«Дар освобождения», курс 36 «Любовь во времена вируса», занятие 6

[Speaker 1]
Hi, welcome back to our lamrim meditations for our class called Love in the Time of the Virus. We've been going through the tenth chapter, the dedication chapter of Master Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. Actually, today we're in the final week of this course and we've reached the final part of that chapter.

It's actually verses 53 to 58, so it's the very end of the chapter. The whole chapter is 58 verses and we're covering the last five verses now, five or six verses. There are some main ideas here.

We are still doing an act of truth, so remember that. We are thinking about some amazing good karma we've done in the last month or two, in the last few months. We are grabbing on to that good seed and then we are kind of using it as a bullet to shoot the virus.

We are doing an act of truth. We're saying, if it's true that during these difficult times, and especially the early times when we were all nervous, we were all afraid, we didn't know what was going to happen. If it's true that during those difficult times, in this country, we were all out of toilet paper.

I remember Tim gave me some. I bow to you. If during those very difficult times, you share what you have or you're kind to someone else, then you have some material, you have a bullet that you can use for your act of truth.

During this meditation, the first part, we're going to think about something nice we did for somebody else during the virus, during the difficult days especially. Then we're going to take that good karma, like Shantideva did. His good karma was writing the book, by the way, the first nine chapters.

Then we're going to dedicate it that something amazing should happen. Then we'll have a list of amazing things. Now the amazing things are centered around this special kind of bodhisattva intention.

It's a strange prayer. Let's say you're working, I used to work in a company in New York, and we had a big company, we had about 800 people in the building. Let's say I want to do a real bodhisattva thing, and by the way, I used to do this kind of thing.

I would go into the bathroom and just sit on top of the toilet and do like a five-minute meditation. I would go into the bathroom, close the door, sit on top of the seat, on top of the cover, and then I would do this five-minute meditation. This is a hard one.

This is a strange one. I would think about this company, this busy, busy diamond company, hundreds and hundreds of people in the building right now, working hard. We used to work really hard.

Of course, there's many problems going on. One lady's got cancer, the other lady just had lost a baby, this guy's worried about losing his job, this person just had a divorce, all these kind of things. In this building, and we all had stress, and in this building, 800 people, everyone's having some kind of thing going on, some kind of problem going on, and sitting here in the toilet stall, I will suck in like a sponge, I will suck in all of their problems for five minutes, just five minutes.

This is like a dharma break you can do. I like to say that no one ever told me not to go to the toilet, even during these intense board meetings with the owners and the investors, it was okay to stand up and leave if you're going to go to the toilet, and no one would stop you. I would use that as an excuse to do five-minute meditation.

Let all the trouble in this building, let all the trouble of 800 people come into my heart right now. It should all come into me. I will eat all the little and big problems of the people that I work with.

Just do it for five minutes. By the way, don't freak out, it's like a tonglen. Of course, you should destroy it with a bright light at the lotus of your heart.

Don't sit there with 800 people's problems inside you, you're going to get sick or something. Obviously, you're supposed to destroy these problems, but you're supposed to be willing to take them, which is difficult. Tonglen is with one person.

We're talking hundreds of people, or maybe thousands of people. In this last meditation, we're going to be doing that kind of act of truth. If it's true that during the virus, I helped someone, then right now, may all the problems of all the people in the whole universe, not just the COVID people, there are billions and billions of planets like this, all of them, I will take all of their trouble.

Billions and billions of planets worth of beings. And not just people, all the animals, birds, insects, bacteria, I would take all of them. Probably the COVID is running around wishing he could live also, right?

So, I'll take the COVID virus's personal problems. I will take them on myself. Happily, I will take them on myself.

And this is an act of truth. If it's true that I did something nice during the virus, then by that power, should I have the power, should I have the strength to take on all the problems of billions of planets worth of people? And if you want an image for it, we can take it from Seiji's book, which is called The Crown of Knives.

And in fact, it was an instruction granted to Lord Atisha by his teacher, who is Dharmarakshita. So, we've been talking about Lord Atisha a lot. So, he got a poem from his own teacher, just before he went to this crazy country called Tibet, to take care of the people there.

And his teacher said, you're going to need this poem. Here's a poem to make you feel better when you go to all those wild Tibetans. So, in that text, they refer to a thing called the Crown of Knives.

