«Дар освобождения», курс 37 «Лучшее, что ты можешь сделать со своей жизнью», занятие 15

[Speaker 1]
Hi, welcome back to Lam Rim and welcome back translators, you are amazing. Especially the ones from Romania, Christian, you guys, you guys are amazing. Yay!

And Ula, thank you. All right, here we go. We're going to start back on the Lam Rim.

We have a busy day today. It's the last day of the program. We'll start with the Tibetan here.

CHOS THUGS DAM GYI MTHIL DU SNGAGS PA BYAMS SEMS DU KHO NA YIN What is the jewel that you should keep in your hand? What's the most beautiful thing you should keep practicing all day? It's this idea of going to meet your mom on the other planets.

We practiced it yesterday. DANG SANGS KHA CIG THUGS DAM GYI MTHIL BAR RE LA BYAS ZER Some people say the core of my practice, the thing I hold in the palm of my hand, is like some high tantric practice. I don't know, Medicine Buddha, Tara, Amitabha.

KHA CIG G-YANG NA RGAG LTOG RGAG LTOG is like I Ching or something. It's some kind of magic book about how to make your business go better. Like magic book or something like that.

Number, magic number book? Something like that. GANG PHYIR RNAM PO ZHI BYED There's also this, there are these funny little books like How to Stop the Dharani for Stopping Bad Lawsuits Against You.

GANG PHYIR means lawsuit. These are weird little books. ZHI BYED.

GSUNGS SOGS, this kind of dharani which is just for worldly thing. I don't want, I want to win this bankruptcy suit. So I'm going to find a special dharani.

SOGS LA BYAS ZER People told the Lama, Pabongka, they said, that's my practice. I'm focusing on stopping bankruptcy lawsuits with mantras. He said, come on, BYAMS RGYUD GYI SEMS BSGOMS PA SKAL BA MED NA It's too bad you don't have enough good karma to hear about bodhichitta or you wouldn't do those things.

MED NA SANGS RGYAS THOB DUS MI YONG If you keep focusing on these strange little mantras like how to stop a lawsuit, then you're never going to get to Buddhahood. PHYO ROL ZER LING PA LAM MA RNAMS KYI CHOG TU BRDZIN PA DANG Lord Atisha, who is one of the most famous teachers in the history of Buddhism in Asia, somebody asked him, who was your greatest teacher? He said, ZER LING PA.

SU DBANG LA DUS PA'I DGOS RU Then they said, why? They said, he taught me bodhichitta. He taught me bodhichitta.

CHAGS NYONGS SKABS SBROM LA GYUR SEMS SANGS BA'I DE LA CIN LABS KYIS Whenever Lord Atisha got sick, like if Lord Atisha got gout in his foot, he would call Dromtonche and say, come touch my foot. He would ask his disciple, his favorite disciple, come touch, hey Jigme, come touch my foot. Then Dromtonche said, why?

Atisha said, you have the most bodhichitta anybody I know. It's weird for a teacher to ask their student to heal them. So the Pabongka Rinpoche is saying, look, it's important that Atisha, this great, great lama, used to call his student to come touch his foot because the student had bodhichitta.

BYANG SEMS LA SNGAG RGYUD ZAS PA YIN This indirectly, this is Lord Atisha praising bodhichitta. Lama Dhammaraksita. $100 question.

Who is Dhammaraksita? Wait, who got it first? Was Tim on the way?

Were you on the way? $50 each. Gyel Se and Tim.

He's the one who wrote The Crown of Knives, please. Which is a text that our DCI Vice President Seiji Arell Takahashi is translating. It was written a thousand years ago.

Dhammaraksita was whose teacher? Atisha. He's Lord Atisha's teacher.

His other teacher. The one who, not from the Golden Island, right? He wrote this incredible book.

By the way, in China's soft power program, next weekend, we'll be studying the Diamond Cutter business book. We reached the correlations, the 46 correlations. We reached the most important part of the old Diamond Cutter business book.

It's a VIP program for Chinese executives. That part talks about correlations. If you do this, you're going to get that.

