«Дар освобождения», курс 32 «Пустое приходящее, ментальные бомбы», занятие 5

[Speaker 1]
Okay, good morning. Let's meditate. You want to get ready?

Turn off your phone. Relax your mouth. Relax your eyes.

Tighten your stomach a little bit. Relax your fingers. Shoulders back.

Forehead soft. Remember that smile. Keep that smile.

And then we'll start to follow the breath. Deep exhale. At the end of that exhale, push out a little bit extra.

Now observe your morning state of mind. Diamond Mountain, beautiful morning, Sunday, Easter. State of mind.

Peaceful, calm. Not too busy yet from the day. Now please look ahead into this week.

We're all going back to our normal schedule, family and work. We've pushed off maybe nine or ten days of work. And there's big jobs we have to deal with when we go.

Maybe there are personal issues with people. The theory of Diamond Mountain Retreat Center is that those people will give you trouble, or those problems that come to you at home. This is too far away for them to come here.

But now this week, we will go back. We can't avoid them. And difficult situations, difficult people.

So choose one of these challenges you can expect in this week when you come home. And watch how it makes your breathing speed up, makes your heartbeat speed up. You begin to lose the Diamond Mountain morning mind.

And just observe, especially with challenges, people problems, work problems, how your retreat mind is going to melt away in the next day or two. It happens to all retreatants in the world, in history. We would like to keep the retreat state of mind, but as soon as we're driving to the airport, we start to lose it.

And our mind gets more busy. And especially with problem people, problems at work, family problems. The mind gets stirred up like the wind coming across the ocean.

Then what we've learned this week about negative emotions, feeling nervous about the week that's coming up. Maybe almost upset already about difficult people we have to meet. As Aryadeva said, the nose needs a face.

Without a body, the nose by itself cannot walk around the room. The nose has to be attached to a face. And all kinds of nervousness about this coming week.

Apprehension, worry, wanting to avoid people, difficult situations. They all are based, like our nose, they're all based on our face. And the face is misunderstanding where these things come from.

We feel helpless because we don't know what to do. But that's misunderstanding. So I'd like you to try to pick one person or one difficult situation coming up this week.

And try to think about the pen. And try to think about what seeds did I make that created this person or this situation? What did I do this year or last month?

Similar thing to somebody else. This created seeds. Now this week those seeds are opening.

So check what little things you may be doing. Karma, second law of karma, it always expands. So if I have a difficult person or a difficult situation, I must be doing something similar.

First law of karma. But much smaller, second law of karma. So try to guess what you're doing yourself to create this yelling husband in the kitchen who's coming to you this week.

Last step, try to think of some good seeds you might plant even on the way home. That could help fix this situation. So in general we have a choice.

We can do the four powers. We can admit our mistakes to somebody. We can examine our negative seeds and behavior.

We can try to turn off those seeds. But I think most of us, we respond better to positive seeds, positive actions. So let's try that with the problem person this week or the situation this week.

Let's think about positive seeds we could plant. If we have someone who is jealous of us, giving us trouble, then instead of trying to stop our jealousy seeds, which we do have, we could focus on rejoicing in other people's good qualities, which is a happier way to change those seeds. So try to think about a little plan for this week.

How to plant some fresh happy seeds that are the opposite of the problem you're going home to or challenges you're going home to. Here we go. And now please three deep breaths out without opening your eyes.

Three deep breaths out. Send the karma of this good week of hard work, we worked really hard here, and send it to the world as a gift on your breath. Nice thoughtful three exhales.

Then slowly open your eyes, take a stretch. Any questions, comments, ideas, things you think might help other people?

[Speaker 2]
Thank you for this beautiful meditation. I had a little insight. If nothing has a nature of its own, then seeds must be empty as well.

Then is it possible to ... seeds that I perceive as negative, to shift my perception and think of them as positive, to really experience them as positive?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, it's an interesting question. If seeds are empty, then they are like the pen. And the seed which I see as a dog toy now, if I had better seeds under the seeds, I should be able to see those seeds as positive seeds.

And I think the best ... it's true, it is true. And I think a good example is people that hurt us, you know, in the past for example.

So oftentimes we can point to a time in the past when we had a big breakup, or some boss got angry at us at work and we lost our job, or we had a big health problem you know, and our whole life up to now we had seeds to see it as a problem. And then if our seeds improve, history gets rewritten okay? It's called the ...

what is revisionism? Historical ... we can call it seed revisionism.

