. The fourth condition for a good meditation life. What was the first one?

Have your place, prepare your place. Okay, it has five parts. I'm not going to repeat it.

What's the second one? DUR CHUNG Yeah, don't want too many things. Keep simple.

Keep your life simple. What's the third one? Old genes, old genes.

Enjoy what you have. Have a relationship with your old stuff, where you kiss them but you love them. Your old jeans, your old shoes.

Old, you should see my old underwear. I can't show it to you but... Okay, idiom 13.

Avoid being too busy and overstimulated. So, it's very, you know, it's called the yoga teacher disease. You're so busy teaching yoga that you never do yoga.

You see what I mean? So, especially DCI people, me, we have to be careful that we don't spend our whole life teaching people how to meditate and never meditating. Okay, like that.

Okay, so be careful with that trap because it's very common for a lot of us in this room. Okay? We all know that.

So, let's help each other avoid this trap, you know. If we can do yoga together or we can do meditation together. We have a nice thing when we drive to Diamond Mountain, we always rent a yoga room halfway and we all do yoga together.

So, help each other. Okay? Do your practice, right?

And then overstimulation is mainly your phone, you know. Don't be a slave to your phone. It's supposed to serve you.

You're not supposed to serve it. Okay? It takes me a lot of effort not to pull it out in the toilet.

You know, I'm like, you stay in my pocket. I'm busy. He's like, yeah, but you could be checking me.

And I'm like, let me have a peaceful poop. Okay? Don't let me check the internet in here.

Give me a break. Okay? So, don't forget the phone works for you and you don't work for the phone.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
And it takes a lot of self-control not to get nervous. Nervously check your phone when you have nothing to do, you know. So, try to control this urge to pull it out and check it every time you have two minutes, you know.

Try to experience the thing called life or world or friends. Okay? Like, give it a little time.

I know myself, personally, when I come back from a DCI tour, I'm often tired and I'm often disoriented. I don't know which country I'm in. And it's very common for me that I will do too much computer, especially at night, you know.

So, I think it's a good idea when your mind is not steady, when you're tired, don't go into the computer. You'll end up watching movies or you'll end up doing stupid things and it'll be two o'clock in the morning and then you'll be unhappy for two days. You see what I mean?

So, when you're tired, be careful about your internet use, okay? In the evening. I have friends, Will Duncan, they turn off their internet at 8 30, I think.

And he told me and I said, boy, that's wonderful and I can't do it. Okay. So, but be careful of computer use at night, okay?

And I bought, I read science fiction at night to calm down the reactor. And I realized I should buy the paper books. So, I don't have this electrostuff in my brain, you know.

So, it's not very expensive. I bought like five science fiction books in paper and I use paper before I go to bed, you know. When I read in the morning science fiction, I use the computer.

Okay. Obviously, anyway, I don't read that much. Okay.

IDAM 14, fifth condition for, fifth of the six conditions for good meditation. Don't hurt other people. Keep your morality, okay?

This is level one morality. What's the second level morality? Bodhisattva vows, third level, secret vows, okay?

But especially the Pratimoksha vows, the freedom vows, which Xiaoping is translating. Each translator has a different specialty, right? So, anyway, don't hurt other people.

Avoid hurting other people. We're not, nobody in this room is gonna, you know, hit Ben Kramer on the head, although it might help. But your mouth is very dangerous, you know.

The minute your mouth opens, something bad might happen. So, you know, be careful not to hurt other people's feelings, okay, with what you say. And be careful not to judge other people silently in your mind, okay?

And I was having a talk with, who was it? Hector. We were talking about how to train meditation teachers and what's the difference between meditation that you learn here or in DCI and in any place else.

What's the difference? Yeah, good. Say it louder.

Yeah, okay. It doesn't matter how you sit. It doesn't matter when you sit.

It doesn't matter which meditation you choose. It doesn't matter you put your left hand down first or your right hand down first, or you put your left leg first, or you put your right leg first, or you use a a wooden seat, or you use a plastic one, just nothing matters, okay? Meditation means keeping your mind on a single object.

You won't be able to do it if you haven't been nice to other people last week. Why? When you're not nice to other people last week, you plant seeds in your mind, and this week they open.

Those silver eggs are cracking open and they're talking in your mind. So, it doesn't matter how long you sit. You can sit for two hours.

You can go to Diamond Mountain and live here in a retreat cabin and you can do high tantra, you know, three-year retreat. If you haven't been nice to other people, your mind will talk because the seeds are opening, okay? How quiet your mind is isn't coming from your meditation.

It's coming from what you did last week. Okay, and that's the big difference between the meditation you do here and anywhere else in the world, okay? And that's the foundation of the meditation studios, is to teach people that, okay?

How to get a silent mind. It's not your prana and you know, your, what do you call? You know, all this stuff.

