«Дар освобождения», курс 37 «Лучшее, что ты можешь сделать со своей жизнью», занятие 10

[Говорящий 1]
Hi, good morning again. All right, welcome to class number two for today. My wife says my hair looks like wings in the morning.

Okay, sorry. We're going to start with a meditation. Before we start the meditation, I want to show you a picture.

I don't know, I like to find great ideas in Tsongkhapa books, like you know, but I also like to find new desserts because for me that's very important. I was in Japan before the virus and I went out to dinner with my friends, Sophie Chow and her husband. I was with Stanley Nelson and we had this Japanese sherbet, sorbet.

It's made from a special fruit. It's called yuzu. I'm sorry if I don't pronounce it correctly.

It's called yuzu sorbet. I know you Chinese people, you have yotzu in China. It's a different thing.

That's a different fruit. But the name was taken from you. The Japanese took the name from you, but it's a different fruit.

It's special. If you're lucky and you go to a nice Japanese restaurant, especially in Japan, you can get this yuzu sorbet. By the way, I tried to find it in Trader Joe's and other important places.

I couldn't find it. But it's unbelievably tasty. This is the kind of thing where I went to the Japanese restaurant with my friends in Tokyo and they took me out.

Then came time for dessert, my favorite time of the meal. They say, let's have yuzu. I'm like, no, no, no.

I want green tea ice cream. I like green tea ice cream. They're like, no, no.

Try yuzu, you'll like it. Then I have this terrible conflict in my heart. Because I know I like green tea ice cream, but you don't live in this world for almost 70 years and you didn't taste all the desserts?

Come on. I'm like, I don't know. How about I just have the green tea ice cream?

They're like, no. Geshe-la, don't be so stubborn. Just try yuzu.

Then I'm like, all right, let's try yuzu. It was unbelievable. It was totally unbelievable.

Nowadays I just go around online trying to find somebody who will bring yuzu to Arizona. Maybe we can plant it at Diamond Mountain. I'm sure Cat can grow it.

Why are we talking about that, Geshe-la? I'm saying, this whole retreat is trying to get you to taste the yuzu. This whole retreat is trying to get you to taste something new.

You're going to love it. So, we're using 10 different ways to get you to taste the yuzu ice cream. It's sherbet.

We're trying 10 different ways. Just taste it. No, no, I'm too busy.

Just taste it. No, I got stuff to do. God, just try it.

Just taste it. You're going to like it. I remember I took a bite and I was like, okay, forget the green tea ice cream forever.

Now it doesn't matter anymore. I need yuzu. I need yuzu.

By the way, don't send me packages of yuzu ice cream. I have a small refrigerator. What happens after a talk like this?

Like 20 people send me crates of yuzu and then my wife gets mad because I'm eating ice cream all day. So, just taste it. Just taste it.

Taste it in 10 different ways. Get that taste 10 different ways. So, we're going to do yuzu meditation.

Here we go. Yuzu meditation. Get ready for meditation.

We're going to go through... Let's go through the images real fast, pal. Okay?

You ready? We're going to go... Now you are serious lamrim people.

You can do 10 different pictures in your mind. Why? We're trying to burn bodhichitta into your mind.

We're trying to burn a... etch a pathway in your mind. Neural connections.

That's what meditation means. We're trying to etch the silicon and make a neural pathway. We start with dumb pictures from the internet.

Then they get burned into your mind. Then later they become reflexive. They become reflex.

That's meditation. First picture we're going to do, pal, is tennis player. Just taste this bodhichitta.

Why? God! You're going to join this VIP club.

Planet jumpers. Planet jumper VIP club. Wow!

Don't forget. Just taste it. But the whole retreat is to get you to taste it.

The next retreat is how to get it. This retreat is just taste it. Just try it.

You're going to like it. Why? Ten reasons.

What's the first one? You join a whole new team. You're going to be this ultimate MVP.

Most viable player. I think that... Pachi, I know you're Argentinian, so you got to be a soccer fan.

The Super League failed yesterday. But anyway, you can be on a different Super League. Alright.

Number two. Picture number two, pal. What's it mean?

Graduation picture. Yeah, you get a whole new title. What?

BV. Not BS, okay? You get Bodhisattva title.

They call you Pachi the Bodhisattva. Yeah, I'd like that. That tastes good to me.