If you do this, you're going to get that. Where does that come from? I stole it from Dhammaraksita.

I stole it from Seiji's text. By the way, Seiji and his wife Nur are making a beautiful book called The Peacock Warrior, which mixes Rumi and Dhammaraksita. These two great poets.

Look out for this book. I'm sure Diamond Cutter Press is going to publish it. Diamond Cutter Press, by the way, can we talk about that?

Speaking about the press, which publishes all of our translations, I'm very happy to announce, two days ago at Diamond Mountain, I received from Yaoli Su in Taiwan, this amazing book published by Diamond Cutter Press and Yaoli in Taiwan. Here it is. If you need exercise, buy this book.

It's very good for, you don't have to do yoga, you just lift up the book every day a couple of times. This is a new edition of the two most important sutras in the world, the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Cutter Sutra. This is the greatest explanation of those two sutras, by Tony Lama.

This is a collector's edition that you can get. You open up this one, and you open up this one, and you can get enlightened and exercise at the same time. Okay, yeah, so you can get these two books.

If you like, here's the information from the press. This is the Diamond Cutter Press, and there's the general books that they carry. Next one, next picture.

This is if you want to order the sponsored edition. We are offering it for a special extra price, so you can support the translators. Yay!

That's called a Dharma discount, where we charge you more so you can support the translators. Don't forget the Mixed Nuts translators got a new virus called Babies. We got Ava.

We got Amalie. We got Maitri. That's why you have to buy these books.

All right, thank you guys. Let's go back to the text. That was slick, right?

Oh, I got that in there. All right, let's see here. Yeah, so Dharmanakshita, to go back to Dharmanakshita, who wrote that book that Seiji is translating, he used to be Abhidharma.

He used to be. He started out as an Abhidharma teacher. Then he got interested in the bodhichitta teachings.

At some point, he got interested in the bodhichitta teachings and he switched to Middle Way. Because of the bodhichitta teachings he got, because of the bodhisattva teachings he got, this great, great Abhidharma scholar switched to Middle Way because he learned how to love people. Yay!

You can see a peacock warrior here. I like to call him the peacock warrior. $100.

Why is peacock important? Yay, $100 for Janice. Peacocks, the thing that makes their feathers such a beautiful color is they like to eat plants that would kill other animals.

What's the analogy? Alex?

[Speaker 2]
The analogy is that bodhisattva is able to eat the pain that would down the rest of us.

[Speaker 1]
Yeah, bodhisattvas take trouble and turn it into something beautiful. Cool. Bodhisattvas don't run away from tense situations.

They look for them and they jump in and they make them better. They don't run away from problems. They look for problems and they jump in.

That's a kind of bodhichitta. $BYOR RGYAL BU GNYIS RGAR DRIN LAS DAR GYI'I PHYIR BA YANG ZHING YIN RTEN TZAM Lord Atisha is amazing because he was equally famous in central China and in Tibet. His teachings spread throughout Asia.

Why? Two reasons. ZHING YIN RTEN TZAM for $100.

I'm in a good mood this morning. ZHING YIN RTEN TZAM Yeah, how to take a teacher. How to follow a teacher, number one.

$100 for Jigme, give Jigme $100. He was so good at respecting his teacher, studying with his teacher. The karma of that made him famous throughout Asia.

His teachings spread throughout Asia. And because of his bodhichitta. Those two things.

KHA DAM GONG MI SHES NI, SEMS KYI MED NA NAG RTZA SNGA BA'O'I PHYIR SDUG BSKYA MI DGOS BA'I RTEN GYI RDZIN The Kadampas, the old Kadampas. What's that mean? Who's the new Kadampas?

Well, we're the third or something. Tsongkapa's considered the new Kadampas. The Kadampas are the early Buddhists of Tibet and they were mostly hippies with families and they had little Dharma centers.

Just like nowadays. KHA DAM GONG MI SHES NI They used to say, SEMS KYI MED NA, if you don't have bodhichitta and you just have meditation, how good is your meditation? You want the modern version or the ancient version?

