«Дар освобождения», курс 29 «Большой побег», занятие 7

[Speaker 1]
Alright, let's meditate. Okay, blow your nose, turn off your phone. Anybody need documents?

No? My plan is, let's do the second half of the third round, okay? Okay, first round was going up the elevator to the American breakfast.

Second round was coming down. Third round, I'm sorry, we're gonna do the second half of the fourth round, right? Then the third round was going up just a regular trip, one to eight, to nine.

And then you skip back to one, okay, for the fourth round. I'm sorry, we're gonna do the second half of the fourth round, am I right? The confusion comes between third round and fourth round.

You don't come down after the third round, you just jump off the building and down to the first floor, meaning the second floor, right? Okay, so we did round four, the first half. We did the form realm meditations interspersed, palmargoma technically, interspersed with an emptiness meditation, okay?

And now we're gonna do the formless realm, four levels, interspersed with an emptiness meditation. Okay, ready? Because I don't want to spend too much time on it, because I'd like to finish the more long room before you go into retreat, okay?

So you were in the tiny crystal at the end of the form realm meditations, and then you did an emptiness meditation, basically about something you would like to happen in the next few weeks. And you thought about the normal actions you would take to make that happen, outside actions. We had two examples.

One was I would like my husband to be nicer to me. In the next few weeks I would like him to change just a little bit. And perhaps I have a different wish that I could make some extra income in the next few weeks or months, because if I had a little more I think I could get my bills paid and put aside some money for important things, make a donation to Peter Myrtle.

And then we talked about the emptiness of those methods. They don't work, because they don't always work. Methods of, for example, talking to my husband about my needs, or trying to find an investment that will make some extra money.

Those standard outer methods don't always work, which means they don't work, which means they're not the cause of what I want. So money, extra, a little extra income this month, which could come from an investment, does not exist and never did. And my husband being a little nicer to me, because I had a talk with him, doesn't exist.

It's not possible. Okay. Does that mean I shouldn't try to talk to my husband, or I shouldn't try to find a way to make a little more money this month because I would like to do some more things?

It doesn't mean that. It means I have to ensure that those methods that I use are coming from seeds. They are charged with seeds.

They are loaded with seeds. It's okay to make an investment to put aside some money, but if you don't load it with seeds, it may not work. And it's okay to try to have a talk with your husband to explain your needs a little more clearly, but whether it works or not depends 100% on seeds in my mind.

So after the emptiness meditation, where I realize there's no husband that can change from just talking, and there's no money that can be made by just investing, then I do a dependent origination meditation. Tenzin Dreljung Luk Tunda, Lukmi Tumbar Dopa Je, Maitreya, said to do this. Dene Senggye Namgyenpe, Tengen Tsenna Nyongshuk Ne, during the lion's dance.

He recommends it. So then I think about, how could I help someone else? How could I serve someone else who has the same needs that I need?

How could I, what can I do to help a friend who's having trouble with their husband or their wife? And what could I do to help a person that I know be more secure financially? So that's the dependent origination part.

So each, Belmar Gomba, each time I go into an emptiness meditation, between the four form realm meditations or the four formless realm meditations, there's going to be three parts. Number one, this is what I would like to happen in the next few weeks, and this is how I would normally try to make it happen. Number two, that result is impossible.

It's not going to happen through outer methods. That result of a husband who listens to me, because I spoke with him, is impossible. It's a Gokja.

There's no such husband. Then the last part I have to think about, the seeds I need to plant to get that result from the talk I'm having with my husband or from the investment, okay? Then strangely, we're going to jump right back to one of the formless or form realm meditations, which have no emptiness content.

They have no dependent origination content. They have no content which is important karmically. They are just useful for exercising your meditation power.

So we're going to see how fast can you jump from thinking about the discussion you have to have with your husband, after helping someone else with their husband, how fast can you jump to the first formless realm meditation, which is the ocean spreading inside the crystal? How fast can you drop one object purposely and move to another object of concentration? And this is the real lion's dance.

