«Дар освобождения», курс 39 «Ускорь своё сострадание», занятие 17

[Говорящий 1]
Hi, welcome back to Lam Rim. Good morning, or whatever it may be where you are. And we're going to pick up where we left off.

For zero dollars, what's GANG SO? GANG SO. Yeah, good.

It's like a secret sojong, and each has their own. Each what? Each college, each GANG TEN, yeah.

A college is, I don't know, when I went to Princeton, they kind of tried to put the Arizona people in the same dormitory, and the California people in the same dormitory. So a GANG TEN in the monastery is, it's a traditional thing for hundreds of years that like if you're from East Tibet and you have to walk a thousand miles to get to the monastery, they'll put you in a house with all your friends, with all the people from your area, because everyone speaks this strange dialect. ,'KHRID DU MU CHEN MIS SKYES MA LAS NUS NA MAN, That's Gerong language.

It's weird. So Gerong is actually a far eastern province that no one understands what they're talking about. And my teacher, Pabongka, got put in that college by accident, and so did my teacher, who was from Lhasa.

My teacher's father was the cabinet maker for the big Lama of Tibet. So he got to put his son in the monastery. All right, here we go.

GANG SO SOGS KYI BRTZE So there was a GANG TEN where the monks were going to do their high secret practices. And by the way, today I'd like to dedicate these classes to Patrick's father, who passed away last night in Florida, and I hope everybody will pray for him. What's his name?

James McGinn. James McGinn, okay. James McGinn.

Good Irish name. GANG SO SOGS KYI BRTZE So there was a Geshe named Dagpo, from Dagpo, which is an area that Pabongka Rinpoche's Lama was also from. DAG PO GESHE ZHIG GIS BLO SBYONG SON CIG KHOR BLO He was supposed to recite the GANG SOGS secret prayers.

And he went, DE LTAR LA PA'I DRA BA'O BDAG GIS ZIN YIN MA DANG ZIN GYIS YIN THE TSUL MED And he said, I have identified the worst enemy of all. And it's, without a doubt, it's taking care of myself first. And instead of reciting the tantric text, he sang that verse, which comes from Seiji's text.

It comes from the, what do you call it? The Wheel of Sharpness? The Crown of Knives.

And we told the story of the Crown of Knives. It's one of the traditional two stories to describe how Lord Buddha got bodhichitta himself. What's the other story?

Yeah, that's why I didn't offer you any money. Okay, YIN MA DANG ZIN GYIS YIN THE TSUL MED So he quoted this famous poem. Who knows where the poem came from?

[Говорящий 2]
Dhammarakirti.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah.

[Говорящий 2]
What's that? Dhammarakirti.

[Говорящий 1]
No, but close.

[Говорящий 2]
From Indonesia.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah. Well, yeah.

[Говорящий 2]
Selipa told it to Atisha.

[Говорящий 1]
Okay, that's good. So about 1,100 years ago, Atisha agreed to go to Tibet to teach temporarily for a few months. And his teacher wrote a poem, a long poem about self-cherishing.

And he wove it in with the tendency to see a self nature. He wove them together into extraordinary poetry. So we're translating that poem, which only exists in the Tibetan translation.

The Sanskrit is missing. And Seiji's working on that. And we're doing a nice commentary, I think the best commentary on it.

So it's a very beautiful book. Seiji's, I don't know, maybe another year or something like that. And then he and his wife, Nur Ibrahim, who is the boss of the Ukrainian Refugee Project, she's a Rumi translator.

So we're going to mix Rumi with Lojong. And I think it's going to be nice. There'll be some programs this year of Rumi plus Lojong.

And I'll do a program with Mirza Karim Norbiekov, who is a famous Russian author. He's one of the four or five highest authors in Russia. And he's from Uzbekistan.

And he's a Sufi master. So we're going to do these classes together. So we'll let you know the schedule.

But I think it's going to be a nice book. And Seiji and Nur will teach it together. Okay.

,GCIG GI LO SBYONG TSUL KHOR LO, ,YOD PA'I LO SBYONG DE BSKUL TE, ,BSKON PA ZHIG TU GANG SO RDZUS PA MDZAD, RDZUS PA means he popped it on everybody. RDZUS means he didn't warn anybody. He just popped it on everybody.

Everybody's like, whoa, that's a good confession. Okay. So here's the picture.

Tell me what it means. You know this? Yeah, this is a, what do you call that?

A line up. In America they call it a line up. And the person who got hurt has to pick one of the people.

And it's to prove that they can identify the person. And they're not just accusing somebody. So when your life is going messy, and things aren't going so smooth, then you have to do a line up.

And you're supposed to come out with taking care of yourself first is the criminal out of the choices that you have. Probably your wife or husband is there, and your teacher or other family members. And in the middle somewhere is you as the person who's causing you all your problems.

And so try to identify the right one and don't accuse the wrong one. Okay, understand? All right.

I thought you might like to hear that section from Seiji's text. So I went and chopped it out and brought it. You can hear his, you can hear just a few sentences from his book.