Sometimes they call it Wheel of Sharp Weapons. I like Crown of Knives better because of an ancient story which we translated. And by the way, that book is coming out soon.

I think the translation was finished yesterday. The final editing has to be done. But there's a story in an ancient sutra called All the Kinds of Karma, Karma Vibhanga, which talks about all the correlations there are.

There's a story in there of a young man who decided to take on the pain of the world. He was about to be murdered by a special ninja star wheel, big one, that was about to chop into his head like a Crown of Knives. And just before the Crown of Knives came to his head, he made a prayer, may I take all the pain of all the people, especially my mother and my father.

And here you see the wheel. We're using this wheel picture here. So let's go.

Let's start. Just remember the general strategy. We're going to think of a good thing we did during the virus.

Then we're going to do an act of truth. If it's true that I helped people during the virus, that I was unselfish during the virus, then may my dreams come true. What are your dreams?

My dream is that I can take all the pain of the whole universe on me. Okay, that's kind of a strange dream, but okay, I hope it works. So here we go.

So get ready for meditation. Sit up straight.

[Speaker 2]
I like a small smile on my face and the forehand is relaxed.

[Speaker 1]
Just be here, don't think about all the stuff you have to do. We all have stuff to do and we all die in the middle of it, so don't get too attached to it.

[Speaker 2]
Pulling your tummy, shoulders back, hands back on the thighs. And we'll do 10 long exhales to get into the meditation. So please remember some kindness you did for somebody else during the time of the virus.

Now we're going to do an act of truth.

[Speaker 1]
If it's true that I paid this kindness to people during the virus, then first of all, may I meet Manjushri. May I meet that exquisite angel, beautiful, beautiful angel, who is made of all the wisdom of the Buddhists. All the wisdom of all the Buddhists.

May I meet Manjushri. If it's true that I was kind during the virus, then may I personally meet Manjushri face to face.

[Speaker 2]
And may I be like him. May I have this bodhisattva intention. May I have this experience of meeting all beings and assuring them that I will take care of them.

Here comes the big part of this meditation.

[Speaker 1]
If it's true I did do some small kindness during the virus, then may all the problems of all beings ripen on me. May I take all their bad seeds into me. And it feels very good.

It sounds frightening. It sounds like it would be a lot of trouble. And normally we are trying to escape trouble.

But there's a certain beauty, extreme beauty to purposely and anonymously taking other people's problems away from them and taking them on ourselves. It's a little difficult to start, but once you do it, it feels so right that it becomes easy and it becomes extremely satisfying. If it's true I did a little thing during the virus times for somebody else, then may I have the blessing of the ability to take on other people's troubles.

[Speaker 2]
This is a big universe. This planet's not the only place there is.

[Speaker 1]
There are countless other bodhisattvas in the universe. There are many many countless, cannot count them, amazing wonderful people on many many different planets. So let's do an act of truth for them, which is what Master Shantideva does here.

If it's true that I did a small good thing during the days of the virus, if I had love during the time of the virus, then may all the dreams and all the plans of all those bodhisattvas to help the people on their own planets come true.

[Speaker 2]
May their dreams, may their plans come true by the power of my good deed. These ideas are extremely unusual.

[Speaker 1]
For someone, for all of us to sit here and pray that people's troubles should come to us.

[Speaker 2]
It's a very very unusual philosophy, unusual way of life, but if it became more widespread in this world, then the whole world would be much happier.

[Speaker 1]
It's much more, it makes you much happier to serve other people than to take things from other people. It makes your whole life sweet and fulfilled. And if only this kind of thinking, strange beautiful thinking could spread in this world.

I will do an act of truth. If I was nice to someone during the days of the virus, then this strange beautiful idea that I should take the troubles of other people should spread in this world and make this world a happy world. In the final verse of the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, Master Shantideva bows down to his own teacher who is Manjushri really.

So we can do that together.

[Speaker 2]
Let's bow down to this divine being who is made of love, bodhicitta, and an understanding of seeds and emptiness. Okay, and slowly open your eyes.

[Speaker 1]
Take a good stretch. Okay, we'll do this meditation for the whole last week. Try to do it twice a day, okay?

And you'll be very happy. And try to read that chapter, or if you want to, you can listen to the recording, and try to listen to that once or twice a day. Okay, see you then.