I think I'll try it. This is the whole point. Third picture, pal.

Birds and the sun. What's it mean? You outshine those...

[Говорящий 2]
Other good people.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, and by the way, when I told you good people, I was using that word for two kinds of people. Listeners and half Buddha. Got it?

They're special. They're beautiful like those birds, but they're not like the sun. They don't fly like the sun.

Okay, next picture, pal. Fourth picture. Coffee shop, why?

[Говорящий 2]
People can get good karma by serving you.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, nice. Wouldn't that be fun? To be so holy that if someone gives you a coffee, they're going to go to heaven for 10,000 years or something.

That'd be cool. That tastes good. What did I say?

Suju? What's the ice cream? Yudzu, sorry.

That's how long I can remember. It's hard to order it if you can't remember the name. Okay, next picture.

Yeah, bulldozers. Super efficient. Super effective.

Stop picking up rocks one by one. Go get a bulldozer. If you want to make good karma, if you want to make enough good karma to make a Buddha body, rainbow body, go get a bulldozer.

Don't go picking up rocks. What's the bulldozer? Bodhichitta.

Bodhichitta, okay. Suju. Suju.

Yudzu. Yudzu. Okay, next picture.

Ketchup stain.

[Говорящий 2]
Yeah.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, don't sit there with soda water trying to clean the ketchup stain. Just send the shirt to the laundry in the middle of the sun. It won't last very long.

The stains won't last very long. Next picture. Shenzhen Garden Center.

Yeah, you can easily build all the stuff you want. Benefit number seven of yudzu ice cream. Next picture, eight.

Tank. Yeah, totally protected. Like you're in a bubble.

You're in a diamond bubble. All those problems just slide off. Alright, picture number nine.

Standing at the top of the mountain. Nice. You easily complete the levels and paths.

NYUR DU RDZOGS PA Yeah, you easily finish those. You go to path number five, you go to level number ten. Alright, last benefit.

You become the biochar for the whole world. Really, you become the super fertile soil for the whole world. You are the...

Cat used to get mad at me when I said dirt. Geshe-la, don't say dirt, say soil. Yeah.

You are the soil that allows all good things to grow for all people. You feed everyone. Quietly, anonymously, invisibly, under the rice, under the weed.

You're there all the time, just making people happy. Okay, cool? Does it taste good, yudzu?

Okay, good. Okay, here we're going to do a meditation. Again, remember your goal is to just remember these ten pictures.

Pick a story. Pick an important event in your own life. I said like having your children or going to high school.

It's a city where I grew up. I used to walk around. I know all these neighborhoods.

The first picture is in this neighborhood. The second picture is in this neighborhood. Then I know if I'm missing a picture because I can't get from this neighborhood to this neighborhood without going to this neighborhood and I can't remember the picture from this neighborhood.

Okay, so here we go. I'm going to cheat. I'm going to have the pictures in front of me.

Okay, here we go. Sit up straight. Relax your forehead.

Small smile. Long exhales. DIR GANG in the yoga center.

Long exhale. Exhale ten times until your tummy tightens. Okay, let's go through the ten ways that bodhichitta is delicious.

First picture is what you guys? Tennis player. Joining a new team.

Bodhisattva team. Burn it into your mind. We'll take ten breaths on each picture.

Burn the feeling into your mind. There's only a few people in this world who can jump from planet to planet. Connect with everybody.

Next picture. What is it you guys? Graduation.

I'm going to get a new name better than Geshe Michael. Bodhisattva Michael. And it will fit me.

Next picture. Birds in the sun. There are beautiful people in this world.

And they are beautiful. But to jump planets, to help billions of people, that's a different level completely. Next picture.

Coffee shop, right? Wouldn't it be nice to be such a powerful karmic object that if people just smiled at you, they would be happy for ten years or something. Next picture.

Diamond Mountain. Machine. It's so powerful for collecting good karma.

So easy. It's just a kind of thinking. You can do it in your car.

Next picture. Ketchup stain. Yay!

Okay. Send your bad karmas to the middle of the sun. Burn them up.

Instantly. A bad karma cannot stay in your mind if you are thinking about loving countless people. They can't stay in the same mind.

This town ain't big enough for two of us. Next picture. Shenzhen.