The ancient version is, someone can take a Tibetan religious drum and during your meditation they can carry it and put it next to your head and go bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, and you don't even hear it. What's the modern version? French fries.

You can put french fries in front of the meditator and they don't smell anything. That's how good is your meditation. Then the early Kadampa said, I don't care if your meditation is so good that you can't hear Jimi Hendrix at full volume or smell french fries from McDonald's in front of your nose.

If your meditation is that good, I don't care. If you don't have bodhichitta, I'm not interested. Then you're not a meditator.

I don't care if you can focus so well that I can play Jimi Hendrix in your ear and you don't hear it. ,YOD KYANG GANG YANG MI PHYIN, You ain't got nowhere. You didn't go anywhere.

,LAM MA RA HUL LA GUB TE KYANG, ,YI DAM GYI LHA'I ZHES MTHONG BA DANG, ,DNGOS GZHAN DANG RDZUS DU THOB PA DANG, ,THEG DANG RDZIN RIG RGYUD TZAM YOD PAS, ,GANG YANG MI PHYIN, Then there's a Lama named Rahula Gupta who was a teacher of Atisha actually. He said, I don't care if you saw Medicine Buddha face to face. I don't care if you can read other people's mind.

I don't care if you can do magic. I don't care if your meditation is as strong as the Himalayan mountains. Not moving.

Unshakable as Mount Everest. I don't care. If you don't have bodhichitta, you didn't go anywhere.

You didn't go anywhere. That's Atisha's teacher. His other teacher.

Here we go. ,GZHAN YANG SDO LAS BYANG CHUB KYI SEMS NI, ,KHOR RGYUR GYIS KHOR LO RIM PO CHE DANG, ,SKYE BO SOGS KYI DBANG PO DANG, ,BLAB PA DANG YANG BRAL BAR GSUNGS PA DANG, Bodhichitta is for us what the wheel is for a... Wheel emperor.

You define the president of the world in Buddhism by his or her wheel, her spaceship, her flying saucer. You define a Buddhist by their bodhichitta. A Buddhist without bodhichitta is like a wheel emperor without a wheel.

Or a person without life. It's like a dead corpse. A Buddhist without bodhichitta is like, I don't know, a baseball player without life.

They're as useful as a baseball player who died yesterday. Got it? Kind of funny.

Or LHAG PA means, or like a football player without a leg or without an arm. Come on, it's useless. Emperor's flying saucer.

You guys got my flying saucer? These things are real apparently. Who are you?

I'm a king of the world. What's your nickname? Flying saucer emperor.

Hey, where's your flying saucer? I never got one. Okay, that's a Buddhist without bodhichitta.

All right, sorry. RGYUD LAM MA LAS By the way, this is the uttara tantra of who? Maitreya.

We studied it many years ago in Tucson. THEG CHOG LA SMOS SA BON SHES RAB NYID SANGS RGYAS CHOS BSKYED MA DANG Then they start talking about paternity and maternity. Paternity and maternity.

Dads and moms. Maitreya says the relationship of bodhichitta and wisdom is like your mom and your dad. Your wisdom is your mom.

Your bodhichitta is your dad. And your dad has to make your mom pregnant. That's a beautiful image.

Your bodhichitta has to make your emptiness pregnant. You need both. To get a kid you got to have a dad.

Somebody was asking me, Veronica said, why is it that the dad works for five minutes and then he gets visiting rights for the rest of his life? I'm not getting into that. But I can say you kind of need him for a while at the beginning.

Anyway, the dad is being compared to, in the lam rim, the dad is compared to bodhichitta and the mom is compared to emptiness understanding. And bodhichitta has to make a baby in the emptiness understanding. It's a beautiful image to think about.

PHA NI RIGS KYI THON MONGS MA YIN PA'I RGYUD DANG So the father has a special role for a brief time especially. MA NI THON MONGS PA'I RGYUD YIN PA The mother is around all the time and she has a long-term role. BYANG CHUB KYI SEMS RIM PO CHE NI SANGS RGYAS KYI RGYUD THON MONGS MA YIN PA DANG The unique cause of a Buddha is bodhichitta, the father.