It doesn't matter. If you haven't been nice to people last week, your mind will blah blah because the seeds will open and say words in your mind, okay? So, it doesn't matter.

Nothing else matters. I had a guy in my class, my Geshe class, and he could only study laying down, which is totally illegal in the monastery. Secondly, he had a walkman, an illegal walkman.

He was playing rock and roll music all the time. And so, the scriptures are these long pages, right? He's like this.

And then, you know, he used to get beat all the time. He didn't care. Teachers would beat him, you know?

He's like, I don't know. He didn't say a thing. He just did it.

And then, one night we debated Thachihumbo, which is the fourth great guru, Panchen Lama's monastery. We debated them in public and he defended. And he was defending the existence of non-existence.

And he didn't talk much, ever. And he was up there and he was like a tiger, you know? And nobody could...

All the other Thachihumbo guys, one by one, team by team, they came up and he just blew them away. Then the abbot stood up. He couldn't stand it.

Thachihumbo, abbot. This is Geshe Thubten Rinchen's teacher. Okay, the highest tantric in India probably, okay?

And the highest logician. And he came up and he fought this guy and the guy was like, nope, yes, nope, yes, no, no, nope. And then the abbot took his hat off and he went, said, you beat me.

You know? So, it doesn't matter how you study. Okay?

It matters how you help other people. You see what I mean? Then you can do anything.

Okay, you can lay down and read the book and you will beat the abbot of Thachihumbo. Okay, got it? You will beat all the meditation obstacles if you're just nice to other people.

Okay? I want to meditate better. Geshe-la, I want to meditate better.

Should I have more green drinks? Or, you know, should I get a different cushion? What's the answer?

Just, and I'm not talking compassion. I'm not talking love. I'm not talking bodhicitta.

I'm just talking be nice to other people. Like normal nice people. Okay?

Then your meditation will be awesome. This is, this is possibly the most important thing here, idim. How many times will Geshe-la say that in the next eight retreats?

I don't know. But, okay, this is the greatest condition for good meditation. Okay, more important than a nice place, more important than good friends.

Okay? Just be nice to other people. Okay?

You want to improve your meditation? Be more friendly to other people.

[Speaker 2]
Okay?

[Speaker 1]
I'm not good at it. I'm kind of shy actually. Like on a plane I never talk to people and Scott always knows.

Scott had six stewardesses singing him happy birthday. I couldn't believe it. I was like, but we should try to be more friendly.

Okay? To other people. It's a good thing.

Okay? We try to do it and your meditation will be better. I'm sure his meditation is awesome.

Okay. Idim 15 is try to develop sheshin, right? Sheshin, a small part of your mind which is watching the rest of your mind.

Try to monitor the talk going on in your head. Learn to listen to the talk going on in your head as if you were coming, as if you were inside another person's head. You see what I mean?

Pretend you're not yourself and just listen to what you're thinking. You'll be shocked. You know.

I hope Ben Kramer falls off the throne today because his explanations are so good, you know, and then you're like, wait. You know, but you have the thought but you don't hear it. You see what I mean?

Your thoughts come up and you don't know you're thinking them, right? So, learn to look at your mind as if you were entering from another person, as if you're another person listening to Geshe-la's thoughts. Try to imagine how it would sound to your students if they could know how you think.

You know, they would all run back to China. Okay, so try the sixth condition of meditation, of good meditation. It's day to day, hour to hour.

Try to get used to listening to what your mind's saying and try to correct it, try to fix it, okay? Don't be in the thoughts. Watch the thoughts.

Got it? It's a difference. Learn to do the difference, okay?

That's the sixth condition of a good meditator. We got five more minutes, right Tim? Am I right?

Okay. Item 16. We're about to do the five problems of meditation, classic problems of meditation.

Everybody has them. The great yogis, the great meditators for two and a half thousand years, they made a list of the top five meditation problems that everybody has. And there are how many solutions?

Eight. The DCI people here, you know, I think you're appreciating how much of DCI comes from Lamrim, you see? So these teacher training programs, DCI, Lamrim Meditation Guide, ACI Course Teacher Guide, ACI Meditation Studio, Masters, they're all going to overlap in different places, okay?

If you go to the DCI level three, you know all this stuff already, okay? So, there will be things that overlap and there will be things that don't overlap, okay? All right.

Sixteen. So, we're going to start the five great problems of meditation. First one is the worst one.

I don't feel like, okay? He's like, I'll start tomorrow, okay? It's like a diet, you know?

I'm going to start tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm going to start a green drink thing, you know? So, today I can eat anything.

And then tomorrow is today, right? Tomorrow. So, you can eat tomorrow also anything you want because tomorrow is the day after.

This is my churro logic, right? This is churro logic, okay? Your mind is unbelievable.

So, do it today, okay? Just do it today. Yoga, don't wait for tomorrow.