This is exercise in gaining control over your mind for the first time in your life. Usually we are like a feather in the wind. If someone says something negative about us or to us, then the mind is shaken and blown around for a half hour or for a whole day, and we cannot stop it.

We cannot be happy. We cannot be contented. We feel disturbed the whole day, because our mind is like a feather in the wind.

And after mastering the lion's dance, then I'm going to be able to, after someone criticizes me or says something negative to me, I can jump to another state of mind at will, just because I want to. My powers, my control over my mind will be perfect. So here we go.

We'll start at the first formless realm level. Please think about the ocean. Don't forget you're sitting inside this tiny crystal, and the ocean inside the single grain of sugar is as wide as the Pacific Ocean.

Very quiet, very peaceful. Drop a stone in the middle of the ocean and watch ripples go towards the horizon, one after another. Purposely stretch your mind left and right.

Free it from this tiny sugar crystal limitation, and put it beyond all physical form. How big can you make your mind? Purposely show off your meditation skill.

Demonstrate the power you have over your mind. Like a good dog, tell your mind, we're going to switch now to the thing I would like to see happen in my own life in the next few weeks. We've been giving the example that I would like my husband to be nicer to me, listen to my needs, or I would like to make a little extra income to help cover the bills, or anything else you would like to achieve.

Choose one thing. Think about some normal outside methods that you would use to get this thing. I will take my husband to a football game, put him in a good mood.

I will look at our expenses from last month and see if we can cut something. Now picture a husband who came back from the football game and was more nice to you because of the football game, and picture your bank account higher at the end of this month than last month because you cut some expenses. Those two things are impossible, they are impossible.

Why? Because sometimes when I cut expenses I get more expenses, and sometimes when I take my husband to the football game and he has some alcohol he comes home angry and less nice to me. Those are not real causes of what I want.

There's nothing that can come from those causes. Then think about dependent origination, wheel of life. What's the real cause to see my husband treat me nicer?

I have to help someone else who has a husband problem, or a wife problem, or I have to help someone else who needs extra money. And when you reach this part of the meditation, please think of a real person that you're going to help. Don't let it be theory.

Make it real. Choose somebody now. Just the choosing, even before you help them, is already helping you to achieve what you want.

Now show off the control you have over your mind and skip back to the second formless realm level. Your mind is expanding. It's clear, like water, and it's expanding out quickly, as if you had turned on a huge light.

It's spreading past the sky, past the sun, past the planets, and it's moving on and on and on. There's no very good seeds in meditation. We are just exercising our focus.

Can you imagine the awareness expanding as wide as the whole universe, without thinking once about your finances and your husband that you were thinking about one minute ago? Because you choose to focus on something else. Display the power you have over your mind.

Bring it back to something you would like to happen this month. You can go back to the same example, or you can go to something else. You know, all of us have a few things going on in our life which we would like to improve, that would make us happy.

Make it, choose something, and think about the normal way you would, the normal outside actions you would do to make it happen. I will take my husband to a movie that he likes. He'll be in a good mood.

Then I'll tell him about the needs I have. I'll do some extra work, some extra hours at my job, and we will have more money by the end of the month. Drop into an emptiness meditation.

There's no such money. All money comes from being generous with other people. All nice husbands come from being kind to other people.

Make a mini plan to help someone else who needs financial help. Make a mini plan to be kinder to someone you know, and dedicate that kindness to seeing your husband change. Now show off your meditation skill and turn off your mind.

No thoughts, no feelings, no pictures. Shut it down. If the mind tries to talk, if the mind tries to give you a picture, if a feeling tries to come up, press it away, push it away.

Total silence. Look, I can switch my mind right back to my husband and to my finances in a single second. My mind is not at the mercy of what someone says to me.

My mind is strong. It goes where I want it to go, like a good dog. And I'm gonna think about something I would like to happen in my life this month.

I know it doesn't come from doing the things that I used to think would cause it. That's emptiness. And these are the ways I'm planning to plant seeds.

To have this nice thing happen in my life this month that I want, I will help someone else. Choose the person now. Don't make a big, big plan, you know.

I'll protect them for a few minutes. Something you can really do. Look, I can bring my mind directly back in a single moment to the fourth formless realm level.