THON MA YIN THOB PA'I SHES RIM NI BYANG CHUB SEMS RGYAS THON MONGS MA YIN RGYUD And we call the understanding of emptiness not unique because of THOB PA BUDDHA for a hundred dollars. THOB PA BUDDHA SACHNIS SACHNIS Knowing SACHNIS. Why did we talk about THOB PA BUDDHA?

It was to explain why a certain Buddha can be not a Buddha and still be a Buddha. Half Buddhas are still Buddhas because they BUD. They THOB PA BUDDHA.

Got it? So that's more common. Understanding emptiness is shared by those three tracts.

But bodhichitta is unique. Only higher tract. Bodhichitta is like the dad who drops by for a while.

And then emptiness understanding is like the mom who has to stay there her whole life and keep producing. Got it? SDONG NYID BSTAN PA CHEN PO'I PHYIR CHUNG GANG DANG PHRAD KYANG DE BYANG CHUG GI RGYUR GYUR DE NA BYANG CHUG GI SEMS MED PA'I CHAGS RDZOGS You can talk about Mahamudra, like some kind of super tantra.

And you can talk about RDZOGS CAN. Some kind of weird super secret thing. Or you can talk about KHYAD RIM and RDZOGS RIM, the two levels.

You can talk, talk, talk. LHA RDZOGS MANG PO SHAL MTHONG BA You can say you met Tara and 21 Taras this morning. MTHONG BA SONG DE KYANG But if you really want to get to Buddhahood quickly, drop those and focus on bodhichitta.

Drop those visions of Tara and the 21 angels. Drop this, what do you call it? Mahamudra.

The weird Mahamudra. Drop that weird RDZOGS CAN. Just focus on loving other people.

You'll be farther ahead. That's what he says. BSTAN PA That's not me, that's Pabongka.

BSTAN PA DE DANG PHRAD THAMS CAD KHYEN CING GRUB PA'I SBYOR BA CHEN GSUNG GI MTHIL LA This teaching is the essence of everything Atisha ever taught. BYAM SNYING RJE BYANG CHUB KYI SEMS BSGONG GSUNG SDUG NA LHA SGONG SNGAG DE TZAM LA MI RE BA DE LA TSUM PA RDZAD DGOS Atisha said, don't put your hopes in meeting some tantric Buddha tomorrow or something like that. Just relax and practice the seven steps of getting to bodhichitta, which we're going to study next or in the future lamrim.

He says that's the ultimate dharma. Bodhichitta is the ultimate mantra. Recite bodhichitta in your heart.

That's the ultimate mantra. DE'ANG RDAG BA'I CHOS KYI SNYING PO DI RGYUR LA BSGYUR BA'I BDUN DU BKA' BA BYAS TE It's worth the hard work it's going to take. It's worth the hard work it's going to take to get to bodhichitta.

It's worth it. If it takes you 12 years, it's worth it. DE LA BRTZON NANG BRTZON ROL NYON CHOG PA YIN ZHING It's worth your time and I'll tell you some good news.

He says, I'll tell you some good news. I like good. BSGOM NA MI SKYE BA'ANG MIN Say BSGOM NA MI SKYE BA'ANG MIN Double negative.

You want to guess Tim? For zero dollars. I always offer Tim the highest amount.

Double negative. BSGOM, BSGOM, BSGOM PA MI SKYE Not MI SKYE. Not SKYE BA.

Good. If you practice bodhichitta, it's not a thing that can refuse to come. If you practice every day, bodhichitta cannot refuse you.

If you practice every day, bodhichitta cannot refuse you because that's the nature of cause and effect. If you plant the cause, you will get the result. Just relax.

Go through the steps of bodhichitta. Study bodhichitta. Relax.

The nature of reality is that it will sneak up on you whether you want it or not. Just relax. Do the meditations we taught you and it's going to come.