And his book is beautiful because it's a record of a oral commentary. It's a record of a lecture that was given about 300 years ago about that poem. And it's a very great lama who's giving the commentary.

And it's oral. So it's kind of really funny. And he keeps breaking into tantra.

He keeps, like he'll talk a normal talk about self-cherishing for a while. And then it seems like he can't help himself and he slips into tantra often. And it's very inspiring.

Okay, so here we go. DE LTAR LAG PA'I BRAL BO BDAG GIS ZIN Therefore I have identified my real enemy. And then here's his commentary.

BYAS SNGAR BSGOM DU BDAG CAN GCIG GYUR MANG DU SBYUG PA DE THAMS CAD DRON DOB DANG GOR DOB SO MIN PAR He said, when you go looking for the true enemy in your life who is causing you all your problems, then it's important that you avoid the two tendencies that we also have when we go to identify emptiness. Like it's a cool, he's a cool commentator, right? He says when, so I'll repeat.

When you go looking for the person who's causing you all your problems, you have to follow the same technique or strategy that we use when we are looking for emptiness. And that strategy involves avoiding two extremes. Avoiding two extremes.

And we could take it to the kitchen. Like we could take it to a tense moment in the kitchen with your partner. We call it take it to the kitchen, right?

Take me to the booth. Take me to the kitchen. You know, James Brown, you're too young.

He's like, kind of. My grandpa used to listen to that. I hate that.

So anyway, the two things we, in the kitchen, the first mistake in identification of the enemy is called drom dok, for $50.

[Говорящий 2]
I didn't do anything.

[Говорящий 1]
But what's the word mean in Tibetan? Not exactly. Drom dok.

Yeah, yeah, Tim gets $50. Who did? It's in your drom, in your drom.

You get $50 for being honest. Yeah, drom dok means to believe something is there which is not there. So in the identification of emptiness, we have to avoid two mistakes.

The first mistake is believing something is there which could never be there. And in the kitchen, what is it? Now Daniel, do your thing.

Now do your thing. I didn't do anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's a husband in the kitchen who's yelling at me. Well, technically it's a little different.

[Говорящий 2]
Who decided to yell at me?

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, who decided to yell at me? That's a good answer. Your idea was probably a good idea.

So drom dok means you create a reality there that's not there. What's the reality there that's not there? That the husband is yelling at you for what you call normal reasons.

He hasn't had dinner yet, which is normally why men get upset. I'm telling you honestly. He had bad traffic.

His boss yelled at him. He's tired, he didn't sleep well, et cetera, et cetera. That's called drom dok.

To blame his anger on the wrong reasons is called drom dok. Okay, got it? So that's half of the equation when you talk about misidentifying self-existence.

You go too far. You go for the wrong thing. Now, what's the other extreme?

Khorn dap, khorn dap. And I'll give you a clue. Traditionally, you can't go to the other extreme unless someone has given you a bad teaching on emptiness.

Yeah, yeah, to think he's not there at all. Oh, Geshe-la was talking about emptiness. Oh, my husband's yelling at me.

Well, according to Geshe-la, he's not even there. There's nobody else in the kitchen, just me. It's all a figment of my imagination.

And that's the other mistake. Now, for $300, Daniel's like, hmm. Why did this Lama who's giving this lecture 300 years ago or whatever, why is he bringing this up in the identification of our enemy?

[Говорящий 2]
Because going to the two extremes is the cause for charity.

[Говорящий 1]
Good. He, Stanley said, because going to the two extremes is the real cause of taking care of me first. So there must be these two extremes involved in identifying who causes us all of our problems.

We must be doing the same tendency. So here's the, what do you call that? When you reconfirm back some principle?

Here's the recheck, okay? I'll recheck with you. What would it, or you don't get the money.

What would it be to over-identify the one who's causing us trouble? What would the first one be? To misidentify.

To make up something that's not the problem. Make up something that's not the enemy.

[Говорящий 2]
The reason I got panicked because I didn't sleep.

[Говорящий 1]
Yeah, good. Okay, good. Yeah, you blame it on something.

She's happy. No. Oh, you're going to a nice restaurant in Tucson.

Okay. Yeah, to blame your problems on not sleeping well is drom do. You have created an enemy who's not the enemy.

Okay, got it? That's like the husband who didn't get dinner. What's the other half?

[Говорящий 2]
When the stock market investment that I bought dropped 30%, I just say to myself, oh, it's not me. Good, yeah, nice.

[Говорящий 1]
When the stock investment I made drops 30%, I say to myself, oh, Stanley, don't worry. It doesn't exist anyway. Okay, all right.

Yeah, so you are misidentifying the true enemy. Deeper question, $300 more. What's the connection between the kitchen and his two examples?

Huh?

[Говорящий 2]
The same mistake being made.

[Говорящий 1]
Same mistake, but different. In the kitchen, we were talking about emptiness. In his two examples, we're talking about enemies.

Enemies. Okay, got it? They're not quite the same, but they're obviously interrelated.