I can shut the mind down, and my focus is so good I can keep the mind shut down, even while thoughts, pictures, feelings, fly through the mind slowly, float through the mind. I'm so strong in my meditation. I cannot listen to thoughts going through my own mind.

And I'm not thinking about my husband or my finances. I have the power to turn my mind to a new object and turn off the old one. It's traditional to continue on to the ninth level now, and to sit with your teacher, whichever one you choose, quietly, relax, no big concentration.

Just enjoy your teacher's smile, how they look at you. Enjoy the good quality about them that you were meditating on earlier. In my case, compassion of my teacher.

Just sit with them, quietly, no rush, no emails, no texts. Enjoy them. It's like a mini coffee meditation.

I'm so glad that in my past life I was kind to other people, in small ways, and now I have the pleasure of being around this beautiful person, my teacher. Three long exhales. Each time imagine you are sharing the good seeds of thinking about good seeds with other people in this world.

And then slowly open your eyes. Take a good stretch. Drink something.

Any questions? Any microphones?

[Speaker 2]
Thank you for teaching. When we're not here and we have less time to meditate, should we only be doing lion's dance, or can we do other types of meditation as well?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, good, good question. To repeat her question, you know, normally in our normal life, when we're not on retreat here at Diamond Mountain, we don't have time to spend an hour in meditation in the morning. Should we try lion's dance, or what should we do?

What I would do is for the next two weeks, try the lion's dance, but don't try to do the whole thing. So what I do at home when I don't have time to spend an hour meditating, or an hour and a half meditating, I will do the first round. And then I'll make sure you end it sweetly, sitting with your Lama and appreciating their good quality, and then finish.

Then remember, you finish the first round, then the next day do the second round. So you can split it like that. Can you still do other meditations?

Like, tonglen's working well for me, or something like that. I would try to make it a goal for the next two weeks to do some lion's dance every day. And then if you have time in the evening or something, then sit down and do your normal tonglen or something like that.

If you're really clever, you can do tonglen for another person here who's having trouble with their lion's dance. Okay? You see?

So you can always find a way to—yeah, yeah, you see? Okay? Something like that.

Okay? All right. Other question?

What if we were to set up a WeChat group 30-day challenge after this retreat? I think it's a great idea. You know, when I went to New York, they set up—and Vienna, and Bucharest, and I forget where else— Moscow.

We did a 30-day challenge. We said, can everyone in the group try to do 30 days, and we'll support each other. Some of those groups are still going.

I changed my phone, so I lost contact with them. It's like archaeology. I found them later.

They're still going without me. And the New York group is doing quite well. In Mexico still, Chalapa.

Yeah, and so that's fine. Yeah. And don't feel pressured to join it, and don't feel pressured to report something every day.

Have fun, okay? Don't feel—one student of mine, my lama, 30, 40 years ago or something, he—Nigel. You know Nigel?

Who knows Nigel? Burmese young man, who's probably not young anymore. But he said, oh great Geshe-la, yes, start a chat group.

One more practice to feel guilty about not doing. But why not? If you—I think it's great.

And then, you know, I chat when I'm in a car driving, I mean other person driving, or on the important throne, or other places, you know. You can find a few moments if you want to, but please don't feel pressured to join. But if you'd like to, that's fine.

Tim will set it up, and invite everybody, okay? Other question? Yeah, Geshe-la.

I have two questions, and I pick twice. The first question is, when we do the Lion Dance Meditation, when we extend out of consciousness, that is an extension of space. Can I add the dimension of time into it, and make it an extension of time and space?

About the Lion Dance Meditation, when we expand our mind, it's like we expand in the space. But can we also add the time? And so it's expansion in, not only in space, but also expansion in time.

That's okay. Yeah, great. The purpose is to open your mind so you don't feel tight, you see?

If you just stay inside the sugar crystal, it feels like a small motel room or something, you know? And then the goal is to feel fresh and open, like when you go out under the sky in Arizona, you know? The goal is that your mind expands.

So if you wish to send it a thousand years into the future, when everybody in this world is doing Lion Dance every morning before they have breakfast, that's fine. Yeah, because same result. Second, wen ti dar?