In fact, you cannot stop it. If you didn't want it, you couldn't stop it. Just relax.

Plant the cause and wait and it'll come. All right, CHES SO. I love it.

SON NA GNAS PA If word was here, I could test his knowledge. SON NA GNAS PA means the nature of cause and effect is the nature of cause and effect. So relax.

Cause and effect is cause and effect. So just relax. Do these meditations and relax.

The bodhichitta is going to come up on you. You can't stop it. Just trust the process.

SON NA GNAS PA. Trust the process. NGAS PAR SKYE LA DE YANG SBYOR BA CHEN PO'I MA BYUNG KHONG PHOD DUR SEMS BSKYED CHOS PA'I CHUNG GA BOG NAS There was people in Tibet before Atisha showed up who thought that you were granted bodhichitta by taking the vows.

They thought, oh, the lama said I need bodhichitta. Yeah, okay, so I'll go take the vows and then I'll have bodhichitta. Then Pabongka says, it don't work that way.

It does work that way for other vows. What vows? You just show up, you get it, and you're done.

Vinaya vows. You show up at the monk ceremony, you take the vows, two minutes later you're a monk. Now, you go to a bodhichitta ceremony, you make the commitment.

Are you a bodhisattva two minutes later? He said, no, no, it don't work that way. It could take 12 years.

There were people in Tibet before they got educated Buddhists. Educated Buddhists is so rare. There are lots of Buddhists.

There are very few educated Buddhists. There are lots of Buddhists. There are very few Buddhists who know what the hell they're talking about.

I don't know how many million Buddhists there are. How many Buddhists who know what Buddhism is? I don't know.

He says, there were these silly people in Tibet before they got educated about Buddhism. Before they got really educated about Buddhism. They thought, if I go to the bodhisattva vow ceremony, then I'll be a bodhisattva when I get home.

He said, no, it works that way with the monk and nun's vows, but it don't work that way with the bodhichitta vows. Bodhisattva vows. CHOG BSKYED DGOR MA SEMS CANG BYAS KYI SDUG BSNGAL SANGS RGYAS THOB PA BYA Then the guy says, no, no.

At the beginning of the ceremony you say, for all living beings, for all mother living beings, he said, that's not bodhichitta. That's the beginning of the ceremony. That's just words.

BYOD PA TZAM GYIS BYANG SANGS RGYAS GO CHOG PA BYED PA GANG BYUNG YANG There were people who thought, if they say those words at the beginning of the vow ceremony, then they should have bodhichitta by the end of the vow ceremony. Because at the beginning of the ceremony, it says, I'm doing this for all living beings. But then he said, come on.

That's not how it works. BYANG SEMS RGYUD LA SKYE BA BYED PA LA BLO BYANG DGOS PA LAS To get bodhichitta, you have to BLO BYONG. Train the mind.

What is that called? Mind training or something like that? It sounds like IQ improvement course or something.

Mental training. I forget what it is. There's some really bad translations of BLO BYONG.

Exceptional in their badness. BLO BYONG doesn't mean to train your brain or something like that. It means SEMS RGYAS, to get bodhichitta.

It doesn't mean mental development or something. It's a terrible translation. Here it is.

Right here. BYANG SEMS RGYUD LA SKYE BA BYED PA BLO BYONG. BLO BYONG means you're practicing bodhichitta.

You're trying to get bodhichitta. You're going through the seven steps of reaching bodhichitta. DGOS PA LAS LOM MA BYAMS PA SOGS LTAR GYI SDOM PA It's not like getting Vinaya vow where five minutes after the monk ceremony, you're a monk.

It's not like that. You've got to work on it. Does that mean I shouldn't take bodhisattva vows?

Come on, taking bodhisattva vows marks the beginning of your struggle to become a good person, to become a bodhisattva. You have to take them. That's how you start.

That's the way you're supposed to start. But it's not equal bodhichitta. This lady in this picture is taking her, I don't know, one day vows.

Wait, is that my name? No. There we go.