And you start to revise the story of your life, you know. Then it's not like this boy hurt me, or this girl hurt me, or this place fired me. It's this Buddha gave me a chance to go higher, and I got a better partner, and I got a job.

I applied for 30 diamond jewelry store jobs after I finished my gemology degree. I applied for 30 jobs in jewelry stores. And I remember going for one of the interviews, and the jewelry store owner told me to wait, because a mother came in with a small daughter.

And they put her on the shelf, the counter, and he took a big gun, and he put it on her ear you know. And the girls like smiling, and and mommy's like saying, don't worry it's not gonna hurt you know. And she's okay mom, and then he goes, you know, and then she goes, and she goes, and they couldn't do the second one.

She was screaming so much. Then I, I'm waiting for my interview you know, and I'm like, I can't do this to little girls you know, and I just left the store. So then I thought, oh I have bad seeds you know.

I went to 30 jewelry stores, nobody wants to hire, nobody wants somebody who never worked in diamonds, they don't know if you're honest. Then I, I met my future business partner, and and we built the world's largest diamond jewelry company. And so I always bow down to those old bad seeds for 30 rejections in the jewelry stores you know, and I'm like, maybe those were good seeds you know.

So yeah, seeds are empty like a pen, and as you go on they can shift, and you can rewrite your life. And that's a big part of Tantra, that's a big part of the Vajrayana practice. Any other question?

Geshe-la, thank you Geshe-la for teaching. I want to say what happened with me in these 10 days. When I was a kid, I watched the sky, and I had a dream or wish or desire to stop all wars, to stop people being angry, and after my maybe 12, then slowly I realized that it is not possible.

And when I became older, I started thinking that everything comes itself, happens itself, and we cannot do anything, we cannot change it. And you know, yesterday in meditation, I connected with me, myself, 3 or 4 years old. I understand that it is possible.

I thank you for the feeling, you know. Now I became the whole, united, you know. I'm so happy with that.

And also, I met the book in 2016, April, when I was traveling with Mr. Norbekov. And sometimes I think that he, as a Master, he gave me from one part of teaching, as you said yesterday, the river, all rivers go to ocean. And so, you see, I'm here second time.

I come from Muslim country. I am Muslim. And I have a dream, connect all religious, and maybe not religious, all people, Christian, because we are part Christian, Orthodox, part Muslim country, Buddhist people, others, as unity who can connect and help all human beings, or maybe all beings, all over the world.

So, thank you for teaching, stay with us. Let me tell one story, okay? Then I'll come back.

And this is ... it also came to me the same thing. Because today is Easter, this is a big holiday for the Christians.

And we have two big ... two holidays you have to go to church. The churches are full this morning.

Then the people don't come back until Christmas. And so, we used to go every Easter. And I remember the first time I went to our church, and I still go there sometimes.

It's in Phoenix. And my mom, I remember she brought me down. I remember which seat.

And she said, you get on your knees, you know. And I'm like, why? Because you never get on your knees in real life, right?

Unless you're washing the floor or something. And so, she said, hold your hands like this, you know. And then I said, okay mom, what do I do?

And she said, you pray for everybody. And I'm like, what's that mean? What's pray?

And she said, you think about someone you love, and then you send them good thoughts, you wish them good health, happy life. And I said, okay mom, I can do that. And she said, don't forget, you have to do it for everybody.

And I'm like, okay mom. And I remember closing my eyes, you know, like Easter. And okay, let's see, I'll start with mom.

I hope you're healthy. I hope everything's happy. I hope you're fine, you know.

And then I did my dad, you know. I hope you're good. I hope you're happy.

Then I had three brothers. I did my brothers. Then she's like hitting me on the shoulder, you know.

I'm like, what? And she said, we have to go. And I'm like, I'm not finished, you know.

You said everybody. And she said, well, you can't really do everybody, you know. And I said, I was just getting to our aunts and uncles.

And she said, yeah, but you can't actually pray for everyone. It's not really possible, you know. But you're supposed to try.

I said, I finished like five people, you know. There's a seven, five billion left at that time. And she said, well, we have to go.

They're going to close the church, you know. And then as you get older, maybe it's the same in Islam. You say, okay, it's impossible.

Or, I cannot stop war, for example. It's not going to be possible. I think around age 16, you say it's not going to work, you know.

Prayers don't work. You pray for people, they die anyway. And you kind of quit.

In your mind you say, this is not going to be possible. And I can't stop war. I went to jail briefly during the Vietnam War.