Beautiful, beautiful buildings, parks. Anything you want, any project you want to do, anything you want to accomplish, just work on your bodhicitta first. Picture number eight.

Tank. Sitting in a safe in a tank in the middle of the samsara war. I'm protected in a diamond bubble.

I can actually see other people having serious problems but they just never seem to reach me. I have compassion for them but I don't get those kinds of problems. Next picture.

Top of the mountain. I can reach the end of the bodhisattva levels. I can reach the end of all the five paths.

Final picture. A vast valley of crops and I am the soil. I am the rich soil.

Everyone feeds from me. Slowly open your eyes. Take a stretch.

Pal's going to show us the yunzu. That's the whole story of this retreat. Come on, just try it.

Just taste it. After that you're like, yeah, okay. Next time I go to a Japanese restaurant that's what I'm ordering.

Forget everything else. Are you kidding? Now I got really hungry.

I don't know. Alright, let's go back to the text. We still have some time.

Don't forget to connect those pictures to something in your life. Something that happened in your life. Your own life.

That will be easier. Let's see. Okay.

We agreed that we were going to cover half. What's a half Buddha? We finished the Tattva Buddha, right?

We established that all three practitioners know suchness. They understand suchness. They saw emptiness directly and it's the same emptiness.

Why do we call them half Buddhas? RANG RGYAL RNAMS NI BSKAL PA RGYAL ITS BRING GI BRDOD NI What's the meaning of half? They have a head start of about a hundred BSKAL PAS from those listeners.

They started earlier. And they have a lot. SON NAMS DANG, YES SHES KYI RTZOGS GNYIS DANG, SEMS CAN THAMS CAD LA, DU THAMS CAD DU SBYUG PA'I THI, THUGS RJE CHEN PO DANG, RNAMS PA THAMS CAD KHYEN PA, MED PAS They don't have the following, which is why they are not Samyak Sambuddha.

Total, total perfect Buddha. They don't have, they are short. What?

SON NAMS and YES SHES KYI RTZOGS. SON NAMS YES SHES RTZOGS RDZOGS BZHIN The collection of wisdom. Yeah, and really two collections.

They're short on both collections actually. They don't have both together. They are not, they don't have karuna, compassion.

They don't have compassion. Tsongkapa adds some words there. They don't have compassion for SEMS CAN THAMS CAD.

Then he adds DU THAMS CAD all the time. They don't have compassion for every living being every moment of the day. That's what makes them half Buddhas.

They don't have THAMS CAD KHYEN PA They are not Mr. Know-it-all. They don't see all objects in the universe at the same time, past, present, and future. Therefore, they are half.

Half means SANGS RGYAS LAS MAN Tsongkapa says they just don't measure up to full Buddhas. They are just not quite there. There is an expression in English, close but no cigar.

Sorry translators. Forget that one. We have a medium picture here.

Pal has got a medium picture here. They are just medium. I guess red is full Buddha, green is listener.

They have been practicing a bunch of million years more than the listeners, but they are still not in the red. They are not total Buddhas yet. Let's go on to the next section.

Now somebody comes. That's Khachig, right Tim? What's that?

Yeah, some guy comes up. I don't know. He is like, I always see this guy with glasses.

Yeah, but what about? What about? NYAN MTHIL LAS DG-YES SHES LHAG PA'I BSTAN When you say Buddhas have improved in their collection of wisdom over the half Buddhas, what it means is SEMS DON DOG PA'I SPONG BYAS DANG If you live in a monastery, you know this is from Arya Sangha's Abhisamaya Angka.

Jewels of Realization or something. You have already memorized this when you are 15 years old or something. 8 years old.

SEMS DON DOG PA'I SPONG BYAS DANG It means they specialize in the perception of the emptiness of objects as opposed to subjects. They specialize in the emptiness of objects as opposed to subjects. There is a big debate.

Is it easier to see the emptiness of a pen or is it easier to see the emptiness of Alex? Which is easier? Pens are generally easier.

That's why when we teach DCI, we don't get Gyelse up on the stage and say, think about her emptiness. We use a pen because in general, outside physical objects are easier to talk about when you are talking about emptiness. Arya Sangha in Maitreya, he is being the, what do you call the person who takes the notes for the businessmen?