Dar? Wen ti er? Er the wen ti.

Wen ti er. Xie xie ma. I'll try to translate.

It's also a question about expanding our mind. So when we expand our mind, my understanding is that we need something to, like some force to drive us to keep expanding our mind. So my understanding is that our focus is driving our mind to expand.

But just like, but I would see some things, or some things during expansion. Like for example, like Jasmine mentioned this morning, for example, to see the Tushita. So my question is that if we, shall we just stay for briefly on the things we see during expansion, but will it make us not so focused?

I finished the translation. Okay. Yeah, so I would go, we call in English a slow drive by.

So you drive slowly past Tushita and see, nice to see you guys. I'll see you on the way back, you know, when I do level part five. I'll see you on the way back.

Okay. So if personally, my bubble tends to expand through other people's bubble. Like there's some guy who looks like me meditating in another world.

He has hair probably. And I say, hi, you know, nice to share bubbles for a while. He's like, thanks.

And then I just go on to the next planet, you know. So you can pause, especially if you see a Buddha or something. That's probably going to give you more power, right, in your meditation.

Okay. Other question?

[Speaker 2]
Thank you for teaching. So the question is related to the part of my mind that is steering or controlling my focus.

[Speaker 1]
And when I'm supposed to go to the next level, then part of my mind is thinking about which level I'm in and what I have to do next or before. What do I do about that? Good.

Yeah, I had a similar question from someone else about level three of the formless realm. So if I turn my mind off. It happened to Tsongkhapa once.

There's a famous story. He was meditating during a class when he was younger. And then they were supposed to turn off the mind, right?

Then he turned off his mind and the class ended, but he didn't know, because he turned off his mind too well. And then everybody left. And the next morning he was still there.

And someone came in and like, shake him, you know, you can stop now. Stop stopping your mind now. Then he's like, are we supposed to come back?

So, us normal people, yeah, you have a side part of your mind watching the mind to make sure it's quiet. But that means your mind is not quiet. There's a little part of your mind still watching.

And unfortunately at our level, or maybe fortunately, we have this. So don't worry about it. You have to have it.

That's why I said, technically you cannot turn the mind off. It's not even possible. No one can.

Buddha cannot. Okay? The mind nature is to be a mirror.

It will reflect something. Okay? So you cannot turn off the mind.

But we're supposed to try just as an experiment. If you tell somebody, don't say anything during the next three days, they might be quieter than normal. Understand?

Okay, any other questions? I think one more. Lyubo or Lyubva?

Lyubva. Miss Love. Not bad.

[Speaker 2]
Thank you Geshe-la.

[Speaker 1]
It's amazing for me that you can remember names. So many. I usually cannot, to be honest.

It's amazing. Thank you very much for the teaching. Two small technical questions.

In previous stages you told us that we should in the end put our Lama into our heart. Should we finish this meditation with the same? Yeah, that's correct.

And I felt a little bad that I didn't do it this morning. You're never supposed to dump your Lama. You're supposed to end it sweetly.

So it's traditional at the end of the end of the end, maybe after you've... just before you do the three breaths, you... So they're like facing you, right?

Then you're supposed to... they start to rise up off their meditation seat. And as they're going they get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller.

When they get to about here, they're about this big, okay? Then they switch like this. And then they come here and they sit here.

And then you say, you know, it's probably slippery up there. You want to come down inside? And they're like, yeah, that'd be nice.

And then you bring them down your jongmai, central channel. You bring them down to your heart and they park there. Maybe it's the same.

You can put them in the diamond or you can put them in the chamber of the heart. And then just before you do the three breaths, you say, please stay here, you know. And if I have a problem, like I get in a car accident and I'm dying or if my husband yells at me or, you know, something else, then please help me, you know.

Please, please, at that moment, please help me. And then you say, see you later. Say, yeah, that's traditional.

You don't just go to the three breaths and leave them sitting there like, what, are we finished? But also, you're always welcome to simplify a meditation, okay? And what happens over many years is that it gets too complicated.