And that's the whole lojong. That's the whole lojong. Your tendency to take care of me first is strongly founded in your misunderstanding of emptiness.

You wouldn't try to take care of yourself first if you understood emptiness. If you really liked donuts, you would always give away the last one. How can you prove that Geshe-la likes money?

He keeps giving it away. I'm serious, okay? I'm really serious, okay?

How can you tell that if a person really understands emptiness, then how do you prove they like donuts? They keep giving away the last one. Okay, if a person really understood donuts, and if they really liked them, they'd be constantly trying to give them to other people.

You see what I mean? Got it? That would be a sign that they understood emptiness.

That the more nice they are to other people would be more proof that they understood emptiness. Got it? Isn't that cool?

Wouldn't the world be nice if everyone understood emptiness? Like, God, I love donuts. Here, have my donuts.

You know, I want more. By the way, the formula is you only have to give away half of your donuts. That's enough to keep a steady supply.

You could break the last donut in half. I'm not kidding, okay? There's nothing wrong with enjoying the fruits of your karma.

There's nothing wrong with that. That's a misunderstanding. To say you shouldn't have attachment means you shouldn't think the donut comes from taking it.

But it doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy donuts. That's a big, big mistake. A big, big misunderstanding of Buddhism.

Can you have a fancy car or two? Yeah, fine, as long as you are spending more money on your queen. Then it's okay.

That's okay. That's all right. The point is not to suffer for other people.

What's the point of that? I want to be happy. Yeah, what's the way to be happy?

Suffer for others. There's something weird about that. It doesn't quite fit, right?

It feels weird. You're supposed to be totally happy and serve others. You're not supposed to deny yourself things.

If you're a successful emptiness understander, and if you're a nice warrior against the enemy of selfishness, you would probably have all the cool things a person would want. Financial freedom. Real financial freedom.

Good health. Beautiful marriage. Happy mind.

Serving the world. Five goals of a human life. If you understand emptiness, you should have all those things.

And you should be feeding them to others. You can't feed them to others if you don't have yourself. You should meditate.

It makes you calm, okay? All right, so there's the commentary that Seiji's working on. Super sexy.

I can't wait for the book to come out. SOGS MI'I MA YIN PAR NGES SU MTHONG BA'I NA DE LTAR BSLAB PA'I ZHES BYA LA And the root text says, ah, I finally figured it out. That's part of the root text.

DE LTA BA'I SBYAR BA BDAG CHEN ZIN DE NYID BDAG BAR DE NYID BDAG BAR BDAG... There's some problem with the text. DE NYID BDAG BAR YIN PAR DNGOS MA SEMS PA LA But if you fail to identify the real enemy in your life, BDAG RE CHOS DANG BSLA MA'I THU BYED BRAL BA LA BRAL BO YIN PAR BDAG GIS DNGOS ZIN CHUNG Luckily, if you have a teacher, a well-informed teacher, then that teacher's job is to help you identify the true enemy in your life, which is not other countries and other people.

It's your own tendency to take care of yourself because that creates the other countries and people who attack you. Okay, got it? All right.

I was going to give you one more piece from Seiji's book. It comes next. DE LTAR BSLAB PA'I BRAL BA BDAG GIS ZIN BYAB NAS LU BA'I CHUNG KUN BDAG GIS ZIN RANG TU RDZUN NAS LU BA'I SOGS PO NI EMA EMA means EMA.

EMA DANG ZIN GDIS YIN THET SOGS MED The last line of this poem is the line that Pabongka Rinpoche used in his text. Okay, got it? And we can search for those lines in John Brady's database of 16 million pages, free online, in less than two seconds.

You can search 2,500 years of Buddhism. All of the pages, 100,000 books, you can search it in less than two seconds and go find the original. So if you see John Brady tomorrow, you should bow down on his lotus feet or give him a good coffee.

Okay. LTAR BSLAB PA'I BRAL BA BDAG GIS ZIN Oh, I'm so glad I finally figured out who's my real enemy. BYAB NAS LU BA'I CHUNG KUN BDAG GIS ZIN I finally caught the guy who's been sneaking into my house at night.

I finally caught the guy who's been sneaking into my house at night. It's kind of like having a mouse in your retreat cabin, right? The first night I did three-year retreat, I was running around the yurt with a pot, trying to catch a mouse.

Guess what? You cannot do that. I was throwing the bed over, trying to catch him under a pot.

Anyway, they sneak into your house secretly, right? So someone has snuck into your house secretly, which is your tendency to take care of yourself. RANG DU By the way, there's wonderful live traps you can use, right?

And you don't kill them. And they sell them at Walmart, okay? So don't tell me you can't find one.

They're called have-a-heart traps, okay? You can even catch big animals this way. If cat's sneaking into your house and taking your cookies at night, you can catch it.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay.

[Говорящий 1]
RANG DU RDZUS NAS LUS SOGS PO YIN I have caught the spy in my family, okay? I caught the person in my family who's a traitor to the family, okay? Which is my own tendencies to take care of myself first.