The stenographer. The secretary. He is the secretary taking notes for Maitreya.

Really it is Maitreya talking. Maitreya said, it is important to understand that it is easier to think about the emptiness of pens. But, is that emptiness really different from the emptiness of a person?

We would say no. But, some lower schools, lower middle way, they started to say, oh, Maitreya taught different levels of emptiness. He was talking about half emptiness and then full emptiness.

The pen's emptiness is half emptiness because it is easier to see. And cat's emptiness, venerable cat's emptiness is harder to see. There is a half emptiness and a full emptiness.

Therefore, the half Buddhas are tattva ardha. Buddha, which means they see half emptiness. Got it?

He is misquoting Maitreya. Is he a bad guy? No.

Half of the middle way school supports that. Then Je Tsongkapa says, he has a very funny answer. He says, duh, who wrote it?

Duh, who wrote it? What does it mean? Who is he quoting?

Who is this guy quoting? Asanga. No, it is not.

Asanga is a secretary. Maitreya. You think Maitreya believes in half emptiness?

Are you nuts? Don't misquote Maitreya. He gets upset at the guy.

We don't call half Buddhas half Buddhas because they see half emptiness. Because they see the easy emptinesses and they can't see the harder emptinesses because there is no such thing. Is it easier to see the emptiness of a pen than the emptiness of a person?

Yeah. But are they qualitatively different? Is there a difference between the no mouse in Codding's kitchen and the no mouse in Jordan's kitchen?

Is there a difference? No. I mean it is a different kitchen but the no mouse is the same.

Got it? You don't talk about half no mouse because you have a half no mouse in your kitchen. You got mouse poop in your kitchen.

Try to understand. It is important. Why are we talking about all this Geshe-la?

We are trying to figure out this idea of somebody is giving birth to somebody else. Buddhas are giving birth to listeners and half Buddhas. Who is giving birth to the Buddhas?

Next picture here, Pau. Are you ready? I don't know.

I keep using this kind of picture. How much emptiness do you see if you are not a bodhisattva? When you see emptiness and you are not a bodhisattva, how much do you see?

Yeah, 100%. Zero, 100.0%. Okay, all right. Cool, that's all.

I don't know. I probably could have found a better picture. I was probably tired.

Then Tsongkapa says, by the way, Chandrakirti himself, Master Chandrakirti himself, when he talked about this idea, he said half Buddha doesn't really mean 50% full Buddha. That's not what the half means. The half means 50% better than a listener.

Got it? Don't think he is deficient. He is better.

He went farther. Got it? 100 kelpa is farther.

He is just farther. Don't think half means he is short of Buddhahood. Think of half as he is halfway beyond where the listeners are to full enlightenment.

Okay, cool. BYANGS SANG SGROR SBYOR DE YANG RGA BU RGYAL RTZER RNAMS NYE BZHIN LA BSGOM PA LHUR LEN PA YIN GYIS NYAN THOS THAR RNAMS LA BSGOM PA MI SRID MI NUS PA MI NO Don't think that there is some kind of difference in the practice even of listeners from half Buddhas. They have just been at it longer.

They just went further. Tsongkapa uses the word expanded. Think of half as expanded.

They have expanded their practice halfway to full Buddhahood. All right. You got a picture here.

Yeah, okay. I forget why I chose... Oh, expanding.

The idea is expanding the road up higher. The road is halfway to complete Buddhahood. All right.

It took me a while to find that one. Then he talks... Okay, we have time?

Do I have time? Yay! There is something we should finish today.

Because at the end of the class we are going to say SEMS RNAMS NYE ZHIG MTSO SBYOR ZHING SEMS RNAMS NYE ZHIG MTSO SBYOR ZHING MTSO SBYOR ZHING MTSO SBYOR ZHING MTSO SBYOR ZHING MTSO SBYOR ZHING It's crazy. SEMS RNAMS NYE ZHIG MTSO SBYOR ZHING NGES RIM GNYIS GYI LAS CHUNG BA'I BDAG PA DGOS NI MTSO SBYOR You say, do you know what any of that means? No.

That's why you go through the Geshe course. So he says, we talk about the collection of merit and wisdom. Geshe-la taught us a couple of days ago that when we talk about the karma of a Buddha we don't like to call it karma.