So I have friends who took many tantric initiations. They have to do a hundred mantras for this guy and they have to do a hundred mantras for this guy and all day long they feel pressure and they're unhappy people because they got to do these mantras, you know. So have some common sense, you know.

If you feel tired and you're all tight, then you can tell your Lama, you know, I need a break, okay? You know I love you, right? You don't have to do all this extra stuff.

You see what I mean? Don't keep adding stuff, okay? Like, sometimes it's better for your practice to stop doing some practices, okay?

And you'll find that everything's better. So keep it simple, you know. Don't keep adding stuff until you're so stressed out that nothing's going well, okay?

All right. Thank you.

[Speaker 2]
And another small question.

[Speaker 1]
What do you recommend? How often should I go to one goal? So, for example, I want to have money and I do it today.

For all stages, repeat it tomorrow? Or how often? Yeah, it's a good question.

My Lama, who never gave a good answer. He never gave you the answer you wanted. He would give the answer he wanted.

He would say, until you get the money, keep going. Or until the husband changes, keep going. But I think the next day, see what feels like most important to you.

And maybe it's going to change the next day. Maybe your mood changes or, you know, the electric bill was smaller than you expected. And then it's fine to change, okay?

So my Lama's answer would be, continue until your husband changes. But since that might be a hundred years, you might want to have some variety. So there's a balance in meditation between doing the same thing every day and getting stale, tired, and then changing too often.

So you can't go deep. And only you know what's the balance, okay? All right.

What... Let's do some... Okay?

Let's do some idams. Someone said I should change it to IDA. Idam...

Idam guru radhana madalakana. Anyway, you can think of it that way. I think we're on antidote number three.

Idam 27. Again, idam is idea image and it's a picture that we're using to remind ourselves of a lamrim concept. And I'm very happy that Earl...

I'm not happy about the class, but I'm happy about that you mentioned the idams a couple times and people actually remembered. He said, what's... I forget which one you used.

What's the what? Oh yeah, what was the old genes, for example. And everybody...

See, it's easier to remember genes than remembering some scripture. So... I think it's working.

All right? So... And the final exam for the meditation, lamrim meditation guides, the short exam will be 60.

Maybe at the end of this week, if me and Jasmine can get it together. But I'm not sure we can. But the final final is 500 images.

We flash an image in front of you and you tell us what it is. So if you see a smoke alarm, it's the image for antidote number three of the...how many? Eight antidotes to how many problems?

Five problems. And what was problem number three? Oh, I love it.

Oh, I kiss you, but you got this weird beard. Yeah, it was the lady whose restlessness, yelling at her husband who is sleepiness on the couch, right? So the third problem of meditation was either busy mind or sleepy mind.

You can call it agitation or dullness if you're writing a scholarly book. But really it's just busy mind and sleepy mind. Same thing, okay?

And the antidote, the traditional antidote is sheshin. Okay? What's sheshin?

Somebody tell me. Yeah, it's the little guy in the back of your head who watches your mind to see if you're getting sleepy or busy, okay? Now, here's a deeper examination.

What's the classical comment that most lamrims will make when they say watchful mind or smoke detector mind is the solution for problem number three? What's the comment that most lamrims will make at this very moment? Yeah, good.

Catching it isn't really fixing it. Antidote number three is not an antidote. Okay?

That's a traditional explanation for the last thousand years. Any lama who teaches antidote number three will immediately say, it doesn't fix the busy mind. It just alerts you.

It doesn't put the fire out. It just beep, beep, beep, beep. It tells you there's a problem, okay?

Then you have to go to number four. So, let's go to number four. Do something.

Okay? Okay. This is a famous charge by Teddy Roosevelt up a hill in Puerto Rico.

I tried to find a charge. I couldn't find a good one. I worked really hard on it and then I got tired and I just took this one.

But they are doing something about it, okay? They are running up the hill to attack dullness or agitation. Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun, you know, and they are attacking the problem in their mind.

Okay, so the idea is you attack the problem in your mind. Do something, okay? What was problem number four?

Yeah, good. And I little bit fudged that image. Anybody tell me why?