Because I wanted to try to stop the war. But then later I decided it just doesn't work, you know. You can't do it.

Then in DCI, we kept talking about being a virus. You know, becoming a virus. So, if you solve your problems next week by planting the opposite seeds, okay?

So, if I have someone who's mean to me every day, and instead of talking to them, instead of fighting with them, I just try to change my seeds. Then, first of all, they change. Second, I become happier.

All the time. Third, people start to notice I'm different than I was before. And maybe, number four, they ask me to teach them ACI course one.

Okay? And then, I become a virus. So, you know, I teach John, then John teach Connie, John and Connie teach Peter and Masha, and Peter and Masha go to Kiev and teach hundreds of people.

And then, I can't go around the world, and I can't really pray for everybody, but I can be a virus, you know? I can start a ... I can start an explosion.

I can be the first ... What do you call? Ground zero.

I can be the beginning of the virus. And then, if John is successful, then Connie will want to learn about it, and if John and Connie are successful, then Peter and Masha will want to learn about it, and then if Peter and Masha look happy, then their students will want to learn about it, and then it just spreads by itself, you know? And I think in this way ...

Just recently, I was thinking about it, and this is my little Easter sermon, okay? You can change the whole world. You can pray for the whole world.

You can affect each person. And the method is to become a happy person, and a successful person. Inside successful and outside successful.

And then people will copy you, and then in this way, you pray for all people. You see what I mean? So, my mom was right, but she was also wrong, okay?

Cool. All right. Daniel had a comment.

[Speaker 2]
So, the fourth law of karma says that if you plant a seed, then you must see the result, and I'm just wondering how to marry that idea with the fact that a Buddha has seeds that will never ripen?

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, I don't know. It's unexplainable. By the way, Tim, that last part about the mom taking me to church, I'd like to add it to the class 7 or something like that, wherever it goes.

The Bodhisattva Bodhi to the ... maybe class 8? I'd like to add it to the official video for the teacher training.

Yeah, just ... Yeah, stick it in there somewhere. This is technically Lamrim morning.

Yeah. Okay, here's Daniel's question. So, suppose I hurt someone, then I do the four powers, and ...

what's the Diamond Cutter Sutra say? What will happen if I hurt someone? I'm supposed to have a car accident, but I do the four powers.

I promise not, especially I promise not to do it again. Yeah, the Diamond Cutter says I will get a headache. Or, if you do a good confession, the seed will never open.

So, then what happened to universal justice, you know? I'm supposed to have something bad happen to me. And in DCI we teach it two ways.

I think it's interesting. First, when we teach the four powers, which is DCI 1 or 2, we say this is how to stop your bad seeds, because once you teach somebody about the seeds, carefully, the first question an intelligent person asks is, okay, I understand seeds, and the pen makes sense, and I understand the ten good deeds, but what do I do about my old bad seeds? Is there something I can do about my old bad seeds?

This is like halfway through level one or towards the end of level one, you start to get this in your discussion group, right? And those are the most intelligent people. They already figured out a plan for the rest of their life, they'll try to not make bad seeds, but they're wondering how to deal with their old bad seeds.

And then, at DCI we teach them ... RGYEN PA'I DGE'I, RGYEN PA'I DGE'I. So, at the beginning in DCI, we teach them ...

oh yeah, you can make your old bad seeds go away. Then the ... that question came from the more intelligent ones, then the more intelligent ones of the more intelligent ones, during level two they will say, wait a minute, you said fourth law of karma, you know, if you do something you have to have a result.

Then, when they start ... when their thinking reaches this level, we start to talk to them about ... putting a watermelon seed on this ...

lectern, and putting water on it, and making it warm, and it will actually open, like if a seed packet gets wet for a few days, it will open inside the paper, but then it dies for lack of nutrition, lack of nutrients, right? So, when we get to that ... when we get the more intelligent, more intelligent question, then we tell them about the Diamond Cutter Sutra, you will have a bad result, it will open, and that's the way you kill it, you force it to open like a premature baby, okay?

It comes out undernourished, it's too small to survive, and then it dies. Then the intelligent of the intelligent of the intelligent ... they'll say, but wait a minute, it's not just that bad deeds make bad results, they're supposed to make corresponding bad results.

If I kill someone, I have to die, it's not like I can get a headache, you know? So, how do you answer that? And then ...

I think that's where your mind is at right now, and it's that the good ... there's a special good karma seed ... well, let me put it this way, follow me okay?