E-ma means woo-hoo! E-ma! DANG ZIN DI YIN THET SO MED E-ma!

The real enemy is taking care of myself. It's like, wow, I figured it out, yay! Okay?

That's the section from Seiji's book. It's an extraordinary book. And I look forward to him and Nour teaching together.

RU MI plus this stuff. That's going to be sexy. DE LA TSUL KHRIMS PO'I BYUNG BAR DRA NGON NAS PA'I NGOS GSANGS PA'I GNAS KYIS YIN So the big magic here is when you finally figure out who's been causing you all your problems, okay?

And then you're like stunned, right? You're like, wow! It was just taking care of myself first.

All the people who screwed me in my life had nothing to do with it. It was my own tendency to take care of myself. And then hopefully you don't blame other people too much after that, okay?

Something new to have low self-esteem about. Oh, I did everything. Okay, GNAS KYIS YIN NGON SNGAGS PA ZHIG GIS MTHU'I PHYIR DE KUN MA RMONG PO ZHI BA NA There was a magician.

What do you call? A wizard. And the name for a wizard is Mantraka, okay?

Someone who used mantra. So mantra has two very different meanings. One is, what do you call?

Magic words, abracadabra. In Arabic, I think. And then the other is words that you use to heal people or medicine Buddha mantras, stuff like that.

So mantra has two very different meanings. One is words of power that you use to hurt people. And one is words of power that you use to help people, okay?

So this was Mantraka, a person who knew how to use mantra, but he was trying to hurt people. ZHIG GIS MTHU'I PHYIR DE KUN MA RMONG PO ZHI BA NA He got irritated at some guys who tried to mug him, so he eliminated all of them with a mantra. And then MA BYAS BSLAB BRDUN GYIS ZAS RGYAL BA BRDUN DRUG GIS BYIN GYIS LA THU BRTAD PAR SMON TE Then there was a famous female Lama in Tibet, 1062 to 1129.

Her name was Macig Labdron. We should study her stuff someday, but she's a famous Tantrika. Vimla named somebody after her.

We call Macig. Macig means single mother, the mother of all beings. Her name was Macig Labdron.

And her son, ZAS. And it's not clear whether he was a spiritual son or a real son. I'm not sure.

His name was RGYAL BA BRDUN DRUG. And he learned that mantra for killing muggers. He learned that mantra for killing muggers.

And he said, yay, I'm going to use it on my, on my own self-cherishing. He's like, they're like, hey, did you learn the mantra for killing muggers? Yeah.

Are you going to use it? Yeah. Who are you going to use it on?

Me. I'm going to use it on my bad habit. MA BYAS PA SNGAGS PA'I THOS NUS MA NUS PA'I LUGS RGYUD DANG YANG And when he used the mantra on his own self-cherishing, he could walk through the rough parts of town and no one would touch him.

That's better than killing all the muggers, is to use the same mantra on your self-cherishing and then you destroy all your bad seeds and you can walk through the rough part of town and no one bothers you.

[Говорящий 2]
Okay.

[Говорящий 1]
Got it? When I went to university, and I went to New York to see New York, I never saw New York, and I got out of the bus. I took the wrong subway and I came up in the middle of Harlem.

And this is the black area. It used to be very poor and very dangerous black area. And I came up out of the subway and these guys are like, you know, they say, hey white boy, you just get back down there on the subway.

Go anywhere else. You know, I just got, I went to the end of the line and I was like, ugh. Okay, so if you had this mantra to use on your own self-cherishing, you could walk around Harlem and be happy and no problem.

Okay, got it? Because I'm going uptown to Harlem, going to let my hair down in Harlem. If a taxi won't take me, I'll take the train.

You know, I go underground, I'll get there just the same. Okay, ,'JUG PA KUN LAS KYI CHUNG CHOS RGYAL GYI RIM RDO BRZE PA NA, ,MTHOR SOR SPYIR MA PO MAR, So there was a famous Lama and he had his, he was trying to do a dharma offering to take care of his little brother who was ill. CHUNG means little brother.

So he made a nice dharma and he's all ready to take it outside and offer it to the spirits. And then he got the dharma all ready and then he's supposed to take it out, right? And he got the whole plate ready and he got this nice dharma on it.

And then he was thinking, where's the devil? Where's the demon? And he went, and he just dropped the dharma on his own lap, which is kind of gooey, okay?

They're all covered with butter, colored butter, right? It's messy. You don't want to drop a dharma on your lap.

But it was a very beautiful moment. So he's supposed to take it outside and offer it to the evil spirits. And then he's like, evil spirit.

And he dropped it on himself, on his heart, because he said, the real evil spirit's here. And he made a mess, okay? But it was a good mess.

That's a cute story. Here you go. Yeah, I was trying to find a picture.

That's the closest I could get. But that's probably what it looked like afterwards. Like he spilled the dharma on himself.