This lady is taking vows. Can you take bodhisattva vows in front of a plant? Yeah, why not?

It's allowed. It's allowed. You're allowed to give bodhisattva vows to yourself.

That's what she's doing here. That's why I chose the picture. But does that mean she's a bodhisattva five minutes later?

Not really. We can call her an honorary bodhisattva. All right, next part.

Tim, I know I have to stop in eight minutes. I'm watching the clock. Say again?

Oh, I did the book advertising earlier. Yay, I get five more minutes. DE MTSAMS RGYI BYANG CHUB KYI SEMS SGO BSHAD PA'ANG You can't even get a correct idea of what's bodhichitta just from the ceremony.

You see what I mean? You can't even see where you have to go. Exactly.

SNGON SBYOR CHEN PO'I PHOS PA RNAMS NA This is a very, very famous piece of sarcasm from Atisha. Normally lamas try to be more positive. But when a lama gets sarcastic, you better watch out.

Here we go. This is one of the most famous pieces of sarcasm in all of Buddhist scripture. Here's Atisha.

God. Remember he came to Tibet and he's like, you Tibetans, you guys are awesome. You're really awesome.

And they said, yeah, why? He says, you guys... I'm sorry.

I guess I don't have the karma to be sarcastic. You guys are so amazing. Why?

You got bodhichitta without love or compassion. Oh man, you guys are... You're so advanced.

You got to bodhichitta without learning how to love other people and to care about their suffering. Sheesh, you guys are much more advanced than the Indians. Got it?

Sarcasm. You guys developed a special method to become a bodhisattva without loving people and without worrying about their pain. You guys are awesome.

I wonder if the guys that he was talking to got it. PHOS KYI ZHES PA BDOD means only Tibetan could do that. MI NYES PA'I TSUL He expressed his displeasure.

DBOS NA GANG DGOS ZHUGS PA'I Then they asked him, what are you trying to say? He says, it's a long run. It's a long run.

You got to do this. Then you do this. Then you do this.

You get compassion. Sorry, in this presentation you get love. Then you get compassion.

Then you get bodhichitta. That was his answer. DE NA RANG RES SNYING RJE CHEN PO LA MA MYONG BA MA THON PAR BYANG CHUB KYI SEMS BSKYED THAMS MED PAS BLO RIM GYIS BYAMS PA You must BLO SBYONG therefore.

You must BLO SBYONG. BLO SBYONG means start with love, go to compassion, reach bodhichitta. BLO SBYONG Practice those three steps.

Which is a segue. Huge segue. We just finished.

Yay! How cool is bodhichitta? We finished this section.

Yay! We got to the end of our lam rim course. Congratulations to everybody in the room.

Everybody, you got to the end of it. You now know how cool is bodhichitta. You're supposed to be hungry to get it.

That's the next lam rim course. Now let's get a little taste of it. Let's get a little taste of it.

We have a few minutes. NYID PA BYANG CHUB TU SEMS BSKYED PA'I TSUL LA NYID Therefore, we're moving on to how to develop bodhichitta. We just spent, I don't know how many classes, 14, 15 classes, convincing you to buy this car.

Now it's time to put the money down. You want the car? You want this Tesla with the wings, butterfly wings?

Yeah, I'll take it. All right, now let's talk about how you got to pay for it. BYANG CHUB TSEMS BSKYED PA'I TSUL LA NYID There's two methods for becoming a bodhisattva.

There's two tracks. You can go either way. BYANG CHUB TU SEMS SBYONG YIN LEN PA'I DNGOS DANG, SEMS BSKYED MCHOG PA'I TSUL BA'I TSUL LO It's going to involve making a commitment in a ceremony.

STONG PA LA RGYUN DE MED NGAG BDUN GYI SGO NAS BLO BYANG BA DANG, BDAG GZHAN MNYAM BYAS You ready? Say RGYUN DE MED NGAG BDUN RGYUN DE MED NGAG BDUN First option. I'll give you two options to pay for this car.

What's the car? Bodhisattva. I gave you two options.