Stay with me, because you're at the advanced question stage. How do you make a good seed grow faster and better? Yeah, coffee meditation, ZHI'I SANGS PA SBYOR BA THAG TUG, fourth chapter, RGYUD GNAS ZHIG PA, LAS KYIS GNYIS, you know?

So, just be happy about what you did, okay? Now, if you enjoy suffering, how do you make a bad seed grow faster and well? Yeah, who said that?

You're hot. Yeah, the easy answer is be happy you did something bad, but the deeper answer is the way to get a bad seed to grow faster and bigger is to misunderstand it, and that's what the Wheel of Life is based on. Links number eight and nine, make the bad seeds grow bigger and faster, because you misunderstand them, okay?

So ... during ... for powers, you're not just promising not to do something again, the four powers itself shows you understand seeds, you see?

Part of the reason why the four powers works is you wouldn't do them if you didn't understand seeds, okay? So, it's not just promising not to repeat an action, it's the raw karmic strength, what do you call it? Chaturbala, bala in Sanskrit, the power of understanding the seeds, okay?

So, the seed to die because you killed someone, if you treat it with the four powers and a heavy dose of chemo, you know, understanding chemo, it mixes with the bad seed and it helps destroy it, okay? Got it? So, if it grew back full power, that would break the law of karma.

Cool? Think about it. One more question maybe, if anyone has ...

You guys got my clock somewhere? My round clock? Thank you, Geshe-la.

No, you always ask hard questions. I gonna do it. Ask me easy one.

Don't be like word. Okay, go ahead. There is one deep question I still didn't didn't understand and I didn't find the answer yet in your teachings, all the ASI courses, about consciousness, about our mind.

If you say that everything have to have a cause and there is no creator of this world, then then what start our mind? If it's last forever, then God could be inevitable and could be forever. So, what is the difference here?

Okay, good question. I remember I had a talk with Ken Rinpoche, you know, we had lots of talks like this and he said, one day he said, Say, say, Say, Rinpoche, science, he said, I don't understand this science stuff and it was so comforting to have him tell me he didn't understand something and cause I went to Princeton, I graduated with honors, I thought I was really smart and then when I got to the his house to live with him, he treat me like I'm an idiot, you know, and it was very uncomfortable. I'm used to getting awards and going to the White House and here's this person, everything I say is stupid and it was very, very unpleasant and all my friends told me, why you, why you go live in that, it's called a white trash town, poor white people, very poor white people, they have two cars in their backyard, broken cars and you know, they're poor and they never brush their teeth and they're like, how can you stay there, you know, I said, sometimes I don't know and this guy yells at me all day and he tells me I don't understand anything. So, he asked me, so where does the world come from, you know, in Sanrikpa, in science, where does the world come from? I'm like, I'll tell you and thanks for asking and that's before I knew him very well.

You never argue with Ken Rinpoche because he always win, he can say the sky is not blue and he can prove it and you will fail, it's better just to shut up and clean the toilet. So anyway, I said well, he said, what's the main idea of science, you know, nowadays I heard in the monastery from Yünden they are trying to teach some science and I think it's a, I mean it's okay, but the foundation of science is mistaken, Buddhism is correct, science is not correct, so it's a little, you know, I think the youngest should understand, I think it's wrong, the basis of science is wrong. So anyway, I said well, he said, what's the main principle?

RDZO, right? What's that? The principle idea, P-A-L right?

What's the principle idea? Yeah, everything has a cause, he goes, oh that's great, that's just like dependent origination, you know, everything has a cause, nothing happens without a cause, you know, and I feel really proud of my country, because America invented all science, maybe they teach you that in your country also, when you're in the school in America when you're young, it seems like Americans invented everything, I'm sure in China, you know, paper, gunpowder, what's the other two? Ceramics, I mean the Chinese invented it 5,000 years before the Americans, but we don't hear that in the school, so, we're like, oh yeah, yeah, that's science, we discovered it, near Princeton, Einstein, Institute for Advanced Study, everything has a cause, you know, and he's, oh, and that's the main idea of science, and we say, yeah, I say, yeah, and he's, oh, I should have known, later I would know this conversation is a trap, but I feel very proud, I'm like, yeah, you know, you have any other questions? And he's like, yeah, so, how did things start, you know, and I said, well, everything has to have a cause, therefore, there must be a first cause, okay, creation, there must be a first cause, because everything has to have a cause, therefore there must be a beginning.