Okay, okay, cool. ,DON PA THUG RJE BYING GYIS GZHAN BYAS PA SEMS YANG, ,'NGAR RGYAL PO PAS MA BYIN GYIS GRUNG SKABS NAS, ,'YAM ZHI BA'I PHYIR, ,GNYEL ROL GYIS DE SKYE BA ZHES TE, ,DE ZHES SEMS CAN MANG PO YAM NAS SRED PA DANG, Here starts a section of five or six stories about self-cherishing and how Lord Buddha overcame his self-cherishing. And I love these stories.

I think they are... It's really nice for me to reflect that Lord Buddha had the same problems as I did, but he just got over them earlier than me. And they always say in the scriptures, they don't say, you're stupid, he was smart.

They just say, he led the way and we're right behind him, don't worry. So if I tell you a story about how Lord Buddha fought his own self-cherishing, you're supposed to think, well, he's a few minutes ahead of me. I'm right behind him.

I can probably do it tomorrow. The purpose of those stories is to understand that a person that we used to hang out with, those two girls with each other, remember the picture? Somebody who was just the same as us, and probably we used to hang out together in the coffee shop or something.

Someone who's just the same as us did it. He defeated his self-cherishing. Now we're right behind.

Probably in the next five minutes we're going to do it. That's the feeling you're supposed to have in this lam rim. You're supposed to say, dang, he's five minutes ahead of me, but I'll catch up.

I'm coming. Tell me some stories how you did it. And then Lord Buddha frequently tells, a lot of the sutras are just Lord Buddha saying about what a bad person he used to be.

And talking about how he fixed himself. And then we're supposed to get, we're supposed to say, oh, I'm right behind you. So don't think it's like he's a billion years ahead.

He's actually 20 billion. I mean, don't think he's like way, way ahead of you. Just think, God, we were in the same class.

He graduated. He got to be a Buddha. I can do it.

I'll probably do it in the next 10 minutes. I just need some help from him. I need some stories from him that say how he did it.

So I could just go through, Pabongka Rinpoche does not give the story. He says, it's like the story of the Rohita fish. And then I figure that's not going to help us much.

I'd like to hear the whole story. Unfortunately, some of these stories are long. And the Rohita fish story is kind of long.

But I like it. You're ready? So if we keep doing this, the Lam Rim is going to take another 10 years.

What else you got to do? So here we go. This comes from RTOGS PA BYAS PA RGYAL PA, which means Avadhana Shataka.

And it's an ancient book of stories of Buddha's past life and other saints. DGE SLONG DAG NGON CHUNG BA DE PA'I DUS NA You okay? Okay.

CHUNG BA DUS NA CHUNG KHYER BA RA NA ZAD RGYAL PO PAS MA SHES PA RGYAL PO BYED PAS Hey monks, Lord Buddha is talking to his friends, right? Hey monks, in days gone by, I was living in Varanasi, which we said has a 5,000 year spiritual history. If you can get there someday, it's a nice place.

Take some diarrhea medicine. RGYAL PO PAS MA And my name was Lotus, King Lotus. SHES RGYAL BA'I RGYAL PO BYED PAS DE RIGS NA, BRJOR PA DANG, RGYAL PA DANG, DE BA DANG, BLO LAS PA DANG, SKYE BA DANG, MI MANG PO'I GANG BAG DANG Then my kingdom was full of wealth, a good economy, people were happy, the crops were good, and the population had risen.

THA PA DANG, TSOS PA DANG, ZHI BA DANG, GRU PA DANG, SNANG GRU PA DANG, CHOM KUN DANG, MU GYUR DANG, NAS MED PA DANG We didn't have any international conflict. We didn't have any argument inside the country. Everything was peaceful.

There was no civil disturbances. There was no international disturbances. We didn't even have muggers in our city.

Nobody was hungry. And there were very few diseases. BYE BU SA LUS DANG, BU RAM SHING BA LA'ANG DANG, MA HA'I DANG, BSTAN PA'I SDUG BSTE We had lots of rice, sugar, cows, and ox.

BSTAN PA'I SDUG BSTE, GNOD PA MAN CING ZER MA, GRUG LA BU GCIG PA LA BYA BA BZHIN DU RGYAL SRID KYANG NGO Everything that might have caused trouble in the kingdom, I had, what do you call that? I had put it to rest, something like that. The word in Tibetan is, I stamped down the choya.

Right? Choya is a really nasty cactus around here. If you step on it, you have...

Sometimes it's called jumping choya. You walk by and it jumps off. Anyway, all the cactus in the kingdom, I had stepped on it.

Everything was cool. RGYAL SRID KYANG SO, RGYAL PO DE YANG This is a long story. So just settle back, have a coffee.

We have time, maybe. Might go into the second class. RGYAL PO DE YANG DE PA DANG LDAN LA, DGE BZHIN SANGS PA SANGS BA DANG, BDAG LA PHAN PA DANG, GZHAN LA PHAN PA DANG, ZHUGS PA SNYING RJE CHE BA DANG, SNYING CHE BA CHUD DE PA, SKYES BU LA BYANG PA THAMS CAD YONGS SU STONG BA, CHAGS PA MED PAR YONGS SU STONG BA, STONG PA CHEN PO LA GNAS PA ZHIG RGOL That king, me, Mr. Lotus, he had a lot of faith in the Dharma. He wanted to do good deeds. He was generous, loving, helpful to others, helpful to himself as well. Great compassion.