I gave you two options. They're both extremely reasonable. That's my New York accent.

It's like Venerable Chundram. You guys want a coffee? Your first option is the seven step cause and effect method to become a bodhisattva, to get to bodhichitta.

Seven step cause and effect system. Six causes, one result. Six causes, one effect.

It's called the seven step cause and effect method. By the way, the effect is bodhichitta. Then there's six steps you have to do.

That's the first way to get bodhichitta, and we're going to study that first. Later, we'll study BDAG GZHAN MNYAM BYAS. What's that?

Be careful. It has two parts. BDAG MNYAM and BYAS.

First, see that other people's right to happiness is totally equal to your right to happiness. We have equal right. That's called MNYAM.

That's called MNYAM. Everybody in this planet has an equal right to get what they want. Nobody has more right to get what they want than other people.

We all have equal right to get what we want. We all have equal right to happiness. That's the preliminary to the second method.

That's the beginning of the second method. Then BYAS. Then switch.

Then switch positions. By the way, just to let you know, it's a very depressing practice. It's a very depressing practice.

It is not put yourself in cat's shoes so you can see how she feels day to day at Diamond Mountain. It's not that. It's not this compassionate sweet thing where you say, you know, come on Geshe-la, put yourself in cat's shoes.

Try to feel how she feels. It's not that. Well, what is it then?

It's worse than that. You put Geshe-la's brain behind Venerable Khading's eyes and you look at Geshe-la and see how he's doing. That's the exchange and it's bad news.

I put my brain in Venerable Khading's head and I look at Geshe Michael and see how is he really. Is he considerate? Is he kind?

Is he thoughtful? Is he moral? Does he do his practices?

You put your brain in another person's skull and you look back at yourself and you see the bad news. That's the real second method, so you might want to skip that one. But let's go to the first method.

We have a few minutes. I have four minutes, right Tim? RGYUN DE MED NA BDUN GYI SGO NAS, SEMS CAN THAMS CAD YID RONG GI SNAB PA CHEN DU GRUB PA NI, LOB PA'I LTA BA DRAG PA DANG, TZAM DU MGO MED ZHIG RDZOGS SOGS KYI LUS KYI YIN LA First step of the first method, the seven step method, is YID RONG BYAMS PA.

Say YID RONG BYAMS PA. That's where you try to develop an affection for other people. I like you.

An affection for other people. You just look at other people and you feel like you're a mom who's very proud of her child. Katie does something amazing.

Janice feels like a million dollars. That's affection. That's called affection.

YID RONG BYAMS PA means affection. The goal in the seven step method of reaching bodhichitta is to start with affection. I like you.

I just like you. I like you. It's nothing fancy.

It's I like you. I kind of like you. That's called YID RONG BYAMS PA.

SNAM GYI GRUB PA NA. Who followed that system? Chandrakirti, who we had a lot of time with him this retreat.

We spent a lot of time with Chandrakirti. Chandragomi, who's important for the different vows. Shantarakshita, who's the teacher of Kamalashila.

Not Dharmarakshita, Shantarakshita. Teacher of Kamalashila. He came to Tibet and that's a long story.

BDAG GZHAN NYAM BYED DGO NAS BLO BYANG BA LAS ZHI BA LHA'I Now as far as equality, and what are we going to call that second one where I put myself in cat's head? Switching? Equality and switching.

It's two parts, right? NYAM BYED. BDAG GZHAN NYAM BYED.

As far as equality and switching, that was followed by Master Shantideva. Mainly. BSTAN PA NAS BYAMS BYANG YANG SOGS LA RGYUD PA'I DANG PO NYID YOD PA Ultimately, these two methods of becoming a bodhisattva have come down to us through Manjushri and Maitreya.

Through Manjushri and Maitreya. Ultimately, it's a combination of two powerful brains. DGO NAS BYANG RNAMS KYIS MA They were separate for many centuries.

The two teachings were separate for many centuries. Atisha put them together. Atisha combined them.

Why? Equality and switching. Shantideva system.

