«Дар освобождения», курс 36 «Любовь во времена вируса», занятие 1

[Speaker 1]
It's a little something I want to do with you in this episode, okay? Episode nine. I call it a visit to the middle of the sun.

So in this picture, I tried to find a picture that is close to what it feels like to get bodhichitta, okay? So this picture, it looks a little... We were saying, me and Seiji and Tim were saying, it's a little new-agey.

It looks like it was painted in Sedona, Arizona. It feels a little new-agey, but let me say something. If you ever get to bodhichitta, it will feel...

This picture is very close. This picture is kind of close. Can you leave it up?

Just for me to... Yeah, so this picture is not crazy, and it's not some kind of hippie thing. When you reach bodhichitta, real bodhichitta, it feels a lot like this.

So maybe you want to make a copy of this picture. We paid for it already, okay? So you could use it at home.

You could keep it at home. You could keep a picture like that. Maybe you put it on your screensaver or your phone or something.

It's pretty close to what it feels like to get bodhichitta. So I would like to take you on a little trip. Just for fun, maybe five minutes.

Let's review what it feels like when you first achieve real bodhichitta. So we're not talking about estimated, what do you call it? Partial bodhichitta or trying to feel like you have bodhichitta.

Let's talk about the real thing. The day that you see emptiness directly and you experience bodhichitta directly. Let's just go through it because it's good luck.

It's an atom bomb. If you keep working on it, if you keep working on this feeling, how it feels, if you keep listening to this part, it will help destroy the virus. I believe it will help destroy the virus.

It's like a nuclear weapon. And the virus is like a catch-up stain. So here we go.

Let's just try to imagine for five minutes what it feels like to reach bodhichitta. Here we go. Let's take ten slow breaths.

Focus on the exhales. Long exhales. Don't worry about the inhale.

[Speaker 2]
Your body will breathe.

[Speaker 1]
So please imagine that you have just seen emptiness directly and you come out of that direct perception. And you come back to what we can call normal meditation, which is still not in the world, right? You're in a deep state of meditation.

You are still on your cushion. Your eyes are closed. And then suddenly in front of your mind comes the image of your mother.

Say it's your mother. A very, very perfect image of your mom. Living image.

And it actually is your mother. Maybe as you best remember her. She is looking like that right now.

And she's gazing at you. She's gazing into your eyes even though it feels like she's in the front part of your mind. So she's looking into your eyes with great love and also a sense of need.

She deeply needs help. She's in trouble in a way. It's like she's jumping off the Titanic or something and she's looking at you with those eyes.

She says, I need you. I need help. And then you say to her out loud in your heart, and you say, don't worry mom.

I'll take care of you. And I will be strong enough to take care of you. You don't need to be worried.

I will have the power to help you. And I will do it.

[Speaker 2]
I promise.

[Speaker 1]
And then her picture sort of fades away in the front of your mind. And suddenly there's your father's picture.

[Speaker 2]
And you're looking at your father. And he's got that same look in his eyes. It's kind of a kind of expectant, but also afraid.

[Speaker 1]
So, he's looking to you like, can you help me? Things are getting hard in life. Life is hard now.

Then you say, dad, don't worry. I'm on it. I'm studying Lam Rim.

I'm studying a lot about emptiness. And I actually, I know, I will have the tools to help you soon. So don't worry.

I'm on it. I'm taking care of it. And please don't, you don't have to be afraid.

You don't have to worry. I'm actually, I know what to do and I'm doing it. And everything's going to be all right.

So don't worry. And then maybe someone else close in your life, your mom, your wife, or your husband, or your children, one of your children, their picture comes up in the front of your mind. Just their face.

And they're also looking at you like, can you help me? Things are bad. Things are really bad.

Things are deadly. There's no other hope. Can you help me?

Can you help me? And you say, no, I got it covered. I'm taking care of it.

I can. I will have this enough power to take care of you. You really don't have to worry.

I know what's going on. I know your situation. I know what this life is like.

And I've got it figured out and I will be taking care of you completely. You don't have to worry. You really don't have to worry.

I will take care of it.

[Speaker 2]
And then that face fades away and then you can start going through faces of people you know. Close people, close family. Uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces.

And one by one you bring them up and you comfort them. And you say, truly, I will take care of it. You will have nothing to worry about.

And in this way we finish all the people you know.

[Speaker 1]
All the people you ever met in your life. And then you start working on all the people that you haven't met. And all the people around in this world.

Start with your own neighborhood. Go to the city, the whole city. And you know, it's not like you can cover everybody, but take a person here, take a person there.

[Speaker 2]
Take it to the shores of this continent that you live on. Cover everybody. And then go further to other continents.

And in this way we cover all the people in this world. Just sitting here you know.

[Speaker 1]
And then you can start on the animals in this world, like on the fish. And I'm not talking about types of animals. I'm talking about helping each individual animal.

Each one looks at you. Each one is expecting. Each one is afraid.

Each one gets your personal guarantee. I'm on it. I will take care of it.

Just imagine going to every creature. Tiny creatures at the bottom of the sea.

[Speaker 2]
Tiny creatures in your bloodstream. Meet each one. Talk to them.

[Speaker 1]
And when you finish all the living things on this world, we will start on the next world. I don't know where's the next world. It's, I don't know, Alpha Centauri.

Maybe it's, you know, so many light years away. And go there.

[Speaker 2]
And start doing the same meditation for all the people in that world. And in this way we cover every world in the whole universe.

[Speaker 1]
And the karma of meeting one by one, each of seven billion human beings, and trillions of other creatures on one planet and then covering as many planets as there are, countless planets, covering each being there. That's bodhichitta. That's the direct experience of bodhichitta.

So please, for this episode, if you can just get the feeling, you don't have to worry about yourself. You don't have to worry about your family. You really don't have to worry about your country.

And you don't have to worry about a world which is covered by a virus. These are small things. We will take care of them by the way.

We are working on a bigger project. We are undertaking to help an entire universe. Countless billions of beings.

Countless billions of animals and other creatures. And we do have that capacity. You do have that capacity.

I pray that you reach it in this lifetime. I pray that you open it in this lifetime. Your mind has the capacity already to touch every living being and promise them that you will take care of them.

So the purpose of this lam rim, the purpose of this retreat, is to kind of like travel to the middle of the sun. Think of every living being. Countless living beings in a world, in a universe with no limit.

Meet them one by one. Make a promise one by one. That's what happens during the first direct experience of bodhichitta.

It really happens. That's what it feels like. If you keep imagining it, it will help it to happen.

Really. So it's up to you if you want it to come. If you really want to be a real bodhisattva, then practice this visualization once or twice a day.

Just when you have a few minutes. Just imagine, in your imagination, okay? And it will help cause it and you will reach bodhichitta.

And then something like the virus, for that kind of bodhisattva, the virus is not a very important thing. It's a very, very small thing. It's a very, very small thing.

Making money, making a living, feeding your family, finding an apartment. These are incredibly tiny things. They are nothing.

Your mind is like, your heart is like the middle of the sun. And a few, I don't know, a few cookies or a few Coca-Cola's in the middle of the sun, it doesn't matter. It's not an important thing.

Go for the big thing. Everything else becomes small and everything else becomes comfortable, easy.

[Speaker 2]
That's bodhichitta. Okay, see you in the next episode, episode 10.