By the way, and that's science's mistake, that's the big mistake, okay, you got to think about it. So, I said, everything has to have a beginning, and he said, well, what's the beginning of everything in science, you know, what's the beginning of everything? I said, oh, thanks for asking, there was a big bang, and all matter was in the size of a thumbnail, all the universe, compressed, you know, shrunk in the size of your thumbnail, all the planets, all the stars was in the, compressed into this much energy, and then one day it blew up, you know, and that's the first cause of all planets, all stars, all people, all birds, everything, okay, that's the first moment, that's the first cause, and he goes, oh, like, wow, I'm so grateful you explained science to me. Then he goes, but what was the cause of that cause? You know, and I'm like, then I'm thinking like, nowadays they say the bang before the big bang, pre-bang, pre-bang, you know, then I'm like, well, that one didn't have a cause, so he said, but science foundation idea, everything has a cause, yeah, except everything, then I'm like, yeah, he says, get out of here, you know, he's, get out of my room, don't tell me stupid things, you know, get out of here, he's like, he's like, get out of here, you know, this is so ridiculous, okay, so, what did, who asked me a question? What was it?

Oh yeah, yeah, so there cannot be a first cause, you see, I was brought up as a child, in the class, especially science class, and they said, if you can find the first cause of something, you found the cause, but, if you spend five minutes with Ken Rinpoche, he will explain to you easily that there cannot be a first cause, okay? It's not possible, okay? It's not possible, if there's a first cause that doesn't have a cause, then, then science is completely, all science is wrong, okay?

Got it? Is that better? If you want the easy explanation, it's called the spaghetti noodle, okay?

Your mind is like a long spaghetti noodle that has no beginning and no end. So, to me, it helps to make a picture in my mind, there's a black space, and then, Mueller Spaghetti Company started a spaghetti noodle, and it went all the way back in time, and it keeps going, they keep making it longer, and then, into the future, the spaghetti noodle goes, okay? Like that, and ...

two things about that spaghetti, well three things, okay? Four things. Number one, it does not have a beginning, it cannot have a beginning, because a cause needs a cause, and in Buddhism, all changing things are both causes and results, all changing things are both causes and results, okay?

When you yelled at your kids, that was a cause of your husband yelling, but it was also a result of yelling at your husband last week, before, okay? So, there is no beginning to your mind, it's not possible. If you say there's a beginning, then you're saying something can happen from nothing, but we know ...

come on, sing it! Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could, but sometime in my youth, or childhood, I must have done something good. That's the best song from Austria, by the way.

Yeah. Then the spaghetti noodle, second, so first it has no beginning, so, you know, sometimes picture it in your mind, black space, spaghetti noodle, goes back with no beginning, cannot have a beginning, okay? Not possible.

If it was caused, it cannot have a beginning. Then, goes into the future, endlessly. Then, I'm going to give a naughty example, which is very unusual.

There's a ... and in Abhidharma, okay, I'll call it Abhidharma, then I won't get in trouble. Most human beings, in their life, in the spaghetti noodle of this life, they have their first sexual experience, you know, and there's a mark on the spaghetti noodle, somebody took a pen and marked the spaghetti noodle, before that you're a virgin, okay, boy or girl, and then after that you're not, you know, and that's a mark, that most people can make a mark and say okay, I remember the day, I remember where I was, you know, and they draw a line, and after that you're a different kind of person, and before that you're a virgin, okay, so that's one mark on your spaghetti noodle. Why am I talking about that? Yeah, for ...

for all living beings, the first direct perception of emptiness is the mark on the spaghetti noodle, it's the only one, okay, either you're an Arya or you're not, that's all that really matters, okay, either you're an Arya or you're not, either you saw emptiness directly or you didn't, okay, and that's ... what do you call? So, people who didn't see it are emptiness virgins, good?

And people who did see it, I don't know what you call emptiness non-virgin, okay? And there's a line on the spaghetti noodle, there's a second line, who wants to tell me? Yeah, arhar, which means what?

You don't suffer, no more pain, okay? Person with pain, endless, no beginning, come up to this point, draw a line, and then after that no pain, ever, okay? So, those are the big spaghetti noodle marks.

What's the ultimate mark? My body changed to a living diamond, the whole body changed to a living diamond, I can split into multiple bodies, I can help billions of planets at the same time, okay? Cool?

Yeah, so that's how you have to think about it, okay? Remember the conversation, think about the conversation with Ken Rinpoche, okay? And it will be clear to you, okay?

It'll come clear to you.