He was a Mahatma. He loved the Dharma. He had love for all his people.

He was willing to give away anything if it would help somebody. He had no attachment to his material goods. And he was super generous.

DE'I TSE BA DAG NA ZER SDUG DANG, BA DAG NA ZER DANG, SDUG GCIG MA YONGS PA LAS, MI GNAS CHEN PO CHUNG STE, SEMS CAN PHYA CHER RGYAL RAB KYI GNAS KYI LTA BO Then there was an imbalance in the seasons. And in BA DAG NA ZER, it's a strange city. It's a very powerful city, spiritually, and weird stuff happens there.

So the seasons got messed up. Like summer came too early. Spring was too much rain.

And so all the people in the city started to get a certain disease called Khyabap, which means, it's kind of like arthritis. Everyone started to feel really bad. And it still happens in Varanasi.

I used to live there. DE NAS RGYAL PO DE DAG MTHONG NAS SNYING RJE SKYES DE The king saw that everybody was suffering from this disease. BDAG GIS, DE DAG YOD SU'I KHYAB PAR BYA' ZHIG SO BAR BYA'O Then he said to himself, it's my duty to take care of everybody.

I'll take care of this outbreak. DE NAS YOD THAMS CAD NA MING PA GROD PA RNAMS DU DE He got all the physicians from the whole state of, what is it? Bengal.

GRO NAS SEMS CAN DE DAG NI GNAS KYI ZHIG DANG NAS DANG SNGA MA NAS YOD PA DANG RTOGS NAS And they advised him about what was going on and why people were getting sick. DE BA'O TSUL BDAG GNYIS KYI SO BA DANG MAN THAMS CAD DU PA BYAS SO So he went out and arranged for everyone to get treatments and to get the necessary medicine. DE NAS ZOS STE He got the virus vaccine.

DE NAS ZOS STE NOR DANG MEN PA NAS YOD DANG LDAN PAR BYAS KYANG YUL RIM PO ZHIG LUNG PAR THUB PA'I PAR DU SEMS CAN DE DAG SU MAN NUS SU He arranged all the finance. He arranged all the medicines. He arranged all the doctors and nurses.

But even after quite some time, nope, people still were sick. He couldn't cure the disease. DE NAS RGYAL PO MEN PA THAMS CAD DGOS TE GUS PAR BYAS NAS RGYAS, RGYAS means, hey you guys, RGYAS.

CI YI PHYIR SEMS CAN DE DAG SOGS SKA BAR GYUR He brought the famous physicians to his palace and said, what's going on? Why is it so hard to cure these people? DE NAS MEN PA RNAMS KYIS BYAS DE YON DANG DANG NYES PAR BDUN BA'I THON PAR ZU BA LHA BRDUN MA NYON PA ZHIG KHAR MA NYON PA LAS GYUR PA LA PA'I LAS PAR MA RTOG PA SMU GYIS They said, this is a weird disease which is caused by the imbalance of the seasons and it's difficult for us to figure out how to fix people.

DNGOS KYANG MEN NA GCIG CI STE NYA ROG GIS TA ZHIG RGYI BA ZHIG CI LA GAL TE NYID NA NI DE SO'ER NUS LAG SO But there's one definite medicine that will cure this disease. And the king said, what is it? And they said, if we could get some ROG GIS TA fish medicine, if we could get some ROG GIS TA fish flesh, that would cure everybody.

If they just eat a little piece of this ROG GIS TA fish. Here's a ROG GIS TA fish. It actually exists, there is such a fish.

I guess it's in the Ganges. And then if we could get some supplies of ROG GIS TA fish, everyone could be cured. Did your mom ever give you fish oil?

It was a custom in our time, right, Kat? Back in the 1920s. Yeah.

Terrible stuff. DE NAS RGYAL PO NYA ROG GIS TA KUN DU GSUNG BA LA ZHUGS DE DE SO BA'I MI MANG PO RKYEN NAS GZHAG KYANG MA NYE DO DE NAS DE DAG GIS RGYAL PO LA ZHUGS DO Then the king went out looking for supplies of ROG GIS TA fish meat. And he couldn't find enough.

You're going to guess, who can guess what's going to happen? Nevermind. Okay, DE NAS CI ZHIGS NA RGYAL PO CHAG TU ZHIGS ZHIGS PA DANG GNAS PA DE DAG KYANG CIG TU DU DE KUN NAS RGYAL PO LA ZHUGS PA RGYAL PO CHEN PO DAG CAG NAS DI LAS YOD SU BSKYED PAR CHEN GSOL TSAR So the king went out walking one evening through the streets of his Varanasi kingdom.

And all the sick people were kind of coming out on their porches and saying, Your Highness, can't you do anything? Can't you help us? This is terrible disease.