We don't call the seeds of a Buddha karma because karma is dirty. Because even good karma is dirty because it wears out. The word karma is an insult.

Even when you're doing nice stuff because it wears out. Your body gets old. Your wonderful body gets old.

Your wonderful body was made by good karma. But it wasn't that good, was it? Because things keep falling apart that you will learn this joy as you get older.

One thing falls apart, you go to the doctor, you fix it at great expense and the next day something else falls apart. I'll tell you a depressing story. I was listening to the radio and a psychiatrist, a famous psychiatrist did a wonderful study of why older people are committing suicide more nowadays.

There's more older people committing suicide now. Partly it's because they don't want to be a burden on their family. It's compassionate.

They don't want to burden their family. Then the psychiatrist got a call to go speak at a conference and at the conference she's giving the talk and she got a call on her cell phone from the hospital that her mother tried to commit suicide. The psychiatrist's mother who's studying suicide among the elderly just tried to commit suicide but she failed.

She stopped the conference. She rushed home. She talked to her mom and she said, Mom, I'm the world's expert on preventing elderly suicide.

If you commit suicide, you know what it does to my career? What are you thinking? The mom's like, It sucks.

Old age just sucks. I couldn't take it anymore. She said, Are you afraid I would spend a lot of money taking care of you?

No. I'm just tired of it. Every time you fix one thing another thing falls apart.

She said, The problem is it all falls apart at the same time. It's not that you get sick and then six months later you get better and then something else. She says, You get sick and something falls apart and then the next day something else falls apart and then the next day something else falls apart.

It all falls apart. The speed, what do you call it? The acceleration of falling apart goes zoom and then everything falls apart.

Your eyes not working. Your legs not working. Your ears not working.

Your nose not working. Anyway, why am I talking about that? That's dirty good karma.

That's dirty good karma. We have a tradition that we don't call the karma that has made a Buddhist body and a Buddhist mind, we don't call it karma anymore. We call it the two collections.

Je Tsongkapa says, Didn't you guys ever wonder that collection word? Maybe there's a deeper meaning and it's beautiful. Oh, I'm sorry.

Tim said I'm talking too fast. It's coffee and breakfast is looking at me. Okay.

Didn't you guys wonder why we chose a word like karma and we changed it to two collections? I mean, isn't it kind of weird, right? Je Tsongkapa says, you're right.

It's weird. When you say the two collections, it has a deeper meaning. It'll take me two minutes.

It has a deeper meaning. Two collections has a deeper meaning. He says, well, what is it?

Then he says, let's do double dunsel. This is a famous commentary to Maitreya. When we talk about collecting the karma to create a Buddhist body, it means embracing it in a perfect way.

Perfect embrace. A perfect embrace is the meaning of collection. Sambhara.

Say Sambhara. There's a famous mantra, Sambhara, bada, bada, Mahabuddhu sattu. Sambhara.

Sambhara. The Sanskrit is sambhara. Nowadays, if you ask a Sanskrit person, what's bada?

He'll say, to carry. To carry something. We had it already.

Burden means that. Bertha means that. What's the Spanish for wife?

Spousa. The Sanskrit is bertha, which means the thing you think husband has to carry. I'm sorry.

It's a bad word. The Sanskrit word for wife is bertha. Something you have to carry around.

Meaning you have to support them. That's the ancient meaning of bada. Sambhara means heavy load or something like that.

Tsongkapa says, don't forget there's a more ancient meaning of bada and it's to hold or to embrace. When we say the two collections, which is the two sambharas, it means the two perfect embrace. He calls it the perfect embrace.

He says, when you finish your class and you say, SEMS NA MYOS KYI RTZOGS RDZOGS BZHING May I complete the two collections? He says, don't think of it like a bank account. Don't think that if you put enough money in the bank you become a Buddha.

I don't want you to think of collection like that. That's not what collection means. Collection means your wisdom is deeper and your good karmas are deeper.

Your SEMS NA MYOS KYI Your merit and your wisdom was perfected to a point of perfect embrace and you became that wisdom and you became that good deeds. You became wisdom and you became good deeds and that's what it means to collect them. Got it?

Beautiful? Alright. Let's do that mandala.

Who wants to? Tim! Final final prayer.

DE'O Let's do both. DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O DE'O Yay!