Yeah, you actually should have put somebody sitting on their ass. But so many people are sitting on their ass in a meditation course that I thought, I'll put the... See, the problem is not running to fix the problem.

The problem is not doing anything, okay? But I just put the doctors running to save a guy's life because it showed urgency. We should have urgency, okay?

When you detect a problem in your mind, don't be lazy, like deal with it, okay? It's like, I don't know, your sink is leaking, like fix it now. Your car is acting weird, take it to the repair guy now.

Don't wait till you're on a highway and it breaks, okay? So, so they're doing something, alright? What are they doing?

This is a typical case in which I ask the question and you should answer me the question. Yeah, are you talking about the lady on the couch or her husband falling asleep next to her? Yeah, what are we going to do about the husband falling asleep?

Yeah, uplift the mind. Think of, just think about how amazingly lucky you are, okay? To be, you are, nobody in this room can ever have low self-esteem again because we proved that you are one out of 150 million people in the world.

That's not bad. You want to be better than, you know, try to give yourself a little credit, okay? Karmically, you made it into the best room in the world, okay?

And about seven billion other people didn't. Maybe you're special. There's a Louis C.K.? Maybe, maybe if you bomb other people's country for three years, maybe they will shoot at you when you come there. Something like that. Okay, that's another subject. So, then, what's the lady going to do?

Think of someone that passed away. Yeah, yeah. And there will be a picture later, right?

Won't there? When we reach impermanence in the Lam Rim, there will be a picture of death, death meditation, okay? Alright.

8M29. And this comes from a guy from Brooklyn who ran the factory at our jewelry company. And he's like, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I'll never forget his voice. When I see this sentence, I think of his voice. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Okay? If the meditation is going well and smooth, then don't interfere. Okay?

Don't mess with it. Okay? You're going to knock over the next domino?

Okay? Don't, just stop. Enjoy.

Let it flow. Learn to let it flow. Okay?

When things are going, some people, they start feeling guilty or nervous. What are you nervous about? My relationship.

What's wrong? It's too good. Something's going to go wrong.

Can you just enjoy it for a few days? Okay? When it's going well, just for goodness sake, relax, enjoy.

You earned it. There's nothing in your life that you didn't earn. Okay?

So, the meditation is going well. Don't, don't mess with it. Let it go.

Okay? Oh, but Geshe-la, my insight timer went off. Hey, if I'm having a good meditation, I ignore the insight timer.

If I'm having a bad meditation, I go, beep, beep. There's a stop button. Stop now.

I have five minutes left. Shut up. Stop now.

Okay? So, if it's going well, then let it go for a while. By the way, don't let it go until it gets dry.

You know, like they say, stop when it's good. But let it be good for a while. Follow it.

Be happy for a while. And before it gets bad, if you feel it's shaky, then stop. Okay?

Alright. IDIM 30. In the Lam Rim of Pabongka Rinpoche, he has a special section on subtle dullness.

Okay? Subtle dullness. Okay?

So, I put it in the IDIMS. Okay? Mighty meditation enemy. Why?

It feels like the meditation is going well. Okay? But you are, in English, we say spaced out.

How do you translate that Stanley? I don't know. You're like this, okay?

Physically, your body is good meditation posture. But your mind is like... Okay?

Like you just had a glass of wine or... Okay? Or you just feel a little stupid or tired or something like that.

But you're, physically everything's going very well. So, this is the most common result when you try to meditate too long. Okay?

And there are, I've been to places where the teacher will demand that the person meditate for two or three hours without moving. Trust me. After five minutes, everybody in that room is in subtle dullness.

Okay? Or they've learned to sleep sitting upright. Okay?

Like DCI staff at Geshe Michael's 200 Level 1 lecture. They're like... And they're sleeping off their jet lag with their eyes open.

It's a special DCI staff skill. They teach it in a secret room at the college. Every once in a while you go...

Okay? So, no subtle dullness. Very, very dangerous.

Okay? Most of the time it comes when you meditate longer than you should. Okay?

Your body looks good. Your position looks good. To people who come in the room it looks like you're doing really well.