DE NAS RGYAL PO NAS RNAMS KYIS ZHIGS SNYING RJE He said, ah, SNYING RJE, SNYING RJE. What's that? Ah, karuna, karuna.

Yeah, oh, yeah, love, love, oh. We need to help these people. SNYING RJE SRED GYUR BSDUG PA'I SRER BZUGS KYI ZHIGS MA BA'I TSIGS MTHUN NAS SNYING RJE SNYING RGYUR NAS TSIGS MA SRAG He started crying in the street.

He was standing in the street crying. SRAG SHING NGOS GZHAN CHUNG NAS BSAM PA Then he said, GA DAG GIS GZHAN SDUG BSNGAL GYIS ZER BA'I RNAMS SHES BAR BYED KYANG MA NUS NA I can't do anything to help these people. DAG GIS TSOR BA'I DI LTA BU DANG RGYAL ZHIGS SKYES DBANG PHYUGS RDZIN DRAG TSIGS DGOS YOD NYAMS MO With all the power at my disposal, without all the political power I have and the wealth of my kingdom, it's useless.

It's not helping anybody. DE NYAMS DU BSAM PA'I RGYAL PA NOR BA PHAL BO CHE YONGS SU STONG BAR BYED PAS He started to give away his money. BU DU RGYAL PAR BCUG NAS He set up his son as the next king.

NYES DU DANG KHYO BO RNAMS LA NYES PA ZHAGS TE He spent the time to call his friends and family to the palace and confess the wrong things he had done in his life. PO DANG KHOR GYI MI DANG LUS PO RNAMS LA BRTOS NAS GNAS PA GDOD PA RNAMS UG CHUNG STE MTHU ZHU YIN LA RGYAS PA DANG YANG DRAG PAR LANG NAS GANG ZHAG GIS BSTAN DU SONG STE GDOD PA RNAMS MED DOG DANG BOS DANG MED DOG DRANG BA DANG BCUG PA RNAMS DOR NAS ZHAGS CHOG ZHUGS DKA' DE PA'I SMOS RNAMS DRAG PAR He still had in mind this intention to help all the sick people. And he did a lot of one-day vows, the eight-part one-day vows.

And then he went to the top of his palace, his main palace, and he took incense, flowers, powdered incense, what do you call them? Garlands of flowers, and incense oil. BCUG PA'I RNAMS DOR NAS And he offered them in the sky and he faced to the east, to the rising sun, and he made a prayer.

BSTAN PA DANG BSTAN PA'I TSE GANG GI SEMS CAN LA ZHIN DU PHANG PA RGYUR TE GNAS KYI YONGS SU RGYUR BA MTHONG NAS BDAG GIS RANG GI SOGS PHANG NAS YONGS SU STONG BA'I BSTAN PA DANG BSTAN PA'I TSE GYI BDAG CHU LUNG RDOG BYED KYI RNAMS KYI RGYUR NYON NO He said, if it's true that I've tried to be a good king, and if it's true that I've tried to serve my people, and if it's true that I have love for my people, then may I die and be born as a huge Rohita fish. Okay. Okay.

What did he say? He blocked the Ganges River. He made a...

Yeah, he made a small dam and he had a pond. And he said, may I be born as a Rohita, huge Rohita in this pond. GANG SANGS RGYAS BSTAN PA'I BDAG NYID CHUNG SO And then he jumped from the top of the palace and he killed himself.

CHUNG means jump, jump off. DE'ER LUNG MA'I MOD LA BZHIN NAS CHUG GI LUNG RDOG BYED KYI RNAMS DU NYAL BA PHYIR ROHITA ZHIG RGYUR BA'I ZHIN Then in the very same five minutes that he died, a fish was born in the pond. A huge Rohita fish, okay.

DE NAS LHAG RNAMS KYIS YUL THAMS CAD DU CHUG LUNG RDOG BYED KYI RKYANG NYAL BA PHYIR ROHITA ZHIG RGYUR BA'I SKYES PA DE NI GNAS TSABS PO CHE GSUR NAS YUL RING DANG LUS MA RNAMS KYIS DU CI DANG DRA BA ZHIG BRTAG RDOG SO Then the angels in the above Varanasi, they said, hey, we're so blessed. The city is blessed. Now we have big supply of Rohita, fish meat.

Everybody try to get some, okay. DE NAS THOB MA THAG TU SKYE BA PHAL BO'I PHYIR LAG NA TSUN CHEN RNAMS SOGS TSUN KHYER NAS KHYER TE RTOG NAS NYA DE GSUM PAR TSUN CHEN RNAMS PO RNAMS PA RNAMS SOGS KYI GZHAN NAMS SPYOD PA LA ZHUGS SO Then all the people in the city showed up with clubs and they beat the fish to death. And then they used knives and they cut the fish's flesh.