I almost got out of class today. But she saw me, so. But, don't put things off for tomorrow.

It's a bad habit, okay? Do things today. All right.

Just do it today. Learn to do it today. If you want to be good at something, do it today.

Don't wait till tomorrow. Don't make some plan for next week, okay? Start today.

Do something today. Very few times have I sat down on the meditation cushion and not meditated. It's happened.

Like I decided to get up and eat Cheerios or something instead. But, if you can get your butt on the cushion, the war is almost over. Okay?

So, don't wait. What's the Lam Rim say about the first meditation problem? Does anybody remember?

There's a famous, there's a famous statement that you're supposed to say right now. Before you finish the first meditation problem explanation, traditionally in the Lam Rim, you're supposed to make a joke. Yeah, yeah, okay?

If you don't solve this problem, you will never have the other four. Okay? Distraction, sleepiness, not taking action, etc.

They will never happen, okay? So, so, from the point of view of a meditator, this is the most serious problem. Because if you don't solve it, you will never have the other problems, okay?

It's true. Okay, in M17. We're doing good.

We have two minutes. We have two more. Losing the object.

What's the picture? She lost her high heel shoe under the bed. Okay, and this means, this often happens to me.

I'm meditating on my teacher. And their head turns into a donut. It's like supernatural.

You know, I've got this beautiful head, and then the hole forms in the middle, and it's got maple icing on it, and I lost the object, okay? You just totally lost the meditation object. This is the most basic problem you can have.

If losing the meditationist object is an important meditation problem, what does that say about an important subject of meditation? Choosing your object. Selecting your object, okay?

You cannot— It's like you have a telescope, but you don't decide what you want to look at, okay? So, meditation is a tool. It's not a goal.

The eight elevator stops are a tool. They're not a goal. You won't get an American breakfast in the eight elevator stops, okay?

All right, so you have to select a meditation object. And if you want to know why it's not possible to meditate without a meditation object, you should ask Professor Nick Lashaw to talk about his famous translation of Nagarjuna, who spent a long time on this question, okay? Because there are people in history who said, there is no object.

For a great meditator, there is no object. It's just blank, okay? And Nagarjuna and Professor Lashaw's book by Gyaltsabje, you should ask him to teach it in Guadalajara, for example.

You should teach that subject in Guadalajara, unless you've done it already, I don't know. It's a great section of his book. His book has a great, great section on the wrong viewpoint that you don't need a meditation object.

So, this second meditation problem implies that you should be choosing an object before you start meditating. Are you going to meditate on your teacher's face? Are you going to meditate on the six kinds of suffering?

Okay. You got to choose before you close your eyes, okay? Got it?

All right. And then you got to stay on it. Glue your mind to the object.

Meditation means the ability to stay on the chosen object. That's what meditation is. Okay, third classic problem.

Stanley, what could you say about the second one and the third one that's similar to something you already said? Good. It's impossible to have meditation problem number three if you never put your mind on the object.

Well, I guess it is possible. I'm looking at Kramer. He always finds a...

It's true. But anyway, when you get the object in your mind, okay, you're focusing on the teacher. Then we talk about quality.

What's the quality of your meditation? Is it sharp? Is it bright?

What's the classic DCI example of a good state of meditation is compared to... Huh? Making out is good.

Kissing your girlfriend. But I like to say movie. Yeah.

Okay, you go to the movies in America, it's two things. You're watching a movie and you're eating, which Americans do with everything. so popcorn is a big part of a movie for an American.

So all during the movie you can see people... A lot of people like me, they're like... And then the guy meets the girl about 10 minutes into the movie and they don't like each other, right?

They hate each other. And then, you know, they start, they get stuck in a spaceship together and they're going to die. And then they start to like each other.

And then they do the kiss thing. The music goes up like dun dun dun dun dun and they're going... And the two heads are coming together.

Then everyone in the theater, the popcorn is here. That's meditation. Okay, that's real meditation.

That's what you want. That feeling at that moment. Nobody's like this.

Everyone's like perfect Viral Channa meditation eight posture, you know. Okay, because they're interested. So real meditation mind is interested.

And this is sexy. This is wow. Okay, then you're meditating.

It's not like this. That's not meditation. Like this.

That's just drugged out. That's like you're having jet lag from Guangzhou. Okay, this is meditation.

Okay, or you're listening to your favorite rock and roll song. Or you're reading your favorite book. Okay, or you're making out with your boyfriend.

You're not like, have any other object in your mind at that moment? I hope. Okay, so anyway, busy mind or sleepy mind, you don't have.

Okay, that's the third problem. Busy mind, basically thinking about something else during meditation. Sleepy mind, you could be on the object, but you're dull.

It's not clear. The mind is gray. Okay, got it?

Third enemy of meditation. All right, then.