The seven step system of Atisha. He joined them. He joined them together.

He's the one of Chandrakirti. He joined them together. We are called the confluence of the two rivers.

Our generation. Our generation is called the generation where the two rivers flow into one. I'll say one more thing and then we'll switch over to Tim.

I know Tim has some announcements and things to talk about. We're going to do that lottery. It's a lottery question?

One more thing. I'll leave you with a question. This is kind of interesting.

There's two ways to get the bodhichitta. One is, I put my brain in cat's head. The other way is what?

Seven steps. Which one do you think was traditionally more secret? Switching was more secret.

Switching was more secret. Which one do you think is more inclusive? They say the seven.

They say the seven includes the switching but the switching doesn't necessarily include the seven. Okay, got it? Something like that.

Last question. Then we'll go to the question from the lottery. For $300.

Let's end on a good... Let's do $1,000. Last question.

Everyone woke up. That time doesn't matter, Geshe-la. Go ahead.

Last question for $1,000 but let me get it straight. Why should putting myself in cat's head be more secret than the seven steps for trying to develop affection for everybody? Why should putting myself in cat's head be more secret than trying to develop affection for the people around me?

$1,000. Alex wants to go for it.

[Speaker 2]
It was so radical. The idea was so radical and difficult that people who tried it might think it was crazy and give up the teachings altogether.

[Speaker 1]
Nice. It's beautiful and it's not correct. Anybody else want to try?

She said it's so radical that it might freak people out basically. It is true but that's not the answer I'm looking for. Why would me putting myself in cat's head be a secret method and then the affection method would not be so secret?

Traditionally it's explained that way. It's sitting right in front of you. It's so obvious.

I guess you don't want the money. Okay, cancel the bet officially. I'm officially canceling the bet.

I mean, Joe, you want to take a guess? I'll say it again. No?

It's a lot of money. Okay, you do the first one quietly. You don't tell anybody.

Got it? You put yourself in cat's head and you don't tell Cat, you don't tell Alex, you don't tell Janice. You just do it quietly.

Affection, you have to say, Damn, I like you guys. Thank you so much for the Lam Rim Jordan. You're awesome.

Pao Pachi, thank you. Gyel Tse, Venerable Gyel Tse, Venerable Ching Mi, two venerables. You're so venerable.

That's affection. Affection is expressed. Hanley, thank you for Diamond Mountain.

Joe, thank you for doing all the work for Hanley. That's affection. Affection is expressed, right?

But looking at yourself from another person's eyes is done quietly. Right? Maybe nobody knows you're doing it, except that suddenly your behavior improves because you're watching yourself.

Okay, Tim. Yeah, now something happened with this course. Geshe-la added too much extra stuff and we didn't get as far as we're supposed to get.

Why? There's a famous segue. There's a famous bridge between the ten cool things of bodhichitta, which we just covered, and starting the seven steps.

There's a famous bridge. They introduce it this way. They say, would you like to paint the Lama House here?

That house built in 1875, the first part, right? We painted it. It cost $60,000.

I remember, I raised the money. I helped raise the money. Did the guys come with a big paintbrush and start painting?

Question. No, they come with plaster. They come with plaster because the place looked like a Civil War cannon was shot at it.

There was holes, there was cracks, there was different parts falling off. First job when you're going to paint an old house is plaster and make it smooth. That's a famous example for the seven steps.

That's a famous example. You don't paint the Lama House until you plaster it and make it smooth so the paint will stick. Anybody want to guess what that means?

You have to make it equal first. First you study equanimity. First you learn to treat everybody equal.

Before you start bodhichitta, you need a mini course in treating everybody equal. I didn't have time to cover it, so guess what? We're going to have a special two-day mini course about infinite equanimity.

Infinite equanimity because you cannot start the seven steps until you feel the same about everybody. You can't learn love from people until you catch up everybody to neutral. We're going to work on that first.

I didn't have time to cover that and we're going to have a special weekend two-day wachamachigar thing course. Tim's going to figure it out. Sometime in the early summer.