BYANG CHUB SEMS PA DE YANG DE LTAR LUS BYUD PA NA SEMS CAN DE DAG LA BYANG PA'I KHYAB PAR BYED NAS SDONG PHYI MA BDUN PA RDZAGS TE Then the fish, as he was dying, being beaten by the clubs of the people, started to cry from happiness. He started to cry from joy. DE GSUM PAR DAG GIS BYA DAG GIS SEMS CAN DE DAG DE BA'I RGYUR BA NI Yay, my body is going to cure everybody.

Beat me, cut me. DAG GIS NYES PA LAS PAR NYES DO I just got the most wonderful riches that any king could have, is to serve his people. Literally, serve his people.

DE LTA BU'I TSUL GYI BLO CHU NYID KYI BAR And he kept praying to be reborn as a fish, and he did it for 12 years. Every time he died, he would pray that, may I become another fish in this pond. And he was reborn as a fish, the same fish.

Then they would beat it to death and cut it up. YID DRAG GIS SEMS CAN Wow, I'm a real king because I am serving my people with my own flesh and blood. That's a real king.

Wouldn't it be nice if politicians were like that? DE DAG SEMS PAR BYED PA'I SEMS PAR means, what do you call that when you have a good dinner and you're like, mmm? They were, yeah, super satisfied.

They were sitting around like us last night after Mabodofu. We call shikwa. We all had watermelon bellies.

Vivian made us a nice tofu dish last night. So he was like that. He's like, mmm.

I just had made a good dinner, and I was the main course. He's like, yay, okay. DE DAG SEMS PAR LA NUS MED PA'I YANG DAG PA'I RTZA BA'I BYANG CHUB LAS KYANG SEMS PA LO GO And I never lost my bodhichitta.

I held it even while they were beating me and cutting my flesh. GANG GI TSE SEMS CAN DE DAG GIS GNAS KYIS ZHIG BAR GYUR PA'I TSE NYAL PO CHEN PO'I ROL GYI DAG DE DAG DAG PA When it was clear that the whole population was cured from the disease, the fish spoke. SKYE SEMS CAN DAG Hey, you dudes.

SKYE NYAN CING Listen to me. SNGA NI RGYAL PO PAS MA I was your king before. I'm your king.

I'm the king who jumped off the roof. ZHES BYA BA DE YIN DE NGES SKYES KYI SDOD NA RANG GI SOGS YONGS SU BSTANG BA LUS DI DAG PA'I BLANGS PA YIN GYIS I took this birth, I took on a body like this so I could serve my people. SNGA LA SEMS Do we have time, Tim?

Can I just go another five minutes? SNGA LA SEMS RGA BA'I RGYUR ZHIG GANG GI TSE SNGA LA RNAMS PA'I YANG DAG PA RDZOGS PA'I BYANG CHUB BSNGOMS PA RDZOGS PA'I SANGS RGYAL BA DE'I TSE KHYAL BA NAS LA BRTAN DU NAS And by the way, my long-term plan is bodhichitta. I'm not just going to serve you fish meat.

I'm going to serve you the flesh of enlightenment. That's my long-term plan. I don't want to just feed you vitamins.

I want to feed you enlightenment. That's my long-term plan. And by eating my flesh, we've created a karmic connection and you're stuck with me now.

Your body's created from my flesh. You can't like, you're stuck with me now. You can't be separated from me.

You ate my flesh. Your flesh is my flesh. I'm going to enlightenment and I'm dragging you with me.

It's very beautiful, right? YANG TSE BRTAG PA LTAR NYANGS NAS DE BA'I ZHAG BSANG GI THAG TUG PA'I GRUB PA DANG DE BA LA SGRUB PA BYA Let's go together to the heaven of happiness. DE SKAD THON NAS SKYE BA'I RTZOGS DE DAG YANG DBANG PO'I RLAMS PA LA'I RLAMS PA LA'I RLAMS PA All the people got happy.

They threw flower petals. They made their own prayers to become a Buddha themselves. And then the Buddha said, what?

Yeah, the Buddha said, hey guys, who do you think the fish was? The punchline is always the same in these sutras. This is called anticipatory translation.

You can tell the punchline without reading it. The Buddha leaned over to the monks and said, that fish was me, back in the old days. And I did it and you can do it too.

So that's that idea that by hearing the stories of the guy who was just like us in the beginning, that we get inspired and we say, I can do it too. And you know, we can't, right? We don't have that power.

But I think when you hear these stories, at least you could share your donuts. I mean, when you hear these stories, and by the way, don't go crazy. Don't over-jag, okay?

Don't go cut your fingers off this afternoon. I mean, the point is to do it steadily. It's much harder to give up your donuts for a few weeks than to cut your fingers off.

I have tried to cut my shit flesh off my body. I tried it. It doesn't work out.

That's not the point. The point is not to go cut your body and feed it to an animal or something like that. That's a bad deed.

You are hurting your holy body. And I tried it. It doesn't work out.

The point is not to do stuff like that. That's just, what do you call it? Trying to look cool or something.

It's much harder to give up your donuts steadily than to do some extreme thing and hurt yourself. You're not allowed to hurt your body. You're not allowed to cut flesh off your body and try to feed it to somebody.