And you're not really thinking about anything. You're just kind of... And it feels good.

Now, what's the classical karmic result of subtle dullness? What kind of seeds do you plant in your mind if you spend a lot of time in subtle dullness? Yeah.

No, we're not going to talk about that. You forget things. Okay?

You can't find your phone. I often lose my yoga mat but I have a feeling that's not the real reason. I lost two yoga mats in one day.

I left, anyway. Yeah, so you become forgetful. You can't remember what you were saying.

You don't know where your phone is. You lost your car keys. It's actually a karmic result of spacing out.

Okay? Alright? So it's not helpful.

You will hurt your mental sharpness by spending time in dullness. Okay? The Lam Rim also says if you fight the dullness and you're just losing, losing, losing, then stand up, go in the toilet and put cold water on your face.

Okay? If thinking about how lucky you are doesn't work, then go in the bathroom and take a cold shower. Okay?

Then you're like, okay, alright? Really? Seriously?

Okay. Okay. What time I'm...

Oh, I have nine more minutes. So, okay, no pee-pee break. You just have to do it there.

Okay. Okay. Now, Pabongka Rinpoche goes into the three different kinds of meditation which actually boils down to three different kinds of meditation objects.

Yeah. Okay? Really, it's just a discussion of meditation objects.

As a meditation teacher, you will find that a lot of beginner students are surprised that you're talking about a meditation object. They thought they were supposed to empty their mind. Okay?

So, when you say selecting your meditation object is an important meditation skill, you often get some objections from baby meditators. Okay? They're like, oh, I thought I was supposed to have no object.

Which is not possible. So, selection of your object is an important meditation skill. Okay?

And basically, there's three kinds of objects. Here's the first one, a mental list. Okay?

The person I know who I think of when I teach this is Jeffrey Tso in Taiwan. He's a very interesting man. When I met him, he was a small-level worker in DuPont Corporation in Asia.

but he has good focus because he's an Aikido master. And he's a very, very, very sweet man. Very gentle man.

And extremely Dharma heart. You know? So anyway, I met him every year.

And in time, he would meditate every morning. He became the head of all human resources for DuPont in Asia. He has 15,000 people working for him.

You know? And I said, how you do that, Jeffrey? Two things happened, okay?

Michael will appreciate. We were driving from Taipei to Taichung. He took off his annual vacation to drive me around Taiwan.

You know? And and I said, what's your last name mean? What's Tso mean?

Because, you know, I know Wang, and I know Chen, but I never heard Tso. He says, oh, it means the man who uses his left hand. Which is very important in Tantra.

Anyway, so I'm like, okay, yeah, all right. then I said, how did you get to be the head of 15,000 people? And he said, this meditation, mentalist meditation.

I use it every morning. And I plan my whole day sitting on my meditation cushion. I plan my spiritual day and I plan my business day on the cushion every single day for many years now.

I think it's been 10 years or something. so that's called a list meditation, okay? What are the idioms for meditation?

What are the eight antidotes? What are the five problems? What are the six conditions?

What are the five qualities of a good meditation place? You know, you, you, you read to a list or a procedure one by one, okay? That's the first kind of meditation.

In Tibetan? Shargon. Okay.

Shargon means let them come up one by one. Okay? All right.

So, that's easy. IDIM 32. I got six minutes, right?

I always like it when they put a clock up here for me and it's off. Okay. Second type of meditation, problem-solving meditation, called in Tibetan ché gong.

Okay. Ché means solve a problem. Okay.

For example, the two meditation, the side meditation we did today about finances and husband or wife, these are problem-solving meditations. Okay. How am I going to get my husband to be, to pay more attention to my needs?

How am I going to increase my income because I just don't have enough. I need 10% more every month, I'll be okay. Okay.

So, then you go into ché gong. Okay. The meditation object is a problem or a goal.

Okay. How am I going to reach that? What do I have to do?

What steps am I going to do? My suggestion is emptiness and then dependent origination. Okay.

Emptiness, there's no husband who's going to change by normal methods. Go to a marriage counselor, talk to them, you know, feed them nice dinners, take them to football games. It doesn't last.

The husband who will respond to those things doesn't exist. Okay. The husband who changes because you helped another person with their husband problem is a husband who's going to stay fixed.

Okay. So those are, we did problem solving meditations today. How about the different formless realms?

Yeah, Peter said single point meditation which is item 33. Ta-da! Okay.

Single point meditation, ekagra. Okay. You, jogo, nice.

So, oftentimes after a problem solving meditation, you fix your mind on an object. When you go to level nine and you're enjoying the lama you made with your seeds and you're just sitting with them and you're just relaxing in the vibe, in the feeling, good feeling with your lama and you're just like, you're so cool, I'm so cool, I made you, oh man. And you're just there.

Okay. You're just present with them. That's single point meditation.

Ekagra. Okay. Agra?

The name of the city where the Taj Mahal is, which means tip-top. And eka means one, right? So ekagra.

Single pointed. It's a Sanskrit synonym for meditation. Okay.

But the third kind of meditation, third kind of object. You stay on the object. A classic ekagra meditation is emptiness.

Okay. When you're examining your teacher to see if you met them by accident and you decide there's no teacher that you met by accident and you stay there, that's single pointed meditation. Okay, got it?

What happened in the two or three minutes before that was a problem solving meditation. Okay, got it? And the whole lion's dance is kind of a list meditation.

Okay. Oh, what am I supposed to do next? Ah, number two.

You know? Okay. So you're kind of mixing all those three meditations in a lion's dance.

Okay. All right. What's the real time?

Let's see. Yeah. Okay, let's do idam 34.

You've been doing it for a couple of days. Every long rim. We'll stop here and say, by the way, the greatest meditation object of all is to choose one of your teachers who has made a big change in your life.

The one that you admire. I have a fifth grade teacher that I really admire. I really admire my mom.

I had a... 11th grade teacher that I really admired. I had a college professor that I really admired.

You know. I have a heart lama. So, actually, I almost never do any other teacher who I super admire.

And... Okay. There's no greater meditation object than your teacher.

Okay. One of your... The teacher who affected you the most.

And it could be... Historically, it could be Jesus, it could be Buddha, it could be Nagarjuna, Mohammed. It could be...

an uncle who died when you were six years old who affected you a lot, who's not here anymore. It could be... Your mom or dad is very, very common as a great teacher in your life.

Okay. And... Because your mind is like a mirror, so whatever you put in front of the mirror will show in the mirror.

You see what I mean? So, if you put a holy thing in front of your mind, it will reflect in your mind. And then, as it reflects in your mind, you become more like them.

That's why during the lion's dance... I'm surprised nobody asked me. Don't waste any time on problems you see in your teacher.

Okay. Don't pick a teacher and then say, he picks his nose all the time, you know. Don't go there.

Okay. Don't focus on anyone's problems. Your friend or your mother or your...

Okay. Don't waste your time. If you want a short answer, it came from you.

You are seeing yourself. Okay. Then forget it.

Go focus on something sweet. Okay. Because you will become more like that.

Okay. So, does your teacher have problems? Yes.

Do they have faults? Possibly. Should you focus on them?

You're wasting your time, you know. Go to another teacher who's more commendable, admirable. Okay.

Pick one who's sweet and pick a quality that's sweet. So, when you do the lion's dance, I encourage you not to go back in your past life and see who it was that you stabbed that your lama looks grumpy all the time. You know, it's not a fun exercise.

It's not a good thing to worry about. Did you stab somebody? Yes.

Is it helpful to go over it again and again? Not really. Okay.

So, focus on the good qualities. So, in real life, with your friends and your family and fellow students, you know, focus on the good stuff. There's lots.

There's nobody who's totally bad. It's never happened in the history of the world. Okay.

People who tried to kill the Buddha. The one who tried to kill the Buddha was a great scholar, for example. Okay.

Okay, anyway. So, pick a beautiful meditation object. Okay.

Stick to something beautiful. Make your life beautiful. Okay.

All right. Who should I recommend? Melissa, you in the mood?

Come on. Sashimi. Sashimi.

Can you guys... All right then.